Dragon fruits have oreo ice cream on the inside!

See the following post for some pics of the open mic itself. This post is devoted to some of the food that open mic brought with it.

As promised on the "flyer page" for open mic, "The house will serve lentils."

We weren’t sure what was going to happen with open mic and we didn’t really tell many people until the last minute. But I had put up a page under projects on my website and in the description I listed that the house will serve lentils. As promised there they are half eaten. On the right is a basic lentil pot seasoned up just slightly for the less adventurous. The pot on left was a pretty flavorful Indian lentil “chili” sort of thing that I made up on the fly based on four lentil recipes I skimmed over before starting. To ensure everyone could partake I made them vegan which I find harder to create rich flavors with sometimes. The pot was practically overflowing and my sister mocked me for overcooking as usual. Except they must have been good cause they were all gone before the night was over.

Experimental home brew from Nicole and the upcoming ON THE TRACKS brewery.

This is the joy of having an open mic at your house, there is no limit to the types of creativity that can be shared. In this case it was some experimental recipes home brewed from our friend Nicole and her upcoming brewery, ON THE TRACKS. There were two varieties to be sampled. A smoked porter and a sweet “s’more” porter. Both were fantastic, not perfect yet, but everyone was pleased and had some suggestions for the next batches. But again, it must have been good because there wasn’t much left at the end of the night. Our friend Jordan later also brought some of his own hefeweizen home brew. In the foreground are two amazing raw vegan salads Brian brought, the one on the right being my favorite and some kind of sweet bamboo concoction. Love it all.

Open mic tea station.

As open mic is traditionally associated with coffeeshops we had to have coffee and tea on hand. I was available to make espresso drinks. A french press was inside on the table with the beer. And outside we had a tea station for people to help themselves.

My sister models the astounding dragon fruit.

Dragon fruits have oreo ice cream on the inside!

Amanda was kind enough to sample of these amazing dragon fruits. They are breathtaking Suessian wonders of nature to look at. Daniel on first site thought it was an art project filling the outside of an artichoke with candle wax. Once cut open it was even more astounding. The white “meat” of the fruit was speckled through and through with little black seeds that you can barely tell are there when you eat it. While really tasty the experience was not nearly as exciting or breathtaking as the appearance. That must be why pears are so good. The flavor is like eating a bland kiwi with the texture of moist mushy styrofoam. And I mean that in the best possible way. But as Jordan pointed out, how would we know if they were even ripe?

Jordan and Nicole discuss the finer points of their respective beers.

While the turnout was limited for the event a fun time was had by all and nobody went home hungry.

Hope to see you at the next open mic! And remember if you don’t perform you have to bring food or drink.