Gilroy Garlic Festival

Yesterday, Will and I went to the Gilroy Garlic Festival. We ended up crashing at our in-laws place for the evening (Thanks again, John & Joanne!)... so the drive wasn't so trecherous the next day. Unfortunately, we got on the road a little late - and it took us about 1.5 hours to get to the festival. Traffic was horrible on the 101 and everyone seemed to be exiting the same road that we wanted to! In all, it was definitely an experience. I'm not sure if we would ever go back - but since both of us had never been before, we thought we go and see what it was like!

We walked from the dirt road parking lot to the main entrance (where they we're also bussing in people from other parking lots). There are tons of venues selling all kinds of food, booths, live music, karaoke, and live entertainment. We even saw all of the princesses who we're hoarded by all of the men! (Did you know that one of them graduated from Cal Poly, SLO with a degree in Business?) The festival was located in the middle of Christmas Hill Park. There are hardly any trees or shade, making it very HOT. Will and I both got very sun burnt while even wearing sun screen!

I have included some pictures below from our excursions at the Garlic Festival...

The burning garlic flame

Our first stop for food - $5 garlic french fries (I think they might be more expensive than at an A's game)! YUM! All they needed was some Heinz Ketchup!

The chefs of Gourmet Alley cooking up some Shrimp Scampi and Calamari! Check out those flames... I couldn't believe it! Their cooking pan was HUGE, too! I'd love to learn how to cook like them!


Fabio from Top Chef, Season 5, hosting the Garlic Showdown. He was pretty funny! Next time I'm in Ventura County I want to try his restaurant, Cafe Firenze! (Lans & Stacey, are you down?)


Anyone recognize the girl above? It's Jamie Lauren from Top Chef, Season 5. She was participating in the Showdown (since she resides in San Francisco) and took a break to take pictures and sign autographs. She's incredibly nice!

And lastly, we couldn't leave without trying the free garlic ice cream. Honestly, it wasn't too bad. It is a soft serve vanilla ice cream with a hint of garlic. You taste the vanilla ice cream first, and then it leaves an after taste of garlic. I wouldn't go and buy a tub of it... but it isn't too bad in small doses on a very hot day!