An Average Joe in San Antonio

Fans of the Emmy Award winning show Top Chef on Bravo know that the competition gets hot and heated. My visit to the live event Top Chef Tour at the HEB Alon Market in San Antonio was hot, primarily due to the typical South Texas June weather outside. Regardless, it was a lot of fun at this event.

The event pitted two contestants from previous seasons in a cook-off.  Chef Ryan Scott, an enthusiastic and fervent personality from Season 4, competed head to head with chef Dale Talde, a more subdued yet passionate and competitive young chef from season 8.

San Antonio Top Chef Tour contestants

The combination of these personalities was amusing and fun to watch as they bantered back and forth, told juicy show secrets and even divulged information about whom they think should not have won in past seasons.  Our host, Fred, was a great moderator and brought the conversation back to what we love most, the food!

The cook-off ground rules had each chef create a unique dish in the span of 15 minute using up to ten ingredients.  Additionally they were required to use one ingredient chosen by Top Chef Facebook Fans. In true Texas spirit, the San Antonio Facebook Fans wanted beef.

To make each dish unique, the chefs also got to use a secret ingredient of their choice. Chef Ryan chose watermelon while Chef Dale chose fish sauce. Upon hearing about the secret ingredients, I was thrilled and anxious to see what they came up with.

Chef Ryan Scott topping off his dish with his own version of salsa verde

The 15 minutes flew by as both chefs explained how they would be preparing their skirt steak dish. Seated in the audience, I immediately smelled the variety of aromas coming from each side. Ryan was whipping up something tantalizing using chiles (jalapeños perhaps), green onions and watermelon. Dale’s section had an Asian flare as he mixed his ingredients using coconut, corn, sweet onions and lemon zest.

After the time was up, the three judges had to decide who would win the round. The panel of judges included Charlotte Samuel, HEB Alon’s Cooking Connection chef and manager; Jennifer McInnis, food writer for the San Antonio Express News; and Johnny Hernandez, head chef and owner of La Gloria, the establishment recently voted as San Antonio’s best new restaurant.

Chef Dale Talde preparing his dish

After all the judges got a taste the dishes, each audience member also received samples of the two dishes.

Ryan’s use of beef was not like anything I’ve tasted before. His infusion of beef topped with a salsa medley of chiles, onions, capers and watermelon were spicy and fresh, perfect for a South Texas summer day.  Dale’s dish was equally refreshing. His recipe was served with a slice of tomato on the bottom, then the beef cut, and finally topped with corn, toasted coconut and a hint of mint.  I could see how this would be a tough decision for the judges, as both samples were enjoyable to the palette, but ultimately Dale’s dish was victorious.

Judges tasting the chef’s creations

I really enjoyed getting to go to San Antonio’s Top Chef Tour event and was able to not only get a variety of cooking ideas but also meet and visit with exemplary chefs from around the nation.

Special thanks to the folks out at Foodspotting for providing us with a couple of tickets to the event!  The Top Chef Tour will continue its travels to Los Angeles, California with other great chefs.  If you’re inspired  to do a little cooking yourself, give Carla’s Pastel Diplomatico recipe a try!

I had an absolute blast at Central Market’s Green Chile Cookoff!  It was really cool to visit with the contestants and judges who all have a passion for Hatch Green Chiles.

There were all kinds of recipes ranging from Hatch Puppies, Meatballs, Rice Soup Dish, Tomato Bisque, Chili, Cupcakes, and Chile Chocolate Chile Bread.  But it turns out that the winner and grand champion was a Hatch Chile-Avocado Ice Cream!  Be sure to check out Michael Saiz’s (the Meatball guy) blog for way better pictures than I could take on my iPhone!

Some of the contestants at the cookoff.

I received Honorable Mention, but it really meant a lot the SA Police Chief McManus and Tanji Patton both came up to me and told me how much they enjoyed my recipe!  I ended up getting a $20 Central Market giftcard, and upon leaving the store and smelling the green chiles roasting, I used it to buy a box of hot roasted chiles.

SAPD Chief William McManus an Tanji Patton at the judes table.

Overall, it was quite a day!  Thanks to all the judges and congratulations to all the contestants and winners!

The winner and champion, Adele Williams!

I found out today that my Mom’s Famous Queso recipe was accepted to The 4th Annual No-Holds-Barred Central Market Hatch Chile Recipe Contest!  Needless to say, I am pretty excited.

I will be going to gather all the ingredients tonight, because I want all the flavors to really mix together before the contest tomorrow (9/14).  If you are out and about and want to cheer me on, be sure to stop by Central Market on Broadway at 2:00PM; many of my friends are leaving town for football games this weekend, so I am hoping I can get a few folks to help put together a cheering section!  Thanks so much!

On his latest release, Texas based Jonathan Tyler emphatically states, “Maybe it’s been too long/since rock n roll turned you on.”  If this is the case, and you are in the need for some good rock, you must check out Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights.

Their latest CD is entitled Pardon Me, and other than the title of the CD that kindly asks the listener con permiso, the record is full of raucous guitar licks, fast tempo lyrics, foot stomping, hand clapping, harmonizing rock n roll.  If you are tired of being yelled out by hack musicians with no guitar chops that dominate the rock radio stations, you will appreciate a band who believes that a guitar was meant to play more than three power chords or angry arpeggios.

While it may be easy to say that the band has a classic rock sound, their sound is too fresh to be restricted to that era.  They are the perfect embodiment of rock, roll, and soul that is sure to make you have a good time.  I would classify them as roadhouse blues meets rock n roll in the spirit of the Rolling Stones and Stevie Ray Vaughn.

I caught their show at Gruene Hall, Texas oldest dance hall, this past Saturday night and, from start to finish, they put on a show.  It was a hot and humid South Texas night, and being in a hall without air conditioning and people packed liked sardines doesn’t help much.  Despite these conditions couple with hot stage lights zeroed in on them, the band played a solid 2.5 hour show; the only thing that took them off the stage after a three song encore was the fact that the house lights came on and the Gruene staff was ready to go home.

The band opened with a funky version of “Honkey Tonk Women” that immediately grabbed the attention of the audience and went into the upbeat song off their new record “Hot Sake.”  That song has a driving rhythm and a hand clapping pattern that is quite addictive.  Early in the set they played my personal favorite, “Time for Love,” off of their first album “Hot Trottin.’”  The harmonies really came out as Emotion (‘Mo) Brown and Nick Jay provided the backup vocals.  The lyrics of “There’s a time for love/There’s a time for pain/There’s time for letting go/of everything” are reminiscent of the Byrds “Turn Tun Turn.”  I love how the guitar fits in with band (and audience) singing sustained notes much in the same way as the Beatles’ “Hey Jude.”

As they night went on, the band got really hot (temperature wise) but would only stop briefly to get a cold towel and a pull from the handle of Jack Daniels.  Tyler remarked, “Do you guys get nervous? I find that when I get nervous, I drink a little of my friend Jack Daniels and I don’t feel the nervousness as much.”

They played a good mix of songs off both of their CDs with a blues standard of “Rock Me Baby” that turned into a full out jam.  You could tell that Jonathan Tyler was having a blast when he went to go get his Flip camera to film the crowd and each of his band members as they soloed.  At one point, he remarked, “How many of y’all are goin’ to church tomorrow?  Well for all you sinners that aren’t going, we’re about to take you to church!”  They ended the improv session with a rollicking gospel beat that got everyone stomping their feet and shaking the Gruene Hall dance floor.

Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights rockin' out at Gruene Hall

As an encore, they started out playing “Something in the Wind” with just Jonathan Tyler on guitar and Nick Jay on the keys.  As the band came in, the song picked up steam.  In the spirit of going to church, Jonathan Tyler had some inspiring words.  He told the audience to “Take each minute and make it worth it; you gotta love one another because this life is short.  Money and fame is gone quickly and what’s important is family and we got that here.”

The band then launched into “Pardon Me” and rocked it fairly unapologetically with Tyler just belting out the lyrics in spite of a bunch of folks leaving before the encore started (NOTE: Never EVER leave a Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights show before the encore).  At this point, the house lights were turned on and they finally ended with a cover of Tom Petty’s “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” that brought the house down.  I am firmly convinced that they would have continued playing if the lights had stayed turned off; I always love a band who encores because they WANT to encore instead of just walking through the motions.

Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights prove that rock n roll is not only alive but kicking.  I look forward to them getting some radio play because I would rather listen to true rock music instead of being yelled at.  I don’t expect that they will have to ask us to pardon them in the near future, because they are here to stay.

Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights Website
Buy Pardon Me CD from Atlantic Records
Download Pardon Me on iTunes
Follow Jonathan Tyler on Twitter

For about a year now, there has been a group of Marketing and PR professionals that have been promoting the use of Social Media tools not only for businesses, but also for individuals and nonprofit organizations here in San Antonio.  They go by the name of The BMPR (Business Media and Public Relations) and offer an open invitation for anyone to attend the monthly meetings to “learn more about the exciting technologies and applications of social media, meet new people and connect with peers.”

I had been following Donna Tuttle, one of the founders of The BMPR, for about a year now on Twitter when I did a random search for “San Antonio” and found something interesting that she posted.  From seeing her tweets, I had been aware of this organization but just could never make a meeting.  I was finally able to be in attendance this past June which had a focus on blogging.

Now, for any of you folks who are like me and are as technical as a blue dry erase marker and about as PR savvy as BP in the current Gulf Crisis, a meeting with techies and PR professionals might be intimidating.  Let me allay your concerns as all the people were incredibly friendly as easy to talk with.  If they have a topic that is of interest to you or your business, I would highly encourage you to attend.

As far as the meeting went, I was able to learn a lot from some folks who are quite good at the craft of blogging.  I basically do this blog for fun and enjoy it nothing more than recording some of the places that I enjoy eating at in hopes that I can drive hungry folks to them.  I think I scored in like the 43^rd percentile of SAT II Writing, so I know my abilities as a writer are inane, but it is fun none-the-less to get to post ideas.  That being said, here are some things that I learned from meeting on blogging:

• Get a Little Technical – Be sure to insert Google Analytics into your blog and submit it to Feedburner; if you don’t know how to do this or are afraid, just bake some cookies as ask your technical friend as it won’t take him/her very long; it is fun to see who visits your blog and how they go there
• Fill Up Your CUP – Change, Understand audience, Post updates regularly; I will try to get better at this
• PINE is More Than a Longing for a Tree – Plan (have goals and focus), Interest (provide valuable content), Niche (rich focused content), Expert (get credibility)
• Use Grammar and Spell Check – To paraphrase Dawn, a speaker at the event, “ee cummings could use grammar and spelling however he liked; he’s a literary genius and you are not.” Yeah, I got to get better at this

For multimedia files on what was presented at the June BMPR meeting, be sure to check out the June BMPR Wrap Up + Tips and Tricks.

I think that they presented some valuable information and I got to learn a lot.  While I have employed some of them (the analytics pieces), plan to use some in the future (especially CUP), there will be some I ignore (notably the “Niche” in PINE as I realize that I am not a professional and want to sometimes talk about more things than just food or food in San Antonio).

Next time they have a topic that interests you, be sure to go check them out!

Website: http://thebmpr.com