Venison Butchering & Processing is one of the seminar topics for the Ohio Deer and Turkey Expo, to be held March 16 through 18, 2012, in the Bricker Building of the Ohio Expo Center (Ohio State Fairgrounds), 717 East 17th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio (map).

If you can’t make it to Ohio, Road Trips Foodies, the same seminar will be offered during the Wisconsin Deer and Turkey Expo, set for March 30 through April 1, 2012, in the Alliant Energy Center, 1919 Alliant Energy Center Way, Madison, Wisconsin (map).

Florida isn’t exactly known for its barbecue, but that doesn’t stop the west coast city of Punta Gorda from staging a BBQ & Music Festival in Laishley Park (map) March 2 through 4, 2012.

The BBQ competition for the pros takes place all day on March 3 (gates open at 11 a.m., and the awards ceremony is set for 5 p.m.). Amateurs offer up their barbecue to the judging on March 4 (same hours).

Yes, Road Trips Foodies, festival-goers get to sample the BBQ!

For a complete listing of events (and the music schedule), go online.

(Photo courtesy of Punta Gorda BBQ & Music Festival)

No crying is allowed at the 35th annual Vidalia Onion Festival, set for April 26 through 29, 2012, in (where else?) Vidalia, Georgia.

Each spring, the town anticipates the harvest of Georgia’s Official State Vegetable, the Vidalia Sweet Onion. The occasion is celebrated with an array of activities over four days.

There’s no admission charge for the festival, held at the Vidalia Regional Airport, 107 Old Airport Road (map), but you do have to pay $5 to park on Thursday and Sunday, and $10 to park on Friday and Saturday.

Pre-festival activities begin with a youth boys’ baseball tournament, the Miss Vidalia Onion Pageant, the Golden Onion Chef Competition, Battle of the Bands and more.

The inaugural Golden Onion professional cooking competition will be held on April 22, 2012, as the official kick-off to the festival. The competition is open to the public starting at 12:30 p.m. (tickets are $10 at the door). The competition is presented by the Vidalia Onion Festival Committee in cooperation with the Vidalia® Onion Committee, Georgia Department of Economic Development, and the Georgia Restaurant Association. It was conceived by Atlanta-based freelance food and travel writer/editor Hope S. Philbrick (a friend of your Road Trips Foodie‘s), who will serve as one of five judges.

A children’s parade and opening ceremonies begin the weekend’s activities, which include a street dance, Sweet Onion car show, arts & crafts festival, Sweet Saturday Downtown Sidewalk Sale, onion eating contest, Vidalia Onion Recipe Contest, Public Tasting and Culinary Extravaganza..

(Photo courtesy of Vidalia Onion Festival)

It’s time to begin planning those summer road trips.

Celebrate June (better known to Road Trips Foodies as Dairy Month) with a stop at the Schoolhouse Artisan Cheese Shop 7813 Highway 42, Egg Harbor, Wisconsin (map).

The owners of School House Artisan Cheese and Savory Spoon Cooking School, 12042 Hwy 42, Ellison Bay, Wisconsin (map), have opened a second Wisconsin location Labeled a “European Style” cheese shop, visitors to School House Artisan Cheese will find that the store is reminiscent of the kind of small cheese shop you’d find in France or Italy – except that it’s in Door County. With cut-to-order cheese wrapped in wax paper, this is the only artisan cheese shop in the state that sells strictly Wisconsin-made cheese.

Top chefs in Houston, Texas, who are just as interested in showcasing Houston’s mom and pop restaurants as their own, continue their mission into 2012 to introduce locals and visitors alike to Houston’s culinary diversity by showing participants where they eat on their days off. Three years in, Houston is still the only city in the country offering chef-designed, chef-led culinary tours.

Houston Culinary Tours gives participants intimate knowledge about the city and its chefs: unexplored neighborhoods, undiscovered restaurants and markets that contribute to the locally-driven menus of each chef. The tours, limited to 16 participants, are $180 per person (includes tastings at each stop, complementary local Saint Arnold’s beer, limo/bus transportation and gift bag).

More nationally-recognized chefs are participating this year. In addition to The Next Iron Chef’s Bryan Caswell and Top Chef Masters’ Monica Pope, Top Chef Just Desserts ‘ Rebecca Masson is leading two tours. Additional tastemakers have been incorporated into the program, including James Beard Award nominated mixologist Bobby Heugel of Anvil Bar & Refuge and Avi Katz, of Houston’s famed Katz Coffee.

Also new this year – the tours benefit Foodways Texas, a nonprofit organization founded by several of the participating chefs to preserve, promote and celebrate the diverse food cultures of Texas.

Here are the new-in-2012 offerings coming up:

February 18, 2012: Late Night Bars and Bites with Chefs Seth Siegel-Gardner, Terrence Gallivan and Bobby Heugel and Kevin Floyd

March 18, 2012: Oyster with Chef Bryan Caswell and Robb Walsh, cookbook author.

April 22, 2012: Crawfish with Chefs Mark Holley and Jonathan Jones

May 20, 2012: Chef’s Day Off with Chefs Terrence Gallivan and Seth Siegel-Gardner

June 10, 2012: Hong Kong City Mall/Secrets of Bellaire Boulevard with Chefs Randy Evans and Chris Shepherd

September 23, 2012: Indian with Chefs Monica Pope and Chris Shepherd

October 28, 2012: Day of the Dead/Airline Drive with Chefs David Cordua and Hugo Ortega

November 4, 2012: Coffee and Dessert with Chefs Rebecca Masson, Ruben Ortega and Avi Katz

November 10, 2012: Farm Tour with Chefs Randy Evans and Claire Smith

Tour favorites being repeated this year:

February 26, 2012: World BBQ With Chef Chris Shepherd and Robb Walsh
May 13, 2012: Street Food with Chefs Jonathan Jones and Rebecca Masson
July 22, 2012: Long Point Road with Chefs Bryan Caswell and Chris Shepherd
August 19, 2012: Southern Comfort with Chefs Randy Evans and Mark Holley
December 10, 2012: Vietnamese with Chefs Bryan Caswell and Ryan Pera

The Where the Chefs Eat Houston Culinary Tours are coordinated by the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau and sponsored by Central Market.

The Munich Municipal Museum in Germany honors the 100th anniversary of the Munich Wholesale Market with the exhibition “Always Fresh – The 100th Anniversary of the Münchner Großmarkthalle” now through July 15, 2012.

The exhibit not only deals with the historical aspects of the wholesale market but also with everyday business at the market, which offers an enormous variety of flowers, fruit and vegetables.

The museum (Münchner Stadtmuseum in German) is located at St.-Jakobs-Platz 1, Munich, Germany (map).

If you’ll be in southern Germany on July 8, 2012, stop by for a “nostalgic open day” at the Großmarkthalle.

For more information (in English!) on visiting Munich, go online.

Driving through Tennessee later this month, Road Trips Foodies?

Consider a stop between 6 and 9 p.m. on February 24, 2012, for “Three Blind Vines“. It takes place at Liberty Hall in The Factory at Franklin, 230 Franklin Road Franklin, Tennessee (map).

This annual wine tasting ($40 at the door) focuses on French wines. It’s also a party with a theme: 1920s Speakeasy. Costumes are encouraged, but not required (which is a good thing for road trippers).

The tasting benefits the Next Generation Heritage Foundation of Franklin and Williamson County, and this year the proceeds go to the historic Franklin Theatre.

In addition to the admission charge, each team of one to three people brings three bottles of wine for the tasting (one bottle of French red, one bottle of French white, and a repeat of either).

The evening includes entertainment, food from your favorite local restaurants and chefs, and the wine of course!

Chef Marcello Fabbri will be “in residence” at St. Regis Bali, Kawasan Pariwisata, Nusa Dua, Bali (map), from February 18 through 22, 2012

This culinary tour de force of cuisine nouvelle Italienne commences on Saturday (February 18, 2012) with a six-course wine-paired dinner at the Astor Ballroom, followed by à la carte or degustation nightly dinners February 19 through 22, 2012, at the resort’s Kayuputi Restaurant.

Collaborating with Chef Marcello will be the Resort’s Chef de Cuisine, Agung Gede, who has reciprocated the Michelin chefs visits to Indonesian by travelling as a guest chef at Marcello’s Anna Amalia Restaurant.

This edition of the Bali journey culminates February 22, 2012, with a private dinner hosted personally by Chef Marcello at a Chef’s Table in the Mezzanine of Kayuputi.

Marcello has been with Weimar’s historic Hotel Elephant since 1993, working as head chef at the Anna Amalia Restaurant, establishing the restaurant as the top gourmet restaurant in the eastern part of the German Federation. In November 2011, Anna Amalia won a place in the Michelin Guide for the tenth year running.

(Photo courtesy of Bali Update)

Travel + Leisure readers have picked their best cities for foodies, reports Katrina Brown Hunt.

“Today’s most enthusiastic foodies seek out indulgences well beyond the white-tablecloth variety. Markets are a key enticement for those wanting to experience the nationwide farm-to-table trend,” she reports.

Want to know where that next great meal can come from a celebrity chef or the back of a truck? Here are the top 10 on the T+L list:

Number 10: San Antonio, Texas
“San Antonio ranked in the top 10 for both ethnic fare and barbecue.”

Number 9: Charleston, South Carolina
“This city embraces its traditional low-country cuisine — southern cooking with a heavy dose of coastal oysters, crab, and shrimp.”

No. 8 Savannah, Georgia
“Voters love it best for its small cafés — home-cooking “neighborhood diners” with a local-ingredients bent.”

Number 7: Seattle, Washington
“A hot neighborhood for new restaurants is South Lake Union.”

Number 6: Portland, Oregon
“The super-green city has earned a reputation for its farm-to-table dining, well-crafted microbrews, and 200-odd food trucks.”

Number 5: Chicago, Illinois
“The Windy City ranked in the top 10 for burgers, big-name restaurants, and ethnic cuisine and — perhaps no surprise — took the top prize for pizza.”

Number 4: New York, New York
“New Yorkers can eat well at any price point and have embraced the food trucks and comfort-dining crazes.”

Number 3: Providence, Rhode Island
“Voters love the homey vibe of this New England city: they ranked it third for its hole-in-the-wall cafés, burgers, and pizza (which some locals like grilled).”

Number 2: San Francisco, California
“There are plenty of restaurants serving sustainable, seasonal cuisine.”

Number 1: New Orleans, Louisiana
“New Orleans won the survey for neighborhood cafés, and came in No. 2 for its zesty ethnic fare.”

(Photo of a salad from Muriel’s in New Orleans ©Susan McKee)

British Columbia is one of North America’s leading craft beer destinations, with local brewers offering their distinctive draughts at bars throughout Vancouver.

New on the scene in the city’s Gastown neighborhood is a beer-centric culinary tour, Gastown Craft Beer ‘n Bites Tour, hosted by Vancouver Food Tour.

Led by a passionate beer educator, the tour allows beer aficionados to enjoy tastings at four destinations –- each offering a unique aspect of beer –- along with tasty, hand-picked food pairings.

Participants learn about the history of beer and the brewing process as well as getting the chance to taste beer cocktails and international selections.

(Photo courtesy of Vancouver Food Tour)

For more brewskis, see our sister site, Road Trips for Beer.