Suck it, KFC!

I told you there'd be more workplace culinary exploits to report... Tonight's edition: our even more gratuitous version of KFC's disgustingly awesome new Double Down "sandwich." How besides using fresh, unfrozen ingredients did we make ours so much more gratuitously, disgustingly awesome than its corporate prototype? Easy: jolokia in the egg wash and sauce, twice the cheese, twice the bacon, and with the addition of a cordon bleu-esque slice of ham.



You better believe Chris, Jack, Billy, Paul and I DEMOLISHED those things. KFC can suck it.

Workplace Culinary Exploits: Part 1

Jack, Chris, Marcus, and I happen to be pretty big foodies; the fact that we all work together in a restaurant/bar is rather conducive to this shared interest. A few weekends ago, we decided to formalize our impromptu series of late-weekend-night culinary experiments--based initially around the application of Jack's homemade habañero sauce to various, inexpensive proteins purchased from the grocery across the parking lot--into a more serious competition of sorts. [We're quite a competitive bunch, but more on that in a later post...]

It's a simple concept: whenever it's your "turn," you supply the recipe and enough raw ingredients to feed everyone--including bussers and bartenders--and you just try to out-do the last guy's dish. I was off on Friday night, so I missed out on Jack's bourbon-marinated, grilled pineapple porkchops (which I heard were excellent), but my turn came up next, on Saturday. I fell back on an old standby of mine: seafood steak with homemade mango salsa.

I started the salsa first so its flavors could get all nice n' comfy together for a few hours before the meal:

4 mangoes, peeled, cored & roughly diced
3 fresh jalapeños, finely diced w/ seeds still in
1 medium red onion, finely diced
Fresh chopped basil
Juice of 1 lime

The store was out of my first choice in proteins, Mahi-Mahi, so I settled for some nice looking Swordfish steaks on my friend Flip's recommendation from behind the seafood counter. About an hour before grilling time, I threw the Swordfish into simple marinade of soy sauce, white pepper, and the juice of a couple limes. Right before the steaks were ready for the grill, I prepared another sauce of mayonaise, honey, white pepper, and the juice and zest of one lime. After draining the first marinade liquid from the steaks, I lightly applied some of the mayo/honey mix to the outside, and immediately grilled for roughly 2 minutes per side. After letting them cool a bit, I covered each steak with some salsa, dressed the plate with the rest of the mayo/honey sauce, and served with a side of flash-steamed, sauteed asparagus.

There were 8 happy mouths that night. There will be more to come.