GOOD MORNING, FRIENDS
Today’s Podcast was originally broadcast by WPVM 103.7fm on Friday January 27 and features conversations with Junior Márquez, owner of Mariscos Seafood Shack, as well as Chef Tony Franco from Food Experience To Go, and Jen Hampton (below) from Asheville Food & Beverage United. I also give verbal reviews of the food featured below in the newsletter.
Today’s newsletter (below) features a link to the Stoobie Award winners, and then pictures and quick reviews of food from Marble & Steel Craft Chocolates, White Duck Taco, Food Experience To Go, Benne on Eagle, and Mariscos Seafood Shack, and links to more pictures in most cases.
STOOBIE AWARD WINNERS
WINNERS! WINNERS! WINNERS! Click HERE to go to StuHelmFoodFan.com and find out who won in 26 different categories of the 2022 Asheville Food Fan Awards aka The Stoobies! The best of what I ate in 2022 at 149 different venues!
The best burgers, pizza, taco, sweet treat, restaurants and people in our amazing food scene! I hope you agree with some or all of my choices, and as always, I hope that you find this annual list of my fave stuff to be both entertaining and useful!
VALENTINE’S DAY IS COMING!
A week or so ago, Chef Molly Cook from Marble & Steel Craft Chocolates stopped by my place with a box their insanely cute, and even more delicious Valentines Day chocolates, 2 each of their new flavors!
Oh muh gawd. They were all amazing, and the cherry cheesecake was particularly phenomenal. I shared this box with Dawn of course, and we died with every bite. Recommend. 💯
EATING THE MENU: WHITE DUCK TACO SHOP
My friend Nikki at White Duck Taco Shop was surprised to hear that I have not tried every single taco on their menu, so that is our mutual mission for 2023,and to kick things off, she made me this Chicken Tikka Masala taco last week, and it was excellent!
Flavorful & spicy without being overbearing, with some nice greens underneath a very substantial piece of chicken, and some crispy chickpeas and crème on top! Next on my continuing journey to eat every taco on the menu were the Bangkok shrimp, and the chilled tofu bahn mi tacos, and both of them were awesome! White Duck is batting a thousand with me so far. Thanks, Nikki! See you soon! 🙏🌮🔥
Which is your favorite White Duck Taco?
FOOD EXPERIENCE TO GO
I took a taxi way out to Wild Wild West Asheville today, so that I could try some BBQ prepared by the nice folks at Food Experience To Go, Tony, Lisa & Nick (not pictured), and it was great! They are a catering company, who opens their doors every week, Wednesday - Saturday from 12 noon to 4pm to sell food directly to the public! They're located right down the street from Rockys Hot Chicken Shack, basically next door to Sky Lanes Asheville. Worth the trip!
FYI - I'm just posing with these two super tasty looking sandwiches, which I'll eat tomorrow, because by the time we got around to taking this picture, I had already eaten garlic mashed taters, mac 'n' cheese, sweet tater casserole, collards, broccoli slaw, a chicken wing, pulled pork, brisket, smoked turkey, a spare rib, portobello mushrooms, roasted cauliflower, pot du creme, and banana pudding! 😂 😶
BENNE BRUNCH WITH FAMILY
I went to brunch with my fam this morning at Benne on Eagle and everyone cleaned their plates!
My mom got shrimp & grits, my sister got chicken & waffle, bro-in-law got huevos ranchero & apple fennel salad, Uncle Joe got fried green tomatoes, and I got scrabbled eggs mushroom toast. Everything was excellent.
MARISCOS SEAFOOD
I took a trip to Mariscos Seafood Shack with my friend Lucho from Asheville Multicultural and we ate a ton of food! You can listen to an interview I did with the restaurant owner, Junior Márquez in the podcast above, and keep an eye on my Instagram and Facebook pages for more pictures like the one below, of the “camarones cucaracha” which were insanely delicious!
The chef at Mariscos Seafood Shack, Enrique Pérez, is doing something pretty dang special there! Lucho and I must have tried 8 different dishes, of both Mexican and American (deep fried) style seafood, and we nearly crushed it all! Couldn’t… stop… eating. Seriously though. I had to force myself to stop eating this shrimps.
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Good Morning, Friends...