Unfortunately, It’s time once again for Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation, the event that each time it comes around I find myself hoping it’s the last one.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, it’s a fine event. It features about 65 area restaurants and beverage professionals dishing up tasty representations of their menus’ best, and serving wines, beers and cocktails to go with it. It’s a walkabout event, so you can wander around and nibble and sip wherever you wish. You can even keep going back to the ones you like the most.
It’s all a lot of fun, and I wish it would stop.
The purpose behind Taste of the Nation is to benefit No Kid Hungry, whose mission is to end childhood hunger in Central Florida. The mere fact that this event has been going on for nearly three decades demonstrates that the problem of childhood hunger persists. Every dollar raised stays right here in the community and benefits the Coalition for the Homeless, Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida and Florida Impact. Tickets are $150 per person, a pittance considering all of the fine restaurants that are participating.
If the cause alone isn’t enough to tell you it’s worth it, consider the restaurants that will be participating. They include favorites: Highball & Harvest, Whisper Creek Farms: The Kitchen, K Restaurant and Wine Bar, the Rusty Spoon, The Whiskey, Tapa Toro Tapas Bar and Paella Pit, and Taverna Opa.
The Orlando Taste of the Nation is Saturday, August 27, from 6:45-10 p.m. at the Orlando World Center Marriott, 8701 World Center Dr., Orlando.