This will be primarily a visual post. I tasted and sipped and chatted so much at Chapel Hill’s second annual TerraVITA Food and Wine Event that I lost track of an awful lot! So you’ll just have to trust me that deliciousness abounded.
TerraVITA featured “sustainable classroom” workshops in the morning, but I only attended the afternoon’s “grand tasting on the green.” The outdoor, tented (thank goodness — it rained) event showcased samples from North Carolina vintners, brewers, chefs, restauranteurs and caterers who are committed to using as many local and organic ingredients as possible.
If you like to eat and drink and haven’t yet attended, keep your eyes and ears open for next year’s event — I believe it’s only going to grow in prominence and popularity.
Now here’s a little photo buffet for you.
Green Planet Catering in Raleigh provided some tasty little house-made black pepper crackers topped with Prodigal Farm ashe goat cheese and fig jam.
Raleigh’s Market restaurant served vegan polenta cakes with cilantro cream and mushroom compote.
Gotta love female-owned food enterprises! I was thrilled to meet Sarah Schomber of Buchi in Asheville. I’ve been enjoying the company’s kombucha tea at Whole Foods on a weekly basis. The spicy Fire is my flavor of choice, and it was awesome as a gelato at TerraVITA.
I first fell in love with Amy Tornquist’s food when she was chef at the Nasher Museum in Durham. Now she runs the popular Watt’s Grocery, also in the Bull City. At TerraVITA, she offered three types of crostini: pimiento cheese, pork belly and relish, and a combo of the two.
One of the best things I tasted all afternoon was the braised pork shoulder on celeriac puree served by Asheville’s Posana Cafe. (Pork seemed to be a dominant theme at TerraVITA.)
Junior Johnson’s Midnight Moon served up some awesome legal moonshine. (I favored the holiday-ish tasting Catdaddy. All the flavors packed quite a punch.)
My best T-shirt awards go to Wine Authorities with their service-station lookalike “We Lubricate” logo and Farmhand Foods’ clever “(m)eat local” slogan.
And finally, I leave you with dessert. First are tiny little sweet potato pies topped with maple-lacquered bacon, from On The Square restaurant in Tarboro.
And — saving the best for last — some type of delectable chocolate from Asheville’s French Broad Chocolates. I tasted several and can’t tell you what is depicted here. But everything I’ve ever had at their chocolate lounge is fantastic. At TerraVITA, my favorite was a slightly salty confection with a liquid caramel center.
A Tarheel Tastes 