Fried Food Festival

Fritto Misto all’Italia e dal Mondo

This past week-end there was the 4^th annual Fritto Misto all’Italia e dal Mondo for four days here in Ascoli Piceno. They had record crowds; approximately 40,000 visitors packed the centro storico sampling fried specialties from various regions of Italy and four international locations.

Our friends Giorgio and Francesca came to town to sample the frito and the first night we saw a couple local friends walking through the stands set-up in Piazza Arringo. However, all of our local friends that we asked have said they did not eat at the Fritto Misto event. The consensus was that this was a good event to bring tourists to Ascoli Piceno but no reason for them to venture into the crowds. One of the things I find odd here is many locals complain there is not enough to do in this city yet for some of the major events they do not seem inclined to attend.

We enjoyed sampling specialties from several other regions. With the lack of ethnic eateries in this area we took the opportunity to also sample the international specialties on Sunday for pranzo, including some very good fish and chips from England and tempura from Japan.

I have no problem venturing into a crowd for some good fritto.