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Monday, May 7, 2018

Taco Good Eats Tour

It wasn't actually a tour, but a taco eating fest. We each had at least 6 different ones.


Last Thursday evening on May 3, we joined our friends and an estimated crowd of 30,000 in Manchester, NH for the 8th annual Hippo de Mayo event. Billed as New England's largest Cinco de Mayo celebration, it takes place before May 5. It started in 2011 to encourage people to visit downtown Manchester, NH and attracted over 5,000 people the first year. Now, it's one of the city's largest annual events. 

We were first-time participants for this outdoor eating event that featured $2 tacos served al fresco on the street with 50 local participating restaurants. And, like everyone else, we walked from eatery to eatery during the 4 to 9 pm event. This was strictly a pedestrian event as the city of Manchester closed down Elm Street, one of its main roadways for the 4 hour event. 
Eateries charged $2 per taco with monies going towards a charity. No advance tickets were sold as the tacos were on a first-come, first-eat basis until inventory ran out. We arrived with our friends before 5 pm




These were not the standard cheese, tomato and beef tacos as we sampled pulled pork, eggplant, apple crisp, grilled cheese, fish, crispy chicken, sushi, and BBQ chicken tacos. 
Some of the more creative combinations included dessert tacos with chocolate, Korean tacos with kimchi, and Greek tacos with tzatziki sauce and French fries.


The event was sponsored by The HippoNew Hampshire's largest circulation weekday publication with a net distribution of over 40,000. This free weekly publication is distributed Thursdays throughout southern New Hampshire at over 1,200 locations. 


It was a perfect evening with warmer temperatures (finally). We had a fun time and are planning to return for next year's event.

Many folks who celebrate Cinco de Mayo on May 5 are in the dark about the the history of the date. While it's sometimes referred to as Mexico's Independence Day, that's incorrect as that celebration is on Sept. 15. 

Instead, the Cinco de Mayo celebration marks the Mexican army's defeat over the French forces of Napoleon III in 1862, at the Battle of Puebla. Mexico had difficulty paying back war debts to European countries, and France had come to Mexico to collect the debt.

12 comments:

DeniseinVA said...

Looks like a fun event and a great series of photos.

MadSnapper said...

at first read i thought i could not do this because of my food plan, then i realized we could buy one of each kind, i could take one bite and bob could finish it. thanks for the idea, i am going to try apple crisp. i cook a bag of apples every week and keep in fridge for snacks. i add pineapple or strawberries sometimes, all i need is the taco shell. yummmy

Anvilcloud said...

Looks like quite the event. I'm not sure about some of those variations, though.

Doris said...

That looks like SO much fun!! Interesting tacos for sure :)

William Kendall said...

Apple crisp tacos sound intriguing!

Connie said...

They came up with some interesting varieties of tacos. Sounds like it was a fun time.

My name is Erika. said...

Wow. I've seen this on the news for a few years but have never been. They did get a good crowd, didn't they? And what a fun way to try some different tacos. I think it seems like it was worth going to and a good way to burn your calories since Elm St. is fairly long. Glad you shared because you've inspired me to go some year. :) Hope your new week is starting off in a good way. Hugs-Erika

mamasmercantile said...

Looks like great fun, a wonderful event.

Anonymous said...

Looks like a fun event, and the food sounds delicious.

DUTA said...

I love street food, and we have a lot of this stuff here. It comes mainly in pita bread pockets, and could be very versatile( veggies,meat, pickles, tehina sauce, hummus).
The tacos event sounds funny and...tasty.

L. D. said...

Great fun for all.

Karen Lakis said...

What a cool idea! And I love creative tacos!