2010 Orlando Food & Wine Festival

Do you know what makes for a nice relaxing Sunday lunch?

A Food and Wine Festival, that’s what.

I attended last year’s festival with a couple of close friends and had a blast, but due to my insane schedule the past couple of months this year’s festival had kind of slipped through my fingers. My plan was to keep this weekend as open as possible and that meant so hard schedule and no ‘we have to go to this or I will die’ situations.

However, when Derek had suggested we head over to downtown and eat our way through the festival for lunch I couldn’t say no. I loved our casual approach to the festival and need to take this cue for future fun events that come my way.

The Orlando Food & Wine Festival was set up very similar to last year’s. You bought a ticket to get in the door and then purchase additional tickets once inside to hand over for the bites.

We purchased $30 worth and it was more than enough, we probably could have gotten away with $20 or so.

Representatives from a few dozen restaurants from Orlando area lined Robinson Street in Downtown Orlando. Truth be told I was a a little disappointed with this year’s selection. There weren’t as many small Mom & Pop places, instead there were big chains and a lot of hotel restaurants from the touristy area of Orlando I rarely travel to.

We did manage to find few hidden gems in the sea of chaos.

Primo’s ‘Build Your Own Piada’ in particular caught my eye.

They had an amazing looking spread where you could pick and choose your personal piada.

Meat: Pork Belly Cheese: Goat Feta Spread: Basil Pesto Toppings: Caponata, Onions, Mushrooms

We were fans!

The Meatball Hoagie caught our eyes next.

I knew from their twitter feed that Jeremiah’s would be in attendance today. I’m not going to lie; I raced down the strip of food tents in search of Jeremiah’s almost as soon as we arrived.

Eureka! I was secretly wishing they would have their seasonal Pumpkin Pie flavor for purchase.

They did! They did!

A-MA-ZING

Derek doesn’t like pumpkin pie ( I know, can you believe it?), so he enjoyed a strawberry ice.

That’s ok, I didn’t want to share my pumpkin anyways.

Irish Nachos from the Tilted Kilt

We killed them.

Cannoli from Stefano’s

(Getting full at this point)

Gumbo

And you’ll never guess where we ended the event at…

It was so good! A second serving was a must!

Besides Pumpkin Pie is seasonal, I need to make sure I enjoy every last bite while I can!

Overall Derek and I had a great time at the festival, but we both felt it wasn’t worth the $$ for the event. We shelled out $15 each to get in and then $30 for the food tickets, so our ‘lunch’ was $60. Also, this year’s event was not vegetarian friendly and it seemed to be lacking on vendors and variety. It was a lot of meat and bread items and I felt there was only so much of that I could take. I was really craving veggies towards the end, which could explain the double dip in the ‘pumpkin’ ice.

We continued to walk around for a bit, but left an hour and a half after arrival. I was stuffed and really wanted to check out some houses for rent in a nearby neighborhood. I found a lot of houses I loved, but none that were up for rent. Still, it’s exciting to even be looking! Like a new game or something.

I had a late dinner of leftover Butternut Squash Quinoa Salad with Arugula and a Honeycrisp Apple.

With a BBQ sauce ‘dressing’

Looks odd… tasted great!

I’m working on some fun posts for this upcoming week that I hope you’ll enjoy!

Until then you should check out my iWearYourShirt video and leave a comment. You know.. if you have the time.