Pachamama's Crew has Worlds and Oceans of Fun

A group of hosts, servers, and cooks made the short trip to Kansas City to have some serious day-off fun.

And... New Summer Entrées.

Ladies and gentlemen, the stars of the show. (These aren't all the entrées; not pictured are Applewood Smoked Duck Breast, and Artichoke Crusted Clarks Farm Chicken Breast.)

Phyllo Wrapped Alaskan Halibut with arugula, serrano ham, and snap pea-marcona almond vinaigrette.




Coffee and Peppercorn Rubbed Beef Ribeye with gorgonzola and corn whipped potatoes, garden beans, and natural jus.




Farmers Market Vegetable Shepherd’s Pie with summer vegetable ragout, lemon-truffle whipped potatoes, and pastry.




Oaxaca Cheese Stuffed Thick Cut Pork Chop with crushed hominy, avocado, cabbage, radish, and chili rojo.



** As always, this photography is intended for educational, rather than artistic purposes!

Say hello to summer!

Our staff tasting JUST finished for the new menu. We'll post the starters now and the entrées tomorrow. (Plus a behind-the-scenes look at the meeting itself...).

Little Gem Wedge "BLT" with heirloom tomato, avocado, applewood-smoked bacon, and camobozola-buttermilk dressing.



Smoked Hawaiian Ono-Coconut-Tomato Salad with chilis, macadamia nuts, lime, grilled country bread, and coconut preserve.



Rock Shrimp and Mac & Cheese "Lollipops" with celery pesto and long pepper aioli.



Seared Hudson Valley Foie Gras with griddled johnny cake, maple, summer melon, smoked sea salt.



Sheep's Milk Cheese & Charred Corn Gnudi with local chanterelles, Moroccan-spiced blackberry brown butter.



And here's what it actually is like to be a server at Pachamama's -- tastings are fun, but they're also serious. Our servers read study guides, take notes, and listen to mini-tutorials from Chefs Ken and Brian to get to know our menu. (There's a written test over food and wine pairings in a week.) Study up, folks!

New Summer Dinner Menu on Thursday

A couple of sneak peeks from the new menu... These are Chef Ken Baker's and Chef Brian Strecker's notes from the staff study guide. (The staff has a tasting of all the dishes Thursday afternoon, just before dinner service, and a written test the following week.) We'll take pictures at the tasting and post them shortly after!

From Ken, who creates the starters:
Smoked Hawaiian Ono-Coconut-Tomato Salad
with chili, macadamia, lime, grilled country bread, and coconut preserve.

Ono is a Hawaiian mackerel -- a very fatty and flavorful fish that takes to smoke like a frog to water. Here, it is paired with coconut, toasted macadamia, lime, chili, basil, cilantro, and ginger. This is a dish of the South Pacific. Served in a rocks glass with some coconut preserves to spread on grilled bread with the salad.

From Brian, who creates the entrées:
Coffee and Peppercorn Rubbed Beef Ribeye
with gorgonzola and corn whipped potatoes, garden beans, and natural jus.

Bye Bye Tenderloin, Hello Flavor! Filet is good, but for true carnivores we need more fat. Here, we rub a 16-oz ribeye with a coffee and peppercorn rub before charring lightly on the grill. Sweet and salty components are folded into the potatoes. Various bean will come into play here as well like roma beans, green, yellow and purple wax beans plus more. They are blistered with a little bacon and onions just like grandma made and the dish is finished with a reduction of red wine and veal stock.

What's a shandy?

Our central topic of debate today. Some bartenders said a shandy was beer and ginger ale; others said beer and lemonade. (At least we agreed on the beer part.) But luckily, it's the year 2010, and cell phones can access the internet. So we quickly found out through wikipedia that a traditional UK shandy has carbonated lemonade, and shandygaff has ginger ale, and a German version uses carbonated lemonade as well, which they call a "Cyclist."

Why did we care so much? Well, right now we're serving up Free State Wheat State Golden for $2 a pint -- or, you can get a shandy made with it for $2. So when you come in to order a shandy, you can specify whether you want it with lemonade or ginger ale.

Or both. We tried it with both at the same time -- we're calling it "Pachamama's style" -- and it's worth a try at $2 a pop.

TGIF Wine Tasting: Loring Wine Company Pinot Noirs

Loring Wine Company is owned by Brian Loring, a self-proclaimed "Pinot Freak." He's a winemaker who carefully selects his grapes from fantastic vinyards in Oregon and California.

From his Web site: "My philosophy on making wine is that the fruit is EVERYTHING. What happens in the vineyard determines the quality of the wine - I can't make it better - I can only screw it up!"

Clearly, he makes serious wine without taking himself too seriously.

He'll be at the Pachamama's TGIF wine tasting on Friday, June 18 with his sister Kimberly. Come try five of his pinots, with paired appetizers, for $35 a person. Please call 785.841.0990 to make a reservation. You won't want to miss this experience!

Wakarusa Valley Farms: Mushrooms!

Wakarusa Valley Farm is a certified organic (since 1989!) local Lawrence farm that grows veggies and gourmet mushrooms. (You can get these goodies at the Downtown Farmer's Market, and at the Community Mercantile.)

We will sing the praises of the farm's mesclun salad mix another time. This post will glorify their beautiful, pale pink and yellow oyster mushrooms in a series of pictures. (We got in a big box of them yesterday.)


Looks like something in a coral reef, doesn't it?





*Please bear in mind that the person taking these photos is by no means a professional!