This weekend the Orange County Buddhist Church in Anaheim will host its annual Hanamatsuri flower festival–a celebration of the birth of Buddha, with music and of course, food. And like I wrote last year, the parking situation might test your patience, but the rest of the afternoon will put you at peace.
]
It's a two-day event full of Japanese culture with demonstrations of aikido, kendo and karate; katana sword, bonsai and koi exhibits; taiko drums performances, and yes, karaoke.
And let's not forget the food. There will be grilled squid, teriyaki burgers, chirashi, makisushi, Spam musubis, and Okinawa dango, which are bite-sized fried donut spheres (some encasing hot dogs), and imagawayaki, a sort of hockey-puck-shaped pancake traditionally filled with sweet azuki bean paste. For a full list of food and prices, click here.
More details can be read on their website, but here are the essentials::
Saturday, April 14, 2012; 1 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Sunday, April 15, 2012; 1 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Orange County Buddhist Church
909 South Dale Avenue
Anaheim, CA 92804
(714)827-9590
ocbuddhist.org
Follow Stick a Fork In It on Twitter @ocweeklyfood or on Facebook! And don't forget to download our free Best Of App here!
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.