kadejan chicken

Alex Roberts Photo by Kate NG SommersChef Alex Roberts is a low-key kind of guy. He doesn’t yell or throw temper tantrums, a la Gordon Ramsay. He doesn't have the legendary ego of a rock star chef ("I don't feel that I'm the best at anything," he recently told the Star Tribune's Rick Nelson).

Simple, Good, and Tasty's March event (above photo by Kate NG Sommers), held on Tuesday March 22 at Sen Yai Sen Lek in Minneapolis, offered local food with a twist. The ninety plus people in attendance were treated to a local food-based Thai tasting menu, including green papaya salad, Fischer Farms pork Isaan salad, dried Thousand Hills beef, curried egg noodles with beef, and stir fried noodles with Kadejan chicken. The meal was not what comes to mind for most people when they think about local food in Minnesota (no walleye, buttered bread, or wild rice!), and we were thrilled about it.

I've said it before, and I'll keep saying it: I'm a lucky guy. Not only do I get to spend my time with some of the most important and talented food producers, chefs, restaurateurs, and organizations in the world - I also get to work with these people I greatly admire - people like Chef Alex Roberts - to create local food events that are truly unique.

"There aren't very many good frozen potstickers," Rashmi Bhattachan tells me. I don't disagree. But when I bite into one of her new beef momos, filled with Thousand Hills Cattle Company ground beef, I don't care about potstickers. I just want more of Rashmi's delicious, warm pockets of Nepalese goodness. These tasty momos, seasoned with traditional Himalayan spices (cumin, coriander, garlic, and ginger) and served with a tomato based chutney, disappear quickly in my belly. I think I've eaten four of them before I stop to take a sip of my mango lassi.

The time has come! Dave and Don brought over the pig last night - an 80 pounder from Hidden Stream Farm, purchased from Clancey's in Linden Hills, MN. Within an hour, we had prepared the pig with a bunch of tasty seasonings and enclosed it in a homemade China Box. I think Dave and Don - both experienced pig roasters) are getting sick of my nervous quips, but what do you do when you come face to face with your first dead pig? Frankly, getting to know my food makes me a little bit uncomfortable.

Here are a few pictures from last night's preparation. They're not for the squeamish, but I think they're worth seeing and thinking about. Here goes.

This is my friend Dave Micko, getting the pig ready. In the absence of a table, we made due with an old door from my house, covered with foil and resting on the China Box.