HipCooks Hits Portland: Holy Mole!

Recently, I was invited to attend a HipCooks class. Hipcooks was started in Los Angeles (but we won't hold that against them) and has recently opened their Portland location on the ever growing cooler section of N. Williams (across from Pix Patisserie). The class that I terrorized...err...attended...was called "Holy Mole!" and as you might suspect, was a Mexican-fusion class, complete with margaritas.

Unfortunately, the fabulously fun owner of HipCooks, Monika Reti, wasn't able to teach my class...but the ever perky Allison did a great job of keeping everyone engaged. This was truly  a hands on, everybody gets to taste everything, kind of experience.

Here we are making flan with a twist...a bit of fresh pepper in the flan base ensures a kick follows the sweetness of the caramel. Did I mention we made caramel? Yeah, see, what's not to like about a class that makes a product that contains 100% sugar?

We made an extensive menu, which of course, involved the creation of a mole. And though I would have liked a deeper level of foodie info, I was by far the minority. Class members asked great  questions, were introduced to new techniques and got to mash things up with a really big mortar and pestle...fun!

Did I mention we made margaritas? Um, yeah...and there was wine involved...And at the end of the evening, we all sat down to eat our meal togther. 

The evening was a lot of fun and way low pressure. I would love to try another cuisine specific class, they have a Thai and a Greek class that would be really great. I also hear that they have a knife skills class...which would be great if it would reduce the number of times I inadvertantly cut myself while trying to chop a few carrots for dinner...sigh...

But there is one secret about HipCooks that I am reticent to tell you. In fact, I am only going to do so because I like Monika and her husband and it is only fair to send them business instead of keep this foodie resource in my grubby little heart. Get closer to the computer now so you can hear...they have the most amazing, I mean amazing, Nielsen-Massey vanilla bean paste for $8 and Maldon sea salt for $7. Yes, they have a small inventory of specialty foods and utentsils for great prices. But listen, don't tell everybody, ok...'cause they won't have any left when I stop by...

Anywhoo, do yourself a favor and give their classes a try. They cost around $55 a pop...not a bad investment for 3 hours and a meal. Plus, they email you all of the recipes afterwards so you don't have to spend the whole time trying to write everything down.

And if you do go, be sure to tell Monika I sent you...and leave some vanilla paste for me...

Comments

[Metroknow]

Great post Jean Ann - I think this is definitely something my wife and I'll do for a date night sometime soon. And being across from Pix - what could be better?

[noble pig]

Sounds like a great place.