I meant to do a writeup of Taste of Madison when we went, almost a month ago now, but I never got around to it. Funny that; I’ve been slacking off a lot.

I would blame some new medication I’m on from my doctor, but quite frankly, we all know I’m a slacker at heart.

Ok, so, Taste of Madison is yet another Madison festival around the Capitol, much like Art Fair on the Square, Freakfest on Halloween (which also uses State Street), and the like. (There really is a ton to do in this town.)

Taste of Madison is foodie-related, however, as local restaurants gather around the square to sell samples of their cooking to a ravenous public, all, apparently, in the name of fundraising forUnited Cerebral Palsy of Dane County

I don’t have a lot of pictures, but I did catch this one with my mother eating some beer battered, deep fried cheese curds from The Old Fashioned.

They were pretty good, though much heavier on the beer batter than the cheese.

Particular standouts this year for me were Joey’s Seafood and Grill, which had some fantastic lightly breaded halibut and this great appetizery shrimp thing called Firecracker Shrimp*, Lombardino’s, which had a terrific Italian beef sandwich with Chianti, Brat und Brau, which made the first brat I’ve ever actually liked, and Antojitos el Toril, which had the softest tortillas I’ve ever eaten to frame a very respectable chicken taco. Yum.

It was great to get out and try a bunch of places I’d had on my list to visit, all in one day. Even better that it was a fun social event for a good cause.

Though pairing it up on the same weekend that I went to Samba might have been a bad idea… oy, the gluttony.