Beer, Food, & Music! What else can you ask for?

With the new year its always great to shake things up a bit, and what better way to do it than with some of our favorite indulgences, beer, food, and music. The 7 course beer tasting party was a thrill and a pleasure to have all those of you who came over.

After getting ready all day our diet consisted of popcorn and whatever else we could get our spare hands on.

Waiting for the arrivals.

The setup this time was meant to be more interactive, casual, a party where you had home-cooked food with well-sourced high quality ingredients, diversity in beer styles, and great tunes that set the tone for the party from Dj Angel.

Kevin worked really hard on the menu design and it looked amazing!

1. Salt cod ravioli with a fish fumét paired with Telegraph White Ale
2. Chilpachol soup paired with Deschutes Winter Ale
3. Cochinita pibil tacos paired with Alpine Willy Ale
4. Vietnamese fried egg rolls paired with Rogue Morimoto Soba Ale
5. Shanghainese Berkshire pork belly paired with Jolly Pumpkin Maracaibo Brown Ale
6. Brillat Savarin, home-made biscotti, blood orange & pomegranate compote paired with Dogfish Head Midas Touch
7. Chocolate Earl Grey tartlets & lemon mascarpone paired with Stone Vertical Epic 9.9.9

A little Genmai Cha before the madness begins.

Jeff from Ballast Point whom always supports our events with beer. This time we had a 15g of Calico and the crowd pleaser, Sculpin IPA. I asked Farra at around 7 for a pint of it and she came back saying "its gone", of course!

Cochinita pibil's steam coming out. Cochinita pibil is usually cooked underground, but due to not wanting to dig a hole in my backyard I opted for the more conventional aproach, the oven.

Beer geeks in deep conversation. Hey did you try the Maracaibo brown ale? I know huh, its amazing. Rock on!

One of my favorite things of the night was seeing people with their forks & spoons in their shirt pockets or jean pockets. Its like the skull and bones of food.

Vietnamese fried egg roll wrapped around red leaf lettuce.

Shanghainese style Berkshire pork belly with home-made Napa cabbage kimchee.

Since we are sooooo sophisticated, why not implement the French cheese course before dessert?

Chocolate Earl Grey tartlets in their beauty.

Ethan, the certified master pourer.

Thanks to DJ Angel for complimenting the mood with his hand picked songs. We had everything from Sergio Mendes, to psychedlic Chilean music, to Santana, to Rick James, and a plethora of lounge music.

Our lovely ladies.

Dance party, well a mini mini one that is.

Obviously this is not a food pic, but gotta love the color scheme. Hmm, who could that be?

Thanks to everyone for your ongoing support. It is a true honor and pleasure for us to be able to host you and create an intimate and unique La Mesita experience. Many thanks to Jeff from Ballast Point, DJ Angel, Ethan, Laurel our impromptu photographer, and to our La Mesita group. The next one will be a different one of its kind, brunch anyone?

Special thanks to Omar at "The Best Damned Beer Shop". For those of you who drive up to Holiday Wine Cellar in Escondido for those hard to find bottles, drive no more. Check these guys out in downtown and tell them we sent you.

Prepping; the labour of love.

The week leading up to the beer dinners is all about planning and prepping. This time around we had a 7 course beer tasting planned, but for some reason it was not as time consuming as we had imagined. We all did our parts and with strategic planning and the right sourcing things went very smoothly. There were still all those late nights and all day prepping involved, but that goes without saying. Here's a glimpse of it.

Beautiful organic plum tomatoes ready to be broiled for one of the many ingredients in the chilpachol soup.

Our beloved cazuela, which always comes in handy. Here is the base to the chilpachol, which includes roasted tomatoes, onions, jalapeños, chipotle, garlic, peppercorns, cinnamon sticks, and toasted tortillas.

Halibut for the fish fumét that would eventually end up bathing the top of the salt cod ravioli. Thanks to Tommy at Catalina Seafood whom happily let us go in and grab what we needed. We called so many restaurants and fish purveyors without luck. They either didn't have any fish bones or wanted to sell them to us at a crazy price.

Towels and silverware awaiting the moment they can savor the food.

Chopping away at the chocolate for the earl grey tartlets.

Eden farms organic Berkshire pork belly in cubes, or as Kevin called it "porkhenge"!

Jackie's station as she rolled up the Vietnamese egg rolls.

Handmade chocolate snap cookie crust. Needless to say much of the crust was being munched on as these pictures were being taken.

Let the kneading begin. The girls kneaded the pasta for the ravioli. Thank you!!!

Accurately hand-making ravioli and stuffing it with the salt cod.

Pasta for days. At this point we were all exhausted and a little after 1:30 am we ended up finishing the 120 raviolis and the rest of the prep. We had a little next day planning session and off to bed we went.

long time, no see

LA MESITA RETURNS IN 2010

kickin' it off with a relaxed tasting...

in keeping with a mellow january, we are offering more tastings in a

mix n' mingle setting

featuring DJ Angel spinning records

7 taste beer pairing

salt cod ravioli in a fish consommé
paired with Telegraph White Ale

chilpachol soup
paired with Deschutes Jubelale White Ale

taco de cochinita pibil
paired with Alpine Brewing Co. Willy Ale

vietnamese egg roll
paired with Rogue Morimoto Soba Ale

red cooked organic berkshire pork belly
paired with Jolly Pumpkin Maracaibo brown ale

brillat savarin cheese with blood orange & pomegranate compote
paired with Dogfish Head Midas Touch

Chocolate Earl Grey Tartlets
paired with Stone Vertical Epic 9.9.9

January 24, 4pm

Winter Solstice 2009

I know, I know, I'm a little late on this post but I have been a bit busy these days. Anyways, every year Farra and I host a winter solstice party to celebrate the return of the sun. This is our time to give back to a year of great friendship and look toward a brighter year to come. As some of you may know every year there is a theme and this year we went with the Old West / La Revolucion Mexicana. It was a true pleasure having all of you over to our home and we look forward to the next one where the theme will be.......PROM!

Que paso caballero? Y su caballo?

The house señorita ready to defend her home.

Some of the many home baked treats.

Another picture of the treats just to tease those of you who couldn't make it.

Old West meets Old Settler.

Another one for the road. Who knows how long before the next saloon.

Howdy sir. Yes, I am a barber and very meticulous.

This is what happened when we ran out of the 2008 Ballast Point Barrel-Aged Sea Monster Stout.

Planning their next adventure while rallying up some dishes.

The local sheriff and his wife. Pardon my stare sir.

Yes, even back then there was a local "ladies man".

Look at those beautiful blond locks and handsome eyes.

Ladies relaxing back with some bourbon on the rocks, while the men wrangle up some more beer.

This man was mad all night long. Don't know why?

The rest of the folks chatting it up and discussing some local gossip.

Smiles were seen all over peoples faces all night. Could you ask for a better group of friends?

Where is that darn skunk smell coming from. Lemme have a crack at it.

A slice of the many boots that were knockin' that night.

Thanks to everyone for such a memorable evening. We are thankful for your friendship, love and support in all of La Mesita's adventures. See you soon.