Category: Food

Annual Middle Eastern food festival returns

The Mahrajan Middle Eastern Food Festival might look and feel different this year, but organizers promise it will taste just as delicious. The annual three-day festival featuring authentic Lebanese foods will return to Our Lady of the Cedars Melkite Catholic Church in Manchester from Friday, Aug. 14, through Sunday, Aug. 16.

According to Rev. Thomas Steinmetz, this year’s festival has been significantly scaled back to comply with guidelines from the city’s health department. Most of the attractions that have been added to the festival over the years — such as dance performances, a petting zoo and bounce houses — have been eliminated.

“We decided to just concentrate all of our efforts on the food this year,” he said.

For the first time in Mahrajan’s history, advance online ordering will be available. In addition to takeout there will be socially distant outdoor seating options at the church.

“The way it’s essentially going to work … is people will pull into the parking lot, and as they come in we’ll ask them if they plan to sit and eat or order their food to go,” Steinmetz said.

Face masks are required for all who enter the church grounds, and seats will be spaced out to allow for social distancing.

Festival co-chair Marylou Ashooh Lazos said this year’s menu is slightly limited compared to those from previous events, but it features many of the same favorites.

The beef skewers are most notably absent from the menu, but marinated chicken and lamb will still be available, served with rice pilaf, lubyeh (green beans cooked and served in a tomato sauce) and bread.

In addition to the lamb and chicken skewer dinners, there is a lubyeh dinner of green beans served over rice pilaf; and a kibbee dinner (Lebanese meatloaf) featuring lamb, beef, pine nuts and spices with a side of yogurt. You can also order items like warak arish (stuffed grape leaves) with lamb and rice, cooked in a lemon broth; lamb or chicken shawarma; fatayar (meat or spinach pie); bread with fresh hummus; and tabbouleh salad with cracked wheat, parsley, tomato, red onion, lemon and spices.

“We still have a pretty big spread of desserts,” Lazos said, adding that one of the most popular, the baklawa, will be returning. She described it as being a bit lighter in flavor and texture than the type of baklava that is more commonplace at local Greek festivals. Several versions of it will be available, including with walnuts, with pistachios, and a chocolate baklawa with hazelnuts.

Other returning dessert options are the coosa pita (a custard made with a light-skinned summer squash, similar to zucchini); the ghrybe (almond butter cookies with powdered sugar); and the maamoul (date or nut-filled cookies).

In past years, there has also been a small menu of hamburgers, cheeseburgers and hot dogs for kids and those not interested in sampling the Lebanese options — that too has been removed.

Starting on Friday, Aug. 14, you can go to the festival’s newly redesigned website, bestfestnh.com, and place orders to be picked up or enjoyed at the church on your day of choice.

Featured photo: Scenes from past Mahrajan festivals. Courtesy photos.

Mahrajan Middle Eastern Food Festival
When: Friday, Aug. 14, 5 to 9 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 15, noon to 9 p.m., and Sunday, Aug. 16, 1 to 5 p.m.
Where: Our Lady of the Cedars Church, 140 Mitchell St., Manchester
Cost: Free admission; food is priced per item
Visit: bestfestnh.com

Advanced online ordering is available. Masks are required when entering the church parking lot.

Great New England BBQ and food truck festival returns

If you’ve been cooped at home for most of the summer, you’ll have the chance to get out and enjoy local food and beer at the Great New England BBQ & Food Truck Festival. Even though it will look and feel different this year, the second annual event is scheduled to happen on Saturday, Aug. 8, at the Hampshire Hills Athletic Club in Milford, and will also include craft and artisan vendors, live music and a cornhole tournament.

Normally a two-day festival, the event has been shortened to just one day this year. A kids’ zone that had bounce houses, face-painting and other activities has been eliminated.

Festival organizer Jody Donohue said she has been in regular communication with the town’s health and fire departments, as well as the state Attorney General’s office, to develop a plan on how to hold the event as scheduled in a safe fashion.

“It’s going to be much more spacious,” Donohue said. “We’ll have a minimum of 10 feet of space to the left and right of every food truck and artisan.”

She added that one-way walking aisles, six-foot pavement markings and sanitizing stations will all be implemented throughout the venue. All vendors and event staff are required to wear masks and attendees are encouraged to as well when not eating or drinking.

Ten to 12 food trucks are expected to be parked along the perimeter of the aisles for the duration of the festival, including a few local to New Hampshire and others coming from nearby New England states. Prime Time Grilled Cheese, launched by Manchester couple Alex and Marcie Pichardo in 2018, was a favorite at last year’s festival and is expected to return this year, according to Donohue. The truck offers all kinds of specialty grilled cheese sandwich options, in addition to “dessert” sandwiches like the grilled Fluffernutter and the grilled S’mores.

Other local faces will include Jayrard’s Java Cafe, a mobile coffee trailer converted from an old camper that specializes in premium Costa Rican coffees and organic teas, and The Smoothie Bus, which offers dozens of flavors of made-to-order smoothies using real fruit. There will also be freshly baked cookies from the Sweet Crunch Bakeshop & Catering Co. of Vermont; specialty hot dogs on toasted rolls from Trolley Dogs of Boston; barbecue options from Bobby & Jack’s Memphis Barbecue — a.k.a. “The Pig Rig” — of Tewksbury, Mass.; and cannolis from Uncle Joey’s Cannoli of Waltham, Mass.

A beer tent will feature pourings from several local breweries, like Frogg Brewing of Marlborough, 603 Brewery of Londonderry and Martha’s Exchange of Nashua. Guitarists will be playing music throughout the afternoon and the crew from 106.3 Frank FM will be there between noon and 2 p.m.

Two of the athletic club’s indoor tennis courts will be open with craft and artisan vendors. Donohue said products sold there will run the gamut from jewelry, stained glass, handmade soaps and woodworking items to gourmet barbecue sauces, mustards and other foods.

A cornhole tournament during the festival is planned for 2 p.m. on the function field adjacent to the parking lot, with warmups at 1 p.m. The cost is $15 per player and includes event entry.

While there will be multiple chairs and tables set up inside and outside that will be regularly sanitized, Donohue said festival attendees are allowed to bring their own chairs or blankets.

“It really is going to be a fun event for people to just get out of the house, sit on the field and enjoy the open air in a safe way,” she said.

Featured Photo: Alex and Marcie Pichardo of the Prime Time Grilled Cheese food truck. Courtesy photo.

Second annual Great New England BBQ & Food Truck Festival
When: Saturday, Aug. 8, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. (rain date is Aug. 9)
Where: Hampshire Hills Athletic Club, 50 Emerson Road, Milford
Cost: Tickets are $5 general admission and free for kids under 14; purchase tickets at the gate or in advance online at ticketleap.com
Visit: gnespringintosummer.ticketleap.com/gnefoodtruckfest
Free parking is available on site. Masks are strongly suggested. No pets are allowed.

Participating food vendors
• Bobby & Jack’s Memphis Barbecue (“The Pig Rig”) (memphispit.com)
• Chompers (find them on Facebook @tomschompers)
• Extreme Concessions (find them on Facebook)
• Jayrard’s Java Cafe (jayrardsjava.square.site)
• M&G Mobile Gourmet (mgmobilegourmet.com)
• Pig on the Road BBQ (pigontheroad.com)
• Prime Time Grilled Cheese (primetimegrilledcheese.com)
• R & J BBQ (rjtexasbbqonwheels.com)
• The Smoothie Bus (thesmoothiebus.com)
• Sub Zero Nitrogen Ice Cream (subzeroicecream.com)
• Sweet Crunch Bakeshop & Catering Co. (sweetcrunchbakeshop.com)
• Totally Nutz (urbannutroasters.com)
• Trolley Dogs (bostontrolleydogs.com)
• Uncle Joey’s Cannoli (unclejoeyscannoli.com)

Manchester eatery to specialize in rice and pasta bowls

Inside Nickles Market on the east side of Manchester, a new takeout eatery is getting ready to serve up a variety of made-to-order rice and pasta bowls prepared with fresh ingredients.

Bowlful, on track to open in the coming weeks, is the project of Gerard “Jay” and Lori Desmarais, who will be running the restaurant with the help of their adult daughter, Amanda. Earlier this year the Desmarais family took over the takeout kitchen space in the back of the store, which most recently housed a Mexican restaurant.

Bowlful’s menu to start will consist of various rice, pasta and salad bowls, served in 32-ounce-sized biodegradable containers, with many of the options inspired by Jay Desmarais’ travels.

“Bowls are the one thing that you can put anything into. You can make a Korean bowl, a Japanese bowl, [or] a Tex-Mex bowl,” he said. “So we’re not really going to focus on any one type of food. We want to create a lot of different flavor profiles that people are going to enjoy.”

Over the last couple of weeks, he said, they’ve spent time cooking potential menu items at home and revealing some of the options to the eatery’s social media pages. They’ll include a cilantro lime rice bowl with your choice of meat, chipotle black beans, green chili corn, fresh salsa and a dollop of sour cream; a grilled teriyaki chicken bowl with bacon fried rice, broccoli and a sprinkle of sesame seeds; an “unstuffed pepper” bowl with shredded cheddar cheese; and a pork bibimbap bowl with sauteed mushrooms, carrot ribbons, sesame sauce and a Sriracha drizzle.

“One of my favorites is an enchilada rice bowl. We take the sauce that you would normally [use] when you’re making enchiladas, and we toss it in the rice,” Jay Desmarais said. “We also have something called the California bowl. That one comes with chickpeas, avocado and a brown rice and tri-colored quinoa blend. So it’s got a nice nutty texture.”

On the pasta side of the menu, macaroni and cheese will be offered, while a few salad bowls will be available as well. Desmarais said he would like to explore the possibility of eventually doing soups in the winter, as well as sweeter dessert bowls.

All bowls can be made fresh to order using inductance cookers, but if you come to the restaurant after hours, Desmarais said you can also pick up premade bowls out of a grab-and-go cooler and purchase them at the Nickles Market counter.

Bowlful
An opening date is expected to be announced in the coming weeks. Visit the website or follow them on social media for updates.
Where: 1536 Candia Road, Manchester (inside Nickles Market)
Hours: TBA
More info: Visit thebowlful.com, find them on Facebook and Instagram @thebowlful, or email [email protected]