Debajo at a Taste of Tilian

What a perfect night at Tilian Farm Development Center. We set up our cart behind the barn as we teamed up with Ben of Bending Sickle Community Farm to create this delicious duck egg tortilla with tomato basil salad and tomato jam. Green Things Farm contributed the tomatoes and zucchini. It was a real team effort to put the dish out for the Taste of Tilian Fundraiser. We had a blast. We didn't get to taste anything else, except the delicious beet chocolate cupcake with goat cheese frosting. The line outside our cart seemed endless for a while, but it was all in good fun to celebrate great local food. The evening was capped off with music from the wonderful band The Understory.

Back at Union Hall Kitchen

Well, we are back at Union Hall Kitchen. Our suppliers are making stops again and we are gearing up for our new season. We feel a little more prepared than we did last year. Jay spent the day prepping all kinds of savory yums, including a chicken pepitoria (a traditional Spanish dish of chicken stewed in almond and saffron sauce) that we are rolling out this week in a sandwich with an apple and aioli slaw. There we are working as a team to get that aioli made. He made sofrito in preparation for another season of delicious paella. We'll be opening with our Catalan-style pulled pork. In our never ending effort to source as many ingredients locally as we can, we are now getting our Manchego from Graystone   Farm and Creamery in Chelsea. The Midwest truly meets Spain. We'll also be making shrimp fritters with lemon aioli. The shrimp, too, is sourced locally from The Shrimp Farm Market in Okemos, Michigan's first and only shrimp farm. I, of course, am back at baking our gluten free almond cookies.




We are anticipating a wonderful and fun grand re-opening event Friday, March 30. We love the atmosphere downtown and can't wait to be a part of that again on a full-time basis. Here is a photo of our card. We look forward to seeing you there.

An early start for us at Mark's Carts

When Chef Jay isn't cooking, he is checking the weather maps out. It's a Scott family obsession. So, he is constantly talking about the "blocking high." To those of us not hip to the weather lingo, that's apparently what is causing the unseasonably warm weather. It's brought all kinds of unseasonable pleasantries like daffodils and Debajo del Sol opening early at Mark's Carts. Yes, that's what I said. We have opened the cart. We've rolled out our new crispy whitefish sandwich with grapefruit, beet slaw and pistachio pesto. We'll be out there for lunch form 11:30 to 3:30 p.m. for lunch on weekdays until the Friday grand opening contingent upon whether. Be sure to check out our Facebook Page for updates and don't forget to hit the "like" button.

Just to recap the winter, we were at Wolverine Brewing Company for the winter serving up some Spanish-style street food during trivia nights. Chef Jay also served up breakfast at Selma Cafe in February. That's him working on French toast.

The rest of the winter was spent preparing for what we'll be doing this spring, summer and fall at Mark's Carts. We are excited to return for a second year and to meet the new cart owners. We are also eager to see our regular customers again and to meet new ones. We've already had a good start, and we appreciate all of those who have stopped by and expressed their excitement about season two at Mark's Carts. See you at the courtyard.

Celebrating Cristina's Birthday Wednesday with a mini-fundraiser for the Pink Fund and looking forward to Friday Night Live

I was on my way back to the courtyard today from a bread run when I realized how I wanted to celebrate my birthday on Wednesday, June 8, at the courtyard. I am all about birthdays and I'm all about helping women and men with breast cancer, especially helping an organization that helps women and men with the financial burden created by breast cancer treatment and recovery. That's why Debajo del Sol will be holding a mini-fundraiser for The Pink Fund, an organization based in Michigan that provides financial assistance to men and women who are going through breast cancer and have lost income because of it.

I know all too well the financial burden caused by a breast cancer diagnosis. I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006 and even with a good amount of vacation time and disability, five months of chemotherapy really did zap that all up and more, making it difficult to keep a full and steady paycheck while paying the mounting medical bills. That's why I think organizations such as The Pink Fund are as important to the fight as organizations that raise money to find a cure. Finding a cure would be great, but in the meantime women and men are living with the burdens cancer diagnoses ultimately cause.

My plan is to match whatever we collect tomorrow with the number of my age. We also will be running a special. The first person to guess my age correctly will get a free paella.

Here's to birthdays!!!!!

We'll also be open at the courtyard during Friday Night Live. There will be live music featuring the band Me and Ryan. Also, we'll run some specials. Look for details in Thursday's post.

We saw the sun

It happened today. The sun came out in Ann Arbor. That's after a week of storms, tornado warnings and snow. Well, the snow wasn't real. The snow was part of the movie set for Five Year Engagement, starring Emily Blundt and Jason Segel, which is shooting in Ann Arbor. I saw the fake snow as I walked up Washington to get some fresh bread at Cafe Japon. I had no idea there was a movie being shot in Ann Arbor until last Thursday. That was the day Jay and I made the executive decision not to open our cart as rain and thunder storms were forecasted for the entire day. We decided to make up for it and remain open throughout the holiday weekend.
Friday, Jay debuted the outdoor paella cooker, making his life a little more hectic. He now works the line in our cramped little mobile kitchen and simultaneously has paella cooking outside, so I'm learning a bit more about the line. In essence, I'm learning how not to destroy chorizo corn dogs. I admit I had no idea what I was doing when he left me alone in the cart for the first time a couple weeks ago. It wasn't pretty. I'm a quick study, though, and I haven't destroyed anymore chorizo corn dogs since. Knock on wood. Fortunately we have some great help in the form of our friend Scott G.

We love the community that is growing around our little food cart courtyard. We've had so many interesting, food loving visitors. Last week, Davis Smith posted a video blog about our courtyard. He said some wonderful things about our home away from home.
Jay's duck sausage with a pear mustard preserve and blue cheese foam, a little homage to the traditional Spanish duck and pears, proved popular, even if our whipper was a little ouchy.

We have more friends visit our cart. Jay's friend from high school Tim Ganun visited the cart. Jay took a brief break from all his cooking to say hello.
We also had a visit from one of our Kickstarter backers, Brian Steinberg, of Inchworm Bakery and Inchworm Microgreens. He'll be part of the Westside Farmer's Market opening at the Zingerman's Roadhouse parking this Thursday at 3 p.m. We wish him well and hopefully we'll get a moment to go check him out there. We look forward to seeing more of our friends and meeting so many new friends as the months progress. We also hope the sun will stick around for a while. Well, we'll see you at the cart. Ciao for now.

A poem by David Julius Ceasar Salad for debajo del sol

Estoy muriendo de hambre
y nadie quiere ayudarme
My estomago esta vacio
Y mi boca esta secando
Debajo del sol

Caminando en la calle
Yo miro un fantasma
Llamando mi nombre
Con comida fresca
En las sombras

**********************

I am dying of hunger
And nobody wants to help me
My stomach is empty
And my mouth is drying
Under the sun

Walking in the street
I see a ghost
Calling my name
With fresh food
In the shadows

Life at the Courtyard

We've been fortunate as far as weather goes. The sun has given life at the courtyard some great ambiance. We were busy today. We love being busy. We love being at the courtyard. Right now, it's all about finding our groove and ways to improvise to keep our customers happy. Ann Arbor has given us a warm welcome, though, and we are grateful for that.
Me, I love being in the city and seeing the streets of Ann Arbor wake up as I run morning errands. I'm getting to know Miyoko at Cafe Japon, where we get our delicious bread. I feel like a city dweller again, a far cry from what it felt like working in a small town for 12 years. Still, I did love the small town, but there is just so much going on in the city.
Just today, I walked by poet Keith Taylor. I said hello, though he probably doesn't know me from Adam. Still, it made me all happy inside just knowing that on any given day at the cart I can run into a poet. In fact, on our first day at the courtyard I walked by a guy who goes by the name David Julius Ceasar Salad just sitting at a small TV table writing poems for a few bucks. I asked him to write a poem for our cart. He wrote it in Spanish and translated it. I'll have to post it tomorrow because I keep it at the cart for our friends to read.
Well, it's time to get some rest and gear up for a few long days in a row. See you at the cart.

We love Ann Arbor!!!

We finished our first two days at Mark's Carts. So many of our friends came out to see, and we met so many wonderful people. We thank everyone for their patience on our first day. Jay and I were a bit overwhelmed on our opening day but grateful for the strong interest in our cart. Needless to say, we are exhausted but very happy to be part of this project. We've had fun getting to know our fellow cart owners. We've had fun sharing our food with everyone. Our moms have both helped us get our footing. We are still trying to find our groove a bit, but we are closer than we were Monday. Tomorrow, we are transitioning our piquillo pepper dish into a piquillo pepper goat cheese tapas on bread. We want an opportunity to share our goat cheese mousse made with goat cheese from Four Corners Creamery in Tecumseh.

While we've been busy a few more people have given us a nudge on Kickstarter.

Thanks to Phil Dokas, Antonietta Trapani and Joeri Maas, and little Enzo Maas (Cristina's little sister, brother-in-law and their little guy), Aunt Trisha and Uncle Whitey Kuhn (Jay's aunt and uncle), Laura Gramlich, Fred Corbett and Ji Wu.

We greatly appreciate your support.

Day 1 at Union Hall Kitchen and more shout outs

Union Hall Kitchen was abuzz with activity today. This was the first day Jay and I spent a good amount of time at Union Hall Kitchen. We waited for orders to come in and couldn't do much more than bake a bit and organize our goods. We weren't the only ones prepping. Phillis, of the Lunch Room, Keith, of Humble Hogs, and Paul, of Darcy's Cart, were all in the kitchen with us getting ready for our opening on Monday. The cement has been poured and our courtyard looks fabulous. We hope to move our cart in on Saturday.
In all the excitement I was initiated quickly into the cook's life as I burned my arm good on the convection oven door. That darn thing gets hot! Oh well. Live and learn.
Along with getting a few things prepped, we got our wonderful chalkboard sign put together. The sign was a collaborative effort between our mothers. Jay's mom, who with many years experience at finding innovating and inexpensive ways to create sets and costumes for plays, found an innovative way for us to create our chalkboard sign. My mom, with her exceptional painting talent, gave our sign some Spanish flair. Thanks to the both of them for their extraordinary talents.
More thanks goes to those who have helped push our Kickstarter campaign forward. We have only 10 more days and we are a little more than one third of the way toward our goal.

Thanks go to:
Darren Kuhn
Aunt Debbie Rood
Jeff McCabe (of Selma Cafe, check it out)
Steve Russie
Harold Taylor
Brian Poore (of the most excellent band 16 More Miles, check them out)
Nathan Scott (Jay's brother)
Leslie Larkins
David Barnett
Jim Lincoln (of the Tecumseh Herald, check it out)

Logo and Kickstarter shout outs

We'd like to put a huge shout out to our talented friend Hollie Smith who came up with our fantastic logo. All I did was say here are the words and this is kind of what I'm thinking and she ran with it. We are so pleased with how it looks. It's already up at the Mark's Carts website.

Also, we want to give a shout out to those who have gotten our Kickstarter campaign kickstarted.
Thanks to--
Chad and Stefanie Mentzer
Jason and Deb Magee
Loreen Niewenhuis
Robert Campbell
and another supporter we don't know

The Cart is Home and Kickstarter is Kickstarted

We ate our first meal from the cart, just to break it in and celebrate its homecoming. The excitement is building. There is no turning back now. Jay and his dad returned from Connecticut Wednesday not. They did the trip Scott style, of course--no stops. Maybe they did stop, but they got there and back in two days. Jay wasted no time getting it set up and he was eager to get all the things together and to test the mobile kitchen. There are still a few things we need to help us outfit the truck for the summer, so we started a Kickstarter campaign. We appreciate any help we get, and we are happy to offer some our tasty fare in return. Check out our campaign at the link above. If nothing, check out our silly little video.

Here we come

Jay's hard at work securing our cart. Thanks to Mom and Dad Scott for helping us make our food cart dream come true. I'm currently of little help, as I am in Den Haag, Netherlands. I'm visiting my sister, who lives here, and meeting my new nephew. The travel plans were made shortly before we knew about Mark's Carts and our part in the new food cart garden opening in Ann Arbor. This all has been a whirlwind development for us, an exciting whirlwind development.
Jay has Mama Maria and Papa T helping him perfect our paella while I'm away. I'm sure they both are also listening to him list all the things we have to get done in the few short weeks until Mark's Carts and Debajo del Dol opens. Along with our primarily Spanish cart, we will be throwing in some of Mama Maria's specialties along the way. Mama Maria is my mom. She was born in Sicily. I was raised on her authentic Sicilian cuisine. I guess we'll be playing a little with the Catalan and Sicilian culinary crossover. One thing I remember well about some of the Catalan cuisine was the familiarity of some of the flavors and textures.
Well, before I get too long winded and before I go tour another museum in Den Haag today, I'll leave you all with the press release we received for Mark's Carts:


March 22, 2011
For more information contact:
Mark Hodesh, mark@downtownhomeandgarden.com, 734-662-8122

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Mark’s Carts eyes late April opening

Downtown outdoor food cart garden in Ann Arbor will offer gourmet street food ranging from breakfast burritos to pulled pork sandwiches to vegan treats.

With the warmer weather has come stepped-up construction on what is poised to become Ann Arbor’s premier street food scene. Workers are currently installing utilities and pouring concrete in the West Washington lot that will house up to ten food carts and a covered eating area. At the same time, work on a new commercial kitchen adjacent to the cart garden is in its final stages. Mark Hodesh, owner of Downtown Home and Garden and originator of the cart garden, predicts that Mark’s Carts will be up and running by late April.

“I am really pleased with how construction is shaping up,” said Hodesh. “At this pace, we will greet the spring by offering the community a wonderful new street food scene and attractive, affordable options for downtown dining.”

So far there are six food carts signed up for the cart garden. Hodesh is still accepting applications to fill the final four spots. Confirmed vendors at present include: San Street (Asian street food); Debajo del Sol(Spanish paella and tapas); The Lunch Room (vegan entrees, sides and baked goods); eat (locally sourced hearty sandwiches); Darcy’s Cart (breakfast burritos and more); and Humble Hogs (hoagies, braise-in-a bun, and other savory and sweet offerings).

Hodesh encourages other potential food cart operators to contact him. He is especially seeking vendors of Indian food, Jamaican food, and wood-fired pizza.

The idea for the food carts originated when Hodesh visited his daughter Jeanne in New York City last year. Impressed with the breadth of street food available there and the joyful, entrepreneurial spirit of the people running the carts, Hodesh decided to bring the concept home. Hodesh notes that Mark’s Carts also has an interesting historical connection: it is located on West Washington between Ashley Street and First Street, on the site of the former home of Herman Hertler. Hertler was one of the founders of Hertler Bros., the business that Hodesh bought in 1975 which is now Downtown Home and Garden.

A date for the cart garden opening will be announced in the coming month, as construction progresses.

Hyperlinks:

Debajo del Sol - http://debajodelsolaa.blogspot.com

The Lunch Room - http://thelunchrooma2.com

eat - http://eatannarbor.com

Darcy's Cart - http://darcyscart.com

Humble Hogs - http://humblehogs.com

Mark's Carts - http://markscartsa2.com

Downtown Home & Garden - http://downtownhomeandgarden.com