So it turns out we LOVE food here at Rare Affairs! One of the most important aspects of any event for us is the food. The food is a conversation piece. It morphs into the theme and décor, and is often the part of the event that people remember well into the future. It’s only appropriate that our first contest should include a foodie gift basket stuffed full of our favourite gourmet food items from one of our favourite places to shop in Langley BC, Well Seasoned.
Every now and again we get to come up with more intimate meal experiences for much smaller affairs such as VIP Events or Company board retreats for example. By far one of our most favourite things to do is make an evening out of the meal by hosting a fondue party. We could spend a long time talking about some of the best fondue parties that we’ve had the pleasure to be a part of but for now we’ll give those wishing to host a memorable fondue just a few tips:
Firstly….consider partaking in a fondue before hosting one yourself. If you happen to be in a city with a Melting Pot Restaurant, try it out! Our experience having a meal at The Melting Pot in Seattle was a wonderful one.
We also highly suggest gathering up six to ten friends or coworkers and heading to Grouse Mountain for a snowshoe and fondue evening. We had a group of friends together to go experience it this Valentine’s Day weekend. However, once we had our snowshoes and headlamps on to depart, the guides said they had to get everyone off the mountain due to high winds. Apparently they don’t operate the gondola in winds over 70km/hr despite us being soaked and obviously ready to rock!
Sooo…..Always have a Plan B! To salvage the evening we went to a Teppanyaki restaurant which was a lot of fun and involved fire and smoking onion towers which is another great idea for a company party…..but I digress.
Secondly….remember the food safe aspect of serving raw meat and seafood. Thaw your meat in the fridge, make sure you are using fresh ingredients and make sure you keep raw meat in dishes separate from where guests will place cooked meat.
Fondue etiquette suggests skewers be used to cook the food while forks should be used to remove and eat the cooked meat from the skewer (unless of course this is a really intimate affair in which case we say skewers all the way!).
We know it sounds obvious, but when you start adding a little white wine to your cheese fondue and putting the rest in your glass you start to forget things, so plan ahead.
Thirdly….have fun with presentation. Consider lobster tails taken out of the shell sliced into strips for cooking and then placed back atop the tail shell sprinkled with a little paprika. Venture away from boring broth and spice it up a little with this excellent recipe similar to one we tried at the Melting Pot (I should mention they have an excellent fondue cookbook too).
Mojo Fondue Broth:
5 1/4 cups chicken bouillon
1/4 cup orange juice, fresh-squeezed
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons jerk seasoning
2 tablespoons black pepper, cracked
2 tablespoons lime juice, fresh-squeezed
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1) Combine ingredients in saucepan on stovetop & bring to a boil.
2) Transfer to fondue pot with alternative heat source.
3) Use to cook beef, shrimp, scallops, chicken, mushrooms, potatoes, broccoli (LOBSTER YUM!!!) or anything else you can think of.
Consider a cheese fondue to start (because you can add white wine to it) and most importantly a nice dessert fondue to end the night (because you can add Bailey’s, Grand Marnier, Amaretto, Triple Sec, etc…you get the picture). There are many great recipes and resources online for both.
Finally and most importantly, don’t lose your food in the pot! It’s a tradition that “if a man drops his food in the fondue pot, he must buy a round of drinks. If a woman loses her food in the pot, she must kiss all her neighbours”. Hey don’t look at us, we don’t make the rules, we just follow them.
For more information on how Rare Affairs can help with your next private event please Contact Us!
