Don't forget that Taste of Georgetown is happening the weekend after Taste of Bethesda. In past years, both Taste of Bethesda and Taste of Georgetown happened on the same day which made it difficult to get to both of them. But this year, Taste of Georgetown is happening on Saturday October 13th from 11 AM to 4 PM.

For the full list of restaurants that are participating, check out the Taste of Georgetown web site. For me, I'll be checking out the following 1789, Fahrenheit, Hook, and Old Glory.

On October 6th, my favorite local street food festival, Taste of Bethesda, returns with a long list of participating restaurants. For those of you unfamiliar with Taste of Bethesda, it's a very large street food festival where the town of Bethesda blocks off about 5 square blocks of the downtown area and the local restaurants put up booths and serve you food. It's not free food of course. You buy tickets, and then you trade those tickets for tastes of food. Each taste will range from 1 to 4 tickets. I've found in the past, that 20 tickets is a good way to start for Amy and I, then we take a rest and get about 20 more! Here's my recommendation for what you should check out.

Passage to India
They usually take the true nature of street food to heart, offering some Pav Baji for the crowds. I hope they do so again this year.

Divino Lounge
Their sausages are to die for. Tapas are perfect for this type of event.

Olazzo
They usually have their homemade meatballs and chicken cardinale, a penne dish with a beautiful vodka sauce, sun dried tomatoes, and chicken over penne .

Ri-Ra Irish Pub
Ri-Ra always has fantastic street food. I remember past years they've had beef and Guinness stew or shepherd's pie.

Plus there are many other restaurants participating. Here is the full list of restaurants participating in Taste of Bethesdah. For more info, go to the official Taste of Bethesda site.

Austin Grill
Bangkok Garden Restaurant
Ben & Jerry’s
BlackFinn
Brasserie Monte Carlo
Bundles of Cookies
Caddies on Cordell
California Tortilla
Chesapeake Chicken & Rockin' Ribs
Chicken Out Rotisserie
Chipotle Mexican Grill
Delhi Dhaba
Divino Lounge & Restaurant
Flanagan’s Harp & Fiddle
Gifford’s Ice Cream & Candy Co.
Guapo’s Restaurant
Haagen-Dazs
Haandi Fine Indian Cuisine
Hard Times Café
Honest Tea
Houston's Restaurant
Jaleo
Just Cakes
Mamma Lucia of Bethesdsa
McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant
Mia's Pizzas
Morton’s
Nark Kara Thai Restaurant
Olazzo
Papa John's Pizza
Passage to India
Penang Malaysian Cuisine
Persimmon
Quartermaine Coffee Roasters
Ri-Ra Irish Pub
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery
Ruth’s Chris Steak House
Saphire Café
Smoothie King
Spring Mill Bread Co.
Tara Thai Restaurant
Tommy Joe’s
Trader Joe's
Union Jack’s

Don't forget that Taste of Georgetown is Oct 14th, 2006 this year from 11 AM to 4 PM. Taste of Georgetown is a smaller event than Taste of Bethesda, but it's fun non-the-less.

Each tasting is $5 or you can purchase 5 at a time for $20. The festivity proceeds raised will benefit the homeless outreach efforts providing psychiatrist care, shelter and meals through The Georgetown Ministry Center (www.georgetownministrycenter.org).

Full details available here.

Participating Restaurants
Clyde’s of Georgetown
1789
Mie N Yu
Citronelle
Tony and Joe's Seafood Place
CABANAS
Nick's Riverside Grille
Red Ginger
Old Glory BBQ
Café Bonaparte
Chez Mama-San
Peacock Café
Billy Martin’s Tavern
Café La Ruche
Bangkok Joe's
Sea Catch Restaurant and Raw Bar
The Ritz Carlton’s Fahrenheit Restaurant
Smith Point
Chadwick's
Mendocino Grille and Wine Bar
Leopold's Kafe + Konditorei
Starbucks
Agraria
Morton’s Steakhouse
Seasons at the Four Seasons
Paolo’s Ristorante
Neyla
J.Pauls

It's that time of the year again. A time when I go on a diet to prepare for the my favorite street food festival in the DC area. A time when hundreds flock to the streets of Bethesda to sample treats from the local restaurants like crispy samosas, soft papusas, and your typical peanut sauce encrusted chicken satays. A time when campaign volunteers accost you on the street asking you to take one of their campaign stickers. A time when extremely tall, scary clowns roam the crowds searching for little children to feed on (joking).

It's time for Taste of Bethesda. Oct 7 from 11 AM to 4 PM, downtown Bethesda's streets will be blocked off, music will be played in the streets, and food will be eaten. Full details will be posted here.

Once again, it took someone emailing me to remind me about Taste of Wheaton this year.

MUST MARK CALENDAR.

Taste of Wheaton will be May 21st, from 11 AM to 5 PM. As usual, restaurants will be offering tastes of their food for $1 each. There are also musical events and other entertainment for the kids (usually involving clowns that scare the crap out of Amy), but honestly, who cares about that? These festivals are about the food!

Anyway, I attended this event last year with Amy and I had a lot of fun. This year we have Noah and it should be even more fun. Food festivals rock!

Click here for Taste of Wheaton details.

For the most recent information on Taste of Bethesda 2006, go to my Taste of Bethesda page.

It's baaaaaack. Taste of Bethesda, the best "taste of" festival of the year, will be Oct. 1 from 11 AM to 4 PM. I look forward to this festival every year.  Taste of Bethesda is the best chance to try a ton of different Bethesda restaurants in one day. Tickets are $5 for 4 and can be bought at the festival. Here is the link to the full event info.