Coming soon . . . Tacos and Tequila, Top Chef style – Bandolero Pop-Up Restaurant
Received an email from LivingSocial on January 30, 2012 from their gourmet division so I decided to click and read more about it. The deal was from their Washington DC gourmet section and there were a couple of things that drew my attention – tacos, tequila, and Top Chef 🙂 Basically, for tickets at $119 apiece, this included:
- Five Courses of Modern Mexican Small Plates
- Tequila-Cocktail Pairings
- Chef Meet and Greet
- Gratuity and Other Fees
At first, the deal seemed a little pricey, but after further contemplation and reading the fine print, I decided to go for it. After all, it did include a preview of a new restaurant’s food at a pop-up restaurant, the food and drinks, including gratuities and other fees, and a chef meet and greet with former Top Chef contestant (twice!) Mike Isabella.
This event is specifically related to Chef Mike Isabella’s newest venture, Bandolero, which will be opening soon in Georgetown. I’ve always been curious about pop-up restaurants and wondered why more new places didn’t take advantage of the marketing opportunity. I’m sure it’s a lot more additional work along with already having to open a new place, but it looks like Chef Mike’s marketing team is on the ball by having this preview event for his new place to get the buzz going (not that there isn’t a lot already since Chef Mike has garnered some definitely foodie celebrity status).
My dinner tasting event isn’t until February 18, 2012, but I’m definitely looking forward to it and look forward to posting my experience to this blog. After checking back on the deal, I’m glad I got my tickets when I did as it looks like it’s all sold out! FYI, Chef Mike Isabella’s other Washington, DC establishment is Graffiato which is a great place to go if you haven’t already gone yourself, or you can just wait until Bandolero is actually open . . .
Screenshot of Living Social Bandolero Pop-Up deal
Jen’s Island Cafe & Deli
On a day trip (December 28, 2011) to downtown Charlotte-Amalie, St Thomas, US Virgin Islands, we decided to stop in to Jen’s Island Cafe & Deli for lunch as it seemed like one of the few places in downtown that served local cuisine. Most of the other bars and restaurants that we had seen in town seemed to just serve bar/pub food without any local fare. I’m sure they are just catering to what people want, but to me it seems like if you’re visiting somewhere you would want to try that somewhere’s food as part of experiencing the culture? But I digress . . .
At Jen’s, we started off with the conch fritters. Per the menu, the fritters were made with fresh conch, peppers, onions and seasonings fried and served with a mango chutney sauce. The batter was light and the fritter contents were well balanced though I must admit the conch seemed a little hidden at times. That’s always a challenge with making conch fritters though. The fritters were moist enough that they really didn’t need too much of the accompanying mango chutney unless you wanted to give it some additional flavor to the fritters, which did indeed make them even tastier.
Conch fritters
For the main course, we decided to get an order of the chicken roti. For those who haven’t had a roti but are familiar with burritos, a roti is very similar. In the Caribbean, a “roti” (a traditional Trinidadian dish) refers to a filled pastry. For a more detailed introduction on rotis and what rotis are in different regions of the world, check out the Wikipedia roti entry. At Jen’s, the chicken roti had a filling of curried potatoes, carrots and chick peas, in a nicely made dhalpuri wrap. Everything came together well and I appreciated that the wrap was sturdy enough to hold everything yet not too dry or tough.
Chicken roti
For those that may want to add some additional zing to their roti, or whatever they may order, Jen’s also makes its own hot sauce. Looking at the bottle the hot sauce appears to be habanero pepper-based, with generous amounts of garlic and onions, and some other ingredients. Although the hot sauce was made with habanero peppers it wasn’t scorching hot. I’d describe it as a toned down flavorful hot sauce with the slow acting habanero kick – a great sauce to complement your food.
Overall, we had a great lunch experience at Jen’s Island Cafe & Deli. We sat at the bar and it was definitely a very friendly atmosphere. We would definitely return for another meal if we are ever back in Charlotte-Amalie.
Jen’s Island Cafe & Deli
43-46 Norre Gade
Charlotte Amalie, VI 00802
(340) 777-4611
Uncle Joes’ (World Famous) BBQ
While on our honeymoon in the US Virgin Islands (December 2011), my wife and I had taken a day trip to St John where we did the Reef Bay Trail Hike. After the several hour long hike that had spanned lunch time, we were both pretty hungry and so some good food was definitely in order. Since we were visiting the USVI, we wanted to sample some local West Indian fare in downtown Cruz Bay. We saw Uncle Joe’s BBQ close by and had absolutely no qualms about dropping in for a bite to eat at this little roadside jaunt.
Uncle Joe's BBQ from across the street
We decided to go for their chicken BBQ plate with sides of red beans and rice, and macaroni salad. The chicken was well cooked and generously covered with their unique BBQ sauce, which was tangy in flavor and had a little kick. Being in the Caribbean, based on my previous living experiences in the West Indies, my guess is that they used just a touch of scotch bonnet peppers in their sauce as it had that oh so wonderful lingering sensation of a good hot suace. Some others might not appreciate the coating amount of BBQ sauce but I thought it was just the right amount of sauce – enough for all of my chicken, and some left over for my rice and beans 🙂
BBQ chicken platter with sides of red beans and rice, and macaroni salad
All in all, a great meal that definitely hit the spot! BTW, if you’re looking for some authentic local fare, there aren’t many places in downtown Cruz Bay so I’d definitely hit up this place if you can.
Uncle Joe's BBQ
Uncle Joe’s Barbecue
North Shore Rd, Cruz Bay
St John, VI
(340) 693-8806
Ramen Dojo
My wife and I met up with a friend and we decided to go to dinner at Ramen Dojo on 1/16/2012. We got to Ramen Dojo around 7:30pm which was prime dinner time. We put our names on the list knowing we had to wait a while (there were probably 20 odd people waiting outside). After a wait of about 30 minutes or so we were finally seated. We were actually lucky that we were able to be served – we ended up being the second to last group as they were running out of broth for the night.
Alas, the much coveted garlic pork broth was already sold out so we were given the choice of the soy sauce or miso based broths. My selection was the soy sauce based broth, spicy, with extra pork and I must say the food was tasty. The pork was nicely made and melted in the mouth, complementing the noodles. Perhaps it was due to it being the dregs of the broth, or just that it was soy sauce based, but I found the flavor of the broth a tad salty. Our group had an order of the miso based broth which was also quite tasty but a little different in texture vs the soy based broth in that the miso based broth was a little thicker.
A typical bowl at Ramen Dojo
All in all, delicious ramen especially on a chilly night like the one we were there on. Next time, I’ll be getting there earlier so I can try the coveted garlic pork broth . . .
Ramen Dojo
805 S B St
San Mateo, CA 94401
(650) 401-6568
Brown Sugar Kitchen
One of my favorite places to go in the San Francisco Bay Area for breakfast is Brown Sugar Kitchen. My most recent visit was for breakfast on 1/14/2012 with my wife and some friends. We got to BSK around 8:30am which was reasonable for a typical Saturday morning, but a little later than some of our previous visits. We put our names in and awaited a table, and for our friends to arrive. BSK is one of those establishments that will only seat your party if everybody is present which worked out great for us as we waited. We were seated after a short 15 minute wait.
Our friends were having breakfast for the first time at Brown Sugar Kitchen. As such, we decided to get an order of their freshly-made beignets as a starter. The beignets did not disappoint. It’s incredible how the fried goodness with powdered sugar tastes so light and airy.
An order of beignets is the best way to start your BSK experience
Why do I love Brown Sugar Kitchen so much? In my opinion, their fried chicken and waffles dish is amazing! I would probably even go as far as to say it is the best one in the Bay Area. Some Bay Area folks rave about a similar dish at 900 Grayson but, after doing a taste test tour one weekend of both establishments, my preference is Brown Sugar Kitchen.
For breakfast, three quarters of our table chose to have BSK’s most popular dish – buttermilk fried chicken and cornmeal waffles, with brown sugar butter and apple cider syrup. Once again, the food did not disappoint once we were served. The fried chicken was moist and I could not get enough of the delectable goodness atop buttered waffle pieces drizzled with syrup.
Buttermilk fried chicken and cornmeal waffles - a perfect breakfast
Melting brown sugar butter on cornmeal waffles makes your mouth water
What can I say but yet another great breakfast at Brown Sugar Kitchen – a perfect way to start off a weekend in the Bay Area. Like many other ambrosial breakfast eateries, you’ll want to get there earlier to avoid the longer wait times.
Brown Sugar Kitchen
2534 Mandela Parkway
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 839-7685
The quest for the perfect pot roast
With my previous attempt at making a pot roast being relatively successful, I wanted to try to do better. On this second attempt to make the perfect pot roast with the newly acquired All-Clad slow cooker from Williams-Sonoma, I did do a few things differently. In this attempt, the modifications were:
1) switching up my protein and using a pork shoulder instead of beef. Although the truely scientific method would be to keep my protein the same for taste comparison purposes, Safeway had a nice special on pork shoulder, and I had seen some good recipes using pork shoulder so I decided to go with it for this attempt.
1) changing the positioning in which I placed some of the vegetables. In my last attempt, I found out that vegetable placement in the slow cooker was also important if one wants certain vegetables to be desired textures. That is, the celery and brussel sprouts that I had placed atop everything and thought might still be fairly green and crispy once cooked were not so.
2) adding more chicken stock. The last time I made a pot roast, I could tell I did not have enough liquid. Why do I say so? Well, once cooked the pot roast should be partly submerged in liquid to keep it moist and provide more flavor. However, I was a little too stingy with the amount of chicken stock that I added last time so my meat was sitting atop my liquid vegetable bed. This time I made sure to add enough liquid (deglaze + stock) so as to cover about half of the pot roast. As juices will come out from the meat, and veggies, you don’t want to fill up the slow cooker completely with liquid.
For this blog entry, I’ve decided to provide a photodocumentary so as not to bore you with all the specifics. Pictures speak a thousand words anyways so please enjoy!
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- Washed fresh vegetables
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- Chopped yellow onions
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- Olive oil for the aromatics
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- Sauteeing garlic cloves
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- Sauteeing chopped onions
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- Onions getting some color
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- Nicely browned onions
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- Empty slow cooker ceramic insert
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- A bed of onions
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- A layer of carrots
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- Interspersing celery
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- The massic pork shoulder cut
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- Pork shoulder side profile
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- Lightly seasoned pork shoulder
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- Olive oil to brown the pot roast
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- Sizzling pork shoulder closeup
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- Browning the pork shoulder
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- Turning to brown all sides
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- Browning all sides
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- Meat on layer of onions, carrots and celery
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- Potatoes on the side
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- Brussel sprouts on the side
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- Cherry tomatoes on the side
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- Deglazing the meat browning pan with chicken stock
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- Adding a can of diced tomatoes and some cajun/taco seasoning to top off the pot roast
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- All ingredients in the slow cooker and ready to go
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- Slow cooker set 8 hr cook time
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- After 4 hr of cooking
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- The completed pot roast after 8 hr of slow cooking
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- Cooked pot roast closeup
So, what were the results of this pot roast attempt? Compared to the previous attempt, this pot roast definitely turned out much better. With the meat still submerged in the juices once cooked, the pork shoulder remained nice and moist unlike my previous beef pot roast. The vegetables also turned out better.
However, the quest for the perfect roast is not complete and I shall continue attempting to perfect my pot roasts . . .
Foodie Forays 