Issue date: 4/25/08 Section: The Verge

This weekend's festival celebrates with more than just music and art. (Photo submitted by Dan Crews, Publicity director of the Arts and Humanities Department)

Leslie Cook has traveled to the Middle East on numerous occasions.

She enjoyed each country's beauty - as well as its food.

The type of food she likes the most is called Mediterranean street food. After trying and enjoying it, she decided to learn how to make it herself.

The type of foods she specializes in making is falafel, as well as different types of salads like hummus and baba ganoush.

Her food will be on display this weekend during Celebration: A Festival of the Arts, held in the Library quad.

Falafel is beans ground together with spices, and formed into a ball. It's deep fried, and then put onto pizza bread with tahini dressing, which contains sesame and lemon.

The salads she makes are a good side to the falafel.

She liked the food so much she decided to create her own concession, "Expressly Leslie." Her husband already had a concession stand, and so she decided to sell her Mediterranean food there until she finally decided to separately create "Expressly Leslie."

"Expressly Leslie" has only been in business since last summer.

She always gets the same response from people when selling her food.

"We did a lot of events last year, and people loved the food," Cook said.

Cook is originally from Algonquin, a town about four hours northwest of Charleston.

According to PJ Rodgers, coordinator of foods at Celebration, there will be 10 vendors total.

Other vendors that will be present will sell French fries, shake-ups (strawberry, orange and lemon), cheeseburger-on-a-stick, Dippin' Dots ice cream, barbecue food, Mexican food and corndogs.

The average price for these items range between $2 and $6.

The cost of operating a booth for the event is $300, plus five percent of the total made, Rodgers said.

The booth's profits funds the Celebration committee and helps pay for electricity, water, trash and booking bands.

Vendors had to fill out an application in order to sell concessions.

But it's not just food vendors that will be out there, but art vendors as well.

According to Michael Watts, the director at Tarble Arts Center, paintings, photography, jewelry, ceramics, handmade clothing, kaleidoscopes, stained glass and more will be sold.

More than 30 artists will be coming from all across the Midwest. Prices range from a few dollars up to $500.

"Just about anybody can find something," Watts said. "It's a lot of fun and you get to see a lot of people."

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