Year in and year out, Taste of the Nation is always a spectacular event. In addition to discovering new restaurants, tasting your around the room and washing it all down with some fine wine,
Taste of the Nation helps raise money for an awesome cause — Share Our Stength‘s No Kid Hungry Campaign — both in ticket sales and the fantastic auction items (and experiences) being raffled off.
This year, Miami & Fort Lauderdale joined forces and held the event at Loew’s Miami Beach. The room was dotted with stars in the local culinary scene — both participants and supporters — and guests were treated with a feast to remember. Unfortunately, Broward wasn’t covered strongly (there were only a few), but many of the top names in Miami were serving up some decadent samplings — and that made up for it.
This was a great opportunity to sample foods from different restaurants (and discover some new favorites, as it can be tough to keep up with all of the openings). Participating restaurants included Pub Belly , 3030 Ocean, Haven, Meat Market, Shake Shack, SUGARCANE, Toro Toro and more — all of which, tantalized our taste buds, but there were a few that stood out from the rest. Although I don’t usually lean towards lamb, Sakaya Kitchen was serving up an incredible dish – Kafir Lamb Tartare – made with soy, sesame oil, crushed black pepper with organic bibb lettuce and house fermented miso and Makoto had a decadent stand-out dish — Mushroom Duxelles with Seiyoushouro Truffles and Umami Cream. Yes — food coma.
This year’s event was quite the success — so be sure to add this one to your calendar for 2014. Until then, enjoy your culinary adventures.