alright so at first i was just gonna review recipes as i made them. but as you can probably see i did that only once, about three years ago. well perhaps to cater to my everchanging new ideas/hobbies i will just use this for all things food related from recipe reviews to food event recaps to product reviews or whatever else i might be forgetting right now, even if only to remind myself for future reference.
off the top of my head:
Taste of Newport - was worth it the first year we went, maybe three years ago. was not worth it the year after. i suppose we wouldn't mind paying $25 to get in on top of the 1-3$ per tasting costs if they kept true to "the taste of newport" or even the taste of newport and other surrounding cities but left out the chains like ruby's diner and weinerschnitzel or whatever mediocre crap they started to let take over the real winners like Mastro's steakhouse.
Saban Free Clinic Extravaganza for the Senses - worth it. always. we've attended the past two years and even if you only get regular admission tickets for a mere two hours of unlimited tastings of wine and gourmet food in LA and you have to stand for the whole two hours and rub elbows with most everyone there, it's totally worth it. maybe next year we will go all out and spring for the vip tickets to see what's inside the exclusive tent, and to get an extra hour to digest everything we stuff ourselves on and i will report on that. it's for a good cause and i tasted the most orgasmic lasagna from Angelini's Osteria that i've ever eaten and am willing to drive close to an hour just to get it (except on mondays because they are apparently closed on mondays which i learned the hard, traffic-filled way).
OC Cupcake Camp - benefitting a children's charity. I went this year for the first time though i believe it was their second year only far less organized than i would have expected. it was a madhouse. i went with my sister who was carrying her firstborn child in her arms and we overheard someone say, "don't push her, she has a baby" as if that was the only reason a sane person could have not to elbow her in the face for some partially stale not very impressive cupcakes that you likely only paid half price for if you got one of the over-sold groupons for tickets. next year i plan to donate some of my own and i will show them what's what. but it's for charity and i like frosting so i will still probably attend even if i don't donate cupcakes. get there half an hour early because each two-hour session ran out of cupcakes about 20 minutes after the doors opened.
LA Chocolate Salon - unlimited tastings of chocolate, confections, spirits, and wine! another somewhat over-sold and poorly constructed event with lines that wrapped around the room and around tables and people cutting lines and wines running out, etc. this one is a maybe re-attend because it's all the way up at the pasadena convention center so if they don't sell discounted tickets on bloomspot like they did this year it would sway me to go again a little more because i'd hope for less attendees. they had a tequila booth though that was fantastic and david and i had about a shot each and probably split a whole bottle of The Chocolate Shop wine between us and i only felt queasy in line at the second to last booth (approx 25 booths total). another good wine was the black muscat one from the company who makes Essencia. I will have to review the chocolatiers at a later time when i am slightly more (or less) sober. Next time we know to bring around a bag of meat to snack on in line to counteract all the diabetes we were asking for, instead of waddling across the street afterwards to eat a crumbly overly mustarded burger at Island's. UPDATE! i just found the bag of cards and pamphlets (and eek, some chocolates) and here is the tequila that i fell in love with: Alquimia -- i loved the reposado the best but the blanco was really good too. some of the chocolatiers that i had cards for: Jer's Chocolates; Lamourettechocolate.com; Mignonchocolate.com; Cielchocolatier.com; Martichocolatt.com; Amanochocolate.com;
Starbucks' salted caramel mocha frappachino - disgusting. tasted like slightly smoky dirty water. and watered down dirty water at that. ugh.
The Silver Trumpet - discovered this during Costa Mesa Restaurant Week. can't remember exactly what i had for lunch but it goes something like this: roast chicken breast with wilted spinach and truffled broth, i think a goat cheese and grilled peach with prosciutto salad as an appetizer, some sort of "kettle corn ice cream" for dessert. whatever i missed was still delicious, i'm sure. amazing, anyway, and we will certainly be back.
Trader Joes' dark chocolate covered peanut butter wafer cookies - the chocolate is too chalky and there is either not enough peanut butter itself or the peanut butter is not peanut buttery enough. it is like chalky wafer cookies with a slight aftertaste of peanut butter. boo.
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