Got to review the Meet Morocco Cooking Demo on Thursday for Nearsay.com, which meant an INORDINATE AMOUNT OF FREE FOOD. I wasn’t really sure what this event was, but I just signed up for it because it had the word “cooking” in the title, and if I agreed to review the event, I would get to taste all the food for free. Heart reviews.
It was a very rainy Thursday and I barely had time between leaving work and getting to this event, so I was in my work clothes not looking my best with my yellow holey galoshes, and I get to Food Emporium Bridgemarket and it is like a red carpet event. Shit. I mean, there is literally a red carpet leading up the stairs to the event, and I am like derrrr… well this is embarrassing. Anyway, I enter and go up to the second floor of Food Emporium, and I am like shit this is a LEGIT event. I was expecting some casual cooking demo where people just crowd around and they’re handing out samplers. This event was NICE, I mean I was really impressed. A shit ton of really nice food all from Maroc Export, which I guess will now have their products available at all Food Emporiums. Not that I ever go to Food Emporium, or any grocery store for that matter. But if I were the kind of person to go grocery shopping or spend money on food period, then I would certainly consider purchasing their products.
So as soon as I get upstairs to this event, there are these two guys with a really beautiful platter of shot glasses… or Moroccan tea cups.
Tea Time
And then to my left there’s a live Moroccan band playing some really nice music to set the mood, and to my right there’s a wine open bar. And in front of me is celebrity chef Sam Talbot — GASP. He’s ridiculously handsome, but I was much more concerned about the free food and drink at this time, so back to that.
Open Bar
Before I could even grab myself a glass, four butlers bombard me with delicious Moroccan hors d’oeuvres like “beef sticks” and “shrimp sticks” that were really flavorful and greasy in a good way, along with this chicken triangle pastry thing that had a hint of cinnamon and was topped with just the right amount of powdered sugar to add a good amount of sugary kick to the savory chicken:
Beef/Shrimp/Chicken Sticks
And curry chicken, beef and grilled shrimp satays:
Chicken/Beef/Shrimp Satays
Seared tuna on endives:
Seared Tuna
And my absolute fav of the night — DUCK BREAST WITH RED CABBAGE that was sosososososooooo gooodddddd, it was to die for, and the cabbage had some sweet flavoring to it, like sweetened cranberry or something, it was DELICIOUS. With all the rest of the hors d’oeuvres I was really polite and only took one of each kind on every plate, but with this duck I took three.
Duck with Cabbage
I was really full on all the appetizers and with three full glasses of wine in me, I was ready to maybe head home until I caught THIS out of the corner of my eye…
Moroccan Buffet
OOOOOOOOMMMMMMMGGGGGGGGGGGG it was like one of those incredible all-you-can-eat Indian buffets that we have in the city for $9.99, except it was Moroccan and free. It was incred. On top of all the delicious appetizers, now we get an entire Moroccan dinner. I was completely in awe. I didn’t even know what everything was because there were no labels, but all I know is that everything I tasted was perfectly spiced, the lamb chop was nicely cooked to a beautiful medium rare, the seared scallops had that good chew to them, the red beets were really well cooked, and the white fish and couscous were excellent as well. The waiter initially handed me a plate that had maybe half of what I wanted to get for myself, so I kindly declined the plate and asked if I could just fill my own plate instead. So this is what I got for myself, better fit for a poverexic:
My Buffet Plate
All in all it was an extremely delightful event and perhaps I would have stayed a bit longer had it not been for my horrible headache/hangover from the night before that had still persisted throughout my entire day. Fucking hangover.
Poverexic in NYC 