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PITTSTON — The culinary landscape of the Pittston Tomato Festival celebrates its namesake with a variety of pizzas and pastas, all dripping with sauce made from the squishy red edible.
However, for first-time festival-goer Jamarr Reid, the allure wasn’t enough to pull him away from a sausage and pepper sandwich from Two Gentlemen Catering.
“Nine-out-of-10,” the 10-year-old West Pittston resident said when asked to rate his tomato-free food experience.
The Quality Tomato Capital of the World hosts the 34th festival through Sunday, and there’s a packed slate each day.
Some of the highlights include Saturday’s parade and famous tomato fights — people actually pay to throw tomatoes at each other — plus the Sauce Wars (which are less violent than the name implies).
Angelica Dore, 16, was the first to choose a side in Sauce Wars, the yearly battle between marinara sauces made in the Wyoming Valley and nearby areas. Dore, an exchange student from Sardinia, Italy, tried six different mystery sauces and voted for her favorite. At the end of the festival, a winner will be crowned and granted bragging rights for a full year. If Dore has her way, sauce No. 6 will be victorious.
“It was less salty and it had more spice,” Dore observed.
Exeter resident Carmen Castelleno disagreed.
“No. 6 had too much sugar in it,” Castelleno said, favoring sauce No. 1 instead. He said the annual taste test, hosted at the Tomato Festival Building, should be a newcomer’s first stop. He also offered preparatory advice to potential visitors.
“Well, you have to come hungry first of all, that’s very important,” said Castelleno. “Eat up, enjoy the free music. It’s a great time.”
For those who take that advice, Marianacci’s booth has a number of options, including a favorite of patrons at its West Wyoming location — a delicacy known as tripe.
“It’s actually the lining of a cow stomach,” Gina Marianacci said. “You boil it off and you make sauce with it. It’s definitely an Italian delicacy. It’s not for everyone, but for people who like it, they go nuts for it.”
If she’s not up for stomaching some stomach, Marianacci said one of her favorite festival foods is Michael Valenti’s broccoli rabe sandwich.
“You can’t come here and not get it,” she said.
Toni Valenti said it’s the Exeter restaurant’s ninth year at the festival.
“The Italian sandwich goes fast,” Valenti said. “This year we added long hots to it.”
Early birds had their pick at each stand’s sandwiches, cannolis, lemonade and more. But for Tomato Festival chairperson Lori Nocito, there was another reason to come early.
“Right now is my favorite part, when people start coming out and enjoying,” Nocito said before Thursday’s opening ceremonies. “They’re starting to eat, they’re starting to mingle around and it’s going to be like this for the next four days, so I like to see the people coming out and enjoying it.”
