Food Events – Epicurean Experience

Giant California-Style Okonomiyaki

The idea was one of those moments where you swear it had to be done many times before, but at the time of its conception I couldn’t find any examples of 1) a truly giant/layered okonomiyaki or 2) an okonomiyaki incorporating fries or really any kind of “fusion” for that matter. So I did the only rational thing and made that idea come to life.

A first for Okonomiyaki?

I find it hard to believe that I would be first to undertake this endeavor, but the world of okonomiyaki is an under-fulfilled and underrepresented one if the internet isn’t filled with such examples. Living in Southern California, you can find a fair share of them if you look hard enough, but the majority are more akin to vegetable pancakes than okonomiyaki. I guess if all produce was amazing that might sound like a good idea, but if you’ve been to Southern California you know that’s not possible outside of the trendy LA /vegan dining scene. Both areas not typically fit for the more casual, non-vegan concept of okonomiyaki.

Example of some okonomiyaki I had in Japan

Even on my many trips to Japan I found okonomiyaki to be uninspiring given the concept and its visual appeal. Okonomiyaki at its core is a essentially a savory vegetable omelet pancake composed of eggs, flour, some form of sugar, dashi, shredded cabbage, and diced green onion. Other than some optional go to toppings of nori, bonito, Japanese mayonnaise, and okonomi sauce, that’s really all there is to it and is honestly enough to make it a standout dish. I don’t really know of anything quite like okonomiyaki and was sad to find out there isn’t much variation to it outside of your protein of choice or a random mix-in such as kimchi. In short, I was disappointed by what I felt was unfulfilled potential.

Cue California Style Okonomiyaki

After all the hype fries get, some may wonder if shoving in fries wherever humanly possible is a worthwhile endeavor at this point (it definitely is), but the formula for okonomiyaki has largely been untouched and the only popular pairing is yakisoba. This meant I had no choice but to follow in the footsteps of the genius that dared to shove fries into a burrito by in turn creating California style Okonomiyaki. Of course, I didn’t want to the intermingling of cultural phenomena to stop there so I included queso fresco, a homemade creamy guacamole, a California red wine infused okonomi sauce, red pepper beef, yuzu garlic shrimp, caramel dashi red onions, and my signature dashi black beans to the mix to create the most California of okonimyakis.

Hard to see, but there are three layers of okonomiyaki in there

Go big or go home

With the ingredients decided, it was now time for composition. Instead of just expanding the okonomiyaki in width, I opted to add height by making the okonomiyaki three layers high with several other layers to add depth to the texture, flavors, and visuals.

Ingredients by Layer:

French fries
Okonomiyaki base with queso fresco
Creamy guacamole: lime, avocado, salt, black pepper, mascarpone, garlic, cayenne pepper, dark amber maple syrup
Okonomiyaki base with queso fresco
Surf’n Turf: yuzu, garlic salt, black pepper, and sumac seasoned shrimp with beef seasoned with red pepper, aleppo pepper, black pepper, salt, honey
Okonomiyaki base with queso fresco
Toppings: Black bean puree – yuzu, dashi, dark amber maple syrup, garlic, Thai chili, and chile morita seco, homemade red wine okonomi sauce – ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, oyster sauce, honey, and a California red wine blend (Old vine from Bogle Vineyards – but really any well rounded wine that isn’t too strong on any notes would work), Japanese mayo, nori furikake, bonito, dashi caramel red onions, lime marinated cilantro

Crunchy fries would meet the first layer of okonomiyaki as the salty starch is met by cheesy savory egg omelet flavor reminiscent of a hearty breakfast, only to be broken up by fresh crunchy cabbage and green onions.

From there, the following layer of rich and creamy guacamole would take over to be rounded out by yet another okonomiyaki layer. After that comes the surf’n turf layer adding heat from the beef with savory tart shrimp coupled with the final okonomiyaki layer.

Last are the toppings of black beans and red onions with the more traditional okonomiyaki toppings of nori furikake, Japanese mayo, bonito, and California Red Wine okonomi Sauce creating a burst of flavors new and old. Savory sweetness from the red onions with a hint of pepper, salty seaweed from the nori, a full bodied tart from the okonomi sauce, sweet creaminess from the Japanese mayo, dried umami from the bonito, and a starchy, robust umami flavor packing some heat from the black beans.

The future of Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki literally is a combination for the Japanese words for “what you like/how do you like it” and “cooked” making it the most fitting mishmash of cultural food fusion. I think it’s high time the appeal of okonomiyaki hits more widespread popularity by having more dishes utilize it as such a versatile food medium.

Although difficult to put together, this project was a fun over the top showcase of okonomiyaki’s potential. It was able to successfully absorb the aggressive flavors of the Mexican-American California style, while remaining resilient enough to form a large, interesting structure.

Ultimately, some may think of this feat as a blasphemous attempt at a time honed cultural tradition, but if I learned anything from this experience, it’s that this is a gold mine of food inspiration and there is no way this is the last time I am making a new okonomiyaki concept.

Friendsgiving

Food is one of the best ways to bring people together and it’s an innate human tradition I definitely agree with. So when the opportunity arose to put together a friendsgiving for my long standing group of first year college dorm friends, I took to some prior inspiration to revisit a feat I had undertaken once in the past. This time, bigger and better than ever. I’m talking about a giant sushi roll also known as the sushiritto.

Anyone else wonder what differentiates a giant sushi roll from a sushiritto?

Setting the Stage

Like with the quesarito before it, bigger was a major goal, but it also had to evolve into much more given all my cooking experiences throughout the years. Grander in both scale and flavor profile. The visual impact of a roll about the width of my head (I really couldn’t come up with a better comparison) sounded like a good start given that I wanted to still be able to roll the thing. As for deciding on the ingredients, I pulled out all the stops and went with my most tried and true method: pacing down the aisles of my favorite groceries a few hours before the actual event (yes, groceries plural as I seem to be incapable of composing a single dish without visiting at least three groceries). So as I paced down the aisles accumulating a laundry list of concepts and ingredients new and old, everything started to come together.

So what’s actually in it…

I settled on yellowtail as the centerpiece to build around. This would help combat the battle and confusion between proteins I find so common in most American sushi rolls. For sauce, I love the play of miso and wasabi with yellowtail and it wouldn’t be a sushiritto without some signature Japanese Kewpie mayo. Now that’s a lot to choose from, so I figured there was no reason I couldn’t just mix them all together with some honey.

The rest of the accompaniments were a blend of new and old. From sushirittos I made years ago, I chose tempura green onions, seaweed salad, masago, buttered kanikama, nori furikake, avocado, and ginger. It’s like they say, “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” Though sometimes I’ll admit I just want to save myself from re-pacing through all those aisles of the grocery store.

And because I am also almost incapable of not trying something new, bonito, my ever growing fondness of dashi and yuzu, some Russian caviar I had to finish up, a sprig of freshness from Japanese mitsuba, tart red shiso, and the clean, defined spice of Thai chili join the mix to round out the sushiritto’s flavors. With all the actors at hand, it was time for the composition.

Putting it all together

With the all the ingredients on hand and the dinner three hours away, preparations finally began. A relatively easier feat given the lack of cooked ingredients. At least it would have been if I had full use of both my hands (I sliced my finger preparing some chips for an ongoing project). Fortunately, this was a friendsgiving so I had the power of friendship on my side. Or in less euphemistic terms, I could offload all the grunt work while I focused on composing all the flavors I needed. Friends are the best.

The hardest part up to here was definitely laying all that rice down -_-

I went with a 4×4 seaweed base as that seemed like the right size to give it the girth of my head. I also just like the term 4×4. From there the foundation would be the sushi rice followed by the crab mixture and nori furikake to ensure a certain level of decadence and consistent flavor with each bite. Afterwards, the placement of the main protein, yellowtail, as all ingredients would be paired with it. The yellowtail would then be dressed with a homemade yuzu ponzu, dashi, torched on one side to give textural and temperatural contrast, and topped with some Russian caviar I had on hand. Next came a rotation of decisions based on color and flavor going from the tempura green onions, masago, avocado, sauces, and bonito. Finally the remaining garnishes of mitsuba, ginger, Thai Chili, and red shiso.

Now just one quick roll and it was time to dig in! That was the plan anyway, but it was as challenging as you’d supposed. Luckily the quesarito had at least warmed my friends and I for this challenge, though a couple mid procedure patch jobs were necessary.

And the result…

I’m sure by this point you’re filled with questions like “how did you eat it?” and “isn’t that a lot of rice?” but when there is a will there is a way and sweating those details isn’t my style. There’s a method to my madness, which means I had planned ahead to solve any of those problems by A) brute forcing my way to make portions using foil and a sharp knife and B) making sure the resulting giant roll slice would have every bite be as enticing as possible to create a worthwhile marathon of entertaining flavors.

But let’s focus less on the semantics and more on the flavor composition. As great as yellowtail is, I wanted to keep cost down so there was only about 2 pounds in it (the whole thing was probably around 20 pounds). This meant all the other ingredients had to be standout enough to rise up to the challenge of providing robust flavors in its absence. As I alluded to earlier, the base was the garlic shouyu butter kanikama with the sushi rice, seaweed, and nori furikake. This, in it of itself, gave a hefty flavor profile but would get boring after a few bites. So in comes the tempura green onions to give texture and a sharp green onion flavor alongside a dash of salty sweetness for the masago. The torched yellowtail was then reinforced with a pair of sauces that resulted in notes of wasabi, mayo, miso, honey, and unagi sauce, and then finally coupled with caviar and bonito to bring an intense wave of umami despite its smaller ratio. All of this coupled together to form interleaving waves of flavor between the base layer and the more aggressive flavors from the yellowtail and its accompaniments.

All that would be good, but not enough to be great. This is where the supporting role of the remaining ingredients comes in. Their role was to provide yet another layer of security in preventing a bored palate by presenting the most complementary bold fresh flavors I could think of. They ranged from a fresh greens flavor from the mitsuba, sharp spice from the Thai Chili, herbal citrus from the red shiso, and the tang of sweet pickled root from the ginger. I placed one to two lines of these ingredients so they would come in as surprises randomly between bites to confuse the palate and keep everything fresh. A necessary break in between the rush of waves between the base layer, the yellowtail, and its supporting actors.

All is well

A more impromptu event finalized a mere few days out, but overall a successful display of food and friendship benefiting of the title of friendsgiving. The sushiritto delivered on being a unique experience aptly compared to that of an amazing poke bowl as a giant sushi roll. Only thing left was a night filled with many drinks in celebration. Or in other words the other innate human tradition bringing people together.

The Mexican Feastival

Two concept tests and a couple hours of prep — after feeling like preparations would go on forever, I finally completed some of my best work yet. Improving upon design, complexity, and quality, this feast showcased my serious commitment to the genre as it marked my official start in hosting these events on a more regular basis.

If these pictures look noticeably better than some others on the site, it’s because it is. With help from a friend, I was able to up the quality of photos and videos while being left able to focus on the presentation

But what’s in it?

Now this wouldn’t be a feastival if I didn’t put the utmost attention into the food that goes in and this does not disappoint. Boasting the most expansive ingredient list of any of my creations, I’ll have to break this into parts just to make it anywhere near comprehensible.

Every ingredient was chosen to work with other ingredients as much as possible, but for ease of breakdown I am going to describe this in layers.

The Center

At the center we have mole, sesame seeds, Queso Cotija Don Francisco, sliced baby tomato rolled in Chile Morita Seco, and cilantro. Simple. Well it would be if it weren’t for the fact this homemade mole is comprised of:

Dried Chile De Arbol
Toasted Chile De Arbol
California Dried Chile
Black Dried Chile
Dried Ancho Chile
Chile Morita Seco
Brown Sugar
Dark Amber Maple Syrup
Sesame oil
Vegetable oil
Sesame seeds
Black pepper
Salt
Raw walnuts
Roasted peanuts
Roasted pumpkin seed
Garlic powder
Water
Roasted chile pasilla
Crema Oaxacena
Aleppo pepper
Lime
Coriander
Cumin

Looking at the list, I second guess that I even came up with this. Anyway, the mole is similar to my previous test with a couple modifications (notably sesame seeds and sesame oil for an added layer of umami, and brown sugar to round out the sweetness of the dark amber syrup). A few changes were also made to the ratios from my learnings from the first time, but the goal was still similar. The mole had a mild smoke from the dried chiles complimented by the bitterness of the cacao and a dull sweetness from the sugars. Crema added some much needed creaminess with starch from the corn tortillas. Nuts and oils were present to provide a sense of umami, while the remaining ingredients were used to fill in all the gaps between the main tasting notes. All of this packaged together gave off a full range of flavor palate, finishing off with a dull burn that hurts just enough for you to ask for more.

This layer acted as a compliment to the others — meant to be added on as needed for extra intensity to any desired flavor. Salty cheese in the cotija, deep full-flavored spice from the mole, smoky sweetness in the spiced baby tomatoes, and herbal notes in the cilantro. Its also the only layer that didn’t have components that you would normally eat by itself.

The Middle Layer

Moving on, we have the middle layer composed of a mix of a standalone dish in the ceviche tostadas, and several other complimentary components.

At the bottom we have a yuzu, dashi, dark amber syrup, garlic, black pepper, chile morita seco, and aleppo pepper infused black bean puree bringing a well-rounded, starchy umami. On top we have lime salted avocados, chile morita seco infused crema oxaquena, and roasted red bell peppers. The avocados and crema add extra creaminess throughout any bites, while the roasted bell pepper and chile adds smoky sweetness.

Finally we have the ceviche:

Ground shrimp
Shredded Octopus
Agave syrup
Grapefruit
Danjou Pears
Cilantro
Garlic Salt
Cayenne Pepper
Black pepper
Lime
Yuzu

This take on ceviche was crafted to be sweeter than most (due to the heavy focus on sweet ingredients like the fruits and agave nectar), while keeping it balanced with the more traditional accompaniments such as lime, salt, onions, cilantro, and even some light heat from the cayenne and black pepper. Its citric sweetness played nicely to act as a refresher in between meaty bites from the outer layer and the intenser spices from other aspects of the feast.

The Outer Layer

Finally, we have the heavy hitter. The hearty, meaty layer meant to be complemented from everything within.

Tortillas – hatch chile flour tortillas and corn tortillas
Slow cooked beef tongue marinated in honey, aleppo pepper, red pepper, lime, apple cider vinegar, black pepper, garlic, and garlic salt
White mushrooms sauteed with honey, thyme, salt, and a mushroom spice blend
Sauteed red onions
Oaxacan cheese
Queso Fresco Pancho
Green Onion
Fried Sous Vide Pork Belly
Manzano Peppers stuffed with Oaxacan Cheese
Limes
Brown sugar dashi carmelized green onion bulbs with black pepper
Roasted Chile Pasilla

Tender beef tongue meeting contemporary accompaniments, this layer was the only section featuring meat and is essentially constituted of tacos. Onions and mushrooms are used to directly complement the beef tongue as the cheese add some salty richness to be cut by the green onions and roasted chile pasilla. Lime is added to taste, while pork belly and oaxacan cheese stuffed manzano peppers are available to take the experience to the extreme.

How did it all work together?

As I found out in my first tests, a lot of the ingredients are surprisingly versatile despite their intense flavors. I took advantage of this by placing smaller complimenting ingredients and dishes to accompany the full fledged dishes. Avocados, crema, black beans, and roasted red bell peppers brought some heft to the tostadas, but they could also be used to bright up the beef tongue tacos. If anyone’s palate got bored for any reason, the components in the center would kick things up a few notches.

A better analogy to describe the experience is that the whole feast was as full in flavor as it was full of color. Everything was packed with flavor, but each component had its particular focus. This meant that anything could be paired and eaten without worrying about competing forces. There is fun in being able free to eat the way you want and I wanted to enable that sense of freedom as much as possible. The last thing I want to do in a feast is lay down a thousand rules on how to eat anything.

Plating the Feast

Now plating a table full of food is always an exercise in adaptability. I can’t tell you how many adjustments I had to make during the actual placement of the food, but I can give you a concrete example of how plans don’t always work out:

My astonishingly well drawn vision of what would unfold /s

Design is always a challenge with these feastivals as its not easy to grasp the proportions when laying out 10+ pounds of food across a myriad of dishes. I will admit I had my worries with the design in the beginning, but it turned out to be the best looking feast I have ever done.

Here’s how it went down:

You don’t know how many times I began putting something down only to wonder if I had enough to make it all the way around

Final Thoughts

Overall the flavors delivered a complete experience with the ability to mix and match anything your heart desires. As with any time I utilize Mexican food, I am always blown away with the adaptability of the flavors and ingredients that comprise the majority of Mexican cuisine; a truly optimal match for the feast format.

Stay tuned for more food feastivals as I hope to tackle some Japanese inspired feast concepts in the near future.

Bringing Fun Back To Food

I was driving back from the grocery one fall evening and my friend made the suggestion to put the rotisserie chicken in the front trunk (frunk) of my Tesla. “You could say it’s chicken powered,” he laughed. To which I replied, “It’d have to at least be filled to the brim with fried chicken before I said that.”

And one year later…

Now you might be wondering what was stopping me from dropping by the nearest fried chicken establishment and grabbing over 100 pieces of fried chicken. The short answer is that I thought only me and my friend would care and that seemed like a whole lot of effort for two people (we actually did have a date set initially that didn’t go through, but that’s the reason I didn’t set a new one until much later).

Also, champagne just because I want to be extra.

So why did I finally do it?

Two reasons: my decision to use social media to create and publicize my food events gave me motivation to do more things and I just remembered that I wanted to do this.

Though these two reasons are really rooted in the same idea — I wanted to do more food events that would make food more fun for everyone. There could be these ridiculous creations that everyone could laugh at in amazement, while still bringing my own twists to the table in unique flavor combinations. Ridiculously large foods and feasts are out there, but I felt like there’s a general perception of large and good as being mutually exclusive in the food world.

With my car getting the newly released enhanced summon Tesla update, I decided to pair the two events together. I could have fun treating my full sized car as a remote control toy and get a kick out of the ridiculousness that is a frunk full of fried chicken. Two long standing dreams at once! So I jumped at the opportunity and created an event, while pitching the idea of having a video where my car would drive up from where it was parked to deliver me my frunk full of fried chicken to a couple co-workers.

I expected some interest, but was blown away by the amount of support I actually got. One person to edit, another to bring a drone, people to participate in the video and help out, and someone to even bring a cat for a possible video idea. Everyone I told went from initial shock (giving me that “what would even drive me to propose such a concept” look) to being enamored with actually seeing it happen.

All these events culminated in people from all ages enjoying fried chicken out of the frunk of my car, which made me sure of one thing: it really is great to have fun with your food.

The world could always use more fun food events

Sometimes I feel like the food world takes itself too seriously all the time. There is often a stress on executing the right technique/steps, paying respect to culture/history, or having to prove yourself in the pursuit of doing things differently. I do think its important to have “perfecting your craft” as part of the focal point, but I don’t think it has to mean sidelining silliness. After all, that silliness is a crucial point to the uniqueness of any creator’s artistic endeavor.

This is not to say that fun food is not out there. It just usually isn’t accessible. The internet is filled with ridiculous food creations if you look hard enough, but when’s the last time you were actually able to participate in one.

All this is exactly why I want to break that mold with more food events. The world is in constant need of more opportunities for people to not just enjoy food, but for it to be fun events that they can participate in. I want to continue to capture ridiculous moments where there is more to enjoy than just the food itself. But more importantly, I want more people to experience the fun of these concepts themselves.

In the words of Tesla founder Elon Musk himself, “fun is underrated.”

Time will tell if I’m wrong and people just want regurgitated formats and impersonal food experiences. But if I’ve learned anything from sharing my thoughts and experiences with people, it’s just that people want to have fun with food. There needs to be a shift in the perception of what can actually be done and is available to them. A realization that there is more to food appreciation than the food itself. There’s so much in the little details of food presentation and the environment surrounding a meal left to be explored to continue to spark the imaginations of all those who partake.

So here I’ll continue to try to do just that. Trying to play my part in making food a personal, fun experience that all can enjoy. Hopefully you’ll join in on this journey, one fried chicken filled Tesla frunk at a time.

Making Moles

Making moles is a relatively complicated process involving many components and a lot of trial and error. And just to be clear, not this mole:

But this one:

This is the mole I made throughout the process described below.

That being said, I am sure both are delicious in their own way.

With the upcoming feastival, I turned my focus on making mole as it’s been something I’ve always wanted to undertake and this seemed like the perfect time to do so. Its depth of flavor emanates an unexpected complexity despite its initially unappetizing appearance. A complexity in both color and flavor that I’d be hard pressed to recreate with any other dish.

Now the ingredients that compose mole can largely be broken up into 5 different categories: chiles, sour ingredients (vinegars, tomatillos, etc.), sweet ingredients (fruits and other sugary foods), spices (garlic, cumin, etc.), and thickeners (nuts, tortillas, crackers, etc.). Going further, there are also different types, such as mole poblano and mole negro, but I have limited time to spend learning all these nuances so I opted to just taste all the chile varieties I could get my hands on and go from there.

All this and I didn’t even get to testing out the different nuts and chiles roasted.

Roasting nuts (pecans, walnuts, peanuts, cacao, and pumpkin seeds) and chiles (chile pasilla, serano, habanero, manzano, and chile de arbol, and more) and tomatillo

After a hour and half of tasting and trying to remember what each chile was called (keep in mind all the dried chiles I also had to taste), I settled on the following blend:

Dried Chile De Arbol
California Dried Chile
Black Dried Chile
Dried Ancho Chile
Dark Amber Maple Syrup
Apple Cider Vinegar
Raw walnuts
Roasted peanuts
Roasted pumpkin seed
Garlic powder
Water
Roasted chile pasilla
Crema Oaxacena
Aleppo pepper
Lime
Coriander
Cumin

If you’re wondering what criteria I chose for the ingredients, it was mostly about creating a deep, dry spice flavor with a splash of smoke and tones of dull sweetness and nuttiness throughout to keep things interesting.

Now all that was left was to blend everything together with some tortilla and spend about 30 minutes tweaking ratios. It got to the point that even the smell of chiles made me nauseous, but I couldn’t stop and let all my efforts go to waste.

The mixture before it was run through the food processor.

And finally it was over!

The resulting dishes using the aforementioned mole.

As you’ve just noticed, I didn’t want to just eat mole by itself so I took the opportunity to test out some accompaniments.

Beef tongue, thyme mushrooms, and some tacos

The first dish pictured above is cilantro, thyme mushroom, and slow cooked beef tongue with a drizzle of lime over a bed of mole that is sprinkled with sesame seeds. A sea of dry, smoky spice with a hint of dull sweetness (akin to the sweetness a raisin gives off) are interrupted only by brief moments of sesame as the meaty flavor of beef tongue comes in with its tender, shredded texture. The thyme mushroom then arrives to complement the tongue with notes of cilantro and lime to act as palate cleanser in between each wave of flavor.

Although pretty, it wasn’t quite filling enough for lunch so I went a little further.

Tacos because anything is worth trying as a taco

Same components as the previous dish, but served as a taco with tortillas (corn for the first and hatch chile flour for the second), Oaxacan cheese, crema oaxaquena, and queso cotija don francisco. The tortillas add good texture as the starchiness from corn and flour go with practically anything lacking that. Meanwhile, the crema and oaxcan cheese compliment the mole’s deep spice and dull sweetness with its creaminess, while the cotija adds much needed tinges of salt.

And now for anyone who wants to see a little more.

Some more behind the scenes

Sauteed mushroom with thyme and the beef tongue with its outer layer peeled in all its glory. The tongue is slow cooked for 8 hours in a crock pot with spiced honey, aleppo pepper, garlic, black pepper, and a little apple cider vinegar. I admit the beef tongue isn’t the most beautiful sight to behold, but it makes the process that more amazing right?

Follow me on Instagram (@valanthonyalvero) to keep up with all these experiments, events and more. And if you are interested in participating in anything like this in the future be sure to comment and/or DM me with your interest.

Food Events: The Beginning of “Feastivals”

I began cooking because I had ideas that I’d only be able to experience if I made them happen. Then I realized I could share some of my creations and cater to larger groups of people. Eventually I stopped that to try my hand at doing smaller coursed dinners for a select group of friends, but with their busy schedules it ended up happening rather infrequently. Fast forward a couple life experiences over the 6 years since those beginnings, and I am at a place where I want to take this more seriously and further than ever before.

A Change in Approach

In all honesty I never took food that seriously. I had all these grand ideas, but I couldn’t care less if they were ever actualized. It was barely even a hobby as everything was just a “spur of the moment” kind of deal and nothing more.

So why did I never take it a step further? It may sound dramatic, but I’ve been avoiding the next steps this whole time. My culinary creativity and intuition ended up always being held back because I didn’t want to fail at what felt like my most innate natural talent.

I’m done not fully utilizing this talent and I’m going to step forward. Earlier this year I started this blog with the intent of being a little more serious by sharing my thoughts, experiences, and creations around food, but in doing so I realized it isn’t nearly enough. I want to go further and be able to personally share everything involving my culinary creation process from start to finish.

New Beginnings

First and foremost, I want to invite everyone on this new journey as food is nothing without the people to enjoy it with. The way I’m structuring this is by having shorter updates and notices on Instagram (@valanthonyalvero), continuing to have the longer detailed write ups of my thoughts and the experience on this blog, and food events that you can attend and get to experience my creations yourself. Going forward, my focus and goal will be to harness my culinary creativity into these mediums as much as possible.

Instagram will be the primary entry point for involvement as I plan to host more events and projects for people to get involved in. The first series of food events will be “feastivals” similar to the pictures below.

Left: Filipino Kamayan Feast
Right: Giant Surf’n Turf California Quesarito (read more about this here)

How to get Involved

In order to attend, suggest events, and know more about upcoming events like this and more, follow, DM, and/or comment on the corresponding event posts on Instagram with your interest so I can keep track and notify you of the events you can join.

Your involvement is key to growing this as the cadence of events and even the events themselves will be adjusted rapidly around everyone’s interest and feedback. I can’t guarantee all the logistics will be perfect from the get go, but I will guarantee that I will bring you unique, high quality food events you wouldn’t get the opportunity to see or try otherwise.

One of the goals is to hopefully grow this beyond the circle of people I directly know. Getting the opportunity to reach different people would exponentially add to my creativity and expand the range of projects I could work on; be it social media, this blog, the actual events, or any other medium. Though the first events may be more limited to people I directly know, I hope to quickly expand those who attend through second degree connections and so forth with the only requirement being that attendees be part of my followers on Instagram.

Now with all that said, I’d like to present the details on first event here. I’m excited to finally get the opportunity to share all these experiences with everyone from start to finish so follow me on Instagram (@valanthonyalvero) and stay engaged with all the corresponding event posts.

The First Feastival Theme: Modern Mexican

Although this would technically be my third recent feast, this will be the first officially hosted feast to mark my beginning documenting and giving access to the event itself via Instagram. That being said, I am a practical man and I like to build on the groundwork laid before me, so I decided to take inspiration from prior experiences making a kamayan feast and a giant quesarito by taking from the two concepts. The result is the concept of a large modern Mexican feast, or a “feastival” (aptly coined by one of the “staff” members) as I’d like to call it going forward.

But first a test. What would taking some notes from popular Mexican ingredients and flavors yield when put against a little creativity. So with a couple leftover ingredients supplemented with a quick trip to a nearby grocery, I concocted a proof of concept for the framework that would support this upcoming feastival.

Nearly the same ingredients done three different ways.

The Components

Black bean puree – seasoned with dashi, yuzu, black pepper, dark amber, garlic, and Chile Morita Seco
Queso Fresco Pancho
Queso Cotija Don Francisco
Crema Oaxaquena blended with Chile Morita Seco
Lime marinated avocados seasoned with salt
Lime marinated cilantro
Sliced baby tomato rolled in Chile Morita Seco
Roasted Chile Pasilla stuffed with Oaxacan cheese
Aleppo pepper
Corn Tortilla

How Does It Taste?

The smooth starch of the black bean is blended with the depth in umami of dashi and garlic, while brightened with notes of yuzu and cut by peppery tones from the black pepper and chile morita seco as dark amber syrup rounds everything out.

Richness from the cheeses and avocado are cut by notes of lime and a creamy heat is brought forth from the smoky spiced crema Oaxaquena. Roasted chile pasilla adds a tinge of roasted bitterness and textural contrast as sweetness from the tomato and herbal cilantro keep it from getting overpowering.

When served with a semi-crunchy, roasted tortilla you get another layer of textural depth complemented by strokes of corn flavor. Take out the roasted chile pasilla and play with the ratios when served as a quesadilla, and now you have similar flavors yielding a subtly different result as milder tones take precedence.

The most successful aspect in this proof of concept was the showcase of the versatility of a few components. Everything works with everything else in different subsets within this limited set as every combination something new. Needless to say I am excited with the potential of scaling this up and adding more ingredients to cross match with while adding more notes from other cultures to provide unique flairs. Up next is planning the broader structure to this feastival.

Full Circle: A Return to the Giant Food Format

There is nothing quite as captivating as the sight of an abnormally giant dish and I am glad there are people out there (a.k.a. people like you who are curious enough to read this) that agree or else I’d have to become a competitive eater in order to justify creating gigantic food. The sense of community in sharing a meal has always been up there in the ranks of bonding activities, so it always made sense to me that sharing one huge dish as a meal would take that idea up a few notches. In light of this, as I reminisced over college days filled with ad hoc quesarito nights and random communal feasts, I decided to combine the guiding forces behind many nostalgic memories into a culinary creation fitting of my current expertise: a giant surf’n turf California quesarito that would feed 14 people.

Making a quesarito large enough for 14 people

Upon making that decision, there were just a couple small details that I had to iron out. Details posing questions such as, “what would a quesarito that feeds 14 be like? If I were to come up with a quesarito to feed 14 people, would it even be possible to roll it? Can I give it enough girth that it would be impossible to take a bite out of, yet have each bite be every bit as amazing as the last? Assuming I was able to make this deliciously “thicc” monstrosity of a quesarito, how would I even serve it?” But before I began to second guess whether this was really a good idea, I reminded myself that A) this isn’t the first time I’ve been in this kind of a situation, and B) I never really know what I am doing until I actually do it anyway.

Now that I was calm and collected, I rushed over to the nearest Mexican grocery to fill in the ever so minor details of what would fill a quesarito large enough to satiate 14 people. And I really do mean it when I say rushed, as the event was taking place that evening. But hey, at least I knew how many people I was going to feed.

I figured this thing was going to be large, so there was no need to worry about whether I could fit everything in it as I let my imagination run wild. Here are the following components I settled on (listed from top to bottom of how the quesarito would be assembled):

10 super large quesadillas – 20 super large tortillas with a blend of quesadilla, oaxaca, asadero, and menonita cheese
A thin layer of green chile queso spread
Mooyah fries – a mix of sweet potato and Idaho
Roasted Tri Tip – marinated in spiced honey, aleppo pepper powder, red pepper powder, yuzu, black pepper, and garlic salt
Queso Oaxaca Pancho
Shrimp – marinated in sumac, yuzu, black pepper, and salt
Coconut Guacamole – avocado, dried coconut, coconut oil, garlic salt, lime, dark amber maple syrup, black pepper
Crema Oaxaquena blended with Chile Morita Seco and garlic powder
Roasted Chile Pasilla
Cilantro marinated in lime
Red onion marinated in lime
Queso Fresco Pancho
Queso Cotija Don Francisco

If you’re wondering how I thought of how much ingredients to get, the answer is I just thought in pounds. 14 people? 14 pounds seems like a good starting point. Cheese is important? Make sure you have a couple of pounds. I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

But how did it taste?

There were two things that needed to happen to make this a success, 1) whatever it ended up looking like, it had to be absolutely massive, and 2) each bite had to taste more amazing than it looked. I’d hope you’d agree that the first point was a success after looking through the pictures, so let’s get into why the taste surpassed its gorgeous looks.

The goal was for every bite to be decadent yet balanced; familiar yet unique. Given the girth of the quesarito, there was no way to take a bite of every component, so everything had to stand out while also being able to maintain a sense of cohesion. With each bite, the firm chew of the tortillas are met with the depth of flavor in the four cheese blend. This formed the foundation to compliment any combination of the quesarito’s inner workings: saltiness from the fries, peppery meat flavor from the tri tip, a citric shrimp to accent the meat and cut all the fattiness, coconut guacamole to bring a mildly sweet richness that would cement the marriage between the shrimp and tri tip, blended sour cream to bring a creamy heat, a myriad of cheeses throughout to ensure a strong Mexican cheese shines throughout the bites with the variety keeping everything interesting, herbal familiarity from the citrus forward marinated cilantro, a slightly bitter roasted spice from the chile pasilla, and some fresh crunch from the lime marinated red onion.

And if you are wondering how this all came together:

A true communal event

As I stared at the dwindling remains of the behemoth quesarito wondering how much it could have weighed (in case you’re wondering, like many other legends, I don’t actually know), I truly felt that I had accomplished something special. I had revisited the format that marked my early beginnings while attaining a level of quality I could really be proud of. But more than anything, I realized I had come full circle and I couldn’t think of a more genuine way for me to begin my newest chapter in my never ending pursuit for a more thought-provoking epicurean experience.

Feasts And A Story Of Giant Dishes

I’ve always been drawn to the sight of a large feast. Dishes sprawling as far as the eye can see. A plethora of aromas. The sensory overload. Throughout history feasts were always used as a hallmark of commemoration. Think of any large scale celebration and you’ll find it largely centered around food and drink. It seems only natural to also be captivated by the concept of gigantic food. An equivalent to the concept of a feast, but with one dish as opposed to many. Or as I like to think of it, one dish that would feed the many.

There’s a certain comfort in a massive shared dish by knowing there is more than you can eat. A comfort incited by the looming certainty that your appetite will be satiated by what you see in front of you. Now amplify this satisfaction by having this experience be shared by those around you. What would have been a normal meal now becomes a communal event, and finishing that meal turns into a goal for that community to accomplish (unless of course, you’re a competitive eater). This is the magic of a gigantic dish. Together you marvel at the experience you are about to partake, indulge in its assault on your senses, and relish the goal of consuming the entirety of the creation in front of you. Call it communal eating, a big dish, a one meal feast, or whatever. Its fun in one of the most primal senses, and one in which food is truly an experience.

I first stumbled upon this format being inspired by the fusion fries craze blowing up around the time I was in college. Starting with Mexican American California fries and ending up with every ethnic french fry combination you could possibly think of. Take a meat, one or more cheeses, fries, some sauce, a garnish or two, and voilà, you have a solid concept for some fusion of fries. That sounded easy so I tried my own and shared it with all my friends. Except it didn’t make sense to make ten separate portions, so I just made one big one.

A table full of Korean fries: Queso fresco, bulgogi, homemade guacamole, sriracha, Mexican cheese, french fries

I don’t know about you, but not many things gets me quite as excited as the sight of filling the top of a table with a mountain of food. So, with the momentum going and a tad more creativity, I did it again.

Bigger than a tray portion of Japanese Fries: Japanese mayo, unagi sauce, sriracha, homemade guacamole, seasoned imitation crab,

And, because once is not ever enough, why not have both?

Now getting back to doing something a little more creative…

A tabletop of Hawaiin Fries: Furikake, fried eggs, small chunks of spam, homemade pineapple gravy, cheddar cheese, and fries

Then I heard of sushirittos that I envisioned being these massive sushi rolls. You can only imagine my disappointment so I had to make things right.

Several feet long sushiritto: Seaweed, rice, seasoned imitation crab, masago, Japanese mayo, yellow tail, tempura fried green onions, and unagi sauce

And it dawned on me I needed my entry in the giant burrito craze…

Several feet long Pork Belly California Burrito

The format was quickly becoming natural instinct, which came in handy when I had too many leftover blueberry donuts (pro-tip: people don’t realize how many donuts they eat when you turn it into bread pudding).

Blueberry Donut Bread Pudding with strawberries and vanilla ice cream

As you can tell from the pictures, these were all taken during more nascent periods of my culinary endeavors and, as such, some records of these events have been lost (R.I.P. giant sundae left unfinished by a record attendance of twenty-eight people, your legend lives on in my heart). But these giant food events became a semi-regular occurrence that somehow evolved into me making coursed meals with my “staff” and the rest became history. Although I don’t frequent this format these days, there is nothing quite like throwing together one large dish onto a table and tackling it with some close friends. So, instead of having your next potluck with a million dishes, remember that sometimes less is more. You can have a million items filling that table or a table filled with one huge item. The choice is yours.