Foodbuzz Festival: Dinner & Awards Ceremony

Wow, oh, wow. What a night!!! My brain is still spinning!

Tonight?s dinner was put on by Outstanding In The Field and was held in the Greenleaf produce warehouse.

The Greenleaf produce warehouse was such a cool setting for a foodie dinner!

The dinner tables extended all around the warehouse.

Due to the water bottle mishap in my purse, I ended up carrying around my electronics in a plastic bag for most of the night. What a dork!

Shannon and me!

New blog friends!

One of the passed apps during the cocktail house was a crostini with tuna puree.

Cocktail hour in the warehouse was happening!

Our place settings consisted of mismatched plates, handmade bamboo chopsticks, and customized menus. So neat!

The meal started with a light appetizer of marinated veggies.

Bloggers!

Then we were served a soup of mushroom dashi, maitake, shimeji, enoki mushrooms.

Next was Udon, grilled Monterey calamari in a browned butter ponzu reduction, cucumber, kaiware, frisée and yellow pear tomato with chojang and sesame vinaigrette.

We had fun with the old school seltzer bottle!

The main course was salmon with garlic and curry.

And a creamy mushroom risotto with koshihikari rice and crispy maitake mushrooms. So delish!

And more wine.

The roasted brussels sprouts with ponzu fried garlic, guanciale, and bonito fakes was out of this world!!! It was easily the best dish of the night!

I ate 2 servings.

There was also soy braised beef cheeks and oxtails served with baby carrots and fingerling potatoes.

The beef was incredible!! It was sooooo tender!

For dessert, we had Koshihikari rice pudding with cookie crumble and warren pears on top. It was good, but a tad on the bland side.

After dinner, it was time for the Foodbuzz Blog Awards.

As you probably know, I received nominations in 3 categories:

Somehow, I won all 3 categories!!!! Crazy, yet cool!

I am totally floored and honored! Thank you, readers and Foodbuzz! What an amazing night for Carrots ‘N’ Cake!

My blogger friends also won awards: Jenna won “Blogger most likely to have a cooking show,? Kath won “Best Food Blog,” and Caitlin won “Best Blogger Humanitarian Effort.” It was so cool!!!

Once back at the hotel, a bunch of us gathered at the hotel bar and celebrated with a cocktail and dessert. We shared the chocolate torte, which was absolutely divine! I loved the strong, fresh mint flavor!

I also celebrated with a Grey Goose dirty martini.

Kath suggested an early morning run tomorrow, so I only drank about half of my martini. There’s no way I want to run hungover in the morning. Ick.

I can barely keep my eyes open and I have another fun-filled day planned for tomorrow.

I still can’t believe that I won 3 Foodbuzz Awards! Ahhh! What an honor! I’m heading to bed with the biggest smile on my face ever!

G’night!