Taste of Atlanta 2011 This Weekend

Delicious pork belly/fried banana bites at JCT Kitchen, one of the 80 restaurants participating in Taste of Atlanta this weekend.

I was invited on a fun progressive tasting highlighting some of the fabulous restaurants featured at this year's Taste of Atlanta event, to be held in Tech Square this weekend, October 22 and 23 with a special Friday night party on October 21. Taste of Atlanta features food, cocktails, wine, beer, cooking demos, competitions and more, with dozens of Atlanta area restaurants featured. Click here to purchase tickets. Looks like a great weekend for the 10th Anniversary of this fun food festival. Below are some highlights from the sneak peak.

Bar upstairs at JCT.



Special fall drinks at JCT Kitchen.



Dining room at Tuk Tuk Thai Loft.



Mieng Kum at Tuk Tuk. We loved these!



Beef with sticky rice. Oh how I adore you sticky rice!



Shrimp and chicken toasts.

Fiesta Fiesta!

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Fresh-cooked meat for tacos and buritos.

On Sunday we attended Fiesta Atlanta, a Cinco de Mayo annual festival held at Centennial Olympic Park. Thankfully we went early, and it paid off with tons of freebies including an entire package of tortillas, cookies, loads of Little Debbie snacks, various juices and power drinks and much more! It was a great day for another festival! We also managed to run into an Atlanta Hawks block party, as preparations for Sunday's game began. They wouldn't let us shoot baskets as we were too old for the 12 year age limit, but I did win a magnet :).

The big picture.

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Old-fashioned festival food was also available.



Coke Zero - at it again!

It's like The Price is Right!



Fountain fun.



Almost frightening!



Cops at the ready.

Inman Park Festival Food

Surprisingly, I didn't eat anything at the Inman Park Festival, but I enjoyed photographing some of the offerings. It was a beautiful (hot) day on Saturday - overall a fun day of parade-watching, encountering a few old friends (including some I hadn't seen in a long time) and making some new ones.

Edible Book Festival

Freight Train - entry in the kid's section of the Edible Book Festival.

On Saturday I made time to visit the Edible Book Festival in Decatur, a fundraiser for the Literacy Volunteers of Atlanta. Apparently there is an international edible book festival. Some of the entries were quite impressive. My personal favorite was the scene from "Where the Wild Things Are," pictured below.

March of the Penguins.



Some used plays on words...



Others built extraordinary edible scenes - here a scene from "Where the Wild Things Are."



Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.



Don't we all know it!



Dr. Seuss - Green Eggs & Ham page.



The Rainbow Fish.