I truly love working a bit for my meals. Walkabouts, progressive dinners and this weekend - the Sun Valley Harvest Festival Restaurant Walk.

I've been to Sun Valley and Ketchum quite a few times in the past decade - but I stick to the places I've been before. The beauty of a restaurant walk is getting bite-sized introductions to places you've never been - or places you've forgotten.

We started at the Ketchum Towne Square with a first-time sampling of the brand new Sawtooth Brewery. (Growler cozies - who knew?)

We didn't make every one of the 15 stops, but here are the few we hit and my foodie feelings on the experience.

Cornerstone Bar & Grill: Bite sized local buffalo wellington en croute

Cristina’s Restaurant: Salmon cakes & Porchetta pizza roll-up

Dashi: Crispy local Berkshire pigs head pork lollipops with pickled local cherry crème fraiche

Glow: Fall harvest gazpacho with local sweet corn and avocado salsa

Il Naso: Deconstructed Italian BLT; local seared pork belly, oregano aioli, local heirloom tomato, butterleaf lettuce and olive oil cracker

Rickshaw: Nepalese Momos - Local XXL ranch pork and chive dumpling with spicy roasted Hagerman heirloom tomato sauce

Roosevelt Grille: Snake River Farms Kobe beef grilled flatiron steak two ways – Argentinean chimichurri and Thai-basil 

Rolling in Dough: Cheese crackers and lemon tarts

While the entire experience was fantastic, my favorites were:

• Dashi - When you hear pig's head you may cringe, but the flavor and lusciousness of the meat was divine.
• Roosevelt Grille - There is nothing quite as fantastic as a perfectly cooked steak (well, maybe a great 3-minute egg) but this flatiron was superb. Add that to the fact that Chef Tom Nickel had whipped up two nom-worthy toppings (chimichurri? I'm now a huge fan).
• Il Naso: Now THAT is the way to prepare pork belly. Perfect crispiness. Foodgasm.

- Jess Flynn