Over on Milepoint anileze has posted some fantastic food photos taken at The 9th Avenue International Food Festival in New York City.

Warning: you might not want to click through and view these photos if you are looking forward to a bologna sandwich for lunch, as it could lead to depression.

As great as all of the food looks, I’m going to share with you what I think the problem with food festivals is: too much good food available at the same time. What I would like to see is a food festival with 20 booths. Ten vendors serve up food in the morning, then shut down and a different set of 10 vendors serve in the afternoon. The next day, another 20 vendors fill the booths, and on and on it goes until the festival ends.

Why? Because I can’t control myself, that’s why. If on Day 1 of the festival I discover “Joe’s Meat Chunks” at booth #4 and they are the best meat chunks I have ever had the pleasure to gnaw on, then fully enjoying Day 2 becomes a problem for me. Even if I tell myself I’m going to try different things, all I’ll be thinking about is saving some room for some more of Joe’s mouth-watering chunks.

And the problem just continues to multiply.  On Day 2 I’ll probably find the “Kansas Fried Beets” at booth #31 and “Rings of Things” at booth #17 – and so on Day 3 I have to save room for all three. At that point, the stress of it all, combined with the crowds, will probably just keep me away from Day 3 on.

Talk about your #firstworldproblem.