Taste

Like the Taste of Chicago and the Taste of Bloomington, Nelson has its own culinary festival.  "Taste Nelson is a festival that encapsulates everything that is fantastic about Nelson: food, wine, beer, seafood fresh produce, culinary delights, arts, crafts, and local performing talent."

I was once again pleasantly surprised by the scale of the event.  It was much larger than I thought it would be.  There were also a good many people there, but not so many that I felt 'cluster-phobic.'  Taste Nelson is held at Founder's Park, just down the road between Atawhai and Nelson.  Enjoy the photos.

Taste Nelson is well attended . . . 

 . . . and well decorated.

 Founders Park, officially Founders Heritage Park, began in 1977.  The buildings in the park are replicas of buildings from Nelson's past.  The park alone is worthy of its own future blog entry.

Friends Lori and Wren were enjoying the day (and the face painting!).

What festival is complete without Morris Dancers?

Morris Dancers close up.

Founders Park has its own brewery!

Friendly people pouring lots of beer and wine.

Most unexpected find: GREAT MEXICAN FOOD!  Even cooked by a gentleman from Mexico!

Scallops on the grill.  Yum!

Its the Johnnys on stage!

Caramelized Almonds and Cashews from the nut man.

"Try our beer!"

Steady on, chap!

A major attraction.

I was able to taste samples of quite a bit of what Nelson had to offer in the way of food including paella, blue cheese and mushroom pie, Wienerschnitzel, mussels, pizza, etc. etc.  It was all quite delicious, but there was one thing I had that stood out above all the other foods.

And the winner is . . . 

Grilled Lime and Chilli Scallops

These were ridiculously good.