Too much too eat

“The best gig ever"

    Last week I attended the best eating gig in the history of mankind. Well, in the history of Mark anyway. I ate myself sick. Not one of my prouder moments.

    The outfit to be blamed for this is The Woodlands Chamber of Commerce. They hosted the annual Taste of the Town at the Waterway Marriott. Brad Meyer was given a couple of tickets and invited me along. 

    I didn’t really want to go, because it was at a swanky place and I knew there would be a lot of people. Two of my scariest things.

    Brad said, “Look, it’s free food and you’ll get to visit some of the people from the restaurants we’ve reviewed.” That part also scared me. Of course, Brad is the one who writes the Restaurant review articles. All I do is eat and offer my “expertise” during the video segments of “Whine and Dine.”

    Even if a person disagrees with the review, he’s not going to kill me. Oh, he might wanna slap Brad, but surely not me. I’m the nice one.

    Anyway, I wasn’t going to go to this thing, but Brad won me over when he said, “Go. Don’t go. I don’t really care.’”  The fact that he started with “Go” meant that he really did care. The guy is a charmer.

    So, I ended up driving our buns to the Marriott. Followed Brad right into the place. From the get-go it was apparent that I had stepped into something good.

    It wasn’t like my experience a few years back at the 

barbecue cook-off. I’ve only been to one of those. I thought the price of admission included free food. I was an idiot.

    At the Taste of the Town soiree, I was handed stuff. I stood next to the first table and a guy handed me a small cup of gumbo “Here, try this.” Hot! Spicy hot. I instantly hit the next booth where a girl was giving away steak sliders. Absolutely delicious.

    Brad took one bite of his slider and then tossed the rest away. “What? You didn’t like that?” He told me it was great, but he didn’t want to fill up too soon. “Don’t eat all of everything or you’ll hurt yourself.” The guy was a genius. I still ate all of everything, but appreciated the thought.

    A few highlights: There’s a place called “Swirls Above the Rest” that has the best cupcakes ever made. If “Mama J’s” serves barbecue as good as I sampled at ToT they are among the best. And, their cheesy potatoes are gold, Jerry.

    I got some simply scrumptious pasta from the lady who owns Capri Pasta and Pizza. And, she is so sweet. St Luke’s hospital even had a bunch of desserts. Not normal stuff, either. Little glasses of fruity ambrosia-like drinks and cake things. And – get this – No Jello!

    At one point I noticed a guy walking towards me. I thought maybe he recognized me as one of a pair of jerks who trashed his restaurant in a review. He came right up to me and pointed at the small vase-looking thing of chocolate cake with pudding I was holding. “Where’d you get that?” he said. I pointed to the “PF Chang’s” booth.

I believe that was it. There were several Asian establishments represented. I didn’t taste a non-delicious thing at any of ‘em… except for the raw fish in lime juice. Not a fan.

    After about an hour, I spotted Brad. He had a beer in one hand and a fajita in the other. He asked me if I was ready to go. I told him I was, but wanted to grab a bag of popcorn on my way out. 

    “You’re surrounded by all this great food, and you’re gonna get popcorn? Not on my watch,” he said. So, he walked over, grabbed a fajita from the Mi Cocina table and handed it to me. It was almost better than popcorn.
 
    I bet I only hit a tenth of all the places represented at the Taste of Town. I should’ve either taken one bite and then tossed stuff or did what several others were doing. Brought along a sack.

    I’ll know better next year. Oh, I doubt Brad invites me back, but I’m going. Did I mention I ate myself sick?

END

To view Brad and Mark’s review of Culver’s, click below.