It was a hot day in the city. A hot, hot day in the city.

The National Weather Service even thought so, recording a temperature of 87 degrees just as Munch and friends were leaving the air-conditioned splendor (in this heat, any air conditioning is splendid) of the Post-Gazette for an annual sampling of the Three Rivers Arts Festival fare.

Three Rivers Arts Festival runs Downtown at Gateway Center until June 22.

Walking the block to the food booths, we were already sweating. Munch, being a decisive sort and not wanting to walk another step in the heat, stopped at one of the first booths and ordered the nachos supreme with chicken ($8), a heaping mound of chips, salsa, olives, jalapenos and lettuce covered in cheddar cheese and cubes of grilled chicken.

Munch left a tip and made a hasty retreat to the nearest tent, where Munch sat at a sticky table across from some woman who seemed just as hot and did not give off a single friendly-and-want-to-chat vibe.

This year, thanks to the North Shore Tunnel project and Point State Park renovations, the festival, at least the part with the stage and the food booths, has taken on a bit of a refugee-camp feeling in its new location on Liberty Avenue between Commonwealth Place and Stanwix Street. The grass is gone, so the chairs are on dirt. The line of porta-potties is right across from the food booths.

The appreciation of the surroundings was luckily halted within minutes when Munch was joined by Laid Back Friend of Munch (LBFOM), who had gotten the chicken on a pita, which is essentially a gyro without the tasty lamb for $7 and 20 ounces of Coca Cola for $2.50.

And, while there was an empty seat at the table for LBFOM, there were none by the time we were joined by Persnickety Friend Of Munch (PFOM), forcing him to wander into the sun where the tables had a plethora of chairs and no diners.

Of course, before he fetched a chair, he handed a dripping steak fajita over to Munch to hold and then realized he had dripped some of the grease onto his pants. So, in addition to the steak fajita ($9) and the strawberry smoothie (which gave him a brain freeze for $6; would it have been cheaper without the pain?), the cost of his meal now included the dry cleaning of his pants.

The food was fine. Munch's quickly got soggy because of an overabundance of cheese and it was a bit messy (though Munch was able to spare all clothing while consuming the nachos). PFOM was in pain from the cold smoothie, but seemed to enjoy it all.

The steak fajita, after all, was made with sweet potatoes and wrapped in a tomato tortilla.

LBFOM probably liked his, but he was preoccupied with the sight over Munch's shoulder of a whole bunch of Wii Fits set up under a couple of tents. Putting a fitness game near a place that sells deep-fried veggies is more than a tad ironic.

Munch's favorite part of the meal came at the end, when Munch spotted the Soul Ice cart. Munch loves ice and Soul Ice has a good variety of sweet and sour flavors.

Munch opted for the mango ($4), which came in a biodegradable cup with a spoon made of potato resin.

The ice was refreshing and flavorful, but oddly, back at the office, we realized that the spoon smelled like kettle corn.

Either it had been packed in the same box as kettle corn, or that is its natural smell. But it was weird.

Back at the office, the talk over a bag of kettle corn that a co-worker brought in later was how much we paid for lunch -- $12 for Munch, $9.50 for LBFOM and $15 for PFOM and how, for less than $37.50 we could have gone to a restaurant, eaten at a clean table and enjoyed air conditioning.

But the joy of summer is getting to eat outside -- humidity and all.