I was itchin’ for a road trip last weekend, so my husband and I made the two hour drive to Madison, Wisc. for the city’s annual Taste of Madison. By the time we got to Capitol Square on Sunday, there were only 4 hours left in the two-day food and music festival.

Four hours, and more than 200 food items from more than 65 restaurants. One can’t approach a challenge like this lightly. So we came up with a strategy. Local restaurants only. (ie: no Biaggi’s or Chili’s or Little Caesars.) Extra points for ethnic food, Wisconsin specialities or anything that we were pretty sure we couldn’t get anywhere else. And we’d share everything so that we could sample more.

We ended up with:

• Coconut Curry Chicken from Buraka
• Black and Tan Onion Rings from The Coliseum Bar/The Bar Next Door
• Perkedel Jagong — a sweet corn fritter over yellow rice – from Bandug Restaurant (One of my favorites. I would travel to Madison to eat this again.)
  

  Perkedel Jagong. Image from kymineko on flickr

• Squash Curry over Rice from Sa Bai Thong Thai Cusine(My other favorite. One of the best curries I’ve ever had, and also worth the road trip.)
• A Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Eggroll from Bluephies (This was in the too bizarre not to try category. It was just like it sounds: Cookie dough wrapped in an egg roll skin and fried. It was pretty tasty in that super sweet fair food fried goodness kind of way, and two bites was plenty for me.)
  

  Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Eggroll. Image from kymineko on flickr

• Macaroni and Cheese (made with Wisconsin sharp Cheddar) from The Old Fashioned
• Channa Masala from Taj Indian Restaurant
• A Hebrew National Bagel Dog, from one of the guys at Gotham Bagels who took tried to sell me some food, then gave me the dog for free when I’d told him I’d run out of cash.
• And some Island Wheat beer from Capital Brewery

You can see more food pictures from the festival here. (I am not a very good blogger and forgot to get shots of our food myself.)

We had a blast, and decided that Cedar Rapids needs an annual festival like this. An event that can showcase our local restaurants, and give folks an easy, accessible and inexpensive way to sample their cuisine. It’s easy to overlook, but our food here is just as diverse. You can find Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Greek, French, Italian, Indian, Cajun, Mexican, German, Czech, barbecue and more here. How about it?