Foodspotting Event at Datz

If you're not familiar with Foodspotting yet, it's a web site (and more importantly, an app) that lets you find and share great dishes in your own city and when traveling. Similar to Yelp, the app uses GPS to let you find great good "nearby" to where you are by seeing food photos that others have taken photos of, but the difference is the focus is more on visual images rather than reviews.

I'm a social media junkie. Social media is a huge part of my day job and my personal life.   I've been a contributor to Tasting Tampa for a little while, so I was to hear that they were teaming up with Datz to launch Foodspotting events here in Tampa.  With this event, Datz set the bar as high as it can go with their amazing food and cocktails.  As I mentioned, Foodspotting is more about looking at pretty food photos than words, so I will keep this post short and share visuals of the amazing food that Datz shared with us. Here are a few of my favorites:

  Figgy Salad

"When Pigs Fly" -- basically a bacon pairing. A flight of bacon, served with pepper jelly, balsamic reduction, Vosges dark chocolate with sea salt, and maple syrup.

Crunchy Grilled Cheese with pickled cabbage, carrots and zucchini. A new menu item!

 Chicken and Waffles

The crowing moment of the night came when the owners of Datz let our group go behind the scenes and into the kitchen at Dough, their soon-to-be-open bakery next door. The head pastry chef tossed fresh doughnuts into the fryer and then  let us channel our inner children and decorate our own.

Here are my creations. The large one is dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled with nuts and bacon. Yes, more bacon. The little doughnut holes have Korean peanut-chile sauce (left) and the other (right) is dusted with pistachio powder and truffle powder.  Creative toppings I never would have had the chance to experiment with otherwise. Bravo, Dough! What a cool experience this was.

Thank you Datz, for "getting" social media, fostering the Tampa foodie culture and for inviting us in for this incredible night of culinary fun.