2009 Farm to Fork Picnic

June 14 2009, 5:10pm

We ate ourselves silly this afternoon at the 2009 Farm to Fork Picnic, put on by a big friendly crew of volunteers & featuring the food of 70+ farmers and chefs.

I've posted photos here, but as it turned out, I didn't get photos of most of my favorite dishes, with the exception of the Tuna "Bulgogi".

So here are some scattered & brief thoughts about the other things we ate:

  • The best dish of the day, hands-down, was the Lemon Balm Sorbet dished up by the kids of SEEDS. So cool, so beautifully smooth yet icy, so sweet & lemony. It was perfect. Unfortunately, since they had to keep it on ice in a cooler, they didn't have a pretty display of food on their table, and thus their line was unfairly short. I did the best I could to walk around & talk it up to everyone I knew.

  • Second place (for me, anyway) was the pork liver sausage made by Billy Cotter of Toast. It wasn't overly livery, but the balance of herbs, porkyness, and char from the grill was perfect. Outstanding.

  • Third place was the aforementioned Tuna "Bulgogi" - sure, there are few things I like more than seared rare tuna, but it was the combination of that with the toasted sesame seeds, the vinaigrette & the collard kimchi that really put it over the top.

  • Honorable Mention has to go to Aaron Vandemark's Braised Rabbit Bierocks -- essentially a homemade yeast roll with shredded braised rabbit baked inside. Perfect in every way except for the way in which a yeast roll reacts with a belly already full of food on a hot day. When winter rolls around, I'd love to see Aaron plying the streets of Durham with a pushcart full of these things. (This should also serve as my reminder to check out Aaron's restaurant, Panciuto, posthaste, as his ravioli were my favorite dish at that Farmer's Market Chef Challenge last month.)

  • Special dessert award of merit to the Dolly Mama "vietnamese coffee" chocolate -- chocolate filled coffee-infused liquid caramel. Well worth the wait in line.

  • Other dishes that excited us were Jonathan & Damon's (BBQ Joint) fried squash (essentially the same recipe they serve at the restaurant, and still unbeatable); Sara Foster's assorted pickles; the Pork Heart in Mole taco from Charlie Deal (an advance taste of his upcoming Dos Perros menu); the thin-sliced country hams from Lantern's Andrea Reusing and Watts Grocery's Glenn Lozuke; and the Farmer's Daughter Spiced Blueberry preserves.

Yes, we ate all that, and more. I had at least 8 more dishes that I thought were quite good, but which nevertheless didn't stand out enough (against the stiffest possible competition) enough for me to call them out by name.