The Holiday Food Experiment

On Sunday, Thanan and I headed to The Bell House to partake in another Food Experiment from Nick & Theo.  Greeshma and I had previously gone to the delicious Brunch Experiment  which we absolutely adored, so I was excited to finally be in town for another one!  This weekend's experiment focused on holiday favorites.

There were over 25 contenders, the bulk of entries focused on desserts with about a dozen or so savory entries. Thanan and I found the sweet dishes to be standard and uninspired, and we found the savory dishes by and large more creative.  Here is the gist of what we ate:

Goat meatballs.  Thanan said, "Ikea," but I thought they tasted a little bit better than those Swedish meatballs.

A holiday risotto of some sort that tasted of curry and had pomegranate seeds.  This one was very unusual, and I selected it as my own favorite.

Goat meatballs served.

Greenbean casserole sitting on top of Righteous Burn's Righteous Sau dish of smoked pernil and butternut squash (ended up being the winner of audience's choice)

Brownie + minty chocolate ice cream + mint meringue.  Pretty tasty!

Mint chocolate cake ball.  Not very good (sad!)

Eggnog ice cream that was served with...

Gingerbread empanadas with cranberry sauce; this ended up being winner of the Judge's Award.  I thought this dish was good, but couldn't taste the gingerbread aspect at all.

Some sort of mini cupcake that was the driest cupcake in the entire world.

Gingerbread blondie.  So. Cute.  Did not taste like gingerbread though.

Really cute design for chopped liver.  I didn't try this one, but appreciated its aesthetics.

Rudolph's Last Ride: Braised venison served atop cornbread and topped with cranberry sauce.  This one was served nice and warm, and I rather liked it, though Thanan said it did not taste unique.

In the front is a bourbony apple tartlet. Pretty good, but creepily liquid.

The left is a "Kwanzaa cake" that essentially is a perfectly made macaron (so jealous people can make these!) that won an audience award.  The right is "Frosty's flipped fruitcake" which features gingerbread cake and brandied fruit compote; this won third place Judge's Award (I didn't like this too much despite how beautiful it was).

Sweet potato pie cake

Caramel cheesecake bites (standard)

Not your mama's pumpkin pie: served with either bacon or pecans and almonds.  Features bourbon and maple glazed apples.

A spoof on cookies and milk.  Chocolate covered, peppermint dusted brownie bite served with mochi.  Solid, but not incredible.

The event was really good, though I think the brunch event had more creative offerings.  I hope to be a challenger one of these times!  A tip to those who are interested in going to a Food Experiment: do arrive on time - Thanan and I were able to knock out 75% of the offerings by the time the bulk of people arrived, which made the event less enjoyable due to the increased congestion.  Early bird does get the worm!