If you haven't checked out Matt Bellassai from BuzzFeed, please do yourself a favor and check out this video. Matt produces a new video every Wednesday called "Whine About It!". He guzzles down a huge glass of wine, and then proceeds to whine about what he hates that week. This past week he whined about the worst people at every restaurant. I must say he is spot on regarding most of these descriptions of people. Check him out. He's hilarious!
Today is the start of the Groupon Bite of Seattle at Seattle Center! Three full days of great food, wine, beer, food demos and entertainment. This is the perfect opportunity to sample food from some of your favorite food vendors, or try out something new. Each day has a full schedule of events for the whole family! Check out their website for a listing of all the vendors and events.
Groupon Bite of Seattle Seattle Center, 305 Harrison Street, Seattle, WA 98109 Cost: Free Admission Hours: Friday & Saturday 11am - 9pm Sunday 11am - 8pm
Friday night The Pike Place Market Foundation hosted the Sunset Supper at Pike Place Market. It is one of the largest events of the year to raise money for the Market Foundation. The Sunset Supper featured some of the best Chefs, restaurants, wineries, distilleries and breweries the Seattle area has to offer! It doesn't get any better in Seattle than savoring great food and drinks throughout a warm, summer evening at one of the city's most popular landmarks!
Even before the event started, there was already a long line of people waiting to enter the Market so they could start enjoying the great food and drinks that awaited them.
The Sunset Supper featured a lot of great Chefs including Seattle's own Thierry Rautureau, The Chef in the Hat! Thierry is well-known for his two popular restaurants, Luc and Loulay. Thierry has appeared on Bravo's "Top Chef Masters", and is also the co-host of "Seattle Kitchen" on KIRO Radio. Thierry is one of my favorite Chefs. He always takes delight in preparing delicious food he knows people will enjoy.
Throughout the evening, I had the pleasure of sampling a lot of great food, wines and liquor. Below is a slide show of some of the amazing food and drinks offered by the vendors at the Sunset Supper.
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From the start of the event, the Market was full of energy with attendees sampling the delicious offerings from all the vendors.
Not only was everyone treated to great food and drinks, but the live entertainment was great too! The band played through the evening entertaining the crowd as they danced through the night.
The Sunset Supper at Pike Place Market would not be complete without a beautiful sunset! Earlier in the day, it almost looked as if the weather would not cooperate, but it turned out to be a beautiful evening.
Future expansion plans for Pike Place Market
Proceeds from the Sunset Support go to The Pike Place Market Foundation, which is the heart of the Market. The Foundation helps the Market we all love remain a thriving, caring community. The Foundation was established in 1982. It is a non-profit organization which supports housing and services for low-income neighbors. They provide a food bank to feed the hungry; a preschool available to low-income families; a medical clinic offering care for homeless, low-income, and elderly clients; and Heritage House that offers assisted living to seniors.
The Market is planning to expand Westward! The viaduct will be coming down soon, and the Market will be expanding West to offer space for more vendors and access to the waterfront. This is a very ambitious project, but the benefits to the Market, downtown and the waterfront will be huge. The Waterfront Entrance to Pike Place Market will expand upon the heart of what The Market Foundation does in the community. You can help the Market realize its dream by making a donation today!
Even Rachel the Piggy Bank was all dressed up for the Sunset Supper!
The Sunset Supper at Pike Place Market was truly a great evening of food, drinks and entertainment. The event allowed some of the best Chefs, restaurants, wineries, distilleries and breweries to highlight what they have to offer. It was also a great event to raise awareness of The Market Foundation and what it does to keep the Market a thriving and caring community. This was by far the best food event I have attended this year, and I look forward to attending next year! Be sure to check out The Market Foundation's website to get the latest news on their future events, and to learn more about what the Market has to offer.
Tomorrow is Madison Valley's 3rd Annual Bastille Bash! This year's event will be bigger than ever! The event will take place on East Madison Street from 27th to 30th Avenue and down 29th off the main street. The event is from 3:00 to 8:00pm with plenty of events scheduled. Admission is free and food and drink tickets will be available to purchase at the event. Food and drink tickets are limited, so it is recommended to purchase tickets ahead of time at Brown Paper Tickets.
Some of the event highlights include:
- French inspired food from area restaurants
- Northwest and French wine tastings
- Live music and entertainment
- Bastille week specials and a one-day sidewalk sale
- Giveaways from Madison Valley businesses
- Art classes for kids
Come dive into French culture at the Madison Valley Bastille Bash!
This weekend is the nation's largest single-region wine and food event, Taste Washington! This event features over 225 wineries and over 60 restaurants from all over the state. Taste Washington offers the best experience to sample great food and wine all in one place. Two days filled with the best wine and food Washington has to offer! Check out the event's website for all of the participating wineries and restaurants.
March is Washington State Wine Month! It is an annual celebration of Washington State's wines. Throughout the month, participating restaurants, wine shops, winery tasting rooms and hotels will be offering wine promotions. Check out the calendar of events at the Washington State Wine Commission's website.
Washington State Wine Facts
- Ranked the 2nd largest premium wine producer in the U.S.
- Washington State has over 750 wineries.
- Washington State has over 350 grape growers.
- Over 30 varieties of wine are produced in Washington State.
I'm a huge fan of the Dave Matthews Band. They just recently announced the release date of their next studio album, "Away From the World". It's due out September 11th., so I figured I would celebrate this announcement by featuring The Dreaming Tree wines. DMB fans will know that The Dreaming Tree is the name of one of DMB's awesome songs.
Dave Matthews teamed up with Steve Reeder to create The Dreaming Tree wines. Steve Reeder is a veteran winemaker from Sonoma. Dave Matthews has a passion for wine as strong as his passion for music. Dave already owns the Blenheim Vineyard in Virginia that he purchased back in 2000, but when he decided to try his hand in California wine country, he knew Steve was the man to team up with to make The Dreaming Tree wines.
The wines offered are a Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and a Red Blend called Crush. I personally have tried both the Cabernet Sauvignon and Crush. I have yet to try the Chardonnay. My favorite is the Crush Red Blend. I like wine that has a nice, smooth taste, and Crush is nice and smooth. The Cabernet Sauvignon has a little heavier, stronger, full-bodied taste. I'm pretty sure The Dreaming Tree wines will be the wine of choice when camping out at The Gorge over LaborDave weekend, as well as plenty of beer. :-) Grab a bottle and try it for yourself!
[Photo: Chow Down Seattle]
[Photo: Chow Down Seattle]
The sustainably grown corks have some of the lyrics from The Dreaming Tree printed on them.
Taste Washington is just around the corner! Saturday, March 31st and Sunday, April 1st is Seattle's wine and food weekend. Over 200 Washington Wineries and some of the region's top restaurants will be showcasing their wine and food. The event takes place at CenturyLink Field Event Center.
Wine & Dine on the Kirkland waterfront. Sample some of Washington's finest food and wine. Also featured at the event is some of the best art the Northwest has to offer. 17 Washington wineries and some of the best restaurants in the Northwest are featured. Also check out the grill off competition and grilling demostrations. This event benefits the Hope Heart Institute.
Kirkland Uncorked
25 Lakeshore Plaza
Marina Park, Kirkland, WA
July 16-18, 2010
Friday 5 p.m. - 10 p.m.
Saturday 1 p.m. - 10 p.m.
Sunday 1 p.m. - 6 p.m.
Admission
$25 General Admission at the Door, a commemorative glass and 10 tasting tokens
Tonight my boyfriend surprised me with an amazing Pork Tenderloin dinner. Pork Tenderloin is one of my favorite meals. Below is a picture of the Tenderloin and peppers after coming out of the oven.
The Tenderloin was seared on both sides with some paprika and mesquite seasoning and then placed in the oven to cook through fully.
Here is a picture of the Pork Tenderloin plated with the peppers, rosemary roasted potatoes and steamed broccoli. The dinner was delicious. Everything tasted so great.
We had some Dunham Cellars Three Legged Red wine with our Pork Tenderloin. This was my first time tasting this wine and it was very good. It was the perfect wine for this great meal. Here is a description of the wine from the Dunham Cellars website. Tasting Notes: Each year, Dunham Cellars blends a portion of its wines into this red table wine. Using fruit from some of Washington’s finest vineyards and using the same barrels in which our finest Cabernet, Merlots and Syrahs are aged, we are able to maintain the consistent high quality of our top wine, as well as create a great everyday wine that is price-friendly.
I was invited by some friends to go to dinner at Kurrent Restaurant & Bar. I was actually surprised that they have a full menu. I've only known Kurrent as a bar, not a restaurant. I also learned that they just opened their sushi bar.
I started my dinner with the Field of Greens salad. This is made up of some mixed greens, diced tomatoes and cucumber, and it's topped off with shallot vinaigrette and toasted almonds. This salad was very good. What I liked most was the fact that the almonds were crushed and sprinkled over the salad rather than being served whole. It gave the salad a nice crunch.
For my main course I went with the Cold Smoked Pork Tenderloin. The tenderloin was accompanied with Asian pear slaw, sour cream red potato mashed and some garlic spinach. The pork tenderloin was good, although I thought it would have a little more flavor. The mashed sour cream red potato was pretty good, although they were a little cold when served. The Asian pear slaw was something I had never tried before and it was pretty good.
The wine we had with dinner was a Sonoma Chardonnay. This was a nice light wine that went very well with our dinner.
For dessert we tried the chocolate banana spring roll and the cherry creme brulee. Both of these desserts were firsts for me. The chocolate spring roll was interesting. It has a unique texture, but if you're a chocolate lover then you'll definitely like it. The cherry creme brulee was pretty tasty too.
With dessert we enjoyed a cup of Caffe Vita coffee. It seems that almost every restaurant in Seattle serves Caffe Vita coffee. I do like their cups!
