bighamton spiedie fest in 2006 – large bottle of sauce

Today we went to the Binghamton Balloon Rally and Spiedie Fest in Otsiningo Park.  The balloon part was last night, actually, and all we saw of that was the traffic jam it caused on Front Street on the way back from Wegman’s.  I realized last night that I hate balloon fests, though not as much as parades or circuses.  The fest was a large affair with all the same chain booths that you find at almost every street fair around as well as local arts and crafts people and religious organizations.  I think I learned more about Jews For Jesus than spiedies.  There were also several spiedie booths, the two largest being Salamida’s and Lupo’s, which I understand are competing entities.  We sampled one chicken and one pork at the former and two lamb at the latter.  I don’t know which was the best — they were all fine, but I am partial to the stronger taste of lamb.

Salamida’s spiedies

We spent several hours there since there was so much ground to cover and, I must say, it was a cut above.  We had been hearing on the radio for weeks that John Corbett would be there performing, and until I arrived at the event I thought it was the Sex and the City guy.  I kept wondering why he would be there – that maybe he was from Binghamton – and even chatted with Steve about it.  Turns out John Corbett is a country music act.  Matt glared at me when he realized my mistake, thinking I was totally out of it.

Crawdads

We had some chain booth crawdads (you know, crayfish) with remoulade and then hopped on one of the shuttle buses back to Broome County Community College, where the car was parked.  This event sets up a seriously efficient shuttle system.  Alameda County Transit should contact these people for advice.