Emporiyum DC

Another year, another awesome Emporiyum.  I'm just loving the Baltimore/DC food scene these days.  There are all sorts of fun events that showcase the awesome chefs and restaurants we have here in MD.  The best event to do this is the Emporiyum - 2 days & over 30 restaurants, food trucks and foodie businesses, showing off all the amazing food they create.  

This year's was in the Union Market Space in DC, which was the best venue yet, in my opinion.  There was tons of space - full of tons of people of course.  And if you got tired of the Emporiyum, you could just mosey on next door to the actual Union Market and check out all their yumminess too. 

There were quite a few new places, but some of the old favorites were there as well. I was sad to see that no Voltaggio restaurants were there.  They are of course, always my favorite.  In fact, there weren't any real celebrity chefs there besides Erik Bruner Yang - the rock star of ramen (which I will say, that's a name he truly deserves - yum!)  My other complaint was the complete lack of anyone selling water.  The drink stalls were selling only alcohol - not even sodas were being sold.  That's a little ridiculous.  I had to beg a cup off the Living Social people and use the water fountain to fill it.  Other than that, it was a rousing success as always. 

They even seemed to realize that if you make smaller portions or give free samples, people will eat more.  Half size sandwiches were being sold as well as individual sized pies or single cookies.  That was my most favorite part.  Yay Emporiyum people, for getting a clue!

 These pieces of art were made completely out of plastic cups.

Reflective Air Stream Selfie!

And here's the important part - the food!

 Erik Bruner Yang's awesome Ramen - So delicious!

 This was the best thing I ate all day!  I have no idea how to pronounce it, but it's basically a wafer, with to die for marshmallow on top, covered in chocolate and coconut. OMG! It was life changing : )

 According to the Top Chef judges, Mike Isabella's Pepperoni sauce was life-changing.  Obviously they never had the marshmallow cookie thing I had before this.  It wasn't bad but I'm no Isabella fan, so that may have clouded my judgement. 

Dooby's was my favorite from last year, and this year it was my second favorite this year.  I have no idea what they put on that fried chicken but it's spicy and sweet and perfect.  The honey chips were also unbelievably tasty.