tiffin unboxed

A Day at the Races - Santa Anita Park

Despite living quite close to Santa Anita Park, until a couple of months ago, I'd never been to the horse racetracks. I'm not much of a gambler.

In early October, my friend Chrissy reserved a club box at this beautiful racetrack in Arcadia, complete with a short lesson on reading the form and betting. On top of that, they were hosting a food truck festival in the infield.

A couple of us enjoyed the very warm ladies' day out and it was another great excuse to take photos of the gorgeous horses and park grounds.

Grounds:

iced Kona coffee from Mauie Wowie

Lobsta Truck - lobster roll with butter

Waffles de Liege - Belgian Liege waffle with Speculoos

Race Track & Horses:

National Grilled Cheese Month: Eva's Grilled Cheese Night and the 2010 Invitational Retrospective

April is National Grilled Cheese Month. So to celebrate this cheesy month, I engaged in a Pleasure Palate dinner at Eva Restaurant for Grilled Cheese Night. Eva Chef/Owner Mark Gold partnered with Chef/Co-Owner, Dave Danhi, of The Grilled Cheese Truck to offer several courses of grilled cheese sandwiches and side dishes.

Tillamook was the sponsor of GCI

Tillamook sponsors the GCI, so this cute little cheese wagon was parked prominently at this large, crazy cooking contest, dedicated to perfecting the art of grilled cheese.

Judging Table

A couple of friends and I applied to be judges and were able to get into this sectioned off area and sample entries to our bellies' desire. Still, one had to be assertive and crafty to snag a tasting as the melted sandwich quarters were being served, small batches at a time. It was also a warm day and crowded event.


With over 230 competitors, people spared no creativity in order to stand out, along with their creations. It was as much fun watching them than it was tasting the "sammiches".

The Cheese Ballers

This one was called the Panty Dropper - oh my!

Cute aprons and Tower Sandwiches

10 year old Jake was rocking out a delicious self-invented entry

The Jakester

An awesome 12 year old named Jake Feldman made this most creative concoction containing sauteed chorizo, onions, grilled portabello mushrooms, tomatoes and of course, lots of cheese. The outer red color comes from a crust of ground up Flaming Hot Cheetos. It was so wrong, it was kind of right. My brain said no, but the child at heart in me said YES.

L: Duck confit grilled cheese R: Saigon Spice

The duck confit sandwich was decidedly gourmet and I had two tastings while watching many judges wrinkle their noses at duck and pass it up! It contained duck confit, duck foie gras and goat cheese.

The competitive categories broke down into The Missionary Style, The Kama Sutra and The Honey Pot (this year they are adding a Love American Style category. My friend Cecilia Fabulich won Judge's Choice with the delicious entry on the above right. Her Saigon Spice sandwich contained pulled pork, mango, slaw and cheese of course!

Peanut Butter Jelly Cheese Sandwich

This flatter sandwich had cheese and jam on the inside and peanut butter coating on the outside which just worked really well.

The Honey Pot category

I passed by a lot of the sweet entries, preferring savory. But this one stood out and was worth a long wait. It contained cranberry bread, dulce de leche, goat cheese, cream cheese and  banana tempura. Great flavors and textures.

Creative presentations

Not all servings came in little white paper plates. The two above came in very tropical packages. On the left is the Flatbread Jam Sandwich, peeping out of the creature's mouth. On the right is a sandwich wrapped in a banana leaf.

Collecting ballots

Mayor of Cheese

More competitors in costume