Walk and eat: Charlotte food tours start Saturday

Tour De Food, based in Winston-Salem, starts offering every-other-weekend food tours in Charlotte neighborhoods on Saturday, June 2. For $45, you stop for samples at a half-dozen restaurants, with some stops including beer or wine.

The tours will be held every other Saturday starting at 1:30 p.m. The first one covers downtown Davidson; NoDa and downtown Charlotte will eventually be added. The tours are led by Lisa Schnurr, formerly with Taste Carolina Food Tours of Winston-Salem.

For details on the Charlotte food tours, go to www.tourdefood.net or call 336.406.6294.

My stomach goes traveling: Concord, Cornelius, Davidson

I hit the wet streets Thursday to check out a long list of food places. By the end of the day (and not counting breakfast), here is what I had eaten:

In Concord: Roast pork, black beans and white rice, fried plaintains, a slice of Cuban bread and a pineapple soda at Havana Carolina Grill; the salad sampler plate (chicken, tuna and shrimp salads on a bed of greens with diced tomatoes, carrots, mandarin oranges and house-made blue cheese dressing) and a cup of the hot tea of the day (Blue eyes, a sort of caramel apple-flavor) at Two Leaves & a Bud; a scoop of lemon slice ice cream at Cabarrus Creamery.

In Cornelius: Samples of Italian bread, tomato bread, Stinky Feet aged Parmesan, salami, breaded eggplant, eggplant Serrano (breaded eggplant layered with cheese and proscuitto), almond crescent, raspberry almond crescent and a spoonful of cannoli filling with chocolate chips at Derado's Italian Market.

Davidson: Chocolate-covered ginger, chocolate-covered caramel, a hot chili truffle and chocolate-covered cashews at Davidson Chocolate Co., and a Coffee Toffee cupcake at MJ's Sugar Shack.

I got through all that with help from a McDonald's latte made with nonfat milk. Oh yes, skim milk, please. I need to watch my calorie count.

Dinner? I wish it had been a nap.