Foodie Awards 2018

It's time for the 9th annual Independent Foodie Awards. Check out all the best of eating in Santa Barbara County according to an esteemed board of eaters, led by Independent Senior Editor Matt Kettmann and me. (And if you were wondering, I wrote the blurbs for Jeanine's, The Nook, Elaine and Alberto Morello, Yellow Belly, and Bear and Star, where you can get things (on a special menu) like the incredible bao shown above.

Want to read it all, go to the Independent's site.

Deliciously Dario

If you’ve ever been to one of Santa Barbara’s countless fundraising-with-food events, then you’ve had this moment. There’s a crowd, so you can’t quite see what booth you’re headed to, but you certainly can smell it. Woody, slightly evergreen, enveloping and enticing, mildly minty, musky — it’s sage, you realize, crisped in brown butter. Then you reach for Ca’ Dario’s trademark dish, ravioli al burro e salvia, and eat the pasta pillows with the same utter joy you’ve experienced at similar festivals before. We awarded the dish one of The Santa Barbara Independent’s first Foodie Awards for good reason.

Want to read the rest then do so at the Independent's site.