Incredible Food Show 2014

One of Lexington foodie's (me for one) highly anticipated event was the Incredible Food Show last Saturday. To be honest, I was not all too excited about the Deen Brothers as the special guests of the event. That was until a few weeks before the event, the show producer asked me to one of the judges for the show. I was delighted and accepted the challenge as a judge for the savory category. With 37 booths on my list to judge, I thought I was in foodie heaven...until I was sampling the 11th beer cheese and cracker.

Here are some of my favorites from the show:

Kenny's Farmhouse Cheese from Barren County, Kentucky has handmade artisan cheese. It got the Honorable Mention of Savory category at the show. My favorite product of all the samples was their Wheel of Awesome which was a Brie cheese. It was an awesomely and creamy soft cheese that melted in my mouth.

Started by Sylviana Herrin in early 2013, La Petite Sucre is a handcraft macaroon boutique that only cater customs orders for private events. This booth won the Best Booth Display of the show. I think Herrin has not only delivered beautiful presentation, but also perfected these small and colorful French desserts. When I tasted the blackberry macaroon (not knowing this at the time), it was no doubt the ingredients used were the top notch, as well as the painstaking efforts put into making these delicate sweets.

My favorite Kentucky Proud producer, Sadistic Mistress. Her hot sauces are one of a kind. Sadistic Mistress knows her peppers, with a line of 13 hot sauces, each pairs well with various food items. We got "The Safe Word Is" and "She Ain't Pretty; She's Hot". Creative names and spicier than hot sauce, that's Sadistic Mistress for you.

I have a secret. Instead of tasting First Fresh Extra Virgin Olive Oil with a piece of bread, I drank it. I would drink a cup of this olive oil if I could. It's California blend was named "One of the World's Best Olive Oils" at the 2013 New York International Olive Oil Competition. Their olive oil has a fruity aroma and buttery taste, yet without the overwhelming "greasy" flavor. I can't believe it took me this long to find this.

Nevertheless, I skipped the Dean Brother's presentation..twice. But I was super excited to meet one of my favorite chefs from Bravo's Top Chef, Chef Edward Lee. His new cookbook "Smoke and Pickles"  blends in Lee's Korean background and a twist of Southern cuisine. From making Korean style pickled vegetables to Kentucky's distinct bourbon and Southern cooking, as well as Lee's stories of growing up and becoming a Chef, the cookbook is worth every penny. Instead of asking him intelligent questions like "How did being on Top Chef help you start your restaurant", I started talking endlessly about Kenny's Farmhouse Cheese. Cheese? Really?

Being a judge at the Kentucky Proud Incredible Food show was a great experience in learning and tasting what Kentucky has to offer. I love talking to the food makers to find how they come about making their products. Although I think it comes to a point when too much beer cheese just starts to taste the same. Even though each beer producer has his/her distinct spin on the cheese, I think Dad's Favorites has the most unique and distinct beer cheese of all.

Besides beer cheese, bourbon this and bourbon that was another trend of the show. Bourbon hot sauce, bourbon barbecue sauce, bourbon salsa... Let's see what else we can add bourbon to and make it more "Kentucky". What's wrong with a good ol' fashion straight bourbon?

I enjoyed this year's Incredible Food Show, I met lots of enthusiastic Kentucky food producers as well as another fellow Kentucky Food Blogger  Rona Roberts of Savoring Kentucky (check out her blog, Rona is an excellent food writer). Till next year, for another stuffed belly.

Share the Lex

This video came out a few weeks ago. Since then, I can't stop watching the first 30 seconds.

The video has a quirky sense of humor that I love. It also makes me think about my life in the L-E-X. 

Today is the 1008th day since I move to Lexington. Growing up in a busy and crowded city like Hong Kong, it was hard to imagine there's a place called Bluegrass somewhere in America. When I first moved here in January of 2011, I didn't think I would fall in love with this city. This Love Letters: Lexington, Kentucky by Megan Smith of The Art of Homemaking and this video were just reminders of how much I love this place. 

It is in Lexington where I got engaged, married, bought a house, and kicked off my career. Where I met several of my very good friends. Of course, it is where how this blog got started. On the days when I take Paris Pike to work, I am amazed at the beauty of the Bluegrass, a place that I now call home. 

It is in Lexington where I learn how to bet on horses and appreciate bourbon. Where I found a deeper love with (Southern) food, from barbecue to cheesy grits to fried chicken. With all the new restaurants and food events popping up around Lexington, this is becoming my foodie heaven.    

Watching the video makes me want to Share the Lex and my love for it. As I head into the third year of living in this love city, I am anxious to see what it has to offer. Whether it's stuck in traffic on Nicholasville Road or heading downtown to tryout a new restaurant, in the end, what matters is the city I am in. I embrace what the LEX has to offer and happily becoming a tiny part of it. 

CRAVE Lexington 2013

For weeks I counted down to the first Crave Lexington. This outdoor foodie event was organized by the Simley Pete Publishing with partial of its proceeds to the amazing aquaponics system FoodChain in downtown Lexington. It was a fabulous food and music event featuring several of Lexington's top notch restaurants, such as Cole 735 Main, Azur, a la lucie, to name a few. I got to try food items from my restaurants-to-try-when-I-am-rich list without breaking the bank.

My favorite dish of the night from Nick Ryan's Saloon: Shrimp and Grits.

Wonton chili beef nachos from Thai Orchid Cafe

Hummus and chips, followed by tiramisu from Shakespeare & Co.

With numerous new restaurant popping up around Lexington area, this event adds another notch to the local foodie scene. It was indeed a celebration of "all things from scratch", nothing says "local first" than this event. It was a chance for Lexingtonians to get together and learn about not just FoodChain, but also culinary techniques and new upcoming restaurants.

Besides sampling gourmet hours d'oeuvre for the price of $1, $3, or $5, there were cooking demonstrations throughout Saturday. I missed the bigger cooking demonstrations in the early afternoon. Together with the Kentucky Cattleman's Association, the Slice and Save demonstration with Dr. Gregg Rentfrow, brought a whole new level of meat cutting to our lives. It's all about portion control with a hunk of rib eye, those cattlemen are smart.

My new hubby participated in apple streusel demonstration with Jim from Bluegrass Baking Co.

Nutella and banana crepe from La Petite Creperie.

One restaurant I am anxious to try is Graze Market and Cafe, a Winchester-based restaurant that has local meats as its main ingredients. The handmade South African recipe-inspired sausage that I sampled was to die for.

To my surprise, it was very well organized event for a big debut event. I love that it was like eating and touring the finest food bites of Lexington, and I got to meet chefs from several restaurants through live audience demonstration and interactions. 

I look forward to Crave 2014 and filling my gullet with local delicacies. 

Race

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In Lexington

It's that time of the year 

When the rings set off 

The gates open 

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And they go!

Fast and around

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People cheer, waving papers in the air

Thump, thump, and thump

There they run

 

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Cheers are louder

And the scene gets wilder

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The winner is...

The one you didn't see

Perryville Battlefield

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One of my favorite part of living in Kentucky is being closer to historic sites and lots of living history events. Although not quite like Philadelphia and Boston, I love the small historical towns and monuments around this city.

Last weekend we went to Civil Reeactment at Perryville Battlefield. It was the 150th anniversary since the battle was fought between the Unions and the Confederates. On Saturday, there were over 2000 reenactors on the battlefield. It was quite a scene that tested my photography skills.

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My mom was visiting me from Hong Kong last weekend. While I thought the reenactment was really cool, she didn't see the "need" for men to dress up and shoot each other with powder. Regardless, it was a beautiful fall day for great photo-ops. These photos are probably the most interesting ones in my picture folders other than hundreds of food ones.

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In some places, in order to be an re-enactor, one has to has ancestors who fought in the Civil War. There were even families in Perryville dressed in period customs and stayed in character the entire weekend. I guess some like to take pictures of food, some enjoy living in 1860s lifestyle. Even if you are not a history person, I highly recommend going to one of these events.

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Roasted Chickpeas

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The last couple weekends in Lexington, I attended Danville BBQ Festival and Greek Festival in Lexington. It was almost like being in food heaven (if only I get free food!), but my stomach did not agree with me. I was not a BBQ person until I moved to Lexington, and I am a bit embarrassed to say that I have ate at Billy's Bar-B-Q more times than any other restaurants. I was impressed with the quality of BBQ meat at the festival, I love my pulled pork sandwich from Lucky Dog BBQ. Although the BBQ sauce was a bit too sweet for me. Yes, that's those dangerously-super-deep-fried potato chips you see there. I can't resist any crunchy and salty food.

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My BBQ food chow was followed by Greek Festival this past Saturday at the Red Mile Clubhouse. Funny how no matter what culture or country of origin, people always gather around food. Naturally, I was drawn to good food. I had the lamb platter with rice and spanakopita. Jake had the gyro, which was delicious. However, the baklava was the best of all. I also tried kataifi, a heavenly honey and nut dessert, for the first time.

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A lot of eating.

Speaking of crunchy food earlier. I came across this roasted chickpeas recipe a couple weeks ago. This has became my new addiction.
The recipe is very simple. However, the prepping takes a while. The recipe requires the chickpea skins to be removed before roasting them. I have yet to figure out a quicker way to do this. I read somewhere you could boil the chickpeas for a few minutes until the skins become loosen.

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These "skinless" chickpeas took me 40 minutes as I was removing skin one chickpea at a time.
Totally worth the lengthy preparation time.

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Roasted Chickpeas

2 (15.5-ounce) cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1 garlic clove, minced

1. Preheat oven to 300°.
2. Remove skins from chickpeas. Combine chickpeas and remaining ingredients. Arrange on a baking sheet. Bake at 300° for 1 hour and 40 minutes, stirring every 20 minutes.

Sushi Adventure

The weather has been ridiculously hot for the past few days, which really limited any outdoor activity. To curb my boredom in this AC-blowing-little-apartment of mine, I made sushi. I wanted to make something easy and didn't involve raw fish (I don't trust myself handling raw fish for later consumption), so I decide to make California (American-style) sushi which includes avocado, imitation crab, and cucumber. Next to Nagasaki Inn on Redding Road, there is a Japanese grocery store. I picked up a bag of sushi-grade rice, a bamboo mat, nori (seaweed mats), and wasabi that came in a tube.

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Sushi making is surprisingly easy.

Here is how to make sushi:
A sheet of nori is placed on the bamboo mat (with plastic wrap in between), then sushi rice (seasoned
with rice vinegar, sugar, and salts) is spread out evenly on top.

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Carefully flip the nori over and arrange ingredients.

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Roll, press, roll, press and roll.

This was when YouTube videos really came in handy.

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Ta Da!! 

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I love sushi. The fresher the fish, the better. I went to Japan my senior year in high school, I did a week-long hike along an ancient trading route with the school. I stayed in the equivalent of bed and breakfast here in rural country side. Every meal I had was composed of at least 5 or more little dishes. A main bowl for rice, paired with little side dishes of pickled vegetables, fish, and soup. I didn't have sushi until the last day when I was in the city. Oddly, the best and the most affordable sushi I have ever had was in Vancouver, Canada.

Lexington has several Japanese restaurants, I always wonder if that was because of the Toyota plant in Georgetown. I have been to many of them, including the well-recommended Sugano on the east side. However, my favorite Japanese restaurant is Tokyo Sushi over at Richmond Road and Man O' War Boulevard.


To pair with the California roll, I made miso soup with seaweed and a side salad.
(Please excuse my poor lighting pictures, the lights above my dining table is not made for taking pictures.)

It was quite an adventure making sushi and I feel culinary-ly accomplished. I already have more ideas for next sushi adventure, such as smoked salmon with avocado.

What's your latest culinary adventure?

Hop Gallery Hop

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Friday night Jake and I joined a couple friends to downtown for Gallery Hop Lexington. It's an event that occurs 5 times a year when lots of art galleries in downtown Lexington open until night. I am not a big fan of art galleries or museums, but it was interesting to learn about local talents and look at others' creative work.

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I wish there was a food hop of Lexington.

My favorite spot was the Artists' Attic at Victorian Square, where artists get to rent out a studio and let their creativity flow. One painter asked if I would like to rent a studio for photography. That would be a dream of mine. A studio with built-in kitchen, where I get to make yummy food and take plenty of pictures. Someday.

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I like to look at an art work and imagine the artist's thoughts when making the piece. Then I think about what is going on in an art collector's head to make them purchase this piece. The definition of atheistic is different in each of our mind, yet there are certain art pieces that become the grandest of all. For me, I am still working on creating those master-pictures with my DSLR. In time, I will have my studio displaying all of my masterpieces.

What masterpiece are you working on?

Red River Gorge - Koomer Ridge Trail

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Yesterday we went to the Red River Gorge for a 7.63 mile hike. Originally we planned for a 4 to 5 mile hike, but somehow we went a few more miles than expected. It took us 4.5 hours including breaks. We joked that this was our training for Appalachian Trail (2,180 miles!).

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Being an avid runner, I thought I would be in great shape for this hike. My gluteus maximus (butt muscle, that is) is still in pain this morning. Lola, on the other hand, was a great hiking champ. 

By the way, Lola just turned 6 years old and today marks the 4th anniversary since I brought her home from the humane society. I can't ask for a better companion and best friend :)

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During the hike, there was a few area along the stream and Lola couldn't get enough of swimming.

I can't decide which camera setting is more appropriate for taking pictures in the shade. On the left is "Auto" white balance and on the right is "cloudy". The pictures above (except the blue sky one) were taking with "cloudy" white balance, which made the green color more vibrant. However, the right one below looks like Lola turned into a Hulk-Dog.

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On to more stretching.
Tomorrow I will be traveling north to Cincinnati for a friend's wedding, updates from the road then! (follow my updates at here Click)