Guaca-Scuse Me?: Ace of Taste Savory & Sweet Birthday Celebration!

Well folks, I'm officially not in my early 20's anymore! I turned 25 last Friday! Does this mean I'm a grown up now? Can I still call my mom to have her explain insurance to me, or have cookie dough for dinner? I'm going to say yes...

Moving on- I celebrated my birthday with a great weekend! Bryan and I went to an Ace of Taste dinner, which I've been dying to go to since I started following them on Instagram a few months ago. Ace of Taste does pop up dinners throughout Houston with experienced and emerging chefs, and this dinner's theme was Sweet + Savory! Every course had a dessert! Umm, hello- totally the perfect way to spend a birthday! I feel like I've been training my whole life for this moment.

Strawberry basil drink for me, grapefruit for Bryan. Both liquored up with Cointreau

I also got spend some time with my friend Lisa and enjoy her amazing treats alongside these other very talented chefs! All the savory food was provided by chef David Rodriguez of Tout Suite and the event was held at Sugar & Cloth's crisp white studio.

Photo by Lisa Driver

The starter was mushroom toast with a greyure spread with herbs. The toast had a great crunch, and the herbs brought out a ton of flavor.

The first course included two chocolate truffles from Maple & Love- one white chocolate with cookie crumbs and either a dark chocolate pyramid or a milk chocolate circle with a hazelnut center. These were paired with bacon covered figs and some sort of cream sauce. Both the dark and milk chocolates were so soft and full of flavor, and the figs were amazing! The bacon and glaze on top made me want 3 more servings!

The second course was two adorable vanilla bean macarons (made by Mon Cherie Macarons and decorated by Sugar & Cloth) disguised as waffles with fried chicken and a maple syrup glaze. If I had to choose, I'd say this was my least favorite of the savory dishes, but that's only because all of the other ones were soooo good. The chicken was still full of flavor and juicy.

Course three were two sharing plates that consisted of a cupcake 'sundae' (dark chocolate brownie, Oreo, and PB&J) and waffle battered corn dogs with a black pepper mustard. The PB&J cupcake was absolutely my favorite of the 3, but I really enjoyed the other two as well. And these corn dogs were great. Nice, plump sausages and a flavorful mustard made us say "definitely!" when the waiter came around asking if we wanted another!

At this point, I was starting to get a little full, but I was so excited for the last course that I had to power through. It was a macaron 'burger' with chocolate ganache in the middle, hand cut truffle fries with Parmesan, and an orange infused Cointreau creamsicle made by Honeychild's Sweet Creams. I love specialty french fries, so of course these were amazing! What I wasn't expecting was how much I loved the milkshake! Usually creamsicle flavor isn't really up my alley, but as you can see from the picture, I was pretty into it!

The night ended with champagne, a Q&A session, and thanks to Lisa, a round of "Happy Birthday". Overall, it was a wonderful night full of delicious food and drink, and it should certainly become a birthday tradition!