Friday, April 11, 2014

Chef Rick Bayless to Surrender the Chips and Salsa and Open a Modern Mexican Restaurant?

Chef Rick Bayless, feeling naked without the guacamole


During the Grand Cayman cookout back in January a rather giddy Rick Bayless was tight-lipped about a new concept he was working on which he called "a completely new concept that you've never seen before", as he told Eater(the original announcement was back in November of 2013), in the self-stimulating hyperbole we've come to expect from Bayless-- [there's]"virtually nothing like it in the United States." The Oklahoma native has been spending lots of time in the Modern Mexican restaurants of Mexico City and throughout the republic in the last couple of years, as opposed to the tourist friendly traditional restaurants he's favored in the past like El Bajio and El Cardenal


This will come as a shock to many Bayless devotees who for years have considered Baylesses' restaurants to be alta cocina (high cuisine), or Modern Mexican kitchens. This is due to the fact that few U.S. citizens have experienced Modern Mexican cuisine, including the ones who've traveled to Mexico City, preferring the mid-priced, commercial restaurants found in guide books like Contramar, Hacienda de Los Morales, or Cafe Tacuba. Bayless is exited about the advancements in Modern Mexican cuisine happening in Mexico right now, claiming that it "just emerged 5, 6, or 7 years ago"--once again, the anthropologist is way off--try about 18 years ago, Chef. Regardless, this will be the first real challenge for the most famous Chef cooking Mexican flavors in the U.S.



Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Food Truck Royalty to Headline the 1st Annual Ktown Night Market on April 18th-19th



Ever since the food truck craze of the years 2008-2010, the streets of L.A. have become a bit more calm and have fallen into a sustainable level of fancy food trucks. It’s clear that we love them and they are here to stay (we’re also glad that we no longer have a new food truck opening every week). Some of the veterans of the food truck wars will be serving up their signature dishes at the 1st Annual KTown Night Market alongside the winners of the first 3 seasons of the Great Food Truck Race on April 18th to 19th.


That’s right, the Great Food Truck Race champs, Grill ‘Em All (Season 1), The Lime Truck (Season 2), and KTown Night Market food truck curators, Seoul Sausage, will be bumper to bumper for the very first time.  They will be joined by old-timers—Coolhaus, India Jones, and the White Rabbit Truck, plus East LA Tacos, Fluff Ice, Jogasaki and Belly Bomz. Don’t see your favorite truck on the list?—well, you can vote for your truck to win the last spot at www.KTOWNnightmarket.com/thelasttruck


The KTown Night Market is free to the public with over 100 food and merchandise stands, and 40 food vendors representing the multi-ethnic cuisines of the Los Angeles and Orange counties.   There will be live music to celebrate the special occasion, and with Seoul Sausage in the driver’s seat, L.A.’s newest night market experience promises to deliver the flavor.



KTown Night Market, April 18th-19th, Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools. For more information go to www.KTOWNnightmarket.com