Sunday, September 26, 2010

Heaven on Earth

I have been so spoiled these past couople of weekends with my extravagant foodie adventures. Yesterday, the Phantom Gourmet Food Festival will be added to my list of annual highlights....the list is going to be pretty epic....
Before I get you all worked up on how amazing this feast was, let me first tell you how nervous I was going into the whole thing. See, I was worried that the tickets (40 dollars-not my most frugal expenditure), would end up not being worth the return.  I was mainly worried about the crowds, especially seeing as the event was sold out. Now when a food event is sold out, it does not simply mean that every seat will be full...it means that the space (however big it is) will be packed with 1000s of other hunger-ravaged, food-crazed 'phans' like myself. So you can understand where my fear was coming from.


I was also worried that I wouldn't get my forty dollars worth of food. But this was secondary, because I went in with the thought that it was the experience I was paying for, not so much the food.
As it turned out, the festival was so great that neither of things really bothered me and my first words upon entering the gates, were 'just being here is worth forty dollars'. So if that doesn't prove the success of this thing, I don't know what does.
My friends and I managed to find an alternate lineup by Ipswich street where we headed the entry. Apparently the main entrance had hundreds of people by 11 30...Our spot let us in fifteen minutes early and we didn't even have to deal with lines until about two hours later, but by then we had done most of our damage.
The entire street of Ipswich and Landsdowne were lined with 90 of the PG's favorite spots, there were amazing ribs, pulled pork sanwiches, flatbread pizzas, chowders, soups...you name it and it was there in its best light.
Among my favorites were the fried pickles from Ronny's Place, the peanutbutter, banana and bacon burger from Boston Burger Company and this incredible pumpkin risotto (above).  My friends really loved the special cannoli bombs from Wholly Cannoli, these amazing ribs and the chicken stew of The Chicken Connection. I actually enjoyed the fact that there was more than just desserts, indeed, the sweet things took a back seat for this event, something that every good person should do once in a while.
I have to say though, the highlight of the day was the Upper Crust eating contest held in the House of Blues. I saw Joey Chestnut(in the middle in black), the world's best eater (what a title) demolish 37 slices in 10 minutes...setting a world record!
It was a sight....to say the very least.
So, all in all, I think I can safely say that the event was worth the splurge and that I will be on the lookout for next year's festival, one which I hope more of you can make it out to!

1 comment:

  1. Hi,

    We've selected you as our Foodista Featured Food Blog of the Day for October 13th! This blog post will be featured on the Foodista homepage for 24 hours. This is a new feature that we recently launched and are thrilled to post your blog.

    Since you are now a part of the Foodista Featured Blogger of The Day Community, we've created a special badge for you to display proudly on your blog sidebar. I couldn't find your email on your blog to send you the access code for the special badge, but I want to make sure you get it if you are interested. Please send me an email and I'll send it right away.
    We are really enjoying your blog and look forward to seeing your recipes, tips and techniques on Foodista! If you would not like to be recognized on Foodista please let me know and I will remove your blog from our queue.

    Cheers,
    Andrea Mitchell
    amitchell@foodista.com
    www.foodista.com

    ReplyDelete