![\"Photo](\"http:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/20170507_153255-e1494704978464.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo by Alice Farinas.<\/p><\/div>\n
Masters of Taste featured tasty tidbits and a surprising variety of drinks from over forty restaurants and other culinary and beverage purveyors around town. \u00a0And to make it all a bit extra-exciting, there was a mid-day thunderstorm thrown in the mix!\u00a0 With hail!\u00a0 It was crazy out there, but we all got through it relatively unscathed.\u00a0 (I\u2019ll tell you how I<\/em> stayed dry-ish during it towards the end of this review.)<\/p>\n The crazy weather at Masters of Taste. Photo by Karen Salkin, as is the big one at the top of the page.<\/p><\/div>\n Being the picky eater that I am, (who often eschews creative eats,) I had to bring along one of my Royal Tasters, Alice, an assignment that, believe me, a foodie such as herself was more than happy about.\u00a0 But it turned-out that I didn\u2019t even need an extra palette because there were more than enough treats that I was thrilled with.<\/p>\n We really enjoyed the majority of dishes that we sampled, but, as always, we did have our favorites. Here are our Top 5:<\/p>\n ~ The pork soup from Ramen Tatsunova was the absolute best thing that I tasted that day!\u00a0 If ever they open a branch near me, I think I\u2019d eat the soup for lunch every day!<\/p>\n ~ Since I\u2019m back to eating more healthfully than I have for the past few months, (thank goodness,) I was grateful for the Hawaiian Blast Wellness Bowl, featuring organic hemp granola and tons of fruit, from Milk and Honey.\u00a0 As the chef correctly told everyone there, it was the best-for-us item we had all day!<\/p>\n If you look closely, you can actually see the lines of hail in this pic! (Click on it to blow it up.) Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n ~ Alice and I both agreed on how tasty Church & State\u2019s chilled\u00a0pea soup was.\u00a0 When I was handed a shot glass of it at their booth, and found-out that it was cold (as opposed to hot,) I wished I hadn\u2019t already accepted it.\u00a0 But, to be polite, I took a teensy sip, and guess what?\u00a0 I loved<\/em> it!\u00a0 And the tiny croutons made it extra scrumptious.\u00a0 I made Alice try it, too, and she\u00a0deemed it to be \u201csmooth and silky.\u201d<\/p>\n We ended our time there with two fabulous desserts that hit the spot.<\/p>\n ~ Icy Rush doled-out petite popsicles in a quartet of flavors, but we had eyes for only the Mexican chocolate.\u00a0 Alice said it was\u00a0\u201cmalty and creamy, and just sweet enough,\u201d and lauded \u201cthe light flakes of chocolate\u201d throughout.\u00a0 I was just able to mumble, \u201cMmmmm!\u201d<\/p>\n Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n ~ I was so glad that we stopped by Choctal on the way out. They did my favorite presentation of the day.\u00a0 Instead of just handing us bite-sized tastes of their ice creams, they served them on horizontally-long plates, in flights of either chocolate or vanilla.\u00a0 Each spoonful was on top of the picture of the flavor it was, so we didn\u2019t have to wonder what it was that we had just sampled.\u00a0 And they were all delish!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>