Food Destinations: The Roundup!

Update: Food Destinations is back! Click here for details on FD #2.

Here, finally, is the roundup of the Food Destinations event. A huge, heart-felt, tummy-rumbling thank you to everyone that participated and allowed us to visit your city or town virtually! My mouth was watering just reading the descriptions.

Several people have asked me (especially since I confused things by moving the deadline...shame on me) if it's going to be repeated. I am thinking about it - perhaps to have some future rounds that are dedicated to one theme (bakeries, or farmer's markets, for example). So..all I can say at the moment is... stay tuned!

Now on with the roundup, organized by geographical area.

North America

Teri of Teri and Tom's Blog writes up four great sounding restaurants in Toronto, here, here, here and here.

Eric of Virtual Zen also writes about Toronto: he takes us on a great tour of the St. Lawrence Market. I love markets so this is a must-go for me whenever I make it to Toronto.

Moving south of the border to the U.S. (and to the west and a bit north geographically), Ellen of Cool on the Hill writes up her favorite food destinations in St. Paul, Minnesota. She writes, "Saint Paul isn't really a place where people visit—it's a place where people live. So the food scene has a nice, neighborhoody vibe to it."

Laura of Laura Rebecca's Kitchen writes up her favorite destinations in beautiful Seneca Lake, New York, in the Finger Lakes region. I've been lucky enough to go to the 'obvious' one, Moosewood, but the other places sound great too!

Nupur of One Hot Stove writes about places to get her three favorite foods in New York City: "If you visit NYC, don't leave without tasting these three foods. They have one thing in common...CARBS baby, yeah!"

Ranya of Culinary Gems picks her favorite locations in and around South Brunswick, NJ.

Moving south, PJPink of River City Food and Wine writes up her recommendations in Wilmington, North Carolina, including a nice B & B to stay at.

Staying in the Carolinas, Robert of Al Forno writes about his favorite haunts in historic Charleston, South Carolina, conveniently arranged by price range, and including another farmer's market!

Jumping over to the left coast, we start by visiting Seattle with Chris of wrdnrd.net. Markets, restaurants, shops, and hints for out-of-towners..it's all there. For some reason I've never been to Seattle, but I know that I must someday!

McAuliflower of Brownie Points guides us through her favorite places in Eugene, Oregon. "Most of them are casual, all them them have heart". Sounds like a great place to live - or visit!

Gabriella of the wonderfully named My Life As A Reluctant Housewife showcases her favorite restaurant in Seal Beach, California, with a mouthwatering recipe for Oak Grilled Artichokes included.

Tanvi of From The Pantry is graduating soon and so will be leaving L.A. for good, so this gave her an opportunity to write her Ultimate Food Homage to Los Angeles.

Rounding out our North American destinations, Motoko of we must eat takes us through her top 5 destinations in Pasadena, California.

Asia and Australia

We had two entries from Australia, both from Melbourne. First is Emily from Chocolate in Context, who has written up her favorite destinations in the St. Kilda neighbourhood of the city.

Haalo from Cook (almost) Everything Once covers her favorite places in the city of Melbourne. It sure sounds like a great destination for foodies!

Lili of My Musingz writes about the great coffee houses in Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan.

Daffy of Kitchen Crazy Daffy writes about the good cheap eats in Singapore...another place I haven't been to yet that is on my must-go list!

Europe

We end our culinary whirl around the world in Europe. First up is Johanna of The Passionate Cook, who takes us through her food destinations in her neighbourhood of fabulous London.

Celia of English Patis takes us on a tour through her favorite Asian market, also in London.

Although Isil of Veggie Way lives in Algiers now, she takes us back to her hometown, Istanbul, Turkey for a mouthwatering culinary tour. (Note: I realize Turkey is only sort of half in Europe...) Istanbul yet another place on my must-go-to list of foodie destinations!

Getting closer to home, Nicky of delicious.days writes about Salzburg, birthplace of Mozart and of course, Mozartkugeln! As usual, the article has some fantastic photos to accompany the text.

Back in Switzerland, and Pamela of Posie's Place writes about two of her favorite places in Basel, The Angry Monk and Lily's Stomach Supply. You have to love that Basel sense of humour in naming their restaurants!

Finally, I've written about my favorite places in Zürich, and Max has done a round-up of the restaurant scene.

I hope you've enjoyed this culinary world tour!

And now, the prizes go to...

I promised that three participants in this inaugural Food Destinations event will receive prize packages. Well, we (the informal panel of judges) just had the hardest time picking three because all the entries made our mouths water. So, to keep things fair, we decided to put our very favorite entries in a virtual hat, and draw them at random.

So...the prizes go to:

• Haalo from Cook (almost) Everything Once
• McAuliflower of Brownie Points
• Ellen of Cool on the Hill

A box of Swiss goodies will be on their way soon!

Thank you once more to everyone that participated...and again, stay tuned here for future Food Destinations events!