Gluttony at Iron Fork
Wednesday night three of my local food lovin’ friends and I headed over to the Country Music Hall of Fame for Nashville Scene’s 2nd annual Iron Fork competition (aka, the culinary event of the year).
A view from above – the Iron Fork crowd
With so much sampling to do, I prepared by eating very little all day and purposely left the house starving. We all know that rule #1 of grocery shopping is to never shop while hungry. Well how about going to an event where there is a seemingly unlimited amount of really good food? Sinful.
In less than 2 hours I consumed:
1 thai chicken skewer with spicy peanut sauce and
1 mini mushroom swiss burger from Tazza
2 sweet potato biscuits with country ham and peach chutney from Martha Stamps Catering
Saffire‘s tasting spoon of sweet potato grits heaped with brown-sugar pork
2 “Elvis Cakes” (mini banana cupcakes with creamy peanut butter in the center) from Sweet 16th Bakery
Rumours shot glass of white chocolate mousse
1 cup of grilled chicken with mango salsa from Los Rosales
a couple of bites of Filet and Chicken from Criallo’s
Tuna Tartare on crispy wonton from Mere Bulle’s
a tiny sampling of Finezza‘s Chicken marsala
1 extremely spicy chicken tender with blue cheese sauce from Corner Pub
Jalapeno bread pudding with butterscotch sauce from Crow’s Nest
a Qdoba bowl with rice, chicken, black beans, queso and salsa
1 Gorgonzola Rosemary biscuit from DrinkHaus
a couple of bites of Filet and Chicken from Criallo’s
Tuna Tartare on crispy wonton from Mere Bulle’s
a tiny sampling of Finezza‘s Chicken marsala
1 extremely spicy chicken tender with blue cheese sauce from Corner Pub
Jalapeno bread pudding with butterscotch sauce from Crow’s Nest
a Qdoba bowl with rice, chicken, black beans, queso and salsa
1 Gorgonzola Rosemary biscuit from DrinkHaus
Standouts for me were Martha Stamps’ biscuit, the mini mushroom burger (a surprise), and all of the desserts! There are so many hidden gems in Nashville that are now on my radar- Los Rosales, DrinkHaus, Sweet 16th, and others that I’ve dined at but realize it’s been too long and need a repeat visit very soon- Saffire, Criallo’s, Rumours (hey what do you know, I’m going there tonight!)
Girlfriends that accompanied me- what were your favorites?
To top it all off, Chef Jeremy Barlow of tayst nabbed the golden Iron Fork! What a coincidence that just a few short days ago Melissa and I were shopping with him at the Farmers’ Market for the very ingredient that brought him home the prize- purple asparagus from Delvin Farms!!
Chef Barlow juicing some asparagus
