Thursday night I was delighted to attend this year’s Taste of Blount.  Coming from San Francisco, a city of predominantly non-chain restaurants, I was interested in sampling food from a variety of locally-owned and operated eateries.  This year saw representation from Aubrey’s Restaurant, Foothills Catering, Foothill’s Milling Company, Lemon Grass Thai Cuisine and Sushi Bar, Peerless Restaurant, Sweet Celebrations, The Miles Family 411 Restaurant, The Oaks Dining Room and Bar, The Palace Cafe and Uptown Catering, The Tomato Head and Vienna Coffee Company.  Major chains were also represented by Chili’s, Candy Bouquet, Domino’s, Honey Baked Ham, Lenny’s Subs, Marble Slab Creamery, McAllister’s Deli, Panera Bread, Food City and Aqua Clear Water Systems.

I arrived at the Broadway Parking Garage with my Dad shortly after the gates opened.  It was obvious which were the popular locations based on the massive lines that were already in place.  Dad and I decided to move through the left side first, until we reached the dessert booths, then backtrack and move over to the right side.  I kept track of everything, since I am such a big foodie, and because we would be voting on Favorite Food, Favorite Beverage and Best Presentation later on in the evening.

On to the food:

Aubrey’s

Aubrey’s offered Oven Roasted Prime Rib and Grilled Shrimp on what seemed to be a scoop of some risotto-type dish.  There was also supposed to be a Chocolate Turtle Cake, but we never saw it.  The rub on the Prime Rib was great and tasted like it involved some peppercorn.  It was also cook pretty close to perfect, so Aubrey’s gets bonus points for good taste and proper cooking for the masses (a sold out crowd of 500).  The Prime Rib was also my Dad’s choice for Favorite Food.

Dad enjoying Aubrey’s Prime Rib

The Miles Family 411 Restaurant

The 411 offered up diner delights - Fried Pickles, Fried Mushrooms and BBQ Pork Mini Sandwiches.  I skipped on the sandwiches, because of my pork allergy, but reveled in the just-right breading on the Fried Mushrooms.  The Fried Pickles were good, but an acquired taste for many people.  Dad and I both gave the Fried Mushrooms a thumbs up, but only I appreciated the Fried Pickles.

Foothills Catering

Foothills Catering showed to be a more sophisticated booth than many other the options available at the Taste of Blount.  Note to organizers, put them next to Foothills Milling Company or The Oaks next time.  I think they would be in like company and better appreciated.  Some of the people arriving to this booth after visiting Domino’s and the 411 seemed to be a bit disoriented by the Tropical Tuna Bites.  Besides the Tropical Tuna Bites, Foothills Catering provided us with Spiced Lamp Pita Points with a Mango Salsa and Asparagus wrapped in Parmesan Encrusted Phyllo Dough.  While I found all of these samples to be delectable, my Dad was put off by the seared tuna in the Tropical Tuna Bites and anything with asparagus.  He did mention that if you only ate the part inside of the phyllo dough, it was good.  I delighted in the Spice Lamb Pita Points with a Mango Salsa and it was my choice for Favorite Food.

 McAllister’s Deli

We chose not to eat at McAllister’s Deli because I have eaten their multiple times and I need to conserve my stomach space.  However, I am a sucker for their Famous Sweet Tea.  Dad and I both grabbed a cup of that nectar of the gods and it was a landslide winner for Dad’s Favorite Beverage.

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Maryville’s very own Daily Times has launched a photo sharing site: Spotted.  Under “You Spotted” Maryville citizens get the opportunity to share their personal photos as well as photos of Blount County events and locations, while “We Spotted” is set to highlight photos from “The Daily Times.”  While writing this post, I noticed that there are no photos under “We Spotted.” Nor are there any Staff members listed.  Come on DT!  If you are going to launch a photo sharing site, you should have photos of your own up and ready to go.  Currently there are 37 members, which isn’t too bad for being live for less than 24 hours.

So how do we benefit from this kind of site? What makes it better than the options that are already out there? Flickr already has a Blount County group if you are interested in Blount County photography.  And I don’t know about you, but I don’t need to see any more pictures of grandbabies (which currently seems to be the most popular subject on Spotted)!  What I am hoping to see is The Daily Times getting involved.  “We Spotted” has a section for upcoming events and I would love to see that put to use as a convenient location for all Blount County upcoming events.

But does The Daily Times benefit from Spotted?  Possibly.  First there is the additional opportunity for advertisement.  Then there are the Terms of Use.  The Terms of Use state:

If you post content on the site (User Content), you remain the owner but grant to Company a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide fully sub-licensable right to use the User Content and to reproduce, modify, publish, create derivative works, distribute and display such content throughout the world in any media, whether now known or hereafter created or developed.

While this is no surprise (other photo sharing sites make similar disclaimers), could it be possible that user submitted photos might be used in The Daily Times, thedailytimes.com or blountcountyvoice.com?  Newspapers solicit their subscribers for photos and this makes available another avenue of photo submission.

I am very interested to see if Spotted takes off.  Let’s also hope that The Daily Times makes it a site worth using, by contributing its own content to the site in the future.

If you are looking for something to do tonight, why not head to downtown Maryville and enjoy the Taste of Blount County.  Tickets are $25 and can be purchased from the Chamber of Commerce.  Local restaurants will be represented, including Foothill’s Milling Company, Lemon Grass Thai Cuisine and Sushi Bar and The Miles Family 411 Restaurant.  Bringing a picky eater? The “chains” will be there as well: McAllister’s Deli, Panera Bread and Domino’s Pizza are just a few.  Hope to see you there!

to all our company.

Yup, tomorrow morning I am head back West to California and law school.  It has been a blast and I will miss everyone, but I will be back.  Yes, that is both a promise and a threat.

On to better news… I bought a Wii today.  Reason #4 why its so great to live in a small town:  While the Wii’s continue to be elusive and sell-out as soon as they enter into stock at your local Best Buy, small-town Target gets 30 of them in and most of them stick around for at least 24 hours.  There was about 20 of them when I went to buy one this morning and no news of them selling out quickly. Yeah for smaller towns!!!

I am hoping to have internet in most of my hotels for the trip back, so I will try to keep you all up to date.  Otherwise, I am back in SF late Tuesday night!  See you then.

Now that I have gotten a good 4 hours of sleep (eek!), I am ready to post a couple of pictures from last night.

But first off, have I ever mentioned the joys of living in a smaller town? Let me explain. When I went to watch the midnight release of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” there was no line at the movie theater. It was showing at 4 screens in our town and only one of the 4 was sold out. So last night, when I went to get “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” I was only slightly worried about a line. And I was right. I arrived at about 11:20 pm and Wal-mart handed out House wristbands. I was in group two: Slytherin. But even then, I had a book in my hand by 12:03 and paid for it by 12:06. Not too bad, huh?

My husband, on the other hand, was not so lucky. He went to the Borders in Union Square in San Francisco. Although he got there a good hour early as well, he was something like number 847 out of 1,200 (they stopped handing out numbers so that the staff could close up shop 2:30 am-ish). And yes, while I was in and out of Wal-mart, he didn’t get to leave Borders until after 2 am. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE living in San Francisco. But the benefits of the smaller town of Maryville, TN does have its benefits. Oh, and there was free cupcakes and orange soda in my neck of the woods.
Without further ado: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at Wal-mart in Maryville, TN.

The Books are trucked out at 11:58 pm and are kept under wraps, awaiting the eager minds.

They count down to 12:01 and the anxious readers approach.

Books are finally handed out, Gryffindor is first of course.