Bowls of never ending tortilla chips; innumerable types of salsas to dip in; diverse types, tastes and colors of salsas… fiery reds, piquant greens and specialty hot and sweet salsas; freshly made tropical juices to calm the hot palates…… Well, this is no setting of a Mexican or Tex-Mex Restaurant or a Tropical Island party or Mexican fiesta. It was an evening at the Salsa Contest at Faraday Kitchen Store’s annual Foodie palloza.
Faraday’s Kitchen Store is an exclusive kitchen store of Cookware, Bakeware, Cutlery, and Kitchen Gadgets in Lakeway, Austin. With a motto of “feeding your passion for cooking”, the owners Tony & Melissa Curtis-Wellings and manager Sharon O’Quinn make one’s visit to their store an enriching experience. Tony who has his roots from England and an experienced chef himself has a world of knowledge to share about anything cooking! In accord with their motto- feeding your passion for cooking, Faraday’s encourages the experts, the amateurs and the enthusiasts of cooking to take part in food contests. This was one such contest. Their first salsa contest ever on August 16, 09 attracted many a salsa enthusiast to participate and hundreds to at least come taste.
I am one such enthusiast with a passion for cooking and creativity and zest for learning, integrating and experimenting with a world of cuisines, besides a love of good food. The salsa contest piqued my interest just when I returned from my long international summer vacation. Immediately I sent in 3 entries for the contest. Earlier in the summer I had developed another creation of salsa, inspired by my mango salsa creation, a loquat salsa! Yes this unique fruit was worth experimenting with, and the Foodie Palloza Salsa Contest was a great opportunity to share my new recipe.
Salsa is a mix or medley of fresh ingredients, either fruit or vegetables in raw form making a refreshing and delicious fusion. And my medleys were Mangolicious Mango Salsa; Loquatious Loquat Salsa and Hot and Spicy Green Chili Salsa.
The salsa contest sponsored by Vitamix had 3 categories; red salsa, green salsa and the specialty salsas. There were more than 60 entries for the salsa contest and were judged for flavor, texture and originality. There were individual category prizes, and one overall winner among the category winners, and the people’s choice award.
There were so many Red salsa categories, and many were fresh, spicy, hot and interesting. It was hence impossible for me to pick my favorite among the red salsa category; I bet the judges had a tough time too. The winner in this category was Brent Kirby. The specialty salsa category had amazing creativity; each salsa was unique and exceptionally different from the other. The colors of the salsas were tropical and exotic, hues of yellow, orange, reds, greens, even purple one too! But I could pick the best 3 favorites here in this category, my loquat salsa, my mango salsa and a pineapple salsa. Well the pineapple salsa won in this category, by an enthusiastic couple- the Peery’s. My green chili salsa was hot and spicy but had a competitor who was equally hot and spicy, the Peery couple’s green salsa won in this category. But guess what, I was not to be disappointed!
The popular salsa of the evening was none other than my Loqautious Loquat salsa. It was loquacious and vocally popular and got the attention of many to get the People’s choice among the hundred plus votes cast for the evening.
Well guess who came home loquacious 😉