#FREEFOOD

A friend of a friend who had lived in Washington DC for many years told me that the one thing they remember about Atlanta was that the food was amazing. So what better way to put this hypothesis to the test? How about a "Taste of Atlanta" food festival, "The food lover's food experience"?

The simple answer? I'll let my current food baby speak for itself right now!

The 12th annual Taste of Atlanta food festival takes place friday night and all weekend. It literally takes over Tech Square stretching about 5 blocks long in total with over 100 different restaurants and businesses taking part. It was huge! So our team, all filled with empty stomachs, set out on a food adventure!

Note to my family: Any Matt Preston-like comments on done on purpose so you can stop laughing at me! :P

The adventure started with a pretty lucky plus. With your entry ticket, you get 10 coupons which are used to buy food within the festival. Once you use up all 10 coupons, you can buy 10 more for $10. When I hand in my ticket to get my bracelet and coupons, the girl without realizing handed me two lots of coupons which had stuck together. I, of course, immediately realized this and thought to myself "walk away, walk away. Please don't realize!" and she didn't so we got 10 extra free coupons! WOOT!

MORE FREE FOOD! :D

Upon entering we realize that some stuff you buy with your coupons and other stuff is completely free so after grabbing a free packet of chips, we realize quite fast that we're gonna need a bag to stock up on. Fortunately 3 stalls down, we see free bags being given by Yelp. The catch? You have to download the app and check in. Now I have no idea what Yelp is or what it does but 10mb later, I had a free bag, sunglasses (which I rocked despite how bad they looked), poncho, lip balm, pen and badges. Considering how much stuff I filled that bag with, worth it.

So after a quick detour to get more free chips and fruit bars (free food, amirite?), we were drawn to a man shouting out "free shots! Get 3 free shots here!". They were giving out shots to this strawberry vodka. It was alright although I wanted to be drinking it all night, very sweet! We were smart enough to spread the shots out throughout the day otherwise things could have been bad!  6.5/10 would take advantage of free alcohol again.

Next stop was a place giving out free samples of craft beer ice cream. I tried the chocolate stout ice cream, it was pretty tasty. The beer taste was very subtle though, more in the after taste but I'm sure if you had a whole tub it would be more explicit. Interesting combination, 8/10 would experiment again.

As we walked along checking out what else the festival had in store, the smells and sights were amazing. Every time you came to a new stall, you'd go "Hmm that sounds tasty" looking at the menu or "Woooah, what's that? It smells amazing!". Like the smell of the BBQ pork grilling was very hard to resist!

First purchase with food coupons came in the form of a Yeah! slider. They smelled really tasty and their special Yeah! sauce sounded interesting. It was really good. Quite fresh tasting patty, not to overdone or oily and the special sauce added an intriguing medley of flavours. 8.5/10 would wrap my mouth around again.

Next food purchase was on the very strong recommendation of our team's French representation, nutella and banana crepes. Oh...my...god. I think these crepes have ruined me for other crepes. It was so delicious. I polished it off so fast. In fact they were so good, we came back at the end of the day and got another one! If you've never tried this combo of flavors in a crepe, you haven't lived. Seriously. 9.5/10 would salivate over again.

Onwards we trekked to more food and my next stop was for some southern fried chicken. I figured it was an iconic southern food and surely this would be the best place to try it. Yes....yes it was. Probably the best fried chicken I've ever had. The skin was crispy and filled with an assortment of complimentary herbs and spices that created a taste explosion in my mouth. The chicken was most importantly juicy, not oily. You could just bite right in and let the food do it's thing in your mouth. This is what southern fried chicken is meant to be like. 9/10 would lament over KFC being not real southern fried chicken again.

Next free sample was some virgin olive oil infused with natural herbs. I tried the garlic rosemary, it was brilliant. Would be amazing lathered over some potatoes and put in a roast! 7.5/10 would think about learning how to cook a roast again

The next stall was probably my favourite just by the sheer number of free samples you could take. It was a sweet tea (that's iced tea to my non-southern friends) called Peace with the corny tag ling "The world's sweeter with Peace". They had two flavours to try, Razzleberry and Georgia Peach. The peach was my preferred choice. But I could only decided after have two samples of each of course, had to be sure! It was so refreshing that we even came back later in the day for more free sweet tea and they had increased the cup sizes to a normal cup size, not just a shot size. Winning! Of course, I had to try each flavour again twice to just make sure the peach was my preferred choice. I enjoyed it so much, it even prompted me to buy some Snapple on the way home to put in my fridge. 9/10 would go back again for four more cups of free samples.

Still plenty of free tastings and samples along the way. Free cans of Monster iced coffee, free samples of Hawaiian bread (very sweet, definitely could not have too much), all added to my increasing stash in my bag. But the next thing to perk my interest was a food van selling "southern influenced gelato". I have no idea how Italian ice cream and southern influences could met and even agree! I didn't try it because it seemed expensive but I still have no idea how those two different types of cuisine could be joined together. If you have any ideas, please let me know.

Further we went on into the heart of the festival. Next major free samples were flavoured natural sparkling mineral water. It was a cool stall because it was inside this little inflatable type room thing which they had called "The Ice Cube". They had four flavours, raspberry, coconut & pineapple, kiwi strawberry and peach nectarine. The coconut & pineapple was my favourite, a nice balance of flavours. 7/10 would probably sneak another free sample again.

Next food purchase was some Chowder Fries. It sounded so southern that I had to try it plus it look rather tasty! Sort of like a baked potato but the potato were fries. It was really delicious, the bacon, the sour cream-esque cream and the sauce which had a bit of a spicy kick to it made for a mouthwatering concoction of flavours. The downside? It was really filling. By this time, I could feel a food baby beginning to form but with more ground to cover and more coupons to spend, we pushed forward. 9/10 would fill up on again.

After finally covering all the festival's grounds and seeing more odd food combinations (fried cheesecake anyone? How do you even fry cheesecake?) we retrod our ground to go back to our favourites and spend our last remaining coupons. Of course, a trip back to the sweet tea place which I mentioned above (it was really refreshing, so much so I didn't have to buy a beverage the entire time I was there!), another nutella crepe (food baby still grows) and to get our last remaining strawberry vodka shots. Unsurprising, this one spot where they were giving out free shots was the most packed and busiest now. Free alcohol will do that to people.

Another stop along the way were to check out three brand new GMC cars. You were able to sit in them and check them out. Felt very weird sitting in the drivers seat of a car but on the left. Very nice cars though. Just opposite this we saw some cheering as a guy took off his shirt, and was given a new shirt by the stall and he put it on. We went over and realised that as it's breast cancer awareness week/month, if you put on their tshirt straight away, you could keep it. After a bit of banter with the girls and guys running the stall (the three girls starting a chant "Take it off!", to which I replied "Woah ladies, 3 food coupons please"), I eventually obliged and swapped T-shirts. The stall was called Twisted Tacos so the T-shirt had a picture of a taco saying "Taco's for Tatas". Classy right? But good cause, and free t-shirt so it's a win win. 

The final use of my last coupons on the way out was for an apple creme brulee. Was tasty but a true creme brulee. The best bit of creme brulee is cracking the top open and the top was too soft to do this. Not surprising considering they had to produce them en masse but still, you judge a creme brulee on how satisfying that crack is. 7/10 would spend my last remaining coupons on again.

Amusingly, on the way out they were giving out free cans of diet coke to people. I laughed saying to the girl giving them out, "Oh yeah, you need diet coke after all that food. You couldn't do regular coke!".

I definitely got my money's worth. $27 entry and it meant I had no need for breakfast or dinner. My little food baby is resting nicely. I got a decent haul of stuff, pretty proud of it all.

But the best picture to sum up the day is this classic photo from a photo booth of our team. It was a fun day and a decent way to spend your Saturday.