A Great Time at Great Tastes!

By Xani and Erin

As many of you know, Black Coffee and a Donut was asked to participate on a panel of Baltimore Food Bloggers at Great Tastes 2008, which was on Saturday. It. Was. AWESOME. We had such a fabulous time at the event. Thank you so much to all of our awesome FANS who came out to see the panel and enjoy the day with us (especially our lovely cousin Karen who came all the way from Detroit to SURPRISE us there-- how FIERCE of her!).

There were a few technical difficulties during the panel discussion (mostly projector issues which meant that the PowerPoint presentation that Kit prepared wasn't seen-- boo!) but overall the panel went well and all the bloggers got to share a little bit about themselves and their blogs, and answer questions from the lovely audience. The rest of the day we spent wandering around the dozens of exhibit booths, watching cooking demos, sampling, snacking, and schmoozing.

We watched Warren Brown of Cakelove prepare Italian meringue buttercream frosting, then got to taste some! Rodney Henry of Dangerously Delicious Pies told great stories as he showed us how to make sweet and savory pies. We sampled absinthe, Maker's Mark punch, coffee with Jameson's AND Kahlua, cosmpolitans, Clipper City beer, dirty mojitos, red wine, white wine and... probably some other stuff but it's just a haze of tiny martini glasses at this point. We got to try mini-pulled pork sandwiches (on sweet potato biscuits), oysters Rockefeller risotto, raw oysters with a spicy cucumber relish, artisinal cheeses, imported olive oils, lasagna, chorizo, salmon spring rolls, apple butter crepes, vegetarian (yes, vegetarian-- I bet it would have been better with bacon!) cake, cherry pie from Dangerously Delicious, bacon, sausage-- the list goes on and on! We chatted with folks from all different food-related organizations: Kate from Todd Conner's (a new bar and restaurant in Fells Point), Josh from Slow Food Baltimore, Dan from the Hungover Gourmet, and the head chef at Sotto Sopra, amongst so many others.

Overall we has a fantastic time and we want to again thank Dara from Dining Dish for asking us to be involved. And now, what you've all been waiting for (?)... pictures!!

EP and Matt prepare to sample Cakelove cupcakes

BCD Girls about to make their debut!

During the panel discussion

Our fabulous fans!

Keep your eyes peeled (ew) for more posts about Great Tastes coming soon. The BCD family was lucky enough to attend an exclusive dinner after the event with some of the organizers and a certain CELEBRITY whom we now consider a close personal friend! Who was this mystery person?? Any guesses...??

Stay tuned! Thanks again to everyone who made the day and night unforgettable! You are all so fierce!

Happy eating/drinking/schmoozing,

X & EP