Carnival Food Fair – St. Thomas

Clearly this island had more food than the regular carnival stalls could hold. Which is why, for just one day of Carnival, Emancipation Park turns into an unrecognizable sea of stalls, with each booth washing up something special like seaglass in a surf.

Advertised by islanders as the can’t-miss-it food event of the year, they hyped up this Carnival Food Fair even more than DJ Cypha hypes up himself. Though he IS the best DJ in the Virgin Islands…just ask him. And if you’re too shy to ask him, just turn on his radio station. This is a guy who makes you miss half a song so that he can chant his own name like a séance.

So I didn’t miss this food festival. I even got there at 11 AM on my day off because I heard they’d start running out at noon. I started with a cold Passionfruit Juice and probably spent half my money on drinks that day. The sweltering sun showed no mercy so this tropical fruit and others like it were worth their weight in sugar. If you don’t already have a passion for this fruit, you’ll discover it in a couple sips.

Unfortunately, for everything there is a price, and the price for the food entrees was quite high. So high, in fact, that I couldn’t try more than one main dish and spent at least an hour walking in circles trying to decide what to have and where. Good thing I had these Tamarind Balls to hold me over. These spicy little sugared sourballs are dense yet strangely refreshing no matter how hot the day. Just make sure to find the pits so that you don’t spit out your molars too.

I finally decided on the Crab and Rice. I really wanted some shellfish, and after those Carnival Village whelks, I wasn’t about to make that mistake again. I rarely get crabby about the price of good food, but $15 is a bit much for legs in a ton of rice. Apparently mine had less crab so they only charged me half, but I honestly wouldn’t pay more for more crab. Then again, the rice was plump with all the sweet juices of the crab infused all the way through, and this palatable yet monotonous pile left me nothing less than totally satisfied. Good thing this curbed my seafood craving or I’d provide all the crab my rice was missing.

If I’d skipped the food festival this year, I probably would have cried. If I skip the food festival next year, I probably decided not to go. The food is good, no doubt, and clearly it’s something you need to do once. The colorful variety of canned fruit stews and bundles of baked goods are truly spectacular, but when it comes to buying food, I don’t really recommend anything that you can’t take home in a bottle or jar. The entrees look pretty good, but you can get more for your money almost anywhere else.