Chef Louie Night

I attended Chef Louis Night last night with my fun  and fab girlfriends. Chef Louis Night is basically a house party that was born out of a local culinary underground dining scene. It was held at the former Great Bay restaurant space, which will soon become the new Island Creek Oyster restaurants in August (so oyster lovers rejoice, you heard it from me first).

It was an event where “Oysters, Swine, Cocktails, Cuisines, and Causes Collide” and we definitely enjoyed the pork-fest (a very large pig was involved) and the Haitian-inspired alcoholic drinks. I ordered a gin-and-grapefruit-juice concoction which made me want to dance myself silly before settling down for the family-style dinner.

I took lots of pictures!

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Sabs, Art, Em and me


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I just realized that bartending would be a really cool upper arm workout


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Art really liked the free oysters and bourbon-spiked drink. Sabs wasn’t too sure.


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this is what Wilbur gets for being a very bad pig



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me with the folks from Island Creek Oysters. Even though I’m allergic to oysters and after my unfortunate birthday surprise, I am still planning on going to the new restaurant


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Chef Louis giving his Welcome Speech


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HELLO, my favorite dish of the night! Lettuce wraps + homemade sausage on a bed of sweet/spicy shredded pork = yummmmm



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some flavor-packed chicken wings


Now I have to interrupt and apologize in advanced for the decline in quality of the next couple of pics. Please note that the dinner was served family-style, and my friends and I made the mistake of sitting at the end of the the very long table. Each course was also served verrryyyy slowly, and since the 4 of us came there with empty stomachs (only filled with booze), we were ravenous. So in short, as soon as we were able to get some food, I forgot to take nice pictures. Oops.

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my very unattractive plate of farro with asparagus and mushrooms, pancetta hash, and a banh mi sandwich

For those of you who don’t know what a banh mi is, it is basically the Vietnamese equivalent of an Italian sub: a baguette with vegetables, chili peppers, mayo, (sometimes pate) and a meat filling (like grilled pork, sausages, chicken, ham, etc). The banh mi from last night was made with roasted pork (of course) and there was a square of crispy pig skin inside which reminded me of lechon. To be honest, I took one bite only and left the rest of the sandwich untouched (after fishing out the square of crispy skin). I was scared that it might have fish sauce somewhere in there (which is a common Vietnamese condiment, which I’m allergic to, and which I hate), plus it was kinda cold. I figured I could save my calories for something else – like a second helping of the pancetta hash.

The pancetta hash is a close second to the lettuce wraps as my favorite dish of the evening. It really was just a simple hash but there was a ton of pancetta chunks, and really, you can never go wrong with too much pancetta or bacon.

The tarro was good too. I thought it was a nice rice substitute; it tasted meaty (even though it was vegetarian) and I love mushrooms and asparagus so it was a winner for me.

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a pork loin stew which was awkward to eat because we didn’t have soup bowls

This was unfortunately my last dish of the evening.  It was a bit blah and I also only took a couple of bites off my piece. There were two unpictured dishes from the event: one, a salad with ham and strawberries (it was demolished at our table and by the time it reached our end, it was not a pretty sight); and two, the dessert shooters. We actually didn’t end up staying for dessert (what?!? who am I??) because it took soooooo long, so we decided to transfer to another place for dessert (heeheehee).

Overall though, the four of us had a great time at Chef Louis Night. Good company, good food and good drinks are perfect for Girls Night Out. I realize that other girls might not plan their Girls Night Out around pig-centered events, but we are all self-confessed foodies and I’m so glad we were able to attend the event!

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don’t put your foot hoof in your mouth!

What did you do last weekend? Did you go to any food-related events?

   

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