MONDAY 8
Seedling Fruit takes center stage at a fixed-price dinner at Custom House to benefit Slow Food. Just read this menu, and you can practically taste fall: a zucchini bread amuse accompanied by pear butter and cured sturgeon; duck confit and spiced pears; pork chops and applesauce; and finally, caramelized pears and gingerbread for dessert. Be careful: once you eat that gingerbread, summer is officially over. 7pm. 500 S Dearborn St (312-523-0200). $50.

One Sixtyblue lost Martial Noguier, but they kept Monday Night Flights, and tonight they’re featuring Australian winemaker Carlei Green Vineyards paired with bites of sea scallops, pear salad and caraibe chocolate mousse with earl gray tea foam. 6, 7, and 8pm seatings. 1400 W Randolph St (312-850-0303). $35.

TUESDAY 9
Try not to think too hard about why foie gras was banned when you eat Chef Bill Kim’s foie gras dumplings with tea-smoked quail or foie gras crème brulée at a Foie Gras Wine Dinner at Le Lan. 7:30pm. 749 N Clark St (312-280-9100). $115.

WEDNESDAY 10
New week, same rivalries. 90210 vs. Gossip Girl. Palin vs. the news media. And now, Old World vs. New World wine. Brasserie Ruhlmann’s Around The World tasting pits the two hemispheres against each other, but really, when wine, cheese and desserts are involved, nobody’s a loser. 6–9pm. 500 W Superior St (312-494-1900). $55.

THURSDAY 11
Oh, Sonoma. How I would like to visit you and drink your wine. You say you are coming to Chicago for a Sonoma Harvest Feast Dinner, but will it be enough? With dishes like a corn, fennel and coconut bisque with ginger-roasted Chardonnay grapes, it should hit pretty close to the mark. The multicourse dinner is also a benefit for Art Smith’s charity Common Threads. 7–10pm. The Allerton Hotel, 701 N Michigan Ave (707-522-5860). $125.

Ring in Oktoberfest with Spaten Beers, cheeses and sausages at Taste Food and Wine. 7–8:30pm. 1506 Jarvis Ave (773-761-3663). $20 in advance, $25 at the door.

FRIDAY 12
You thought festival season was over, huh? You were so wrong. Start at Naperville Wine Fest, and the rest will be lots more enjoyable. A tasting ticket buys a souvenir glass and ten pours (from a roster of 250 wines), plus cooking demos and music and all that good stuff. Naper Settlement, 523 S Webster St, Naperville (847-382-1480). $25 in advance, $30 at the door.

Celebrate Mexico’s independence from Spain at the Little Village Festival (Festival de la Villita) with tortas, elote and agua frescas served by local restaurants. Through Sun 14. Fri 6–11pm, Sat 3–11pm, Sun noon–11pm. 2600 S Kostner Ave. Free admission. Average dish: $5.

SATURDAY 13
Virginia Willis—a chef, author and the former Kitchen Director for Martha Stewart Living TV—comes to town to chat about her love of Southern cooking. She’ll give a talk entitled “Bon Appetit Y’all” to the Culinary Historians of Chicago at the Chicago History Museum. Then she heads to Blackbird for a reception, book signing and luncheon with the ChicaGourmet posse to promo her new book, also called Bon Appetit Y’all. Talk: 10am–noon. 1600 N Clark St (708-788-0388). $5, $3 for students and members. Reception: 12:30pm. 619 W Randolph (708-383-7543). $99.

They’re roasting 150 pigs, 150 lambs and a 1,000-pound ox (?!) at the Taste of Romania, sponsored by Little Bucharest and Continental Café restaurants. They’ll also let you stomp your own grape juice (and drink unlimited quantities of it), because apparently that is what they do in Romania. Through Sun 14. 11am–10pm daily. 3600 N California Ave (773-604-8500). $10.

Two grape-stomping events in one day? Choose from 100 wines to taste at The Wine Crush in Old Town, stop in on cooking demos (Thomas Rice, Chef de Cuisine at Haussmann Brasserie, steps up to the stage at 1pm), or take off your shoes and get in on the Grape Stomping Competition. (Call 773-868-3010 x.249 or email jhollarbush@chicagoevents.com to register for the competition.) 11am–10pm (Wine tasting 2–7pm). N Wells St between North Ave and Evergreen Ave. Standard tasting: $25.

SUNDAY 14
Merle’s Barbeque will cook up pulled pork sandwiches and sliced beef brisket at the Andersonville Music and BBQ Festival. Noon–10pm. 5500 N Ashland Ave (773-714-1542). $5 donation, average dish: $5.

ChicaGourmets head out to the ’burbs for a wine dinner at old-school French-Italian spot Carlos’s. Chef de Cuisine Ramiro Velasquez will prepare a four-course meal with dishes like chervil-and-truffle–crusted hamachi and cabernet-braised short rib. 5:30pm. 429 Temple Ave, Highland Park (708-383-4964). $109.