I am a party animal – Part Un

Once upon a time, I used to write wine reviews… This ain’t no fairy tale! This is real life! It just hasn’t been in a while, as I’ve been socializing it up like Kim K., crushing the wines and attending the nearly eight million different events that have occurred in the past week and now this is an attempt to write something about them.

Lazy? Never. Tardy and over-exerted? Maybe. I promise to continue with normalcy next week with reviews since I know the big city of Seattle (and quite possibly the WORLD) are so perplexed as to what to drink every night. People, I apologize. Please refer to the lesser known publications – Wine Spectator and Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar. I’m sure they can help you out.

In the mean time, I’ve been able to sneak in (basically) to a few heavy hitter soirees with a few more to come.

This last Saturday brought me up to my hometown, Marysville the Great, to drop into the Taste of Tulalip, held in the luxurious and fairly spankin’ new Tulalip Resort at the Casino. Beautiful, classy and bold – and that’s not just Riedel-clutching party-goers – the resort itself is extremely chic in a place that 10 years ago relied on fast-food joints and a dated blackjack crowd to rouse the local economy.

Nearly 1200 people brimmed the walls of the Orca Ballroom and two side rooms featuring colorful wine and cooking seminars. Familiar faces popped up like Charles Smith of Charles Smith Wines, Bob Betz of Betz Family Wines, Chris Gorman of Gorman Winery and Mark McNeilly of Mark Ryan Winery which made me realized how much winemakers lack creativity in their business titles…

The new kids on the block meshed in with the best of them, with a couple handfuls of names I had never heard of. The lesser known to note: 21 Cellars, Convergence Zone Cellars and Flying Trout Wines.

The casino and its five restaurants produced food to feed the literal masses, highlighting the best of each dining hall’s focus including caramelized halibut, Ahi tuna tacos, pulled duck sliders and several flairs on local prawns topped the charts but there was one dish that stood alone amongst the rest – a smoked duck, chanterelle mushroom and olive romano lasagna roll. The originality was brilliant and ambrosial. I could have eaten seven to 25 more…

From one malnourished event to another, I ate my way through Wednesday night at Chef Lisa Dupar’s cookbook release, Fried Chicken and Champagne, at the newly remodeled Engine Room at the old Rainier Brewery (RIP). I stuffed my face like the lady I am, inhaling intricately presented bite-sized delicacies from the catering guru herself.

The title pairing was surprisingly meant to be – (lightly) fried chicken, juicy and succulent, was complemented by the citrus and easy mousse of the Champagne. Note for awesome dinner party offering and the dish itself about as chic as the crowd present at the party.

The drinks – including the ginger mango margarita that was far from shy of tequila – and the food served – not excluding everything else, but the Cuban sandwiches and the mini pecan pies were particularly noteworthy – can all be found in the chef’s new lavish cookbook now available on the book stands.

Not to mention the chef herself is tiny and adorable, giving hope to those of us who are small and have unconditional love for food.

Stay tuned for coverage of my “page 6″ attempt at Seattle Magazine’s Party of the Decade and tonight’s “hip to sip” event of 20something – the new vintage!