As I mentioned earlier today, in a few hours I am headed down to New Orleans for Tales of the Cocktail.

Below is my schedule to give you a sense of what I’ll be up to. “Credentialed” next to items just indicates that I have a press pass.

At the bottom of this post after my schedule, there is an awesome public Google calendar of all sanctioned TOTC events, with instructions on how to add it to your calendar.

Also, if you missed the post earlier today, Mouth of the Border is psyched to offer readers and fellow Tales attendees 15% off their first order with Suite Arrival. The site lets you select TSA-approved travel size toiletries and have them shipped directly to your hotel room so you don’t have to run around looking for a razor and toothpaste.

Enter “MOTB” at checkout for 15% off on your first order until 11/2/2010.

2010 Tales of the Cocktail – Schedule

Arrive: Thursday, 10:58 pm in NOLA

ONGOING

10:00 am – 6:00 pm Bike with Bols, Free First Come, First Served
Where: Front of the Monteleone Hotel

Cool off again with a Dutch Bols Genever Bike Ride – Explore New Orleans the Dutch way by bike – with the Bols Genever bicycles and see the city from a different angle. These are available on a first come, first served basis. Eight Dutch bikes are ready to rock the streets of NOLA, maps included…enjoy a rolling perspective of the city, burn off those po-boys and beignets as you see the sights. The Bols Genever Bicycles are available daily from the parking garage of the Hotel Monteleone

THURSDAY

11 pm – 2 am Midnight Petanque with Ricard or Coastal Rehab Benefit at Tipitina’s

FRIDAY

8 am (tentative): Meeting with founder, Bluecoat Gin

10 – 11:30 am: (credentialed) Social Media: Creating Cocktail Legends
Where: The Riverview Room, Hotel Monteleone

What: Bars, bartenders, spirit makers, and cocktail enthusiasts are using the unique opportunities social media provides to leverage their business.

10:30 am – 12 pm (Free/Tasting Room): Pisco: “The Ultimate Pisco Challenge”: The Pisco Sour Pentathlon
Where: The Iberville and Bienville Rooms

What: Join International leading Pisco expert Diego Loret de Mola “Mr. Pisco” and celebrity mixologist Francesco Lafranconi – “El Maestro”, in an unprecedented event.

They will take you through the unique experience of learning about Pisco and Pisco Sour through the talent and skills of 8 of the best bartenders in America through a 5 phase competition.

Four co-ed teams of the best bartenders will challenge themselves in crafting the most balanced Pisco Sours, shaken and prepared from scratch for a party of up to 180 attendees in a limited period of time.

11:30-1:30 PM (credentialed): Reincarnation Room
Where: Vieux Carre Room, Hotel Monteleone
Presented by William Grant & Sons Scotch Portfolio
Must Present Media, Presenter, or Sponsor Badge at Door

What: For four of the past five years, William Grant and Sons has been named the ISC Distiller of the Year, due largely to the exceptional quality and ground-breaking nature of its flagship whiskies – Glenfiddich, the world’s most awarded single malt and The Balvenie, the world’s most handcrafted single malt.

11 am – 2 pm (Free/Tasting Room): Maison d’Absinthe
Where: The Royal Room A and B, Hotel Monteleone

What: Visit La Masion d’Absinthe, New Orleans’ own store that is solely to absinthe. On site they will be selling, reproduction absinthe fountains, glasses, spoons, saucers and other accessories; books on absinthe; absinthe candies and t-shirts.

12:30PM (tentative) – Bax vs Clift: Progressive Cocktail/Cooking Techniques from Tippling Club & Der Raum
Where: Riverview Room (HM)

What: The award winning duo behind Asia’s No. 1 Venue, Tippling Club – touted as the most progressive bar concept to hit the global scene – is presenting in the US for the first time. A rare opportunity to witness Tippling Club’s head bartender Matthew Bax (also of Australia’s Der Raum fame and a Tales Award finalist) and Chef Ryan Clift (formerly of Vue de Monde and Marco Pierre White protégé) in action, as they bring their contemporary food and drink matching philosophies and techniques to the Tales table.

Bax and Clift specialise in creating awe-inspiring degustation food and drink pairings with a focus on art, panache, and flavour. Visit: www.baxvsclift.com, www.tipplingclub.com, www.derraum.com.au Food & Drinks: But not as you know it.

3 -4 pm (tentative): Meetings with The Bitter Truth and Perfect Puree at Carousel Bar, HM

6:30 pm: Dinner. Location tbd.

7:30 – 10 pm: (credentialed) USBG Milagro Tequila Margarita Competition
Where: Board of Trade, 316 Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA

What: USBG Milagro Margarita Competition Tequila may come from south of the border but those who will put it to good use are from all over the world. Join us for the United States Bartenders Guild Milagro Tequila Competition as twenty-eight bartenders from 14 different cities will put their best margaritas up against one another. You’ll be able to sample the festive spirits as the bartenders compete not just for personal fame but the right to bring the title back to their hometown.

8 – 11 pm: Esquire & Don Q Rum party, August*

Tentative: 10 pm – 2 am: Bar Room Brawl w/ Gran Marnier, Generations Hall

SATURDAY

11:30 am – 12:30 pm (credentialed): Mount Gay Brunch
Where: Vieux Carre Room (HM)

What: Hosted by global brand ambassador Chesterfield Browne, featuring an “unforgettable meal rich with many Carribean delights.”

12:30 – 2 pm (Free/Tasting Room): Sazerac
Where: The Hunt Room

What: Come learn about the exciting and diverse brands of the Sazerac Company of New Orleans. From world class Bourbons, Tequilas and Canadian Whiskys to innovative Vodkas, Cordials and Specialty Brands, The Sazerac Company has among the most intriguing spirits portfolios in the industry.

11 am – 2 pm (Free/Tasting Room): Vintage Cocktail Book Sale
Where: The Royal Room A and B, Hotel Monteleone

What: The book sale will feature an extremely rare international collection of cocktail books from the late 1800s and early 1900s including original copies of Jerry Thomas (1862), Charles Baker (1939), William Schmidt’s The Flowing Bowl and Frank Meier’s The Artistry of Mixing Drinks. This event will impress anyone and everyone that cares about the cocktail world.

12:30 pm – 2 pm (credentialed): Ichigo/Ichie: One Chance/One Meeting the Way How to Synchronize the Bartenders Mind/Body
Where: La Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom, Hotel Monteleone

What: How to improve your bartending techniques – your style behind the bar – to know what does the RITUAL – PROCES mean/count at the bar from the standpont of the guest.

Sponsored by: Nikka Whisky
Moderators: Stanislav Vadrna

3 – 4:30 pm (credentialed) Subconscious Drinks
Where: La Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom, Hotel Monteleone

What: How to influence your guests experience through body language, aromas, colours and sound.

Sponsored by: 10 Cane Rum
Moderators: Andrew Nicholls
Panelists: Misja Vorstermans

6 pm (credentialed): World Cocktail Excursion
Where: The Sugar Mill, 1101 Convention Center

What: As the official pre-party to the Tales of the Cocktail® Spirit Awards, Beam Global Spirits & Wine invites you on an unforgettable Worldwide Cocktail Excursion. The past, present and future collide to present a post-modern expedition through time and space, with stops at cocktail destinations from around the world. Featuring global brands from Beam’s illustrious spirits portfolio, this event offers a one-of-a-kind experience where time and distance know no boundaries. Get lost along the way and find yourself in far-off locales such as Scotland, France, St. Croix, Holland, Mexico, Canada and beyond….

Pick up a map in the Hotel Monteleone lobby and begin the voyage – let your taste buds be your guide. New Orleans is a city of excitement, adventure, and strolling through the historical French Quarter as you navigate the various parties that seem to be happening on every corner.

Sponsor: Beam Global Spirits

8:30 – 11 pm (tentative): Spirited Award Ceremony, The Roosevelt Hotel, 123 Barrone St*

11 pm – 2 am (tentative): Plymouth Gin Bartender’s Breakfast The Chicory

Sunday

10 am – 1 pm (VIP/Media – credentialed) Mr. and Mrs. Cocktail’s Spirited Sunday Brunch
Where: The Vieux Carre Room, Hotel Monteleone

What: All good things must come to an end. Though we’ll be sad to bid adieu to Tales of the Cocktail 2010, we’ll be going out in style at Mr. and Mrs. Cocktail’s Spirited Sunday Brunch. VIPs and media as well as Native Spirits and Founder’s Day Pass holders are all invited to spend the final hours of Tales of the Cocktail with the people that made it all happen. Mingle with Ann and Paul Tuennerman, the Angels and all the Tales of the Cocktail team as we feast on New Orleans-style fare jambalaya, gumbo, red beans and rice-with a side of Stella Artois, Herbsaint Frappés and refreshing Vitamix blended fresh cocktails created by Blair Reynolds.

FIRST CHOICE: 10AM (tentative) – The Flavor Trip
Where: La Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom (HM)

What: Excite your taste buds and confuse your senses as Hendrick’s Gin lifts you upon the wings of the mystic miracle berry for a flavor trip sure to leave you shocked with utter delight. When was the last time you enjoyed the likes of a soy Negroni or an inverted Collins? Outcome: Attendees will learn what a miracle berry is and how it can be applied to cocktail and food. They will also taste the delightful talents of food wizards Bompas and Parr, as examples of their events around the world are offered for your sensory pleasure. Panelists: Sam Bompas and Harry Parr, Sam Bompas and Harry Parr, Sam Bompas and Harry Parr.

SECOND CHOICE: 10AM (tentative) – Scotland’s Whisky Legends and Pacult
Where: Riverview Room (HM)

What: Panel discussion with F Paul Pacult, moderator, Dr Bill Lumsden, Richard paterson and Colin Scott, panelists. Topics will be Scotch horizons for the next five years; experimentation in distillation and maturation; Scotch in cocktails and more. Last 30 minutes will be a Scotch tasting with each panel member presenting one of their favorite Scotch whiskies. Outcome: To learn more about the world’s favorite whisky category and what its horizons are from insiders. Tasting with experts.

THIRD CHOICE (depends on travel to the airport) Sunday 12:30PM – The Eggpire Strikes Back
Where: Queen Anne Ballroom (HM)

What: A Presentation that hopes to clear up all the confusion, myths, and abuse of the world’s most feared cocktail ingredient: the egg. Some of the topics will include:
- a history of eggs and the history of eggs in cocktails.
- A tasting of THE ORIGINAL COCKTAIL (with feather and egg-cup!)
- The truth about Salmonella and other health risks associated with eggs thouroughly researched.
- Eggs around the world. It sounds simple but what is an egg? How does it differ around the world and in your supermarket?
- Kitchen VS Bar. Do we refrigerate the eggs or not?
- the How-to and why of the Infusion of Eggs.
- Contemporary egg cocktails. Outcome: This is immensely interesting for those who refuse to use fresh eggs behind the bar, or the consumer that refuses to drink egg-containing cocktails. Also the professional will gain a greater understanding of this ingredient including its history. The bartender that is already using eggs will get to taste some exciting new drinks and ways to use the egg.

5 pm DELTA flight departs NEW ORLEANS

TOTC GOOGLE CALENDAR:

My friend Brett made an awesome public Google Cal of all the official TOTC events that you can add and sync with your phone. Here’s how:

• Go to your google calendar in a web browser
• Under “Other Calendars”, click “Add”
• Click “Add By URL”
• Paste this link: www.google.com/calendar/ical/cdc37ldabn8dje44oaqmdpuv3g%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics

You can add it to your iPhone through Google Sync.
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Stay Connected With Me and MOTB On The Web:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Foodspotting
• Yelp
• Flickr

~~~
If you enjoyed this post, please comment, subscribe, tell your friends on Facebook, or comment on Twitter using hashtag #MOTB.

Want to tweet this post? Click the green “Tweet” button below (or under the post if you’re reading in RSS or email).

If you like the site, fan me up and join the discussion on the Facebook fan page. Thank you!
~~~

Hello, friends and readers!

I’m on the eve of another travel adventure, and this time to a place I have wanted to visit since I was a child. I’m hopping on a plane to New Orleans tomorrow for Tales of the Cocktail. Tales is a festival held annually and produced by the nonprofit New Orleans Culinary and Cultural Preservation Society, bringing together “the best and brightest of the cocktail community—award-winning mixologists, authors, bartenders, chefs and designers—for a five-day celebration of the history and artistry of making drinks.” Be sure to read to the end of this post if you’re a fellow travel lover or Tales attendee for a sweet travel-related hookup.

While this site has focused strictly on food and cooking for the past year, there is something missing from the discussion here. Across cultures, there are so many rich and varied traditions around how people and families incorporate beer, wine and spirits into their mealtimes and celebrations. This week, I’m excited to share a new type of post, and eventually a whole new section of this site: Booze Without Borders.

I am a cocktail lover, with my love of quality beers following a close second. I’m just now starting to learn more about wine, starting last year and getting more intense just last month with my trip to Napa. You can check out some of my cocktail excursions in photos here: Cocktails! on Flickr.

Tales of the Cocktail kicks off my official foray into beverage writing. I’ve held posts as a newspaper restaurant critic and have written both staff and freelance pieces on food and the wine industry from a business perspective. However, this will be my first opportunity to learn and share about booze simply from a place of enthusiasm and joy.

Why the name Booze Without Borders? Just as this site is a testament overall to how and why great food breaks down borders to unite people across race, class and cultures, Booze Without Borders posts will explore how wine and spirits are loved and incorporated into the food cultures around the world. We’ll still center the conversation around specific cultures or ethnic neighborhoods in New York City.

For example, we’ll be visiting with Wines of Croatia to learn about the country’s wine industry and then visiting Astoria in the fall to sample some of that neighborhood’s Croatian food and drinking culture. Peruvians love Pisco. Italians amore Amaro. The list goes on and we will drink our way all through it, finding the right people to imbibe with all over NYC (and the world) to guide us along the way.

Sparkling wine cocktail at Domaine Chandon, Napa, June 2010

Mouth Of The Border has VIP access to Tales of the Cocktail’s tasting rooms, parties, seminars and meetings with brands. I’ll post my full schedule here later today (Thursday). You can always keep up with me at home in NYC or while abroad on Twitter, Foursquare and on Foodspotting.

I know I’m not the only one hopping on planes left and right around here. Because so many of my friends and readers are travel lovers, entrepreneurs and brand ambassadors, I have a cool travel-related deal to share with you.

But first, I have to let you in on a secret. There is a “so essential, how did we live without it?” website called Suite Arrival that lets you order TSA-approved travel size toiletries and have them shipped to your hotel room instead of having to run around grabbing last minute miniature tubes of toothpaste and deodorant.

I’ve ordered from them for three separate trips since they launched earlier this year with top notch service every time. When I land at close to 11 p.m. in New Orleans tomorrow night, there will be a box with all my chosen essentials waiting for me at my hotel’s front desk.

As a thank you to all of my readers, and a welcome to new visitors stopping by for the first time after meeting me at Tales of the Cocktail, you can use an exclusive Mouth of the Border discount code for 15% off your first order on Suite Arrival.

Use code “MOTB” when you check out for 15% off. The code is good until 11/2/2010.

I hope those of you who have become fans over the past few months will enjoy the upcoming Booze Without Borders posts. The focus here will continue to be on food, but I’m excited to be able to explore the larger experience around the table from fork to knife to glass. Cheers!

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Stay Connected With Me and MOTB On The Web:

~~~
If you enjoyed this post, please comment, subscribe, tell your friends on Facebook, or comment on Twitter using hashtag #MOTB.

Want to tweet this post? Click the green “Retweet” button below.

If you like the site, fan me up and join the discussion on the Facebook fan page. Thank you!
~~~

Here is the video of me presenting my recipe posted on Monday for Coconut Quinoa with Jerk Pork with Curry Mango Salsa.

If you like it, leave a comment here or on the YouTube video! And if you don’t like it … well, tell me what I can do better next time I share a recipe on video. Happy holiday weekend to my friends here in the states.

Thank you so much for a great first year here on MouthOfTheBorder.com. I recorded a video for you, but it was four minutes of me blabbering, so I deleted it and figured I’d stick to what I do best: writing and eating. I’m here at home, drinking bubbly and eating baba ghanoush and I just wanted to give a quick shout out to three food writers who have been an inspiration and great support for me over the years.

Cathy Erway – author of Not Eating Out In New York, and now also The Art of Eating In and Lunch At Sixpoint. Cathy is such an inclusive member of the food community here in NYC, and I’m so proud of her for taking a creative idea and going whole hog with it (sometimes literally). I met her at a foodie book club at The Brooklyn Kitchen a few months after I moved here back in ‘07. She told me about a food blogger get-together, where I met several people there that are now doing massively cool things with their sites, and with whom I’m still friends with this day. Thank you, Cathy, for always being awesome.

Nichelle Stephens – AKA Niche, AKA co-founder of the country’s most popular cupcake blog, Cupcakes Take The Cake. Niche was one of the food bloggers I met at that get-together with Cathy, and she is always organizing or speaking at inspiring, evocative events. She was one of the organizers of last night’s Video Builds The Cooking Star event (which I wrote about in yesterday’s post and had a BLAST at – check out Niche’s site for deets). She is the reason I was invited to participate. Niche and her CTTC blog co-founder, Rachel Kramer Bussel, have provided me with several opportunities to connect with people who love food, and I really appreciate that. So, thank you!

Lastly, I’d love to give a shout-out to the first food blog I ever fell in love with, Gluten-Free Girl, written by Shauna James Ahern. I’ve been reading her blog since 2004 when my best friend was diagnosed with celiac. Since then, I’ve been enveloped in Shauna’s stories. I even helped out last summer with recipe testing for her second book.  I met Shauna and her husband Danny in ‘07 at a cooking class they did at Whole Foods. I told her about the concept for this site then and remember even now how positive her feedback was. Thank you for getting excited about this idea, Shauna. I hope all the positive energy you put out to the world every day comes back to you at least tenfold. You rock.

Thank you to each of these incredibly talented, generous women for sharing their time and energy with me and with the world at large.

Looking back, Year One here at MOTB was all about getting our feet wet and eating as much weird food as we had time for in Brooklyn, with field trips to Mexico, to Austin, TX and most recently to Napa, California (post to come). Take a look back at all of the food photos (including photos of the cowfoot soup, doubles, roti & pelmeni – see if you can guess which ones they are) here.

Year Two will be even more wacky! Soon, I’ll be launching a newsletter to keep you up to speed on excursions and explorations and so people can come join me to eat. (I can’t make it through every menu by myself!) Later in the year we’ll get more interactive, bringing you live events and activities so you can experience some of these neighborhoods yourselves. Lastly, I’ll be providing you with more resources to cook the kinds of food you see on this site. Awesomesauce, right?

So, a huge thank you again. If you have ever commented, subscribed, joined the Facebook page or even told one friend about this site, I truly appreciate it. Keep sharing and keep eating!

Smooches,
Emily

Stay Connected With Me and MOTB On The Web:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Foodspotting
• Yelp
• Flickr

~~~
If you enjoyed this post, please comment, subscribe, tell your friends on Facebook, or comment on Twitter using hashtag #MOTB.

Want to tweet this post? Click the green “Retweet” button below.

If you like the site, fan me up and join the discussion on the Facebook fan page. Thank you!
~~~

You know what, guys? We DID it! Tomorrow, June 29, 2010, Mouth Of The Border celebrates its first birthday.

Yay! MOTB is 1 year old. Let's Drink Champagne!

I moved to NYC almost four years ago, wondering how I was going to wrap my brain around this huge city. When I decided to explore New York City ethnic neighborhood by ethnic neighborhood, sharing what I learned about how each culture cooks and eats together, I knew that I had to share these stories beyond my friends and family. I’m so happy it’s turned into something bigger. I’m so excited to start spending more time with you here soon. More neighborhoods, more stories and more crazy new foods to try!

Instead of birthday cake, though, why don’t we party it up in true MOTB style with a spicy original dish that pays homage to the neighborhood we spent so much time in during year #1: Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

I came up with the recipe for Crown Heights Coconut Quinoa over the weekend for a fun project. I was invited to participate in a very cool event called Video Builds The Cooking Star, where a handful of my fellow food writers/bloggers and I will work with a pro videographer to shoot a spiffy video of us presenting our original recipes. I’ll share the video about this recipe here and it will also be submitted for the Sears Chef Challenge (Twitter hashtag #ChefChallenge).

Quinoa! Cooked in sweet onion-infused coconut milk.

Now, quinoa itself is not a traditional West Indian staple. Most dishes feature rice as the starch, or root vegetables. But I use quinoa in place of rice or pasta for most dishes because it’s one of those amazing super foods. It’s a complete protein with tons of goodies for your body and it’s gluten-free to boot. Take that! Pow pow pow.

Even though quinoa isn’t something you’ll find in abundance in Crown Heights, what is traditionally West Indian is a good, spicy jerk sauce. So to give my quinoa some street cred, I’m cooking it up in some onion-infused coconut milk and pairing it with a delicious, succulent pork tenderloin marinated in jerk sauce and topped with colorful curry mango salsa.

I used a lot of shortcuts here for the sake of the busy home cook. Most of these ingredients are super easy to find in any grocery store. If you can’t find bottled jerk sauce or a dry rub, a recipe for the marinade is at the end of the main recipe here.

Straight Up and Down Delicious

Crown Heights Coconut Quinoa with Jerk Pork and Curry Mango Salsa

Ingredients (Serves 6-8)
For Pork
2 pork tenderloins (2 lbs)
3-4 tbsp. jerk seasoning (bottled is fine, if not avail. see end of this post for a jerk sauce recipe)
1 bunch scallions, diced
1 tbsp. fresh thyme, minced

For Quinoa
1.5 cups (12 oz.) quinoa, uncooked
1 can (13.5 oz) coconut milk
2 cups chicken broth
1 Vidalia onion
Salt and pepper, to taste

For Mango Salsa
2 ripe mangoes
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp. lime juice
1-2 tbsp. cilantro
1 tsp. curry powder (optional)
1 small habanero pepper, seeds removed and diced or 1 tsp. habanero pepper/Scotch Bonnet pepper sauce (optional)

Jerk pork and some of the fixins'

1. Add the can of coconut milk to a medium saucepan. Slice half of the Vidalia onion into wide rings. Add onion to coconut milk and cover. Do not turn on heat. Let set for 30 min – 1 hour. This will infuse a sweet onion flavor to the coconut milk, which will give the quinoa a creamy texture and sweetness to set off the spice of the jerk sauce.  Uniformly dice the other half of the onion and reserve for step 4.

2. Slice the pork tenderloins crosswise into medallions, about 3/4 in. thick. In a large bowl, cover the pork with the jerk sauce and use your hands to make sure each piece is thoroughly covered with sauce. Cover and chill, 1 hour – overnight.

3. While the pork marinates, peel and slice the mango. Toss in a blender with the rest of the salsa ingredients or just chop and mix everything by hand. Store the salsa covered in the fridge until mealtime.

4. Remove the onion rings from the coconut milk and toss or reserve for another use. Add the 2 cups chicken broth and quinoa and bring it all to a gentle boil. Once boiling, add the diced onions and lower the heat to a simmer, cover the pot and let cook for 15 min. Check after 10 min. The quinoa grains will look fluffy and translucent in the center when fully cooked.

5. Once quinoa is cooked, add salt and pepper to taste. Turn off the heat and keep covered on the stovetop until mealtime.

6. In a large saute pan, add 4 tbsp. canola oil, safflower oil or other oil suitable for high heat (do not use olive oil). Bring to high heat. Once the oil starts snapping in the pan, lower to medium heat. Use tongs to add pork medallions in batches, being careful not to overcrowd the pan.

7. Cook the pork for about 3 min. on the first side, until you the meat cooked through almost to the center. When the meat stops sticking to the pan, carefully flip the pieces to the other side. Cook for about 1-2 min. additional, until the meat is white all the way through.  Depending on the size of your pan, you’ll need to cook these in 3 or more batches. Add the chopped scallions and thyme to the last batch, along with 1/2 cup water to loosen up the bits of meat and jerk sauce that have stuck to the pan. This creates a little glaze for the meat.

8. Remove meat from pan and cover with foil. Let rest for 3-5 min.

9. Dinner’s ready! Use a measuring cup to plate 1/2 cup of the quinoa in a mound, and top with the mango salsa. Fan out 3-4 pork medallions to the side of the quinoa. Garnish with a little additional salsa and a couple of sprigs of thyme if you’re feeling fancy. Enjoy.

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Crown Heights Coconut Quinoa with Jerk Pork Tenderloin and Curry Mango Salsa

Try it out this week and let me know what you think. Let me know if you modify the recipe; I love hearing how people take stuff and run with it. You can, of course, substitute rice for quinoa and chicken for pork. If you can’t get fresh mangoes, a peach salsa would be delicious here too.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading and sharing MOTB with all of your friends. I love that we have this place to hang out to and get to know all the wonderful cultures and foods that make my city so amazing.

Thank you for to the 100 subscribers, the 161 fans, the 103 comments and all the love. Oh, the places we’ll go!

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If you enjoyed this post, please comment, subscribe, tell your friends on Facebook, or comment on Twitter using hashtag #MOTB. Also, if you like the site, join the discussion on the Facebook fan page. Thank you!

UPDATE: Here is the video we shot that night of me talking about the recipe.

~~~

P.S. * Jerk Sauce recipe

If you don’t have access to bottled jerk sauce, make your own. It’s super easy. Gourmet’s version combines 3 scallions, 1 tbsp. chopped fresh thyme, 2 tsp. kosher salt, 1/2 tsp. ground allspice, 2 tbsp. lime juice, 1 tbsp. molasses (not blackstrap) and 1 tsp. habanero or Scotch Bonnet hot sauce (go easy on this last part or leave out altogether if you don’t enjoy spicy foods). Mix it all up and rub all over the meat. You’re welcome. ;-)

Tender and spicy tacos at El Aguila, East Harlem

Thing one you should know is that I really don’t know jack about good tacos. I only know that I like them, especially fish tacos and ones in fresh corn tortillas with lots of spicy salsa.

Thing two you should know is that New York City is universally maligned for being a bad city to find authentic Mexican food. This is curious, because we do have a good-sized Mexican immigrant community.

All that said, I figured if anyone could help Mouth Of The Border fans find a good taco, it would be one of my food lover friends.

Hagan of Wandering Foodie, asked me a few weeks ago if I wanted to get together with him and J.D., a fellow food writer who was in town from Austin for a few days.

Hagan, of Wandering Foodie

J.D.’s site, Citizen Taco, is quick, concise hits on where to find good food all over the U.S.. Wandering Foodie is organized around large-scale food projects, like the time Hagan (the author) ate out a different restaurant for every meal for an entire month. Between the two of them, I was sure I’d be shown a great time and maybe even figure out if authentic tacos exist anywhere in this city.

J.D. of Citizen Taco, going in for the biiiiite

First, I hoofed it from my home in Brooklyn up to East Harlem. Hagan lives up there and is convinced that his ‘hood has got it going on in the taco arena. I was late getting up there, and all three of us were starving. The first spot we hit up was the unassuming but tidy El Aguila on E. 116th St.

Hagan and J.D. settled on one taco each of the carne asada (marinated, grilled beef), tongue and carnitas (braised or roasted pork).

I sipped on a big cup of horchata (a sweet, cold drink with different variations, but commonly made of rice and milk) and wandered around the small joint while we waited for our order. While admiring the fresh salsa bar, I spotted a certificate on the wall from a Mexican government agency. It basically gave El Aguila props for using Mexican culinary techniques and agricultural products. Street cred!

Mexican Stamp of Approval

I hate to ruin it for you, but if you’re running short on time and want to stop reading and skip to the next whatever shiny thing just sparkled across the room THESE WERE THE BEST TACOS WE HAD ALL DAY. (Before you go though, um, subscribe please? Thanks.)

The meat was so tender in all three versions, and the salsas we loaded on top were just intensely flavorful – like someone came along and sprinkled fresh-plucked, diced tomatoes and hot peppers in my mouth after every bite. The portions were just huge, as I mention in the video below.

The next spot we visited was just down the block from El Aguila. J.D. heard about it and wanted to check it out, so we ambled over to a little back garden bathed in sunshine at El Paso Taqueria, also on E. 116th. Here, we had another three types of tacos, cecina (steak cured in salt and lime), more carne asada (the “control” taco for comparison purposes) and homemade chorizo (prepared in-house).

Cecina, asada, homemade chorizo

These were perfectly serviceable tacos. The chorizo, in particular, was quite tasty. But they were nothing compared to the juicy, meaty flavor torpedos we’d just enjoyed at El Aguila. I was a little let down by the cecina taco. The meat was skirt steak and just a tiny bit dry.

The last spot we hit up that day was recommended to me by a friend just that morning. Cascabel is a more upscale spot located about 20 blocks south, still on the Upper East Side. This place doesn’t claim to be Mexican at all, but it’s getting raves online and they throw some neat twists into the mix.

We ordered one each of the fish, carnitas and vegetarian tacos and each one had something fancy going on. The vegetarian taco (my pick) had slices of fingerling potatoes and oyster mushrooms. The carnitas used juicy Berkshire pork butt and was topped with crisp puffed rice. My favorite, the fish taco, came laden with sliced hearts of palm.

Hearts of palm on Cascabel's fish taco.

Cascabel had a really fun vibe to match their somewhat liberal take on the taco. They had fun Luchadores masks all over the place, and a great selection of tequilas. They had healthy sides like salads and quinoa, and work to source locally as much as they can. I can get down with that.

But I still think El Aguila had the tastiest, most authentic tacos. (They reminded me of the ones I enjoyed in Mexico last summer, when I vacationed in Isla Holbox. Happy sigh.)

What about you? Do you have a favorite taco spot? What defines a great taco? Let us know in the comments, or link to your own post or video on tacos.

I’ll want a list for when we start exploring Sunset Park, a Brooklyn nieghborhood known for its hole in the wall Mexican joints. You know that’s what Mouth Of The Border is all about!

Trip Notes

Here’s a fun bit of intel: J.D. eats a LOT of tacos (and currently hails from Austin), so I trust his palate. His favorite tacos so far in NYC are at Tulcingo Restaurant (665 10th Ave., between 46th and 47th St.) You heard it here – go forth and taco.

J.D. also has a wheat gluten allergy and can’t do dairy. If you know folks who have food allergies or you yourself have a hard time eating out, this taco tour was nearly all gluten- and dairy-free.

See the rest of the photos from our taco tour: Click here.

Watch me eat tacos like a girl in Hagan’s WanderingFoodie.com video: Click here.

Want to come along the next time Mouth Of The Border does a random ethnic food outing? Join and look for an invite on the MOTB Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/MouthOfTheBorder.

Take the tour:
El Aguila
136 East 116th Street
New York, NY 10029

El Paso Taqueria
237 E 116th St
New York, NY 10029

Cascabel Taqueria
1542 2nd Avenue (at 80th)
New York, NY 10075
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If you enjoyed this post, please comment, subscribe, tell your friends on Facebook, or comment on Twitter using hashtag #MOTB. Also, if you like the site, join the discussion on the Facebook fan page. Thank you!
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Update: Thanks to my friend and fellow food writer Gloria Dawson was kind enough to share this post on her excellent site that covers all things East Harlem. Visit, comment and enjoy the locals’ recommendations for more taco spots in the hood in her comment section: http://eastharlemnyc.blogspot.com/2010/07/mouth-of-border-finds-east-harlems-best.html

Hello, readers. I thought things would ease up since returning home from Austin, but it’s been a month now since South by Southwest, and it has not. Just when my personal life quiets down, work heats up and vice versa. Who needs balance, anyway?

My purchases at the market today: Beets and dandelion greens.

I’ve been trying to frame the best way to share with you about the different food markets I’ve visited in Crown Heights and started to visit in Brighton Beach. I started thinking about what I’ve learned so far just from making a few West Indian-based recipes. One thing that has always fascinated me about a lot of ethnic food cultures (and specifically Southern cuisine, where the states are concerned) is how they incorporate the value of thrift.

Slave culture in this country led to a lot of amazing food that doesn’t always get its due for the original ingenuity involved in coming up with dishes that many of us still eat today. Slaves got the scraps from the cuts of meat that went to their masters, and they made great things with it. Ham hocks and pig ears got thrown into huge pots of collard greens, turning a bitter plant into something salty, delicious and comforting.

Sauteeing beet and dandelion greens

Something I’ve noticed a great deal over the past few months of exploring West Indian cuisines and Russian food is that many dishes and recipes endeavor to use all parts of a plant or animal, or to incorporate what would have been scraps from another meal. It’s a thread that runs from recipe to recipe, and it’s significant enough for me to feel comfortable saying that creative thrift is a defining attribute of West Indian food culture.

I tried to keep that creative thrift in mind at the market today when I was deciding what to eat for the week.

I threw together a dish. I created something original based on today’s “scraps,” and am happy to share it with you. This is not a West Indian recipe, so you’ll have to forgive me veering off the path to share this.

I had five bunches of beet greens left over from roasting beets for a gorgeous soup with creme fraiche and chives from my friends’ cookbook, The Gilded Fork: Entertaining at Home. Knowing ahead of time that I’d have those greens left over, I decided to add stuffed peppers to the list of meals I’d make for the week.

Another recipe I planned to make called for arugula and couscous, but I substituted dandelion greens (also peppery, like arugula) and quinoa (similar shape to couscous, but a lot more to offer nutritionally, since it’s a whole grain). If I sauteed the beet greens and dandelions with some onion and garlic, and mixed it with half the quinoa I had to cook up, that it would make a great stuffing for the peppers.

Passing the ethnic sauces, I grabbed a can of Indian-spiced chickpea and potatoes. I figured I’d throw this in to make the whole thing hold together. I also had half a can of diced tomatoes remaining after making a fish recipe, so these too went into the stuffing for the peppers. The peppers essentially served as a little composting bin of deliciousness, taking in any leftover food items my other recipes cast off.

Please improvise when you make this dish. Use red bell peppers if you like them more than green ones, and stuff them with a grain or pasta (quinoa here), a leafy veggie (greens in this case) and a protein (chickpeas in this one). Traditional stuffed pepper recipes include binders like cheese, breadcrumbs and eggs, but there are none of those here, making this gluten-free and also safe for those with dairy or egg allergies.

I want to encourage you to think of ways this week that you can use more of what’s already in your fridge and cupboards to create other meals.

Thrifty Stuffed Peppers

Peppers, stuffed.

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cook the quinoa as directed, but use the vegetable broth in place of water. Once cooked through, remove from heat but keep covered and warm.

2. Remove the tops and seed the bell peppers. Cut away as little of the pepper’s top as possible, since you want lots of room to stuff.

3. Dice the onion and garlic. Throw together in a small bowl.

3. Wash the beet greens thoroughly, and then wash the dandelion greens. Coarsely chop all of the greens.

4. Meanwhile, heat the largest frying or saute pan you have and add 2-3 tbsp. of olive oil. Add the garlic and onions. Stir them around gently until the onion softens. Throw the greens in on top of the garlic/onion mix.

5. Saute the mix until the greens have just started to soften and wilt. Remove from heat. Add the diced tomatoes, along with their juices.

6. Combine the quinoa and greens mixture together and stir until well-mixed. Add the can of chickpea/potato curry.

7. Taste for flavor. Add additional salt and pepper to taste.

8. Stuff the peppers with the quinoa mixture, and place upright in a pan with walls, whether it be a loaf pan, casserole dish or what have you.

9. Bake at 350 degrees, checking on them after 45 minutes. and remove from oven if done. If they aren’t done after 45 minutes, just keep checking on them every 10 minutes. You will know they’re done when the flesh of the pepper gives under your finger when you push it.

10. Enjoy! See, you were thrifty in just 10 steps and it was absolutely delicious, wasn’t it?

Dinner tonight. Stuffed pepper on top.

Foodspotting Tee

I ate a LOT in Texas. I ate the whole state, or at least that’s what it felt like. As I mentioned in my last post, I was down in Austin for the interactive portion of South by Southwest, an annual conference/music festival.

I will be posting over the next couple of weeks about who I met, what I did and what I learned over at my blog, but while we are here, why don’t you and I talk about all that food I ate? Austin was a great city for eating and drinking, and wound up being an even better food scene than I anticipated.

Before we get to some photos though, there are two food-related things I’m happiest about doing while I was there: I went out of my way to meet the lovely Jaden Hair of SteamyKitchen.com. She has successfully been producing top notch food content over the past three years, and her site inspires me when I sit down to spend time with you here.

The second thing is, I found and listened to the locals when they told me to get out of Austin if I wanted real Texas barbecue. We took a drive out to Lockhart, TX and ate at a place called Black’s. It was stupid good. Crazy, barbecue delicious. Oh yeah, I was totally rocking the sauce mittens that day.

I highly recommend that any time you’re going to a major city that you take some time to go “out of bounds.” That’s what Mouth Of The Border is all about – getting past what’s easily accessible to explore what a city and its cultures and people have to offer, especially through its food.

Below is a quick sampling of what I got into. To read about what each item is and where it was served, you can view the full set of my food photos is here.

Hi all! I know you’re on hold for a post that shows you some great markets and resources for West Indian cuisines’ ingredients. I have it all teed up for you and will be excited to share it late next week.

In the meantime, I wanted to let you know that I’m on the road the next few days. I’m at an annual conference in Austin, TX called South By Southwest.

Breakfast today at the Old Pecan Street Cafe, Austin, TX

I’m here to meet other folks who are great at producing web content, specifically video. I’m doing it for you, my readers. Mouth Of The Border just invested in Final Cut Pro, the best consumer video product on the market. I want to learn all I can so the cooking tutorials we share here are not only useful but a pleasure to watch.

Not only that, but I’m here to meet other great food and beverage writers. I’m currently at a great session called Techmunch hosted by Jaden (Steamy Kitchen and Babette of Bakespace. It’s a great opportunity to learn from other folks who are really great at fostering food communities because I want to do that for you.

If you’re new to the site, here are some other ways to reach me and hear my thoughts. I’d love to hear from you.

Email: Emily @MouthOfTheBorder.com
Twitter: EmilysPearl
Blog: Dangerously Enthusiastic
Mouth of The Border’s Facebook Fan Page: Facebook.com/MouthOfTheBorder

Cheers!

Welcome back! I hope you’re having a peaceful and productive week.

Not everyone is as lucky as we are to be here, reading about great food experiences and goofing around on the Internet.

I mentioned a few months ago that one of the next communities we’ll visit on Mouth Of The Border is the Haitian community, which makes up a big square of the quilt that is life and culture in Brooklyn.

Many friends and neighbors here have friends and family in Haiti, which has been absolutely devastated by the recent earthquake. Please consider getting out into the Haitian community this weekend, saying hello and supporting their businesses.

Not in New York City? Here are links to some legitimate ways to donate earthquake relief for Haiti: http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/

Credit: Cresny (via Flickr)

If you’re new to Mouth Of The Border, you can read about our first visit to the West Indies via the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights here: http://bit.ly/MOTBWI1

Our second visit, involving even more delicious vittles, is here: http://bit.ly/MOTBWI2

If you’re already a fan of West Indian culture and food, please comment on and add spots to a map of the Mouth of the Border places, and see what other places I’m writing about by clicking the map (click through to view the map if you’re viewing this in a reader). Click here to see Mouth of the Border places.

Today’s post concludes my second trip to the neighborhood with details on the final three spots I visited. Below, I’ve included contact information for each eatery and the nearest subway stop.

Peppa’s Jerk Chicken (Jamaican)
347 712 9341‎
738 Flatbush Avenue between Woodruff and Parkside Avenues (2/5 at Winthrop or Q Parkside Avenue)

Errol’s Bakery and Catering (Jamaican)
718 469 6078
661 Flatbush Avenue at Hawthorne Street (Q at Parkside Avenue)

Ali’s Roti Shop (Trinidadian)
718 462 1730
589 Flatbush Avenue between Midwood Street and Rutland Road (B/Q at Prospect Park or Q Parkside Ave.)

Jerk Chicken, De Bamboo Express Restaurant & Bakery, Crown Heights, Brooklyn

Over the last few posts, we’ve tried cassava pone, doubles, callaloo, mauby and sorrel. We’ve even gotten down and dirty with some cow foot soup.

The one thing we haven’t done is gone to a true Jamaican jerk chicken joint. Jerk spice rub is a backbone of Jamaican cuisine, and is one aspect of the island’s culture that is well known even to people outside of it.

I tried some of the jerk chicken at the very first place we dropped in on back during my first visit to Crown Heights, but what I really wanted was to do was find one of those down home, hole in the wall joints with the big steel drums out front, just smoking away with spice and meat.

I took it down a notch and checked out Peppa’s Jerk Chicken, a place with huge grills behind the counter. When I walked in, the men manning those grills were wielding cleavers almost the length of their forearms, hacking away at whole birds while the chickens got nice and charred on the racks.

If you’ll recall from part 2, I had already done quite a bit of eating on this trip. Everything I ordered from here on out was to go. I ate the food later at home.

After being ignored by the men behind the grills for awhile, I ordered a half chicken and some rice and peas for takeout.

There are people that build traditions and whole careers around jerk spice rubs and methods. That said, I realize I only have your attention here for so long (thank you). So, here’s a good summary of the history and what goes into Jamaican jerk spice.

What makes Jamaican jerk rub a killer are dried Scotch Bonnet peppers. If you are not a fan of spicy food or just have no tolerance for it, just skip this stuff entirely. You cannot handle it.

I remember the very first time I ever ate jerk. Late night street vendors in Chicago (where I lived while I was in graduate school in 2000) doled out the hot stuff with impunity to intoxicated barhoppers all along the Gold Coast neighborhood where I lived.

My friend and classmate John, who had lived all over the world already writing guidebooks for Lonely Planet, insisted on scooping up some food for us everytime we hit up the reggae clubs. He was an unassuming, short, redheaded guy but dude knew what was up with some food.

On this night, we had hopped on a train after John hit up one of the food carts. He was shoveling jerk goat into his mouth. His eyes were watering from the spice hitting his nasal passages. His nose was running. But he was grinning like a maniac. So, I dug into my takeout container, keeping an eye on John all the while. Sure enough, within minutes, my tongue was on fire, my nose was running and I could feel that my whole face was flush from the spices. It. Was. Awesome. Jerk done properly is a gift to those that subscribe to the school of Hotter is Better.

That’s the day I knew I loved jerk spice rub and the day I fell in love with goat meat.

The chicken from Peppa’s was delicious. It’s hard for me to get excited about any kind of chicken, but that’s all they cook. So, if you go there just order up and enjoy it.

Next, I swung over to Errol’s Bakery and Catering, another Jamaican spot. As with the other bakeries I visited in Crown Heights, the line was ridiculously long.

I took a quick look around for something unfamiliar to take home and eat. My eyes landed on a slice of pie that was almost black. It was actually a potato pie. Not a sweet potato pie, but a potato pie. There might have been much more to the pie than that – it could have been a mixture of a few different root vegetables. But it was too busy to ask the people working there what went into it.

Potato Pie, Errol's Bakery, Crown Heights

I knew from sniffing it that it was a sweet pie, not savory. When I got it home and took my first bite, I was surprised by its concentrated sweetness. It tasted like a cross between sweet potato pie and molasses. The crust was also dense, chewy and delicious.

This is just one of probably thousands of examples on neighborhood menus of the creative ways that West Indian folks use root vegetables. All sorts of tubers make their way to the table for every type of meal.

To finish up my trip, I needed to stop into one more roti stop. (We talked about roti in detail in the last post here http://bit.ly/MOTBWI2) It wouldn’t be fair with so many options for roti shops to only experience one of them. Since I had just had my first roti at Trinidad Roti Shop earlier this same day, I needed at least one baseline for comparison.

Goat Roti, Ali's Roti Shop, Crown Heights

So, I went visited Ali’s Roti Shop and got a goat roti. Ali’s came recommended by both my roommate and a friend of mine. Both ladies are from Trinidad, so I had faith in their suggestions.

While I had eaten jerk goat several times and loved it, I’d never had curried goat before. That would be another mouth adventure.

I only got a few steps away from the shop when I realized the sauce would soak through the roti bread if I tried to get it all the way home. I went back to the shop, sat, and went at it with a fork and knife for a couple of bites so I could taste the bread and filling.

As you can see from the picture above, the meat in the goat roti comes with the bones. I have since spoken to a few people about my roti adventures and some of my friends told me they won’t order goat roti because they don’t want to bother with eating around or picking out the bones. I can understand that, but I do think that you’d be missing out on some truly flavorful meat if you didn’t at least try it.

Goat is incomparable to chicken, beef or any meat I can think of. It just has a full, unabashedly meaty personality and it tastes well-seasoned even with nothing on it.

My local grocery store carries goat in the meat section. I’m definitely going to bring some home and try my hand at cooking it up for a future post.

Overall, this was a delicious set of trips into the neighborhood to get to know more about the dishes, spices, produce and meat that are common across West Indian cuisine. Armed with the knowledge we got through eating our way around the local haunts, we can regroup for the next post to explore some of the neighborhood’s grocers and produce markets.

We’ll learn more about the raw ingredients that go into the food, and then we’ll start cooking with someone who knows West Indian food inside and out!

Excited to continue our adventures.

See you soon!
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