Fun With Carbs

Wine glasses ready for the tastings...

Foodies converged upon Mohegan Sun Saturday and Sunday to taste some of the nation’s best wines, beers, spirits and delicacies at the seventh annual Sun WineFest.

Besides the hundreds of wines available for tasting, famed chefs were on hand to demonstrate techniques, share expertise and sign cookbooks, and chefs from Connecticut’s best restaurants cooked up samples of their signature dishes all day long.

An event of this size can be totally daunting, so we started by doing a lap around the convention-center floor, making notes of  booth locations and planning a course of action. Crushing crowds, aching feet and an hour-plus ride home certainly prevented us from trying everything on our list, but we made a valiant effort. Here are some highlights from our experience…

• A representative for 10Cane Rum, surrounded by two large platters full of fresh mint leaves and sliced limes, poured us mojito samples. I’ve never fully understood the mojito craze, but now I just might be a convert. The combination of cool mint, tangy lime and hint of sugar was seriously refreshing.

Ed Hardy Sangria

• Recognizing a familiar logo, I burst out laughing: who knew Ed Hardy had a line of wines? I half-expected to see Jon Gosselin or the “Jersey Shore” cast pouring samples. The Ed Hardy lineup includes chardonnay, rose, cabernet sauvignon, sparkling white and rose and a sweet pre-mixed sangria. “It’s not a gimmick,” said the representative, somewhat defensively. “These are actually pretty good wines.” In all fairness, they weren’t bad.

• A ‘novelty’ wine with much more clout: Geno Auriemma’s new line. We tried them all: a nero d’avola, pinot grigio and pinot noir. The reds were rich and fruity, the pinot grigio crisp and refreshing. I’m thinking dinner party to celebrate the NCAA Women’s Championship this year: pasta with Geno’s spaghetti sauce and Geno’s wine for good luck. (Not like the Huskies need much luck this year…)

• I ran into Jason Hawkins of ‘Eating Connecticut‘, who I interviewed for Fun With Carbs in early December. He reminded me that he’s appearing in dining-related segments for ‘All Things Connecticut’ where viewers have to guess his location. Tune in to CPTV to check it out.

• My favorite food item from the WineFest surprised even me: it was a Vietnamese banh mi sandwich, served by the Copper Beech Inn in Essex. Served on a crackly baguette, the sandwich was piled high with roast pork, julienned carrots and cilantro. A spicy sriracha mayo married it all together. Amazing – and messy. A close second place: Jasper White’s incredible fresh Blue Point oysters. Fat, sea-salty, creamy.

Piles of banh mi!

• Desserts ranged from the familiar to the exotic. On one end of the spectrum, there were apple cider donuts from Faddy’s in Bloomfield and a smorgasboard of gelato by Gelato Giuliana. (I tried the dark chocolate and strawberry varieties. Heavenly!) At the other end, there was crème brulée by Billy Grant of Grant’s and Bricco and a passion-fruit tart with berry sorbet by the chefs at ON20. The tart was more like a cheesecake consistency, with an irresistible tang. Not something I would have thought to order from a menu, but delicious, and expertly crafted. (The three young ON20 chefs at the WineFest booth were polite, modest and obviously skilled – it was exciting to see the future of Hartford’s progressive fine dining sharing their expertise.)

• Overall, not a big fan of the ‘ticketing’ system used to purchase food at the event.  Attendees had to purchase restaurant exhibitors’ portions with tickets, which cost $1 apiece. Many of the small plates cost 5 to 6 tickets, and the portions were indeed small. Five ‘tastes’: two scallops on a small scoop of risotto, three oysters, a sushi roll, a sliver of spinach pie and a miniature tenderloin sandwich (served on a dinner roll) would cost more than 30 tickets. That’s in addition to the $70 admission ticket. We ended up eating a full-sized lunch at the Michael Jordan 23sportscafe and budgeting our taste tickets for the items we coveted the most.
• After lunch, we headed up the escalator to the raucous beer-tasting section, where the median age of the crowd suddenly dropped 25 years.  The brew samples came in small plastic cups, and certainly no one was sipping and spitting. Patrons wore leis and beaded lanyards, and the scene resembled a huge frat party. It was sweaty and crowded and we didn’t stay too long. But it was still interesting to see so many young faces at a foodie event.

Raw bar offerings from Jasper White's Summer Shack

• We the media didn’t receive access to the big Celebrity Chef Dine-Around event that evening, but friends of ours had tickets and sent us text-message updates throughout the night. In addition to gaining intimate access to celebs like Bobby Flay, Todd English and Robert Irvine, they drank endless champagne and wine and reported that they left the gathering in a ‘food coma.’ The tickets cost $175/person, but it sounded well worth the price.

• Full list of restaurant/food exhibitors: 84 High Street (Westerly, RI,) Bosc Kitchen & Wine Bar, Cuvee, Elements Fine Catering, Faddy’s, Feng Asian Bistro, Fleming’s Steakhouse & Wine Bar, Gelato Giuliana, Grant’s, Jasper White’s Summer Shack, Jordan Caterers, La Vita Gustosa, Max Downtown, Michael Jordan’s 23.sportcafe, Michael Jordan’s Steak House, ON20, Pastry Shop at Mohegan Sun, Pure Chocolate, SolToro Tequila Grill, Sunrise Square, The Copper Beech Inn, Toshi and VIVO Hartford.

Click below for more of my photos, and also click here for some gorgeous food shots by Nick Caito for ctnow.com.