The National Museum of American History's 3rd Annual Food History Festival!

Many Flavors, One Nation!

Hey, Happy Halloween! 

Whew, it has been a semester! Sorry for falling off the face of the earth again. I think at this point I just need to make peace with the fact that this is going to end up taking the back burner until after grad school. All my free time and writing energy has been going towards my big research project, which I'll tell you guys about once I have time to do it justice. 

I'm catching up with comments and emails right now. Sorry for taking so long to get back to you all. I've also got a couple posts on the back burner which will probably start seeing the light of day sometime around December... if I'm lucky! (Including a super cool trip to Williamsburg!) 

Until then, here's a short update about an event I got to attend with some friends last weekend: the Smithsonian Food History Festival! Read on to hear about our experience this year with Many Flavors, One Nation at the National Museum of American History.

Last year, I had a really great time at the Food History Festival despite some expectations that weren't met. You might remember my post about it where I got to try LBJ's favorite chili and see some cool artifacts out of storage. I've been in the middle of a lot of really intense homework and personal life stuff, so I thought heading down to the festival for at least a little bit would be a good way to stretch my legs and take my mind off the various projects I had to finish. 

Nanea seemed like a logical choice in traveling companion because this year's theme - Many Flavors, One Nation - seems pretty fitting for a character from one of the most multicultural states in the country, right? I also got two of my friends to tag along with me with the promise of interesting food and cool artifacts out of the archives. 

We got there a little late in the day, because I really wanted to see the cooking demonstration by Top Chef's Sheldon Simeon: Many Flavors of Hawai'i. I bet you can guess why! There was quite a line to get in, which I thought was encouraging that the museum would be busy and full of cool things for the event. 

When we got inside... there really wasn't much. Maybe even less than last year! I definitely feel like the event wasn't as well signed or advertised this year. I didn't see any floor displays of merchandise to purchase - and none of it was in the gift shop - when last year there were a few booths set up to buy signed books, aprons, dish towels, etc. with the festival's logo on it. There were no education carts to be seen, which felt very odd to me as they were advertised online. 

Our first stop was to see the artifacts out of storage. This was one of my favorite parts of the festival last year. NMAH has a huge collection, and there are millions of artifacts the public doesn't get to see on a day to day basis. Having the opportunity to look at some of it up close and person while discussing the artifacts with archivists and curators is a really great opportunity! 

As soon as we got to the tables, I had a moment of extreme excitement because I saw the display of Chinese food menus, cooking equipment, and take out boxes also included an advertisement from Trader Vic's, which has been part of my big research project!

However, I quickly discovered that there definitely were not as many objects out of storage this year. I could be remembering wrong, but I definitely think there were at least four and maybe as many as six tables out last year, and this year there were only three. It was still fun to chat with the curators about their artifacts, but this was a sign of things to come for the rest of the festival. 

Last year, the Stars and Stripes Cafe offered a select few recipes featured in the cooking demonstrations for festival goers to try. Both the website and the brochure we got on the premises confirmed that food would be available for purchase in the cafes again as well, so we eagerly headed down to see what was available to try. 

We looked, and looked, and finally asked one of the cooks where we could find food from the festival, and she said they weren't serving anything from the festival. Disappointed but hungry, we bought some of the typically overpriced and mediocre food the cafe always has on offer, along with some admittedly really cute ghost cupcakes. They did have a really sweet selection of Halloween themed cupcakes including a few others I didn't grab pictures of.

After poking around some of our favorite - and not so favorite - galleries (all three of us took a class at NMAH over the summer, and I did a major project in association with the museum last semester, so we've spent a lot of time there!), we headed over to the cooking demonstration to see Sheldon Simeon's cooking demo. There was a big crowd who seemed pretty excited to see him, which was good to see, and the set up was basically the same as it was last year. 

Simeon introduced his dish - chicken hekka - by first talking about his personal tattoos and how each part of them represents his family. He says the same is true about Hawaiian dishes, as they've been shaped by each of the different ethnic and national groups that have settled in the islands since they were first discovered by the ancient Hawaiians. Chicken hekka is representative of this because it pulls on a lot of different culinary traditions, which was why he chose to share it with the festival goers.

Simeon was a lot of fun to listen to, but the food history curator kept talking over him a little bit, and overall the presentation just felt a little uncomfortable and awkward because of it, even if it was also fun to see. It just didn't feel as polished as the presentation I watched last year, which was a little disappointing. 

What was more disappointing was that the curator reminded us that food from the cooking demos were available for purchase... in the Jazz Cafe! My friends and I (with Nanea in tow) rushed off to see if there was anything there, only to be told by the guy working the counter that they didn't have any food from the demos and hadn't ever had any. What? 

We ended up complaining to a woman who turned out to be the festival's organizer, and she reminded us that the museum had always said that there was not going to be any food distributed at the demos or throughout the festival, and we understood that. The issue is the website, the brochure, and even the curator running the cooking demos said that there would be food available for purchase, just like it was last year. Honestly, I'm not sure we would have decided to take a few hours out of our crazy schedules to head down there had the promise of eating interesting food not been involved. 

Now, I want to make it clear that I do really empathize and understand that not every event runs smoothly, but having this kind of breakdown in communication was really frustrating as a visitor. Noticing that the festival in general seemed smaller and more thrown together than it was last year was confusing as well. I'm not sure if they've had a big staff turn over or if other issues might have affected it, but it felt less like a festival and more like a regular day at NMAH, which at the end of the day wasn't really worth walking away from my research project for, even if it was fun to hang out with my buddies and get out of my apartment for more than a trip to the grocery store. 

So, would I go next year? Maybe. I mean a lot of that has to do with whether or not I'm living in DC proper after graduation, but also I will admit this year's experience was super, super disappointing. I would even go as far as to say I'm a little salty about it (get it, salty?), especially because if you expect people to make a special trip to the museum and buy overpriced food in the cafeteria, I think you need to knock it up a notch. Hopefully this is just a blip on the radar and next year will be a better organized, tastier experience for festival goers.

Until then, I think I'll head over to American Indian or African American History and Culture for lunch!