By Kristen Elworthy

Despite the sporadic rain interruptions, hundreds of people participated in the Fifth Annual East Broadway Foodie Crawl on Tuesday, September 26th, 2015, and helped to raise nearly $14,000 to support East Somerville Main Streets (ESMS). This year, the crowd featured an increased percentage of local participants thanks to ESMS’s outreach to local schools. The event presented the vibrant flavors of about a dozen East Broadway restaurants, representing five continents as participants embarked on a walking tour of the neighborhood. Each restaurant provided a sample of the food, while experiencing the atmosphere of the restaurant.

The East Broadway Business District is home to some of the city’s best restaurants, trademarked by the authentic food that each serves. This year’s samples of food included: fried brie with strawberries, chicken quesadillas, meat pie with exotic fruit chutney, guacamole, fried to perfection chicken, baked ziti, spinach pupusas, Portabella quesadillas, Brazilian sausage with farofa, Ethiopian lentils with injera bread, Oreo waffles, pastel de tres leches, and many more items. The experience included the sights, smells, and tastes of Ethiopia, El Salvador, Haiti, Brazil, Mexico, Italy, and of course New England cuisines. This year the Foodie Crawl also included local pasta factory Deano’s Pasta, which offered pumpkin ravioli with their delicious three cheese sauce.

Participants at this year’s event also benefitted from the This Is East project, which has continued the revitalization of East Somerville through the installation of three community murals, and banners containing portraits of people in the neighborhood celebrating the neighborhood’s wealth in its diverse cultural legacy.
East Somerville Main Streets is committed to building a safe, sustainable and prosperous multicultural community by developing a vibrant business district at the neighborhood’s heart – all proceeds from the event will contribute to this goal.