Tuesday, August 31, 2010

September: Upcoming Events!

Thursday, September 2-Sunday, September 5, 2010. Taste of Beverly Hills

This Beverly Hills' weekend extravaganza kicks off with a party on Thursday followed "sessions" starting Friday night. Famous chefs from around the country will be doing demos including Art Smith, Michel Nischan, and of course all the famous local chefs you can think of. Mixology? Brunch? Wine? Choose the right session for you by studying their full schedule.
Tickets for each session is pretty expensive starting at $135 and a day pass starts from $185, but luckily you can get 50% off tickets to The Art of Brunch on Sunday via Goldstar. There is also buy-1-get-1 deal for the BBQ on the Hills on Sunday night.
Thursday, September 2, 2010. FREE Turkey Burgers
Jennie-O Turkey is hosting a Turkey Burger pop-up restaurant and is giving away free turkey burgers to remind people of this leaner alternative to beef burgers (turkey burgers have 10 g less fat and 100 fewer calories than typical beef burgers). The eastsiders get the goods this time, as this is happening in El Monte.
11am-3pm. 11655 Valley Blvd, El Monte, CA

Saturday, September 4, 2010-Sunday, October 3, 2010. LA County Fair
The LA County Fair kicks off this weekend also. For this one you should expect things like deep fried Klondike bars and chocolate-covered, bacon-wrapped Oreos, but if those things turn you off you can go for steamed artichoke. Not to leave you dry, you can also sip on the winners of this year's Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Awards. I'm looking forward to Esmeralda's Traveling Circus myself. Trapeze lessons, anyone?
Wed-Sun (hours vary). Pomona Fairplex, 1101 W. McKinley Ave., Pomona, CA 91768

Sunday, September 5, 2010. LA Times Food & Wine Fest
It's LA Times' first food festival. Not only will there be food from LA's best chefs (including Ludo Lefebvre, Suzanne Goin, Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, etc) the festival will also feature live performance by She & Him and Angela McCluskey. There will be a VIP-only area with cheese and sake tasting with the Cheese Impresario and a cooking challenge with Michael Voltaggio, but alas, the VIP tickets are sold out.
Thanks to Goldstar, you can now get 50% off non-VIP tickets to this event.
12-8PM. Paramount Studios, Hollywood.

Thursday, September 9, 2010. Taste of FPAC
This is the kickoff reception for the 19th annual Festival of Philippine Arts & Culture.
The event will feature The Manila Machine, SoCal’s first Filipino food truck and more food from Chef Guerrero, owner of The Oinkster. You can read Pleasure Palate's post for the full menu. Tickets are $50 and includes all food. Beer will be available for purchase. Proceeds benefit The Association for the Advancement of Filipino American Arts and Culture, also known as FilAm ARTS. For more information or to purchase tickets, contact Nerissa Silao at nerissa@filamarts.org.
6-10 PM. Oinkster. 2005 Colorado Boulevard, Eagle Rock, CA 90041

Wednesday, September 15, 2010. In the Kitchen with Neal Fraser
Los Angeles Magazine is hosting another culinary demonstration at Snyder Diamond, this time featuring chef Neal Fraser of Grace and BLD. The night will start with some appetizers from the Snyder Diamond's chef. Chef Fraser will show you how to cook two dishes:
Entrée: Sautéed Day Boat Scallop aged goat cheese risotto and peas
Dessert: Vanilla Panna Cotta, market berries, salted caramel
Everything will be paired with wine by LearnAboutWine.
Tickets are $40. Please call Estrellita Dacanay at (323) 801-0034 to purchase.
7-9PM. Snyder Diamond Showroom, 1399 Olympic Blvd, Santa Monica.

Saturday, September 18, 2010. Munch LA - CANCELLED!!
It's time school fundraising graduates from the door-to-door donut sales. Fairfax Highschool is holding a one day festival featuring 30 food trucks, culinary demos, even designer shopping (shopping for Paige Denim or T Bags dresses while munching on kimchi fries?). Tickets are $7 pre-sale and $10 at the door.
11am-5pm. Fairfax High School, 7850 Melrose Ave, LA 90046

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Kakawa (Santa Fe, NM): A Meso-American Chocolate House

Continuing our Taste of Santa Fe trip ...

Ever since Mattatouille pointed out the Sante Fe chocolate trail to me over breakfast, I had my mind set on visiting Kakawa, a chocolate shop featuring Meso-American style chocolates and truffles infused with chili.
There were also samples of some gluten free Aztec brownies (spiced with chile and other spices) when we entered the little adobe house. Since they were gluten free the brownies were a bit on the dry side, but the I enjoyed the heat from the spice.
I found their most interesting offerings are the Meso American chocolate "elixirs". They're much thicker and richer than hot chocolates - they're pretty much melted chocolates. They have European-style chocolate elixirs too, but this place is called Kakawa after all.

An espresso-sized cup of chocolate elixir is $3.50 which by no means is cheap, but considering how thick and rich these elixirs are, you'd understand. You're paying for the cocoa, not hot water.

After tasting quite a few, my favorite elixir was the Atole, made with blue corn atole (atole refers to a Mexican/Central American masa-based hot drink), unsweetened 99% chocolate, honey, chili, salt.
You can take most of the chocolate elixirs home in dehydrated wafer formats, and reconstitute them with a little hot water. Buying the wafers aren't much cheaper either, they're $16.95 for 3 wafers which make for 6 oz each.

Alas, the Atole isn't available in dehydrated form (apparently dehydrating it doesn't work out for this one), so I opted to take home the Mayan Full Spice instead, made with unsweetened 99% chocolate, agave nectar, chihuacle negro chili, mexican vanilla, and various herbs, flowers, nuts, and spices.


Read Food GPS' review here.


Kakawa Chocolate House
1050 E. Paseo de Peralta
Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 982-0388
www.kakawachocolates.com/
Kakawa Chocolate House on Urbanspoon

Albuquerque/Santa Fe, NM

Albuquerque Restaurant Reviews
Kelly's Brewpub
Sophia's Place

Albuquerque Breweries
Marble Brewery

Santa Fe Restaurant Reviews
BobCat Bite
Cafe Pasqual
The Shed
The Pantry

Chocolatiers
Kakawa

Hotel/Lodging
Eastside Compound - Kokopelli Real Estate and Property Management

Wineries
La Chiripada Winery (Dixon)

Festivals
Taste of Santa Fe 2010 - Gala Dinner
Taste of Santa Fe 2010

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