Rick Nichols, veteran award-winning food columnist at The Philadelphia Inquirer, opens the official beginning of the First Person Festival with Edible World: East Passyunk. He will take a few intrepid, hungry souls on a tasting tour of the ever-diversifying “restaurant row” of East Passyunk. That’s the diagonal South Philadelphia street as it runs between Broad and South Streets. Once an Indian trail, it became a commercial street in George Washington’s time. During the 19th century it became increasingly Italian, and is still very much so, but now with Mexican, Cambodian, and Ecuadorian influences–and more. Rick and the group will stop and eat at Le Virtu, sample some Cambodian-Parisian treats elsewhere, and see and taste several other gastronomic highlights.

It’s a storied street, and Rick Nichols focuses on how the current scene overlays the past, enriching and complicating East Passyunk’s identity. He will weave this story in with a walking tour of some of his favorite spots along “The Avenue,” several of which will be revealed only as part of the tour. If you read The Inquirer, (of course you do!), you’re familiar with his interest in all sorts of cuisine and the people who create it. You can learn a lot about him by checking out his own story of his kitchen.

Bring your curiosity and your appetite!

Other food-related events at this year’s Festival are First Taste Preview Dinner, Trail of Crumbs, Swallow Your Pride, Mural Arts Tour, and Crazy Sexy Cancer.