The Fair, which is part of St. Thomas' Carnival celebrations, opens at 8 AM and lasts the entire day. There's music as well as handicrafts, plants and produce for sale, and of course food. Come early for breakfast and stay while nibbling throughout the day.

What will you find on the menu in addition to blood pudding and kallaloo?

For starters, look for spicy fried chicken legs and Johnny cakes, delicious ovals of fried bread-like dough. Stewed salted codfish is served with ribsticking dumplings. There's also stewed mutton, conch pressure cooked until tender and stewed in an onion-butter sauce, and boiled fish - often whole fish or fish heads with the eyes - served with 'fungi', a cornmeal polenta-like side with flecks of fresh green okra. Crab, the sweet meat extracted from those spindly legged land crabs you see scurrying in the mangroves behind the beach, is boiled up and tossed with rice or tucked back into its shell and topped with herbs, spices, breadcrumbs and cheese. Order a 'pate' if finger foods are more to your liking. A pate is a sandwich-size triangle of dough that is filled with a savory stuffing such as salted fish, ground beef, chicken, conch and even just vegetables and then deep-fat fried.

Seek out the more unusual delicacies for a real taste adventure. Dishes you won't find in restaurants here throughout the year include 'dove' or baked and corned pork, stewed spiny lobster, pigtail souse, and whelks and rice. The whelk, considered a real delicacy, is a large saltwater snail. It's pressure cooked until soft and sizzled up in a pan of garlic butter before being tossed into seasoned white rice. Yum!

St. Thomians love their soups. No matter that the temperatures will be in the high 80's, the selection of soups - which are more of thick, rich, hearty stews - will be ample enough to offer something for everyone. For example, there's red bean soup with pig tail and dumplings; bullfoot soup and oxtail soup, both cooked in a rich broth of vegetables such as carrots, celery, onion and potatoes; fish soup and chicken soup; and even vegetarian versions of kallaloo made either with smoked turkey or a combination of seafoods like conch, fish, crab and lobster. One especially favorite soup is Goat Water. Goat meat is this thick brown stew's main ingredient. It's fiery flavor is thanks to the addition of island hot pepper sauce, while a bouquet of herbs and seasonings adds to the rich flavor. Some island men claim that Goat Water is an aphrodisiac.

Side dishes are as important as the main attraction, and can sometimes bury the entree as its common to have two to three sides on a plate. Seasoned rice and peas, fried plantain, baked macaroni and cheese, potato stuffing, and boiled sliced 'provisions' or root vegetables such as tannia, boniato, yam and cassava number among the choices. There's also coleslaw, green salads and broccoli in cheese sauce.

Finally, sip a local drink. Choices include maubi (made from the bark of the maubi tree and fermented), ginger beer, passion fruit juice, mangoade, limeade and more. It's a great way to quench your thirst and be able to say you've truly sampled St. Thomas!