Monday, August 27, 2012

Drool...by Jessica

I worked at an event on Saturday in Napa with my good friend Marcella.  She's someone who can make the appropriate squeal of glee when hearing that the gigantic pig on the spit has been stuffed with thousands of dollars worth of truffles and we get to stick around to watch it be hacked up and then eat the poor little thing.  


Have you ever eaten a chunk of black truffle?  Our conclusion was that we thought it would taste a lot more decadent and truffle-ey than it did.  Marcella said "it could have been a potato" and I had to agree.  But then the sauce that it was paired with had that rich truffle taste....so maybe someone can clear that up for us...do truffles only have that taste when they're cooked down into a sauce?

We enjoyed the view and aroma of roasted animal flesh, sizzling and spewing fragrant oily deliciousness.
And got matching tattoos (temporary ones, silly).
 We ate lamb mortadella sandwiches with caraway beer slaw.
And BBQ'd oysters.  
Saw a Top Chef contestant Alex Reznik.  He came to our table and I said "So - we know you from what?  Top Chef?" and his friend giggled with glee, nudged him like I TOLD you someone would recognize you and Alex pretended to be all humble like oh yeah Top Chef no big deal.  
Don't recognize him?  How about this one.I TOTALLY wish I would have remembered about the pea puree mishap on the spot because I would have asked him about it.  Oh yes I would.  

And then we ate California chinook salmon, with black pepper caramel sauce and a green papaya, white peach and mango salad.  Yum!
Made some room for spicy Thai and cheddar pork sausage with compressed watermelon & Thai basil mint.  Delicious, but our question is - what's the deal with compressing watermelon?...it tasted like regular ole watermelon.
Somewhere in between all this we also ate some Bunnies Gone Wild dishes: roasted rabbit in an amazing tomato sauce over rice and a rabbit roulade with pancetta & prosciutto.  We ate them too quickly to be photographed. 
Who can resist bacon wrapped figs?

Okay, we probably had a little breather and then moved on to: albacore tuna fish tacos cooked over fire, with pasilla negra, avocado, fresh cows cheese, banana peppers and cilantro
We were starting to feel like we couldn't do any more...but of course we could and we did.  Made some room for jerk goat with spicy peach catsup and johnny cakes.
And then, even though we didn't think we could do one bite more - chicken cooked under a brick with salsa verde.
Somewhere along the way we also had a Tuscan style beef "sushi" (steak tartare), a slider style gyro with Morroccan style lamb and a perfect little tomato & basil bruschetta.
BUT - the highlight of the whole night was this humble little thing called TOAST.
A man walking around with a try of toast became our best friend.  He started out with a tray of what was called The Ultimate Toast - butter, onions, red bepper, gorgonzola & parmesan and then ended the evening with cinnamon toast.  It's even better than you're imagining.  We overheard someone say that he couldn't control it and had "just drooled on that toast while eating it".  It was good.  
I'm eating lettuce and water next week.  
The End.
{Marcella - I did more research on the after party and here is the info I found:
Following Cochon Heritage Fire, the celebration continues next door at Restaurant Cuvee in Napa. The After Party is hosted by chef Jordan Mackey, and features an exclusive menu with items like plancha-fired shrimp & grits, BBQ Ribs and watermelon slaw.  What?!  We could have made room!}

6 comments:

Juliana said...

OMG all of those look amazing!!!! Why oh why couldn't I have worked that one! Calling dibs on the next event for sure!

Rachel said...

unbelievable! but amazingly I feel full just looking at the pictures. which are beautiful by the way. what do you use? don't tell me your phone, because they're so clear and perfect! what a treat. glad you got to enjoy!

Jessica said...

Juli - of course as the other half of the demo team you get first dibs :)
Rachel, my camera is a Canon Powershot SD1200. It's a nice small camera that takes good pics!

Anonymous said...

mmmthat food looks good and looks fun to
Bobby

jbbode said...

Man, I'm bummed I missed working that too! Although I would have slightly lost my appetite with the carcasses...I like to not make the connection of animal to meat when I'm eating!

Jessica said...

Jill ha ha ha, yeah the connection of animal to meat was not masked in any way at this event.