Monday, April 2, 2012

Swwet & Savory 1 of 4 drool fest!

So, as I mentioned last week that there's this Sweet & Savory fundraiser for Lucky Dog Rescue. Rebecca of Fluff Bake Bar is the main coordinator, who got her Top Chef castmates to come and do this event. It's kinda neat, and as you speak with each of the chef, they will tell you that while it's stressed and isolated during taping, they all kept up with each other after the show.

Alright, on to the event... it was sip and stroll style, which I love so much more than previous S&S event, where it is a plated dinner, sit-down style. Another participant and I were just saying how this allows us to balance our sweet buds with the savory buds. Versus, the previous styles, you got your batch of savory first, then your batch of sweet which ended up 7 courses. This way, we get to mix and match on our own. If the line is too long, you just go to another station.
First, I ventured to Amanda Rockman's station. She's a Houston native and her parents were in attendance. She is now the Pastry Chef at Bristol and Balena of Chicago.
Here's Amanda busy plating our desserts... yum!
Perfect for a hot summer day, like yesterday which the sun ended up around 80-something (welcome to Houston). And she had anticipated this and made Vanilla Basque Cake with strawberry, a little rhubarb, creme fraiche, and ice cream. You can really taste the flavor when you eat the sauce, strawberry, and cake together as one bite. Everything draws together very well, and surprisingly refreshing.
Then, I wandered over to H-town StrEATS.
Here, they're busy preparing our dumplings. YES! To pan-fried dumpings please!
The end result was: crab and shrimp dumpling. Nom nom!
For some thirst quenching refreshment. We had Ryan from Grand Prize Bar on Banks (formerly known as Ernie on Banks).
Here he is, shaking up our cocktail.
He's pouring our Ready Steady, which has vodka, couple bitters, and basil. Amazingly, it was very refreshing. Perfect for a summer day.
Another one is the Suffering Bastard, which I looked it up, has rum, orange liqueur, lime/orange juice. Honesty, this one is heavier on the alcohol. It does fizz, which is why they bottled it up. Just for novelty, it's fun, but a tad heavier on the alcohol for me.

Alright, I'm going back to my sugar coma, more pictures for you to drool on tomorrow and day after!

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