Oh, wow, did I really not blog about the festival last year? That’s sad. Well, some shit was happening in, like, my real life right around then. Do excuse me.

So… though I only have a 2010 blog entry to prove it, this was my third annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival. This year’s fest was by far the best in my opinion, and I say that not only for rhyming purposes.

This year they condensed the festival to two days instead of three. Good move. I don’t need my entire weekend monopolized. And the upped the quality of each event, save the Tasting Pavilion, which is still my least favorite event, I’d say.

The event consisted of:

• Meet and greet / appetizers / welcome session at the Starlight Room on Friday evening.
• A dine around town dinner at the restaurant of your choice, with $50 CASH provided to spend on Friday night. Weird. But good.
• Scavenger hunt at the Saturday morning farmer’s market at the Ferry Building.
• Tasting Pavilion at the Metreon Saturday afternoon.
• Gala dinner at the Cal Academy of Sciences Saturday night.

I have never been to the Starlight Room. It looks hokey and for old people. That may be the case, but I loved it. The decor was ridiculous but awesome, the view was great, and there was an open bar. Also, my good friend, Mr. M. Quinn Sweeney, accompanied me thusly:

After the Starlight, Q and I made our way to Baker and Banker for our dine around town experience. I think the idea was that you go in some sort of group and get to know people. If you’ve met me, you know this is not likely my first choice. Though, Q did point out that talking to a stranger at a Foodbuzz festival was indeed how we met two years ago. (Side note: we are not a couple. This was confusing to people at times throughout the festival.) Basically, this was Q and my friend-iversary. Adorbs.

Baker and Banker will receive its own separate regular b&c entry. We had a good time though, fo sho.

Saturday morning’s scavenger hunt was at 8am. WTF? That is too early for a Saturday morning even though it sounded fun. I slept through that biz, then cleaned my house so that I was suitably “omm” for the Tasting Pavilion in the afternoon.

The Tasting Pavilion is a fixture every year, it seems. The venue is rad, and some of the food is good, but mostly, it’s just a big gauntlet of generic vendors giving out food samples. There are some local places (Kika’s Treats!!!), the ubiquitous Three Twins Ice Cream, and a few more good things, but generally it’s just a lot of packaged food and lots of repeat vendors (how much biscotti does a person need in one session?). Anyway, not my fav, but I went anyway.

Saturday night was the Gala dinner. They rented out the entire Cal Academy. It was unnecessary. It was ridiculous. It was amazing. I only wish we could have frolicked around in the aviary in our socks. Alas, that will have to wait for another time.

The reception was downstairs in the aquarium. Drinks and appetizers in the aquarium! Best ever! Dinner was upstairs in the back directly across from the main entrance to the building (but before the albino crocodile enclosure… you know what I’m talking about, right?). There were a dozen or so round tables set up and we seated ourselves freely. I brought the Mala-monster to this event because she’s awesome and they let me.

This gala was buffet style, which I much prefer. Some peeps were saying the sit down dinner is classier, but I thought the buffet was much more appropriate. And I didn’t waste nearly as much food because of it. Still open bar, pretty good catered food, and good company at our table.

The night went quickly and was over before we knew it. We had a really good time. Then my other friends came and picked me up and I went bowling in Pacifica. Because that’s how I roll sometimes. Thanks again, Foodbuzz. See you next year.

 

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