Fairfield County Eats...and so do I!

I went to the Fairfield County Eats event, and hoo boy, I think I ate enough for everybody in Fairfield County.

Pictured: Everybody in Fairfield County.

I had truffle oil potato chips and pan-fried oysters with andouille cream from Ten Twenty Post Oyster Bar-Bistro, four different appetizers from Fjord Catering, seared tuna-cucumber-wasabi things from Watson's Catering, tuna tartare in a cone-type thing from David's Waterside Catering, and desserts from Sweet Lisa's Exquisite Cakes and DiMare Pastry Shop - and those are just the things I managed to take pictures of. I'm pretty sure I hit almost every food table in the room! I stayed away from the pizza and pasta because I didn't want to fill up too quickly.

Some other standouts include Napa & Co. (of course), the Hilton's own table, Brasitas (who always had a line, probably because they were serving sangria!), The Ginger Man and Bull's Head Market, who have an amazing 5-year-old smoked gouda that's now my favorite cheese!

The other sweet stuff of note were chocolate fondue from The Melting Pot and a homemade confection called White Chocolate Trash, which consists of pretzels, peanuts and Chex covered in white chocolate.

They also had wine, vodka, rum, a silent auction, and the youngest jazz-blues band I've ever seen! The young lady singer (not in the picture) did a great rendition of one of my favorite songs, "The Girl from Ipanema."

After stuffing my face with mouth-watering morsels and tasty tidbits, I finally had to sloth my way out the door and back towards the parking garage. Lo and behold, what do I see on the way out? GOODIE BAGS!! At Reinventing Stamford, I got an i-Shop discount card, and now this! My wife and I each got a reusable Shop-Rite shopping bag full of cool stuff: a brochure of Shop-Rite's cooking classes; a food safety guide; a Save the Date for The 4th Annual Connoisseur's Dinner to benefit The Food Bank; a DVD from The Food Bank about their mission; and the piece de resistance: chocolate.

It starts with a packet of cocoa for making hot chocolate. Underneath that is The Chocolate Tasting Club Classic Selection.


This chocolate nirvana contains nine different chocolates, some of which I've shot in digital macro to show how incredible they look. It even comes with a scorecard so you can share with the Club which were your favorites.

Wow...fine food, dessert, and a take-home box of chocolates, and it was all for a good cause. It was great to see so many people and businesses come together to help a wonderful organization like The Food Bank.

Now I'm off to bed, where I'll probably dream of floating on a chocolate raft down a fondue river...