Mountaintop High at Taste of Vail
I’m spending the weekend in Vail, CO at an event called Taste of Vail. I came to Vail to give a talk entitled “What is an Aphrodisiac Food?” (you can see me here promoting it on local TV) but as self important as I am (and aren’t all bloggers, really?) I have to tell you that my little talk was not the event’s highlight.
For me, the best moments in Vail were spent tiptoeing through the snow on the peak of a mountain, (over 13,000 ft in elevation I’ve been told.) Gondola passes were distributed to attendees and we flashed our festival passes then joined the skiers on the enclosed lift, the likes of which I’d never before experienced. Was this Disney Vail? With the sun high in the sky, the storybook town glittering below, the picture out the windows seemed so spectacular it almost had to have been invented for our enjoyment.
The afternoon event was called the Mountaintop Picnic and if you ever find yourself in Vail during the festival weekend, this lunch is a must!
At the top of the mountain, we boarded blue snow people mover things that I vaguely remembered once seeing in a Bond flick. (It really needs no mention but I am a girl of sun and sea and know little of activities involving powdery white stuff.) The people movers dropped us at the entrance of the picnic, a little cordoned off snow village made up of food and wine booths (as well as beer and spirits).
Aphrodisiacs, of course, abounded. I slipped and slid from one enticement to the next—not kidding, we were right there in the snow. In fact, several guests skied right up to the event. Highlights included a table piled with tiers of deviled eggs, those delectable little symbols of fertility. My favorite was the green eggs and ham egg with bacon sprinkled atop the devilish yolk the flesh of the white dyed green. Well, really it was closer to Tiffany blue but what girl can resist a gift in that color?!
The Lodge at Vail did one of the best looking booths, a table of desserts served on pink snow boards—nice touch! (A strawberry amaretto number was a knockout.)
Auctioneer Tom DiNardo had snide comments about my method for eating the caribou sausage. Oh please, what girl needs utensils to eat sausage?
I made it a priority to visit both Schramsberg (brut rose) and Henriot (brut) for bubbles. But I quickly discovered that wine kicks your butt at that kind of elevation. The locals definitely had a home team advantage in the fine art of mountaintop drinking. But despite my bubble haze I managed to find some old friends like Ariana Peju (sister of Lisa, a prominent partner in crume in my blogging) and Doug Margerum to try some of their wines.
Three hours of fun in the sun left me with a mountain glow but back down to civilization I discovered that the effects of altitude can be rough on a sea level sweetheart like me. If you want to do the mountaintop picnic, I recommend a little advanced prep. Take aspirin for a few days in advance to help think your blood. Arrive in Vail at least 24 hours before the event and drink tons of water leading up to the feast. I also found that the strange purple drink mix sold in my hotel gift shop with potassium, salt, magnesium and a bunch of vitamins seemed to lessen the effects…. I wonder if this mountain acclimation means I’ll be able to handle twice the liquor when I return to the home altitude.
green eggs and ham
