SOBE WFF 2016-Croquette & Champagne - Taste Curator

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SOBE WFF 2016-Croquette & Champagne

Jun 09. 2016

TC2016 Lan

fare0120@live.com

Miami Swim Show 2016

WFF 2016 -Croquette & Champagne – Miami, FL

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Ever since I saw a pic of these buco pandan with #ube filling cookies on @daniwandersjax’s IG by chef @moomellie, I knew I had to get my hands on some. Pandan & ube? It’s a match made in heaven. We eat with our eyes, so that pic was all it took for me to reach out to chef Melanie and place my order. Her cookies are so soft, chewy, melt in your mouth #delicious. The flavors are subtle and light. And I love the pandan aroma. Thanks @daniwandersjax for that post, and thanks chef @moomellie for these super #yummy #cookies #pandancookies #ubecookies #bestcookies #bestcookiesever #uniquecookies #bucopandan

I just watched chef @jayfaibangkok on Netflix’s Street Food and remember how much we enjoyed her food as well as watching her cook. We have eaten at many #michelinstarredrestaurant around the world, but that was the first time we had to wait 2.5 hours for our food, even with a reservation. Only for chef Jay Fai, a Michelin Star street food stall turned brick & mortar in Bangkok. My husband and daughter would beg to differ if I said it was worth the wait, because they were giving me the evil eye, and acting very #hangry while waiting (swipe to see their hangry faces). But here’s a trick if you’re lucky enough to have a chance to eat there. First, you make reservation (otherwise, you’ll wait at least another hour). Once you get to sit down at your table, one person from your party should go next door to get some bites to tie you over (the best pad Thai in Bangkok is literally next door, but don’t eat too much to enjoy JayFai’s food). I can’t even describe how good her crab omelette was. Despite using a lot of oil in her wok but because she cooked it in very high heat, her omelette came out light, and not greasy at all, perfectly crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, and full of the freshest #jumbocrab. Her #drunkennoodles was excellent too. What amazed me was the strength in her little body. It was one of the very few times in my life where I looked like a giant standing next to someone else in picture, although I’m barely 5’2”. Yet chef Jay Fai cranks out every single dish herself, every night. I hope one day chef Jay Fai will have at least 1 assistant to cook with her (there were three burners there and Jay Fai was the only one using them all to cook all her dishes all night). I don’t think we diners would mind if she doesn’t personally cook every dish, as long as they taste just as good as hers. Most Michelin starred chefs rarely cook anymore but have other chefs to cook for them so they could have time to grow their restaurant(s) or have a life. Chef Jay Fai’s strength is impressive, but I want her legacy to continue for many years to come. Most of all, I want chef Jay Fai to enjoy the fruits of her success since she has worked so hard all her life.

Every chef should do a popup dinner once- at someone else’s kitchen, with a different team, creating a totally different menu- as a chance to grow. I’m grateful to be able to do this, but it comes with a whole other level of challenges that other chefs don’t experience, when they work in a familiar environment with the same people doing the same things everyday. As a guest chef, you do your best to be respectful of everyone in the kitchen, while translating your own passion and knowledge of your dishes onto a new kitchen team, which I have to do for each of my popup dinners. If you’re lucky, you work with a team who cares, who are hungry to learn & exchange ways to better our crafts. But you may not be so lucky everytime, and find yourself frustrated over a team’s lack of enthusiasm or interest, or lack of understanding of your intensity. And vice versa, they may be annoyed by your need for perfection. It’s a marriage that takes a lot of understanding & hard work on both sides. If the team is not fully in your corner, every molehill turns into a mountain. Fortunately, most of my popup marriages were super pleasant. It can be the most amazing experience with the right attitude, and makes whatever shortcomings seem less significant. And trust me, no popup dinner is free of mistakes & lessons learned. But I believe it starts from the top, when the decision makers set the right tone for the rest of their team and make it a pleasant experience for all. So thank you bb’s DREAM TEAM: Barbara, @Jonas, and chef @titoq4 for creating such a positive experience for my last VIGLO popup dinner, even with unavoidable stressful moments at crunch time. You are all a CLASS ACT whose friendships I want to last for life. “We really enjoyed your VIGLO popup dinner: Yummy food, great company, cozy ambience, fabulous presentation. Bravo.” - VIGLO diner Susan. “Loved everything I tasted and savored, the decors, and the warmth of the occasion. Great job.”- VIGLO diner Marie. “Perfectly cooked dishes & lovingly crafted presentations.”- Brentley Stead, writer for @folioweekly. “Our VIGLO popup dinner was a success, thanks to @thetastecurator for a flawless execution”- @bb’sRestaurant

We started out my VIGLO popup dinner’s 1st course with a bang: green shrimp & chips, using fresh jumbo shrimp coated in flat young green rice (“cốm”) that gave a deliciously unique crunch, flavor, and color. I call this my “New Vietnamese” dish because it’s the hottest food trend all over Vietnam now, where many restaurants offer their own presentations of flat green “cốm” fried shrimp. What made this course even more yummy was the kaffir lime coconut curry dipping sauce, and light & crispy boniato fries that chef @titoq4 wow-ed our diners with. The pickled black radish rose was the perfect garnish to balance out the richness of the dish. Photos: @natepwatson & @alexandranicom. “This green flat rice shrimp & chips were so exquisite & flavorful”- VIGLO diner Marie. “Loved the new experiences of flavors”- VIGLO diner Nick

Imagine rolling 120 summer rolls with all the vegs, herbs, two kinds of protein, and garnishes for my my VIGLO popup’s 2nd course. The two proteins inside two serves rolls were: “chao tom” grilled shrimp paste and grilled lemongrass chicken. Not everyone could roll them perfectly tight & slim the way they were supposed to be, and fast enough so guests didn’t have to wait too long. Luckily, my mother in law was in town so she became my go-to summer roller at my dinner. This is the kind of dish that can’t be made beforehand, so it was quite ambitious of me to incorporate it into my menu. Logistics & execution are everything when it comes to serving for 58 diners at the same time. But we did it successfully, phew! Chef @titoq4 and his kitchen staff at @bbsrestaurant were such a trooper for helping us plate: from making the red & yellow sriracha sauces so pretty to the tri-colored carrot confettis to the rice cracker dusted with spirulina powder. It took a village to pull this off. “The food was delicious, preparation meticulous, presentation amazing. So much thought behind every dish. One of the most amazing dining experiences I’ve ever had in my life.”- patron John C. Photos by @natepwatson #jaxgourmet #jacksonvillefoodies #popupdinner #popupdinners #foodiesofjacksonville
#gourmetjax
#folioweekly #eatjax #ilovejax #jacksonvillemagazine #jacksonvillemag #jacksonville #jackaboutjax #edibleneflorida #thetastecurator #popupchef #asianchef #asianchefs #vietnamesechef #vietchef #jaxchef #jaxchefs #jacksonvillechefs #jacksonvillechef #gourmetchef #gourmetchefs #asianchef

This dish “banh nam” (Vietnamese gourmet tamale) was the 3rd course from my recent #VIGLOdinner (Vietnamese with global influences) at @bbsrestaurant. This dish is the most hard to find at any Vietnamese restaurant in the US because it’s so time consuming to make. I could only find them in Vietnam. But the funny thing is, I used to enjoy eating banh nam in Vietnam for many years, but it wasn’t until I learned how to make them myself that I began to pay more attention to the banh nam served at Vietnamese restaurants, and realized that they didn’t use fresh shrimp but dried shrimp and food coloring to create that bright orange look and shrimp flavor. They tasted good but food to me is more than just about taste. I want to cook food that not only is delicious but also good for you, with the freshest ingredients and healthier cooking techniques than my parents’ generation of cooking. I elevated my #banhnam tamale by adding saffron to the rice flour, and replaced shrimp with fresh crawfish (which is in season), and pork belly that melted in your mouth, instead of the usual mince pork. And the orange color in my sauce was achieved from soaked annatto seeds. The garnish was a piece of crispy sage chicken skin. This dish was a fave of many VIGLO patrons. “Those tamales were to die for” - VIGLO diner Danielle. “The rice & saffron tamale was outstanding”- VIGLO diner Juan. “Your menu was truly exciting and brilliantly created. Each dish was a stunning masterpiece of taste, composition and excitement.” - VIGLO diner Leigh Cort, Host of WJCT’s Moveable Feast Radio show; Founder of Women’s Food Alliance; Founder of NorthEast Florida Press Club #jaxgourmet #jacksonvillefoodies #popupdinner #popupdinners #foodiesofjacksonville
#gourmetjax
#folioweekly #eatjax #ilovejax #jacksonvillemagazine #jacksonvillemag #jacksonville #jackaboutjax #edibleneflorida #thetastecurator #popupchef #asianchef #asianchefs #vietnamesechef #vietchef #jaxchef #jaxchefs #jacksonvillechefs #jacksonvillechef #gourmetchef #gourmetchefs #asianchef #tastecurator

VIGLO popup dinner last Sunday. 4th course: rib & truffle pho. Took 3 days to make the broth- tons of beef bones, marrows, three whole chickens, dozens of chicken backs, and roasted beef shanks went into the broth in the end to tenderize the shanks. Then 65 roasted beef ribs went into the broth last to cook them and deepen the broth even more. When you have broth this pure & delicious, it’s a crime to even think about msg. Pho seasonings go in last. Fresh Vietnamese herbs in a separate dish. So much TLC went into this bowl of pho. Notice how we trimmed the wiggly roots of the bean sprouts to leave only the edible, whitest, prettiest parts. The piece de resistance was shaved fresh black summer truffle on top. The aroma and taste of truffle & pho are like a match made in heaven, something I discovered while experimenting. “My mom used to own a pho restaurant before we left Vietnam in 1975. Preparations for the broth was an intense and involved process. Your ‘pho bo’ certainly brought memories back alive, and was one of the best I’ve ever had. Great work.” VIGLO diner Justin. #phokinggood #asianchef #vietnamesechef #vietnamesefood #vietnamesefoods #cooksofinstagram #chefsofinstagramn #tastecurator #jaxgourmet #jacksonvillefoodies #popupdinner #popupdinners #foodiesofjacksonville
#jaxgourmet #gourmetjax
#jaxdining #eatjax #nomnomjax #natediesjax #folioweekly #annaeatzjax #eatdrinkjax #eatjax #ilovejax #jacksonvillemagazine #jacksonvillemag #jackaboutjax #edibleneflorida #thetastecurator #viglodinners

Floating enlightenment lotus dessert from my popup VIGLO dinner last Sunday. This dessert may look simple but very time consuming to make. The cookies’ recipe was taken from @gaggan_anand ‘s own “flower power” cookie on their 2-Michelin Star menu in their Bangkok restaurant. We then piped in Vietnamese coffee ganache and edible gold flecks. The lotus seed candy took 4 processes to make: soaking dry lotus seeds in water, drying overnight, candying them with lemon drop sugar, and final step of wrapping each in a wafer wrapper that you can pop the whole thing in your mouth without unwrapping. The lotus crisp took 4 steps: slicing lotus roots, soaking in water to get rid of starch, drying overnight, deep frying, and candying them with ginger sugar. All this presented in a floating birch boat & floating lotus leaf, in a bowl filled with water and dry ice for a zen smoking effect. You can’t see this but dry ice was kept inside a perforated metal tea strainer box to prevent the smoke from over bubbling. Execution is everything. It was an epic dessert for an epic crowd. And the butterfly pea tea (that I got from my trip to Bangkok) was also quite unique: came out a clear blue but a few drops of squeezed lime turned it into a beautiful purple/lavender color, which you could see a bit of the tea cup towards the end of the video. “One has to truly be there to truly know how very lovely this dessert could taste”- VIGLO diner @annaeatzjax “This dessert was totally amazing”- VIGLO diner Juan. “You are Hollywood and the dinner was the best OSCAR ever,”- VIGLO diner Susie.

There’s a new delicious dim sum place in Riverside, S & R dim sum, that you’ve got to try. Everything was fresh & non greasy (but the soup dumplings stuck at the bottom so when I tried to lift them up, they broke and the juice escaped). But everything else was on point #foodstagrams #foodlover #foodies #deliciousasianfood #deliciousasian #chinesefood #chinesefoods #shumai #porkshumai #shrimpshumai #yumcha #dimsum #homechefmeals #thetastecurator #chinesedimsum #jacksonvillefoodies #jacksonvillefoodie #foodiesofjacksonville #edibleneflorida #jacksonvillemagazine #jacksonvillemag #folioweekly #jackaboutjax

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. Bun bo Hue is 10 times more delicious than pho, so if you like pho, you’ve got to try BBH, a spicy lemongrass beef noodle soup that will make you sweat and sometimes cough out loud because of the heat. But omg, it’s SO good, especially when it’s homemade with oxtail and sliced pork roll #nomsg #bonebroth #healthyvietnamesefood #vietcooking #vietcook #vietchef #vietnamesecooking #vietnamesechef #jaxchef #jaxchefs #jacksonvillechefs #jacksonvillechef #homechef #homechefs #popupchef #gourmetchef #gourmetchefs #asianchef #asianchefs #vietnamesechef #tastecurator #thetastecurator #bunbohue #búnbòhuế #bunbohue🍜 #bbh #bestvietnamesefood

I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome for my VIGLO popup dinner last night. It gave me such a high to hear endless expressions of appreciation throughout the evening from dining guests. Made all those months of planning and sleepless nights worthwhile. I am working on gathering pix and videos together to post later. It’s been an exhausting week, and I’m happy that it’s over and I have my life back. But I miss the bond we’ve developed, the jokes and bantering. The @bbsrestaurant team was a joy to work with, Barbara, Jonas, chef Tito, and all the BOH and FOH team. Can’t gush about them enough. We worked hard but had fun along the way. This video captured one of those silly moments chef Tito and I shared while prepping pickled black radish (turn your sound on). More pix from the dinner to come.

Who needs a mandolin when BB’s head chef Tito Quinones so beautifully julienned these tri-colored carrots? He then brunoised them into perfect confettis to plate one of our dishes tomorrow. #knifeskills #knifeskill #brunoise #prepwork #prepworks

“Chao tom” shrimp paste on sugarcane, fresh off the grill. We cut them up in strips to go inside our summer rolls for our popup dinner tomorrow. Most of chao tom I’ve eaten were either too hard/dry or too soft texture. The trick to making badass chao tom is to steam them first, then finish by grilling them on high heat to seal in the flavors and for those beautiful grillmarks. This simple technique makes them moist (from the steam) but still have an al dente bite (from the grill). And the bright color? From soaking annato seeds in hot oil for hours, before mixing in the paste. I never use artificial food coloring. Wish you could smell them now. Yum!! #popupdinner #popupdinners #foodiesofjacksonville
#jaxgourmet #gourmetjax
#jaxdining #folioweekly #eatjax #ilovejax #jacksonvillemagazine #jacksonvillemag #jacksonville #jackaboutjax #edibleneflorida #thetastecurator #viglodinners #chaotom #sugarcaneshrimp #vietnamesecooking #popupchef #vietnamesechef #vietchef #jaxchef #jaxchefs #jacksonvillechefs #jacksonvillechef

36-hour pho in the making, for my popup dinner tomorrow. My bone broth pho is time consuming to make but it’s the only way I would eat or cook pho because it tastes pho-king good and so good-for-you this way! That’s why athletes love to eat Vietnamese pho because it’s the most beneficial foods packed with collagen, amino acids proline, glutamine and arginine to restore healthy inflammation response. #popupdinner #popupdinners #foodiesofjacksonville
#jaxgourmet #gourmetjax
#jaxdining #folioweekly #eatjax #ilovejax #jacksonvillemagazine #jacksonvillemag #jacksonville #jackaboutjax #edibleneflorida #thetastecurator #viglodinners #vietcooking #vietcook #vietnamesecooking #popupchef #vietnamesechef #vietchef #jaxchef #jaxchefs #jacksonvillechefs #jacksonvillechef #goodpho #bonebroth #beefphosoup

#earthday reminds me of a brilliant way this charming town of @sanmigueldeallende of México go green. All the shop owners unanimously decided to nix electrical retail signs and replaced them with colorful ribbons to tie on their front doors to bring attention to their shops. As we leisurely walked along the retail strips, we were struck by the beauty of these bright, beautiful ribbons of various colors gently dancing in the wind in front of every shop, which at first we thought it was because of some kind of holiday going on. It wasn’t until we asked a shop owner of its significance that we found out why. What a charming way to go green, and to express the individuality of every shop. The stores are able to save so much electricity use, thus decreasing overhead cost and #carbonfootprint at the same time, which helps the environment is by decreasing power plant emissions. To generate electricity, most power plants burn coal, crude oil or other fossil fuels. Now that’s inspiring! #reducingcarbonfootprint #gogreen #savetheearth #savetheearth🌎 #environmentallyfriendly #environmentallyconscious

In honor of @earthdayjax here are some of my fave ways to go green, by these 3 local pioneers: 1) @tutemtea located next to Hong Kong Bistro and owned by the same people, this place is the first #bubbletea in Jax to use paper #jumbostraws and reusable plastic cups & lids. Die-hard bubble tea fans may not like anything that rocks the boat from the usual disposable plastic cups and straw with their typical sealed on lid. Although paper straws can be annoying bc they get soggy after a while, but who sips bubble tea anyway? I usually finish mine in less than 5 min :) And they use real fruits in their teas, not the powder kind. 2) @minibardonuts for having straws made of- get this, straw! Not only they look so cute and natural, they’re #biodegradable and never get soggy like with paper straws. Oh and their #donuts are made to order, in perfect mini sizes, with a many gourmet flavors. Definitely my favorite #donutshop in Jax. 3) @leafandbeanjax #organic Cafe: Not only they use fresh organic ingredients to help reduce their carbon foot-print, but they are environmentally conscious in their methods of reducing waste, with their degradable green plastic straws & utensils and paper plates. Let’s support these businesses so they can stay successful, and inspire others to go #green too. #foodiesofjacksonville
#natedoesfood #annaeatzjax #folioweekly #eatdrinkjax #eatjax #ilovejax #jacksonvillemagazine #jacksonvillemag #jacksonville #jackaboutjax #edibleneflorida #tastecurator

Testing out just arrived truffles for my VIGLO popup dinner next weekend. Truffle makes any ordinary dish extraordinary, even my left over fried rice #freshtruffle #freshtruffles #trufflefriedrice

Aren’t they lovely? They’re both from the same family but different parents. Can you guess what they are?

Chef @titoq4 of @bbsrestaurant made me this curry sauce that was out of this world delicious, so I rubbed it on my pork chops, which gave them an umami burst of flavor. Thanks chef Tito, will have to get your recipe later #truecooks #instachefs #instachef #jaxchef #jaxchefs #jacksonvillechefs #jacksonvillechef #fancyhomecooked #porkchops #bakedporkchops #roastedporkchops #delicious #foodstagrams #foodiesofjacksonville #jaxfoodie #jaxfoodies #homechefmeals #thetastecurator

This is how I French my lamb chops. Instead of using my knife to scrape off the meat around the bone from beginning to end, I like to make a vertical cut of the membrane along the bone first and follow that cut to peel the meat/fat off the bone, which makes the job cleaner and faster. Best of all, it’s less damaging to my knife, since I do very little scraping only towards the end. And don’t throw away the meat & fat trimmed from the chops; use them to make sauce or stock. #frenchlamb #frenchrackoflamb #kitchentechniques #frenchlambrack #thetastecurator

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