Festival offers samplings of global cuisine

Every year, the Living Traditions Festival in downtown Salt Lake City offers Utahns a taste of food from all over the globe.

Sponsored by the Salt Lake City Arts Council, the festival celebrates local folk and ethnic arts, and helps build bridges among the city's cultural groups. Along with the music and dancing and crafts, there are food booths from 20 different local cultural groups.

The food items are priced individually, so you can mix and match your meal from a variety of cuisines. This presents an opportunity for those who are intimidated by ethnic restaurants and unfamiliar foods. You can sample a few things without blowing all your money on a restaurant meal you may not like.

Here's a sampling of what you can expect to taste:

• Hawaiian teriyaki beef, won tons and shaved ice

• Pakistani samosas, chicken kabobs and curries

• Filipino pancit (noodles with vegetables) and lumpia (egg rolls)

• Tongan sosisi (sausage fried in coconut oil) and Moa Tunu (barbecued chicken)

• Tibetan MoMos (dumplings) and spicy potatoes

• Lebanese hummus and falafel sandwiches

• Salvadoran pupusa (corn tortilla stuffed with beans or cheese, topped with a cabbage relish)

• Greek gyros (thin-sliced grilled lamb on pita bread)

• Peruvian chicken and rice

• Basque chorizos (mildly seasoned pork sausage in a bun)

• Native American Indian tacos

• Mexican chile verde burritos, carne asadas tacos, pork and chicken tamales

• Scottish fish and chips, and bangers (sausage in a bun)

• Italian meatball sandwich

• Sudanese Chicken Sheia (a chicken stew)

• Swiss bratwurst sandwich

• Chinese sweet and sour chicken

• Vietnamese spring rolls

• Bosnian cevapi (ground beef sausages)

• Thai barbecue chicken