Man v. Food Season 3 Premiere

He's baaaack! The Travel Channel's Man v. Food premieres next Wednesday, June 16th @ 9:30 E/P in the city of Boulder, Colorado. If you haven't had a chance to check out the show (I've only watched a few episodes myself) here's the low down on the premise and the man in front of the camera:

Adam Richman is a food fanatic who travels around the country discovering the biggest and best meals our nation has to offer. As a young boy growing up in New York City, he had a desire to taste.it.all. Though he's had no professional culinary training, he's held numerous jobs in the food and restaurant industry. Adam's ultimate hunger quest finds him on an incredible nationwide journey where he headfirst, no regrets, takes on extreme food challenges.

For example: In season 1 Adam visited Boston and took part in the infamous Eagles Deli Challenge: Challenge Burger 5lbs of beef, 20 slices of cheese, 20 slices of bacon and of course what’s a burger without fries, our challenge burger comes with 5lbs of em!

I assume this photo was taken in the midst of the chow-down. Holy mother of god. I'm no stranger to Eagle's Deli, and in fact I can barely finish a regular burger and fries. (They cured many a hangover back in the days when I lived right down the street in Brookline. Love their food!)

What's super cool about the Season 3 premiere is the fact that it takes place in Boulder, Colorado. What's so special about Boulder you ask?

a) My good friends (and faithful III followers) Laura and Craig live there.

b) I traveled to Boulder back in April and went to two (out of three) of the places Adam will be visiting in this episode!!

Man v. Mountain Pie. First up Adam visits Beau Jo's where he attempts to conquer one of Colorado's legendary 14 lb. Sicilain pizzas with a mile high crust and an avalanche of toppings. [Since I love Sicilian pizza, and missed Beau Jo's the first time around, looks like I need to make a trip back!]Man v. Saddlebags. Up next he heads to local breakfast joint The Buff where there is no doubt in my mind he will succeed at finishing the Saddlebags Pancakes. Pancakes filled with your choice of diced bacon, sliced sausage, or diced ham, topped with two eggs.
I am not sure if he will have that exact dish, but either way, the girls and I wish him the best of luck. Ashley happened to order this meal when we brunched there one glorious morning.
She was able to finish half which is a commendable effort.
The fact that we chowed down on Pecan Caramel Quesadillas before our brunch entrees arrived might have had something to do with her not being able to finish. Moving right along....

Man v. Wings. Finally, Adam takes on the Wing King Challenge at The West End Tavern. This challenge apparently involves a bucket full of more wings than all of Adam's previous chicken wing challenges combined. Umm what?! How in the heck does one eat 50 wings in 30 minutes?!In case you missed it, my first night out in Boulder included sipping Bourbon cocktails at this very bar! No wings were consumed, but you can read all about my night on Pearl St. and how impressed I was with The West End Tavern here.

Clearly, I can't wait to see Adam take on the food, especially at some of my favorite Boulder restaurants.

-Have you ever watched the show?
-Will you be watching the season premiere next Wednesday, June 16th?!

*A special thanks to The Travel Channel and Ashley for their amazing photographs*

Boulder Night 3 | Homemade Pasta Dinner

For our final night in Colorado, we lounged around the apartment, took long hot showers and drank some delicious (and super fun labeled) bottles of red wine; while our generous hosts prepared an Italian feast.

I love how this bottle is called Petite Petit and there are two giant circus elephants just chillin'

The Chime Pinot Noir was just the muscle relaxant I needed. Ski jumps & steep bowls of spring snow causes sore muscles sore like you wouldn't believe.

Laura prepared this colorful salad while Craig made the pasta dough in their Kitchen Aid Mixer.

Laura also made two red sauces.

This one had garlic, green peppers, onions and a special ingredient - pepperoni slices. Have you ever had pepperoni in a sauce? I hadn't. It's such a creative touch!

Craig and I set up a system where he processed the dough and I hung the linguine on the makeshift drying rack. It's actually a cookie sheet balanced on two boxes.

Making progress.

And loving this whole process.

Pasta dinner for seven coming right up.

Completeness. I filled the entire rack!

Linguine photo shoot. Obvi!


No Italian feast would be complete without garlic bread.
Laura goes all out.
We're ready to eat.

The super fabulous bowl the garlic bread is in was one of her birthday presents from yours truly a few years ago!
We were all in homemade pasta heaven and in agreement this was the best pasta we have ever tasted. So fresh, tender and doughy covered in a most flavorful sauce with generous chunks of green pepper and sliced pepperoni rounds.
The garlic breads and salad were the perfect accompaniments.
I can't thank Laura and Craig enough for their generosity and hospitality throughout our time in Boulder. They went above and beyond. I've been on a constant high all week long from this vacation. The weather was perfect, the meals were incredible, the photo shoot memories will last a lifetime and the skiing totally rejuvenated me from a long winter without. I feel incredibly blessed to have girlfriends I can plan a trip and travel across the country with. The adventure possibilities are endless. I can't wait to see what life has in store next.

Boulder Night 2 | Jax Fish House

Another night in Boulder, another beer to try. In addition to the Fat Tire bottles, Laura stocked the fridge full with cans of Upslope Pale Ale. It wouldn't be my first drink of the day and it's certainly not the last.

It's simple and goes down easy. A good transition the day-into-night drinking beer if you will. Then Craig made us all Extra-Dark-N-Stormy's. I just made up that name for these drinks. (He was inspired by none other than this post.) Ginger Root Beer was purchased - root being the key ingredient here. So it's not your typical light in color and pure ginger flavored DnS. But it makes for a delish extra-sweet extra-dark and stormy.

We had a little photo shoot on the patio. Here is the best pic of the bunch. When the drinks were finished we piled in the car and headed to the highly anticipated event of the weekend, dinner at Jax Fish House.
As you may or may not be aware - Executive Chef Hosea Rosenberg holds the title of Top Chef Season 5 which was filmed in New York City and aired on Bravo back in 2008. I was looking forward to meeting him (maybe even getting our picture together?!) - however Laura recalled reading something on his blog about how he wasn't there anymore. Oh he has a blog does he? I checked it out at Where is Hosea and sure enough learned through his profile: Since his big win he has been busy traveling, eating, cooking and enjoying life. Starting September 15th 2009 Hosea took a sabbatical from Jax Fish House to travel, relax, expand his culinary knowledge, catch up on reality, and learn from some of the best chefs in the country. Yea yea yea. I secretly wished he was still at Jax because it would have been cool to say I ate a meal prepared by him.
We were so excited to be here we practically ran from the car into the tiny packed Pearl Street establishment. This is definitely one of Boulder's Saturday night hot spots. While waiting for our table to clear out, some of us managed to snag a seat at the bar. A row of infusion jars overhead immediately caught my eye.
This town is seriously into infusions! One Cucumber Infused Vodka Martini coming right up.This takes the martini to the next level. The clean and mild cucumber taste with light hints of melon blend naturally with the sharp potent vodka. This is one of those drinks you could linger over all evening and feel refreshed after each sip.
The bar is shaped like a fish, which was tough to capture from my seat but the above is what I did get. In the distance you can see the Jax wall of fame. Pretty sure it's a wall of locals proudly displaying a fish they caught while wearing a Jax hat. We were lead past an exposed brick wall boasting modern fish artwork and sat directly underneath a fishhook at a table right in front of the kitchen. Can you imagine if Hosea was working his magic back there?! I'd have a front row seat!
Bread is key. Very key. And that martini was excellent. At our table, some of us colored on the table cover while Erin and Ash deliberated over the wine list.

I surprised myself with the dishes I chose to order this evening. I started with oysters from the raw bar.
Adam's comment when I got home and showed him my pics; "You ordered oysters in Colorado?" It wasn't an 'I'm proud of your choice' comment, it was more like an 'I'm appalled at your choice' statement. Well, Jax just-so-happens to be famous for their raw bar which offers numerous types of oysters flown in daily. So many types so that I can't even remember what I chose. All I know is I was real excited about them, despite the fact that they were the smallest oysters I had ever laid eyes on. I ordered them with the purple sweet potato vinegar mignonette, which believe it or not came on a separate un-pictured plate. Once the waiter explained the salad special, I knew I had to get it. All I could picture was the fresh handpicked leafy greens he went on about. I wanted them.

Miners Lettuce ($7) Sherry Vin, Macadamia nuts, Haystack Chevre, apples, dried cherriesThis was a really amazing combination of long leafy greens, sweet dried fruit, fresh tart fruit, crumbled cheese and my favorite type of nuts. Erin ordered a salad as well. Holy Iceberg Wedge ($8) which consisted of Crispy onions, five onion ranch, crispy bacon, and maytag bleu cheese Photo shoot in between courses!
For my entree I ordered off the appetizer menu. I went with my gut and my gut told me 'more oysters'.

Oysters Rockefeller ($14) bacon, pine nuts, spinach, pernod, asiago, breadcrumbs

They were so much fun to photograph, and even more fun to eat. I loved them all briny and smooth coated in crispy breadcrumbs among other loud flavors of sharp asiago, salty bacon and delicate pine nuts. For her entree, Ashley ordered the Grilled Pork Chop ($23) hand mashed potato, greens, apple, bourbon barrel maple syrup. See those little cubes of pork belly on the outskirts of her dish? I ate them all. I was thrilled to learn she didn't want / like them. I probably told her to hold that up. It's the crawfish from her Jax Chicken and Crawfish Gumbo ($8) consisting of spicy andouille sausage, red and green peppers and white rice. My second drink at dinner was a St. Germain Bubbly ($9)
I just love St Germain, here they mixed it with Grey Goose la Poire and bubbles. We had such a blast tonight. The lively scene and upbeat vibe was an ideal dinner venue for our Saturday night out.
Hosea or no Hosea, it's still an awesome spot.  Jax Fish House rocks.

We didn't have a late night of drinking out on the town planned (plus we got our fill earlier today) because the next mornings wake-up call was at 6:30am. What on earth could be so important that we are waking up at 6:30 on a Sunday morning for? You'll find out tomorrow. But that doesn't mean our night ended! First stop was the multi-floored mecca that is the Urban Outfitters on Pearl Street.
I know you all were dying to see what the inside of the Boulder Urban looked like.

Just chillin on Pearl Street once again.

Love it here. Love them.

Second stop was the liquor store to pick up a few more fun 6 packs for tomorrow.

We didn't purchase Budweiser or Guinness but I thought they had some intense displays worth a photo. The third and final destination was home base, where it was time for dessert! We dug into a pre-ordered box of Perfect Serendipity cupcakes.
A coworker of Laura's named Jenny Dumala owns and operates this adorable online Cupcakery and Sweet Shop. Jenny's childhood love of sweets turned into a passion for baking and what eventually became Perfect Serendipity's modern cupcake creations. We ordered the Sweetie Pie and Barbie, which not only look incredible, but taste amazing too. Vanilla bean specked and hot neon pink (respectively) frosting is piled high a top rich fluffy cake with girly toppings too boot. I am regretting the fact that I only ate the Sweetie Pie. Those pink Barbie heels look delectable. While indulging in these treats we watched SNL - Justin Beiber hosted! Oh the jokes were a flowing. We laughed till we passed out. Alarms were set for the crack of dawn,  day two adventures are up next!