Ravings of an Intermittent Fool

Taste of Cincinnati was this past weekend and I attended on Saturday and Monday. Although I've been in Cincinnati for almost 6 years this is my first Taste experience. I was very impressed with the festival. It was busy but not too crowded and there is nothing wrong at all with having dozens and dozens of the city's great resturants hawking their tastey wares. My personal favs:

• Famous Baked Potato Soup from the Courtyard Cafe - So unbelievablely creamy



• Andy's Mediterranean Grill's Kibbeh - Moist minced meat in a football shaped outer crust made from lamb and bulger wheat



• Andy's Mediterranean Grill's Chicken Tawook on a Skewer - So juicy with such powerful flavor...incredible



• Mike Fink's Maryland Crab Cake with Chilli Mayo - lots of crab and a nice blend of spices



• Song Long's Curry Chicken Wings - Not greasy, perfectly cooked and an interesting flavor



• Song Long's Sweet and Sour Chicken - They found a way to make this ho hum staple of Chinese resturants stand out by making the battered chicken be very light, very crispy and not greasy at all



• Tandoor's Mulligatawny Soup - My first time trying this dish and i wil definitely be trying it again



• Tandoor's Vegetable Samosa - Great crispy shell and and a nice spicey filling

I did notice that there are some chains on the list of resturants. While its obvious that all of the resturants attend for advertising/community relations purposes, I think some of them do a better job then most. Don Pablo's for example has 4 menu items and shows off somethings the average resturant goer might not have tried. However, places like LaRosa's pizza and GoldStar chilli serve there most popular menu items. I guess there are some people who are looking for a known quantity and are bit less adventurous then me, but come on, isn't that the whole point of a festival of this type?

Update: My Photos from the event are now online.