Event recap: Taste of Atlanta

It’s been a week, but I am still dreaming of all the tasty gourmet bites I sampled at this year’s Taste of Atlanta. Poached shrimp, crispy chicken thighs, sweet potato nachos… drooling, I tell you!

Crispy chicken thigh over mashed rutabega from 1Kept

Frisee salad topped with biltong from Cape Dutch

The 15th annual foodie event featured dishes from more than 90 Atlanta restaurants, as well as celebrity chef sightings and cooking demonstrations.

The latter is one of my favorite parts of the festival, because you get to learn neat little cooking tricks from Atlanta’s best chefs. Like the fact that you can add a little bit of vinegar to the water when boiling eggs, so they don’t crack in the water and so it’s easier to peel them once they’re cooked. And that you can use coconut vinegar to poach shrimp or even make a white hot sauce.

Chef Hector Santiago of El Super Pan, poaching shrimp in coconut vinegar

And this year, the fun continues even after the official event has ended. If you visit any of the restaurants you grabbed a bite from at Taste of Atlanta through December 19, you can send in your receipt for a chance to win prizes, like a Big Green Egg grill, Calphalon cookware and restaurant gift cards. Just email the receipt, as well as your contact info, to taster@tasteofatlanta.com to enter the contest.