Amazing.
One of the leads for the fest told me the police estimated the crowd around 15,000-18,000.
It felt like most of those people wanted blintzes or some kugel.
I sold out on 650 servings of blintzes (two blintzes apiece which means we cooked 1300 blintzes) and got through most of the kugel (30 mega tubs). That's a lot of food.....
The forecast was for rain and when I headed out to downtown early in the morning with my car filled with defrosted blintzes and kugel....it was drizzling. I felt bad....so much work....and even with a covered pavilion ...who would come in the rain to eat and listen to music?
But by 9am....when the booths started opening...the clouds parted....there was blue sky and in a couple of hours even sunshine.
I didn't see any of it....I was collecting tickets and calling out orders "One blintz ....blintz to go.....blintz and kugel on the side.....kugel but make it warm" and other assorted instructions....true to my nature I didn't cook the blintzes or even get near to the fry pans....I left that job to the "fry cooks"....who I noticed immediately had calm patient personalities...which is a necessary precondition to work with blintzes since the crepe-like outer covering can tear easily if rushed....and you can't rush a blintz.
The fryers kept frying .....the kugel lady kept rotating the tubs in the warmer so the thick slices would stay warm....and I dished out plate after plate after plate.
The sky started to darken just a bit at 2:30pm......around 3:30pm....someone at the info booth blew a shofar.....a long long horn with a haunting sound.....5 minutes later....there was a flash of lightening and gust of wind so strong it nearly blew some tables over. The crowds started to scatter while we tried to hold down the side wall tarps. We were supposed to shut down at 4pm....but it was too scary to stay open and I just sold my last blintz. So we quickly unplugged the skillets....ran after garbage and plates and napkins that started swirling around in the wind...and called it a day.
I wish I could tell you there were tons of funny stories.....but nothing really bizarre happened except everyone in the world wanted an order of blintzes....and it was just hard hard work.
By the time we packed everything into the car....I was so exhausted I could barely move....and hub and I both reeked of butter. As soon as I hit our house, I slipped off my clothes and poured a huge amount of epson salt into a hot bath and sank in.
Ohhhhhhhhhh....that felt good.
I hadn't eaten for a long time.....and when hub asked what I wanted for dinner....I had very strong suggestions....NO BLINTZES NO KUGEL, nothing that taste too butter...nothing with cheese...nothing greasy....nothing that smells too strong....and nothing that even remotely reminds me of the smells, tastes or food of the blintz and kugel booth.
At the end a couple of people shook my hand....."We give the kugel/blintz booth to the newbies......if you work a second year at the festival.....you're smart enough to stay a mile away from this baby."
Yes indeedy.....a mile away sounds about right.
