Marx's Foods Iron Foodie 2010 on Foodie BlogRoll

UPDATE: I was selected as one of the top 25 entries, so I'll get to compete in the challenge!  Stay tuned to see what I come up with!

The Foodie BlogRoll has presented a challenge that struck me at my core.  Partnering with Marx Foods, a company dedicated to providing premium restaurant supply food products that now sells straight to the public as well, they have given 25 bloggers the opportunity to create a custom dish with superb products.  I can only hope to be one of the chosen 25!  To enter, I have to respond to these five questions, so let's get after it.

• Why do you want to compete in this challenge?

Jay with some Louisiana boiled shrimp

I love a good challenge.  Anything that will stretch my mind's culinary capacity and get me to be creative in the kitchen is a good thing.  The idea behind this contest, receiving a package of eight surprise ingredients and then having to create a signature dish using three of them, is really a foodie dream.  Oftentimes the best meals are spontaneous and just thrown together, showing off more art than science in the kitchen.  Being creative and playing with food is what it's all about, and I'd be excited to see what I could come up with the eight Marx Foods ingredients!  Maybe I'll get a little seafood online like from an online fish market. Perhaps there won't be any seafood at all, but instead a bunch of different herbs and spices for which I'll have to break out my professional cookware.  Only time will tell.  Either way, I'll make sure to cook up something great!

• Limitations of time/space notwithstanding, whose kitchen would you like to spend the day in & why? Julia Child, Thomas Keller, Ferran Adria, James Beard, Marie-Antoine Careme, or The Swedish Chef?

If I could spend a say in the kitchen with a chef it would be the late, great, legendary Justin Wilson.  Justin is in many ways the father of celebrity Cajun chefs.  He was an ambassador for Louisiana food for over 60 years contributing cook books, recipes, public television shows, songs, jokes, stories, and more.  Sadly, Justin, who was born in 1914, passed away in 2001.  If I could spend a day with him in his kitchen, I have no doubt that it would be a great time and that I'd learn a tremendous amount about Cajun cooking, "I garontee"!

• What morsel are you most likely to swipe from family & friends’ plates when they aren’t looking?

I like to get a little taste of everything at meals, so when I eat out at a restaurant or sit down to a big meal with family and friends, I like to sample as much as possible.  If somebody next to me or even across the table has something different than me, I'm gonna want a bite, no matter what it is.  Usually I'll offer to share some of mine in return for a bite off of their plate, but every now and then my fork just wanders over.  Sometimes it is something simple like a French fry or piece of buttery bread.  However, I've also been known to snag a shrimp, take a bite out of a burger, or swipe a morsel of juicy steak.  Don't worry though, it is all going to a good cause!

• Sum your childhood up in one meal.

Granny's pecan rolls

The meal to describe my childhood would begin with my mother's cheesy tortilla soup.  While I could eat it as a meal in itself, it would certainly have to be a starter to sum up my entire childhood.  The main course would be a Smörgåsbord of meats grilled over South Texas mesquite wood.  My father took me hunting a lot while I was growing up, and we always cooked outdoors at the deer camp over a mesquite fire with stars lighting up the Texas sky.  We'd grill steaks, ribs, venison chops, quail, dove, pork chops, and even an occasional rattle snake.  Mesquite barbeque would definitely have a place in my childhood meal.  For a side dish I'd have Granny's famous pecan rolls.  While typically a breakfast food, these sweet and nutty baked biscuits of deliciousness would go perfectly with the seasoned and smoky meats from the grill.  Finally, no meal is complete without dessert.  I'd give anything to end this childhood meal with one of Aunt Turtle's cheesecakes.  Her blueberry-banana cheesecake is a work of art, and if I'm not careful, I'll end up eating the whole thing even after this childhood memory feeding frenzy!

• The one mainstream food you can’t stand? 

People that are regular readers of Bite and Booze know one food I can't stand... pickles.  There is something about a cucumber soaked in vinegar that repulses me.  Pickles make me cringe at first taste or smell.  I can't even really watch other people eat pickles without my stomach getting a little queazy.  In Louisiana, we see a lot of fried pickles.  Everyone tells me that I'll love them... but I've given them a try, and nope, no good.  Dis-gust-ing!  Pickles often get misplaced on my burgers and poboys... and that is never fun.  The best thing for me to do is just avoid pickles at all cost.  Life is just better that way.

There!  I've done it.  Now I just hope that I'll be selected by the Foodie BlogRoll and Marx Foods as one of the 25 contestants!  Wish me luck!

A Sunday to Remember... if only I actually could.

Sunday was quite an adventure on many levels.  It began with great gathering at Granny's house with lots of family and friends.  She treated us to her famous Pecan Rolls which never disappoint.  Eusebio was able to come with me to the breakfast and had his first taste of the morning treat.  The dough is homemade, spread thin, layered with pecans and cinnamon, then rolled up, sliced, and baked to perfection.  It is a true breakfast of champions that only a Granny can create.

After breakfast at Granny's and story time with the family and friends, Eusebio and I made our way to New Orleans to join Brandon Brown for a day in the Big Easy to watch the Saints play the Jets.  After arriving at Reverend's apartment we quickly made our way to The Bulldog on Magazine Street to grab a table before the crowd showed up.  We started with a pitcher of Abita Andygator, some King's Nachos, and Tex-Mex Egg Rolls.  I am a pretty big fan of Andygator.  It is a Helles Doppelbock style beer with a 8% alcohol content with a delicious, crisp bite to it.  Matt Mediamolle and his buddy Gary joined us at the Bulldog in time for the game.  Throughout the game we proceeded to have pitchers of Nola Brown, Nola Blonde, Abita Purple Haze, and quite a few more.  It was a great time, the Saints won, and everybody was happy.  Oh, and the beautiful Amanda Callais came and joined us as well.  The nachos and egg rolls were typical pub food.  Very satisfying while drinking beer in a bar, but nothing to rave about here.  When we left the Bulldog we went over to see Matt and Gary's apartment, drank a few Champagne of Beers, and then decided it was time for Sushi Brothers on St. Charles... we had heard good things.

Sushi Brothers is cozy a little Japanese restaurant that provides a comfortable atmosphere and spectacular sushi.  We started with a nice squid salad and some salty edamame.  The two appetizers complimented each other very nicely and our meal was already off to a terrific start.

Eusebio, Brandon, and I all ordered some Kirin Ichiban bombers to take care of our thirst as we awaited our first sushi rolls.  Round one included a Louisiana Roll, a Crunchy Dynamite Roll, and an Uptown Roll.

The Louisiana Roll made me a little nervous since one of the key ingredients was pickled okra but after the first bite I quickly got over my fear of all things pickled and realized that the roll was rather flavorful.  The Crunchy Dynamite Roll was a fairly standard version of the always delightful classic.  The Uptown Roll contained yellowtail, snow crab, and avocado, topped with eel sauce.  The flavors meshed very well together and all three rolls were a treat... but they just got us warmed up for what came next.  I present the Tiger Roll, the Rock'N'Roll, the LSU Roll, and the FEMA Roll!

The Rock'N'Roll was a beautiful creation of tempura shrimp, snow crab, avocado, and asparagus with an eel sauce on top.  The LSU Roll also featured tempura shrimp but this time it was paired with cream cheese and some other goodies and topped with fresh tuna and avocado.  The roll had a good taste at first but was soon overpowered by the cream cheese... so much so that I don't remember what else was in it.  The FEMA Roll sported salmon, snowcrab, avocado, and asparagus rolled in rice and soybean paper then topped with spicy tuna, smelt roe, and a special sauce.  The FEMA Roll had a whole lot of flavors that came together to produce something... interesting.  The spicy tuna on the top was rather mushy and definitely belongs inside a roll and not on top.  A lot of the other ingredients were items that we had tasted before and this time it was just too much, and FEMA was an edible disaster compared to the other rolls we ate.

The star of the show was the Tiger Roll.  It started with a delicious dynamite roll as the base and was then topped with tuna, yellowtail, salmon, and barbeque eel.  The fresh fishes that laid atop the Tiger Roll had terrific textures and sensational flavors.  It was a truly delightful sushi roll that I would certainly be willing to go back and eat again.  Overall Sushi Brothers proved to be a great experience, especially after a day of beer drinking and football watching.  The meal was delicious from the first bite to the last.  It had a few rocky parts along the way and there were a couple of the rolls that we tried that I would not order again... but mostly only so that I could try something else instead.  The Tiger Roll was money.  It was really about as good as any sushi roll I've indulged on before.

What a Sunday!  And wait, Monday is the Baton Rouge Culinary Classic!  Stay tuned for that update.