Eat*Drink*Cleveland: Garlic Festival

Garlic Festival 2012

This weekend was one that I had been looking forward to since last year, the Garlic Fest! Every since my first visit last year, I couldn't wait to go back.

We were really nervous about the weather on Saturday because it has been raining all morning and the forecast wasn't looking good. But luckily Mother Nature was kind and we didn't have any rain and it was gorgeous.

This year we decided to try the Preview Brunch. After unexpectedly sleeping in and then having to pick up my weekly Fresh Fork bag of goodies, we were really late. But we made it just in time to enjoy the plentiful breakfast. We missed the much anticipated bellinis - they were long gone. The early birds ~~like to drink~~ get the cocktails!

We had sausage links, veggie strata, sausage strata, and garlic roasted potatoes from Fire. They are one of my favorite restaurants and the food didn't disappoint.

They also had omelet stations that included lots of fresh vegetables and roasted garlic. We also had three colors of watermelon: yellow, red and orange. Very pretty and really delicious! They also had assorted pastries, tea and sometimes coffee - they kept running out of that. The sporadic availability of coffee was the only complaint and one that should have been easy to avoid.

Afterwards, we stayed in the Chef Demo tent for the Grass-fed Beef Top Chef Grill Off Competition. This competition is always my favorite part of the Garlic Fest. There are 3 separate groups: beef, chicken and pork. This year's beef competition featured:

Momocho's Randy Carter

Flying Fig's Ashley Young

Skye LaRae's Eric Wells

Nighttown's Nathan Sansone

Each chef prepared their interpretation of the featured product, grass-fed beef. The judges were John Crea, Laura Taxel and Steve Schimoler.

John Crea, Laura Taxel and Chef Steve Schimoler judge the Beef at the Garlic Festival

After the judges tasted the dishes, the audience was treated to samples as well. They were all excellent! Here's what we had:

2012 Beef Competition at the Garlic Festival

Nighttown: Grilled strip loin with arugula, micro radish and marble potatoes

Skye LaRae: Cumin and coriander crusted flank steak with garlic roasted corn and a spicy cilantro chimichurri

Flying Fig: ribeye with red wine reduction, sofrito, warm potato salad and fried leeks

My apologies to Momocho's chef because I somehow missed the picture of his gorgeous dish. He served a strip loin with pickled cabbage with ginger and ancho chiles. He also included Patron XO which was a very unique use of this coffee and chocolate flavored tequila and one that I will definitely be trying at home.

Coffee tequila at the 2012 Garlic Festival

I didn't even know this product existed until Saturday but I'm definitely going to be adding this one to the home bar.

I'm sure the judges must have had a hard time choosing but they awarded first place to Chef Young of the Flying Fig - congrats!! Momocho came in 2nd. I really don't know if I could have picked a winner - they were all excellent. I would have loved to try the Garlic Gimlet that Nighttown served but the booze was a judge-only perk.

Afterwards we walked around smelling and looking at all the garlic based offerings. Unfortunately we were stuffed so I couldn't eat a thing. (note to self next year ~ save room for garlic fries!!!)

I did manage to squeeze in a tiny taste of the caramelized onions with black garlic that Chef Brandt Evans of Pura Vida was serving with sausage - sooo good!

2012 Garlic Festival sausage with carmelized onions with black garlic

We even bought some black garlic to go.

Music garlic - left and black garlic - right

I can't wait to try this fermented molasses-like treat at home! If you haven't tried black garlic, put it on your Must Do list - it's sweet and mellow and doesn't leave you with garlic breath.

lots of great seasonal produce was featured

fresh edamame

This year's Garlic Queen Julia Murphy in blue and 2010's right behind her in pink with the Garlic Fairy Princesses

Fire was selling Chef Doug Katz' famous pickles

Chalk Art in progress

As always, there was a ton of great food, musical performers, belly dancers, Vitamix demos, garlic beer, and more. They have a great kiddie section called Mighty Locavores with a pedal tractor hay bale maze, games, art stations, story telling and more.

I wish I had more time to spend there this year. It's a great festival for a very worthwhile cause. If you would like to read another recap, check out Always JAM in CLE's here. If you haven't gone yet, definitely put in on your calendar for next year. And remember to bring the mints!

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