Sunday we held another great dinner party with fourteen friends, some new some old but we were all having a great time by the end of the night! We had been wanting to get a group of people together for what we want to become an underground dinning  event. Something along the lines of getting a group of people together whom may not necessarily know  each other, or even work in the same fields, but who can come together over a shared passion and enjoyment of food and wine. This is a popular sensation on the east coast and in the Pacific northwest, and there is no reason we can't do the same thing here, with a chinese and mexican flair. We invited Fausto Ferńos and his partner Marc Felion of the fantastic and hilarious podcast feast of fun, a good friend Doug and his two good friends Chris Scmidt and Diego Rocha whom is an extremely talented designer so check out his site! We also had  Galen Valadez and his boyfriend  Shayne Palm, a good friend Todd Bruce whom we actually catered for, and Tate Gunnerson and his partner, Anthony Nove and Terrence Mcbride. Dinner was organized around a summer theme, despite the fact that it was a blistering 70 degrees as a high that day. So we focused on seafood, fresh seasonal ingredients, the peaches were awesome and the corn is looking great right now. Mikey had wanted to make a twist on a caipirinha, so he turned some lemongrass and ginger into a salacious syrup that he blended with cucumber, lime, and mint then added the cachaçha. The drink was garnished with apricot & plum strips and topped off with grated pioncillo, which is a cool mexican brown sugar product made by boiling and evaporating sugar cane. It was a great and refreshing way to start the night, we also made some mini corn cups filled with a papaya salsa and avocado puree with mint. The fish and scallops came from Dirks fish market which anyone in Chicago should definitely patronize. It is an amazing market at 2070 Clybourn, focused on sustainable and superbly high quality products. Dirk himself is usually outside grilling up some samples, as he was on saturday, and the staff were very helpful. We decided on the Yellowtail Corvina, its a delightful fish with a delicate sweet flavor and a nice meaty texture. It was simply seared then finished in the oven with the glaze, it turned out incredibly moist with a nice sear.        

Seared Scallop, sweet & sour plantain chips, habanero-corn crema

The menu

Seared Sea Scallops

sweet  & sour plantain, habanero creamed corn

Trio of Mexican spiced Beef Purses 

serrano-plum sauce, coconut rice & mango ponzu

Orange-Guajillo Mojo glazed Yellowtail Corvina 

jalapeño-ginger rice cake, baby bok choy, port-black bean demi glace

Gingered Peach Empanadas

homemade candied ginger ice cream, almond dust, raspberry coulis 

the boys at dinnerclose up of the beef purses with coconut rice and mango-ponzu

Diego, and the beef purses

Mojo glazed Corvina, jalpeno-ginger rice cake, bok choy, port-black bean demi glace