Shadfest, Lambertville, NJ

Late April here in our neck of the woods in (close to the Delaware River in New Jersey) is shad season!  And no town loves shad more than Lambertville - so much so they throw a 2-day festival every year devoted to the fish and its tasty roe.  There's even an annual art competition that ends up being mostly fish-themed.

If you've never had shad roe, it's quite unusual. The roe sack is kept intact and generally pan-fried - see our post from last year's shad season.

Apart from shad, there's plenty of street festival food too.  Before we found some fish to chow on, we first got sucked in to pulling soda pop from barrel taps on truck, and stuffing our gobs with Wisconsin-style fried cheese curds.

Then it was off to sit and listen to local musicians with cupcakes and shad tacos with cabbage slaw on blue corn tortillas on the back patio of Lambertville House, courtesy of Caffe Galleria.  Down the block I had spotted beer-battered shad roe po-boys, so we were going to grab one for the car ride home, but alas, by the time we went back they were sold out - oh well probably better for my arteries...