Big EVOO Night

I just wrote three paragraphs that don't sound like me.  I'm starting over.

I belong to an amazing group of people called the Minnesota Food Bloggers.  We get together once (or more) a month and eat, talk and learn about food.  This week we went to Cafe Levain and ate an obscene amount of olive oil from California Olive Ranch.  Ok, maybe it was just me that ate obscene amounts. 

Here's what we ate.

Olive oil tasting! You warm this with your hand underneath it and your other hand cupped over it and swirl it around.  Then you breathe in the aroma and drink it.  Seriously.  What's sexier than an olive oil tasting? 

Amouse Bouche:  Split pea and kohlrabi soup with fresh herbs.

Farmer's market salad with buttermilk-tarragon vinaigrette, candied nuts, goat cheese

Sitka Sound Red King Salmon, EVOO poached shrimp, marinated white beans, sugar snaps in chili oil. That crust was AMAZING.

It starts getting dark here, I might eventually need a camera other than my iPhone.

Hangar steak, fingerling potatoes, local mushrooms with a balsamic, perserved lemon glaze.  I ate the mushrooms.  That's how delicious it was.

Dessert!!!!!!

EVOO cake, EVOO panna cotta with an EVOO tuille, EVOO ice cream (gotta figure out how to make that), and an EVOO gel that had SALT IN IT!!!  This was heaven.  

I licked my plate. Yes, in public.  If you can't lick your plate in front of 50 other passionate food people at the end of a sexy meal like this, then when can you?!

Soooooo happy.

Bonus: Gift bags!!

Extra Bonus:  Senior Picture pose!

I love you, #MNFoodBloggers.

Here are more posts about the night.  Most of them have cameras with flashes....: Thyme in our Kitchen, Girl with Blog, Amy on the Prairie, Eat Drink Life Love