Caterer Tasting for the Wedding: Prickly Pear

Along with the cake tastings, getting married allows you to go on tastings to try out various caterers. Because we enjoyed our meal at Chris and Leslie’s reception, we decided to work up a menu with Roberto and Mickey at Prickly Pear.

Though they aren’t normally open on Sundays, they set up a time for us to come in and have a meal there. We asked Ben, Allison, Chris and Leslie to join us… and to take part in sampling all the food.

Little did we know that we would get hit with a TON of plates. In addition to what we had on our menu, Roberto and Mickey also provided some additional options. This ended up meaning that we got something like 5-6 more dishes than we had expected.

Liz, Allison and Ben.

Ben chatting with Chris and Leslie. We found out that the two of them hadn’t been back here since their wedding. I don’t know why, but that felt kind of cool to me – knowing that we were all able to come back here together as a group.

I forget what was inside this guy, but it was absolutely delicious. I know there was a bit of cheese inside, and the exterior is a layer of prosciutto. The tail end of the appetizer is garnished with a kumquat.

A shrimp ceviche. Not sure what the chip thingies were called (they were sort of like a cross between a water chestnut and a pear. This was great to eat, but almost everyone agreed that it would be pretty unwieldy as an appetizer for the wedding.

This was like a little meal in and of itself. There were some pizza appetizers for Chris and Leslie’s reception, but I don’t think I got to sample any at the time. Tasting these… I understand why now.

A nice gazpacho, served with some alfalfa sprouts and a wedge of bread (with melted cheese inside).

I am not a huge fan of salads, but this salad of theirs was unbelievable. Walnuts, blue cheese, cranberries and a soaked pear… this thing was to die for.

At this point, I had to stop eating everything fully and push my plate away. I was already getting pretty full, and we hadn’t even gotten to the main course yet. I had to fight my impulses and push my salad away, half-eaten. Even though I totally wanted to keep going.

This isn’t a great picture, but it’s salmon on a bed of corn polenta. The whole thing is presented in a wrap of banana leaves, and tied together with a bit of string. The presentation iself was great, to say nothing of the salmon.

Unfortunately, my pic doesn’t really do this all that much justice at all.

Sole with stuffed vegetables. This was a surprise to us, and I think we ended up liking this a bit more than what we originally planned for (the salmon).

Oddly, we found ourselves thinking a lot about how guests would encounter the food, and whether or not we liked the presentation of the sole versus the leaves of the salmon. We’re planning on having all the food set up buffet style (it ends up saving on cost, as we don’t have to hire as many servers)… so we’re trying to imagine how all the food will look.

Crab cake, along with two crab claws. Whatever was in that sauce sure had a kick to it.

Meatloaf roulade. I definitely enjoyed this, but there was a particular flavor that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Liz and I both seemed to enjoy the fish more, and so I think we’ll need to figure out what our main meat dish will end up being. Not sure if we’re going to stick with the meatloaf, or try to go with something else.

By this point in the evening, I was starting to approach a certain degree of discomfort. I’ve consumed so much food… it was ridiculous. I was keenly aware of how tight my pants were, and EVEN THEN I couldn’t help picking away at the food.

Another surprise dish – a nice set of ribs, slathered in sauce. I only had a little bit of this, as I simply didn’t have any more room left in me.

Thankfully though, we had a good deal of leftovers to take home with us.

Outside of Prickly Pear, circa 8:30 PM. We arrived at 5:30PM, and honestly… I only imagined we’d be eating for an hour, hour and a half. Little did I know dinner would turn into this three hour long feast of endless food!

Roberto and Mickey did a bang-up job with this tasting. We felt catered to the entire time, and they kept coming at us with dish after dish after dish. To say nothing of the fact that they did all of this in, technically, their day off.

The food was awesome, and it was wonderful to get together with Allison, Ben, Chris and Leslie. I think this, by far, has been my favorite wedding errand to date.