Adventure Day

The conference is over and the weather has turned: cloudy, a bit windy, and snow is in the forecast. Friday was "Adventure Day" and half a dozen different tours were being offered on different topics. I had registered for the culinary tour, Peter for the brewery tour. Fortunately, we didn't need to get up as early as the days before, but still had to pack and leave our luggage in the hotel.

The culinary tour started in a catering facility called "Cullinary Crafts" and Mary, the owner (pic), was a real enthusiastic embassador of local produce, and, in addition, a big foodie and fantastic storyteller. We got little tastes of salumi, apples and crackers to go with different wines the co-founder of Cognition Winery - situated in nearby Park City - was pooring and explaining. Because of the climate, the winery gets grapes from different regions in CA, OR and WA, but blend it themselves in nearby Park City.

The founder of Beehive Cheese then gave an introduction and tasting of his different locally made cheeses (excellent cheddar as well as e.g. coffee-infused cheese and parmigiano). Besides cheeses, salumi and wine, Mary introduced us to her special "barrel aged cocktails" from locally destilled gin/wodka/whiskey (Beehive Destillery), infused with vanilla, smoked and served with rosemary and lime, and offered little secrets, e.g. how to spice up carrots (with local, freshly grinded salt or honey vinegar) or how to "cold-smoke" things.

Well, we had the booze for breakfast, what followed, was dessert. At Caputo's - an Italian deli - the owner, a certified chocolate tester, consultant and expert - introduced us to the art of chocolate making. Besides the gigantic selection of different, partly locally produced chocolates, Caputo's has a cheese aging cave and a restaurant adjecent with superb sandwiches. Great place!

On to lunch at "From Scratch", a restaurant where mostly local products as the cheeses above are used and veggies/meat etc. ressourced nearby. Enjoyed a wonderful burger with fries - what a pleasant change to all the fingerfood during the congress! Unfortunately, this was the last stop on the tour, it was much shorter than expected, and I was back in the hotel lobby at 2 pm, walked into downtown to grab a "real" coffee and waited for Peter to show up. Below a couple of pics of the breweries he visited, taken in Kiitos and Proper Brewery. SLC is proud of 17 breweries (of about 20 in total for Utah). Just look at the creative names Proper is giving its beers (above)!