Leaving hungry from Taste of Times Square

The bro and I hit up Taste of Times Square this evening. Unwisely, he was starving when we arrived; we took one look at the ticket lines and decided that purchasing food wasn't in the cards for the night (unlike the 9th Avenue Food Festival, you have to buy "tickets" to purchase food at Taste, a ridiculously stupid system in my opinion). So instead of shopping for food, we attempted to walk west through the festival to get back to our apartment. What we saw along the way is below.

The entrance at Broadway and 46th

The Chop Suey booth... not too big of a line here. And they tried to ply me with fliers when I stopped to take a picture...

Ladies vending "cheesecake lollipops" at the Hawaiian Tropic Zone

Really good looking Turkish food at Dervish

Street fair sushi. Not so sure this is a good idea.

One of the many musical acts providing entertainment for the masses

The M&Ms booth was mobbed-- because they were giving out free M&Ms. We ultimately left the fair with four fun-size bags of M&Ms, and nothing else.

The Applebees booth, selling chocolate cake. This one's for Zach at Midtown Lunch.

John's Pizzeria. Seemed pretty standard.

This unconventional African band was enthralling the crowd.

This strawberry shortcake was by far the best-looking item on offer in the whole fair.

The Rivage bread pudding looked creatively plated but actually not that great. More like soggy slices of French toast than bread pudding.

At the Bourbon St. Bar & Grill booth, they were offering Buffalo Alligator (like Buffalo Chicken, but alligator).

I spoke to a woman who ordered the Buffalo Alligator-- she said it would have been good if it were hot and crispy, but since it wasn't, it was... "interesting."

Guac at Toloache. Looked great.

Blinis at Firebird. These poor men must have been sweating buckets.

Along with a novelty blow-up NY Giant, Tonic was offering chili-lime edamame. Uh....?

I'll end with a pictorial reminder of why we didn't end up eating anything at the fair. This is the ticket line at the west side entrance. It snaked all the way around the corner onto 9th avenue.

The line. About a billion people long.

Overall, the Taste of Times Square was distinctly "meh." Unless there's a large posse of roving ticket vendors or a healthy scalping market next year, I don't think I'd return.