Tidbites | Week of January 30, 2014

The week in Boulder food news

0

EAT A CARROT, SAVE A SNAKE

Are you tired of just eating vegetables because they crossed you once in a game of cards? Would you prefer to eat them for a good cause?

Well then you’re in luck. Thursday, Feb. 4, Jill’s at the St. Julien will be hosting a seven-course vegan dinner crafted by Executive Chef Laurent Mechin to raise funds for the Greenwood Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Lyons, which helps rehabilitate orphaned, injured and ill wildlife so it can be released back into the wild (where it will inevitably be caught by a hunter and served at a charity dinner to protect carrots from the gnashing maws of vegans, thereby preserving the circle of life).

The menu includes petite vegetable amuse bouche, green lentil soup, pita panzanella salad, tempeh and winter vegetables, nishiki rice cakes, moroccan couscous and a dessert of hand-roll chocolate truffles, all of which sounds so good, you’ll probably forget it’s vegan.

Tickets are $54.95 per person and can be reserved by calling 720-406-7399.

GREAT ROADS TO GREAT CHEFS

Much-discussed food events company Hush Concepts has launched a new dinner series: Great Roads to Great Chefs.

The 15-weekend series will go down in Estes Park at the historic Stanley Hotel, and take some of Colorado’s rising stars in the food world and drop ’em into the mountains with only their chef’s knives and a highly trained team working in a fully stocked kitchen to survive your dinner order.

The series starts Jan.31, and will feature a different chef each week, with dinner and stay packages starting at $400/couple or $100 per person for dinner only.

“[It] is not only something good for the community of Estes Park, but hopefully a gateway program for these talented young chefs to establish themselves for years to come,” Phil Armstrong, owner of Hush Concepts, said in a press release.

The complete chef lineup is available on Dishwire.com. Reservations are available by calling 970-577-4000 or 1-800-976-1377.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit flood relief efforts. Let’s hope that’s an American portion, and not one of those microscopic European portions that’s mostly garnish.

STOUT MONTH AT MOUNTAIN SUN

February marks the 21st annual Stout Month at all four Mountain Sun Brewing pubs, meaning they’ll be pouring rare and special tasty, inky goodness all month long.

There will be dozens of house stouts like Oatimus Prime Imperial Oatmeal Stout, Megatron Imperial American Stout, Chocolate Dip Stout, Korova Cream Stout, and Old School Irish Stout, and Mountain Sun will be bringing back some favorites like Yonder Mountain Stout, Thunder Head Stout and a batch of Cherry Dip Stout (a decadent chocolate stout with sweet cherry puree) as well Coconut Cream Stout, Dark Harvest Pumpkin Stout, and so so so many more.

More new stouts will be rolled out each Monday and poured until they’re gone, with the final week (Monday, Feb. 24) featuring the debut of the winner of Mountain Sun’s 2014 homebrewing competition, now in its eighth year.

Previous winners include Coconut Cream Stout, Stoked Oak Stout and Girl Scout Stout, which is probably not made with real girl scouts.

But with all that goodness going on, we have to ask Mountain Sun why they had to make Stout Month the shortest month of the year like jerks, when January and March are both lounging around squandering their 31 days on February’s flanks.

Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com