Eat Arkansas

This little nut-and-filo-dough beauty peeked out at me during my tour of the preparation area for this weekend's 25th Annual Greek Food Festival.  It's one of the items offered on a new Middle Eastern pastry plate that also includes harisa and kataifi. 

I was just amazed at the teamwork that goes into putting together this event.  All those amazing pastries -- and all the other amazing food, too -- is prepared by church volunteers.  Folks start assembling the baklava and spanikopita in March just to get things together on time.  Crazier than that?  The fact that by the time the festival closes down late Sunday night, just about all of it will be gone.

It's not just for one good cause -- but seven, including The Centers For Youth And Families and Easter Seals.  Christina Martin of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church tells me all that money the festival brings in goes right back into the community.  Since the work in converting raw ingredients into Greek and Middle Eastern delicacies is all volunteer -- that's a lot of dough.

New on this years menu besides the Middle Eastern pastries -- a lamb sandwich on pita -- not just gyros from those marvelous meat cones that rotate past the heat in your mind but lamb sandwiches made from the same roasted lamb that you just about fall over yourself in line trying to get at to satiate the hunger brought on by the aroma-laden air.  Can't wait to try it.

Share more of my tour by visiting Tie Dye Travels... and find out more about how the festival is put together.  Just a few more days now.