Southern Living Taste of Charleston

 

Southern Living Taste of Charleston

September 29, 2013

Sponsored by Delta Faucet

 

At the end of July, I was invited by Delta Faucet to attend the Southern Living Taste of Charleston (SLTOC) event in Mt. Pleasant, SC on September 29th as one of their sponsored bloggers. Both my husband and I was so excited to be visiting one of our favorite places - the Charleston, SC area - to do one of our favorite activites - eat good food!

 

Boone Hall Plantation

Mt. Pleasant, SC

 

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful fall day for the event with crisp blue skies and comfortable temperatures. And, we certainly couldn't have asked for a more beautiful venue than Boone Hall Plantation. This was my first time visiting the plantation and it was absolutely gorgeous! I can't wait to go back and explore it more closely. 

 

 

 

Upon our arrival at the event, we checked in with our sponsor, Delta Faucet, who was sharing a tent with Southern Living. We got to check out their newest faucets featuring the Touch2O Technology. Talk about a dream for the busy cook - touch-free faucets. I can't tell you how many times I've been working in the kitchen and have left a huge mess on my faucet. That will all be history when I get one of these beauties installed in my kitchen. Besides being highly functional, they're absolutely beautiful, too.

 

 

 

The new faucets really generated a lot of excitement with event visitors. Delta gave out faucets as door prizes throughout the day and the lucky folks who won were so excited to get their faucets . 

 

 

 

Cookbook author Rebecca Lang introduces Norman King at the Southern Living Taste of Charleston. Norman whips up some fried green tomatoes from his new book, The Way to Fry. This segment of the event was sponsored by Delta Faucet and features the beautiful Touch20 faucet.

 

 

 

One of the highlights of the event was a cooking demonstration from Norman King, Southern Living's Test Kitchen Editor and author of the new cookbook, Southern Living The Way to Fry. Norman cooked up some fried green tomatoes for the crowd and served it up Po' Boy-style .

 

 

Unfortunately, I only sampled the sandwich my eyes and nose. It looked and smelled delicious! This was my first experience watching a live cooking demonstration so I enjoyed watching and smelling the food coming together, much better than watching it on television.

 

 

I was in cookbook heaven. There were stacks of Norman's and Rebecca's cookbooks on display in the tent. While the books were for sale, some of them were given away as door prizes.  

 

 

 

After the cooking demonstration, Norman autographed his cookbook for the fans. I received a copy of the cookbook the night before the event. If you're a fan of fried foods, you'll love it. It's amazing how many nontraditional foods can be fried. 

 

 

 

 

This was one of my favorite displays which featured Rebecca Lang's cookbook, Southern Living Around the Southern Table. The display was sponsored by Fig Newtons. The abundance of fruit also known as nature's props made for a beautiful tablescape. 

 

 

Views from around the event

 

The grounds of Boone Hall Plantation were filled with white tents which represented restaurants and food businesses from all over the Charleston area. Upon entering the event, we bought tickets which we used to purchase food items. Each vendor had several dishes available for purchase.

 

 

 

I personally enjoyed fried shrimp, Greek pasta salad with chicken, feta and basil, a BBQ sandwich and hash and rice. My husband and I shared some of these dishes. He also had a crab cake and a second...or possibly, third...BBQ sandwich. There were so many vendors that it was almost overwhelming to choose how to spend our tickets.

 

 

Vlasic had a popular display with samples of their newest Farmer's Garden products. In addition to the bread and butter chips, they also had dill and kosher version of the pickles. We munched on dill chips with pickled garlic.  

 

Don't worry! There was plenty of barbecue. And, I think my husband sampled every one of the BBQ vendors. We're familiar with Duke's Barbecue so I grabbed a sandwich and hash and rice from them. It never disappoints.

 

 

 

 

The Biltmore Estate Winery had a classy display. I loved the flower arrangement. Unfortunately, this tent was set up so close to the music so it was almost impossible to hear anything when you spoke to the vendors. I felt for them.

 

 

 

While we did not bring our children to the event, there were activities for kids so I could bring them to future events. My 8-year-old would have enjoyed the Kona Ice and balloon animals. My 10-year-old would have been more interested in the food tents. Like mother, like son...

 

 

 

I had to stop a moment to be entertained by a belly dancer and stiltwalker. I wish my kids would have been there to see the stiltwalker. They would have gotten a kick out of him. This guy had quite a way with the ladies.

 

All in all, it was a beautiful day full of food and fun. I want to thank Delta Faucet for inviting and sponsoring me at the event. It was a once in a lifetime experience that I will always remember.