If you have never been to Broad Appetit you have not lived.  It is the food festival to end all food festivals.  Richmond’s finest restaurants make a small tasting menu ($3-$5 bucks a plate) and dish out tiny noms to let you try a bit of everything.  It is the best way to sample new restaurants and find out what kind of food they serve without breaking the bank.  Plus if you are like me, you prefer a little bite of everything rather than a lot of an individual one-note food.  I share many qualities with farm animals, grazing being the largest commonality.

Atlantic salmon with wilted spinach, peas, sundried tomatoes, goat cheese, and rice served with a croquette

This annual festival happens on a Sunday and Broad St. literally shuts down for townspeople to roam around nibbling on the local fare.  It was Alisa’s moms birthday and we thought it would be a unique and fun way to take her to lunch.

instead of birthday cake we had cake balls!

The weirdest thing I ate all day was this “mozzarella ice cream” with tomatoes, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.

The ice cream was actually amazing and the balsamic oil actually complimented it very well, the tomatoes I could do without.  The texture was a little bit weird with the juicy seedy tom and the creamy cold ice cream, not horrible but probably would have been better if they were stewed down or something.

Alisa and I had THE BEST iced coffee sweetened with almond milk, and her mummy had a “tropical delight” lime, orange, and pineapple mocktail- so refreshing!

I enjoyed many other treats but was too fixated on stuffing them in my face too take pictures, but I can say that the mozzarella ice cream has my interest peaked in Magpie and I will definitely be visiting soon.

Did any of you go to Broad Appetit? What was your experience?  Do you have a favorite Food Festival- Tell me!!??