Albanian Festival at Albanian American Community Center

Another festival in one week? Do you know how difficult it is to find authentic Albanian food in CT? Found an ad for this Albanian festival online one day and since it was open to the public, I just had to check it out.
Once again parking on the street was a bit hard to find but we went late Saturday evening and found parking near the entrance to the Albanian mosque. Even though I did not know where the entrance was exactly, I just followed the noise of the boisterous crowd and loud Albanian folk music.
We made our way through the throng of adults, gossipy teens and hyper kids and past the huge tent of dancers and merry makers to the cafeteria. That food sure smelled good! I was hungry!
Thank goodness the menu was also in English. Although, the Albanian words for some dishes sounded similar to neighboring Greek and Turkish dishes.
We ordered the marinated lamb entrée and chicken entrée which came with rice and fresh salad of tomatoes, cukes, olives, and lemon wedge. I also ordered the petulla which is basically fried dough with sprinkled powered sugar.
Perhaps we came too late because the meat was hard and chewy and the fried dough was too. I did not mind though. The lamb did taste good. Different than traditional Greek lamb.
After eating and taking in the merriment, we decided to get dessert… oh too late! Only a handful of powdered cookies and coffee was left. So we made our way out.
If we return next time we should try the mezes (small plates), fried smelt fish, and Albanian pies. It was worth coming. Now I can cross Albanian foods off my list.