On June 27th the library, in conjuction with the Princeton Farmers’ Market, will be hosting Princeton’s first ever “Salsa Slam,” a night dedicated to all things Salsa — food, music and dance! There will salsa to sample, dancing to watch and then join in, and salsa music played all night long.
The salsa will be supplied by local stores and eateries and, just to turn up the heat even more, we will judge the salsa entries from each chef and crown a Salsa Champ of Princeton. The judging will be done by a panel of local food bloggers and foodies, but we will also allow everyone who shows up to have a chance to vote on their favorite for the “people choice award.”
We have several confirmed business owners who want to try to claim the title of Salsa Champ with more coming in every day. Confirmed to be competing are Tico’s Eatery, The Tap Room, Savory Spice Shop, Cafe 44, and the Whole Earth Center. We will update the list as it grows.
With all this talk of salsa, the library staff started wondering which came first — the dance or the food? Once we started wondering, we had to find the answer as that is what we librarians like to do best.
According to The Nibble: “The spicy sauce gave name to a hot and spicy late 20th century dance related to the mambo.”
Talking about dance, we will have Henri Velandia (founder and lead instructor of the Princeton-based HotSalsaHot dance school) on hand to give Salsa dance lessons and lead the demonstration. The dancers from Central Jersey Dance will also be on the plaza to join in on the dancing.
Follow this post for more updates as the Slam draws closer!
Update: We have 14 salsa entries for tonight — we can hardly wait to see who will be declared the Salsa Champ of Princeton. Here is the complete list of competing food establishments:
the bent spoon
Caf 44/Tortugas
D’Angelos
Eno Terra
Ferry House
McCaffrey’s
Mediterra
Nassau Inn
Princeton Soup and Sandwich Shop
Olives
Savory Spice
Teresa caffe
Tico’s
Whole Earth Center
Photo by flickr user fabalv and licensed under Creative Commons for non-commercial use with attribution.