Taste of the Nation - A Little Bit About a Lot of Things A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

April 21, 2013 Taste of the Nation

Thursday night I headed over to the seaport to go to the Taste the Nation event. Open Table was offering discount admission to the event and Uber was offering 15% off rides to existing members. Good deal all around, the proceeds go to a great cause, and part of the ticket price is tax deductible. They put out the following statement on their website:

“Like you, we are still trying to make sense of Monday’s events, when a celebration of unity and strength ended in senseless tragedy. But Boston is a town known for our resilience, humanity and unflagging spirit. It is for this reason that Share Our Strength has decided to move forward with Thursday’s Taste of the Nation Boston event.

As longtime supporters of Share Our Strength, we’re proud to let you know proceeds from this event will continue to fund Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign to end childhood hunger in the United States, including the beneficiaries Cooking Matters Massachusetts, Greater Boston Food Bank, and Project Bread.

Share Our Strength will also be making a donation to Boston Medical Center to support their efforts in the aftermath of yesterday’s tragedy.”

The event started at 6 for VIP’s and 7 for general admission. It was a chilly night and we waited outside until it was 7 on the dot.

They had some really great items in the silent auction.

Over 40 restaurants participated in the event. They also had great beverage participation and even local food trucks came out to participate. Cavit was sampling two pino grigios, chardonnay and a moscato. The moscato was light and quite sweet, they say it has hints of apricot and white peach.

Tito’s vodka was passing out drinks. It is distilled in Texas and gluten free.

Old Ipswich Rum was dishing out mojitos and another mixed drink (I can’t remember what it was, but it was pink and sweet). The two guys at the booth were hilarious! Loved their product, maybe a little too much. You can buy their rum here:

Boston- Charles St. Liquors (143 Charles St.); Wine Emporium (607 Tremont St.); Liquor Land (1033 Mass Ave) Brighton- Reservoir Wine and Spirits Brookline-Bay State Foods (1420 Beacon St.)

I have a lot of respect for Joanne Chang. I see her frequently at the Back Bay Flour behind the counter and it was nice to see her manning the booth. She is charming as well as super talented. Flour was putting out a strawberry rhubarb shortcake – delicious. It had just the right amount of sweetness.

And Ming Tsai was at the Blue Ginger table. Looking forward to trying his newest place, Blue Dragon.

Legal Harborside did a deconstructed lobster bake with seaweed sprinkles. It was quite tasty, it was a little smokey, and tasted more like a chowder than a lobster bake.

The presentation of most of the samples was impressive. It was nice to see the chefs taking care when making up the samples.

Pretty sure that these were our favorite. Del Frisco’s tenderlion sliders, yum. The meat was really tender, they carved them to order. The Harpooon BBQ sauce gave the slider just a hint of sweetness – we could have just eaten these all night.

The Tip Tap Room‘s Brian Poe was charming as usual, and they offered grilled asparagus with carrot ginger vinaigrette, goat cheese and fried “poe-sciutto”. Find the Tip Tap Room at 138 Cambridge Street. Try Estelle’s, which he co-owns, for southern cuisine.

A Tavola is a farm to table Italian restaurant I had never heard of, probably because they are in Winchester and I’m not out that way too often. This tasty bite made me think about heading out there to try dinner.

Some really tasty gnocchi.

Summed out we didn’t see Jodi at the Rialto station.

The Taco Truck was out with smiles and jokes, even though it was pretty darn cold out. We hit the trucks at the beginning of the night, thinking that it was only going to get colder as the night went on. Smart thinking on our part!

Full size taco, and it didn’t disappoint!

Bon Me was out there sampling their sandwiches.

Boston Super Dog was handing out all beef dogs.

One of my favorite food trucks, Mei Mei Street Kitchen was handing out caramelized onion bread pudding. YUM!!! Clear Flour baguette, Cabot cheddar, Rhody Farms cream, Wishing Stone Farm arugula aioli….AMAZING!