FOOD FEST

Sunday Afternoon

Yeah, I am just now getting up this afternoon's post. It has been QUITE the day! If you haven't read this morning's post, do that first. It will explain all about the event Dig IN that Leah and I attended today. Out of 34 restaurants featuring food there, we made it to 13....not even half! But man it felt like a ton. I'll let the pictures tell the stories. Keep in mind that these are pretty small little samples, NOT a full dish!!

White River State Park packed to the brim

 This dish was from the restaurant that Grant (Leah's husband) works at! Duck prosciutto with honey ricotta and persimmon peach gastrique.

 Strawberry and banana soup with a sugar cookie piece on top. My favorite dish of the day!! Not so much a soup as a smoothie really.

 Sun King braised duck fried pie, blueberry bbq sauce and charred sweet corn salad.

 Fermented garden kraut with Capriole Farms Old Kentucky Tomme. LEAST favorite dish of the day, smelly!

 We also got free wine and beer tastings. Of course you know I didn't have any beer, but I did have 4 (I believe) tastings throughout the day. We could have had much more but it was so hot that all we wanted was water! I probably drank 4 bottles of the good stuff today.

 Goat and Indiana ambrosia. Second favorite dish of the day! It was from The Local, that restaurant in Carmel that Zach and I love so much. Not sure what ambrosia is? Don't feel bad, I didn't know either. Apparently it's a marshmallow salad (normally citrusy, this one had orange) and was a crazy good complement to this spicy goat. I know it sound so weird but this dish was awesome!!

 Cantaloupe and cucumber salad with basil infused creme fraiche and watercress pistou. Though this was not like a salad but a cool soup and wasn't great. The flavors just didn't marry that well.

 Carolina pulled pork on creamy vegetable salad. Leah and I actually got the LAST TWO bowls that had pork! They ran out and we were the very last people to receive the meat, everyone else just got the salad part. And we were glad because it was gooood pork!

 House-made ricotta with peach and white corn puree finished with Twisted Sistaz popcorn. You know how sometimes with food people just try too hard? This was trying to hard. The popcorn was savory and good but the puree was a big fail. Also it just made the popcorn soggy... You know I don't like soggy stuff (ahem* girl who won't eat milk on her cereal talking here!)

Bison bratwurst with relishe summer salad and hand-crafted mustard. This was shared with Leah, we were getting pretty full at this point!

 Wagyu tongue & cheek tacos. Don't be afraid of the words "tongue" and "cheek"! It tasted like pork or chicken and was incredible! I only ate half because I was getting so full, but still enjoyed the bites I took. What a "tongue in cheek" name for such a dish ;)

 Caramel, nougat and pate de fruit candy

 Potato, greens and goat cheese quesadilla. This one sounded so appealing to me but I only had two bites. Not sure if it was not that great or I was just getting too full, but this was not my favorite.

At the very end of the day we stopped by the artisan tents at the front and I had an unphotographed teeny piece of brittle, some kind of amazing flame cooked marshmallow and a baby frosted wine cake. It was like a bite size cupcake that was made with a mix + wine. Crazy concept but super good! Hope they come to my winery, Tonne!

It was a super hot day and we were sweating like crazy and we didn't even get to half the restaurants featured, but it was still so much fun! We had a great time and got to eat so much good food. Only complaint? My commemorative wine glass is the EXACT same as last years! Bummer. Maybe next year...