By Jamie Drummond

Joel Solish lubes up the customers at his Death Row Meal Supper Club.

Yesterday afternoon at Milagro‘s Mercer Street location a fair-sized group of taco enthusiasts gathered for Joel Solish’s Death Row Meal Supper Club… The Taco Edition.

And what a way to spend a Sunday afternoon it was, with six Toronto Chefs presenting their take on the humble taco, each accompanied by a specially selected beer, wine, or (yikes!) tequila.

 

 

Here is a list of the various Chefs and their respective dishes:

Rossy Earle: Green Plantain Tortilla, Avocado cream, braised & pulled Chipotle smoked duck, Chayote & Tomato pickled slaw, Culantro Lime cream, Duck skin chicharron

Steve Gonzalez (Niagara Street Cafe/Escobar): Grilled adobo pork tender + tomatillo and corn relish + roasted garlic and lime crema + refried bean tortilla.

Tom Davis – represented by Allison (Stockyards): Braised beef cheek and smoked beef tongue taco with avocado crema, pickled red onion, cilantro, and duo of house smoked hot sauces.

Arturo Anhalt (Milagro): Taco de Longaniza en salsa verder . Longaniza  is a type of rustic street style chorizo , but more spicy , will be served without salsa since its cooked in salsa verde. Will be cooked with onion and nopales (cactus)

Andres Marquez (Charlie’s Burgers): Carne Asada taco using smoked and grilled  Marinated Kobe knuckle , fresh flour tortillas , salsa  taquera ( taquero is the guy that makes tacos , salsa taquera reffers to salsa from a taqueria) Garnished with grilled scallions

Nick Liu (Niagara Street Cafe): Crispy octopus and jicama taco with smoked paprika caponata, chorizo bacon, spicy tomato aioli

As the tacos were served the assembled throng was asked to fill in a natty little score sheet, rating the dishes on appearance, flavour, originality… and deciding upon the placement of a rather mysterious bonus point.

When all was said and done Nick Liu took first place, closely followed by Rossy Earle (second place) and The Stockyards (third).

To find out more about upcoming Death Row Meal Supper Club events follow Joel Solish on Twitter – Foodie411



Edinburgh-born/Toronto-based Sommelier, consultant, writer, judge, and educator Jamie Drummond is the Director of Programs/Editor of Good Food Revolution… and he couldn’t stop laughing about the tequila that smelled of poppers.