Late Night Potluck Show

ABOUT US

Foodie entrepreneurs get together to talk about the food culture, food industry, business startups, entrepreneurship, restaurant and product reviews, and so much more... Do you ever find that every time you and your friends and family are conversing, you always end up talking about food. No matter how many times that one person tries to talk about politics or the economy, "Screw that! Have you tried that new place in downtown? or "Omg, I tried this new recipe from Pintrest you have to try. Yeah we get you! lol  Then this show is for you.

Another inspiration for the show was, being entrepreneurs, we all have faced challenges along the way and we want to inspire and encourage to over come those hurdles by sharing our stories, your stories, the stories of local, small food businesses. We highlight food businesses and inspire those that are up and coming.

Do you want to be on the show? Email us. ​​​​

For more info and show times please click on link

https://www.thelatenightpotluck.com/

 

You can now find me making breakfast sandwiches at the Stratfield Saturday Market in Clinton Park. Come by take a walk and check out all the vendors. Get a breakfast sandwich, have a seat and enjoy the live music. 

Sausage, Bacon, egg and cheese

Bacon Egg and cheese

French Toast Bites

Girl With A Smile Special Grilled cheese w/bacon

Saturdays

9:00am to 1:00pm

June 22 - October 5
Clinton Park 2340 North ave in Bridgeport CT.

The Stratfield Saturday Market is a new market to Bridgeport, located at Clinton park. The market will include produce vendors, food vendors, artisans, live musicians, and more! A dog sitting service will also be available for those who wish to bring their furry friends. Be sure to bring your friends and family, and enjoy your sunny Saturday at this market.

David's Place

Sometimes the best places to eat are those places you just run into. Many times you go to eat somewhere highly recommended or they have great online reviews but when you finally visit it doesn't meet your expectations. I've had that experience many times, how about you? In this case my family and I went to visit The Dinosaur Place at Nature's Art Village in Oakdale, CT. After a great time we were hungry and as we were leaving the parking lot we see this small restaurant. We decide to give it a shot. We see some locals hanging out eating as we walk up to order. The menu varies from seafood to burgers, hotdogs and fried chicken. The girls working were inviting, they welcomed us to David's place, maybe they notice we weren't locals.

Scrolling through the menu the fried chicken dinner caught my eye. It included fries and coleslaw. My wife had her mind set for the fish and chips dinner. For my son, we ordered a grilled cheese which the chef on the grill kindly asked me if I wanted the grill cheese ahead or served at the same time as our order. We chose ahead of a time of course with a hungry 4 year old. Beautiful day out we sat outside to eat and as the food brought over to us we saw how generous the portions were for the price. My plate had 4 pieces of chicken, a big thigh included as you see from the photo, with crispy golden fries and very fresh coleslaw. The fish and chips where just as generous with 2 pieces of fish, very fresh, well seasoned white meaty fish. The chicken had a great crunch fresh out the fryer. We were surprised and impress by the amount of food for the cost.  My meal alone could have fed two people and it was only $10. Next time we head that way I will surely come back and try something new.   

Thanks Dave's Place for the great food and great customer service. 
 

Our plates

 

*this photo was downloaded from online

Dave's Angry Sauce

     Dave's Angry Sauce is a local brand of hot sauce that uses the best quality of ingredients from local farms that gives it those amazing flavors. No sugars or preservatives are added, the collection of sauces offers various levels of heat but never at the expense of flavors. Small batches of the Angry Sauce are handmade in Bridgeport, Connecticut. You often find owner David Bonet at Bridgeport Farmers Markets and events around the greater Bridgeport Area.
     David has been a childhood friend of mine and we shared the love of baseball for many years. Always giving back to the community, he coaches in summer leagues and now is involved in the as- we-call it "Foodie Community". If you see David at an event stop by to say hi and purchase a bottle or two before he sells out. I often find myself using Dave's Angry Sauce. There is nothing better than Dave's Angry Sauce over some pasteles now for the holidays. One of my favorite ways to use and try all the sauces is with a wing sampler. I fry up some wings, using 2-3 wings for each flavor Dave has to offer. It's become a popular product for parties especially now for football season. What's great is that there's a variety of flavors with different levels of heat. From Jalapeno Lime to Fire Roasted Habaneros, try them all and see what's the best for your taste buds. There's no limit to what you can put it on, I recently tried it in some soup for a little "angry" kick.  For details about getting a bottle please contact Dave.

(In Puerto Rico, pasteles are a cherished culinary recipe, especially around Christmas-time. The masa consists of typically grated green banana, green plantain, eddoe (yautía), potato, and tropical pumpkins known as calabazas. It is seasoned with liquid from the meat mixture, milk, and annatto oil.)

Website:  www.Davesangrysauce.com
 FaceBook: Dave's Angry Sauce
Instagram @davesangrysauce

Shop local, shop small, support your community. 

 Dave and Myself, Graustein Memorial Funds event at ConnCAT in New Haven, CT

Anthony Bourdain

Just like many of you reading this most of us woke up, picked up our phone opened Facebook to see what we have missed while we slept and with that came bad news. Through social media we found out that a beloved, inspirational person we all grew to know and love passed away at the mature age of 61 from an apparent suicide.

The story I am here to tell is my personal story in how Chef Bourdain influences my interest in becoming a chef. Graduating from college in 2004 I had plans for many things, I was excited and proud for getting my B.A. but one thing that became a big interest was the culinary world. I cooked things I knew and what I ate growing up like rice, beans, pork chops, fried chicken ect. I was big on watching the Travel Channel and Food Network with shows that inspire you how to cook as well as places you only dream of and see of tv. Growing up in an inner city, you don't really get to experience these vast parts of the world. I remember one summer turning the tv and watching a show called No Reservations. It was about a rugged man who didn’t play by the rules, said what ever he felt and was honest. This man was Anthony Bourdain. I didn’t know much of him at the time but my interest was seeing all these places and all these cultures and the different cuisine he got the chance to experience. There were ingredients I never tasted, heard of or could even pronounce that excited me. Whether it looks weird to us and might have not been appealing to us Bourdain always respected these cultures and gave his honest, wholesome opinions.

Bourdain was one of the first shows I can remember that showed that no matter what color or culture you were it was okay to break bread together and have a good time. I saw on this show people who had nothing but a roof over their heads, flour, water and fire to make meals to feed a village in celebration of a visitor from a land they never been to. As I grew older I became more interested in the many unique and different cultures and what they ate. I looked forward to every show he was on and it gave many of us watching hope that we can see the world and taste the cuisine as he did. My desire to be a chef became more real as I expanded my taste buds, not scared to try new things. The many spices and herbs that were introduced on the show I saw I was so eager to try. He always spoke his mind and we loved him for it. As he traveled the world in search of that next special meal, with the many people he came across I am sure he has touched many lives in his culinary adventure. As I scroll through Facebook and Instagram I see how much he will be missed.

To his entire family and close group of friends, I send my condolences and to You chef we are grateful to have traveled with you through your eyes, even if it was from our couch.

Pacifico Restaurant

Pacifico Restaurant

  My wife and I have started a new tradition where every year we try new places to eat during restaurant week. This year we chose Pacifico restaurant down town new haven. For those who don't know what restaurant week is, Restaurant week is different restaurants from across Connecticut will offer up special deals for restaurant week that might include a multi-course prix-fixe menu starting at a fix price.  Pacifico had a 3 course meal for $30. There is a special menu for each participating restaurant and most have lunch and dinner specials for that week.

  We both chose something different to taste and experience for the first course. I had  Ceviche de Salmon & Camaron; Shrimp, salmon, sweet potato, corn, avocado, aji rocoto. When the waiter brought me the dish I was impressed by the presentation. The smell of the citrus and shrimp was delightful. Seeing the long fried plantain chip was exciting, it's one of my favorite foods to eat. At first bite you can taste every single ingredient and how fresh it is. The herbs, the seafood and even the sweet potato taste at the end. This was the first time I had a ceviche with salmon and I feel I been cheated all my life. The salmon works so well, gives the dish another level of texture and taste. What made it work was the salty plantain chip to help clean your pallet so you can experience that first bite all over again. My wife had Shrimp-corn chowder; Shrimp, corn, yucca, cilantro, crispy leeks. She enjoyed the dish very much, I had a very unique taste and it was a very well balanced dish. It is a dish I wouldn't ordinarily get but having a taste I would order it in the future.

   For the second course we couldn't help but to get the same dish. We the guest sitting beside eating it and from what we read on the menu, we both simultaneously said we wanted the Steak a la Parrilla; Grilled hangar steak, morro rice, green chimichurri. My steak was well seasoned and tender. The fried onions topping gave a nice contrast in texture. If you know me you know that I have to be in the mood for rice. My culture like many others, rice is a big part of our diet. With that being said I had high hopes of this rice being well seasoned. I was excited to see that the rice had other ingredients in it such as variety of vegetables and one of my favorite things to eat with rice, sweet plantains. The side dish of the chimichurri sauce was made in house and with fresh herbs. The heavy use of cilantro gave it a strong herb taste and slightly overpowered the steak but it definitely gave the dish another fresh element and it elevated the steaks overall flavor.

 One of my weaknesses is chocolate so for the final course I had to choose the Chocolate Lava Cake. This was the weakest dish of all of them but none the less it was delicious. I rarely write negative comments about a dish because I know how hard it is to create and execute a recipe. The cake and chocolate were good but the chocolate inside wasn't warm like I expected it to be seeing that it was called lava cake, but surely was quite tasty. My wife had the Tres Leches rice pudding in which she wasn't a fan of because of the texture, I on the other hand didn't mind it. We have never heard of tres leches rice pudding so willing to try and experience new things we ordered it and ate it. Over all the 3 course meal and special was good. The over all experience was great the atmosphere and the waiters were very polite and attentive.  Pacifico has a bar so if you want to come have a drink as well you can. We will come back in the near future. So stay tuned for future visits of restaurant week coming this fall.

   

More info on Connecticut Restaurant Week click on link:

http://www.connecticutrestaurantweek.com/new-haven-restaurant-week/pacifico/

• Pacifico Restaurant
• 220 College Street
• New Haven, CT 06510
• 203.772.4002
• pacifico.restaurant@yahoo.com

Mi Pueblo Restaurant & Bakery

  When families think about eating out most of the time they tend to think about these big food chain restaurants where the menu is all the same, the service is horrible because of the flow of people that come in and out. When my family and I go out to eat we love to find what we call the Mom and Pop places that are family owned. This place is just that. Mi Pueblo Restaurant & Bakery in Bridgeport Connecticut. This Colombian restaurants is a very intimate place where you can come for a great meal. Not a big place but they make up for it with big bold Latin flavors. The menu is what you expect from the heavy breakfast of arroz con huevos revueltos con maduro, (rice with scrambled eggs and sweet plantain) to the filling lunch and dinner plates. The amount of food on the plate is well worth the price, it's like you going to Abuelas (grandma's) house where she makes sure you are full. For those who don't read Spanish, well don't worry, the menu translates in English what you want to order.

     Today I ordered the Pechuga De Pollo Empanizada (breaded chicken with white rice, beans, sweet plantains and salad.) My first time ordering this dish and I didn't know what to expect. My wife had the Ensalada Verde (green salad) simple it sounds but as you see in the photo it was very fresh with home made dressing. The dish took a bit to come out but it was for sure worth the wait when you see the portion of food that's on the plate and that it's still nice and hot from the kitchen. As hungry as I was, I was determined to eat it all. Well sad to say I failed, I ended up bringing the rest home. The chicken breast was crunchy and moist, exactly what's expected from a breaded chicken breast. People who know me know that I eat rice but it's not something I am in love with but this white rice was delicious I even had to fight my son who kept trying to eat the rice off my plate. He enjoyed the rice and beans and if he eats it they must be good! For the families who come visit this place they do have cheeseburger and hot dog on the menu for the smaller picky eaters as well as a kids menu with french fries and nuggets. If your in a hurry they do have Empanadas and arepas. Even a bakery where they make leche asada, donuts, pudin de pan to name a few.

Mi Pueblo Restaurant & Bakery
1222 state street Bridgeport CT 06605