Category: Food

Cultural fest brings food, music and dance

By Jill Lessard
[email protected]

African/Caribbean and Latino cultures come together for a multi-sensory celebration featuring mouth-watering food, vibrant music and engaging entertainment at the 2023 We Are One Festival Saturday, Aug. 19, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Park in downtown Manchester.

“It’s great seeing everyone in the park getting an opportunity to participate in this event,” said Sudi Lett, co-chair of the We Are One Committee and a Chicago native who has lived in Manchester for most of his life. “It’s one of few opportunities to directly engage with Afro-Latino culture and people and an example of what we want Manchester to be about — people helping people, people learning from each other, and celebrating everything that makes us human.”

This year’s We Are One Festival will have acclaimed entertainers including drummer, dancer and New Hampshire Artist Laureate Theo Martey, founder and leader of the Akwaaba Ensemble; Boston singer-songwriter Ruby Shabazz; Zambia’s JohnLu & The Band; and Ariel y Grupo Letales, among other performers. The event will also include the talents of DJ 4eign (pronounced foreign), who has worked for some of the industry greats such as French Montana, Young MA, Fabolous and Usher. Born in Kenya, “The African kid” has become a local success as an acclaimed disc jockey on Boston radio station Jam’n 94.5.

A variety of sweet and savory treats will be offered at the fair.

“For food, we are anchored by Don Quijote Restaurant, whose chicken and beef empanadas are always popular,” said Lett, the Youth and Education Director with Young Organizers United (Y.O.U.), host of the event. “From Maya’s Kitchen, the oxtail and rice offers tender beef, flavored beautifully,” he said. “And Tokoss offers samoussas, an African dish similar to empanadas but served as a triangle with beef or chicken and veggies inside.” Cold treats will be served by Sub Zero Nitrogen Ice Cream, as well as a few new community vendors offering different versions of flavored ice.

The We Are One Festival combines the former Latinos Unidos and Ujima Collective, out of a need to create a local community with culturally appropriate offerings.

“It started out as the African Caribbean Festival and the Latino Festival, and about 10 years ago it was decided to combine efforts in a show of solidarity,” Lett said. “The success of this event goes to everyone involved, whether through attending, marketing or being a vendor.” Lett, who serves as boys basketball varsity coach at Manchester Central High School, has been attending the festival since he was a teenager and, as a legacy to his parents, Brenda and Woullard Lett, is committed to “keeping the continuity of bringing our community together.”

The We Are One legacy continues as the next generation takes up the mantle for producing the event. Sixteen-year-old Mia Rose Taylor serves on the Civic Engagement Committee for the summer program of festival host Y.O.U. Taylor became involved because she’s passionate about bettering her community — and, also, “festivals are just fun!” she said.

Considerable work is involved in mounting such a multi-faceted production, an effort that is currently shared among the Granite State Organizing Project, Young Organizers United, Centro Latino, and SDW Communications. Lett is responsible for logistics, marketing and staffing. Taylor’s job involves contacting community figures and groups to help advertise the event.

“The We Are One Festival can be just as informative as it is entertaining. There’s bound to be something to draw you in,” said Taylor, a student at Manchester Central High School. “It’s perfect for people who are looking for something fun to do with their family and friends before summer vacation is over.”

What are Lett’s favorite aspects of the event? “I’d say the food and the community.” And what does he hope folks will get from the experience? “A full belly and a great time!” 

“Immersing yourself in all these different vibrant cultures is something you don’t want to miss out on,” said Taylor. “It’s going to be a blast!”

2023 We Are One Festival
When: Saturday, Aug. 19, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. (rain or shine)
Where: Veterans Memorial Park, 723 Elm St., Manchester
More info: email [email protected]

Featured photo: Theo Martey. Courtesy photo.

News from the local food scene

• Brookford Farm’s International Food Festival: Don’t miss the International Food Festival at Brookford Farm (250 West Road in Canterbury, brookfordfarm.com) on Thursday, Aug. 17, from 6 to 8 p.m. Recipes from nationalities represented by the staff at Brookford Farm will be featured, such as Sudanese, Ethiopian, German, Ugandan, Russian, Polish, Turkmen and more. The event will include live music performed by The Velvet Dirtmunchers. Tickets, which include access to sunflower fields and a barnyard, are $60 for adults, $30 for children ages 3 to 12 and free for children under 3 years old and must be purchased ahead of time. Visit the Farm’s website or eventbrite.com to buy tickets.

• And Brookford’s Burger Night: Burger Night returns to Brookford Farm (250 West Road in Canterbury) on Saturday, Aug. 19, from 5 to 8 p.m. Sit among the sunflowers, enjoy local food, see barn animals and watch The Artty Francoeur Band perform live. It is $40 for an adult plate, $20 for kids ages 3 to 12 and free for children under 3 years old. Tickets must be purchased ahead of time and can be bought through brookfordfarm.com.

• Bottle Your Own: Averill House Vineyard (21 Averill Road in Brookline) invites you to a Bottle Your Own experience, on Sunday, Aug. 20. The event will start with a tour of the vineyard, winery and wine cellar covering the Waite family’s history with wine and the vineyard as well as the history of Brookline’s Ice District. Guests will then enjoy a flight of four wines and a charcuterie board with cheese, chocolate, nuts and meat. The vintner will choose a wine for you to bottle (one bottle is included and additional bottles can be purchased). You will also take home an Averill House Vineyard Wine glass. The first session will be held at noon and the second session will be at 2 p.m. It is advised you arrive 15 minutes before the scheduled time. Tickets are $59 and can be purchased at exploretock.com. Visit averillhousevineyard.com.

• Portsmouth Food Truck & Craft Beer Festival: The ninth annual Portsmouth Food Truck & Craft Beer Festival will be on Sunday, Aug. 20, from noon to 5 p.m., with VIP hour being 11 a.m. to noon, at Cisco Brewers (35 Corporate Drive) in Portsmouth. Enjoy food, craft beer, music, lawn games and more. Tickets range between $5 and $20 and can be purchased online via eventbrite.

• Gate City Brewfest: Don’t miss the Gate City Brewfest on Saturday, Aug. 26, from 1 to 5 p.m. (entry for VIP is at noon) at Holman Stadium (67 Amherst St. in Nashua). Over 100 vendors will be in attendance, like 603 Brewery, Citizen Cider, Canteen Spirits, and Seacoast Pretzel Co. There will be live music by Bradley Copper Kettle & Friends, Phall Roots and Frank Viele, as well as bounce houses, games and other activities. Tickets range from $15 to $70 and can be purchased at nashuapal.com or via eventbrite. See gatecitybrewfestnh.com for details including information about parking and shuttle buses.

I could tell that it was an old journal or a scrapbook. It was about 8” by 10”, though it was hard to tell through all the plastic.

“Do you mind if I unwrap it?”

“Knock yourself out.”

It turned out to be a falling-apart scrapbook with more than 150 pages of yellowed newspaper clippings of recipes, most of which seemed extremely old.

“How much were you thinking?”

“Five dollars?”

“Will you take three?”

“Yeah, OK.”

Some online investigation helped identify that the clippings all came from the Boston Globe in the 1920s. Some of these were written by a Globe staff member, but most seem to have been sent in from readers. As a result, the recipes are a little more specific than the “Take a lump of butter the size of a hen’s egg” instructions in really old recipes you find at flea markets sometimes, but being from a time before refrigerators and reliable stoves that you could set to a particular temperature, many of the instructions have a certain amount of vagueness.

For instance, this recipe for watermelon pickles from the Boston Globe, Tuesday, 28 June, 1927.

One of the things I’ve discovered as I’ve tried cooking some of these hundred-year-old recipes is that many of them make a staggeringly large amount of food. Beth’s Mum writes that she has a small family, so she only uses half a watermelon. Assuming that she’s talking about standard, 15-pound watermelons, that’s still something like 5 pounds of pickles, so I’ve cut this recipe in half, again.

• 1 baby watermelon – 4 pounds or so
• 1 Tablespoon baking soda
• 2 cups cider vinegar
• ¾ lb. (12 ounces) white sugar
• Half of a 3-ounce jar of pickling spice

Cut the melon into slices, then slice the flesh off the rind. Use a vegetable peeler to remove the dark outer skin of the melon. Clean off your kitchen counter, which is now soaked with watermelon juice.

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the baking soda in water. Soak the watermelon rinds in the alkaline water for two hours, then rinse well.

Transfer the rinds to a large pot of water, and simmer them for about half an hour. This is not as long as Mrs. Mum suggests, but in order to prevent the final pickles from becoming too soft, I’ve reduced the simmering time.

Strain away the water, then add the cider vinegar, sugar and pickling spice to the pot. As Mrs. M suggested, I use a small muslin bag to keep the spices from going all over the place. Boil everything for another half hour, until the rinds are barely crisp. (You’re going to want to turn your exhaust fan to “high” for the next 45 minutes; the smell of hot vinegar can be — after consulting a thesaurus for a more accurate term than “aggressive,” I’ve decided to go with “bare-knuckled.”)

Remove the pot from heat, fish out your spice bag, if you used one, then after everything has cooled, transfer the pickles to a large glass jar. These should keep for a week or so in the refrigerator.

These pickles have a robust sweet/sour flavor with a spicy finish. The texture ranges from extremely soft to slightly crunchy. They go really well with sandwiches.

Featured photo: Watermelon pickles. Photo by John Fladd.