Last week I had an great opportunity to check out another Boston Blog and Tweet event. This time I crossed the bridge (with a very beautiful sunset I might add) into Cambridge for a friendly cooking competition with KitchenSurfing, Popchips at Workbar.
KitchenSurfing needs no great introduction on my blog since I did a review with them a few months ago, but in case you missed that here’s the deal. Its an online service where you pick a chef who will come to your home and cook, or teach you to cook a meal. Aside from the amazing food I’ve experienced, my second favorite part is that they do all the cleaning. Think of it as another option to those $$$$ restaurants, or a great way to cater an event. Every cuisine you can think of is available at various price options.
Popchips are a chip that’s “popped” versus the standard fried options. I think the process is similar to rice cakes (but don’t quote me on it). Regardless of how it’s made, it has lower calories then your standard chip and is so amazing. Little tip, Costco has great pricing on the family size bag!
Workbar offers communal workspaces where freelancers, start-ups, and remote employees of larger enterprises can enjoy high quality office amenities at an affordable price. The provide an extraordinary workplace for their members; meeting rooms to meet with clients and give presentations; event space; and a wide variety of social and educational programming including happy hours, lunch seminars, workshops, and networking events.
Now that you know all the key players, let’s get to the competition, because you know at the end of the day, I’m there for some food, and maybe some chatting, One of my talents is talking and eating at the same time (even if my mother disapproved).
First up are the boys of Aprons off Catering, Mark O’Leary and Justin Hackett serving up loads of delicious Vietnamese Bahn Mi Sandwich with Popchips cured pork, salt & vinegar Popchip mayo, Katy Perry’s Popchip pate, and a Vietnamese style baguette made with pulverized Popchips! I have to say that my favorite part of it all were their bread rolls! I even shamelessly came back for seconds! Check them out on KitchenSurfing and order up some tasty meals!
Next up for my stomach was Jitti Chaithiraphant of Food Is Love! He prepared a corn and cheddar Popchips soup. I have the recipe and it was so good, that I might have to try it out myself with it’s rich cheddar flavor with Popchips as a base and a crunchy Popchips garnish. Maybe not the most healthiest soup, but absolutely satisfying!
And finally last but not least, chef Jen Rogers of Perfect Bite who is absolutely hilarious, was serving up a party! She created a Popchips Chicken and Waffle app using Katy’s Kettle Corn Popchips for the “waffle” and Popchips breaded chicken, with a delicious Honey-Hot BBQ sauce. But wait, to make this chicken and waffle combo complete, she added in a Bloody Mary shooter!
As you can see from the description of the chefs, we were absolutely spoiled rotten! Add in a wonderful bartender mixing up some cranberry infused vodka with seltzer drinks and I got nothing to complain about.
We were asked to pick a favorite and it’s a tough choice but I guess we can’t always all be winners besides my stomach. I would have to pick Jitti Chaithiraphant of Food Is Love and his cheddar Popchips soup. The ingredients just went so naturally together. Now if I could grab one of Mark and Justin’s rolls to have with it, I think it would have been a killer combo!
After the awesome event we all got to walk away with some Popchips for a chance to compete in a Popchips competition of our own to win a KitchenSurfing giftcard. So you bet that I’ll be entering and I’ll post the recipe later tomorrow! Stay tuned, because you’ll love it! (I hope so you can vote for me!)
In the mean time if you want to learn more about all the parties involved in organizing this awesome event, here are some links.
Popchips – Facebook – @Popchips
Workbar – Facebook – @WorkBar
KitchenSurfing – Facebook – @Kitchensurfing & @KS_Boston
BlogAndTweetBoston – Facebook– @BlogAndTweetBos
QOTD
Have you ever tried Popchips? As I mentioned before, I go through Costco sized bags!
Have you ever cooked anything with chips? No, but it was fun playing around!
Run To Munch 
I keep seeing people COOKING with the popchips.
and it had never ever ever occurred to me until then 🙂
me either, but it’s so brilliant!
holy yum!! i do love popchips… so much so that they’re dangerous around here #ieatthewholebagintwoseconds
They are quite dangerous!
I love pop chips but have never cooked with them, that’s an interesting idea I guess. All the food you had looks super delicious and that’s neat that you can get a chef to come to your home and cook for you, it turns a night out into a night in and hooray for them cleaning!
Workbar sounds so cool! I wish we had that here in Charleston, I am a remote employee and it would be neat to get out of the house to work with others, even just being around them to feel like an office. I think a lot of people who work from home experience this.
This makes me want to move to Charleston and open one. I work from an office but I would love to do something on my own. We have a few of these all over Boston which is nice for all the techy start-ups.
I am bummed I had to miss this event, it looked awesome!