This weekend we took the quick 45-minute flight to Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo for the first ever Food & Wine (magazine) festival in Mexico. The cities and beaches were beautiful, and the events were amazing. Celebrity chef, Rick Bayless, winner of Top Chef Masters on Bravo, owner of Frontera Grill, Topolobampo and XOCO in Chicago, and star of Mexico: One Plate at a Time on PBS was the headliner and one of our main reasons for going...although do you really need a good reason to go to a tropical beach resort to be stuffed with delicious wine and Mexican food?
We had dinner on a stone terrace built into the hillside overlook the Pacific Ocean when we arrived at the hotel (Las Brisas, which we highly recommend for any would be visitors), and it was spectacular.
The next morning with headed off to our cooking class, Market to Table, with Rick (yes, we're on a first name basis!) haha, if only... Anyway, the class was very fun and informative. We learned all about making red chile sauce and a bunch of recipes to develop from the same base sauce for shrimp and lobster, and a few other tips and tricks. The food looked amazing, and we had a little bite afterward.
We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on the beach, drinking out of coconuts and swimming before we headed to La Perla for dinner.
The dinner was called 32 Tastes of Mexico (note: there are 32 states in Mexico, hence the punny name)! It featured chefs from local restaurants that each prepared one or two tasting plates, so we grabbed little bites and glasses of wine and munched our way through the evening. They had tables set up on the beach and there was another cooking demonstration with Rick. The mayor of Ixtapa, and some other government / tourist officials were there too! After dinner we got a cookbook signed and chatted it up with some non-work related Americans (for once!). Overall, it was a really fun evening, and I am looking forward to our next FWF ...that's Food & Wine Festival....I just can't help giving a three letter acronym to everything...it's one of my many new government skills.
The view from our room at dawn...we were too excited to sleep!
Sleepy hammock time!
Cooking class with Rick...yes he's holding a lobster!
Spiny lobster with tomatoes and "mojo de ajo" sauce aka the "bath of garlic"
Buenos dias!
A little bite of a sweet corn tamale and a bean and cream tostada...YUM!
View from the class
Las Brisas hotel! Wonderful!
Autumn finally got her "Coco Loco"
Camarones en mojo de ajo! Shrimp in a garlic bath!
It's hard to tell, but that's about an eight foot high wave!
Oops! Too close!
Sunset
32 Tastes of Mexico on the beach at La Perla
This was the best thing we ate all night...
it was a spicy-sweet octopus wonton with an egg-y cake thing.
it was a spicy-sweet octopus wonton with an egg-y cake thing.
I was just a bit taller than the rest of the people in line for the book signing!
Autumn and her "playin' it cool" hands with Rick!
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