Outsourced Screening Party

Last night at the Hi-Life our wonderful chefs had an opportunity to flex their culinary muscles a little when they cooked up a great after party following the nearby screening of the movie “Outsourced“. The movie, which looks hilarious, is the story of a man who must go to India to train the people replacing the outsourced jobs from his company in the U.S. In keeping with the theme of the movie, our chefs provided a brilliant party menu to feed the crowds following the screening. I thought the dishes sounded so interesting that I would share them with all of you.

Outsourced Menu:

Beef and Goat cheese flatbread

Leek and Gruyere tart

Vegetable and Beef Samosas with mint and cilantro chutney

Coconut Lamb with apricot chutney

Crab cakes with spicy aioli

Garbanzo Dosas: Delicate crepes stuffed with garbonzo spread, pickled cucumbers and radish sprouts

Lamb burgers

Sesame prawns

Pancetta Flatbread with dried fruit marmelade

Polenta rounds with quince paste and paneer cheese

Bhajis: salt cod fritters with zucchini

Serrano Manchego Tart

Squash Bites with hazelnut pesto

Tandoori chicken skewers with tomato chile sauce

Page Ahead for Literacy Tonight at Atlas Foods

Here at CHOW foods, we always love to help you give back to your community. Tonight, Atlas Foods is offering you the easiest way to do so: just EAT! A percentage of all money spent tonight at Atlas will be donated to Page Ahead Children’s Literacy Program. This is the perfect time to come see our new menu. Don’t worry, we haven’t gotten rid of any of your old favorites, though! Please stop by and support this great cause while enjoy a delicious meal.

Banner Sale at the 5 Spot

If you’ve ever wondered what happens to all those lovely banners that hang in the restaurant during festivals, we sell them! Usually you can buy them right away and pick them up after the end of the festival and your money goes straight to the painter–and they are all painted by our wonderful and talented CHOW Foods Employees. If the banner doesn’t sell, the employee can take it home to hang in their own lovely homes, or at times they get abandoned in the restaurant to sit sadly in a basement. UNTIL NOW.

 All this lovely artwork will be available for discounted purchase as we clean out our storage area. These are handicrafts representing a variety of American regions. To recap, in the last year we have been to the Chicago, the Rio Grande River Valley and Hawaii!  So how do you claim one of these masterpieces for yourself? You get thyself to the 5 spot the weekend of September 29th-30th and they will all be hanging in the back room for your perusal.

Argentina Menu up at the Hi-Life

So I’m a bit behind with the post, but on Wednesday this week, the menu featuring food and wine of Argentina began at the Hi-Life. When setting up the menu to feature the delicacies of this South American behemoth, we changed things up a bit. We moved a few of the small plates, which were Argentine themed over to the Argentina side of the menu so that when you are making a meal, you have the opportunity to keep the Argentine flavor running throughout. I was, unfortunately, on vacation when they tasted the menu, so I have only had tried a few of the dishes. The Chimichurri Chicken, however, was one of them, and it was amazing.

I did, however, have the opportunity to taste the breakfast and lunch options, which was really fun, since I have spent a good deal of time in Argentina. One of the neat things about tasting a menu is that because these are not authentic dishes, but rather our chef’s interpretation of traditional themes, is that I got to reminisce about the flavors of Argentina while trying new and exciting dishes.

The Francesa Yerba, or yerba mate french toast, was a big hit, topped with that ever present staple of Argentina, dulce de leche. The most authentic of all the dishes was certainly the empanada, a flaky crust wrapped around all the usual suspects: meat, potatoes, hard boiled eggs. But to me, the most beautiful was definetly the pizza.

Pizza, due to the influence of Italians in Argentina is quite common. In fact, it is probably more common there than even here in the U.S. But this pizza was not the traditional Argentine ham and cheese smothered mess, but an eloquent expression of Argentine flavors–chorizo, manchego, fresno peppers, topping the Hi-Life’s usual thin crust and cooked in the wood fired oven.

This menu is up until December 2nd, so enjoy these fall flavors while they last.