This and many future blogs to come were saved by my good friend Jason Lawrence, who saved my hard drive from my former laptop (RIP). A big thanks to him! If you ever need IT work, Jason is your guy!

I was invited to Burger 21 for their VIB: Very Important Blogger “Slide into Summer” Tasting a few weeks ago. This tasting was a complimentary event for local bloggers. Burger 21 is frequently buzzed in Tampa by local diners (It is currently #1 in Tampa on Urbanspoon) and my excitement was built by many of my Twitter followers, who claimed Burger 21 has the best burger they have ever had. A bold statement indeed.

I made it to Westchase early to avoid the 275 rush hour traffic. The Veterans Expressway made the trip shorter than expected. It was my first time the neighborhood and Westchase is simply beautiful. Burger 21 picked a nice place to drop their first restaurant. I was the first one to arrive at the tasting. Two tables were reserved in the back of the restaurant for diners. Burger 21 has a diner feel to it, but is spotlessly clean and there are many windows that allow light into the restaurant…perfect for taking photographs at a food tasting event. I got hooked up to their Wi-Fi and was live-tweeting before I knew it.

As you can see I was about to have a food feast! Many other bloggers, writers, and social media personalities made it to the event. I was re-united with some old friends and I met many new people as well (some frequent readers of this blog). The staff at Burger 21 was completely hospitable to us and after a few minutes the first of our first of seven shakes arrived.

The first shake was the chocolate malted milk ball shake. Burger 21 paid attention to detail on their shakes. They only use Blue Bell ice cream in their shakes. They were all perfectly made to the smallest detail in appearance. Fellow blogger Tender B. and I both agreed that the sweetness was not over-powering. It was a nice starter, but the shake I was awaiting was the tiramisu shake. The food and shakes came out quickly and before I knew it the first slider arrived.

The bacon cheddar slider and sweet potato fries. The slider was certainly much better than your average slider. I loved the bacon inside, but it was a little hard to compare the burger to a real burger when it was clearly made well-done and doesn’t have the complete properties of a true burger. The sweet potato fries were excellent! I seriously fell in love with them.They were a perfect mix of sweet and salty. I experimented with many of the sauces at Burger 21 and the Thai Ketchup was my favorite. It has a kick to it in a way that regular ketchup just cannot compare. True story: Since trying Burger 21′s Thai Ketchup I am dissatisfied with regular ketchup and feel like there is something missing every time.

The next slider was Burger 21′s BLT Turkey Slider with regular fries. I do not like turkey meat burgers…my Step-Dad makes them at home and those are the nights I tend to avoid the house, however Burger 21 actually did a great job on their BLT Turkey Sliders. The turkey meat was moist (something you don’t normally find in turkey meat after it has been cooked) and I actually enjoyed the slider. The regular fries were good, but could not compare to the amazing sweet potato fries. I would order the sweet potato fries on every visit to Burger 21.

The strawberry short cake shake was the next stop on this tasting adventure. One thing I noted was how fresh the fruit tasted. Anytime Burger 21 used a shake that incorporated a fruit you could taste the real fruit in the shake. They put just the right amount of sweetness for my taste buds. Some places add tons of sugars when fruits naturally sweeten a drink.

The Ybor City double espresso shake was delicious! I love food creations involving coffee, such as coffee cake, and this double espresso shake could stand alone without a meal. It had a coffee taste without a bitter after-taste. It made me think of the tasty coffee shakes I have at Cafe Kili - refreshing.

The black and bleu slider was my least favorite slider. It has a smoked taste and was quite dry. In my opinion it would benefit from some different toppings and a signature sauce.

The chocolate peanut butter shake was probably the only shake I disliked. The balance of chocolate to peanut butter was off and it ended up tasting more like peanut butter blended with sprinkles of chocolate. There was still more food and shakes on the way (including my anticipated Tiramisu shake) so I only had a few sips of the chocolate peanut butter shake before moving on.

Burger 21 is known for having some of the best hot dogs in Tampa and only uses Hebrew National hot dogs. From the 4 hot dogs offered I decided to go with the chili cheese dog with no jalapenos (I’m sensitive to spiciness -__- let’s hope I fix that in Korea). Losing the jalapenos did not detract from the taste of the hot dog. WOW. This has to be the best chili cheese dog I have tasted in Tampa Bay. Better than Mel’s Hot Dogs near USF, though a different style. The toasted bread bun was delicious as well and completed the chili dog.

Yum!

Finally, the tiramisu shake (monthly feature during my visit as well) arrived in front of me! My favorite dessert in the world was now in front of me in shake form. It was great! Fellow diner Chandra Lee and I agreed that it could not replace a true tiramisu, but in my opinion it came pretty close! I especially loved the presentation of the shake.

The banana foster shake rivaled the tiramisu shake well. Many people claimed it was their favorite. I think I could put in on the level of the tiramisu. The taste of banana was fresh as was the strawberry, but far superior in overall taste and mixture.

The final shake: the key lime pie shake came after all the others and everyone was stuffed before it arrived. I tried to evaluate it fairly, but decided I was far too full to fairly evaluate it. Maybe someday in the future.

Overall, Burger 21 has many great things on their menu. I enjoyed the sliders, shakes, and fries. The sweet potato fries were delicious and I fell in love with their Thai Ketchup sauce. My two favorite shakes were the Tiramisu and the Banana Foster shakes. I want to go back and try their burgers again someday with and see how a true burger fares against the sliders. I read online that their Ahi Tuna burger is excellent and I hope to try it one day.

Burger 21 is opening a new location on North Dale Mabry in Carrollwood this Fall so I imagine a burger battle will be brewing for who has the best burgers in Tampa. The Carlos Eats Team will be there to cover it when it opens.

#B21VIB guests:

@missdestructo (declaring it Destructo vs. Food)

@JeffHouck (with Son o’ Stew in attendance as well)

@ChandraLee

@WestchasePatch

@TenderB_WCCL(read his blog on the event)

@Tracyguida (read her blog on the event)

@DineTampaBay

@Antony511

@tampabayfood

Restaurant Name: Burger 21

Cuisine: American

Neighborhood: Westchase

Address: 9664 W. Linebaugh Ave. Tampa, FL 33626

Phone Number: (813) 475-5921

Website: http://www.burger21.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/myburger21

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Burger21

Tomorrow, July 28th, is the Dine Tampa Bay Launch Party at TPepin’s Hospitality Centre from 6:00-9:00PM. There will be food samples from many restaurants and a chef competition as well. I will be there with a guest and I would love to see you come out too and support Tampa Bay restaurants. Tickets must be purchased in advance online at: http://www.visittampabay.com/meetings/index.cfm?action=Details&eventid=159

The restaurant week being organized by Dine Tampa Bay will last from Aug. 19 – Sept. 2, 2011 and features 57 restaurants in Tampa Bay. Checkout all the restaurants here: http://www.dinetampabay.com/restaurants

I attended the Capital Grille’s Generous Pour Preview Event on Monday night. The Generous Pour Wine Event will occur from July 12th to September 4th, 2011 at Capital Grille locations. This event will feature a collection of nine wines from around the world, each hand-selected by The Capital Grille’s Master Sommelier, George Miliotes, one of only 173 Master Sommeliers in the world. Guests can enjoy as many wines from the list as they like for only $25 per person with dinner.

The preview event occurred at Capital Grille locations around the country and was an opportunity for select media to taste the wines on the list and pair them with the dishes provided with recommendations and a live webcast from George Miliotes. Participants used the Twitter hashtag #TCGPour11 to discuss the event and could ask questions to Mr. Miliotes via his twitter username @TheWineExpert.

This post is longer than usual due to the complete menu we explored, in addition to the wine pairings we compared. Feel free to skip ahead to what interests you most. I have broken the post down by course.

We were immediately greeted when we arrived and taken to a private room in the back for the event. The room had a single table with chairs around and a television screen where Mr. George Miliotes would soon be introducing us to the wines we would be tasting. The waitress assigned to us was great and quite knowledgeable about all the wines and dishes. She was always smiling and was a nice addition to the experience.

There were many ways Capital Grille could have executed this event and, in my opinion, they chose to make it as intimate and involved as they possibly could.  The conversations with George over Twitter were extremely interesting as he advised other media members. Originally the webcast almost felt unreal, until I checked my iPod Touch and saw the questions he was answering posting live by fellow local users in Orlando and Atlanta. He answered one of my questions in regards to a sweet red wine, but not too sweet…recommending  a sparkling Shiraz like the black chook.

Hors d’oeuvres

The first thing we were offered were three hors d’oeuvres: smoked salmon on onion pita crisps, fresh tomato and mozzarella crostinis, and wild mushroom and boursin crostinis. The wine paired with the three was Marquis de la Tour, Cremant de Loire Brut, France.

All three hors d’oeuvres were appetizing and light and the Marquis de la Tour was light and not empowering the hors d’oeuvres. The salmon was pleasant in taste and smoked just right, there was no fishy aftertaste. The wild mushrooms and boursin crostinis were tasty as well. Our personal favorite was the fresh tomato and mozzarella crostinis. They left a “WOW” factor in your mouth after each bite and complemented the sparkling white wine’s light and crisp taste perfectly.

The bread they brought us during the wait for the appetizers was also delicious, although we had to leave some space for the appetizers, entrees, and desserts soon to come.

Appetizers

For the appetizers and entrees,  two wine pairings were suggested for each dish and Mr. Miliotes encouraged us to make our selection on whether we preferred new world or old world wines with our food. The two appetizers being provides were pan fried Calamari with hot Cherry peppers and prosciutto wrapped mozzarella with vine ripe tomatoes. The two wines being offered were La Cana Albarino or Chateau St. Jean, Belle Terre.

For the calamari, we chose the Chateau St. Jean, Belle Terre wine as our favorite. Although the La Cana Albarino washed it down best, we felt the Chateau St. Jean provided the best finishing touch. We chose the La Cana Albarino as our choice for the mozzarella. It had a subtle taste we really enjoyed. The calamari was excellent and full of flavor. In the past few years I have started eating calamari regularly and this one did not disappoint. The mozzarella wasn’t too heavy and still had a great texture.

Entrees

Most preview events allowed the media to pick one entree, but due to a few no-shows at the Tampa location, we were able to test out the wines with all three entrees!

The bone-in kona crusted dry aged sirloin with shallot butter was phenomenol. Our favorite of the three entrees. It has a fantastic taste to it, the waitress noted that Capital Grille ages their steak in-house and they do it well. I ordered it medium and the deeper you went into the steak, the better it tasted. It has a smokey like taste that went fantastic with the wine we chose: The Chalk Hill Estate, Cabernet, Savignon, Sonoma, which had a volcanic chalk taste. The wine perfectly finishes the sirloin.

The salmon was our second favorite. Now I love sushi, but I tend to hate cooked fish. Something about it always leaves a bitter aftertaste in my mouth. However, Capital Grille’s cedar smoked salmon with tomato fennel relish left no bitter aftertaste and was filled with a savory, lemony flavoring that left me in awe. The Byron Pinot Noir, Santa Barbara, 2009 was paired with the salmon for it’s moisture and although white wines are normally paired with seafood, we found the Byron Pinot Noir to be a great addition to the salmon.

The 10 oz. filet mignon was enjoyable, but perhaps the only dish we felt we could have been replicated at another restaurant, though the wine pairing was what really made this dish awesome. We appreciated the crunchy texture to the spinach, it wasn’t soggy and flavorless. The lobster macaroni and cheese was also delightful, with large pieces of lobster present throughout.

The filet was cooked medium and our choice wine for this dish was Tarima Hill, Monastrell, Alicante, Spain, 2009. It had a subtle taste that didn’t overpower the taste. The vanilla taste was a nice final touch.  The wine is new and we were among the first people around the United States to try it. You can now enjoy it at Capital Grille locations until it becomes commercially available in August.

Desserts

As if we could still manage to eat after sampling so much food…it was time to eat dessert! The two dessert choices: flourless chocolate espresso cake and strawberries Capital Grille were served with RL Buller, The Portly Gentle, which is an Australian take on classic Port dessert wine.

Both desserts were great with a fresh taste to the fruits. They were a nice to end to our meal and the flourless chocolate espresso cake was so good,  I attempted to finish it all despite being completely full. It was a solid dessert packed with flavor. We also feel this dessert best matched the wine pairing.

Overall, the food and hospitality at Capital Grille was great and the wine pairings were even better. When we left we were given wine bottles with gift certificates as a token of their appreciation along with with the leftovers of food that have stocked my fridge, truly a generous pour event. The $25 summer deal for these wines is great for diners and wine aficionados to fully explore their dishes.

The 9 wines featured for $25 during The Generous Pour from July 12th to September 4th are:

• Marquis de la Tour, Cremant de Loire Brut, France
• La Cana Albarino, Rias Baixas, Spain, 2010
• Chateau St. Jean, Belle Terre, Sonoma, California, 2008
• Freemark Abbey, Cabernet Bosche, Rutherford, California, 2003
• Chalk Hill Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma, California, 2006
• Byron Pinot Noir, Santa Barbara, California, 2009
• Conte Brandolini Vistorta Merlot, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy, 2006
• Tarima Hill Monastrell, Alicante, Spain, 2009
• RL Buller, the Portly Gentleman, Australia

Restaurant Name: Capital Grille

Neighborhood: Westshore

Address: 2223 N West Shore Blvd Tampa, FL  33607

Phone Number: (813) 902-2911

Website: http://www.thecapitalgrille.com/Locations/Tampa/Main.asp?Location=Tampa

I had the pleasure last week of attending a tweetup in Carrollwood hosted by Metromix and Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza. The #WellDoneMix event hashtag was a play on Anthony Coal Fired Pizza’s catch phrase “Our pizza is well done”. The event was a tasty networking event. When I came inside I was greeted by Metromix employees and won an awesome bag filled with swag, such as t-shirts, a cup, plastic shot glass, and more as one of the first seven people to arrive. In the back of the restaurant, Anthony’s provided pizza, meatballs, wings, and salad for visitors at no cost to tweeters.

My personal favorite was the “fresh mozzarella, sliced tomato, and basil” with no sauce. Normally I don’t enjoy pizza without tomato sauce, but this pizza tasted as fresh as its name and wasn’t heavy or greasy. Although I do enjoy greasy pizzas at times, I don’t the stomachache I get later that day, and the food at Anthony’s left me feeling great. The pizza had a thin crust and was cooked just right. My second favorite that I sampled was their pepperoni pizza.

A small specialty pie at Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza is normally $16.25 and a large specialty pie is normally $19.25. I became full after my second slice with some of the salad and meatballs on the side. While perhaps not the cheapest pizza around, it did taste good and was a good change from your usual pizza chains. In other words, I wouldn’t mind spending the money for a pizza like this. There is an Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza in Brandon I have yet to visit. The only other pizza places out in the Brandon area I really enjoy are Cappy’s Pizzeria and occasionally Marco’s Pizza.

There was a line of hungry tweeters behind me (and my camera battery was dead -__-), so I apologize for the blurry photos. I’ll link to the Metromix page where you can view the professional pictures at the bottom of the page.

The meatballs, wings, and salad were great additions to the pizza. They complemented the flavors well.

The employees there were very helpful and happy to explain any of the pizzas to visitors. I noticed that the people handling their event were the catering staff. The Metromix employees were happy to come and chat, while snapping lots of photos of visitors. Metoromix had a giveaway at the end and I won 3 Blu-ray movies as well! Overall, this event was pretty cool and certainly something different for a restaurant to engage social media with a great local partner as Metromix. I would like to see more of these pop-up around town. I met a few local bloggers and tweetups are just a great place to network with people you might never meet otherwise.

Here is the link to the official photo gallery on Metromix: http://tampabay.metromix.com/events/essay_photo_gallery/metromix-and-anthonys-coal/2700018/content

Tweeters documented in attendance at #WellDoneMix:

@AnthonysCFPizza

@MetromixTampa

@fsutoby

@MealsandMiles (Checkout her blog post on the tweetup)

@TriCourt

@ZmandaB (Checkout some of the photos she sent me at the tweetup)

@jwilburg

@theashleygrant

@FLallday

@TwinsFanFL

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLOS6JmG-1o]

Restaurant Name: Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza

Neighborhood: Carrollwood

Cuisine: Pizza

Address: 13020 N. Dale Mabry Hwy. Tampa, FL 33618

Phone Number: (813) 265-2625

Website: http://anthonyscoalfiredpizza.com/

Twitter: @AnthonysCFPizza

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DJHGFI3ob0]

—–

PhilFest 2011 was a great adventure into Filipino food and culture. USF’s very own Association of Filipino Students (AFS) came out victorious winning 1st place in the annual Revolution dance competition. The theme this year was “tinikling” my favorite dance and the national dance of the Philippines. There was lots of food at PhilFest, but I only sampled a few thing, saving my appetite for the after-party at Grille 54.

We had some Taro boba. The flavor wasn’t amazing and it was a little expensive, but most things in PhilFest were pricey.

Here are some pictures of the food there:

—-

Grille 54 hosted an after-party to PhilFest and charged only $5 for a sushi buffet with drink specials available. The service was pretty good for the size of our party and waiters were helpful and respectful if you had any concerns or needed to order something. The food was delicious. Both the sushi and pasta were great and the drinks were also great. My favorite was the Strawberry Mojito. It was great that they supported this local event and I look forward to visiting Grille 54 again in the future and trying their regular menu.

These boats were full of plenty of sushi that quickly disappeared.

Restaurant Name: Grille 54

Cuisine: Italian, Japanese

Address: 11935 Sheldon Rd. Tampa, FL 33626

Phone Number: (813) 920-0054

Website: http://www.grille54.com/

The Tampa Bay Dragon Boat Institute has teamed up with the Asian-American Coalition of Florida to host the 28th annual Asia Fest event in conjunction with the 8th Annual Tampa Bay International Dragon Boat Race and the International Beer Festival. The expected attendance this year will be well over 5,000 people! Be prepared for an amazing day!

Asia Fest will be held in Cotanchobee Park, adjacent to the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina and the location of the athlete’s village for Tampa Bay Dragon Boat Races.

Admissions: Everyone gets in for FREE!!!!!!!

When: April 30th 11:00 AM

Where: Cotanchobee Park Channelside District 601 Channelside Dr. Tampa, FL 33602

An amazing day filled with entertainment, ethnic food, a raffle to win prizes, the Dragon Boat race competition, the Miss Asia Fest competition, the International Beer Festival, and so much more!

Next weekend is the annual PhilFest in Tampa. Replicating a typical Filipino fiesta, PhilFest showcases various facets of Filipino culture, art, music and food. The event will run from Friday to Sunday with food and entertainment throughout. Saturday will be the big day with lots of performers and the annual Philfest Revolution Dance Competition (USF’s very own Association of Filipino Students will be competing this year-Go Bulls!).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sjvFgMlQcE]

AFS dancing at PhilFest 2009.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gPbjp7gxzQ]

One of my favorite dances to watch is Tinikling. Here is a video from 2009.

Several Filipino dishes will be sold at the event (a Filipino food lovers paradise) and some examples include la paz batchoy, pancit molo, bacolod chicken, pancit palabok, pork barbeque, halo-halo, baked pastries, and much more. For a full list of vendors click here. Filipino food is scarce in Tampa so don’t miss this opportunity to try some Filipino dishes.

Cost: $5 advance tickets, $6 at the door

Event location: (Bayanihan Arts and Events Center) 14301 Nine Eagles Drive Tampa, FL 33626

Event website: http://www.pcfitampa.org

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=167189339959497

Read Chocolate Sunday Part III

Meeting the friendly people at the Palm Harbor House of Beer booth was a fun time. They had a number of beers for us to sample from chocolate stout to raspberry beer. The raspberry beer was smooth and sweet. I’m not much of a beer drinker, but the raspberry beer sample left me wanting more. You can visit their Facebook here.

You can visit Palm Harbor House of Beer online at http://www.palmharborhob.com/

Effen Vodka had complimentary chocolate liquor samples, but I found them to be too bitter for my tastes.

Buddy Brew Coffee offered samples of chocolate covered organic cocoa seeds. We learned plenty about their business (and freshly roasted coffee) from the owner there and I have read great things about them on my friend Tracy’s food blog. You can find Buddy Brew on Facebook here and also at http://www.buddybrew.com/

One interesting sample at Chocolate Sunday was Pirate’s Booty Chocolate. It was a test sampling, they haven’t released it to the market yet.  Popcorn with chocolate on top and healthy to top that. It tasted great…can’t wait to buy some in stores soon.  Their products are vegan friendly and cholesterol free as well as Trans Fat and Gluten Free. You can visit Pirates Brands online at http://piratebrands.com/ and on Facebook as well.

This concludes my coverage of Chocolate Sunday. It was truly a great event and I was honored to be in the presence of so many vendors and to learn about so many local businesses.

Read Chocolate Sunday Part II

We made a stop to the Watercolour Steakhouse and Grille booth to try their chocolate covered shrimp.

The chocolate shrimp has to be one of the weirdest mixes I could imagine (next to bacon of course), but it was actually pretty good. LATimes Food Twitter had a ball with it earlier today on Twitter. The shrimp tasted like cocktail shrimp, I’d probably like to see this tried with fried shrimp (oh the thoughts that are going through my head at the moment) but this was a nice tasting. We were one of the lucky ones because the crowd cleaned out their supply about halfway through Chocolate Sunday. Watercolour was also handing out $15 gift cards for dinners of two or more. They have live lounge entertainment on the weekends as well.

You can checkout Watercolour online at http://www.watercolourgrille.com

Kilwin’s was present. Their booth didn’t have many things to sample. They were featured on my blog just the other day when I was writing about Chocolate Sunday.

The Melting Pot gave out the sample (pictured above) with a toasty marshmellow, strawberry, and brownie to be dipped in chocolate. It tasted great..makes me really want to visit The Melting Pot. They were swamped with visitors at their booth. I have never been to the Melting Pot, but my friends always talk about it. My friends say that the Melting Pot also has excellent burgers? I never knew!

Viktoria Richard’s Chocolates is chocolate made into art. A cool gift for a date or an early Valentines Day present, the chocolate almost doesn’t look real because of how well designed it is. There are a variety of flavors available from Coconut to Wild Berry Pino Noir. New flavors are developed throughout the year. Retails stores are in New Port Richey, Clearwater, Tampa, and St. Petersburg and you can also shop online at http://www.vrchocolates.com/.

Their booth did not seem to have any samples, but they were selling boxes of chocolate (one of which Justin bought). The prices of the boxes ranged from $10-$15.

Affordable chocolate bars were available as well.

You can find Viktoria Richards Chocolate on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Viktoria-Richards-Chocolates/146304192046521

The Pie Factory and Toucan’s Coffee House booth was full of tasty looking pies. They were giving out samples which tasted pretty good. The Pie Factory has been around since 1990 and is family owned. They are happy to work with customers for custom creations as well. You can visit The Pie Factory online at http://www.piefactoryfl.com/

Continue to Chocolate Sunday Part IV

Read Chocolate Sunday Part I

Costco had a booth and was selling a number of things as well as giving away M&M’s and various chocolate goods. All the sweets we tried at their booth were great. The last time I went to Costco was over ten years ago, but maybe it’s time to make a trip back there. Their Marketing Rep, Debbie Butterfield, was very friendly and personable.

A veterans help booth was nearby serving ice cream and candy.

Pupcakes Etc. was selling cannolis that looked tasty at Chocolate Sunday. They are known for selling dog treats and have a handy guide on their website about why certain foods are bad for your dog. Pupcakes was founded after the owners dog died and the owner decided that her next dog would have a natural diet. A baker for over 30 years, the owner transitions into cakes, treats, and cookies for pets. You can find out more on their website at http://www.pupcakesetc.com/

Treats for Troops is an organization that sends care packages to American troops. They were giving away free Hershey’s chocolates at their booth, but they’re cause truly moved us so we decided to donate some money. Treats for Troops ships 6 TONS of care packages every week. Postage bills run from $35,000 to $60,000 per month. Donations and supplies for troops are at an all time low after the holidays and Treats for Troops has organized a “Ziploc bags full of goodies” drive for Troops. You can help by filling a gallon size Ziploc bag with items for the troops or by passing them out to anyone willing to contribute. The deadline is February 15th, 2011. There are plenty of other ways to help out if you want to get involved just visit their website.

You can find more information online at http://www.treatsfortroops.info/

This booth was advertising a meet and greet with some stars. The chocolate at this booth was superb! We decided to head outside for a breath of fresh air after this.

Play 98.7 was outside. They are a new radio station in Tampa Bay playing Top 40s music (minus the Rap). They were giving out free prizes if you name a Top 40s song (that wasn’t a rap song)…it was hard for me to do on the spot, but I eventually won a lanyard.  They gave out some free stickers too.

Our next booth was The Vine Restaurant and Wine Bar. They stock over 400 different bottles and serve over 50 different types of wine by the glass. The Vine only serves Meyer Natural Angus Beef, their Duroc pork comes from the award winning Vande Rose Farms of Iowa, and they use natural fresh American Cedar Springs Lamb.

Their free sample was a chocolate and bacon mix that was amazing. If Adam Richman would have been there, he would have mentioned something about God being great. The bite certainly left me wanting more and I may have to make a trip out to this restaurant in Lutz sometime.

You can check out The Vine online at http://thevinebar.net/

Continue on to Chocolate Sunday Part III

First off, I would really like to thank my friend Justin Rita for helping me out to hold all the samples and shooting video footage. Couldn’t have done it without him. Now let’s get this Chocolate Sunday coverage going!

GateauOChocolat prides itself on “luxiourious, organic, flourless, and gluten-free cakes”.  Normally when you think of all those things in the same sentence you don’t imagine that cake will taste very good, but after I was provided with a free sample I was blown away with just how good their cake tasted. The booth exhibitors were very friendly and welcoming to us and provided us with some information pamphlets. Gateau uses Ecuadorian Rainforest Alliance certified chocolate, organic butter and eggs from small farms, and organic, carbon-neutral Florida cane sugar.

A visit to their website has informed me that Gateau are currently waiting for organic certification, but do use 100% organic products. Their website is very informative and has information on how to best serve their cakes (available in either 6 or 9 inches). I met the founder, Emmanuel Roux, at their booth and he was really enthusiastic while telling me about their cakes, I couldn’t wait to take my first bite.

The cake was was rich and had a very soft texture. I loved the taste of the chocolate, it wasn’t too sweet, but just right. The strawberries and whipped cream on the side went well with it and the nuts on top were fantastic. My favorite thing was that this cake tasted homemade and not like something you’d find at Publix or some other grocery store. My photograph was taken as we were surrounded by about 100 people in a tight space so I do apologize that the photo isn’t clearer, but if you look below you can see the beautiful presentation of these cakes.

You can order Gateau O Chocolat’s cakes at their website: http://www.gateauochocolat.net/

Next we stopped at Casey’s Cookies. Casey’s is a not-for-profit company with the mission to “promote independence and improve the quality of life for developmentally and physically disabled adults” and was started by Casey’s parents after their daughter was born with Goldenhar Syndrome, “a congenital birth defect that includes deformities of the face and spine, and sometimes mental retardation”. Casey’s parents been through many struggles as Casey has grown up, but Casey’s Cookies is something positive that they have come up with. The booth was selling cookies for a dollar and so we decided to buy one, the cookie was pretty great and my friend only took a few seconds to finish it. Casey’s Cookies caters and accepts donations and volunteers as well.

You can visit Casey’s Cookies online at http://www.caseyscookies.org/ You can also find them on Facebook.

Pure Magic Ice Cream was our next stop (just the name makes you want some). Located in Kissimmee, Florida, these vendors were a little far from home, but we were glad they made the trip out to Clearwater for the day. Pure Magic uses Liquid Nitrogen to make fresh frozen ice cream, which according to their website is 320 degrees below zero. Pure Magic has been around since 2007 and was founded by Doug Mayhew and John Eustace. They can also serve alcoholic ice cream (interesting) and popular flavors are Pina Coloda, Strawberry Margarita, Kahlua, and more. I didn’t see these at their booth, but would love to try some! They cater all kinds of events and serve Tampa, Orlando, and Central Florida.

You can watch the process below:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZmktRpgjew]

Liquid Nitrogen freezing the ice cream. Justin had some ice cream and loved it, he claims its some of the freshest tasting ice cream he has had. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it back to the booth to try it myself, but it looked appetizing.

You can visit Pure Magic Ice Cream at their website: http://www.puremagicicecream.com/. You can also find Pure Magic on Yelp and Facebook (as well as Urbanspoon-just click the button above this).

We backtracked and visited Taste Cafe at this event as well. It’s been a few months since I last visited Taste Cafe for their Bloggers Dinner. It was great seeing an old friend again and sure enough Taste Cafe had some great choices of food to sample here.

This dish (almost all gone when I visited their booth) was Taste Cafe’s chocolate bread. One bite of it and I wanted to eat the whole thing…no wonder it was almost all gone. They offered two toppings: Irish Whiskey Dark Chocolate and White Chocolate Mousse, both were amazing! As usual the owners mouth-watering descriptions of their food remains true!

Taste Cafe also was offering another sample, which quickly became my favorite at Chocolate Sunday…

Black Bean Chili with chocolate in it. I’m not much of a chili-eater. I will eat some here and there…but this chili was so good. It could convert me into a daily chili lover. I wanted to take the whole pot home (maybe I will next time I stop at Taste Cafe).  The chili was appealing to all my taste buds and in the right way. Describing this chili in any other way than perfect would be wrong. It’s no wonder Taste Cafe won the most unique use of a chocolate award at Chocolate Sunday.

Continue on to Chocolate Sunday Part II

Chocolate Sunday just passed over the weekend and what an event it was! The sheer massive amount of people and vendors all interacting was quite an experience. Attempting to cover this whole event in one blog would probably be impossible (or kill your internet speed with all the photos I took), therefore this blog will split into parts. No one part is better than the other so be sure to check it out all out and see what Chocolate Sunday was all about and the great food that was brought there by vendors around the Tampa Bay area and Florida state.

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Chocolate Sunday

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Update: Due to time constraints the 4 winners will be drawn from the comment box below by 11:59pm 01/20/2011. Thanks!

-Carlos

I am quite the chocolate enthusiast. No trip to Channelside is complete is complete without a visit to Qachbal’s Chocolatier. When I am visiting Downtown Disney in Orlando I have to grab a shake from Ghirardelli. Finally whenever I am in Sarasota in St. Armand’s Circle I make it a point to stop at Kilwins.

An inviting exterior. You can look right into the chocolate shop and see them making some of the treats. St. Armand’s Circle is packed with lots of little shops from tiny pizza and ice cream parlors to bars and chocolate shops. Plenty of stores to occupy tourists or visitors for hours.

Look at all that chocolate. It’s a tease!

You can watch them at work…making the goods! Look at all those candy apples.

Kilwins has a variety of ice cream flavors as well. My favorite? Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. The employees at Kilwins are very friendly (and mostly high schoolers) and helpful when you’re trying to find the right taste and they are happy to let you sample flavors until you find the right ice cream flavor.

A cup full of happiness.

Entering Kilwins must not be recommended by dentists, but what is life without the sweet little things right? As one famous chocolate quote reads: “I could give up chocolate but I’m not a quitter.” Now that I have made everyone (including myself) want some chocolate read below for some information on an upcoming chocolate event next Sunday that Kilwins will be present at!

Chocolate Sunday, Tampa Bay’s 1st annual chocolate event and biggest day in Chocolate will be next Sunday the 23rd in Clearwater from twelve to six. This event is being brought to you by Tampa Bay Woman Newspaper. Many vendors lined up to be at this event such as The Melting Pot and Kilwins. Your favorite local food blogger (his name is Carlos and he is always eating!) will be in attendance as well. Chocolate Sunday is meant to bring something new and refreshing to Tampa Bay like never before so don’t miss out on this event.

Address: 1111 North McMullen Booth Road Clearwater, FL 33759

Time: Noon – 6:00 p.m

Price: Advance Tickets are $20 for Adults, and $25 at the Door. Children’s tickets will be available for $10 for those ages 11 and under.

For Advance Ticket purchases please call the Ruth Eckerd Hall Box office at 727-791-7400.

For vendor/sponsor information, please contact TampaChocolateSunday@gmail.com.

For updated chocolatiers and other exhibitors, or for the Menu of events, go to http://chocolate-sunday.com.

Follow CHOCOLATE SUNDAY on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TampaChocSunday.

I am going to be giving away 4 Chocolate Sunday tickets to my blog readers  so pay attention and you may find yourself at Chocolate Sunday for free! Your opportunity to win is in the comment box below. Leave me a comment telling me what your favorite kind of chocolate is and I’ll pick four random commenter to win free tickets to Chocolate Sunday!