On the weekend of April 16-17, the third installment of Baltimore’s Empori-yum food market hit the city, offering foodies the chance to sip, sample and shop with some of the East Coast’s best artisan food producers. The event, held in a former Best Buy on Pratt Street, showcased food and beverages, with plenty of samples, snacks and meals for purchase and the opportunity to shop for food products from desserts to cocktail mixers and everything in between.

Here are some of my photos from the event:

Buredo sushi burritos

Bmore Tasteful homemade pies

Hex Ferments kombuchas

The Empori-Yum banner

Empori-yum was awesome. The space was large and accommodating, there were plenty of sample bites to try and all kinds of artisan food vendors from up and down the East Coast, including plenty of vendors local to the DC/Baltimore area. My standouts were Buredo’s sushi burritos, Hex Ferments kombucha, Rujero Singani Bolivian brandy and B’more Tasteful pies and desserts.

After our visit to the Empori-yum, my husband and I walked over to Fells Point, where we stumbled upon the Privateer (“Pirate” in layman’s terms) Festival. We roamed the neighborhood and ended up at at The Wharf Rat pub for beer flights and a dinner of delicious pub fish and chips.

The next day we left Baltimore after a behind-the-scenes tour of Oriole Park at Camden Yards and headed to DC for the Cochon 555 event.  More on that to come!

 

This weekend, my husband and I will run the Monument Avenue 10k for the third time. We always go out to eat the night before, usually to somewhere Greek or Italian. This year, we’re planning to have dinner at The Grapevine Greek and Italian restaurant, a cozy little spot in Richmond’s West End with plenty of Richmond magazine “Best Of” awards to its name.

To celebrate finishing another 10k, we’re planning to head up to Baltimore and DC the weekend after for a foodie getaway. On Saturday, we’ll visit Baltimore’s Empori-yum, a curated food market featuring prepared food, meals, snacks, food samples, packaged artisan foods and local spirits, beer and wine. I’m looking forward to checking out some of the restaurants and food producers I’ve heard a lot about recently, like Toki Underground, Element Shrub, CakeLove jar cakes and Crude small batch bitters and sodas.  The V.I.P. tickets, which include a swag bag and early admission, are nearly sold out, so get your tickets now!

On Sunday, we’ll be attending DC’s stop on the Cochon 555 tour. I’m so excited to see five of DC’s hottest chefs create a bevy of dishes from each of their heritage-breed pigs. This year, chefs Jennifer Carroll of Requin, Anthony Lombardo of The Hamilton, Louis Goral of Rural Society Argentine Steakhouse, Jonah Kim of Yona and Marjorie Meek-Bradley of Ripple will be up for the top honors as the prince or princess of porc to move on to the national Cochon event for a chance to be crowned this year’s king or queen of porc. In addition to the many pork dishes on the menu, artisan butters, cheeses and seafood will be featured, along with ramen dishes and a pop-up pie shop. In the beverage department, the wines of Germany will be represented, and special beverage experiences will be popping up throughout the event, such as the “Welcome Punch” reception featuring Buffalo Trace, The Perfect Margarita experience featuring tequilas from Don Julio, a tiki bar with heritage rums and the “Chupito” mezcal experience. Tickets for Sunday’s Cochon 555 event, as well as Friday’s and Saturday’s pre-event dinners, are available at Cochon 555’s website.