Brews & Bites 2012

I am an absolute sucker for food festivals, especially those offered with discounts via websites like Living Social and such. I purchased tickets for the Miami Wine & Food Festival's Brews & Bites Craft Beer Tasting event for $25 a pop through one of those sites so my expectations were low. Thank goodness. It wasn't a total bust though, allow me to explain. The event was held in the patio area of Mary Brickell Village, which made for a lovely evening due to the nice weather. And that's it.

The food was nothing stellar - the only memorable thing I ate all night was the chicken wings from Fado. Those suckers were big, juicy, and smothered in a sauce that still haunts my dreams. I hate chicken wings, I will only eat them when inebriated and with limited options for filler food. These wings however, we're so captivatingly tasty that I kept going back for more. Luckily, Fado had enough to feed this inner fatty and the 3 inner fatties who came along for the event: my sister, my mom (the original bottomless pit) and my aunt, another closet fatty. If we weren't Venezuelan and totally vain we would be a fat chick biker gang - on Hovaround scooters. But I digress....

I also enjoyed the guacamole from Rosa Mexicano, but that wasn't a surprise since its actually one of my favorites.

Micosukee had very yummy ceviche, it was fresh and tangy. They also had a huge cheese display, which looked incredibly appetizing until the dude serving the cheese adhered to the "one for you, two for me policy" and started hitting on my mom. I can forgive the latter but I really can't look past someone, especially a stranger, thinking its groovy tunes to share a dish with moi. No sir, no thank you.

I also enjoyed the Pulled Pork Sandwich from Timo. The meat was saucy and well seasoned.

The beer situation was good times. As a self proclaimed beer whore I had a grand old time sipping (ok and maybe guzzling a bit, whatever) cold ones through the night. I enjoyed the Sierra Nevada table, the guy knew his beers and was generous with his pourings.

This was awesome

The Sam Adams peeps were known to me from the Yelp event I recently attended so they were very sweet and generous as well. Again, the blackberry beer was a favorite and luckily I was able to go back for refills again and again.

I met a new love this day - UFO! In the words of the incredibly annoying Rachael Ray - YUM-O! This beer is smooth, real smooth. Reminds me a lot of Blue Moon, a favorite in our household. Due to this introduction it is now what hubby orders at Latin House Grill. I didn't get a pic of UFO. But here are some pics of other beers I enjoyed



These guys were awesome. I tried all their beers and all were yum.

One thing I didn't like, in fact I think the thought of it makes me a bit queasy, is the beers from Schnebly's. Yikes. Guava beer? No, please don't. And the other beer, coconut I think... The guy serving it said "it tastes like The Keys" and I thought no dude, it tastes like stuff I slather on my ass to make it turn brown while in the Keys. My apologies, but stick to wine, Schnebly's...

Overall the event was just OK. I did enjoy the beers, the food left much to be desired. I don't think I would go back next year unless there's more food. Beer makes my inner fatty quite hungry.