The Green Chili & Craft Beer event at the Capitol Market has been going on for nearly a decade, but this was my first year to attend!



They have professionals compete in making green chili.



And, they also have a community group portion, who can make whatever kind of chili they want.



Boss Babes served chili with a fried eggroll wrapper, a little touch for Kayla's upcoming foodtruck "Eggs Will Roll."



White chili with fried eggroll wrapper, avocado and cilantro.



FestivAll is always representing!



Look at this one with that extra crunch of tortilla chip.



Charleston CVB has options of cornbread or seasoned crackers on top.



The crackers gave it some crunch I was looking for!



Charleston Main Streets had a yummy white bean chili.



Brittany and her "Chili Nelson" group got a bit of a late start - but it was worth it!



Allll the toppings!



This stand had some goodies to give away too.



I'll take all my chilis fully loaded, please.



Two Guys and A Crock ended up taking home a few awards!



The cornbread is alway a nice touch!



These are some of the green chili professional competitors.



These are some of the green chili professional competitors - #2



This place boasted a prior win.



They served their green chili in these little red solo shooter cups.

Who had your favorite?

Noah's Electic Bistro has moved a few streets over, expanded its size and become Noah's Restaurant & Lounge.



When it was the bistro, I had only gone once as a celebratory dinner. It was a bit on the higher end, so it wasn't in my regular rotation of restaurants. But when it reopened as a new restaurant less than a week ago, I immediately put in reservations with Carlee to check it out.



The restaurant was busy, filling most of the tables in the dining area this evening. It was quiet, though, with a touch of elegance.



The menu boasts just a handful of entrees - half of which are fish.



The swordfish stuck out to me simply because I had never had swordfish. It was a pretty straightforward dish with lentils and stewed tomatoes.



Creme Brulee with this fancy hashtag and brown sugar crumbles.



Carlee's chocolate lava cake

What's your favorite dish so far?

Starbucks has done it again with a limited-time offer of a ~fancy~ frappuccino.

The Crystal Ball Frappuccino is "A mystical, swirling peach infusion topped with peach flavored whipped cream, turquoise sprinkles and one of three different candy gems that reveal your fortune (not even your barista knows what your future holds). Order, gaze, then all will be told. And while we can't predict what your gems will reveal, we can tell you this drink is only here for a few short days."

What this means is they make the drink, the barista has three opaque shakers with different colored sprinkles, respectively. One has purple (magic), one has blue (adventure) and one has green (luck). The barista doesn't know which color you'll get until they sprinkle it (or they intentionally keep track of which is which).

I always get excited with these limited time offers - like the Unicorn Frappuccino, the Zombie Frappuccino, and the Christmas Tree Frappuccino - because what if it's the best thing ever and it's only around for a few days? You could miss it.

For the record, I got purple so ~magic~. I could use some magic in my life. And the flavor? Definitely peachy-tasting. One of my favorites so far. Have you tried it? If not, better get to it. Today's your last day.

Recently, I was able to attend the 14th Annual West Virginia Small Farm Conference, where I met lots of folks working to move food forward in West Virginia.



And, of course, there was lots of good food the whole time.

The Great West Virginia Pop-Off is a super fun competition where local popcorn growers compete to win the title.



This year, there were 11 competitors. You can get a cup of each and then cast your ballot.



The winning popcorn is actually sold at the Underground Cinema in Charleston.


Menu for the social networking hour


Dinner all sourced locally


Squash soup


Lamb


Apple pie

Have you been? What's your favorite part?

The best part of lent is that you can find good fish frys all over West Virginia. Since moving to Charleston, I've been trying to figure out where to get my grubby mitts on some good fried fish.

That's when I discovered St. Anthony's fish fry.



This church serves up three different kinds of fish dinners, plus a shrimp/crab cake dinner. You can get a baked fish dinner with green beans, baked potato, cole slaw, roll and drink. Or you can get a regular fish dinner with batter dipped fish OR cajun style OR lightly breaded with hushpuppies, fries, cole slaw and a drink. Or you can get the sampler where you try all three - SO many options.



Of course, I went with a sampler so I could try a little of everything. AND, I got a crab cake on the side.



Hi Brittany!



Have you ever been? What's your fav?