Bouquet Garni

When the Happy Hollow Foundation wanted to have a benefit that displayed the new and improved Happy Hollow Zoo Park & Zoo, they made no compromises.  The first adult-only fundraiser for the zoo was an event to remember.  The guests entered the park on the Danny the Dragon ride to be greeted with up close viewings of animals with zookeepers as well as delicious welcome drinks.

After a spin on the bathtub racers, electric cars that look like bathtubs, they delighted in enchanting appetizers.  The delectable Cumin Scented Chicken Chile Verde in petite tortilla cups were packed full of flavor, childhood was calling with Pigs in a Blanket with a mustard dipping sauce, and Our Cajun Petite Popcorn PoBoys were a joy taken from our gourmet food truck Louisiana Territory.

There was something for everyone with six international food stations.  The Spanish station had three Paellas: Paella Barcelona with lobster, clams, shrimp, scallops and calamari, Paella Valencia with chorizo, chicken, pimentos and onions, and Paella de Verduras with California artichokes, onions, mushrooms, pine nuts and raisins.  The Asian Fusion Station had Gourmet Hand-Rolled Sushi, Spicy Thai Noodle Salad served in Chinese take out boxes with chopsticks, Potstickers, and Shu Mai.  The Italian Station had Fried Tuscan Meatballs, Italian “Sushi”( proscuitto wrapped goat cheese with mushroom, asparagus and pickled carrot), and Tri-Colored Farfalle with Grilled Baby Vegetables.  The Barbeque Station had Lamb Lollipops grilled at the station and Grilled Gourmet Sausages.  The Indian station had Curry with saffron rice, Samosas, and Naan bread.  The coffee station was spiced up with various additions including a wide variety of liquors.  A blackberry cobbler with ice cream and chocolate truffle pops gave a sweet ending to an excellent meal.

Guests danced the night away with a top Bay Area DJ, partied at the sake bar in the Redwood Lookout play structure, took rides on the roller coaster, played in the jump house, and took funny photos at the complimentary photo booth by The Laugh Box.  As they left they were surprised with one of our Gourmet Food Trucks serving up Beignets and Blueberry Pancakes at the exit.  The night was such a thrill that guests could do little more then “hoot and howl” with joy.

What better way to network then at a South of the Border BBQ.  The female interns of Facebook relaxed after a long workday at Sheryl Sandberg’s house.  Sheryl encourages them to hold their determination in the industry of technology despite its male dominance.  They sipped on welcome drinks of mango margaritas and Sangria, munched on Cumin Scented Chicken Chile Verde and Cabo Cocktails, and got to know one another.  The beautiful buffet table was decorated with cacti, chili plants, and Mexican blankets.  Dinner included La Granja Salad, LA Tacos, Carne Asada con Hieberas, and Fiesta Rice.  The meal concluded with rich Kahlua Chocolate Brownies.  As the sun went down the comradery between the women was clear with fantastic role models to support and inspire them.

A local bioscience company flipped for joy during their carnival family BBQ.  It was pure summer bliss with performers and games.  But what is a carnival without the food?  Buffets full of all the American classics such as Corn Dogs, Soft Pretzels, and Curly Fries.  Huge roasted turkey legs were as fun as they were juicy and Corn on the Cob with Chipotle Butter was a great twist on a classic.

The heat could be beat with shaved ice with spectacular flavors such as almond joy, strawberry cheesecake, root beer float, and cremsicle.  Fresh popped popcorn in fun retro bags and cotton candy made before your eyes brought back the classic carnival flair.  An acrobat, juggler, stilt walker, and clown entertained all while none could resist the balloonists or face painter.  Carnival games rewarded many with stuffed animals and Frisbees.  It was a joyful day at the circus for all young and old.

A residence in Los Gatos celebrated the completion of building their new home with a housewarming party to remember.  The celebration began with a cocktail hour on the terrace with a breathtaking view.  Guests sipped Blackberry Margaritas and Lemondrops while they munched on appetizers such as Gorgonzola, Caramelized Onion & Toasted Pecan Turnovers and Bistro Crostini.  A Seafood Bar on the terrace included Crab Claws & Grand Marnier Aioli, Oysters on the Half Shell, and Grade A Ahi Sashimi.

Dinner was served on the patio, where long tables set with purple linens were offset perfectly by exquisite arrangements by Bloomsters.  After an L’ Amuse Bouche of a Saffron & Zucchini Vicysoisse Soup Sip in an espresso cup, a Baby Greens Salad & Warm Goat Cheese Crostini was served, paired with a 2009 Piattelli Vineyards Torrontes.  The Entrée was a choice of Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb, Broiled Sea Bass Filet on Wilted Greens, or Wild Mushroom Strudel with Rosemary Aioli each paired with a 2005 Finca Villacreces, Ribera del Duero Reserva.   The meal concluded with a dessert buffet of Bananas Foster, Mocha Cheesecake Pops, and Chocolate Truffle Pops. It was an exquisite evening fitting for the gorgeous home.

The 15th annual ISNIE (The International Society for New Institutional Economics) conference at Stanford University enjoyed a beautiful paella Luncheon.  Tucked in the beautiful redwoods of Dorman Grove on the Stanford campus, the smell of the two Paellas enchanted everyone.  Paella Barcelona enticed guests with oysters, clams, calamari, and scallops.  The colorful vegetarian Paella included artichoke hearts and tempeh.  It was pure bliss as guests enjoyed the company in the beautiful weather, spectacular scenery, and consuming delicious food.  As they headed back inside, they looked forward to the wonderful PSRT dinner the next evening in the Cantor Art Center.

When Xenoport, a local pharmaceutical company, wanted to celebrate their new products’ FDA approval, they came to us.  At the exquisite Thomas Fogarty Winery in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the scenery was absolutely stunning.  The turquoise, gold, and rust colors offset the  beautiful, rustic, open air pavilion overlooking the vines.  Unusual weather in June made it feel as if they were dining in a cloud!

They enjoyed passed appetizers such as crab claws in a Grand Marnier sauce, duck turnovers, and soup sips that were very welcome due to the cold weather.  There was also a beautiful cheese bar for them to nibble on during cocktail hour.   The wine paired meal of Lobster ravioli, Red Leaf Romanie salad, and a dual entree of Steak Diane and Seafood Bordlaise in a Pastry Sachet left little more to be desired.  The evening was completed with dancing, a full espresso bar, and a dessert buffet with Pan con Chocolate, Sea Salt, Arqbequina Aciete and lemon citrus tartlets.

The Valley Medical fundraiser “Swing Into Summer,” was hosted by Lexus Stevens Creek.  Due to the stormy weather the rooftop party was moved into the breezeway.  PSRT transformed the space into a swinging party, perfect for the wonderful 18-piece band “Full Spectrum Jazz.”  Guests nibbled on appetizers such as Tarte Flambe, Ahi Tacos, Tuscan Turnovers, and Lobster Bisque with Truffle Cream as they tasted artisan wines from 8 local winemakers.  They also enjoyed the beautiful cheese table with Warm Creamy Manchego Cheese, a Trio of Mediterranean Dips, and Roasted Garlic with Roquefort & Rosemary.  The trifle station offered a trifle for any palate including Ceviche Trifle, Southwestern Trifle, Summer Barbecue Trifle, and Sedona Trifle.  The evening was topped with a dessert buffet of Pan con Chocolate, Sea Salt, Arqbequina Aciete and key lime cheesecake pops.  Even though the event was not under the stars, guests shined the night away.

Rotary Fish is an event that is over 15 years old and provides an opportunity for about 200 3rd graders from local elementary schools to learn the basics of fishing and conservation and to participate in a Saturday outing with their family. Many of these kids are from lower income families, and this outing is an opportunity they would not otherwise have.

The event started with education in the schools about conservation and the basics of fishing such as casting and knot tying. Then, on Saturday, April 24th, the students were bussed to Ed Levin Park in Milpitas. The buses arrived at about 8:00 A.M. at the park, and the students were greeted by Rotarian volunteers and taken to the gathering area next to the lake and provided with fishing rods and a fishing kit. They were then matched up with a Rotary volunteer with a ratio of 1 volunteer for every 3 students. They were taken by the volunteer to a spot on the lake where the volunteer helped them tie on their hook, bait it and cast it into the water (in most cases!). When the student catches a fish, the volunteer then assisted with the landing of the fish and then sent the student and fish to the cleaning station where other volunteers cleaned, bagged and iced the fish until the student was ready to leave. Around 11:30 the students returned their fishing rods but kept their small tackle box and lined up for a hot dog lunch with their family provided by other Rotary volunteers. At 12:30 they again boarded their buses and returned to their schools with their catch.

Portland, OR has long been a site of underground food buzz. Lately, it has gained national attention with its burgeoning food cart culture, a movement that has seen a reemergence of street food valor and small business clout. Southerly winds have brought the trend south to the bay area and, thanks to our diverse population, our food trucks, carts, stands and shacks boast an unparalleled palatal variety. Parsley Sage Rosemary & Thyme launched its first lunch truck, called Louisiana Territory’s Cajun Cookin’, less than a year ago, featuring cat fish po’ boys, pasta Lafitte, jambalaya and bread pudding, to name a few of your favorites. Now, in response to consistent customer prodding, we are soon to launch two new lunch trucks, giving me excuse enough to do a research and development assignment in Portland. When your industry gets wheels, you have to move far and fast to keep up.

Portland, a place my mother affectionately describes as her little big city, has four distinct quarters at its base, and many other pocket neighborhoods therein. The Willamette River divides the East from the West, and the historic Burnside Boulevard cuts the South from the North. This weekend we’ll hit up two of Portland’s mobile food Mecca’s: Cartopia on SE 12^th and Hawthorne, and The Mississippi Marketplace on N Mississippi.

Cartopia: SE 12^th and Hawthorne

Six or seven young entrepreneurs hang their arms out of the customer windows of their distinctly themed vendors, all parked in a gravel lot that neighbors Tiny’s Coffee House.

Bubba Bernie’s is Portland’s Cajun counterpart to our Louisiana Territory’s Cajun Cookin, so this one really is required eating. We order a popcorn shrimp po’ boy, served on a French roll, like ours. Unlike ours, however, the roll is cut all the way through, which means it’s that much less mobile. Nonetheless, it was crunchy in all the right places and juicy the rest of the way through with a remoulade that is hot, sassy and brave.

In an adjecent corner, the locally renowned Whiffies Fried Pie Cart serves up sweet and savory pies, and the sweet ones are entirely vegan. We get the corned beef hash pie to split. The pastry is perfectly flakey and chewy, no small achievement for an eggless dough, and the tender beef filling is piping hot.

For our third course we hit up Potato Champion, known in recent headlines for their participation in Portland’s naked bike ride, awarding the first 50 bike wielding bodies with fries galore. They offer paper cones filled with Belgian style frites, but we order the wildcard, poutine, a Quebeçoise dish of frites topped with cheese curd and an opaque, brown gravy. The fries themselves are great- crispy and fluffy. So if cheese curd isn’t your thing, order the fries and experiment with a few sauces. There must be a saucier hiding somewhere in that truck, because these guys have everything you could ever want to put on a fry, but with a gourmet twist: horseradish ketchup, rosemary truffle ketchup, mayonnaise, pesto mayonnaise, tarragon anchovy mayo (our favorite), Dijon mustard, and hot mustard.

In essence, Cartopia is a perfect fourth meal cafeteria. Most of the dishes here are a little greasy, a little indulgent, and entirely recommended for a late night snack before heading home after a few drinks with friends.

Mississippi Marketplace: N. Mississippi and Skidmore

Ten or twelve carts surround a covered eating area. The Garden State Cart is a stainless steel rectangle whose menu is written in day-glo pens directly on the surface of the wagon. This is both for aesthetic appeal and practicality- items are sold out and altered every few minutes, requiring a menu that is updateable in real time. Boasting “Italian Street Food from the Willamette Valley”, The Garden State Cart won Willamette Week’s Eat Mobile Cart festival this April in the overall tastiness category. I order the Arancine, four balls of risotto rice and cheese, fried, saffron seasoned and dusted with breadcrumbs. Debbie tells me that Arancine is the effect of Italian families with risotto surpluses: they industriously transformed leftover risotto into this creative side. It’s delicious, of course. Fried risotto- How could you go wrong?

My friend Ana, a Portland native, has recently reformed to vegetarianism. She orders from The Native Bowl, who features an all vegan menu that reads like a prelude to Portland. Its “bowl” items, belonging to the Cafe Yum genre, lovingly reference Portland street names. Ana gets the Mississippi Bowl, a vegan BBQ variety served in a Chinese to-go box with jasmine rice, peppercorn ranch sauce, BBQ soy curls (where the chicken would normally go), house coleslaw, and scallions. This one is the winner at our table, and becomes Debbie’s muse for our recent addition to the Louisiana Territory’s Cajun Cookin’ menu, The Bend Bowl, a medley of brown and red rices, barley, rye, red beans, infused with garlic hummus, with generous amounts of cheddar cheese, avocado, scallions, cilantro, Fagé greek yogurt, and topped with Sriracha hot chili sauce.

The next time you’re in Portland, check out http://www.foodcartsportland.com for more food cart profiles organized by food and by neighborhood. In the meantime, look for Louisiana Territory’s Cajun Cookin’ on Facebook for updates on times and location, and check out our webpage at http://www.thelouisianaterritory.com for news of our upcoming sister trucks.

On Wednesday March 24 ^th I get a email from a long time client Rhonda. She works for the Flint Center at DeAnza College and writes, Help! Please, will you be my saving grace? I need someone to cater backstage for Jerry Seinfeld on Friday night! We already have 3 events booked for Friday night and two for Saturday, but I think to myself, A chance to meet Jerry Seinfeld? How fun would that be? I write back asking for the rider which will show me how demanding he is, and if I’ll have time to shop for all the particulars that are typically requested by big time celebrities.

Rhonda immediately sends over the rider, (I’m already hooked, and she knows it) and I look it over. Not too bad. Jerry requests extensive menu items and particular brands, but the list is nothing compared to many we have seen in the past: Chapstick, hand sanitizer, current automobile magazines, a hair brush.

We arrive at four thirty to set up for a six o’clock pre-show meal. Sandwich makings including Skippy creamy peanut butter, grape jelly, turkey, mustard, mayo, tuna salad, green salad, with Paul Newmans salad dressing, fruit platter, pasta salad (no mayo), Rold Gold Pretzels, coffee, tea with lemon and honey, orange juice, soy milk, Perrier waters (small bottles, mixed flavors) Arrowhead waters, zero coke, diet coke, diet dr. pepper…you get the point. It is made clear to us that Jerry will be arriving at six o’clock, and that the room was to be completely set up and vacant. Naturally, (and in spite of the time consuming process of emptying out numerous condiments into more elegant dishware) we were set up on time and out of the room.

We were able to sit in a side room back stage where we could hear the show. Both were sold out at 2400 seats each. When we return to the green room to switch out the food in preparation for the “in-between show’s” meal around eight barely anything had been touched. However, my Executive Chef, Christine Vargas, swears that one piece of turkey was gone! We quickly got to work. Luis refreshed and checked beverages, Christine began heating the brown rice, steamed veggies and Halibut, and I cleared the buffet, put everything back into their containers and returned the food to the truck. We were ready on time at eight thirty. I went to check in with Rhonda and found her backstage. I could see Jerry down the hall in the green room.

Rhonda says, Debbie did you get it all changed over? And I reply that, yes, of course, it was all done.

Rhonda is smiling, almost laughing. She takes both my arms with her hands and she says, That’s great, but guess what? He wants it all back in the room. All of it. I tell her that it will take me a couple of minutes and, I think to myself, a bit of patience).

I am told to go to the greenroom. Jerry is standing right in front of me. I can hear him all the way down the hall; he has a New York voice that carries.

I knew that I needed to work quickly, my chef, having left to pick up her child for a sports event, is half way to Milpitas. I start walking quickly towards the greenroom. Jerry is booming, a friendly boom, and I realized suddenly that this boom was directed at me: Who knew? How would anybody know who wants to eat what when? I felt like I had just walked into an episode of Seinfeld, and suddenly I was Julia Louis Dreyfus as Elaine. I responded in a New York accent that I didn’t know I had in me, I am so sorry! I didn’t know! I drawled. He smiled, and we bantered back in forth for a moment about the hilarious difficulties posed by his not being able to predict his appetite preferences. I pointed both of my index fingers toward to the door and told him I was going to get it all back for him and I’d be right back.

I exited the room on a crazy, silly high. I screamed for Luis. We scrambled and quickly re-plated the sandwich makings, and pickles, etc… three trips back into the room and the buffet was full once again. Jerry was now with his producer. They were laughing and talking loudly. I did not have another chance to speak to Jerry, though I wanted to. I wanted to be Elaine again, if only for a moment, but the moment was gone, and I was back to being Debbie, the caterer.