a foodie's paradise

Last night I did perhaps one of the coolest things I've done in DC. March of Dimes had a swanky event called the Chefs' Signature Gala in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington DC. My friend Megan was an intern for the March of Dimes last year and she was helping out with the event this year too. She recruited me and a bunch of other people to help out. All I did was stand at the bottom of a staircase for about 30 minutes and say hello to people as they walked passed (and stared at celebrities) and then I was let loose in the ballroom and outside hallway which were FULL of chefs from many resturants in the DC area. There were dozens and dozens of chef stations and they all served samples from their menu. I went CRAZY!

Here's an idea of the types of things I got to sample. (a sample was actually fairly large ~5 bites or so)

• puff pastry with morrell mushroom sauce
• Grouper with a walnut crust, mashed potatoes, and sauce, *** 2nd fav
  
• endive salad
• Wild boar with creamy polenta
• butternut squash soup
• chips and fresh guac
• beef and pureed carrot
• sausage and beans
• meatball and creamy polenta
• crabcake and tartar sauce *** 3rd fav
  
• bacon biscuit
• dehydrated blue cheese and walnut popcorn
• lamb and gnocci
• chestnut soup and pork*** my fav!
  
• pork and bread pudding
• beef and mashed potatoes***4th fav
  

desserts:

• gourmet smore (pumpkin marshmallow, chocolate, whole grain graham cracker) So good I had two of these
• chocolate torte (tiny tiny)
  
• lemon torte (very tiny but beautiful)
  

We even got the bar tender to mix a non-alcoholic drink for us! Apple, lemon, dry something or other. So good.

Oh my gosh I'm such a pig! Seriously I am feeling a little embarrassed about how much I ate, but it was all SOOOO good and absolutely worth it. There was still so much I didn't get to try because I got too full! Bummer! I wanted to try the fried green tomatoes, a lobster something, and the salad from Poste but I just didn't have room.

Time to work out.