The Vetted Table

Posted by Sean on August 7, 2012

A new chapter in the book of MIHO opened last night. The Vetted Table held a pop-up dinner at El Take It Easy in North Park, greeting guests at the entirely re-styled entry, complete with vintage love seats and service staff looking impeccable. (photo above by MIHO)

The Vetted Table crew brought in collaborators from the weddings & special events they cater to transform EZ into a one night Vetted Table experience. Mother Sponge was honored to be asked to develop the brand for The Vetted Table – and we were stoked with the results. Take a look over here at some of our design work for MIHO’s newest brand.

Cheers to the successful launch and a bright future for The Vetted Table!

Filed in: Booze, California, Clients, Design, Events, Food, Food Trucks, Restaurants, San Diego, Tijuego Comment →

Misión 19

Posted by Sean on August 1, 2012
table

Finally.

We’ve been slightly obsessed with Cebicheria Erizo for a few years now, so it was only a matter of time before a pilgrimage to Javier Plascencia’s flagship Misión 19 would materialize. And the other day, materialize it did.

Our buds at Slow Food Urban San Diego extended an invite our way for a lunch that Javier was putting together – we did not, could not, should not decline. Here are some photos from the experience…

Part of the experience at Misión 19 is walking through the gorgeous new building that houses the restaurant. This is a shot taken directly under a giant skylight and glass-flanked atrium that winds through the center of the building.

One corner of the restaurant has a private dining area on a platform, with copious amounts of sunlight streaming through skylights above. I recall zero light fixtures – this is the first LEED certified building in Tijuana.

Restaurant entrance with signage. The tagline, “cocina de autor” is an apt description – where Erizo hosts Plascencia’s ceviche studies in charcoal, Misión 19 is a refined conceptual masterpiece in marble.

The long communal table setup especially for the SFUSD board members, with MoSpo tagging along and giddy with excitement at this point.

Now, onto the food! Disclaimer: some dishes were not documented as their aroma and plating were too enticing not to dive right in.

Steamed oyster.

Seared ahi with mole, chicharrones, radish, grilled shishito pepper.

Heirloom bean and Summer mushroom risotto with huitlacoche dust and epazote spume.

Tamarind martini.

Mezcalero with chapulin sea salt on the rim!

Local cheeses with guava puree, candied hibiscus and honey.

Banana brulee with oatmeal ice cream, strawberries and bougavillea.

Slow Food Urban San Diego board (and MoSpo’s Sean Kelley) with Javier Plascencia atop the Via Corporativo building where Misión 19 resides. Our SFUSD buddy Chelsea Coleman took the above photo, and many others, along with great notes on the courses – check them out here.

Filed in: California, Ceviche, Clients, Design, Farms, Food, Interiors, Tijuana, Tijuego, Wine Comment →

Seeds@City Cultivating Future Farmers

Posted by Sean on January 2, 2012

A COUPLE FACTS:

  • San Diego County leads the nation in small family farms practicing organic methods.
  • Apparently, the Seeds@City program at San Diego City College is the only high learning institution in San Diego County offering a degree in sustainable agriculture.

Seeds@City wants to add more staff to manage already available land, offer more classes, grow the program, and in-turn educate more future farmers and food entrepreneurs. But with recent cuts in education funding, the program must become more self-sufficient.

THE PROPOSAL:
Become a nursery for urban food producers.

THE PLAN:
Seeds@City aims to build a greenhouse that will generate ongoing revenue through a CSA-style (Community Supported Agriculture) program producing plant starters for urban farmers across the city. With some collective investment from the community, Seeds@City will be able to build the greenhouse and gain more financial independence by which to grow the program.

YOUR PART:
You can support this project at any level, whether you are growing tomatoes at home, selling pickles at a farmers market, or running a restaurant featuring local food. Check out their Kickstarter page to get on board.

Filed in: California, DIY, Education, Farms, Food, Restaurants, San Diego, Tijuego, West Coast Comment →

Trappist Pizza

Posted by Sean on December 27, 2011

My family has a new holiday tradition that we’ve enjoyed the last couple years – Christmas pizza! This year we took some inspiration from the famous Trappist beers of Belgium and the Netherlands. Here’s a little recap from the Mother Sponge holiday baking laboratory…

Instead of a wild yeasted sourdough starter (A.K.A. the “mother sponge”), I infused the dough with some Trappist Ale Yeast from White Labs.

A lazy pizzaiolo’s best friend, the stand mixer.

Shaping the dough balls. We made three 10″ pies per the Cheeseboard Collective Works recipe… gotta make sure we had plenty of leftovers.

The dough was more dense than my usual sourdough mix… the yeast probably needed more time to get the dough to rise. Next time I’ll make a new starter with the Trappist yeast and give it plenty of time to reach full strength.

Tossing the pies! The dough may have not risen as much as I would have liked, but it made stretching and tossing the dough really easy.

Our favorite family recipe is a “New Mexican” pie, with roasted poblano chiles, corn, pine nuts, goat cheese, mozzarella, and cilantro. Nothing like 70 degree San Diego weather for a camp stove session on the front porch!

We don’t have a wood fired oven (yet!), but a pizza stone helps to finish the bottom of the pie to get a nice balance of crispy and chewy. If you were curious, that beautiful tea kettle was designed by Sori Yanagi, and you can get one at Halcyon Tea in South Park (it’s our workhorse for tea & coffee).

The Cheeseboard usually tops their pizzas with Italian parsley, but the New Mexican pizza calls for something more complimentary to roasted chiles, and cilantro delivers.

Here’s one of the pies, fresh outta the oven. Much thinner and mild than my usual tangy sourdough, but still incredibly tasty. That bottle of Chimay Grande Reserve snuck into this meal through mere coincidence as a stocking stuffer, but rounded out our Trappist inspired Christmas feast beautifully.

The finishing table, where the pies were showered with fresh chopped cilantro, avocado oil (from Bella Vado), and kosher salt.

A big thanks to White Labs for providing the yeast for this experiment! If you brew beer at home (or wine), check them out. We’ll report back when we try a few of their liquid yeasts for more baking and homebrewing adventures in 2012.

From our family to yours… we hope you’ve had a scrumptious holiday thus far. Cheers to a tasty New Year!

Photos courtesy of Stacy Kelley.

Filed in: Beer, Berkeley, Books, California, Food, Homebrew, New Mexico, Pizza, San Diego, Sourdough Comment →

Lardo in the limelight

Posted by Sean on September 29, 2011

The first pig fat based ice cream sandwich to get it’s own website, The Linkery’s Lardo Ice Cream Sandwich, will be featured on The Cooking Channel’s show United Tastes of America this Tuesday at 7pm. It’s a hefty desert by all accounts, good to share among 4 peeps, preferably with a pint of Speedway Stout for sipping.

Keep bringing it, San Diego/Tijuana region purveyors of fine food!

Filed in: Beer, California, Dessert, Food, Restaurants, San Diego, Tijuana, Tijuego, TV, West Coast Comment →