Last night, my friend Alex and I attended the Generous Helpings tasting at the Nashville Farmer’s Market. The event featured food from over 30 Nashville restaurants and beer and wine, and benefited the Second Harvest Food Bank. Food and beer for charity? Count me in!

At first, we would grab a plate from each restaurant’s table, chow down, and then move on to the next table. We quickly deemed this method ineffective. From there on out, we were double fisting plates baby!

Shall I try to recall some of the things that we ate? Let’s see, the first round (dinner) we munched on…

• chicken taco and beef taco from The Local Taco
• cheddar biscuit with bacon jam and a pickled grape from Red Pony/Sol on Main/55 South/McConnell House

• a spring pea blini with salmon caviar, and a mushroom and goat cheese puff from perl Catering
• BLT deviled egg from The Mad Platter
• lamb ragu over polenta, and white bean hummus bruschetta from Amerigo Italian Restaurant
• cheddar grits with rabbit from Nashville State Community College Culinary Arts
• spicy chicken salad from Provence Breads and Cafe
• lobster gazpacho and brisket with pesto from Watermark/Fish and Co
• fried sushi and fried rice from Kohana Japanese Restaurant
• a mac’n'cheese panini and a Korean barbecue taco from Riff’s Fine Street Food Truck

• a pork confit bahn mi from Marche Artisan Foods/Margot Cafe and Bar
• ravioli from Porta Via Italian Kitchen
• three different duck wings from Caffe Nonna (Alex went for these – I passed)

I think there were even one or two more things – my little brain just couldn’t hold all of that information!

After all of that, you would think that we didn’t have room for dessert right? Wrong. On our dessert go-around we tasted…

• puff pastry with grilled peaches, bacon and dark chocolate from Nashville State (again)
• peanut butter pie from The Wild Hare
• three different flavors of Jeni’s ice cream

Yes, we ate all of that. And yes, they had to roll us home. And yes, I had room to have a Brooklyn lager along with all of that food. What can I say – when there is good food and good beer, I make room!

What were my favorites you might ask? I enjoyed the spicy chicken salad from Provence and the lamb ragu from Amerigo. Both Alex and I loved the lobster gazpacho from Watermark and the goat cheese and  mushroom puff from perl Catering. And that mac’n'cheese panini (it even had bacon in it – theme of the night) and the Korean barbecue taco from Riff’s? oh.my.gosh.heaven.

The highlight of my night, by far though, was the peanut butter pie from The Wild Hare. I could have eaten twenty of those little cups – if I hadn’t already eaten twenty little cups of various other food items!

All in all, it was quite the fun night. Good food, good beer, good company – all for a good cause. What more can a girl ask for?