EVENT: Orlando Food & Wine Festival, Lake Eola, Downtown Orlando, FL

This past weekend (Nov 15-16, 2008) was the first annual Orlando Food & Wine Festival; it was held by Lake Eola on East Robinson Street. I didn't know about this until Saturday night when I caught up with Pom. It sounded like something new and different, and since I didn't have solid plans for Sunday, I decided to help out.

The festival included 25 food vendors plus numerous other booths advertising various products and services. In the clearing, across from Panera's, there was an Entertainment Stage sponsored by metroPCS with music, then on a side-street, there was a Chef's Stage presented by Travelhost.

Admission to the festival area was $15 ($10 in advance) and food was purchased using $2-tickets and ranged from 1 to 4 tickets ($2-$8). Pom Pom's Teachouse was vending and offered the following items:

Lavender Peppercorn Creme Brule -- 1 ticket

Chicken Yellow Curry Puff Pastry w/Warm Berry Culet -- 2 tickets

Miniature Lollypop Pork Shank w/Guava Ginger Glaze Served with Five Spice Sweet Potato Walnut Crust -- 3 tickets

I helped by rolling plastic forks in a napkin and going to get another hand-held torch for the crystallized sugar prep.

Earlier on, I had the opportunity to walk around the lake. It was a beautiful day with the right amount of sun and chill.

I walked over to the farmers' market on the SE corner of the lake, and the feeling was calm and nice -- the smell of incense, kettle corn, and citrus plants for sale. There were a number of dogs [well-behaved] including three English bulldogs.

Then continuing around the lake, there was a guy feeding an already-chubby squirrel (SO CUTE!).

Anyways, Pom was sold out of food by 4:30pm. She invited everyone to the shop for a celebration for the week of hard work, but many of us had to work the next day (other jobs). I decided to bail to Disney, and no one gave me a hard time -- everyone understood.

Overall, the Orlando Food & Wine Festival had much room for improvement but it was fine -- it was only their first year, and it was a reason to be outside and around friends.