Out & About

This is the seventh article in a series about attending Culinary School.

As a hunter, one of my primary thoughts when I am out in the field or forest is: How am I going to use whatever I kill? One of the complaints I hear from people who hunt is that they get tired of the same old ways of preparing wild game. It seems like a lot of hunters let their wild game go to waste or give it away because they don’t understand how versatile wild game can be. I grew up in a family that took most of the venison we shot and turned it in to summer sausage or jerky -- not very creative. We ended up giving a lot of it away because after eating the first 30 pieces of jerky or summer sausage sandwiches every day for a week, you lose interest and don’t want to eat either anymore.

This is the sixth article in a series about attending Culinary School. Also check out posts on Menu Planning, Cooking in Quantity, Poultry Class, Wine Tasting Class, and the Introduction to the series.

In our last post about the 10 most memorable Latin eateries in the Twin Cities, we promised to deliver a tour of tacos and tamales. With a spicy integrity, we are going to deliver just that. Here and now. A guide that hopefully will continue to grow if you, dear reader/eater, will share your favorites and then share this list of Mexican manna, El Salvadorian sanctity, of Peruvian piety with anyone and everyone you know who loves Latin food.

This is the fifth post in a series about attending culinary school. Also check out earlier posts on wine tasting class, poultry class, cooking in quantity, and the introduction to the series.

In my last culinary school update for this series, I wrote about making Peking ducks, the most memorable project our class has undertaken so far. The heart of our culinary program, though, lies not in our afternoon classes but our morning labs. From 7 a.m. until at least 11 a.m., we students sleepily shuffle in to prepare for the school’s breakfast and lunch service.

Elissa Altman started her food blog, Poor Man's Feast, in 2008 after years as a cookbook editor, food columnist, personal chef, and caterer.

I’d been using a slow cooker for several months before taking Jeff Woodworth's Slow Cooker & Pressure Cooker class at the Wedge Co-op this winter. Life for me as a part-time student is hectic and heavily scheduled and finding time to cook often takes a backseat to studying, work, social life, and a myriad of extracurricular activities. Encouraged by the prospect of producing lots of food with minimal effort, I decided to invest more time in learning these do-ahead techniques.

It's been just over a year and we've been to 30+ Latin eateries...amazing. There are still more than 20 eateries on our list and more opening every day...it seems unreal. This could go on forever and yet, it is time to hang up our hats (sombreros?) for now and present our palates with a new spectrum of flavors. But don't worry! We are determined to continue to keep our eyes open for the next terrific tamal and you, dear reader, will be the first to know. For now, though, we wish to present our favorites for you as a last hurrah -- a celebration of sorts of our favorite and most memorable moments of mole, molcajete, and menudo. And so, without further ado or bombast, it gives me great honor to present:

Latin Tongue 2012/2013: Our Top Ten Most Memorable Eats...

Or, in our humble opinions, The Best of Latin Food in the Twin Cities

Now that I’ve provided an overview of Minnesota State Community and Technical College’s Culinary Arts program and also what I learned in my first few wine classes, I’m moving on to our Poultry and Seafood class. Spring break is quickly approaching and will mark the end of our poultry unit and our transition into seafood.