8th Annual Charleston Food & Wine Festival

     It gets bigger and better every year.  Charleston is a "must visit" city for all you fellow foodies out there.  I attended just one part of the four day extravaganza.  In Marion Square, in the center of "the Peninsula", there were many huge tents.  The two largest were sponsored by Piggly Wiggly (local since forever) and Jet Blue with about 44 vendors in each tent.  In addition to the larger events at Marion Square, there were events at over 50 locations, mostly restaurants, throughout the city.  I probably have too many pictures for one blog, but let's see.  The first two show the enrtances to the two sampling tents.

 

The next shows a tent dedicated to cooking book sales and book signings.  As proof of the foodie nature of the town, there were 29 (!) food authors scheduled for book signings over the weekend!  Ann, Heirloom Books, which was running the booth had "Music, Menus, and Magnolias" at the store, but not at the booth.  I love Ted and Matt Lee; and I bought their latest.  (Durelle got a candle). 



     Inside the two tasting tents there were 85 (!) vendor booths.  I did not count, but I'll bet there were more tasting booths for beverages than for food.  The event is restricted to 21 and older...no strollers or pets.  There were not only local wines and craft beers but even some distilled spirits.  I sampled everything from kimchee to crab, sausage to sauces, and even a slider made with corned beef tongue which was tender and tasty.  I'll show some of the liquid tasting booths.  I had to pace myself in order to safely drive the old Corvette home in that mass of traffic.



     I had a great time, but standing up in a jostling crowd for a couple of hours, prompted me to leave before it was over.  For the record, it cost $85 with $45 going to the various supported charities.  I'll close with a couple of more food shots, and I hope I don't overwhelm the bandwidth of your device.

 

     Tim, one outfit was touting and demonstrating a big, stainless, infrared grill.