Journey to a Meal

So, it has been about a week now since I prepared, planned and executed my first dinner which took place last Friday. It was a great success and much help is owed to my friend Mary, whom I have been having great and interesting conversations about, you guessed it, food! What else would we talk about, yes we do talk about our significant others, but sometimes they are not as interesting :)

Anyways, if you have not looked already, the pictures are posted on my website, www.tiawellness.com. It was a great 5 course Mexican inspired feast which left people wanting more. So, never having cooked for that many people before was a big challenge for me, I think the most that I ever cooked for was my family and some friends, but that totaled at least 5 or 6 people. I never had to plan out the menu and purchase plates and glassware and such.

To give a sneak peak on my journey to a meal, especially one as extensive as this, I guess it is best to start out with where I sourced most of the food. For me, this holds the most interest for me, most in particular as I am currently reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan. If you would like me to go into how I planned out the meal and decided how each dish would go together, you can let me know, but I don't want to bore you with those details.

My first stop, two days before the dinner, was to pick up some fresh and local produce that was grown and harvested at a local urban farm in Alameda, it actually was the place that I was employed at for two years. The Alameda Point Collaborative has the Growing Youth Project Farm which is situated on the old Navy base in Alameda Point. I was able to purchase some fresh heirloom tomatoes that I used for the Cod Roll and Tomatoes, Almonds and Cilantro dish. Peppers as well as potatoes, onions and carrots, beets, and cucumbers were in great abundance and were all used in the following dishes respectively: Roasted Pepper Quesadilla with Mexican Cheese, Amaranth-Potato Croquettes and lastly the Beet, Carrot, and Apple Salad. One day before the dinner, I made my way over to the Monterey Fish Market located up in North Berkeley. My reason for choosing this fish market was because I did some research and they are one of the very few fish markets that do not purchase or stock farmed fish and take a responsible stance with regards to sustainability of fish. Most of the fish is caught via hook and line versus trawling which actually does some vast harm to the ecosystem of the ocean floor. I liked their stance with regards to sustainability and the environment and i knew that I would also be getting good quality form them as well. My last stop was to Spun Sugar; I had passed by this place on my way to Three Stone Hearth on the days I was interning and finally had a chance to make my way in. I was overwhelmed with the various amounts of chocolate that they had, but being a retail store for cake and candy decorating, selling a lot of chocolate made sense. I really enjoy going to specialty stores, because I know that there is a lot more care as well as a lot more knowledge going on with their products. So, this last purchase was for the Chile Chocolate Pots de Creme, which was a rave hit with the guests at the dinner.

It was great to be able to tap into and access all of these various dinners and to use all of the things that they had to offer to out my menu together. I received overall very positive feedback, some constructive criticism, but which is good, because I know what I will need to work on for the next time. So, I am hoping that the next dinner will be taking place soon and I will be sure to have you follow me on that next journey!