Homearama 2016

Tina asked me along to this summer's Homearama. I haven't been to one in years so I was curious to see what was new and exciting in home building.

I wish I had taken more photos! I took a few Snapchats here and there but mostly we were busy opening every door and peering into every pantry.

Some highlights:

Instead of a front porch, one house had a small courtyard that opened into the front door and a side hall, all covered by a pergola.

A living room fireplace that was also open onto the patio on the other side. There were three big sliding doors onto the patio, two in the living room and one into the dining room for a really big outdoor feel.

All the patios were impressive with built in fireplace and fire pits.

Kitchen with walk in pantries complete with wood shelves and marble counters. One house had a microwave that went under the counter and slid open like a drawer. Tap to close.

Impressive finished basements. One had a cool marbleized epoxy floor.

Tina was especially drooling over the kitchens. And this very expensive stove/oven with a hot water faucet above.

Outside I was amused by the robot lawn mower.

Robomower at Homearama. I think I'd rather have a goat.

A video posted by Jenny Cisney (@ljc) on Jul 18, 2016 at 6:21pm PDT

Another treat was to find some food trucks there. I got this really tasty pizza that helped fuel all the cupboard peering and closet peeking.

Food Truck Friday - Thai Fried Ice Cream

I am thoroughly enjoying Food Truck Fridays at my office. This friday is was one of my favorites, The Bento Box. I got a panko chicken banh mi and strawberry lemonade.

It got even better when I spied next to The Bento Box, their new Thai Fried Ice Cream truck.

I went for the Strawberry Dream.

Basically they pour ice cream base onto a frozen surface and then use a scraper to roll it into tubes.

Ice cream and a show.

It was really hot and mine started melting right away. It was still very good.

Korean Food Truck

Tonight we went to our first Food Truck Rodeo of the season. I was surprised to see a few new trucks popped up over the winter. Like this Korean Seoul Food BBQ.

I don't think I can properly express how excited I am that there is now a Korean food truck. We ordered up bibimbap right quick.

Luckily Aaron is a Korean food fan too! Splitty sharey!

You can follow Seoul Food BBQ Food Truck on Facebook | Twitter

 

Rolling on over to Rolling Thunder Festival

I saw a poster on the Le Petite Poutine truck advertising the Rolling Thunder Festival at Ellison Park. The website said it would be a "food truck rodeo on steroids". Who can resist the call of a herd of food trucks? Not me.

It was a nice day so we rode our bikes to the park. Aaron rode Green Lantern and I rode Triple Chocolate.

Every food truck I could think of was at Rolling Thunder. It was quite a site to see them all parked in a big semi-circle. You can follow Rolling Thunder on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

I had Le Petite Poutine again. Two days in a row!

We also stopped at the Eat Me Ice Cream bikes. All the bikes got a chance to hang out together.

Flour City Brewfest (with food trucks!)

Months ago, Aaron bought tickets to the Flour City Brewfest. Time goes fast and the event was already upon us last night. Aaron's first stop was a tasting of Rohrbach's Space Kitty. I may have encouraged that selection.

I was the designated driver, and lucky for me, there were food trucks along with the 50 breweries and cideries, so what I enjoyed was Le Petite Poutine...

The Meat Ball Truck Co...

and Fuego coffee! That was just fine with me.

Food truck week

It was just a couple weeks after I moved offices from the downtown State Street Kodak headquarters to Building 205 in Kodak Park, when the food trucks started parking on State Street. Knowing how I love food trucks, you can imagine how that irked me.

This week we had food trucks at Building 205! I went out each day. The first day there was one of my favorite trucks, The Bento Box. Mmmm Panko Chicken & Siracha Sauce Bao - NOMNOMNOM.

Lobster roll from Brick 'n Motor.

I hope we have another food truck week.

More food truck enjoyment

I finally caught up with a couple food trucks I've been wanting to try. I met Aaron for lunch when the Stingray Sushifushion truck was parked on State Street. I got their Trasher Plate which is a mix of rice, grilled beef, bacon, tomato, scallion, jalapeno, avocado, peppers, onion and bunch of sauces. Tasty! You can follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

Later on we went to a Rochester Food Truck Rodeo and feasted at the Meatball Truck Twitter | Facebook and Aaron finally got to try the Bento Box Twitter | Facebook.

Our favorite ice cream vendors, Eat Me Ice Cream Instagram | Facebook were at the Food Truck Rodeo too! I got to try their volcano ice cream sandwich. Sweet corn ice cream with a shot of jalapeno jam in the center.

Jazz Festival and Meatballs

We found ourselves downtown for the last night of the Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival. The big closing act was George Thorogood. There was a huge crowd so I couldn't see much but it was fun to hear him sing "Bad to the Bone".

I have to confess the highlight was eating at The Meatball Truck. They offered a "meatball trash plate" with truffle fries, marinara sauce, meatballs and ricotta cheese. So. Good!

Food truck rodeo: The Bento Box

I met my friend Liz at the Food Truck Rodeo and tried The Bento Box truck for the first time. The pork belly bao and especially the tempurah chicken bao were delicious!

Rochester Fringe Festival

For the second year in a row, The Fringe Festival has come to Rochester. The first event that we went to was Bandaloop. Bandaloop is a group of aerial artists that dance and perform acrobatics as they rapel down the side of buildings.

The Bandaloop performance was on the side of the 21-story One HSBC Plaza. The event was free and Manhattan Square Park was packed!

We had a pretty good view though and it was amazing to watching them at night with the lights shinning on the building. (There was some idiot shining a green laser pointer on the show however and I thought Aaron was going to hunt them down and make him eat it)

PS - there were food trucks parked there too so we ate at the Cheesed and Confused Truck! I had roast beef and havarti while Aaron had bacon and gorgonzola. I wasn't sure how out of the ordinary a grilled cheese could be but these were fantastic.

Bandaloop was really cool but even cooler was opening the Festival guide to see my friend Aprille's event - Rochester Stories.

As part of her work with Storychick, Aprille collected stories from Rochester-arians and then had actors tell the stories. (I wish I had taken my good camera with me!) The idea is as you hear the story, you may create preconcieved ideas in your mind of who the people are connected to the story. After each story the original person was revealed and you learn more about the people that make up our city.

The stories ran from touching to funny. I totally thought I knew who one of the story owners would be and was surprised to learn that it was not them but somone else with a striking similiar story! Congratulations to Aprille on a great event!

Since we are in the midst of Aaron's birthday week I got us tickets to another Rochester Fringe event, Cirque du Fringe. I heard so many good things about the show and I was excited to see inside the Magic Crystal Spiegeltent.

"Originally constructed in Belgium around the turn of the 20th century, there are only a handful of them left—and one of them is coming to Rochester for the first time ever! Crafted out of oak and canvas and decorated with velvet, faceted mirrors and stained glass, these legendary “Magic Mirror Tents” are in huge demand as big-top, feature attractions."

Oh, and the show was amazing. We sat in the front row and I was oohing and ahhing and AIIIEEEE-how-do-they-do-that?! gasping the entire time.

Before the show we noticed "Oh hey! Food trucks!" We finally tried the Hello Arepa food truck. An arepa is a "it’s a grilled then baked corn flour patty, stuffed with tastiness." I got the traditional black bean and feta while Aaron had the ham and cheese. Yup. Tasty.

The food trucks at all the events were the frosting on the cake of our Rochester Fringe Festival experience!

Rochester Food Truck Rodeo

I am a huge fan of food trucks. I have been enviously observing the food truck movement in LA, NYC, Portland and Austin. Rochester has a few, but they can't operate like they do in other cities. Tonight, however, there was a roundup of Rochester Food Trucks at the Public Market.

I couldn't miss that! This is Cheesed and Confused... a grilled cheese truck.

Cheese and Confused - web - facebook - twitter

A baked potato truck.

To-Go Potato - web - facebook - twitter

Just like Le Petit Poutine, I have been trying to eat at the Sammich truck. Tonight was the night!

Le Petit Poutine - web - facebook - twitter

Sammich - web - facebook - twitter

They went Greek for the Food Truck Rodeo, so I got a gyro... this is Aaron testing it.

Aaron got a taco at Lloyd's Taco Truck (actually from Buffalo)... this is me sampling it. I like to splitty sharey.

Lloyd's Taco Truck - web - facebook - twitter

Rochester Real Beer Expo

Weeks ago Aaron got us tickets to the Rochester Real Beer Expo.

Saturday night was the big event. He had been looking forward to it for weeks. Gregory Street was shut down and there were tents with brewers offering over 80 different kinds of beer! It was a beer lovers dream. You got a little tasting glass and off you went. The glass looks tiny in Aaron's hand but he was happy as a clam.

I was mostly excited about my pretzel necklace. Oh, and a chance to wear my special t-shirt.

Also it was nice to be outside on a nice evening and run into lots of friends.

AND the Le Petit Poutine truck was there! I have been trying to eat at this food truck for ages! For those of you that don't live right next to Canada, poutine is french fries topped with gravy and cheese curds.

Finally! We split a serving and it was delicous. Those Canadians are onto something!