Food & Wine Festival 2010: The Finale

I'm still not sure how we found the room for this last round after all the food we consumed all week. I'm not even sure how I've managed to be hungry at all since then, although truth be told, while I am *starving* at meal times, my appetite is easily curbed.

I started with something I had been curiously eying since I first laid eyes on this year's menu.

CANADA
Nanaimo Bar.

I don't even know where to start. The chilled-brittle chocolate layer on top? The dense brownie-like bottom with it bits of chopped nuts (and, I'm told, coconut flakes, though I didn't personally detect them)? The cool creamy custard sandwiched between the two? If I weren't so stuffed to the gills, I would have had at least two more of these.

But I had to leave some of the remaining stomach real estate open for...

IRELAND
Kerrygold Cheese Selection. Lobster and Scallop Fisherman's Pie.

Oh. My. Word. That fisherman's pie. You should just drool now. It was like a shepherd's pie but not. It was so so yummy. And the perfect comfort food for a chilly Winter evening. I do not even have the words. Also? I need that recipe. And then there was the cheese plate. The little cup held an apple chutney--tart/sweet and a pleasant surprise against the flavors of the cheeses--and the brown bread was heavy nutty bread, which I bet would have been amazing warm. The cheese on the bottom, the Ivernia, was the sharpest of the three, and was a lot in texture like a Parmesan. The one on the top was an Aged Irish Cheddar, less sharp but still with a bit of a bite. My favorite was the long piece in the middle, the Dubliner, which was milder & very creamy.

From here, we left for a reprise of the waffle in Belgium, and then moved along to several other locations where I passed in light of "saving room" because ohmigosh was I full. I finally located a corner of space when we arrived at...

ARGENTINA
Roasted Corn and Cheese Empanada. Pascual Toso Torrontes.

Nichole & I split this one. The corn & cheese tucked into the pastry was wonderful. A little heavier than I anticipated (or maybe that was just because I was STUFFED) but very tasty. I liked the wine, but at the time we were too busy laughing for me to have retained anything more to share about it.

Before my final stop of the day for seconds on the heirloom tomato salad in the United States, there was one last dish on my list of must-tries. So we doubled back to...

SOUTH KOREA
Lettuce Wrap with Roast Pork and Kimchi Slaw.

This had a bit of kick to it, but the lettuce helped to cool it off just a bit. It was a messy taste, though not as messy as its counterpart from an earlier round (the Barbecue Short Rib). And I may or may not have washed it down with another glass of the Black Raspberry Rice Wine--the world will never know. ;-)

The only complaint I really have about Food & Wine Fest? That my stomach isn't big enough to hold more. There were far too many options for a girl with decision-making issues and ridiculous levels of yumminess that I wish I could have tried more than once. That's really not much of a problem, though, is it? =) Already looking forward to 2011.