With slow-cooked barbeque and roasted corn filling the summery Sunday afternoon air, it was no surprise the food was a big star at this year's Hoboken Arts and Music Festival. People made their best attempt at sampling everything from the always-popular deep fried Oreos to more exotic dishes from the Indian stands.
As hundreds of Hoboken natives and guests walked around the Mile Square, the cooks had to prepare as much food as possible in record time in order to satisfy everyone's cravings.
Michael Sirano, whose stand sold sausage sandwiches and other grilled meats, was excited to be at the festival for the first time. "This is something I wanted to do with my whole family for a while," said Sirano, who was born and raised in Hoboken but now lives in Cliffside Park.
While sausage sandwiches are a great meal, Sirano said that the turkey legs were usually their top sellers. He sells about 300 to 400 legs on a good day. "It's the hot ticket item," Sirano said. "They sell themselves because when someone walks with one in their hands, others see it and want one, too."
Crab cakes were another popular dish at the festival, and Sherri's Crab cakes was the place to get them. There was always a line at this particular stand, and people hardly ever order just one.
Carolina Freire has been coming to the festival for nine years and always makes sure to grab a crab cake sandwich from Sherri's.
"Since I started coming with my mommy, I'd get crab cakes," the Newark native said. "This is the place where I learned how to eat crab cakes."
Lee Sanft comes to the festival to check out what he calls the "artsy-type thing-a-mah-jiggies" but never leaves without getting his favorite festival fare -- the classic funnel cake. "My favorite is now all over me," Sanft said. "That's the funnel cake dust."
Every year food stands prepare to sell hundreds of servings of food to make sure there's enough for everyone. On average, hundreds of deep-fried Oreos and zeppoles and about 1,000 mugs of root beer and lemonade are poured.
Despite the crowds, Penko Andreed, who sold roasted corn on the cob with his family, felt that this year wasn't going to be as successful as other years for them. "It looks like a slow day today," Andreed said. "Usually we sell 500 on a busy day, and it's not that there isn't a lot of people. They're just not buying corn like before."
Whether munching on corn or funnel cake, chicken masala or mozzerepas, hardly any attendee was without some dish or beverage in his or her hand. For some the Hoboken Arts and Music Festival is a place to eat food that they don't normally nosh on every day.
"For me, it's about trying the food," Jersey City native Jessenia Butler said. "It's just here that I get to have the corn arepa and the kettle corn."
