chino chilango supper!

grab your seats for the mexico city inspired meal on may 27th! it is going to be one deliciously fun time! fresh from our trip to mexico city with stomach's full and creativity reeling we are ready to present a fantastic meal! mexico city is filled with so much history and beauty and delicious cuisine that we could not resist but revisit the journey through this dinner. we will create a five course meal based on some of the best dishes we had while there, but with the addition of a chinese twist. this meal is gonna be filled with vivid stories of the inspiration of each course! consider it a very inexpensive way to journey to mexico city with your palate and to make new friends at a communal dinner table! grab your seats ahora, porque they won't last mucho tiempo más!

andalé!andalé!

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

We are very excited about several happenings lately, spring is in the air and the garden is starting to come together, planing ahead for the summer! But one of the most coveted offerings of spring, the homely ramp is upon us! Thanks in large part to our dear friend Anthony DePrima we acquired a bushel of wild ramps. These have been lovingly cleaned, washed, adored over, and finally pickled and await your enjoyment. We also recently planted the herb garden, redolent with around 25 varieties of our favorite herbs from Thai basil to espazote. In addition we are embracing the season with four varieties of heirloom tomatoes, peppers and strawberries! This all comes in the wake of our next dinner, to celebrate Cinco de mayo *we will be hosting a dinner on the 27th of may, so watch out Chicago we have quite the party planed for you! While our ever-present melding of Chinese and Mexican cuisine will be forefront, the city and region of Puebla will be focused on as this is the historical site of the battle of Puebla after which holiday is celebrated. 

pickled ramps, retaining their spring essence.

This is also the 150th year anniversary of the battle, which is observed to commemorate the Mexican army's unlikely victory over the French forces which had invaded the country. This coincidentally happened under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín (shout out to our mascot, our beloved Iggy pup!) So in lieu of a complete history lesson we are geared up to offer you a tour de force, excuse me, rather a hazaña of culinary and sensory stimulation that will rival that great battle of past. Coincidently, Brian's first trip to Mexico was to Mexico city, then an extended stay in Puebla where he was enveloped in Mexican culture.

This is where I fell in love with Mexico, the people, the culture, the food! I was taught the art of making mole in a domestic kitchen, a memory I will always hold dear. The street foods and the restaurants were unparalleled in their bounty of perfumes, colors and flavors. This was an eye opening experience that has defined my culinary path ever since. The wealth of imagery and depth of flavor that I was able absorb were the foundation for what we are pleased to serve you in May! 

collage of photos from puebla trip in 2002

* = date changed from may 6th to may 27th due to travel plans we have to mexico city during the prior dates! huge apologies for any inconvenience and we llok forward to adding some mexico city flair to the next supper!  

2nd Anual Viva Selena dinner!

Last week we hosted another fantastic dinner celebrating the life and times of Selena! The popular tejano singer from mikey's hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas!

uno. 

We kicked the dinner of with 'the yellow rose of Texas' an amazing concoction of Tequila and Mescal, with pineapple, sweet lime and a dusting of Chinese five spice. Along side we passed 'meaty-meaty bom- boms' chorizo and pork meatballs with ginger & water chestnut in a Chili mulatto and hoisin sauce.

dos.

The dinner then moved on with a deconstructed beet salad, the 'Pinche yolanda! I'm gonna beet you!' this was red and yellow beets & jicama in a tongue numbing Sichuan vinaigrette with three puddings; orange yellow beet, honey red beet, and goat cheese, and for another floral-spicy kick the dish was finished with lavender salt.

tres.

'No me queda masa' was our take on sopes, corn masa cakes crisped up in lard over cast iron, spread with an edamame puree and topped of with a shaved fennel and cabbage slaw in a guajillo sauce with Chinese sausage, mandarin orange supremes and cotija cheese.

cuatro.

'Selena y los vinos' was the entree course featuring red wine, cinnamon, and anise braised beef shanks, mashed sweet potato with scallion, and braised collard greens with salt pork and pickled onions. 

cinco. 

'Como la flor' was the dessert, an elegant terrine of coconut panna cotta and hibiscus gelee. The terrine was finished with four contrasting components, crushed pistachio, blackberry, mango-coconut salsa with black pepper, and candied celery leaf with fennel frond. 

As if this were not enough we were proud to host Ms. Cee-cee Larouge and her vocal stylings to really round of the evening! Her performances definitely got the crowd going and was a sweet ending to another beautiful event!

2nd ANNUAL "VIVA SELENA" SUPPER IS NEAR!

This sunday we are celebrating the life of the mexican-american musical artist SELENA! We are stoked! This supper is near and dear to our hearts since Selena is from Corpus Christi, Texas! Corpus is the homebase for one of us here at yo soy, and we are so excited to highlight a meal based around one of Corpus' major stars! We have ONE SEAT REMAINING, so if you are as excited about this as we are, grab it here!

UPDATE 03.23.12: WE SOLD OUT FOR THIS SUPPER! PLEASE EMAIL US TO BE PUT ON THE WAITLIST IN CASE THERE ARE ANY LAST MINUTE OPENINGS! MUCHAS GRACIAS AND LONG LIVE GREAT FOOD Y SELENA! 

friends & family sunday supper + selena march dinner date!

This last weekend we had the pleasure of hosting Brian's sister Abby and her boyfriend Bobby. As both Brian and Abby share a passion for food, we decided to let her in on the Yo Soy experience, from planing a menu, shopping, prepping, cooking, and plating. She is great at post dinner clean up as well! Great times ensued and as a celebration of our guests and for some close friends we hosted a mini Yo Soy dinner on Sunday the 4th. Starting out we served a beet 'salad', match sticks of roasted heirloom beets with a Sichuan peppercorn vinaigrette, candied pepitas, lavender salt and three sauces, fresh goat cheese, yellow beet- orange, and red beet-honey. We followed this with a double cut pork chop, braised with orange and guajillo, topped off with a calabaza and apple salsa, honey crisp apple match sticks, swiss chard with raisins, pickled chard stems, and a zucchini-cotija cake. Dessert was our famous choco-flan, with chinese five spice, blood orange sauce, candied celery leaves and beet micro greens. Of course no dinner would be complete without a hearty round of Loteria!

Now let's get down to business, delcious business! our next dinner is set for sunday 03.25.12 at 6:30 pm!  we are paying tribut to our favorite mexican american artist.....SELENA! look forward to our annual selena dinner where we pay tribute to the most mexcellent person , uuhm besides mikey, to come out of corpus christi! VIVA SELENA dinner! grab your seats here!