"events" news and stories

If you're in the Bay area, or even within reasonable traveling distance of San Francisco (does six hours from LA count as "reasonable?!?"), you are very lucky. On Thursday, June 1, 2006, the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association is hosting a scholarship benefit called East West Eats. 

Even if you're not familiar with the AAJA, the event itself is worth consideration from a food lover's perspective. It takes place at the Ferry Building, San Francisco's amazing public marketplace (which we recently visited and fell in love with). Foods will feature Charles Phan of the Slanted Door, among other Bay Area chefs: Robert Lam of Butterfly, Hung Le of Three Seasons, Peter Pahk of Silverado, Kirk Webber of CAFE KaTi, and Chris Yeo of Sraits.

Online registration for the $100 tickets will close this Thursday, May 25, 2006.

Two more festivals occuring this coming weekend in the south of England and Wales:

Kent Game Fair - plenty of non-food things happening down near Maidstone such as rural crafts, flower displays, livestock competitions and the like, but plenty food-related, too, including food courts, local producers and a Game Cookery Threatre.

Llanwrtyd Festival of Fine Food and Drink - in Britain's smallest town, a weekend packed with the finest foods Wales has to offer. 68 exhibitors - wine, liquers, jams, chutneys, preserves, ice creams, chocolates, bread, meat and catering equipment, plus local crafts people with goods for sale and French Jazz band. And don't forget the custard pie fight!

Darling, do you dare drizzle Danish Blue on your Dover sole or dunk your doughnuts in dark chocolate?

We hope you do, daaaah-ling, because next Wednesday, January 18th, Slashfood is eating the letter D! That's right, Slashfood's next theme day isn't a dish; it's not an ingredient; it's the fourth letter of the English alphabet - D.   

Don't ask us how we came up with the idea. We were all a little hungover from the last Spirited Cooking theme day, and coming out of a deep Holiday food coma when we all decided that "D" was absolutely brilliant. Yes, brilliant.

So, dust off your Webster's, turn to page 471, and start looking for something to make that starts with "D." Throughout this week, we'll have some suggestions and ideas to bring out your inner-Scrabble-champion. I couldn't think of a single vegetable except daikon.

On Wednesday, we'll give you a place to post a link to your lovely creations, and who knows? We might even have prizes!

So I'm poking around trying to motivate myself to plan a trip up to the Bay area sometime in the next few months, when what to my wandering eyes do appear, an announcement that SF Dine about Town is here!

The San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau and Visa are sponsoring this city-wide, month-long event that is now in its 5th year. There are almost 100 Bay Area restaurants that are participating by offering a three-course prix fixe meal at lunch ($21.95) or dinner ($31.95) or both.  Reservations specifically for SF Dine About Town can even be made via OpenTable.

I think the event is purely a promotional thing for both the Convention Bureau and Visa during a month which is typically slow for restaurants. Works for me, because a few of the restaurants are on my SF To-Dine List (A16!). Although, now I need to find a way up to SF. Unless we can convince Visa to do the same thing in LA!