Head to the Oregon Truffle Festival to get
your share! Photo courtesy Taste Of Oregon.
Check out this recipe for Roast Chicken With
Truffles.

The truffle are coming! The truffles are coming!

Registration is now open for the eighth annual Oregon Truffle Festival, with Early Bird pricing available through September 30th. The festival takes place in the southern Willamette Valley, in and around Eugene, Oregon.

The Festival celebrates Oregon’s native truffles, which reach the peak of ripeness in late January. The truffles are foraged in the forest, then brought to glory on the table by prominent chefs, whose dishes are paired with fine Oregon wines.

Truffle lovers can luxuriate in all things truffle on January 25, 26 and 27, 2013. Consider it as a memorable vacation or holiday gift.

Ticket packages begin at $525 per person, plus travel and accommodations. Options include these events and more:

 
There is also a truffle cooking class and other trufflicious options.
 
Learn more at OregonTruffleFestival.com.

All about truffles.

Inside this life-size gingerbread house: a
dining room waiting for you! Photo
courtesy The Great Wolf Lodge.

Nibble, nibble little mouse. Who’s that nibbling at my house?

You may remember those words from Hansel and Gretel. They also gave birth to the name of THE NIBBLE webzine and blog…

Not because there’s a cannibal witch living here, but because Hansel and Gretel couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw the big gingerbread house, decorated with the confections of their wildest dreams. Every week, we at THE NIBBLE also go wide-eyed when we discover something new and fabulous.

You don’t have to enter a fairy tale to nibble in a life-size gingerbread house.

All you have to do is head for Niagara Falls, Ontario.

The Great Wolf Lodge, a year-round indoor water park, goes into holiday mode this month. Opening on November 24th, Wiley’s Winter Wonderland—of which the gingerbread house is just one feature—will enable fortunate families to cloak themselves in the holiday spirit. You can have breakfast, lunch or dinner in the gingerbread house. Reservations are available to the general public as well as to Lodge guests. We’re not sure if Hansel and Gretel will be your servers—but we hope so!

It takes more than 300 hours, hundreds of pounds of gingerbread, chocolate, cookies, pretzels and candy to build the house. During construction the entire lodge is filled with the sweet aromas of gingerbread and chocolate (no extra charge to inhale all you want!).

On the 24th, families will be able to walk through the front door of the gingerbread house and sit down for a holiday meal. Dining reservations are available to the public, as well as to Great Wolf Lodge guests.

Each year, diners make a charitable contribution via a $20 reservation fee (which is apart from the cost of the meal). This year, the recipient of the donations is Child Advocacy Centre Niagara, which helps abused children.

For gingerbread house dining reservations, call 1.905.354.4888 ext. 5718. Select holiday dining times are available. through January 9th, 2012. If you go, send us some photos!

What’s in store at the Festival? Perhaps
some chocolate cappuccino cups. Photo
courtesy Oregon Chocolate Festival

If you need a weekend getaway, and if chocolate combined with the great outdoors rings a bell, consider the Oregon Chocolate Festival.

The 7th annual Oregon Chocolate Festival will be held this weekend, March 4th through 6th. It will showcase more than 40 of Oregon’s great chocolatiers and specialty food producers. Some 1,500 chocolate lovers are expected.

The festival takes place in Ashland, at the south end of the Rogue Valley, home to some of America’s great food producers, from Lillie Belle Farms to Rogue Creamery. It’s just 15 miles north of the California border.

Ashland, with its small-town charm, is located in the foothills of the Siskiyou and Cascade mountain ranges. So if you have time to stay longer, there’s plenty of opportunity to hike off those chocolate calories.

Head to the festival website for more information.

Calling all truffle lovers:

Registration is now open for the Oregon Truffle Festival, January 28-30, 2011—a fantasy for fans of the fabulous fungus. Activities include:

The sixth anniversary Grand Truffle Dinner will feature Oregon’s native winter white and black truffles in a sumptuous five-course meal paired by some of Oregon‘s top chefs—and of course, paired with acclaimed Oregon wines.

Hunt your own truffles! Photo courtesy
Oregon Truffle Festival.

Find more information and purchase tickets at OregonTruffleFestival.com.

P.S.: If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.

Pick up tips from some 20 chef demos.
Photo courtesy Seattle Food & Culinary Arts
Show.

Planning a visit to Seattle? You might want to consider the weekend of November 20-21. You’ll be able to take in the Seattle Food and Culinary Arts Show, highlighting the best of Northwest cuisine.

For more information, visit the show‘s website.

A prior year’s winner in the phototgraphy
competition, by Sally Wood.

We wish we had gotten advance notice of the 17th annual Napa Valley Mustard Festival, to be held next weekend, March 12 -14 in Napa, California.

If you can get there, you’re in for a treat. The vineyards, blooming with wild mustard, are breathtaking. There are an impressive number of fine mustards from around the world to be tasted, along with food from the best Napa Valley restaurants and caterers, consumed with great Napa Valley wines.

Makers of the best-judged mustards will receive awards, as will photographers who take the best photos of the mustard fields.

The Napa Valley Mustard Festival is a non-profit community service organization. For information and tickets visit MustardFestival.org.

Caliza Syrah will be at the Grand Tasting.
Photo courtesy CalizaWinery.com.

Are you a lover of Rhone wines?

How about Rhones from the U.S.A.? California wineries have found great success planting Syrah, Viognier and other classic Rhone grapes.

The Rhone Rangers will convene in San Francisco on March 27th and 28th for the thirteenth consecutive year. It’s the largest American Rhone wine event in the country.

And then, there’s the opportunity to taste as many of the wines as your tolerance will allow.

Buckbean Beer, a Nevada craft brewer, uses
cans for its Black Noddy Logger and Orange
Blossom Ale. Photo courtesy of Buckbean
Beer.

Is canned beer making a comeback among those who enjoy the finest? More craft brewers are turning to canning their brews. In the past, canning lines weren’t made small enough to handle small craft beer lines, so brewers had to use glass; glass became associated with quality beer.

While canned beer comprises a fraction of craft brews, some companies have started canning their beer exclusively, for environmental reasons as well as for consumer convenience:

(Although note that beer should be drunk fresh and not stored longer than six months, so this should be a theoretical argument. Resist the temptation to buy more beer than you need in any given month.)

On October 23rd a competition of canned craft beers, CANFEST, will be held in Reno, Nevada. Beer seminars, beer and food pairings, tastings of the competing beers and a forum of brewers are planned; celebrities from the beer world will judge the beers. A sample of the entrants includes Big Sky Brewing Company, Buckbean Brewing Company, Maui Brewing Company, New Belgium Brewing Company, Oskar Blues, Rochester Mills Brewing Company, Surly Brewing Company, Ukiah Brewing Company and Uncommon Brewers. Ticket prices are $35 and room packages will be available. For more information, email Constance Aguilar, constance@abbipr.com or call 1.775.323.2977.

You don’t have to travel to France for a truffle fix. Just head to Eugene, Oregon for the fifth annual Oregon Truffle Festival this January. You’ll be able to join in on the truffle hunting, cooking demonstrations and, best of all, dining on fabulous truffle dishes. Mark your calendar for the weekend of January 29 through January 31, 2010. Consider it a late holiday gift or an early Valentine’s celebration—but do consider it!

This will be the fifth Oregon assembly of truffle enthusiasts, truffle hunters, truffle growers and the chefs who make magic of it all. Imagine three days of tastings, tours and workshops that celebrate Oregon’s prized native fungus: black, white and brown truffles. The only truffle festival in North America, it will also feature experts from France, who will bring some of their famed French truffles to share.

Is it just coincidence that Oregon truffles pair perfectly with Oregon’s fine wines? You’ll have to go to the festival and develop your own informed opinion. For information and tickets, visit OregonTruffleFestival.com. And please, take us with you!

The interior, or glebe, of a beautiful brown
Oregon truffle. Photo courtesy of Oregon Truffle Festival.

During the weekend of October 2nd-4th, the 27th American Wine & Food Festival is serving up a world-class culinary celebration, benefiting Los Angeles Chapters of Meals On Wheels.

The Saturday evening event at the Universal Studios Back Lot.

According to a colleague who attends each year, even for $350 a ticket, the Saturday night event is one of the best foodie deals you can find: more than 50 of the best chefs in America personally serving their favorite dishes as top wineries pour fine wines, all in the fabulous ambiance of the Universal Studios back lot. You can read the full list of marquee names on the website, but a sampling of participating chefs includes Tom Colicchio, Larry Forgione, Ilan Hall, Thomas Keller, Nobu Matsushisa, Mark Miller, Mark Peel, Stephen Pyles, Lidya Shire, Joachim Splichal, Jonathan Waxman, Alan Wong and Sherry Yard. For information and tickets, visit http://www.awff.org.