6th Annual 'Good Food, Good Beer and the Rest is History' at Headhouse Shambles

Time for the 6th annual 'Good Food, Good Beer and the Rest is History' at Headhouse Shambles

What could be more beautiful than a flower? Free craft beer!

Fork restaurant was serving up a wax-bean, scallop summer salad - the crushed nuts that topped the salad gave it some great texture and the simple dressing let the scallop flavor come through.

East P'unk Italian dynamo Le Vitru was serving up their pork 'lasagna' - I know that there's a more accurate term for this dish but basically it's assembled from hand-made noodles like a lasagna with a sausage & cheese filling. Just as delicious as last year.

Speaking of sausage, Noble was serving up a well-seasoned sausage with peppered tomato sauce and a dollop of polenta; the polenta & sausage felt a little out of season but it tasted wonderful and went great with some of the craft brews being poured by Earth+Bread Brewery.

Another newcomer, Wishing Well on 9th and Christian put in an appearance with a straightforward chicken taco - well spiced and served with a salsa, this was a decent contribution to the food offerings, although with Wishing Well's southern-leaning menu, I was hoping for something a little more interesting. I will give them credit for having one of the most tightly run stalls at the event - dishing out tacos at breakneck speed, once the food ran out they were packed and away in half the time it took me to finish a half-pint sized beer.

Speaking of 'bringing it' Southern-style, here's our nomination for 'Best in Show', the Swarthmore Food Co-Op's BBQ pork sandwich.

They called it the 'Three Little Pigs  - what you're looking at is a pork loin, stuffed with a sausage....

...and then topped with pulled pork meat from a set of slow-cooked ribs...

...and then stuffed into a potato roll.  

Served with a dollop of slaw, this was hands down the most delicious thing we had all evening, and the swarm of people around the stand was steady until the last of the pork was served up. This sandwich was so appealing that random people asked me 'Where did you get that?" and a few of the other vendors even ducked away from their stalls to procure a sandwich of their own,

The Restaurant School of Philadelphia was on hand serving up the newest craze in desserts, macaroons.  Nearly every color of the rainbow, these little treats were also going fast. 

We ran out of tasting tickets before discovering their presence (yes, I NEEDED that second pork sandwich) but other folks were scooping them off the trays that lined the table.

All in all, we really enjoyed ourselves this time around - last year we arrived about a hour after the opening bell and fund that barely half the vendors had food left. We stayed for a bit enjoying the great local beers as well - my favorite was the darker offerings from Earth+Bread Brewery, whereas Elizabeth was hooked on the Prima Pils from Victory.