Tapino Locavore 5: The Hearth

Okay, first things first - what happened to Locavore 4: Cultivation? Well, it was two days again, EatFreshAZ sponsored it, and it was fantastic. And I didn't blog it, sorry, so here's a quick overview;

Excellent wines from Page Springs and Arizona Stronghold (I am always amazed at what can be done right here in our little state). Maynard James Keenan, owner of Page Springs, gave some really good information on his wines and the really funny story behind our second course wine, "Mule's Mistake." Apparantly they thought "Jackass Mistake" wouldn't go as well on the label! Basically, someone brought in some wine to blend and while they all enjoyed it, it simply wasn't turning out the way they expected. Then they discovered the wrong grape had been brought in by mistake. Ipso, "Mule's Mistake."

The food at Locavore 4 was very nicely done as well. After our "Amuse" (I honestly don't recall what it was), we had a chilled cactus gaspacho with Eurofresh cucumbers, tomatoes, and some nice crusty Queen Creek Olive bread. Then we dove into some Desert Sweet Shrimp and Kokopelli blue corn talames, with McClendon's shishito pepper and Fossil Creek goat cheese relleno. Next up was Pork Belly from The Arizona Meat Shop, glazed with prickly pear and on some of Maya's petite greens (PORK RULES!). Our last course was Visser Farms leg of lamb stuffed with Arizona dates, Tapino-grown herbs and some more veggies from Maya's Farm. Dessert was a Superstition Farms old fashioned ice cream float with home-made sassafras. Overall, a great meal - again.

So on to Locavore 5: The Hearth. Again, because of our belief in the concept, EatFreshAZ sponsored what was a single-night, sold-out event. Our hosts included not just the venerable Wendy Goldman and immutable Chef James Porter, but also the famous Chef Janos Wilder of Tucson. These two powerhouses really brought together some over the top food quality.

Add to that some more Page Springs wine - "Saigne," Arizona Stronghold wine - "Tazi" and "Nachise", the killer Pillsbury "Roan Red" (2006), and Dos Cabezas "El Norte," and we're talking a celebration truly fit to end the year.

Our "Amuse" was a local radish, served with some Superstition Farms cow's milk garlic cheese. The cheese was soft and fragrant, with quite identifiable garlic flavors.

Keeping in the vegetable vein, our "First Course" was a Singh Farms "Daybreak" salad, with heirloom tomatoes that were as rich as tomato sauce, queen creek olive slivers with enough flavor for a bottle of olives, and fresh day-picked greens (which Chef and company had picked that very day at Singh Farms, the poor guy!). On the side was a Fossil Creek goat cheese hunk that was in some crispy bread crumbs. With the fresh greens enough to bowl over my taste buds, the rest of the salad stood up and spoke to me. It did indeed make me think of daybreak! And I saved the goat cheese for last, as I'm such a big fan of Fossil Creek's product - and it was worth it! Creamy and heady, with a strong mouth finish, it was really great.

"Second Course" came out on a long, rectangular plate with two large squares of ravioli, covered in Superstition Springs butter and dotted all over with candied Green Valley pecans. Inside the raviolis was roasted acorn squash and kabosha squash (I think it's 'kabocha,' actually, which is sometimes called 'Japanese Pumpkin'). The nutiness of the butter, the creaminess of the pureed squash, and the sweetness of the candied pecans came together like a well-arranged musical piece. We weren't even to the meat yet and my mouth was singing.

"Third Course" - MEAT! Finally. And what a meat! This was deconstructed (their word) Meat Shop pork 'osso buco' unders some braised Swiss chard, served with thyme glazed petite carrots and tiny pickled green onions. The pork was smooth, with enough fat for flavor but not greasy or oily, and appeared to be in some sort of pastry shell. The bitterness of the chard held the pork flavors to a reasonable level, with the sweetness of the baby carrots doing nicely against the thyme glaze. I don't know about pickled because they were so small and still very firm, but the itty-bitty green onions were both fun to eat and absolutely bursting with onion flavor. Only the size was small!

"Fourth Course" and the beef has arrived. This time was Ash Creek Ranch beef, rubbed with piloncillo (bricks of unrefined Mexican brown can sugar), santa cruz chili, and local orange zest (and sprinkled, Janos informed us, with Mexican fossilized sea salt - weird!). Along side was a chili-like mixture of Native Seeds/SEARCH scarlet runner beans, chorizo, green chili mojo, saguaro blossom syrup (truly rare), and cholla buds. Check out the Native Seeds site on the link above for some more information on what that's doing. As for the saguaro blossom syrup, only the Native Americans are allowed to knock them off, then they boil them down in water until they get a syrup. We each only had a little bit on our plates, but apparantly it took several acres of blossoms just to get that. The beef, which was tender and sweet, was eaten with the bean, chorizo and cholla blossom mixture, and wat you ended up with in your mouth was savory, salty, spicy and sweet all at once. Go, Janos!

"Dessert." Need I go on? By this time I was stuffed, and yet ... warm Queen Creek Olive Oil and Snow Flake blue corn meal caked with Sphinx roasted dates, topped with Udder Delights vanilla ice cream and some native honey (Udder Delights being Superstition Farms). The blue corn cake tasted like regular cake, very sweet and soft, and the ice cream was thick and creamy, all tied together with native honey, it just tasted like local.

Another excellent meal, and the next one's tentatively set for February of 2009. But check with Tapino as they're doing a lot of stuff and have some really amazing things coming up next year involving local food, the local farms, and travel. Our thanks go to Tapino, Wendy, James Porter, Janos, and the whole kitchen crew as well as the wait staff for making this an event to remember and a real high point for ending the year with another fabulous local restaurant!