Back in July, downtown Oak Park magically transformed into the village of Hogsmeade to celebrate the release of the final Harry Potter book. It was truly a spectacle to behold — kids decked out in black robes accessorized with scarlet and gold Gryffindor scarves, live human (er, wizard) chess in the park, stands selling velvet witches’ hats and handcrafted wooden wands, etc. But the best part of the event was the food. Almost every restaurant downtown offered Harry Potter-themed items from the humorously creepy (Troll Toenail Nachos) to just plain lame (Dumbledore pot stickers — huh?!). Several restaurants and outdoor food stands brewed their own renditions of butterbeer; from what I gathered, most were made of cream soda, none had any alcohol content, and all were described as “really sweet”. The only one I sampled was Winberie’s. Theirs was a mixture of cream soda and butterscotch syrup; it was cloyingly sweet and had an unappetizing color of milky chicken broth. I decided to pass on the other vendors’ butterbeers.

My favorite Potter-themed foods were sweets: Professor Slughorn’s chocolate-dipped crystallized pineapple from the stand shown above, and Honeydukes’ (aka Madly Pop’n) Every Flavor Popcorn. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to try the pumpkin juice at Marion St. Cheese Market — I wanted to know whether it was really pumpkin juice or an orange beverage with some sort of flavoring. And speaking of weird drinks, I never did learn what was in the mysterious “Amber Liquid” available at Moveable Gourmet.

Kudos to the most original offering of the day from Great Hogwarts (Harvest) Bread Company: donate a new pair of socks to free a house elf and receive a coupon for a free loaf of bread. Hermione would be very pleased.