As a vegetarian, I'm usually limited to pretzels, fried potatoes and a liquid diet (beer) at Cincinnati's street festivals. Not at Taste of Cincinnati! This year, I left as stuffed and happy as my bratwurst-loving boyfriend.
Check out our local Best of Taste winners. During two trips to the Taste this weekend, we visited no corporate chains.
Best Vegetarian Dish: Hands down, the best dish I had all weekend was Bella Luna's Grande Ravioli.(I ate it twice!) For $5, you got a 3-inch wide ravioli stuffed with mushrooms and cheese. It was topped with a chunky and slightly sweet roasted red pepper sauce and liberally sprinkled with gorgonzola. The pungent gorgonzola perfectly complemented the mildly spicy sauce and balanced the richness of the cheese inside the ravioli. A teenager I know who's incredibly picky even liked this dish! (I didn't tell her there were mushrooms inside!)
Best Use of Beer: Jean-Francois Flechet (of Taste From Belgium and waffles fame) and Essencha teamed up on Christian Moerlein crepes. Flechet said that beer is cheaper than milk in Belgium, so it's often used in crepe batter. Trust me, it's delicieux! I tried the lemon-and-lavender sugar variety, but there was also a caramel and fleur de sel crepe I wish I would have tried. The line for these was fairly long, but the delicate and crispy crepes were well worth the wait. Flechet's mouth-watering and sinfully rich waffles have some serious competition in the race for Best Belgian Import. What other Belgian treats will Flechet bestow upon Cincinnati? (Belgian frites, peut-etre?) Let's hope these crepes will make an appearance at Flechet's Findlay Market booth sometime soon!
Best Potato Pancakes: Thick and full of flavor (but a little greasy), Wertheim's potato pancakes were a great ending to Day Two of Taste.
Fantastic job, Stepfanie and Kurt!