Every spring, northern Washington fields turn technicolor and visitors flock to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. I've managed to live in Seattle for fifteen years without ever seeing the tulips. Single guy. Tulips. I don't think so. But this spring I'm a little less single, which meant a lot more tulips.
Ooooh. Pretty colors.
"Festival" is really code for "cheap marketing device to lure tourists to local gardens where we'll charge them a few bucks for entry and then sell them bulbs and flowers at barely-discounted prices." Someone in the chamber of commerce woke up one day and said, "Gee, these fields are pretty. We sure grow a lot of tulips around here. If we called tulip season a FESTIVAL, we could boost the local economy!" I understand the Bellevue chamber of commerce is working on an Overpriced Condominium Festival and over on Aurora, a Festival of Whores is in the planning stages.
We ate at Calico Cupboard in La Conner, and while I could dwell on the atrociously long wait while several tables sat vacant but uncleared or the lackluster quality of the ensuing food, I'll choose instead to rhapsodize about the toffee bar I had for dessert. Oh. My. God. Imagine a big blondie with chunks of chocolate, toffee, walnuts, and pockets of creamy butterscotch or caramel (I always have a hard time telling them apart). It was a thick, hearty bar-- with every bite I felt like I should be resting my workboot on the stump of a newly-felled tree, smiling zestfully into the primevil forest, my trusty axe leaning jauntily beside me. It validated the entire trip. Now the quest is on for a recipe to produce this at home.
Posted by Peter at April 10, 2006 1:29 PM