There was some poetic justice to the preponderance of sliders and salmon at Sunday's Lakeside A La Carte.

Sliders -- those one-bite hamburgers that all the rage right now -- were everywhere at Burlington's annual gourmet food and wine picnic. That was fitting as the 500 or so paying guests did quite a bit of sliding and slopping themselves in a muddy Spencer Smith Park.

And salmon, of course, lives in water, of which there has been no shortage this summer and certainly not prior to Lakeside.

Still, few if any ticketholders stayed away because of the rain, and a couple of dozen admissions were even sold at the gate. The advantage here is that Lakeside A La Carte, organized by Burlington Central Rotary to support local charities, is held under a series of tents.

So guests could stay dry -- from the elements above, at least -- as they happily chowed down on special food creations from more than 20 area restaurants and caterers and sipped samples from a similar number of Ontario wineries and breweries.

My daunting task was to review everything, and that means tasting everything, no matter how full I was. That in turn calls for discipline, a plan for each tent and strict limit of one sample of each offering, no matter how marvellous.

Portion control is critical in my book. You're trying to juggle a plate, glass and cutlery, so nibbles that can be eaten in one bite or that cut easily into two get bonus points.

The other aspect of this kind of quasi-competitive cuisine that I'm looking for is a vision of the entire spectrum of the food -- not just does it taste good, but its texture, visual appeal, temperature and emphasizing the key ingredient.

Two kitchen stops had exactly that combination of the right things, in my mind.

Chef Matteo Paonessa of Blacktree showed his usual genius (and I don't use that word lightly; his food is fantastic) with bite-sized coils of pristine citrus-cured salmon fillet wrapped around a savoury dill "marshmallow" and garnished with specks of dehydrated red onion and orange marmalade.

The salmon was ice cold, which shows it off best, the citrus/ orange opened and closed the parade of flavours in an attractive similarity, the onion added a delightful occasional crunch, the balance of flavours was perfect.

Close on his heels was chef Chris Haworth from Spencer's At The Waterfront, who highlighted the restaurant's new casual "burger bar" with a quinoa slider from the menu, a small crispy little disc of the super grain seasoned with herbs and onion and served with a dab of avocado. Top marks for clever. It reminded me of a South American falafel and made me forget the sins of other vegetarian burgers in the world.

He backed that up with a tiny cup of tomato jelly crowned with black olive ice cream and lemon basil foam. It made for a layered succession of flavours and textures that quite soothed the tastebuds.

Keeping the vegetarian spirit was Chef & Wife Caterers in Dundas, with a delicate tian of layered local beets and cream cheese topped with a savoury thyme sauce, the creation both savoury and light.

Over on the carnivore side, Landmark Steakhouse in Burlington got a couple of stars in my notes for their terrific, juicy and amazing seasoned angus grilled beef topped with a strip of Atlantic lobster and a tarragon mayonnaise that complemented both meats to perfection.

And then was more salmon, with curing in the gravadlax style the preparation of choice.

Twisted Fork in Oakville weighed in with nicely balanced and clean tasting house cure garnished with a lovely horseradish and dill creme fraiche.

Thyme in Oakville offered up their fish three ways that did indeed bring out contrasting characteristics of the salmon -- traditional cure with a mustard sauce highlighted its meatiness, Asian cure with shiso and ginger brought out the delicacy, and Campari and fennel cure focused on the gaminess.

50/50 Restaurant in Burlington served a mild and notably fruity salmon on crostini (along with fruit-glazed potato pastry that brought to mind mini egg rolls).

Then there was smoked salmon, as the joint Pepperwood/La Costa Nuova stop dished up very creamy, nicely smoky mousse canapes (as well as a delicious, tangy yellow plum tart to follow), while Canyon Creek Chophouse went traditional with properly oily and quite strongly smoked salmon on crostini.

I mentioned earlier that sliders were in abundance.

Water Street Cooker offered two choices of those mini burgers -- turkey, topped with a spicy tomato based Adobo sauce, and lamb with a herb yogurt that I thought was the winner, the lamb moist and the yogurt rounding out the flavours.

Meanwhile, Milestones, in tandem with their trademark mojitos, served up Kobe beef sliders, in actuality a slice of meat loaf made from the famous beef garnished with a tasty jus, crispy onions and aioli.

You might think by the time I'm a dozen restaurants into a review that I don't like what I'm eating. Not true. I've identified the two that blew me away, the rest go with the flow of the writing; there are still other stops that did outstanding dishes.

I think, for example, of The Rude Native. They were the first station I visited and set up the tastebuds nicely with a cold, medium spicy coconut mango soup and a fresh radicchio leaf stuffed with greens, melon, berries and cashews. Good start.

That Asian inspiration continued (not surprisingly) at the two Thai restaurants in attendance -- veteran My Thai By The Lake with their excellent mango salad, cold vegetable rolls and crispy coconut shrimp, and newcomer Siam Dish with spicy but well controlled chicken curry, noodle wrapped fried shrimp and pork filled won ton.

Pearl Street Cafe always shows well at this kind of event, and this time impressed me with a house-made pork and roast garlic sausage with tomato jam and a mini-dessert of skewered pineapple, strawberry and grilled pound cake drizzled with a lip-smacking caramel rum sauce.

Speaking of sausage, Cucci in Bronte made Italian spring rolls, the wrapper filled with meaty sausage, fontina cheese and corn, and accompanied by a sherry vinaigrette slaw.

Ah, but the feast was still young. Over at the Paradiso booth they had their famous and delicious house-made chorizo sausage (on its own --it doesn't need adornment) as well as rich crab ravioli in a cream sauce.

Liaison College Oakville went southern and country with properly shreddy and saucy pulled barbecued beef on crostini.

Casablanca Winery Inn from Grimsby was adventurous in their menu, with cups of spicy alligator gumbo (yes, it does taste kind of like chicken) and grilled lamb chops garnished by a chocolate sauce atop a bed of Israeli couscous.

The Dickens in Burlington brought English pub fare, with thinly shaved roast beef in jus wedged into a slice of Yorkshire pudding.

Was there still room for dessert? There had to be.

Piece A' Cake is a custom order cake and cupcake bakery in Burlington, and arrived with a selection of various fluffy, fruit flavoured or filled goodies.

Stoney Creek Dairy dished up what they do best -- ice cream -- and Coffee Culture Cafe & Eatery provided the java to wrap things up.

About the only thing missing at this year's Lakeside A La Carte was the little mint to take home.

dkislenko@thespec.com 905-526-3450