Mission 4: Dinner Party – Part II

Note: The 2010 scavenger hunt is over (a concluding post will come soon) and we got first place out of 121 teams! This is a series explaining the background and thinking of our missions of the SF Street Food Scavenger Hunt 2010!

Mission: It’s time to host a dinner party, but not just with YOUR friends, but with another team playing the game. You will have to hunt down a secret ingredient and make a dish with it to be shared with the other team at a dinner party in a location of your choice.

In a dinner party planned in less than 48 hours….

Secondly, what is the secret ingredient?

I immediately spammed my team with the riddle:
1. Currently in-season
2. Between 35 and 40 calories
3. The “unluckiest” colony.

And fortunately, Jeff T. knew the answer immediately. Peach.

Perfect. I already had planned a tomato and peach salad inspired by Mark Bittman’s 101 Simple Salads. But that seemed too simple. Perhaps something that represented our namesake? A deep fried twinkie (with my newly acquired fryer from my parents) certainly? With some kind of peach topping—grilled?

A healthy and unhealthy contrast? Yes!

I sent out an invite to the LMS team and my team.

To a sinking realization, the number of people attending from LMS was low. So low. The main blog owner was out of town. Unknowingly, that weekend was a special food event taking up most people’s time. I braced myself for the worst…and three hours before the dinner—I got a call that only one person could make it. Ok, that works. I rushed home and started the meal preparation. Then halfway through…no! He called to say that he wasn’t sure—he was tired—could we reschedule to say another weekend?

I understood that wariness of attending an event, super-exhausted. But no! This was the last weekend before the deadline. I could do a weekday, but the rest of my team couldn’t…and me rushing back by 7 pm to prepare a feast was almost impossible. Could you come for 10 minutes? I asked. Then I felt guilty as he was coming all the way from Berkeley. Whatever you want to do, but I promise you a feast and good times.

He did make it And it was a feast. And more than good times…it was incredible.

dinnerparty

Not only did I manage to get nearly my entire menu, but we managed not to bore out honored guest to death.

We had:

  • cheese plate
  • corn casserole
  • braised whole chicken
  • tomato and peach salad
  • gazpacho
  • guest provided bread
  • then for dessert…deep fried twinkies with grilled peachs
  • and the game…What else can we fry?!
  • The "inappropriate" Twinkie shot

    Notable moments:

  • Meeting us meek asians…is really not that intimidating
  • Or at least having Chris around makes everything easy, because he relates to everyone
  • No matter what we did, there’s no way to make a photo with twinkies and halved peaches NOT inappropriate
  • It was the first time that I actually finished cooking “on time” so that I could actually eat with people
  • My rice cooker from my parents does not work
  • If you put cream cheese on a plate, most people will ask about it, especially wondering if it’s a creamy version that they never had before.
  • Goat cheese fully packaged and sealed is still good more than a year later
  • Peaches are a great ingredient
  • Fried Coke is good
  • Grapes dipped into batter and fried is incredible
  • The same with maraschino cherries
  • And deep fried twinkies never cease to amaze everyone who touches it
  • A good question: do vegetarians eat twinkies?
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