Last night, I participated on behalf of Sea Rocket Bistro in a fundraiser benefiting both Slow Food San Diego and Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. I grilled sardines for several hundred people on the central lawn where all of the vendors' tents were set up surrounding some beautifully set tables for the attendees. Since everyone else was busy working at the restaurant on a Saturday night, I was lucky to have two good friends join me at our booth to help out- Louisa Kelly and John Law. John is one of the fishermen we buy from whenever we can, and Louisa is a friend of Dennis' and mine from several years back.

I had a great time enticing people to try our whole grilled sardines and everyone seemed to enjoy them, especially with added flavor from the old-world mesquite charcoal grill (as opposed to the industrial gas grill we have back at the bistro.) Our chef Christy Samoy whipped up some lovely lemon oil for the occasion, which we then decided to also use on our sardine appetizer at the restaurant- it gives the sardines a really nice citrus coating without being too tart like straight lemon juice can sometimes be.

That's me trying to avoid the smoke and heat while grilling up the fish.

Here are John and Louisa at work behind our table- actually they're just pretending to work...I had them running around all night picking up tasters of all of the available food and drink for me! Hey, a girl's gotta have SOME fun.

This is just a shot of the general scene showing what a gorgeous, clear night it was.

We had some really nice compliments on the sardines, such as from Tommy of Catalina Offshore, who declared them excellent- and he knows fish! Greg Koch from Stone Brewing Co. moseyed by and I had to twist his arm to try one, after which he admitted that it was surprisingly good. Candice Woo and Caron Golden were there as well, both of whom wrote one of the recent restaurant reviews about us. Jeff from edible San Diego magazine was there of course, and had just come in for dinner at Sea Rocket the night before.

Other vendors whose local products we serve at the bistro included Alesmith Brewing, whose beers we'll be featuring the week of September 12th, Salerno Winery and San Pasqual Winery- it was fun to see so many familiar faces! The event made me realize what a wonderful community we have in the local foods scene here in San Diego, and I was honored to be a part of it.

One more menu note for now. Christy has also managed to create a delicious Chocolate Pot de Creme for our dessert list, bringing back a rich chocolate dish which is just what we needed to round out our collection of "sweet endings". Come check it out with some Stone Smoked Porter or a glass of San Pasqual Winery's Tawny Port, another pretty recent addition to our beverage list...yum!

We look forward to seeing you again soon.