The Elf and I are truly “fired up” for this two and a half hour eat-whatever-u-want event held at Pirch in Costa Mesa, CA.  This will be our first time attending the “Orange Coast Magazine Best Restaurants Celebration 2018”.

Pirch is a kitchen and bath showroom chock full of upscale appliances for the residences of the upper crust.

https://www.pirch.com/visit-us/costa-mesa

Vila Santa 2015 Vinho from Portugal

This wine is modestly priced at $8.95 per bottle (hitimewine.net) but is very friendly.  It is quite soft in the mouth with some fairly lush fruit on the front, a good nose and nothing overtly offensive.

Portola Coffee Lab: Rose Cardamon Latte

I suppose if I can gnaw my way through flowery tea I can do the same through coffee.  This is rather sweet with clear floral tones creating a lot of interest on the nose.  I’m not used to Portola serving up sweet beverages but this is quite pleasing albeit slightly unusual.

Octopus Carpaccio

Super thin, delicate and so tasty.

Bakery Habana: “Cafe Cubano”

If I weren’t concerned with sugars I would hammer four of these.  As it were, I devour two only with more desserts to “sniff in” on.  The cup consists of edible dark chocolate, as if this isn’t amazing enough already.

Bakery Habana: Irvine, CA

An up close and personal look at my smooth and bold coffee mousse.

Blue Cheese Honey Pizza

This slice offers multiple surprises.  First, the honey was more pronounced than the blue cheese.  Second, it works and works splendidly.  Delicious.

Tropical Ceviche

The ingredients include the following: yellow fin tuna, avocado, coconut lime dressing, chicharron, Thai chili.  I skip it due to dietary concerns.

Puesto: Chicken al Pastor Taco

This taco consists of: crispy melted cheese, hibiscus, chipotle tinga, avocado, grilled pineapple, salsa quemada, maiz azul tortilla.  It is only lightly spicy and given the laundry list of tasty ingredients; it is delectable.

Miss Mini Donuts

A creamy spoon of exceptional scallop

Bella and I are too busy getting as many of these as we could to take a look at the signage with description.  🙂

Various cupcakes on display.  “Help yourself”…

This appears to be panna cotta or creme dessert.  Full or not, I should have tried one.

Assorted French Macaron Cookies

Again, no room for these either.  Only the best of the best interest us with this pastry anyway.

Seafood Salad Bite

Very tasty and too busy eating this to recall the ingredients.  A prevailing theme for the night…

Additional items I failed to photograph were an exceptional sangria with fresh fruit in the glass, an above average miniature cannolo pastry and others I can’t recall due to short-term memory disease.  I swore I took a photo of the “Cantonese duck bun sandie” (my name for it) but it is not present.

Here is a link to the site promoting the event and it includes a restaurant list:

http://www.orangecoast.com/bestrestaurants/

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