O P I N I O N
LEMENADE
By June Lemen
I grew up in Auburn, Massachusetts. My parents were both born in Worcester, Masssachusetts, a city of many hills. Most of these areas had their own ethnic enclaves. My mother grew up on Vernon Hill, which was primarily Swedish. My father grew up in Tatnuck, which was primarily Lithuanian and Polish.
As children, the Lemen kids ate the food prepared for us: mostly by my mother and my father’s mother. Grammie Lemen made Lithuanian food: potato pancakes and kielbasa and boiled cottage cheese dumplings and cabbage soup and borscht. For dessert we begged for what we called twisters, but were actually Žagarėliai, or angelwings (why my grandmother did not call them angelwings is beyond me), a fried dough covered in powdered sugar.
Swedish food was more of a Christmas thing, brought in for the holidays. But my mother was an adventurous diner. She made great spaghetti sauce because her Italian friends shared their recipes. So I was exposed to different cuisines as a child, and learned to try things. This is probably why I was so thrilled to go to the Egyptian Food Festival on Friday night in Nashua.
I love going to the Egyptian Food Festival. There’s so many delicious things to eat. The first time I went was the first time they held it after COVID. I had never been to the festival before and my friend Kathy suggested that she and I go.
It was a beautiful day the first time we went, and it has been every time I’ve been since. You could smell the deliciousness from blocks away, and Kathy and I got our trays and sat down and ate our food listening to Middle Eastern music. The first time we went I believe I had a grilled chicken kabob and pilaf and hummus and tabbouleh. Scrumptious.
It was so good that first year that after I had gone with Kathy I took my daughter Lucy the next day. She loved it. Lucy has always been willing to try new foods, and we had a blast. We ate, we bought raffle tickets, and we tried all kinds of dishes. We brought home delicious cookies that we parceled out all week. Food was one of the things that had become a real treat during the epidemic and the Egyptian food festival reminded us of just how much of a treat it was.
Since then, we’ve been every year. Sometimes two or three times during the same festival. It’s so fun, having traditional, wonderful food prepared by people who really know how to do it. That it’s a fundraiser as well is just the honey on the fried dough.
We’re big fans of the Greek food festival as well, and we’ve been going to that for years. I never miss a chance to get spanokopita and avglomeno, a meltingly delciious egg-lemon soup that I’ve tried to make for years. (It never works for me: it always curdles.)
This year Lucy and I brought our friend Donna to the festival Friday and Lucy went with her friend Kara again on Saturday. When I got home, they had just gotten back. I was surprised to find out that Kara had never been to the Egyptian food festival before, although she’s a Nashua native. She loved it.
And the three of us got to talking about all the events Nashua has, and we decided that we need more food festivals. I personally would like a food truck festival on Main Street. Imagine Main Street closed down, with say a dozen food trucks lining the street. You wander around and try all different kinds of food. Moroccan. Soul. Ethiopian. Mexican. Russian. Whatever. I especially want to try cuisines I have never tasted.
Life is short. We need more festivals.
You can reach June Lemen at [email protected]