Menus at our place setting to tantalize us with what was to come!

Various alcoholic beverages were being served, but I’m still on the wagon, so I didn’t partake of the micheladas (a beer cocktail), or the margaritas, though everyone around me seemed to enjoy.

First up were the mushroom quesadillas with chihuahua and Oaxaca cheeses. I enjoyed these small, light bites.

Fresh pineapple and cucumber guacamole served with homemade tortilla chips was fantastic – I usually add mango to my guacamole when I want a little sweetness, but the pineapple worked really well too.  There was a slight background heat that also was delicious – and jicama sticks were provided for those who didn’t want to eat fried chips.

Our third and last appetizer of duck tacos with roasted tomato-habanero cream sauce was also fantastic.  While it obviously had to be eaten with a knife and fork, I wasn’t complaining – not too spicy and just perfect to keep the meal going, I really enjoyed this as well.

Chef Roberto Santibañez came out to talk to us a bit about avocados from Mexico – what makes them special – and his various dishes. He also later signed the cookbook I got in my goodie bag, and was the sweetest man to talk to about where to get certain ingredients (like avocado leaf) and other food questions I had.

About the avocados – I failed to take a picture of it, but I requested a plain avocado be brought out to sample. I’ve eaten a lot of avocados in my life, but these were super buttery and had the most amazing texture and flavor that you can imagine avocados to have. I was super happy to just sit there and eat that – I can sit and eat an avocado sliced up with just a bit of salt, pepper and lime juice squirted on it. So good.  These, I think I could eat alone.  Mmm.

Our first entree came: short ribs torta, featuring Corona-braised short ribs on Telera bread with avocado. The texture of this entire dish was perfect; the bread was soft enough to be bitten through easily, while the meat was super tender and fragrant, with the avocado bringing a certain creaminess and heft to the sandwich. I thoroughly enjoyed my half sandwich, and almost wanted to eat more.

The next entree, enchiladas suizas, was also delicious.  Pulled chicken inside tortillas with cream tomatillo sauce, baked with cheese and topped with fresh avocado… that sauce was just amazing, I was practically licking my plate clean.  I actually never order enchiladas, but this made me think I should probably start…

And our dessert, which was quite amazing: avocado cheesecake with strawberry raspberry sauce. You all know I’m not one much for desserts but this was only lightly sweet, and the texture was unlike regular cheesecake at all (of which I am not a fan), but perfect.  I happily ate almost the entire thing, it was so good and light – I was super full already at this time, too.

Listening to Chef Roberto describe Avocados from Mexico was great, but actually eating the avocados made me realize that there are superior avocados and I should stop just buying whichever ones are on sale.  These were fantastic and I’ve been keeping an eye out in supermarkets but haven’t had any luck so far finding them… hopefully soon!

I do have recipes for some of these dishes, so please speak up in comments if you’d like any of them.

The Avocados from Mexico people have generously offered up 3 avocados plus a copy of Chef Roberto’s cookbook to one lucky winner.  To enter, all you have to do is tell me in comments how you’ll use the avocados.  GOOD LUCK!!!

Please note I attended this event courtesy of the Avocados from Mexico people. I was under no obligation to post about this event, nor did I receive any monetary compensation for this post. Thanks again for the hospitality!

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Post tags: avocados, contest, giveaway, press event

His propensity towards Asian food left me making Asian food. His stupid electric stove top shutting off on me in the middle of cooking – well, technically, I’d finished frying the tofu, then shut the burner, wiped out the pan, and went to turn it back on to cook the cabbage – really drives me bonkers…

I’m super comfortable frying tofu – it’s one of my favorite things to make, actually, though I prefer doing it when I can open the windows to let some of the stinkiness out – and I know it tastes awesome. I did forget to bring my Hungarian paprika, which lends it a smoky background flavor and makes it taste like bacon, but ah well. DLS enjoyed this a lot I think – and the cabbage cooked with residual heat well enough, thankfully. DLS lacks small sauce dishes, so I used a measuring cup and put some soy sauce mixed with Sriracha in there for a little kick – I’d intended to just use hoisin sauce but shockingly, DLS didn’t have any.  The soy sauce + Sriracha mixture worked well, though – the Sriracha left over from my making Spam hash the week prior.

(I normally serve with cilantro sauce but as I discovered the hard way that DLS doesn’t like cilantro, I didn’t bother attempting to make that for him.)

The basic recipe for the fried tofu, though, can be found here. The major differences would be that I didn’t use paprika, and that I used corn starch instead of flour – which is what I’m pretty sure I always do, not sure why I wrote flour in that post.  Regardless – enjoy these tasty tofu bites!

Oh, and the cabbage was just sliced up Napa cabbage that was cooked with a bit of oil and sliced garlic and salt.

Happy eating!

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: DLS, tofu

KC was ready for the holidays and made us a Pizza Rustica.

It was full of various meats and cheeses. Very delicious but lethal. I could have eaten this whole thing myself.

CT made Barbacoa for the first time in our crockpot. She was a little disappointed it came out dry, but the fresh avocado salsa she also made fixed that problem.

I took a shot at making Korean food this time around; Pork Bulgogi. I had wanted to make Esther’s recipe from Ambitious Deliciousness for a long time but never got around to it until now. It turned out GREAT and was pretty easy to make. You just need a couple days to marinade the meat and then it cooks quickly on a grill pan. I brought some romaine to make lettuce wraps. It also helped cool down the spicy meat. Thanks Esther for posting your recipe. I’ll definitely be making it again.

Beer Boor took a shot at making mini Chicken Fried Steaks. They turned out very well. He really knows how to fry! The steaks were served with onion rolls and gravy. I had seconds and possibly thirds.

Dean made Lotus Root Salad with freshly fried shrimp chips. I gotta be honest when I heard salad, I didn’t have high expectations. It turned out to be one of the best dishes of the day. There were a lot of different flavors and textures going on from the lotus root, shrimp, fried onions and more. It wasn’t the easiest thing to eat on top of the chips, but very good regardless on how it ended up in my mouth.

Hungry is always one to have multiple contributions.

She took over Yvo’s role as bartender and brought a huge jug full of vodka infused with pineapple and lime. It was super potent and needed to be cut with seltzer, however the sip I had was delicious. I tend to stick to beer during the potlucks or else I am prone to pull a TC and pass out.
She also made some red wine braised shortribs. I don’t think they came out exactly as planned, but I am pretty sure it was her first time making them. I will happily be the guinea pig the next time she makes them.

Gaji brought some spiced cauliflower. I liked that it wasn’t cooked fully through so it still had some texture. It was good to get some veggies in where I could.

Cheeeese made some pulled pork again. He changed the recipe up this time with some different spices. Can’t blame him for making the same thing because who doesn’t like pulled pork?

KC also brought out some homemade Philly cheesesteak stromboli!!! We love when KC makes strombolis for us. This quickly disappeared which is all that needs to be said.

Hungry made us a Chocolate Cream Pie for dessert.

CT has been on a baking kick recently and adapted a recipe for Rum & Coke Brownies.

Thanks to TC, LBA and Beer Boor for providing the booze and beer.

All in all, another successful potluck! We really have this down to a science. Stay tuned for the next potluck in a couple months.

© TT for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: FBM, potluck

We opted to order a bunch of things to share so we could try more things. Nearly everything arrived at once: first up, eggplant fritters. Both of us had expected more like eggplant mashed into a beignet/doughnut/zeppole dough before being fried, so we were surprised to find thick slices of eggplant breaded and fried. I thought this was okay, though the name on the menu was completely misleading.

I’m not really sure why I took such unfocused photos – too busy gabbing away, I suppose? – but this was a scallop dish, served with sauteed mushrooms on the side. The scallop – yes, singular – was sweet and cooked properly, but again, nothing stood out about it.

I really don’t know what I was photographing, since this dish – the pate – well, you can barely see it! I thought the pate was once again just OK. It was creamy, and perfectly spreadable, but nothing notable one way or the other.

After my recent positive experience with mussels (literally 3 days prior to this) – plus Hungry‘s comment to me when I mentioned where I was going for dinner that La Carafe often had moules frites specials advertised – I mentioned this to Felicia, and she was game. For $17, you could pick your choice of broth, the dish came with a giant portion of frites that were slightly soft but otherwise a great accompaniment, and a glass of house wine.  I found these pretty good – plump, cooked properly and not mealy or dry like I dislike in mussels – and just overall, very tasty. I was just starting to think that maybe I’ll start actually liking and eating mussels again, after a long hiatus from eating them – I tend to find them overcooked, crumbly, and unappetizing – when disaster struck.

I take my share of responsibility for this occurrence; having little to no experience really eating mussels like this, and certainly having not eaten more than one or two at a time in very spaced apart periods over the course of the last 30 years, I didn’t recognize the signs of “don’t eat that” – I ate one that tasted slightly off. I mean, it didn’t taste as good as the others, but I shrugged and instead of spitting it out, I swallowed it.  I am fully aware that one bad mussel in a pot doesn’t mean all of them are bad, and that the onus is on the eater here to not eat food that’s spoiled, as the kitchen just can’t know if a closed mussel, once it’s steamed open, has turned, and they aren’t going to sit there and check each mussel before serving a whole pot of them to us.

I have a very funny stomach, and many friends have suggested that I’m insane because there’s no way I could immediately feel ill effects of food. Whatever, I’ve been like this my whole life (and my mother is as well); within 15 minutes I realized something was wrong. However, we had tickets to Peter & the Starcatcher, so I didn’t say anything and just prayed that it would pass. Towards the end of Act 1, though, when I broke into a cold sweat and probably turned 6 shades of green, I knew I wasn’t going to make any longer and rushed out of the theater (which is something of a no-no, but I’m sure the people I disturbed to get out of my row preferred being disturbed for 45 seconds over me throwing up on them).  That mussel wanted OUT and it was going to come OUT, STAT.

I know this is a food blog, so I won’t give more details other than… yeah, I missed the last 10 minutes of Act 1 and the first 5 of Act 2  in order to calm my cramping and aching belly.

Having said all that, though, I don’t find myself holding it against La Carafe. While the food was all very middle-of-the-road, it was enjoyable enough with very reasonable prices that I see no reason to refrain from returning simply because I had one bad mussel. Felicia was fine, and we shared everything. It really is less a jab at them and more my lack of experience eating mussels that caused this issue.

Yvo says: Extremely reasonably priced pre-theater dining, with pleasant service, good location and nice decor. I believe they are also on Restaurants.com if you want an even bigger discount. While nothing will blow your mind, it is a solid choice for a few bites before a show, or just to catch up with a friend.

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: frites, mussels, pre-theater

I basically hung out in the green room, munching and watching Madison run through a few recipes to zazz up pork chops. I enjoyed tender pork loin with salad, some rice and veggies.

Then fresh fruit and a lot of desserts (I must’ve been in a sweets mood that day!) – shockingly REALLY good whoopie pies, black & whites and other cookies. So good.

The first recipe: grilled pork chops stuffed with chorizo, manchego and dates can be found here.

Chinese five spice and maple glazed pork chops.

Lastly a Moroccan tagine with cous cous cakes.

I foolishly did not snap any pictures of Madison in action except this one of him signing a photo for one of the guys. I did get a chance to sit down and just chat with him, and found him incredibly personable, friendly, and thoughtful. That might sound like an odd choice of words, but he spoke with great care and yet very easily as well. I enjoyed speaking with him about a lot of different things, including his passion for food and his experience on No Kitchen Required, a new BBC show that has him along with two other chefs cooking without kitchens in interesting and unique locations.  He very clearly cares about his family a great deal and I learned a lot just chatting casually with him.  Thanks for your time!!!

Please do check out PorkBeInspired.com for all your pork recipes and needs – it’s a great resource for anyone with questions about cooking pork, including to what temperature it needs to be cooked, and loads of recipes with photos and step by step instructions to get what you crave.

I attended this event courtesy of the National Pork Board, but was under no obligation to post about this experience, negatively or positively, and received no monetary compensation to do so. Thank you again for your hospitality – I had a lot of fun!

© Feisty Foodie for The Feisty Foodie, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Madison Cowan, press event