A Taste of the Mediterranean

The start of a new year is always exciting. Whether you buy into resolutions or not, there’s something special about starting anew with a clean slate. The holiday season certainly take its toll on foodies and I hope everyone survived alright – I got away with only a couple minor scratches and a miserable 16-hour stay at the airport (but that was so last year). I’m finally back and ready to talk food.

For those who know me (by now that should be most of you), you’ll know that I have an slight affinity for Mediterranean food. My dream would be to travel and get to know every single region that makes up this culinary paradise, but I doubt that’ll fly with the jefe. In the meantime, I thought we could all go together. Shall we?

A Taste of the Mediterranean is a contest I’ve been putting together for the past few months. Of course this itinerary would’ve never become a reality without the help of some pretty amazing people (names to follow). The premise of this culinary excursion is to virtually travel to the different regions of the Mediterranean through food and our blogs. Hold on, it gets better. Each month a traditional dish of the region we are visiting will be presented. The goal is to then blog about your own spin on that dish for a chance to win that month’s prize.

Whether you turn regular pesto into basil, sun dried tomato & hazelnut pesto or doctor up traditional hummus with some special scotch bonnet pepper sauce, the possibilities are endless. These are two of the winning entries from a pilot of the contest launched last summer. Now some sweeter prizes have been added to the mix, courtesy of igourmet, and a awesome panel of Mediterranean bloggers are determined to make this trip the best thing in 2009.

igourmet has agreed to sponsor the contest by offering prizes from their extraordinary selection of fine foods. And of course, a trip to the Mediterranean is also not complete without friends waiting to greet you at your final destination. For this I’ve asked a few of my favorite Mediterranean bloggers to help host this delicious journey to the Mediterranean.

Mediterranean Panel

Stay tuned for January’s challenge – it will be posted by tonight!

Enjoy!

rules & how to enter

11 thoughts on “A Taste of the Mediterranean

  1. Hey, Tony…we’re doing similar events. I’ve got A Culinary Tour Around the World going over at FOODalogue and, interestingly, in my tour I decided to skip the Med because I wanted to go to areas I was less familiar with and I’m attaching the event to the fight against world hunger. Clever you…you got prizes for participants! Do you want to cross-promote?

  2. I just happened to stumble upon this fun contest (my favorite cuisine) and am excited to participate! By the way Tony I love your blog – all the recipes and design are just fantastic.

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