Merry and Bright Holiday Hotel Meals Story by Jill Gleeson When you and yours crave delicious holidays, options abound! While you might choose to prepare a festive meal and even pour some exceptional spirits at home, you might also treat yourself to a getaway to another city or dine out
Fairytales are responsible for the word “pumpkin,” which first appeared in print in the 17th century. Pumpkins served as a magical coach in nursery rhyme long before becoming a symbol for the month of October. Today, foodies enjoy pumpkins’ ability to grow in the garden, add delicious flavor to a wide range of foods, plus stand as seasonal décor from Halloween through Thanksgiving.
Food traditions, regional agriculture, local novelties, and simple good tastes are celebrated across the U.S. with countless seasonal festivals and themed parties. It’s easy to fill up your travel calendar with foodie events. To help you get started, here are a few suggestions; this is by no means a comprehensive list! These featured foodie events aren’t necessarily the best known or largest of their kind, but they all offer a variety of events and last multiple days.
“If you like oysters, then you probably love oysters,” says Dylan Block-Harley, director of operations at Walrus & Carpenter Oysters. “And if you love oysters there’s nothing better than eating them right out of the water.” But if you don’t work at the aquaculture farm in Charlestown, Rhode Island, you can’t really have that experience—unless you manage to snag a coveted spot at one of its summer farm dinners, which happen on a sandbar right in the middle of the oyster farm.
The Garagiste Wine Festival, which was named America’s Best Wine Festival by USA Today, returns to LA County on June 21 and 22, 2019, with an expanded line-up of events, including a new-to-LA Rare and Reserve kick-off party, and a seminar on the rebirth of the LA wine industry featuring Angeleno artisan wineries.This marks The Garagiste Festival: Urban Exposure’s sixth anniversary in LA County, and its first time in Glendale, at the historic Glendale Civic Auditorium. The festival features over 200 wines from 50 winemakers, including Angeleno Wine Company, Byron Blatty Wines and Cavaletti Vineyards making wine from Los Angeles County.
Crawfish season officially gets under way in early spring, and the bright red crustaceans usually remain in supply through June. The majority of crawfish in North America come from Louisiana, where rice fields are flooded in late summer to make way for the Cajun delicacy. Louisiana leads the nation in crawfish production, with crawfish farms producing more than 100 million pounds a year.
Plan a culinary getaway to the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. It’s where you can find fresh-catch shellfish and farm-fresh agricultural products, food & drink trails, festivals, farmers markets, signature dishes, and other scrumptious goodies.Whether savoring seafood by the shoreline or expanding your palate at themed festivals dedicated to local favorites, great food and original takes on classic dishes are waiting to be celebrated across the Mid-Atlantic.Here are just some of the stops to tempt foodies.
Since beginning in 2012, the World Food Championships has established itself as the premier event in the world of “Food Sport.” Contestants compete in regional events to advance to championships for the chance to share in hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money. Unlike other food competitions which specialize in specific food types like barbecue, chili or burgers, the WFC holds simultaneous competitions in ten categories to name division winners that then face off at “The Final Table” to be judged by a panel of culinary celebrities that select a final World Food Champion.
Combine engaging travel with hearty, satisfying comfort food at a chuck wagon cook-off—it’s a tasty way to experience one culinary element of the iconic American West’s cowboy/cattleman culture. Dozens of chuck wagon cooking competitions, or cook-offs, take place every year; most occur in western states though they can be found throughout the U.S. According to native Texan and amateur historian Roger Edison, the chuck wagon was invented in 1866 by Texan Charles Goodnight, a rancher trying to find a way to keep his cowboys well-fed during cattle drives that sometimes lasted several months. Goodnight rigged a sturdy army surplus wagon with a large upright wooden pantry box and a hinged door with hinged legs that could be laid flat to serve as a food preparation table. It proved to be an effective way to hold and transport barrels of bulk foodstuffs and other supplies.
Nobody obsesses over peppers like the denizens of New Mexico. Not your uncle who holds the family record for eating jalapeños. Not your buddy who’s a self-professed “chili-head” and boasts shelves lined with hot sauces with punny names in his man cave. Not that lady who just pulled a bottle of hot sauce out of her purse at the restaurant table next to yours. Nobody. First of all, in the Land of Enchantment, peppers are called “chiles.” (“Chili” is that thick spicy soup with beans that may or may not have some meat in it.)
