Pechluck's Food Adventures

Best Beer Visits Outside Denver

November 10, 2015 by Pechluck 2 Comments

For half a day while on my GABF Beercation (which I recapped my GABF session here, and another day we visited just Denver city brewers here with Beer Tasting in Denver: Great Divide, Crooked Stave, First Draft), we took a beer visits outside Denver excursion. We drove from Denver to the Longmont area to visit two brewery tasting rooms, and then on the way back went to Boulder area for a brewery to have lunch and more beer. Our stops for beer visits outside Denver were

Left Hand Brewing

Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room in Longmont
Left Hand Brewing is best known for their Milk Stout, which is a creamy (especially here from their taps) chocolate coffee beer flavors. They have been around for quite a while – more than 20 years as they started in 1993.
Left Hand Brewing, a delicious glass of their Milk Stout

What I also know them for is I think being one of the most thoughtfully designed beer tasting rooms I’ve ever visited. Their tasting room includes a patio area that faces out into their parking lot near the food trucks (Left Hand does not offer food but the food trucks too) and if you face the right way and it’s clear, a glimpse perhaps of the Rockies.
Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room offers no food, but there are food carts available outside

There is also a small area by that patio showcasing local artwork, a small merchandise store, and then it opens up into a long main bar that proudly displays certificates of various bartenders who have gotten beer cicerone status and has two areas to pull taps, plus that’s where the cask conditioned beers are in the back of the main bar. The TV displays upcoming events, varying from their monthly free yoga session to celebrating/promoting women in beer with Ales 4 FemAles.
Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room Cask Conditioned Taps at Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room

Go past the main bar and find another backroom with more taps and seats by a stage area,
Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room - additional taps in the back

There is a lovely back outdoor patio that also looks out into some cornhole too.
Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room cornhole outside within the hand fence

I love the detail of the “handy” custom fence, as well as the left hand in other design motifs throughout the tasting room. It really says something to me that a brewery puts this much attention to detail to their environment.
Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room cornhole outside within the hand fence

When you get a flight of beer, they thoughtfully provide laminated cards to help mark which beer is which as well as provide descriptions.
Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room tasting trays comes with small laminated cards to help you track the beers you have selected

You can order sampler sizes in a flight of 4 or individually.
Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room tasting trays comes with small laminated cards to help you track the beers you have selected

In the restroom, there is a little handle so you can open the bathroom door with your foot instead of having to use a dirty door handle. I like the way they still celebrate beer even in their bathroom stalls with their stalls showcasing grains.
Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room - restrooms

At only a 45 minute drive from Denver, Left Hand is definitely worth a visit, and while you’re out here and making your way back to Denver, there are 2 other stops I recommend…
Left Hand Brewing Tasting Room sampler

Oskar Blues

At only a 10 minute drive away from Left Hand, it makes sense that if you’re out here, you might as well visit Oskar Blues Brewery. There are two possible places to visit- either their restaurant/foodery locations, which offers beer and food (Home Made Liquids and Solids offers Cajun and Creole food as well as burgers, bbq, and pizzas, while the other Longmont location of CyclHops focuses on a celebration of bicycling as well as tacos and tequila with their beer, and third foodery CHUBurger specializes in burgers and their beer) or you can go to the brewery and canning location and tasting room, the Tasty Weasel.

We went to the Tasty Weasel as we were saving lunch to be at our next stop. All these locations have their attitude of laid back casual.
Oskar Blues Tasting Room the Tasty Weasel

At the Tasty Weasel, as soon as you walk in to your left you can watch their can production, and some skeeball.
Oskar Blues Tasting Room the Tasty Weasel - a small room on the left gives you a glimpse of the canning production plus skeeball and seating for drinking your beer

Meanwhile, the main long bar area with lots of tables and huge patio area (you can see a glimpse behind the sampler tray) expresses their attitude of completely laid back, like a mix between industrial hard working brewery and canning facility but the bro-ness fun of a friendly frat house. Notice the tons of stickers in support of their fellow brewery friends, and the creepy mannequin in the window looking into their tanks.
Oskar Blues, The Tasty Weasel Tap Room A look inside the patio and a sampling tray at Oskar Blues The Tasty Weasel

Make sure you check not just beers listed on the main board, but the smaller Specialty Beers board on the right side.
Oskar Blues, The Tasty Weasel Tap Room

You will also see that they are really proud to totally use cans instead of bottles – even their tap handles proudly showcase this.
Oskar blues tap handle at the Tasty Weasel Tap Room

As always, I suggest getting tasters of beer in order to sample the most. You will also notice they have big bins of peanuts for you to enjoy for free as you drink their beer. My favorite here is the Ten Fidy, with second place going to Old Chub.
Oskar Blues Tasting Room the Tasty Weasel Ten Fidy by Oskar Blues Brewery

Tasty Weasel doesn’t serve any food themselves, though they will often have a tent from a food vendor onsite grilling up sausages for instance – if you want food with your Oskar Blues beer visit one of their foodery locations as Tasty Weasel is focused more on being a tasting room.

Avery Brewing

With 30 some taps, Avery Brewing has the biggest and nicest facilities of the 3 beer visits outside Denver.
Avery Brewing in Boulder Avery Brewing Restaurant upstairs

They just opened a new facility earlier this year which now features two giant tasting rooms – one on the first floor outside where you can sit on the grass and patio furniture enjoying the outside. It has lost some of the coziness of the smaller original brewpub all wood location, but greatly expanded the space in the new grander warehouse-like building.
Avery Brewing downstairs bar and patio

Or go upstairs past the merchandise store to where there is a full fledged brewpub restaurant with food created with matching their beers in mind.
Avery Brewing in Boulder Avery Brewing Restaurant upstairs

Their offerings of beer are a large variety from German style to Belgians to sours and tarts with Brett or aged in barrels that include for instance
Avery Brewing beer and their beer menu

Seducer – a sessionalbe apple-beer hybrid
Liliko’i Kepolo – a witbier with tropical passionfruit
10lb Strawberry Sour – a Belgian style wit with 10 pounds of fresh strawberries per keg and then soured in neutral oak barrels
White Rascal Belgian Style White Ale – unfiltered and spiced with coriander and Curacao orange peel
San Juan Sour – Ross and Rachel’s wedding beer inspired after their favorite Efrain’s cocktail the “Pink Cadillac Margarita”
Nora – an intensely sour pumpkin ale aged for 9 months in neutral wine barrels
III Dolia – a sour blend aged in a combination of Maderia, Cabernet Sauvignon and Carcavelos barrels which are the rarest and most expensive barrels Avery has very filled

Avery Brewing in Boulder

Some of the food we enjoyed for our lunch included

Isabelle Farm Tomato Salad with Heirloom and Sungold Tomatoes, Munson Farm Corn, avocado, farm greens, croutons, manchego and shallot vin
Smothered Cheese Curds and Potatoes, with cheese curds, spiced fingerlings, and andouille gravy
Cheeseburger with ground chuck, smoked gouda, sherry greens, pickles, stout onions, and choice of a side (here you see pork belly green beans
Sloppy Seitan with barbecue seitan, pickled vegetables on a sesame bun with a choice of side (here spiced fingerlings)

Avery Brewing menu for September 22-27 Avery Brewing Isabelle Farm Tomato Salad with Heirloom and Sungold Tomatoes, Munson Farm Corn, avocado, farm greens, croutons, manchego and shallot vin Avery Brewing Smothered Cheese Curds and Potatoes, with cheese curds, spiced fingerlings, and andouille gravy Avery Brewing Cheeseburger with ground chuck, smoked gouda, sherry greens, pickles, stout onions, and choice of a side (here you see pork belly green beans Avery Brewing Sloppy Seitan with barbecue seitan, pickled vegetables on a sesame bun with a choice of side (here spiced fingerlings)

Of all the breweries in Denver we visited, this was my favorite. I would call this a must visit every time I’m in the area, even on revisits.

Which of these three breweries style of tasting room appeals the most to you and why?

I’ll still pick Portland as the winningest beercation city in the US though. 🙂

Visiting Denver for Beer Vacation / Beercation and GABF in September 2015

My recap of GABF 2015 with tips and photos
Beer Tasting in Denver: Great Divide, Crooked Stave, First Draft
Best Beer Visits Outside Denver
Denver Beer Vacation: Celebrate GABF outside of GABF

Filed Under: Beer Review, Food and Drink, Travel Tagged With: #travel, #traveltuesday, Avery Beer, Avery Brewing, beer, beer taster tray, beer tasting room, beer travel, Beer Vacation, Beercation, Colorado beer, Craft Beer, Denver beer, Left Hand Brewing, Longmont breweries, Longmont CO, Longmont Colorado, Oskar Blues, taster tray, Tasty Weasel, The Tasty Weasel, Travel Tuesday

A look at Marmo Deli & Bar

November 9, 2015 by Pechluck 7 Comments

Update: Marmo has closed.

There are many delicious options at Marmo Deli & Bar but I’ll cut to the chase and tell you my top favorite meal there.

First, I get the Frittata Sandwich with five herb frittata, housemade foccacia, arugula, radicchio, endive, lemon vin, aioli, pecorino. It brings together their light and airy frittata (which you can also get on it’s own) with their buttery soft homemade foccacia. I will not tell you how often I have inhaled this sandwich. You can also just get the frittata with salad and cut out the carbs, but I would not personally give up that foccacia. This is currently my favorite egg sandwich in town that isn’t a breakfast sandwich.
Frittata Sandwich with five herb frittata, housemade foccacia, arugula, radicchio, endive, lemon vin, aioli, pecorino Marmo Deli & Bar Frittata Sandwich with five herb frittata, housemade foccacia, arugula, radicchio, endive, lemon vin, aioli, pecorino

To wash it down I order the housemade Marmo limoncello.

The cocktail the Marmo Cup during the summer with Campari, basil, lemon, strawberry, cucumber and ginger beer goes down so easily. Many times it has been much needed refreshment after I get off the Max all the way from Hillsboro to downtown. The San Remo which is a regular thorugh the seasons offers Cynar, Marmo Limoncello, mint, prosecco is also a classic.
Marmo Cup with Campari, basil, lemon, strawberry, cucumber and ginger beer Marmo PDX's San Remo with Cynar, Marmo Limoncello, mint, prosecco

The inside of Marmo is small and clean, a mix of black and white and marble. Despite the name of deli, it is much more sophisticated inside than the expected glass counters of meats. It’s more of an Italian cafe and bar really.
Marmo Deli & Bar, exterior Marmo Deli & Bar, interior Marmo Deli & Bar, inside center is the bar

Other delicious options on the menu include Pesto Deviled Eggs and a Charcuterie Plate with cured meats, parm, pickeld veg, baguette if you are looking more for a snacks rather than a meal.
Charcuterie Plate with cured meats, parm, pickeld veg, baguette

On the more substantial side then these small snack items is the Strozapretti Pasta Salad with fresh squid ink pasta (sourced from Rick Gencarelli’s Grassa), cured salmon, dill crème fraîche, cucumber, capers, and bread crumbs for a lunch that fills you up but won’t make you overfull so that you’re are sleepy when you go back to work.
Marmo PDX's Strozapretti Pasta Salad with fresh squid ink pasta, cured salmon, dill crème fraîche, cucumber, capers, bread crumbs

For more comfort, go with a warm small plate like this Mac ‘N Cheese with fontina, ricotta, asiagio, parmesan, bread crumbs and candied bacon on top.
Marmo PDX small plate of Mac 'N Cheese with fontina, ricotta, asiagio, parmesan, bread crumbs and candied bacon

And then, there’s the very filling (you could order one so split between 2 people… or have half for lunch and half ford inner and get a side to enjoy it with, which is my play) Italian Sub with Mortadella, finocchiona, spicy coppa, shredded romaine, provolone, pepperoncini, red onion, oregano, aioli, Italian vin, all on a roll.
Marmo PDX sandwich of Italian Sub with Mortadella, finocchiona, spicy coppa, shredded romaine, provolone, pepperoncini, red onion, oregano, aioli, Italian vin, all on a roll

Their happy hour offers 3-6:30 and offers $1 all food items and $4 beers. With wine, you can get whole or half bottles during happy hour are priced at $7 glass $21 carafe.

Have you been to Marmo? Have you had a frittata sandwich on foccacia before? And why is this not a more popular sandwich – it’s much tastier than egg salad!

Filed Under: Cocktails, Food and Drink, Restaurant Review Tagged With: Charcuterie plate, deviled eggs with pesto, Five Herb Frittata, Frittata sandwich, housemade foccacia, housemade limoncello, Italian Sub, limoncello, Mac 'N Cheese with candied bacon, Marmo, Marmo Cup, Marmo Deli + Bar, Marmo Foccacia, Marmo Italian Sub, Marmo Limoncello, Marmo pasta, Marmo PDX, Marmo sandwich, pesto deviled eggs, Strozapretti Pasta Salad with fresh squid ink pasta

Beaujolais Nouveau 2015 Fête and Auction at the Heathman

November 5, 2015 by Pechluck 6 Comments

Every year, the third Friday in November at midnight in France kicks off the nationwide Beaujolais Nouveau festival. Beaujolais Nouveau specifically is a young wine created from Gamay grapes freshly harvested by hand in the Beaujolais area of Bourgogne (also known as Burgundy) and bottled 6-8 weeks after the harvest after carbonic maceration, or whole berry fermentation.

This means the wines don’t have time to absorb tannins, and has a lot of fruit flavors. It is served chilled almost like a white wine, but has the fruit of the red wine – a perfect offering of both the worlds of red and and white.

"Lauretta
St Honore as part of the Nouveau Division Crawl 2014 presented some of their Tarte Flambées with Beujolais Nouveau from the famous Georges Du Boeuf. Lauretta Jeans presented Mini brownies and Chiroubles Beujolais. This year the 2015 crawl is on Thursday November 19.

I don’t really know exactly why it’s regulated by the French government that the wine cannot be released until the third Friday in November. I don’t know why that the release of the wine is celebrated so boisterously with wine parties including the wine, food, and sometimes even fireworks. There are races from barrel to bottle to then distribute the wine across the land (allegedly including transportation items such as elephant, hot air balloon, and Concorde jet) and enjoy the wine upon arrival since Beaujolais is meant for immediate drinking.

What I do know is that this race also includes across the ocean, including this year’s Beaujolais Nouveau 2015 wines being freshly imported from France to Portland, and for example to Portland’s Fête Beaujolais Nouveau.
This year their will be the 14th year of the West Coast's largest Beaujolais Nouveau festival at the Heathman

What I do know is that the West Coast’s largest Beaujolais Nouveau festival (with 450-500 guests each year) has been held every year at the Heathman Restaurant & Bar in Portland. This year their will be the 14th year for their Fête Beaujolais Nouveau, presented by The French-American Chamber of Commerce and the Alliance Française de Portland.

The event this year occurs on Friday, November 20, 2015, at 6 PM. Tickets include access to newly imported Beaujolais Nouveau 2015 wines as well as wines and spirits more locally sourced from Oregon, Washington and California.
West Coast's largest Beaujolais Nouveau festival at the Heathman in Portland 2014. Photos courtesy of Alliance Française de Portland, taken by photographer Katharine Kimball
West Coast’s largest Beaujolais Nouveau festival at the Heathman in Portland 2014. Photos courtesy of Alliance Française de Portland, taken by photographer Katharine Kimball.

A French-themed food buffet that covers the entire Mezzanine and Tea Court levels of the Heathman hotel with a menu prepared by Executive Chef Michael Stanton and features live cooking stations with chef demos (see the Beaujolais Nouveau 2015 Menu here).
Guests and Foie Gras, West Coast's largest Beaujolais Nouveau festival, held at the Heathman in Portland. Photos courtesy of Alliance Française de Portland, taken by Heather Heaton Guests and Seafood, West Coast's largest Beaujolais Nouveau festival, held at the Heathman in Portland. Photos courtesy of Alliance Française de Portland, taken by Heather Heaton
Guests and Foie Gras, and Guests and Seafood, at the Beaujolais Nouveau festival at the Heathman in Portland 2014. Photos courtesy of Alliance Française de Portland, taken by photographer Heather Heaton.

The classy live entertainment will include Portland’s Heather Keizur, a jazz vocalist who sings in French and English, followed by the Bobby Torres Band presenting Latin jazz.

Ticket options include

standard guest tickets at $70 with no seating (guests float among bistro and cocktail tables)
a limited number of Young Professionals tickets at $60 (Young Professionals apparently are between the ages of 21 and 35)
~~Sold Out~~ ~~Gold reserved seats~~ at tables in the Opus room at in the Mezzazine level
~~Sold Out~~ ~~VIP tables with reserved seats~~ for parties of eight in the Library Mezzanine space
The event sells out every year, so if you want to go buy your tickets ahead of time.

What I do know is that on this day of the third Friday of November, as you enjoy a glass or bottle of Beaujolais, you know that around the world, there are many many others where this same enjoyment of Beaujolais is occurring.

West Coast's largest Beaujolais Nouveau festival at the Heathman in Portland 2014. Photos courtesy of Alliance Française de Portland, taken by photographer Katharine Kimball
West Coast’s largest Beaujolais Nouveau festival at the Heathman in Portland 2014. Photos courtesy of Alliance Française de Portland, taken by photographer Katharine Kimball.

Would you like to join in on the worldwide French wine party for Beaujolais Nouveau 2015? It’s on my calendar, and feel free to invite your friends with the Beaujolais Nouveau Fête and Auction 2015 Facebook event!

Disclosure: I am attending the Fête Beaujolais Nouveau on a media pass, but I was not compensated or asked to write this post. I will always provide my honest opinion and assessment of all products and experiences I may be given. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own.

Filed Under: Festival Event, Food and Drink, Sponsored Post, Wine Tagged With: #winewednesday, Beaujolais Nouveau 2015, Beaujolais Nouveau 2015 PDX, Beaujolais Nouveau 2015 Portland, Beaujolais Nouveau festival, Beaujolais Nouveau Fête and Auction, Bobby Torres Band, Fête Beaujolais Nouveau, Heathman Restaurant & Bar, Jazz Vocalist Heather Keizur, wine, wine festival, wine party, Wine Wednesday

Beer Tasting in Denver: Great Divide, Crooked Stave, First Draft

November 3, 2015 by Pechluck 11 Comments

Today for Travel Tuesday I take you back to my September trip to Denver, Colorado when I was there for for GABF – the Great American Beer Festival. We were there for several days, but only attended one session/day of GABF (I recapped that here). On other days, we explored the rest of the beer scene in Denver. This post will focus on my favorite beer stops within the Denver city limits itself – I will cover our day trip to Boulder and Longmont in another, separate post. These 3 in this post are all within 1 mile of each other.

Denver Brewery: Great Divide

Great Divide Brewing has two locations. We visited both. Their original location is the Ballpark: Brewery & Tap Room with 16 taps of seasonal and year-round brews.
Great Divide, downtown location

Though the Ballpark taproom is small, the downtown location near Coors Field can’t be beat and it’s small size makes it more intimate and cozy. Right by the bar you can see through the doors to the original beer production area.
Great Divide Tap Room sign outside the location downtown by the baseball field

I highly recommend getting samplers of everything. Their menu offers some suggestions for flights of beer to create.
Great Divide Tasting Room, their year round beers and suggested sample flights

In addition to the smaller sample size allowing you to taste all their beers, 100% of the proceeds from sample pours are donated to local nonprofits. During our visit, the nonprofits benefiting included the Denver Public Library and Urban Peak (servicing homeless youth).
Sample beer at Great Divide Tasting Room

Their new location also open is the RiNo: Barrel Bar & Packaging Wonderland located in the River North aka RiNo neighborhood of Denver and includes the year-round as well as seasonal, Barrel Aged, and limited release offerings. They also offer Crowlers here.
Great Divide Crowlers at the RiNo location

This location is easier to fit groups and has a more hip vibe to it than the more casual ballpark tasting room.
Great Divide RiNo: Barrel Bar & Packaging Wonderland

You are apt to a bit more “Yeti sighting” here in RiNo than the Ballpark location.
Great Divide Brewing tasting room in RiNo

Both locations offer brewery tours.
Great Divide RiNo: Barrel Bar & Packaging Wonderland

Both locations do not offer food, but food trucks can usually be found outside to get a little nourishment. The food truck will vary based on the day. During my visit my friends and I shared a pizza from Basic Kneads Pizza at the Ballpark location, offering wood-fired pizza from their food truck. You can see the flames and them hand tossing the dough to order.
Basic Kneads Pizza, offering wood-fired pizza from their food truck

The 16″ Wise Guy Pizza with Olive Oil, Mozzarella, Sausage, Roasted Onions, and Fresh Rosemary pizza was incredibly delicious and really went well with the beer. At the RiNo location, during our visit a food truck called Amazeballs specializing in baked ball items (chicken balls, beef and ricotta balls, eggplant feta balls, etc) was outside.
Basic Kneads pizza, the 16

Denver Brewery: Crooked Stave

First off, I’ll tell you upfront now that Crooked Stave Artisan Beer Project is a brewery that specializes in beers aged in brett and sour beers. Located in a building called The Source, the tasting room is one of multiple food and drink artisan businesses including cheese, wine, and located in the shared market space inside this renovated brick warehouse in Denver’s River North District. The Source is located only a block down the street from Great Divide’s RiNo tasting room.
Denver's RiNo The Source building
This taproom offers 20 some taps of their beers that are bravely experimental and unapologetic in their funkyness and tartness (not all are sour, a few can be subtle Belgian styles as well).
Crooked Stave tasting room, located in Denver's RiNo in The Source building

For instance, we tried a special one off collaboration with Hawkshead Brewery in the UK, a Key Lime Tau (2π) which is mixed fermentation ale aged in oak with lactose, fresh lime peel and fresh lemongrass, which I loved. Another beer was Colorado Wild Sage, an artisanal saison with sage.
Crooked

Another beer were various versions of Sin Frontera, including bourbon barrel, cerveza aged in sherry barrels, aged in whiskey barrels with cherries – it was fun tasting the flight and trying to detect/recall which one is which one.
Sin Frontera from Crooked Stave Brewing

Again, I recommend getting sample pours so you can try many. The Crooked Stave tasting room doesn’t serve food, but you can easily wander a few yards outside to its neighbors within The Source building for a bite.
Samplers of Crooked Stave Brett and sour beers

Denver Pour Your Own Adventure: First Draft

Located only a mile away from RiNo and Crooked Stave’s tasting room, First Draft is a unique beer bar. You see, here you can pour your own beer – and you only have to pay by the ounce.
First Draft in Denver, Colorado

When you first enter, you are asked to show ID and also a credit card to hold your charges. This then nets you a special wristband.
First Draft in Denver, Colorado you put down a credit card and get a wristband in order to track your pours at this pour your own and pay only by the ounce beer bar

You pick the kind of glass you would like to use.
First Draft in Denver, Colorado - select your own glassware as you see fit

You can then walk up to any of the 40 some taps (mostly beer, but also some are ciders or wine) and tap your wristband to the screen of any tap activate the green light that means you can now pour.
"At First Draft in Denver, Colorado

Then you pour however much you desire- be it a full glass, half a glass, even just a few ounces of sample. I poured just a few ounces of several beers that were more on the expensive side, like The Bruery Smoking Wood (usually found only in bottles, and is a delicious Imperial Smoked Porter at 10% ABV) at $1 per ounce as well as normal priced side like Bell’s Brewery Coffee Moustache at $0.60 per ounce.
Pour however little or much beer you'd like for yourself at First Draft in Denver, Colorado

After you finish your pour, you are given a readout of how much you poured and your current total. Before you pour, you can also touch the screen to get more details on the beer before you select it beyond the initial brewery name, name of beer, type of beer style, ABV, IBU, and cost that is displayed by default on the screen for each tap.
First Draft in Denver, Colorado

The high ceilings of the main room, a patio outside, as well as a balcony area seating overlooking the tap stations make the beer bar seem airy and never too packed even though there may be quite a gathering of people reading the taps depending on when groups enter.

They do serve a few snacks of food including cheese plates, charcuterie plates, and snacky things such as grilled shishitos, pretzels, fries, fritters, as well as more substantial sandwiches such as burgers, fried chicken sandwiches, brisket grilled cheese, or churros. One of the best ideas they have is you can get a little ice cream in a glass that you can then pour your beer over for your own craft beer float!
Pour however little or much beer you'd like for yourself at First Draft in Denver, Colorado

So for a unique experience in beer travel and beer drinking, and the chance to try a lot of beers for a super affordable price as long as you carefully control your pours, I definitely recommend First Draft!
Pour however little or much beer you'd like for yourself at First Draft in Denver, Colorado

Have you been beer tasting in Denver and visited any of these beer locations? What beer tasting rooms in Denver have you visited? Have you been to the RiNo area of Denver? What do you think of First Draft’s concept (it wouldn’t fly in Oregon because of OLCC regulations sadly)?

I’ll still pick Portland as the winningest beercation city in the US though. 🙂

Visiting Denver for Beer Vacation / Beercation and GABF in September 2015

My recap of GABF 2015 with tips and photos
Beer Tasting in Denver: Great Divide, Crooked Stave, First Draft
Best Beer Visits Outside Denver
Denver Beer Vacation: Celebrate GABF outside of GABF

Filed Under: Beer Review, Festival Event, Food and Drink, Travel Tagged With: #traveltuesday, Basic Kneads pizza, beer adventure, beer travel, Beer Vacation, Beercation, Colorado, Colorado beer, Crooked Stave, Denver beer, Denver beer sightseeing, Denver brewery, First Draft Beer Bar, First Draft in Denver, Great Divide Brewing, pour your own beer, sour beer, sour brewery, Travel Tuesday, Wise Guy Pizza

Food Should Taste Good chips with Mexican Street Corn Dip recipe

November 2, 2015 by Pechluck 7 Comments

I had the opportunity to attend a Food Should Taste Good event in late summer. I’m familiar with the Food Should Taste Good chips, as I have often grabbed a bag for gatherings at my house because I know they are tasty and are certified gluten free and kosher and non-GMO.

Their Multi-grain tortilla chips, with stone ground corn, brown rice flour, flax seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, and quinoa are all natural, low sodium, cholesterol free, and go to with a wide variety of cheeses or meats and I like their slightly nutty flavor.

Thanks to this event, I was also able to sample many new to me flavors, and was introduced to more sophisticated ways to serve these healthy and good for you snacks. Food Should Taste Good partnered with The Eastburn as well as blog Manmade DIY who pointed out other great products to upgrade your bbq.
Grilled Portobello with Mango Salsa by Eastburn to accompany Food Should Taste Good The Works! Tortilla chips Fried Goat Cheese and Mango Fritters by Eastburn to accompany Food Should Taste Good Blue Corn chips, and Blueberry Avocado Salmon Mousse and also Grilled Portobello with Mango Salsa accompany Food Should Taste Good The Works! Tortilla chips

For instance, consider

Blueberry Avocado Salmon Mousse to accompany Food Should Taste Good The Works! Tortilla chips. The Works! has includes poppy seeds, caraway seeds, onion and garlic remiscent of an everything bagel.
For a vegan pairing, there was a Grilled Portobello with Mango Salsa that went with those same The Works! Tortilla chips
A favorite for many of us were the Fried Goat Cheese and Mango Fritters served with the Food Should Taste Good Blue Corn chips
I loved the visual presentation of the Avocado and Pear Salad topped with Sliced Radish on the Blue Corn chips
Another hit were the Fire Roasted Tomato and Poblano Dip with Grilled Shrimp on Multigrain Chips

However, there’s possibilities beyond chips with toppings as appetizers. They can be part of the main meal too, such as

Roasted Grape and Brie Grilled Cheese with Strawberry Apple Dip served with Multigrain Chips
Sliders served with a side of Sweet Potato Chips: either go carnivore with Beef Sliders with Pluot, Goat Cheese, and Fire Roasted Peppers or vegan with BBQ Tofu Slider with Fig Compote!

I had never visited the website before, and had no idea they had a mouthwatering Crunch Feed and a Recipes area with all sorts of pairing and recipe suggestions for healthy yet fun snacks and party food.

I was first drawn to this recipe for a Mexican Street Corn Dip. With its use of corn it is perfect for late summer and fall entertaining.

Mexican Street Corn Dip Recipe

Mexican Street Corn Dip recipe served with Food Should Taste Good Blue Corn, all natural, gluten free, and non GMO

I made a few adjustments in that I wanted to make it a little healthier by using olive oil instead of butter and made sure to really brown my corn. Then I turned up the heat by using Thai Chili peppers and stronger chili seasoning. The recipe is originally by Justine of Cooking and Beer, courtesy of the Food Should Taste Good website.
Ingredients:

8 ounces of softened tofu or light cream cheese
3 tablespoons olive oil mayonnaise
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon of chipotle chili pepper (plus extra for garnish)
salt and black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons of olive oil
3 cups corn kernels, either cut from the cob or thawed if previously frozen
3 Thai chili peppers, finely chopped (or use 1-2 jalapenos)
3 sliced green onions (2 in the dip, and 1 for garnish)
1/2 cup cotija cheese (plus extra for garnish)
1 bag of Food Should Taste Good Blue Corn tortilla chips

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, add the 8 ounces of softened cream cheese, 3 tablespoons mayo, 1 teaspoon of cumin, 1/2 teaspoon of chili powder and a dash of salt and black pepper to taste. Mix until smooth and creamy. Set aside.
In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over over medium heat. When melted, now add your 3 cups of corn kernals and finely diced Thai chili peppers (or jalapenos). Don’t stir right away – let the heat sear and brown the corn a bit first, and then turn the corn so brown on the other side. This might take 4-6 minutes on each side. Then, remove from heat and add to your mixing bowl with the cream cheese and sour cream mixture. Stir to combine so all the cream mix is distributed evenly.
Add 2 sliced green onions and crumble in small pieces your 1/2 cup cotija cheese. Mix, and now pour everything into your serving bowl. Garnish with additional chili powder, green onions and cotija cheese.
Enjoy immediately with your Food Should Taste Good Blue Corn tortilla chips.