Food & Wine Classic in Aspen offers day passes to debauchery

by Laurel Miller on

It’s almost time for the 28th annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, and day passes are back by popular demand. The June 18-20 festival features seminars, cooking demos, grand tastings, and book signings by featured chefs like Thomas Keller, Mario Batali, and Giada De Laurentiis. All of this goodness in an alpine wonderland doesn’t come cheap, which is why the $295 Grand Tasting pass is such a steal.

The price includes attendance at two Grand Tastings in a single day, on Friday, June 18 or Saturday, June 19. Highlights include tastings from over 200 vineyards, breweries, and distilleries, as well as food samplings of meats, cheeses, olive oils, and chocolate. There’s also a Spanish pavilion dedicated to wines, spirits and foods of Spain.

Full consumer passes are $1,185, which include access to all Grand Tastings, wine seminars, and cooking demonstrations. If you really want to splurge (read: schedule follow-up appointment with your cardiologist), spring for some of the special events, such as the Food & Wine magazine Best New Chefs 2010 Dinner, or Reserve Wine Tastings. New this year is the Grand Cochon finale, featuring ten chefs, ten heritage breed pigs, and ten wines. Sounds like food porn just got really kinky.

Gadlinks for Thursday 6.4.09

by Brenda Yun on

Twenty years ago today, on June 4, 1989, Chinese army troops stormed Tiananmen Square in Beijing to crush the pro-democracy movement. Hundreds – possibly thousands – of people died. This video of Tank Man remains one of history’s most iconic moments.

…and today we have a good collection of Gadlinks. Check these out:

‘Til tomorrow, have a great evening.

For past Gadlinks, click HERE.

World Grits Festival: Not Just for Eating

by Jamie Rhein on

Hurry and you might be able to dive into grits if you live anywhere close to St. George, South Carolina. This is the weekend of the World Grits Festival. If I had only known sooner… I found out about this grits mania while I was savoring my morning coffee and thumbing through the Sunday paper. There was a grainy photo of a 6-year-old in a mess of grits. The only way I could tell the dot in the photo was a 6-year-old was because the caption said it was–same thing with the grits. It’s hard to tell one is looking at the top view of a large inflatable-type wading pool filled with grits when the photo is black and white and grainy.

Since I like grits and think a trip to the southern states would be lacking without at least one meal with grits served on the side, I immediately hit the internet to see what’s what in the grits world. St. George bills itself as the Grits Capitol of the World, for one thing.

Sure enough, this is a festival that should be included in festivals to see where food is the theme. And like the picture captured, one of the events at the World Grits Festival is jumping into grits. The festival also includes a grit eating contest and some event where participants roll in grits. Of course, you can eat grits all day. And like any decent festival, there’s a midway complete with rides, games and eats. For grits recipes and more photos, check out the website. This particular photo is from last year’s festival.

This year is the 22nd Annual Grits Festival. Perhaps, if you’ve missed this one, you could plan ahead and make it to the 23rd. I wonder if rolling around in grits is good for the skin–like a total body exfoliate experience.