I love summer festivals. To me, there are few things better than eating outside all day with a bunch of my friends in gorgeous weather and surrounded by great music. Fortunately for me, and the rest of the community, the Taste of Champaign-Urbana has been running strong for almost four decades and shows no sign of stopping anytime soon.
The Champaign County Historical Museum started the Taste as a small fundraiser, but the event grew quickly and eventually became too large for the museum to plan alone. Soon, the Champaign Park District took over the responsibility of planning the event and has been co-benefactor with the museum ever since. "The museum actually started the whole Taste years ago when there was a mall down Neil Street in downtown Champaign, and there was only pedestrian traffic," says Hal Balbach, Co-President of the Museum's Board of Trustees, over crashing tones of ice, created by students from the National Honor Society mixing up lemon shake-ups in bright yellow visors behind him. Today in its 37th year, the Taste is a vibrant cross-section of the community, full of great people and, of course, great food.
Anita Gilliland and her son Wayne started Wayne's Kettle Korn after Wayne's fiancée, Amy, waited in line for 20 minutes at one festival for some. Now, Amy has all the kettle corn she could ever want, and I'll tell you, it's the best I've had. And speaking of bests, I now know that Nitaya Thai has the best Pad Thai I've ever tasted (sorry Siam Terrace). PJ Jisook's (daughter of owner Nitaya Jisook) friends drive all the way from Chicago for her mother's signature recipe. I also now know that I'm addicted to apple cider slushies thanks to Curtis Orchard.
The only thing I found that the festival lacked was some roasted corn on the cob, an absolute must for anything outdoors in the summer and a good place for Mexican food. After Pad Thai and egg rolls, I really found myself craving tacos for some reason. There are plenty of great Mexican restaurants around here (I'm looking at you Dos Reales and Los Amigos ... ) but there was no south of the border flavor to be had. All in all, however, those are really my only two suggestions for improvement on a truly great event.
Once I got over my lack of corn on the cob, I only had one concern left. I was initially worried about the amount of commercial vendors at the Taste and the dissatisfied rumors I had heard about this. The community that I have grown to love over the last four years is so full of wonderful and unique restaurants that it disappointed me a little to see McDonald's, Quizno's and Coldstone with booths set up right next to places like Siam Terrace, Curtis Orchard and Peking Garden. Are they taking up space from local favorites? Or are they the only ones who stepped up to fill the spot? I finally decided that while I would have liked to have seen smaller restaurants represented, the folks who own these franchises are members of the community too and that, with most of the profits going to local causes like the Park District, it doesn't matter. I definitely recommend spending a day at the Taste of Champaign-Urbana next year.
