Cheer Up With Food

I  again went to another  Cafe Zupas ' VIP dinner event this time at their new west side location along Lake Mead Blvd.  I'm glad that Cafe Zupas is expanding, their food is so worth trying!  The event was pretty much the same compared to the last event on Eastern Ave.: we chose our meal, we all ate, and a trivia game occured througout the event resulting in a lot of prizes given out! I was impressed with the food and service of this location!  If you didn't know, they make some of their foods from scratch, you can definitely taste the freshness with every bite!  I had tried the Pesto Chicken - This sandwich comes with chicken, their homemade pesto sauce, almonds, roasted sweet peppers, muenster cheese , sprouts, and tomatoes.  This was definitely one of the best sandwiches I've had because I tasted many flavors at once which blended all quite well! Wisconsin Cauliflower - Cheddar and Pepperj...

Last week I attended  Cafe Zupas ' VIP party for local bloggers and tech-savvy food lovers.  I really didn't know what to expect only that I knew that they specialize in sandwiches, soups, and salads, and that they're based from Utah.  Upon arriving we were greeted by the staff, who were all friendly and knowledgeable.  They suggested for us to choose the Try 2 Combo.  I decided to go with a sandwich and salad and my husband chose a sandwich and soup: The salads were made right in front of us: They let us choose our own desserts: Our meals: I got the Thai Mango Chicken Salad .  I was surprised by how much flavor was in every bite!  This came with chicken, mango, Thai peanut sauce, bell peppers, red onions, peanuts, wonton strips, iceberg lettuce, and House-Made sesame ginger dressing.  Even though there wasn't too much dressing and Thai peanut sauce, they absolutely were the reasons that made this salad amazing...

At my cousin's house warming party, he had many traditional Filipino dishes laid out on a table.  To me, its nice eating these typical Filipino foods at parties like pancit, barbecue, dinuguan, puto, etc.  Then there are times when I'm not excited seeing the same party foods again.  When I looked around the kitchen, I saw something out of the ordinary.  One of my in-laws was near the stove watching two big covered pots that were simmering.  I found out he was making the goat soup called  sinampalukang kambing! One way of making sinampalukang kambing is with a sour broth consisting of sampaloc ( tamarind ), sampaloc flowers or leaves, a goat's head, leg, and/or some meat, onions, celery, salt, pepper, and MSG.  My relative had made his own sour and bitter version of the soup.  I only tried the sour version (I'll try anything but bitter foods!) and it left me sati...

I went to a family dinner (with my good friends from UNLV) at Reggie & Dan's place.  Isn't this set up nice?  The main dish was  borscht  - a common Eastern European soup.  Saying the name of this soup may sound harsh, but it doesn't taste like it!  The main ingredient may be a beetroot or tomato and can be served hot or cold.  This version was cold with cabbage and potatoes.  To add more flavor, put however you want of paprika and sour creme: I ate this soup with toasted bread rubbed with a clove of garlic.  That was the first time I've seen that!  I rubbed a lot of garlic into my bread haha... I think this way is better than eating garlic bread because you choose how much garlic you want on your bread!