EDMONDS — Niko Pishue of Everett walked his alien puppet on strings through the dirt on the Civic Center Playfield on Friday at Taste of Edmonds.

The 5-year-old tried to think of a name for his new toy but couldn’t come up with one that he liked enough for the green alien dressed in sunglasses, a silver cape and silver shoes.

Niko wasn’t distracted by the many food choices all around him. His lips were blue from eating a sno cone. His mother, Angie Pishue, said her family had tried lots of food including corndogs, pirosky, cheeseburgers, Thai food and a big bag of caramel corn.

“We come every year.” Pishue said. “It’s all about the kids. We love the things for them to do.”

The 28th annual Taste of Edmonds opened at 11 a.m. Friday at Bell Street and the Civic Center Playfield between 6th and 7th avenues.The event runs from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. today and from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday and offers kid’s activities, live musical entertainment, vendor booths and various food selections.

James Gall of Gold Bar pointed in the direction of the food booths from the Kids Zone where his children, Ian, 3, and Jamie, 5, were making hats out of newspapers and feathers.

“I came here when I was 16 or 17, back when it first started and it was just a strip,” he said. “It’s really grown. I like it better than the Bite of Seattle. It’s not so crowded and it’s more family oriented here.”

A Taste of Edmonds visitor can stroll by more than 30 food booths, finding elephant ears and garlic fries, Vietnamese noodles and Australian dishes to suit their palate at this year’s event.

Food recommendations also are easy to come by.

“Somebody just came around with a sample of blackened salmon and I had a sample of the falafel. That is very, very good,” said Susan Staschowiak of Everett.

She recommended the popcorn with truffle oil at Epulo Bistro’s booth.

The lemon pepper steak and the plucked and headless chicken were equally popular at Outback Jack’s Australian Road Kill Grill on Friday, according to Rebecca Williams, who was working at the food booth.

“People like the fact that (the chicken) is plucked and headless,” she said.

Discovering his Lotto ticket wasn’t a winner at the Washington State Lottery booth was the only complaint George Nichols of Edmonds had as he sat in the shade and watched a classical jazz guitar perfomance by Scott Lindenmuth on the Taste’s main stage. Sue Henriksen of Edmonds sat beside him.

“We wait for our blackened salmon each year and usually there’s some good entertainment,” she said.

Carly Svetich, 13, and Sammy Lange, 12, of Seattle, were visiting the Taste of Edmonds for the first time. They burned calories by putting on Velcro suits, bouncing up and down and jumping onto an inflatable Velcro-covered wall.

Although the suits were hot, they both agreed they wouldn’t hesitate to try the game again.

“When you bounce up on it you have to really push yourself off,” Lange said.

Amy Daybert: 425-339-3491; adaybert@heraldnet.com.