Before I start blogging about LA Mag's The Food Event that happened yesterday, I thought I'd give you guys a sneak preview.
Besides plenty of food and wine, we also had the pleasure of watching celebrity chefs giving cooking demonstrations, including Chef Ludo Lefebvre (remember how many of your bloggers loved Ludobites?)
Well, I know you all would want to see this, so here you go: Chef Ludo showing you how to make his spicy jalapeno chocolate mousse, "good for Valentine's", and talking about French girls. Oh and sorry about the cuts, my arm got tired. Enjoy.
Finishing up the first day of our Baja FAM food decathlon, we ended up at Villa Saverios, an elegant restaurant headed by Chef Javier Plascencia with cuisine featuring Mediterranean influences and Baja California ingredients.
Despite having had many delicious tamarind cocktails throughout the day, the one at Villa Saverios was instantly my favorite. The slightly tart cocktails was made with mezcal and Damiana (an herbal liqueur made with the damiana herb) and garnished with a tamarind pod. This cocktail proved the most well balanced of the day. The texture was quite icy and similar to a slushee, but more watery. (The next visit we tried ordering their tamarind margarita, but I don't think it was the same ..)
Pulpo (octopus) carpaccio with arugula, tomatoes, nopales, olive oil, and grapefruit. A nice light start, to the delight of our extremely stuffed stomachs. The pulpo had a wonderful texture and the use of grapefruit here was quite refreshing.
Next we were served a sampler of their signature dishes. From the right: Mijillon (mussel) cappuccino, pulpo encebollado, and "Tacos de Fideo" Grandma's "Taco de Fideo." Think spaghetti taco. Corn tortilla is filled with sausage, spaghetti, salsa verde, greens, cheese, habanero, and Mexican cream An impressive dish, not only on the creativity front but also the taste.
Braised short rib with Oaxaca mole, black Mission figs, port wine, and mascarpone mashed potato. A lovely dish with very tender short ribs, the rich and sweet mole and a nice texture contrast from the fig half.
Chef Plascencia surprised us with his dessert also: blackberry tamale Using corn masa, the dessert had a nice light sweetness and a prominent blackberry flavor. Despite tamale being a rather heavy dessert, I can definitely have a lot of this.
Even though we were already so full, I was glad we had this 'dinner'. Chef Plascencia's cuisine is innovative and well executed with restrained and balanced flavors across the board. Villa Saverios is lauded as one of the best fine dining establishments in Tijuana, and I can definitely see why.
Villa Saverios Blvd Sanches Taboada Esq. Escuadron 201 Zona Rio, Tijuana, Mexico http://www.villasaverios.com/english.html
October 11th was a day of various food events around town, one of them being the 2nd Chocolate Salon held in the Pasadena Convention Center. Alas, instead of eating chocolates and drinking wine all day long, I was slated to walk 17 miles up and down the Half Dome. Yeah, tell me about it. Since Chocolate Salon had sent me a press pass, I dispatched fellow blogger Kung Food Panda to cover the event for me. So, I present to you:
Howdy ya'll! This is Kung Food Panda reporting for KTWN at the Chocolate Salon at the Pasadena Convention Center. Gourmet Pigs is out on assignment in San Francisco.
Once a year, hundreds of chocolate aficionados gather upon Chocolate Salon a la those geeky Trekkie's bound for those yearly Star Trek conventions. Admittedly, I'm not a Chocolate Connoisseur. In fact, eating a Ferrero Rocher or even a Snickers bar often hits the spot for me. Upon arrival at 11AM in the morning, I was ready to get my chocolate on! All in the name of reporting for GourmetPigs.net!
The first chocolate that I tried was a white chocolate "creme brulee" from The Chocolate Traveler. Although quite tasty, this particular chocolate didn't quite stand out, but regardless, I was able to whet my chocolate appetite.
Next stop, I saw chocolate spa treatment products by Sweet Beauty. Interesting, but that's a bit out of my comfort zone! Next, probably the most unique chocolate I had during the convention, a Bacon Chocolate bar made by Christopher Michael. The mix of bacon, sea salt, and pop rocks (yes, pop rocks!) within the chocolate resulted in a combination of taste, texture, and that damn pop rocks almost created a party in my mouth. Now, I don't necessarily love the bacon in the bar, as it had too much of a bacon flavor (TOO much sometimes is not a good thing), but I can definitely dig it. NEXT!!
The next stand I visited had a variety of 7 different chocolates by Chocoveda. With flavors ranging from Green Tea to Ginger Lemongrass, it definitely had some of the most interesting flavors I had during the day. The lemongrass flavor in fact was one of my favorites as the flavor was intense, yet meshed well with the subtle bitterness of the chocolate. I like! Mmmmmm
From one of the most unique flavors of the day to probably my favorite chocolate bar of the event, Sterling Collections' truffle bars nabbed the top prize. The two bars I tried were both fantastic! The Strawberry Orange Liqueur had a great blend of strawberries and oranges within the French vanilla ganache . Delicious! The Banana Honey Caramel was also quite delicious. White chocolate that was infused with caramel mixed with dark chocolate and honey, the symphony of flavors meshed beautifully. I loved it!
Another winner for me were chocolates made by Amano Artisan Chocolates. Although simple, the dark chocolates with a slight bitterness were simply fantastic. My favorite from their tasting was the Montanya. Made from rare cacao from the Venezuelan mountain range, the chocolate was rich, bitter, but simply what chocolate was all about. There's a reason why Amano wins numerous awards for their chocolates.
Another delicious concoction was the "Root Beer Float" made by Choclatique. The root beer and cream within the milk chocolate was a heavenly mix. Root beer floats were one of my favorite childhood treats whenever I visited A&W back in my hometown, and this chocolate DEFINITELY had the taste of the delicious cold treat.
I'll close out the chocolate review with chocolates from Neapolitan Print & Co. from Portland Oregon. A few flavors I enjoyed were the "celery" infused chocolate and the mango/chipotle chocolate. However, one of the more interesting things I saw was the Chocolate Moustache on a stick from a dude with a killer mustache! All in all, Chocolate Salon was a fantastic event. From what I've heard, it was a much better event than the one held previously as more companies came to show off their chocolates. Although I was quite "chocolated out" by the end of the day, I had a great time trying out chocolates from various companies. Although there were many chocolates I was not able to try, I hope the lovely Gourmet Pigs will allow me to attend the event again next year as her +1. I had a lot of fun covering the Chocolate Salon and I thank Gourmet Pigs for this opportunity. This is Kung Food Panda, saying goodbye from Pasadena.
Until next time, too all of you chocolate lovers out there keep doing what you do, but ask yourself this......are you ready for the Chocolate Salon??? For even more photos, here's KFP's photo slideshow:
