This weekend was the 15th Annual Oxnard Salsa Festival (olé!), and I just had to go on both days. No admission fee. Just walk on in at Park Plaza in downtown Oxnard. But if you want to taste the salsas it's just $5 to get a basket of tortilla chips and 10 tickets. Since I went both days I had the chance to try 20 different salsas - though I went back for seconds on a few of them.
Now, I'm a wuss when it comes to the hot stuff, but I can take a little heat... so I into the packed ten and went from station to station in my search for the best salsa. I was hoping to find a good chipotlé, but there was only one (and it was so-so). Overall, I have to say that there were three salsas that stood out.
First was a complex and savory green salsa from Barroco's Restaurant. Next was an awesome, sweet mango salsa with a hint of heat from Tomas Cafe (they're suppose to have a MySpace page, but I can't find it). Finally, there was an incredible salsa from La Dolce Vita Restaurant which won Best Mild Salsa at the festival (they also have a MySpace page here). I was lucky enough to be able to take home a small container of the mango salsa (which went great with my grilled chicken breast that I had for dinner. Yum!).
Outside the tent were vendors of all types. The carnitas tacos from Cabo's Seafood Grill were to die for. Finally, Pancha's Gourmet Foods (from Fontana, CA) had a unique and flavorful Chipotlé Raspberry BBQ Sauce that I just had to buy.
Plenty of other vendors and festivities, including plenty of lovely latinas in summer dresses displaying their fine curves (a testament to the beauty of God's creation -- *sigh*). And, of course, there was a lot of live salsa music, and a salsa dancing competition.
A bit later I'll try to post a brief video clip of some of the salsa dancing at the festival. Don't know how successful I'll be with that, though.
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