Taste of the Nation: Los Angeles - Sunday, June 6, 2010, Media Park in Culver City

Thanks to the generosity of POM Wonderful, I had the opportunity to attend my absolute favorite LA food event, Taste of the Nation, for free! More importantly, I got to bring a fellow food lover (Miss A) along for the ride. Considering that general admission tickets cost $100 each and we’re (kind of) starving graduate students, this was a total treat. It was a serious afternoon of culinary indulgence in Culver City, and I can only hope this narrative does this event justice.

For those of you who aren’t familiar, Taste of the Nation (TOTN) is a culinary benefit that supports the efforts of Share Our Strength to end childhood hunger. Since 1988, this event, held in nearly 40 cities across the United States and Canada, has raised more than $73 million. While I may not be the most kid-friendly, I can’t help but think feeding kids is a pretty good cause. Go figure. ;)

Let me start by saying that this was my fourth time attending this event. And every year, I’ve been disappointed to some degree in my performance. The first year, I somehow deluded myself into thinking I could walk all the way from Westwood to Culver City, without sunblock (a very bad idea), and still be functional. Let’s just say heatstroke is associated with loss of appetite. The second year, I somehow got roped into doing brunch prior to the event, and what’s worse, I ended up arriving late. Honestly, was there even a point in going? Last year, I actually made it for the entire event, but unfortunately, my eyes were bigger than my stomach. Enough said.

Seeing that I was getting my doctorate soon and possibly moving away from California, the likelihood of making it to TOTN in LA again would be slim. Therefore, I was thrilled to have the chance to dominate this event -- once and for all!

Before arriving at Media Park, I’d emailed Miss A the event link, and suggested that she review the expected dishes for any that she definitely didn’t want to miss. The key to events like this that: 1) offer so many amazing options and 2) allow patrons to visit any one booth an unlimited number of times, is to go in with a commitment and a strategy to avoid overeating. Otherwise, you end up filling yourself up to the point of not being able to enjoy the food, which then defeats the purpose of going in the first place.

That said, Miss D and I have gone to enough tasting events to know that you simply should not finish your entire plate, unless it’s a particularly small bite. This approach did not sit well with Miss A, who’d rather stuff herself than throw away food. That being said, at Miss A’s request (and considering my lack of interest in bread anyways), we decided to skip any slider/sandwich options. While this knowingly eliminated dishes from two of my favorite restaurants (Ford’s Filling Station’s lamb burgers & Grace‘s pork sliders) and several other establishments, it was ultimately a matter of self-/stomach-preservation.

After comparing notes on our top picks, we decided to go with the following strategy. First, we made an initial loop to visually identify those dishes we definitely couldn’t miss out on and to re-assess our original list of preferences. This is an essential step because restaurants often swap out or add other dishes on event day. Plus, dishes that sound appealing in print may not be as appealing in person.

Miss A, for one, was dead set on making it to Nobu for their miso marinated black cod with butter lettuce -- her personal favorite. And considering that she stopped by a few more times, the dish obviously lived up to expectation. Flaky yet moist, with a lovely sweet and salty flavor from the miso.

I, on the other hand, had my sights set on XIV’s braised and grilled Piedmontese beef cheeks. If anything could be more delicate than perfectly prepared braised short ribs, it’d be perfectly prepared braised beef cheeks. These were absolutely decadent, and required several moments of focused savoring.

In terms of unexpected favorites, we both thoroughly enjoyed the yakitori grilled beef skewers c/o M Café/Chaya Brasserie, which simply melted in your mouth.

Miss A was particularly drawn to different interpretations of the traditional caprese, including the one from Culina. Likewise, I was completely enthralled by the gelato di parmigiano alla caprese from Lago. A parmesan gelato -- who would’ve thunk? And what great presentation!

On our second loop, we sampled almost all of the must-have savory dishes on our lists. I did my best to incorporate some veggies into the mix, but I must admit that the event was fairly heavy on the meat. (Not that I’m complaining, of course!) Thankfully, a few restaurants offered chilled soups and drinks, which precluded the need for us to break stride in order to hydrate.

I enjoyed the chilled porcini soup with shaved foie gras from Bistro LQ, but was actually more intrigued and delighted by the soy milk white chocolate ice cream with American caviar. Both were surprisingly light, despite their decadent ingredients. Creative AND delicious.

Nevertheless, one of our favorite pit stops was the POM booth set up in the center of the park, where we wandered over for quick breaks between rounds, to rejuvenate with cool and refreshing POM juice. I even made a point to introduce myself as the POM reporter, and snap a few shots with the POM banner!

While suffusing ourselves with POM, we had the chance to check out the main stage, where we spotted a few big stars throughout the day, including Michael Voltaggio (of Top Chef fame) cooking up a storm, and the Two Hot Tamales (Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken) auctioning off a private dinner party catered by the two of them. From what I can recall, I think they raised several thousand from some last-minute (and very excited) bidders!

On our third loop, we picked up the last of our savory dishes, making it a point to grab seconds, thirds, fourths, and even fifths (!!) of our favorite bites.

Out of all the dishes we tasted, Miss A and I were in total agreement about our favorite of the day. Hands down, we absolutely ADORED the torchon foie gras from Bottega Louie. We literally went back FIVE times, and we even picked up Sam Marvin’s card from, well, Sam Marvin himself. This bite was the perfect blend of flavors and textures, requiring no improvement whatsoever. Literally, if we could’ve sat there all day eating these bites, we wouldn’t have complained.

Another dish worth mentioning, not only because of its POM affiliation, but also because of its culinary creator, was the POM sphere offered up by Marcel Vigneron (again of Top Chef fame) from Bar 210. This bite offered a lovely and refreshing burst of POM-ness, with just the right balance of sweet and tangy.

By the time we reached our final loop, it’d been about 2 hours since we started our eating adventure. We were quite stuffed at this point, but unlike Miss A, I have quite the sweet tooth, and I was determined to fit in some dessert before the day was done.

Unlike typical Oreos which are crunchy, the homemade “better than Oreos” from Mercantile/District resembled a thin layer of butter cream squished between two dark chocolate brownies. All I can say is: OMG. HEAVEN.

Other memorable desserts included the panna cotta vaniglia from Osteria Mozza, and the crispy chocolate hazelnut mousse from Patina. Both were quite rich, but in the most magical of ways. Mmm….

To cleanse our palates, both Miss A and I indulged in two rounds of gelato from the Gelato Bar. While I was in love with all four gelato flavors I tasted, I was actually more enamored by the fact that Ben Ford was literally standing RIGHT in front of me on our second gelato run. I was tempted to ask him for a picture, leading me to tug ever so lightly on the sleeve of his chef‘s jacket. Thank goodness he didn’t notice, because after I thought about it, I realized that I much preferred not to disrupt his gelato enjoyment. (That, and I might’ve started babbling like an idiot.)

As we pondered the afternoon’s highs (of which there were many) and lows (of which there were few), we decided to take one last slow saunter around the park. Many restaurants were already packing up, but it was great to see people still wandering in, even with just 30 minutes left!

From what I could recall from previous years, there seemed to be fewer restaurants involved this year. That said, I thought the number of participating establishments was just right, as the park seemed much less congested and the traffic much more manageable.

All in all, Miss A and I had the BEST time. She was thankful for being my special guest. And I was thankful for being chosen as POM Wonderful’s intrepid reporter! Thank you for this amazing opportunity to share my love of this event -- and food in general! Bon appetit, mes cheries! :)

Taste of the Nation:
http://taste.strength.org/site/PageServer?pagename=TOTN_homepage

Share Our Strength:
http://www.strength.org/

POM Wonderful:
http://www.pomwonderful.com/