Chow Down Atlanta

So I’m late in the game, I know. But here’s what went down anyway. Last Saturday, I circled Hwy 52 for 30 minutes trekked up to Dahlonega to join my homies Eat It Atlanta, Savory Exposure, and Foodie Buddha on a food/wine conclave hosted by Montaluce Winery. In the interest of full disclosure, Montaluce provided a delectable 5-course luncheon plus wine pairings and wine tastings to us bloggers at no charge.

my stash

I’m such a lightweight when in comes to alcohol (I hardly ever drink) that I think I was drunk (and beet red) after 5 sips of wine (you can ask Jimmy– he was making fun of me!) But I found something that I really liked and bought 3 bottles for my dad — 2 risatas and a viognier — smooth, and a tad sweet.

I really had such a great time and met so many nice people. And I can’t wait to go back. Shout out to the nice people:

@montalucewine
@hogballs
@winetonite
@biskuitATL
@EatBuHi
@BlackTieBBQ
@frenchtart
@leoghann
@hoplessfoodie
@suburbanwino

More pictures here.

[Side note: I was supposed to go to Conyers in the evening for a birthday party but all the eating and wine followed by a big Shoya dinner did me in. To Dylan: Happy, happy birthday. Sorry to miss your party.]

Montaluce Winery & Estates
501 Hightower Church Road
Dahlonega, GA 30533
Phone: 706.867.4060
Fax: 706.482.0120
Email: info@montaluce.com

Our parents made us go to the BGE cooking demo last week. We grew up on BGEs. Our parents (who have 4 at home in varying sizes) are hard-core fans so we are forced to go to almost every BGE event. The cooking demo happens at the mother ship in Tucker every Thursday evening at 5:45PM. General Manager Bobby Cresap, a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu, heads up all the classes.

Although we were the youngest ones there by at least 25 years, we still had fun. It’s like being in a cult, but in a fun way. The best part? The eating part.

Check out the class schedule here. Wine, beer, soda, and bottled water, plus food cooked in the demo are all included in your registration fee.

Big Green Egg
3417 Lawrenceville Highway
Tucker, GA 30084
770-934-5300

Technorati Tags: Big Green Egg, Tucker, cooking demo

If there’s one food event you must not miss then this one is it. Every year since 1998, the makers of the Big Green Egg puts out a huge meat fest called Eggtoberfest. It is held on the 3rd weekend of October. My parents have been making us go for close to a decade now.

sample of a serving: every person gets one each

The festival kicks-off on a Friday with a catered dinner (from Bold American this year) and an open bar followed by an all day meat fest the day after. There are 350 BGEs that are fired during the event where participants outdo each other by cooking the best barbecue, pizza, breakfast fare, chili, and whatever else they can cook in a BGE (which is just about everything). You are free to take all the samples you can eat. Mind you, these samples aren’t the itty-bitty ones you usually see in festivals. These are almost full size servings and most are! There was so much steak, lamb, pork, chicken, and fish that you are literally full after just an hour. Sodas, water, and beer are included in the ticket price as well as a gift bag filled with goodies and a t-shirt.

Don’t miss it next year. Tickets go on sale sometime in August and sell out within the hour. There were over 1000 people on waitlist last year and no one ever clears. No one cleared this year either.

Pictures here.

Technorati Tags: Eggtoberfest, Big Green Egg, festivals

With this year’s change of venue, my main concern was parking. But I really didn’t have any problems snatching a free spot on Spring St., about half a block from the back entrance, which was really nice. I noticed a few new things this time and most were an improvement from last year’s event.

The new layout makes the event seem bigger as the food stalls were more scattered. This also meant there was less overcrowding especially when a line of people waiting to get their food prevented event-goers from passing through the main roads. The main cooking stage was more exposed so you can get a good view even at 50 feet away. All entrances are barricaded so there’s no way for someone to get in for free. In previous years, I saw so many people just walk through without paying the entrance fee and I’m glad they did something about it. This is my third year going to ToA and they just keep getting better and better organized.

Joli Kobe

Joli Kobe

Blue Moon Pizza

Cupcake Studio

I also noticed that participating restaurants have better food presentation and displays. Notable ones include Joli Kobe, Blue Moon Pizza, and a Chinese restaurant which I forgot the name of.

I had to keep buying more taste coupons so that I could stuff my self silly and try all the goodies from just about every restaurant. But my one splurge was this: the Cookie Studio — where I spent 10 taste coupons in one shot!

This is a fun food event so don’t miss it next year!

More pictures here.

Technorati Tags: events, Taste of Atlanta, Tech Square

Don’t let the forecast of rain hinder you from going to this year’s greatest foodie event. If you’ve been going (as I have), you know this is a fun event that revolves around food. Not only will you get to taste bites from 80+ restaurants, you’ll also get to see celebrity chefs such as Richard Blais, Carla Hall, Jay Swift, and Mary Moore to name a few. There’s also a wine seminar and cooking demo (with wine tasting) from Robert Mondavi. Hope to see you there.

For more information, click here.

When:
Saturday October 10th 11am–6pm
Sunday October 11th 11am–6pm

Where:
Tech Square in Midtown Atlanta at Spring Street and 5th Street

Cost:
General Admission Tickets including
15 taste coupons
$25 through October 9th
$30 after October 9th
$30 at Festival
VIP Tickets including
20 taste coupons $65

Highlights according to the official website:

■ Festival goers will experience good eats from
more than 80 of Atlanta’s favorite restaurants!
■ National and Local Celebrity Chefs on three
Cooking Stages
■ A Farm to Festival Village showcasing the
local sustainable movement with live cooking
demonstrations
■ A farmers market filled with locally grown
products
■ The Amica Insurance Kids Avenue with
interactive cooking demonstrations for kids
and hands on activities
■ Live music and entertainment and more!

Technorati Tags: events, Atlanta, Taste of Atlanta

Okay, friends, now’s the time to show support for one of our own. Hardy Wallace over at Dirty South Wine is in contention for a “Really Goode Job”. Let’s show our support by voting now. Click below:

Watch video.

Technorati Tags: Murphy Goode, Dirty Wine South

I’m back! Today, I had the chance to go to the Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show 09. The highlight of the day was seeing Paula Deen and sons who provided a very entertaining show sans cooking. This is one of the best food-related trade shows in the city. Lots of food merchants offering samples, the latest on cookware and kitchen gadgets, and just about anything that will make you happy in and out of the kitchen. As usual, I overspent on a lot of things: chamois kitchen rags, glass wipes, non-slip trays, and many more. Local artisans were around, too, as well as local chefs on the cooking stage. If you missed it, make sure you go next year. It’s so much fun!

More pictures here.

Technorati Tags: Paula Deen, Jamie Deen, Bobby Deen, events, Atlanta

There’s this cool wine event the whole month of November.  Dirty South Wine is challenging 15 of Atlanta’s top restaurants to prepare a wine and food pairing for under $25.  Now that is a sweet deal!

Here’s how it works, 3 chosen judges will try a restaurant’s entry.  Once the entry has been posted on the DSW site, you can go ahead and get the pairing.  Here’s the list of participating restaurants:

Holeman & Finch
Joel
ARIA
ENO
Woodfire Grill
Toulouse
VITA
Repast
La Tavola
Top FLR
VINE
Canoe
Dogwood
ONE. Midtown kitchen
ISAW (International Society of Africans in Wine)

For more details, check out Dirty South Wine.

Technorati Tags: Dirty South Wine, Riding Dirty, Atlanta, wine, events

I am laying off meat for a while.  I ate way too much meat this weekend including non-stop bingeing for 6 hours on Saturday morning courtesy of the Big Green Egg. This is a yearly event that is attended by thousands of people. The event kicks off the night before with a catered dinner for 500 guests at $25 per person. On the buffet were grilled lamb chops, pork loin, ribeye steak, grilled salmon, an assortment of salads and cheeses, veggies, and a dessert station. It also includes all you can drink beer and wine plus sodas and water in 20-ounce bottles.

The main event starts Saturday morning at 9am when tourist buses begin bussing people from a nearby parking deck. Only 1500 tickets are sold each year. This year, there were 1000 people on waitlist and no one cleared. The cost is $40 per person with all you can eat meat, fish, poultry, plus all you care to drink beer, sodas, and water. Each attendee gets a t-shirt and a goodie bag.

There were 300 brand new Big Green Egg grills that were used for this year’s event. There were 100 stalls/cooks participating. Unlike other festivals where you get taste coupons, here, you are free to eat as much as you want from all the stalls. In addition, you get 20-ounce bottles of sodas and water. And all the beer you care to drink.

BGEs never go on sale ever but these once-used grills go on sale for 10% off after the event. What’s notable about this event is that 80-percent of the attendees average in the 50+ age group. And the rest, like me, are the children of these mostly silver-haired adults who are forced by their parents to tag-along. My parents are long-time owners of BGEs so we have to tag along every year.

More pictures here.

Technorati Tags: Big Green Egg, Eggtoberfest, meat fest

Taste of Atlanta is Atlanta’s premiere food festival and event.  I was so impressed at how well organized the event is this year.  I thought last year was already fantastic but they’ve managed to make it even better.  And bigger. There were more trash cans this year, more volunteers assisting with directions and such, more people, and more restaurants. One thing I noticed is that shrimp and grits seem to be the recurring theme today. There were probably 5 or so restaurants offering their own version of shrimp and grits.

Cooking on center stage was our very own Chef Richard Blais who, not only wowed the crowd with his cooking skills (not to mention his weapon of choice: a sous vide machine), but made it a point to connect with the audience by actually getting off stage and having a one-on-one with the regular folks. To me, that was way cool. He also fed everyone! His “rb-qued beef brisket with candied apples and cauliflower dumplings” was out of this world! The brisket was so tender that we were able to eat it with a spoon (no forks available). It was so flavorful with a nice balance of sweet, mustardy, and tangy. I would love to see this dish on a menu somewhere. It was worthy of fine dining!

On the other side, cooking at the Country Store cooking stage, was Chef Tomas Vallejo of The Highland Bakery. Interesting thing about him was that he used to be John Travolta’s personal chef. Local radio and tv celebrity, Adam Murphy of Channel 46 was at hand to host the cooking shows. There’s a reason why he’s on tv and radio — he’s really good at it! (By the way, thanks to Adam, for recognizing Chow Down Atlanta during the show. That was a nice shout out.)

the youngest (and very dapper) chef of the event

Notable restaurants making an appearance for the first time this year were Bhojanic, Desta, Chef Rob’s Caribbean Cafe, Mediterranean Grill, The Feed Store, Highland Bakery, West Egg Cafe, Ikea (with their sticky buns, Cafe 458 (an endeavor of the Samaritan House of Atlanta), Sweet Auburn Bread, Asam House, Strip, Lobby at Twelve, Room at Twelve, and a few others. Here are a few more pictures:

I attended a wine tasting session sponsored by Robert Mondavi (which had a nice set-up there complete with tight security, and a cooking stage). The wines they showcased were really very good (surprisingly). They worked in conjunction with Kroger Cooking School and had a cooking show. I can’t remember the chef lady’s name but she was great and very personable. She prepared two dishes that complemented a chardonay and a pinot noir from Robert Mondavi’s Private Selection.

I had a wonderful time today. This is one event you should never miss. See you there again next year!

More pictures here.

Technorati Tags: Taste of Atlanta, Atlantic Station, Richard Blais