Tonight I went to a food extravaganza. Billed as Myrtle Beach’s “largest culinary/social event of the season” I attended the 31st annual Taste of the Town event. Held at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center, over 50 area restaurants set up booths and brought some of their best dishes with them.

It was originally my girlfriend’s idea to attend Taste of the Town. Coincidentally, the parish I attend, St. Andrew Catholic Church, puts the whole event on. After mass this past Sunday I purchased a couple tickets on the church’s steps for Sidney and I. I mean how could I go wrong?: Girlfriend wanted to go + Church fundraiser + Lots of good food = NO-BRAINER.

Me holding the Taste of the Town tickets in the car.

Today after work I dashed over to the convention center and met Sidney. We walked inside the facility, went right to the ATM, purchased food/drink tickets, and then started to sample. My strategy at first was to walk around and scope everything out before hitting up the various booths. That lasted all of two minutes. The moment I heard someone say chicken macaroni and cheese I was passing over tickets. Yep, the first dish I enjoyed was mac and cheese from the Hard Rock Café. It was the start of many different entrees to come.

Here are some of the dishes we had. The upper left corner is the chicken macaroni and cheese (The Hard Rock Café). The top right hand corner is a fried green tomato (Sea Captain’s House). The bottom right hand corner is buffalo chicken dip (Remedies) and the bottom left hand corner is a burrito with rice.

In a pure gluttonous rage I also had a burrito, buffalo chicken dip, deep fried mac and cheese, a Philippine dish called palabok, and a cheeseburger. Those are just the entrees. For dessert I had a peanut butter cupcake and molten chocolate cake. To wash it down I had an American wheat beer and a Mt. Dew. Talk about delicious/irresponsible eating!

Here is a montage of some more of the items we ate. The top left hand image is the deep fried macaroni and cheese. The top right photo are the cupcakes (Coccadotts Cake Shop)…I had a peanut butter cake while Sidney had red velvet. The bottom right hand photo is a cheeseburger (River City Grill), and the bottom left image is the

It was a pretty cool event. I have been to many like-minded events in the past that took place in similar convention centers and outdoor public areas but there was one difference: Those events were always beer or wine fests. Instead of passing over tickets for liquids all day, I was handing them over for solids…nice little change if I do say so myself. It was also nice because the crowds weren’t too overwhelming and the lines weren’t too long, something that you usually run into at events like these.

Sidney and I ate ourselves silly.

Tonight I spent $40. The first $20 of tickets went super fast, especially since we each got a beer. However, we had our second $20 worth of tickets last us forever. We hit the wall at about the time we purchased our first entrée with the second round of tickets. We became so full and miserable that I literally gave my last four tickets away because we weren’t going to use them.

At the end of the night, I was giving my tickets away.

I enjoyed doing something a little different in my community that I have now been a part of for almost six months. It was nice to see/sample many of the restaurants I drive by to work each day. Next year if I go I will eat less and make sure to hit up at least one of the several BBQ restaurants that had a presence. Don’t Blink.