At Smithsonian Folklife Festival, a Taste of Three Worlds of Food

Seven city blocks; 10 days of arts, crafts, music, sports and games; 32 languages; 90-degree temperatures; 103 tents; 415 volunteers and 707 guest participants: Yes, the 41st annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the Mall promises to be a bustling, sometimes overheated, multi-tented and multicultural mini-metropolis.

But we know some folks who go just for the food, and we understand why. Since 1968, the festival's Foodways program has produced a smorgasbord of tastes and edible gardens involving the year's featured regions. This time around, chefs from Northern Ireland, cultures along the Mekong River and all corners of Virginia have sharpened their knives and sent in their shopping lists for ingredients. They're ready.

Here are three of this year's featured pros, two of whom will hold cooking demonstrations this afternoon (check the schedules at http://www.folklife.si.edu):

NORTHERN IRELAND The humble Hugh Browne is known for his skills as a fishing guide and culinary instructor in County Down, where he has been slinging pots for four decades. He promises "at least" to supervise a few of his Newry Institute students as they prepare mussel soup, salmon and steak with an eye to proper country tradition -- and a little Bushmills whiskey, when there are Buttermilk Pancakes With Drunken Raspberries to be made. He'll be on hand every day and has brought Northern Ireland cuisine cookbooks to be sold at the festival.

MEKONG RIVER BASIN Because Kunming native Shirley Lung lives in Chevy Chase, she didn't have to travel as far as presenters from Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Starting with her twice-a-day run today, she will show festival-goers how to make the satisfying cold rice noodle plates and meltingly soft bean jelly that are sold as street food in her native Yunnan Province in southwest China.

Lung will be a familiar face to Washingtonians; she spent the past 15 years working at the just-closed Yenching Palace in Cleveland Park. "This cooking's not too spicy -- not like Sichuan," she said with cheerful assurance as she prepared preview dishes for us last week. She was right, and they were so good we asked for the recipes.

VIRGINIA When John D. Clary arrives with his big pots, paddles and Proclamation Stew Crew pals on July 7 and fires up 250,000 BTUs of propane heat, the real Brunswick stew will get underway.

The Lawrenceville (Brunswick County) native has been a certified stewmaster since the 1970s, which makes him part culinary historian and part magician as he stirs and stirs and stirs a watery brew of boneless chicken thighs, fatback, potatoes, onions, crushed tomatoes, lima beans, shoepeg corn and pure red pepper into a thick and mouthwatering regional specialty. If you get a chance to visit with him while the stew's cooking, you might hear about the great Stew Wars and what makes his recipe different from the rest. Warning: His drawl and enthusiasm for his craft are infectious.

Though it seems a bit cruel that National Park Service regulations prohibit dispensing of the dishes made by the visiting chefs during their demonstrations, regional fare will be sold at nearby concessions.