CHICAGO, July 9 (Xinhua) -- The world's largest food festival, the Taste of Chicago, returned to Grant Park on July 5-9th for the 37th year in a row.
The festival draws thousands from the Chicagoland area and across the country, featuring the city's most well-known and celebrated restaurants as well as live music and celebrity guest chefs.
The Taste of Chicago this year showcases meals and samples from over 66 vendors from around the city. Deep dish pizza, a staple in the Chicago food scene, is always a popular draw to Lou Malnati's tent or Giordano' s food truck.
Peggy Rogers from Chesterton, Indiana returned to the Taste of Chicago with her family this year especially for the deep dish pizza and Chicago-style hot dogs. "We come and we want to try a little bit of everything," Rogers said, "we can never find this pizza in Chesterton."
Amin Bhimani runs the Gold Coast Hot dog tent at the Taste of Chicago, a popular stop at the festival for the last 15 years. "Business is booming. We order around 150 boxes of hot dogs and each box has about 90 hot dogs," Bhimani told Xinhua. Gold Coast Hot Dogs has sold close to 13,500 hot dogs over four days at the Taste of Chicago.
The Taste of Chicago gives locals and tourists a chance to try the city's diverse range of cuisines from around the world: from shrimp and grits from the Cajun Connoisseur to fried plantains from Garifuna Flava: A Taste of Belize, no one leaves the festival with an empty stomach.
"The Taste is just a fun opportunity to explore what restaurants are downtown with my friends. We wanted popsicles and Italian ice because it's so hot today," said Tanya, a visitor from Minneapolis.
During the summer, Chicago holds multiple food festivals all around the city. The Taste of Chicago has been the most popular, consistently drawing hundreds of thousands of people every year.
