Monday, November 2, 2009

FC Nibble Part 1 – Field trip to the Martha’s Vineyard Annual Food and Wine Festival

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So – this food clubber went on a wonderful epicurious excursion to the lovely Martha’s Vineyard for their annual Food and Wine Festival! We (my family and I) had tickets for the Grand Tasting and started off with a yummy cocktail made with St. Germain liqueur – a love-er-ly French bevvy made from Elderflower. They served it over ice and mixed with sparkling wine, sparkling water and a twist of lemon (NOTE: we found out later – it tastes better sans the sparkling water – just double the sparkling white wine or champagne and it’s delish!). It was heavenly…the perfect palette primer!

We then moved on to pork belly sliders with freshly popped popcorn. This was made by Levon Wallace the chef from our hotel – the Harborview Inn. His secret was popping it in DUCK FAT (I know!!!) with sugar, honey powder (we didn’t know that existed either) and vanilla salt! Pam (my brother’s girlfriend and trusted foodie friend) absolutely LOVED the filet mignon au poivre sammy – but they were a little too peppery for my taste. Then – to satisfy the sweet tooth – we moved on to the mini-pumpkin whoopie-pies – little bites of moist-autumn-creamy goodness (my brother Kevin had like 12 of them…).

Now – the wine. We tried a bunch – and I would be lying if I said I remembered them (all) – ha or any of them by name. But I will say that I tried a really interesting white Châteauneuf-du-Pape (I had never even heard of the white version!). It was something I would like to explore beyond the nominal “sip” we tried… There was also some very yummy Oregon wines (I am in love with Willamette pinot noir ever since a trip to Oregon in 2007).

I also walked up to a table (this is well into the tasting - after a quite a few “sips” of wine) and said – “I want to try this wine because I like the label” and he was like – “great – that’s a photo rendering of my grandmother!” Now I don’t know if this guy was BSing me or not – but he said he produced a limited quantity from some Napa Valley grapes. Either way – I loved the label - - the wine…not so much.... But I was happy he didn’t slap me for being so shallow!

All in all – fun way to spend a rainy afternoon in the Vineyard! More on the rest of the trip (and food of course) later!