Brunswick Stew Festival

My first blog entry. EVER! I have been reading several food blogs for a few months now, but have always dismissed having one of my own, mostly due to laziness on my part. Till now, that is. My husband and I relocated to Richmond, VA a couple of months ago, and I thought that it'll be a perfect time to start a blog as we explore the culinary offerings of this city. 2 months, ok, 3 months later, voila.

We've found some good eats here (more on that in later posts), but it was our outing today that finally motivated me to get my blog going. We went to the 6th Annual Brunswick Stew Festival located at the 17th St Farmers' Market in the historic River District. It was more of a whim since neither of us really knew what Brunswick stew really was. It turns out that it is a stew containing, in essence, meat, corn, lima beans, potatoes and tomatoes. There were about 20 different stands serving up their own version of Brunswick stew, and samples were available for purchase at $1/sample. (One could buy gallons of stew from any of the vendors but we left the festival before the stew was sold in amounts larger than a sample cup.)

Since I'm new to this food blogging thing and I do like my food, I forgot to take a picture of the stew before I ate it. So... I present to you my first food blog photo...... This stew was my favorite out of the 6 we sampled, and for which we voted for the People's Choice Award . There was a certain depth in its flavor, which I presume to come from some tasty cut of meat, as well as a hint of peppers (I was reminded of a gumbo), not a bad flavor combo. It was the "Original" stew from the Episcopal Church of Our Creator. This stand also had a "Traditional" stew that I did not sample. This stuff sticks to your ribs so 6 samples were plenty.

Will definitely try to make my own version at home. Stay tuned...