One thing I love to do is to check out the various community festivals during the summer and there's none better than the food festivals.  The biggest one of the summer is the Taste of Buffalo in July but a number of towns and villages have their own "Tastes" including the Taste of Tonawanda.  It gives that town's restaurants a chance to show off their specialties and for people to sample them.My wife Shelley and I went to the Taste of  Tonawanda at Gateway Park at the edge of the Erie Canal on Sunday.   It's a much smaller version of the Taste of Buffalo but it gave us a chance to sample some items from restaurants we've never been to before.  One of the most popular items this year was pulled pork.  A number of restaurants had their special spin on ways to cook it and serve it.  We were there for a taste and that's what Shelley and I did - we just had to taste the various pulled pork sandwiches.

There were competing pizza places.  The taco I tried was terrific - you'd never use the word skimpy to describe it.  Shelley loved the spinach dip served with tortilla chips and they were serving a strawberry shortcake to die for. 

We gave a steak and cheese hoagy a try.  It was from a place we've driven by many times.  We just might pull in there some day soon.

Unfortunately we arrived later in the day and many of the vendors were already sold out of some items.  I understand one vendor was sold out of its meatball sliders very early.

The Taste of  Tonawanda was just a warm-up for the Taste of Buffalo and you'll see me there too.

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