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This years's Taste of Eau Claire Festival at Phoenix Park was, by all measures, a success. The Leader-Telegram, WQOW, and WEAU all pointed out that attendance was up, the food was good, and the weather was beautiful.

The charity that benefits from this annual event--United Way of Greater Eau Claire--was surely happy with the outcome. So too, I'm sure, were the other event sponsors, which included Volume One and WHYS 96.3 FM--Eau Claire Community Radio.

However, I walked away from the 2nd annual Taste of Eau Claire not COMPLETELY satisfied. Take a quick look at the 30 Vendors that had booths this year and tell me what is missing:

Burrachos Obsession Chocolates Mike's Smokehouse The Coffee Grounds Haymarket Grill Simply Chocolate Houligan's Steak & Seafood Pub Bear Creek Grille Franzwa's Cafe & Custom Catering Dessert First Bakery Cafe Famous Dave's Westgate Sportsman's Club All Star Catering Norske Nook Porter's Blakelee's Chocolates & Sweet Things Boston's Fischers' on the Green Outback Steakhouse TGI Friday's Texas Roadhouse Nolechek's Meat and Cheese Shop Hahn's Market Sweetwaters Restaurant & Bar Main Street Cafe The Stones Throw Fazoli's Jr. Volunteers Concessions Green Mill Restaurant & Bar Becki's Mediterranean Olive Salsa

The title of this post must give you some idea of what I thought was lacking--there was not a single local Asian restaurant on the list. Yet, event organizers thought it was necessary to invite large chain restaurants like Fazoli's, Outback Steakhouse, and TGI Friday's! Granted, Asian Americans do not make up a huge portion of the Chippewa Valley community--but, 3.66% of the population should account for something. And when it comes to food, Asian restaurants certainly have a prominent share of local owned community restaurants. If you have ever attended the Eau Claire Downtown Farmers' Market you would see Asian Americans vendors occupying 1/2 the booths.

When we put on an event titled "The Taste of Eau Claire", is it that we do not consider our Asian American neighbors to really be a part of our Eau Claire community? Next year, I hope the planners of this wonderful event will consider extending an invitation to any of the great Asian food places in town: Pad Thai, Noodle Wrap, Asian Cafe, etc.

That is all I have to complain about, because I really did enjoy myself at the 2nd annual Taste of Eau Claire. A great music line-up featured four bands with local roots:

Eau Claire Blues All-Stars Ultimate Frisbee Orchestrea Yam Cannon All Live Funk

Here are some photos from the day--blue skys!

I'm sure I'll be attending the 3rd annual Taste of Eau Claire Festival--hopefully I can get some egg rolls.