Here are some quick tips for fun food events around Orlando this week, including SeaWorld, Strawberry Festival, and more.
Do you feel just a little guilty when you make something like roasted broccoli and end up throwing away a bunch of the stalks? It seems wasteful, and besides, you paid for that part too! Hari Pulapaka, local chef and four-time James Beard semi-finalist, shares some ideas on avoiding food waste in the current Edible Orlando magazine including a chutney recipe that uses up those broccoli stems and any cauliflower or cabbage leftovers you’ve got in the crisper.
Each week in this column, Edible Orlando writer John Graham checks the local food scene for the best fun events around Orlando and Central Florida in the next seven days. That’s the local festivals, restaurant openings, cooking classes, product debuts, and other palette pleasers. Here comes the top five.
SeaWorld Orlando’s Seven Seas Food Festival is on now, Thursdays through Sundays, until May 7. What they’re calling “Orlando’s largest theme park food festival” includes more than 50 international food items, 75 beers and 75 more wine or cocktail options. Just a few of the food items include Italian beef arancini (stuffed and fried rice balls), pork belly feijoada (Brazilian black bean stew), ropa vieja, and Jameson Irish Whiskey bread pudding. The concert series is Saturdays and Sundays with this weekend being Don McLean (“American Pie”) and Ludacris (“Stand Up”). Festival admission and concerts are included with SeaWorld ticket, but you can also buy reserved seating.
The Florida Strawberry Festival starts Thursday and keeps going daily until March 12 in Plant City. You’ve got the ride midway, livestock and horticulture, parades and more. Come hungry because you’ve also got strawberry shortcake, a chocolate strawberry shortcake milkshake, strawberry brisket tacos, strawberry fritters, strawberry kettle corn, strawberry fudge, strawberry pizza on a graham cracker and cream cheese crust, and an Amish doughnut with strawberries and chocolate sauce. There’s free music every day, but the headliner concerts ($25-50) kick off Thursday with The Oak Ridge Boys and Walker Hayes.
The Society of St. Andrew is looking for volunteers to help with gleaning local farms – picking the leftover vegetables in fields that have already been harvested and using that food to feed the hungry. This week ahead, they need people to pick lettuce and unload boxes, but other Florida gleanings can include citrus, cucumbers, peppers, Zellwood sweet corn and more. Around the country, The Society of St. Andrew has already harvested more than 250 tons of produce for 2023, reducing food waste and providing healthy fresh food for people in need. If you’d like to volunteer, you can sign up online.
St Patrick’s Day isn’t coming for another couple weeks, but if you’d like to cook an Irish-themed dinner at 
home that night, Publix Aprons Cooking School in Winter Park has a class this Friday, 6:30 – 8: 30 p.m. On Saturday, March 4, they’ll do it again in Dr. Phillips. Judith McLoughlin from Atlanta by way of County Armagh will be teaching and demoing. That’s Dubliner pimento cheese, shaved Brussels sprouts with cheddar crispy bacon and citrus vinaigrette, Gaelic steaks in Irish whiskey cream, and Irish stout chocolate cake. The class is $65 per person and you must be 21 or older. The evening is hosted by Kerrygold butter and Irish cheeses. McLoughlin’s The Shamrock and Peach also organizes tours of Ireland and Scotland.
Holy Family Catholic Church is plussing up its traditional Lenten Friday fish fries this year, 5:30 – 8 p.m., with fried shrimp, salad niçoise and weekly salmon specials. The Men of Holy Family have been serving and selling family-style fried fish dinners for 27 years now. The standard meal (all-you-want fried fish, French fries, green beans, coleslaw) is $14 for adults and $5 for kids 6-12. Those specials are $2 more. You can also buy appetizers, desserts, and beer and wine separately. The fish fries aren’t limited to Holy Family parishioners, and if you want to it to-go, they’ve got a drive-through too.
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