The Share Our Strength Taste of the Nation event was fantastic. As I imagined, our stomachs weren't big enough to hold all the offerings from each participating restaurant/chef. Titty Vortex 1 and I (the other half of the Vortex) were so excited we didn't know where to start. It didn't take long for us to get our rhythm; eat, comment on food, take a swig of wine & move on to the next booth.
Some of our favorites were:
Boa Steakhouse - 12 hour smoked kobe brisket on a King's Hawaiian sweet roll
Water Grill - oyster on the half shell
Sona - braised pork belly with smoked eggplant puree & celery root shiso salad
La Cachette - divine chocolate cake
Sushi Roku - tuna carpaccio with soy truffle vinaigrette & spicy tuna hand roll
My absolute favorite was the braised pork belly. So tender. So fatty.
Titty Vortex 1's favorite was the smoked kobe brisket. That was also nice & fatty. We had two of those.
After maybe 10-12 booths, we had to head to the VIP lounge and take a break. But once we got there we realized there was even more food! Seared scallops, purple artichoke hearts, caviar, champagne... It was non-stop food! (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
We waddled out towards the cookoff area after we gave our stomachs some rest. The cookoff was hosted by Kirk Cameron! He looks good. I remember my junior high crush on him. His wife & six kids were also in attendance. They're a cute family.
Iron Chef Cat Cora, Evan Kleinman (KCRW), Jonathan something (food critic) and some other guy I didn't recognize were the judges. Antonia from Top Chef made duck spring rolls with a light vinaigrette for the competition. She didn't win. And she wouldn't tell us if she won Top Chef. We got some good pictures & you can view them here.
Now that we're experienced, Titty Vortex 1 and I have our game plan for next year so that we can stuff even more food down our throats than we did this year. =)
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