Diversitastic! Dining, cooking contest and a Turkish restaurant coming to Restaurant Row.
FusionFest is restarting its Diversitastic! Dining experiences, the monthly excursions to area restaurants to experience the cuisines and traditions of other cultures. (You may recall that one of the last ones of 2021 explored exotic Texas through its barbecue.)
January’s dinner at Curry Mantra is already sold out, but you can sign up for February’s South African exploration at Serengeti Restaurant at the Bronze Kingdom Museum. The dinner is Thursday, Feb. 24, at 7 p.m. and tickets are $49.95 per person. Tickets here. Other upcoming D!Ds include Korea, Poland, Romania and the United States. (I just hope it’s not Texas again.)
While we’re on the subject of FusionFest, it has moved its cooking contest from November, when the actual FusionFest festival takes place, to June 27 and 28. It will be in the Walt Disney World Center for Culinary Arts and Hospitality at Valencia College’s downtown campus. Participating cooks will compete for a $1000 purse (money, not a tony pocketbook) by combining “ingredients, spices or techniques brought from one continent with ingredients, spices or techniques from another continent.” I’m thinking Texas brisket wrapped in injera. More information and sign up here.
You can do your own fusion feast when MYlounge opens at Dellagio later this year. Not My Lounge, MYlounge. Although you would never guess it from the name, it will feature Turkish cuisine. It’s taking over the space that had most recently been Miller’s Field and City Fire American Oven & Bar before that. No dates, neither calendar nor edible, yet.