Taste of Diversity Festival

Mehandi Mahal began her business in 2009 because of her passion for the art of mehndi, or applying henna. “I adore henna,” she notes. “The science of making a 100% natural and effective paste and the art of mehndi is symbolic, traditional and sensual.” While she sells her homemade henna paste and designs online, she also offers her services at corporate and private henna parties such as bridal showers, weddings, parties, blessingway ceremonies, sangeets, and belly dancing events.

Mehandi’s services are unique because of how she prepares her henna paste. “My service [is] applying mehndi tattoos and selling a 100% natural, freshly made preservative-and-chemical-free, pure and dark-staining body art product.” She specializes in traditional Indian patterns, but she also does Arabic, Hebrew, Western and Celtic designs.

Mehandi Mahal is joining Taste of Diversity this year to sell her freshly made henna products and to do freehand henna tattoos. If you’d like to see her online shop, check it out here, or find her on facebook here to book her for an event!

Sun International Foods and Asian Feature Restaurant will be bringing some great Burmese and Thai food to the festival this year! Kevin Lin and his wife Stephanie Lin started an inexpensive takeout restaurant and grocery store on the West Side for the Burmese community in November of 2010, but found it difficult to handle both ventures. With all the customers flocking to the restaurant, they realized there was more potential in the food service aspect of the business. Stephanie and Kevin have decided to invest all of their time in the restaurant, and are in the midst of a major building project. By mid to late May, Sun International will be able to seat more than fifty people. “We put in a seed and watched it sprout,” said Kevin. “And now we’re seeing leaves.”

People coming to the restaurant may recognize Kevin from his years as a sushi chef at Wegmans. After five years living in Japan, Kevin had a taste for various cuisines. If you visit Sun, you can ask him what his favorite dish is, but more than likely he’ll have difficulty answering you. “I can eat anything, I can love anything,” he says. He named his favorite on that day: the eggplant special, which is crispy eggplant mixed with onion, green onion, bell pepper, basil leaves and homemade sauce. The restaurant specializes in Burmese and Thai dishes, but also serves Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and Korean dishes.

 Kevin has been involved in Taste of Diversity since the beginning. At its roots, the festival began as a meeting of Burmese locals preparing food in their homes and coming together to celebrate their culture. Kevin was a part of those meetings, and has seen the growth of the festival through the years. Last year Sun wowed festivalgoers with Thai papaya salad and traditional Burmese leaf salad. This year, Sun plans to prepare two Burmese dishes: Samusa and Own No Koksware (an egg noodle soup with coconut milk, chicken, tamarind, boiled egg, onion, fish sauce, and crispy flat noodle).

If you’d like to visit Sun International and Asian Feature restaurant and say hi to Kevin, you can find it at 1989 Niagara Street. It’s open from 11am to 10pm Monday through Saturday, and noon to 10pm on Sundays.

We at the Taste of Diversity Festival are proud to welcome Lucy Ethiopian to the Taste of Diversity family. Abba Biya and Naima Tesfu, the owners of the restaurant, opened Lucy Ethiopian in Black Rock in March of 2012 after researching for two years and finding no Ethiopian restaurant in the area. “We want people to experience traditional Ethiopian food,” Abba explained.

The restaurant offers a variety of authentic Ethiopian foods, from the traditional coffee or spicy tea to the dishes of chicken, lamb, beef, and vegetarian. Lucy Ethiopian’s dishes range from spicy to mild, a variety built to engage every palette. Abba’s favorite Lucy dish is awaize tibs: tender lamb marinated and cooked with tomato, jalapeno and garlic, covered with a specially prepared red pepper sauce. Naima’s favorite dish is the kitfo: fresh ground extra lean beef seasoned with special butter, carmon, and mita mita, served rare or lightly cooked, with Ethiopian-style feta cheese. All the food is prepared fresh by Abba and Naima the evening before.

Lucy Ethiopian is quickly garnering a reputation for ethnic excellence, thanks in no small part to word of mouth. The mouthwatering dishes and friendly service have people coming back multiple times a week, and bringing their friends!

Abba and Naima will be preparing food as vendors at the Taste of Diversity this year. They plan on having chicken tips, lamb tips, beef tips, lamb with rice, chicken stew (spicy and mild), kitfo, and even their traditional coffee. And they’ll be serving their food while wearing traditional Ethiopian garb!

If you can’t wait until the festival, feel free to stop by Lucy Ethiopian and try some of their fantastic dishes! The restaurant sits at the corner of Amherst and Grant, at 388 Amherst Street in Buffalo, NY. Their hours are Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 10am to 10pm; Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 10am to 11pm; and Sunday from 11am to 10pm.

Interested in getting a collection of recipes from the kitchens of West Siders from all over the world? Buy last year’s Taste of Diversity cookbook for a $2 donation at Westside Stories on Grant Street! In a review of the bookstore, Yelp Community Manager Ryan Weaver mentions purchasing the cookbook: “[this is] a bona fide cultural treasure for any Buffalo cook, full of recipes for diverse dishes, from African eggplant to Puerto Rican arroz con pollo…”

And thanks for being such a big part of Taste of Diversity, Westside Stories! Find more information about this local bookstore here: http://www.westside-stories.com/

Community cooperation: Buffalo food trucks will spend an evening at Grant and Lafayette every month in partnership with Sweet_ness 7, our favorite local coffee bar.

When we bought delicious pork sandwiches from The Roaming Buffalo outside Sweet_ness 7 two weeks ago, we didn’t know that local food trucks are slated to visit Grant @Lafayette every month!

You heard us right — the same corner that will host Taste of Diversity in ten short weeks will stage a festival dress rehearsal once a month thanks to the collaboration of our local food vendors. We’ll keep you posted about Sweet_ness 7/food truck dates and times as they become available. In the meantime, block off June 2 for Taste of Diversity — with our expanded 11:00-7:00 festival hours, you can come for lunch and stay ’til dinner!

To get an idea of what you can expect this year, take a peek at snapshots from Taste of Diversity 2011: 2011 Festival Slideshow

Thanks to Lukia Costello of Lukia Costello Photography for sharing her images with us, and to you for following our festival!

Friends of the Festival,

Laura here. Last night our 2012 planning team congregated at 245 Lafayette, mere yards from the location where Taste of Diversity will host a street celebration to top all celebrations in less than four months!

Our sub-committees are staffed with volunteers who love the West Side and the incredible range of cultural backgrounds throughout 14213. Last night two Grant Street business owners came over after work to add their voices to our Outreach committee. Community organizers from Houghton College and Journey’s End created an action plan to enable recently resettled refugees to cook at the festival. Meanwhile, the Music and Entertainment committee debated the location of our main stage. Yes, things are hopping around here!

Are you interested in participating in Taste of Diversity 2012 as a volunteer or a vendor? Please contact us! We would love to hear from you.

In the meantime, I’ll be over here with my priorities chart and permit applications, dreaming of a sunny Saturday in June…!

We asked. You voted. After receiving an equal number of votes in favor of Grant Street and Lafayette Avenue, it was unanimously decided among those present Tuesday evening that this year’s festival will take place on Lafayette Avenue at Grant.

Thank you for sending in your opinions as well as your votes! We received some truly thought-provoking replies that we took into account. So, to return the favor, allow us to explain our decision.

Our main reason for choosing to remain on Lafayette this year was logistical. First: for a festival as planning-intensive as Taste of Diversity, January is very late in the game to move a June event. Second: the challenges a new location would present require a larger workforce of volunteers than currently sit on our planning committee. If you are interested in volunteering, we can always use you!  Third: Making the move while taking into account the needs of each Grant St. proprietor between Lafayette and Auburn would require a high level of cooperation that we have not yet secured. At this point in the year, we just had to make a decision.

But wait, Grant supporters! Though you didn’t carry the decision this week, this year’s festival planners will respond to your concerns in two ways: first, we will commission our outreach committee to strengthen the festival’s ties to Grant Street. This may involve decorated storefronts, a take-off on Christmastime’s “passport” activity to draw festival attendees into shops, a scavenger hunt, or planned raffles. In any case, it definitely involves communication with those who own and operate our Grant stores!

Second, we will appoint a committee to look into the logistics involved in moving to Grant St. for 2013. For this exploratory committee to be successful, we will need a group of local, committed individuals to step forward. Volunteers do not necessarily need to have a history with the festival but do need a strong work ethic and a commitment to the continued revival of the Grant St. business district. Moving the location of a festival is not an easy task, but if we come together to build the breadth and depth of our committee, it’s certainly possible for 2013!

If you have concerns, queries, or — most especially — a desire to volunteer with us, please contact us! We look forward to hearing from you.

With thanks for your support,
Laura

Taste of Diversity is now only five months away and our steering committee is growing in numbers and enthusiasm. Last Monday we welcomed four new Taste of Diversity volunteers to the table and discussed a wide range of issues. As we gear up for our restaurant recruitment and sponsorship campaigns, we face a significant and time-sensitive decision: Where should this year’s festival be held? Will we remain on Lafayette Avenue, our location since 2003, or make a move to Grant Street? 

We will discuss and vote on location tomorrow evening, Tuesday 1/17/12, at 6:00 at the St. Mary Center (245 Lafayette Avenue). We encourage everyone with a stake in Taste of Diversity, particularly our vendors, to attend. If you cannot, I invite you to e-mail me, Laura (laura@tasteofdiversity.org), with your preference and the reasons for it. Your message will be read aloud and your vote counted Tuesday evening.

You — vendors, neighbors, and community contributors — are the motivation behind this festival. Please weigh in on the crucial issue of location by speaking up, via e-mail or in person!

Welcome!

You’ve reached the home of the 2012 Taste of Diversity Festival. Mark your calendars for June 2, 2012 – you won’t want to miss the delicious fare and dazzling entertainment we bring to Grant Street!

Would you like to take part in the 2012 Taste of Diversity Festival?

Join us for our next organizational meeting!
Monday, January 9
6:00 pm at the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur
241 Lafayette Avenue

Thank you to all of our generous supporters,  hard-working volunteers, talented performers and amazing vendors who helped make the 2011 Diversity Festival a reality.

Special thanks belongs to:

Buffalo Common Council Member
David Rivera

Houghton College

Key Bank

First Niagara Bank

The Service Collaborative of Western New York

Sisters of St. Mary
Our Lady of Hope Parish

Grant Street Neighborhood Center

Buffalo Public Schools
Multilingual Education Department

University of Buffalo

International Institute of Buffalo

Journey’s End Refugee Services, Inc

Buffalo State College

and

All of the members of the community
that come out to the festival!