...tasting so many delightful delectables made in brooklyn. this evening i went to a event called the first annual brooklyn exposed: tasting brooklyn. it was about 25 brooklyn restaurants and businesses that brought samples of their food, wine and drinks... it was soo a-mazing!! most of the restaurants are located in park slope, williamsburg, red hook, prospect heights and cobble hill. restaurants like: mojito, bati, cheryl's global soul, boe, barrio, fornino, the chocolate room, palo santo, stone park cafe--just to name a few... the slogan for the event was eat, drink, be merry-- exactly what i did!! when i was originally told about this event, i wasn't all that eager about the ticket price--$35, however as i read the details i upgraded to the vip ticket -$60, which included a gift bag worth $110 and entry into the event and hour early.... and boy was it worth it!!!!! i was able to enjoy and savor everything before most of the public came in to touch and spit all over it, haha!! i was able to talk to the owners of businesses and/or those that work for them about the passion of food or how their businesses got started. it was quite interesting!! the menu consisted of th
ings like: lamb sliders, they were soo juicy, succulent-- cappuccino chocolate cheesecake, it was pretty good even though i'm not a lover of anything with a coffee flavor-- rabbit tosadas (yup you read that right!) that were actually pretty tasty--crab cakes that were totally and utterly a-mazzziiinnggg!!! seriously they were the best crab cakes i've ever tasted, you could taste and actually see the crab. i've never shopped at fairway supermarket but i seriously need and want to take a trip to red hook to stock up on crab cakes-- the duck and orka jumbo was very good. it was full of flavor and spice with a kick-- chicken and pork adobo in purple yam pan de sal with philippine heirloom rice, it was interesting. the rice was just ok because even though it looked goo
d, it really had no taste. the chicken and pork adobo was actually pretty good. the braised short rib ravioli was also ok the meat was wayy better than the pasta part so i ate out the inside and threw away the outside. there was also stuffed mushroom crostini, jerk wings, german sausage, shrimp rolls, herbal water, ham croquettes, spinach croquettes, breuckelen cupcakes--seriously, overall everything was good, along with my gift bag, i totally got my $60 worth!!! i was so glad i upgraded to be vip! as i passed those waiting in line to get in, i said, "suckas, i bet you wish you were vip like me!!!!!!!! hahahahahahahaha! since this event is annual, i will definitely be there next year, life be spared!! if you missed this you definitely missed something awesome!!! you better catch it next year!!!!
xo
...taking a cooking class at mopac (meet other people and cook) in williamsburg, brooklyn! you might be saying to yourself, c'mon aimee you don't know how to cook at your age?? i don't want to toot my own horn, buut...i'm gonna :), yyyeeaahhh i can cook and i cook pretty well!! i really took this class to see what a cooking class was like. overall it was a pretty good experience. the class started at 6:30 and as usual i was early so i got first dibs on where i wanted to sit and i kinda set the tone for the class. as people came in, they sat in my general area. i thought that was cool because usually people tend to spread out to giving themselves some space, making it hard to get acquainted. as an icebreaker, we were given a sheet of paper with questions and we had to ask 4 of them to someone in the room we didn't know (that was easy for me because i didn't know anyone!). they were questions like: lake or ocean? chinese or thai? facebook or twitter? what do you know about west indian food? beer or wine? subway or driving?--those were the popular ones...what was nice was that in the beginning the 10 of us started off in pairs and like 5 minutes into the icebreaker we ended up in a big circle talking together. the actual cooking session started around 7. first we made escovitch fish (a fried piece of tilapia sauteed in a vinegar/onion/carrots/peppers concoction), fried plantains and jerk chicken (really, it was chicken with jerk seasoning...totally different). because i'm used to seasoning my meat/fish before i cook it, it was so weird for me to throw (place gently in the oil) a fresh piece of meat on the stove. for a 2 hour class the food tasted the best it could taste and i would try the recipes again at home when i have time to season my meat and soak it in a marinade. the best part of the class was meeting the people, they were very cool. we all talked through the entire class getting to know one another, i even exchanged info with a few people to catch up at a later date. this is definitely a great class to introduce you to west indian food if you're not familiar with it. since i have an idea of what these dishes taste like authentically, when i get the recipes, i think i might have to do some tweaking. nonetheless i've already signed up for another class--fun time, great experience!! can't wait to do it again!!
