Today’s post is a little outside my normal posts about furniture and design. It’s about an event I went to this weekend hosted by my friends Pete and Sam called Beeftacular. It’s a cooking competition within our group of friends, which started last year with Porktacular. This years competition was to make a dish having an ingredient that came from a cow (hence Beeftacular). The way it works is we each enter a dish and then everyone votes on which they like best. This year you could enter into the main dish category and/or the appetizer category. I made beef carpaccio for the appetizer and Vietnamese Beef Pho for the main.
Poster for the event!
All the dishes were very, very good and included beef sliders, two yummy beef curries, spaghetti and meatballs, and tamarind beef. But it was a competition, so once we all recovered from the meat sweats, it was time for the vote. Competition was fierce, but my beef carpaccio came out on top in the appetizer category, narrowly edging out the tsunami beef appetizer. For the main, it came down to the spaghetti and meatballs prepared by Amber and Jer and the Tamarind beef prepared by the reigning champions of Porktacular, Margot and Geoff. In the end the lovely marinated tamarind beef came out on top, giving Margot and Geoff a second championship. My pho came in a respectable third.
I should give a shout out to the Friendly Butcher on the Danforth, where most of the competitors purchased the beef for our dishes and where the all the prizes were purchased. And also to Same and Pete for hosting such a great event. There are some photos below of the event. Can’t wait till next year where we may foray into the vegetable realm with Tater-tacular.
The prize table…a meat rub packed into the tiny trophies…
Tamarind beef, sliders and asparagus on the BBQ
My prize, yummy BBQ sauce
The dining/judging area
hmm, beer….
The ballots….
Voting area….put the ballots in the paper bag of your fave dish!
the toddler vote….
enjoying the meal…
The beef carpaccio….good spelling Lindsey….
Henry “aka Don Draper” looking skeptical about all this meat….
Awards ceremony: appetizer
Awards ceremony: main dish
My favourite part of the “taculars” is the fridge magnets that we get to take home!
On a totally separate note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mom! Today she is 39….. again. I am very lucky to have her and though I can’t be there to celebrate with her, I hope she has a great day.
Have a great day!
I’m not sure what beef carpachio is exactly but it really looks good.
Thanks Linds…very happy to host. everyone put in sooo much effort; it was great
haha love your 39 comment
THat must mean that you are 21 all the time? Your dishes sound delicious, and the event is such a fun idea!
haha, yes….my mom turned 29 every year until she hit about 50, and then she switched to 39 because she felt it was more “realistic”.
oh my – this looks like such a fun event! love the idea and the prizes!