Last night we attended the 3rd Annual Mac-Off to benefit the South Jersey Food Bank. For 10 bucks you get to sample all the macaroni and cheese you wanted from about 12 different local restaurants. My kind of deal...good, cheap food, and plenty of it. Plus, we were helping people out at the same time with all of the proceeds going to the SJ Food Bank. All of the pasta was donated as was the time and efforts of the various chefs. Some of the chefs went all out in creating special types of mac and cheese just for the event. Some traditional, one that had a bbq twist to it, and even one from an Indian restaurant that was amazing. I may or may not have gone back for seconds at that place! Of course, since this is Philly, one guy had a Cheese Steak version of mac and cheese...it wasn't half bad.
As you went around the ballroom from station to station each of the restaurants handed out a small cup of mac and cheese. We started out too strong though and didn't pace ourselves...should have eaten just a few bites of each cup, not the entire thing. By the time we made it around to the 11th and 12th tables we were stuffed, but we found a way to make some extra room.
Here was the ultimate winner of the evening...mac and cheese baked into a panzarotti from a place called the Blue Plate. Very, very tasty! [they had real judges and everything...2 were from the Food Bank but one of the guys was a quasi celebrity chef who claims he has a show on ABC. Who knows....]
I only found out about this thing last week on my Twitter feed as I "follow" a few of the restaurants in the area and they were all starting to hype it up. You better believe we'll be back next year!
This DEFINITELY looks like my kind of night. Looks delicious!
Posted by: Jillian J. | January 18, 2012 at 08:30 PM