Globetrotting Cuisine with Tour de Vin

My photographer and I were guests at the Wine and Food Foundation's Tour de Vin.  Tour de Vin is a fabulous food event celebrating wines and food from around the world.  Here's the rest of John Knox's photos, and some of the highlights from the event.

This was one of my favorite dishes.  It is called Bunny Chow from StrEats.  This chow is actually a South African spicy curry fish stew served in a bread bowl.  It is called bunny chow because you are supposed to hold it in both hands and eat it like a bunny.  Michael Vilim of Mirabelle and Castle Hill is opening StrEats on 32nd & Red River.  The restaurant will feature street food from around the world.  Construction of the restaurant starts next week. No website yet.

Fete Accompli's Special was a creamy dip served on a cracker.  Oh so yummy.

Aquarelle served up a fennel tart with carrots.  

 

ThaiFresh served a deliciously spicy rice ball.  These spicy treats were crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside. 

 

 Ecstatic Cuisine served up dates filled with goat cheese and pecans.

Cocktails, Thai Fresh, Homemade Raisins, Ispahan, and Sakura Ebi

To play catch up on my blog posts, this one is going to combine many topics.

Last night's cooking with Jam @Thaifresh and Dave @ TipsyTexan proved to be fun. Cocktails and food. Need I say more? The cocktails were refreshing, especially the one debuting at Farm and Plate tonight. It was flavored with rosemary and Paula's Orange Liquer, and it reminded me of the rosemary lemon blueberry muffins I made several weeks ago. The recipe I came up with was very Sandra Lee Semi-homemade like. First, I boiled 3 springs of rosemary in 1/2 a cup of lemon juice for 3 minutes, then let it steep for 10. Using Martha White blueberry muffin mix, I substituted 1/2 the liquid for the rosemary lemon juice. Follow package directions, and all done. It couldn't be easier.







While watching Dave make cocktails, I had two booze inspirations. Having spent 5+ weeks making homemade raisins, I decided that I needed to soak them in rum. I think I'll turn those rum soaked raisins into a carrot cake in a few months. I also have to say that making homemade raisins is terribly long and drawn out when weather has been rainy, wet, cool, hot, humid, rainy, and wet in no particular order. My second inspiration was to turn the Ispahan into a drink. Classic Ispahan is raspberries, lychees, and rose water (cupcake recipe coming soon). I'm thinking raspberries muddled with vodka and lychee juice spritzed with rosewater.

And last but not least, I finally got the Cherry Blossom Shrimp (Sakura Ebi) Fried Rice recipe up. Enjoy!