Saturday night, Mike and I went to Women of Taste, a benefit for Girls Inc. - a local charity that works to empower girls. The event features women chef presenting some of their food. There are a couple dozen (or more) tables, each one manned by a retaurant, cattering company or winery - and you go from table to table picking up small bites of what they have to offer. It's a great idea and we had a lot of fun doing it. Some of the food was really good (a goat cheese on endive bite from a catering company, a caviar appetizer from a restaurant I can't remember and a BBQ pork sandwich from T-Rex in Berkeley), but a lot of it was merely pedestrian. There were a lot of brochetta or brochetta like things - understandable, given that the restaurants must provide 1,200 pieces of food for free. Other than the BBQ sandwich, and a couple of tiny fish bites, there was no protein at all. The wines were much better. I liked the syrah from Concannon winery in Livermore and whatever red wine I had from Handley Cellars. The Barefoot Cab, however, was pretty much undrinkable. There were a lot of sweets - including a pretty good cheesecake from Trader Joe's, ice cream from Fenton's and an amazing chocolate Truffle from Boulevard.

There was also a silent auction (we didn't win anything), and live music.

As I said we had a great time, run into some political acquaintances, and we'll probably go back next year. Tickets are expensive, $125 each ($100 if you buy them well in advance, which we didn't), but they benefit a good cause. About 1,200 people attended, but in general the lines weren't too long.