10/15-10/22
You are reading a dining events blog called the Home Skillet, which according to Urban Dictionary, means “a ‘homeboy’… a friend from around your home (and/or ‘hood’).”
Here at Home Skillet, you’ll find food and wine events are your homeboys and Delaware is your home and/or hood. Please enjoy.
Saturday, October 18: Here’s all you need to know about the Diamond State BBQ Championship: It’s officially sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society and officially beloved by Heisman Trophy winner and all-around dude Herschel Walker.
Head to Dover Downs this weekend to see one hundred barbecue teams from across the country compete for a chance to win big bucks and big glory. And food, oh man, the food. Smokey ribs, brisket, chicken and pulled pork everywhere. Walker is a celebrity judge at the event, which this year will hand out $20,000 in prize money.
Admission to the event is $5 (and bring some extra cash for food) or upgrade to VIP tickets for $35 and enjoy a private tent, two drink tickets and chance to (dry) rub elbows with celebrity guests like Herschel.
I went to this last year and it is worth the trip for any BBQ head. These guys are true masters of their craft and the food they pull out of their giant custom-built smokers is heaven. The smoky smell in the air is worth the price of admission.
Call 800-711-5882 for an advanced ticket purchase.
Saturday, October 18: Set your münders to geschmackvoll, Dover. It’s Oktoberfest, Dover edition! Man, there are more Oktoberfests than “CSI” spin-offs, huh?
Here’s how it works at the 31st annual Dover Oktoberfest: Buy an entry ticket for $10 and a meal ticket for an additional 10 bucks. What does a meal ticket get? Your choice of two homemade authentic German dishes, courtesy of the Dover German American Club. The first is sauerbraten, red cabbage and spaetzle. Option B is bratwurst, sauerkraut and potato salad. Specialty items like homemade German cakes, breads, stollen and more are sprinkled Germanically throughout the celebration.
Club vice president Ronnie Mounts told me Dover’s Oktoberfest isn’t quite in the same vein as the bigger, drunker Delaware Saengerbund Oktoberfest. This one’s more about dinner and dancing. Club members go to great lengths to bring back German delicacies and spices during vacations just to share them with friends at Oktoberfest.
It all goes down at the Modern Maturity Center in Dover from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Call 674-4543 to get your tickets.
Saturday, October 18: Another great downstate event Saturday is the Cape Henlopen Wine, Beer and Cheese tasting.
Run by the non-profit group Friends of Cape Henlopen State Park, the event raises funds for…well, you can probably guess. “One year they raised enough money for us to purchase beach wheel chairs for visiting school groups,” says Cape Henlopen facilities manager Mary Wagner.
Wine? How about tons of it from Carol Garner at R&L Liquors in Lewes and her distributors, including Da Vinci Chianti, Gascón malbec, Encyclopedia Pinot grigio (made by Francis Ford Coppola), Four Sisters shiraz, Starborough Sauvignon blanc.
Beer? Dogfish Head. Yes.
Cheese? Lou Braithwaite from Lewes Gourmet will be on hand with a wide selection of cheeses, from Spanish Manchego to French St. Andre triple-cream Brie to English stilton to good ol’ smoked Vermont cheddar.
“It’s very typical of down here in Lewes, it’s a wonderful community,” Wagner says. “And this is kind of a who-who in Lewes.”
Stop by the Officer’s Club at Cape Henlopen State Park from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. Purchase tickets—$18 in advance, $24 at the door—at the Biden Environmental Training Center, Lewes Printing, Lewes Gourmet or the Lewes Chamber of Commerce. Dial 644-4923 on your telephone for more info.
New digs: Anyone been tapas-ing lately? Spanish-inspired Ole Tapas Lounge & Restaurant (1126 Capitol Trail, Newark, 731-7772) opened a few months ago and does tapas to great lengths. Look for a review in our January issue. In the meantime, shoot me an email and tell me what you thought.
