Corks & Forks

Can I just say that I am writing this at 3:41 in the morning because I made the not-so wise choice to take a nap at 8 o’clock pm last night?  I probably would have just slept until morning but Murphy started barking and it woke me up and I haven’t been able to fall back asleep yet.

Yesterday, we headed to Grant Park (where I would love to live even though Jason says there’s still lots of crime in that area) for the Corks & Forks festival, which was a tasting festival that was part of the Grant Park Summer Shade Festival.  You know Atlanta loves her festivals.

The way it worked was that there were ten restaurants giving out samples and you could try each one once.  There were also beer and wine samples that you didn’t need a card for; you could try as much as you wanted.  Last year I went to this and I was a little nervous that I wouldn’t get enough to eat being that I don’t eat beef, chicken or pork.  It seemed to work out then, and it did this year too.  A lot of the restaurants had fish for their samples and I was able to ask at least three of the ones serving some sort of meat entree to just leave the meat off.  (Two were very accommodating, one gave me attitude about it.  I mean, I get that they are putting specific flavors together to create something, but I paid $30, I want to sample as much food as everyone else.)

I don’t quite know what everything was, but here’s the basic gist of what I ate:

Salmon from Soho.

Tuna tartar from Spice Market.

Watermelon gazpacho (minus the prosciutto) from The Sun Dial.

Lobster queso on plantain chip from Graveyard Tavern.

Smoked trout from the Commerce Club.

Pork taco minus the pork from Serpas.

Chicken liver mousse on cracker minus the chicken liver mousse (this is the one that was not pleased with me asking for a vegetarian version) from Campagnolo.

Shrimp and grits from Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint.

We also tasted some wines.

While I don’t particularly like red wine, I discovered that I do sort of like some of the sweeter reds.  I’m not sure I could drink an entire glass of sweet wine though.  Out of all the things that I tried, my favorite by far was the salmon from Soho.  Second, I liked the watermelon gazpacho.  Jason and our friends Jamie and Dave all liked the pork taco from Serpas the best.

We thought this sign was funny.  Report all illegal acts to cowboy.  What?

After getting our fill of food samples, we were still kind of hungry so we headed to the festival itself for more food.  I didn’t take a picture, but I had this delicious Mexi-corn.  It had some sort of herbs and parmesan cheese on it.  I also had a King of Pops popsicle – Cookies and Cream.  A new favorite flavor!  It seems like I always gravitate towards the cream or milk based KOP popsicles.  The unhealthiest ones for sure.  Oh well.  They taste really good.

I also hit the motherload when it came to samples – Cascadian Farms, Larabar and Food Should Taste Good chips.  Score.

So that was my day.  And now it’s 4 am and I have no idea when I’m going to be able to fall back asleep.  Sigh.