PEC tasting event

jennipea382 · October 2012

Hey ladies! Just wondering if anyone is going to the PEC tasting event tomorrow? We are signed up at 4:30. Has anyone else been to one before? I am coming from St. Cloud and going through the Buffalo area to pick up his parents and FI from work so I'm not sure how much traffic we will hit on the way in, so we're giving ourselves plenty of time to get there. If we get there early will we have to wait? I know they said we can stay as long as we like, I was just curious if the start times were more "strict" or if they were just to get an idea of how many people would be there when.

jennipea382 · October 2012

Well since no one responded.. :-)

Anyone else go to this? I thought it was fun! LOTS of food. Some was amazing, some was ok, a few things weren't that great but overall everything was pretty good. We haven't decided for sure yet what we want but at least we have a better idea now. What did everyone else think? Or was I the only one to go? Haha.

Cackle6 · October 2012

ETA: Oops, did not realize this was from yesterday, sorry! I'm glad you had fun!

I went in January, but we had the last time slot since we were flying in that afternoon and I wanted some wiggle room in case the flight was late. If you're like 15-30 minutes early, I don't think they would make you wait to get in - they just might not have all the food set out or what not. If you're much earlier than that they'd probably make you wait I would think, just because they might not be completely ready or have all their staff in place that early.

Be forwarned, it can be super overwhelming because there is so much going on!. When we went, they had all the apps in the Casablanca Lounge area, all the main dishes in Casablanca Hall, and desserts in Diamond Hall. It is a TON of food, so take small portions so you can taste as many options as possible! Also, hopefully they won't have a live band playing like they did last time. They were in the Casablanca Hall and it was really loud and hard to hear eachother.

I will say (and I seem to be in the minority on this) that I was not overly impressed with the food at the tasting event. A lot of it seemed to lack seasoning to me, and some of the appetizers were just not very good (the vegetable tapenade was really gross, IMO). Also, I thought their cake was super dry, but hopefully a lot of these things were just because it's a really large event and a lot of the food sits out for longer than it normally would. We were able to find stuff we liked though, since there were so many options!

Just in case anyone is curious, this was our menu, and our guests loved it!

Apps: Cheese platter with baked brie added (they did this at my request, and it was super yummy!), Antipasto platter and Fruit platter, and then the bruschetta (best app they have IMO) and the chicken satay. We didn't get to cocktail hour, but they had apps at the head table waiting for us which I was really happy about!

*Prime rib with garlic mashed potatoes (which quite frankly is the best thing on the whole menu!) and asparagus with au jus and horseradish sauce served on the side

*Salmon in a light cream sauce with rice pilaf and asparagus

*Four cheese ravioli in Alfredo sauce (I actually thought the mushroom ravioli were even better, but wanted to appeal to more guests)

Dessert: We were grandfathered in to their old contract which allowed outside cake so we had an outside vendor, but I loved their chocolate mousse with raspberry and the chocolate covered strawberries!

I also really liked the pecan crusted chicken, but chicken is just one of those things that is so easy to overcook, and I didn't want to risk that. I have yet to have a chicken meal at a wedding that wasn't dry.

Have so much fun, and take lots of notes! With so many food options, it's hard to remember everything later on!

jennipea382 · October 2012

You know now that you mention the cake thing.. I wonder if it was that way when we signed. I will have to find out because that might save us some money. If we have to go through them we are planning on the mini cupcakes (they're much bigger than I thought!) but getting a sheet cake through Sam's Club or something would be even cheaper!

The things we liked:
Chicken satay with peanut sauce (app)
Veggie spring rolls (app)
Coconut breaded shrimp (app)
Chicken fingers (app)
Crab cakes (app) - though they weren't as lumpy as I like, but pretty good for non-MD crab cakes ;-)
Veggie tapenade (app) - surprised you didn't like this! We all loved it!
Sweet mashed potatoes (side) - IMO best thing they have!
Gratin potatoes (side)
Teriyaki chicken (entree)
Chicken supreme with pesto cream sauce (entree)
Mango chicken (entree)
Salmon with lemon herb sauce (entree) - We liked this better than the cream sauce, but that one was good too
Four cheese ravioli (entree)
Eggplant parmesan (entree)
Grilled filet mignon (entree)
Chicken kiev (entree) - My other favorite thing!

Things we didn't like:
Beef teriyaki brochettes (app)
Roast beef crostini (app)
Chicken tampenade (app) - Other people liked it, I just thought it was ok
Soft saffron basmati rice (side) - Thought it was bland, but as you will see saffron things were bland to us!
Saffron orzo pasta (side) - Tasted like water to me.
Chicken parmesan with tomato basil sauce (entree) - Bland.
Sonoma chicken with saffron sauce (entree) - Again, bland.
Roasted vegetable cannelloni (entree)
Barbacoa (entree)

Everything else was decent. I'm sad we didn't get to try any of the late night snacks because we are thinking of doing heavy apps and a lot of the things we wanted were from that list. The beef apps I was told are really dry (I don't really like beef so I didn't try them). The fish was cooked surprisingly well, though the tilapia was a little dry. I agree though that some stuff may not have been as good because of the large amounts they had to cook and it sits out. We had one of the earlier time slots (4:30) so maybe that's why some of the things we had we liked better than you did!

harr0610 · October 2012

I went to the one in...whatever the last one was. April maybe?

We decided to go with the pecan crusted chicken, peppercorn...something steak, and cheese ravioli as well. To be honest, I have ZERO idea what we picked out as appetizers. I know we did, but I can not for the life of me figure out what it was. We have our final meeting on Tuesday so I guess I'll find out then!!

I agree, those mashed potatoes are AWESOME! We picked those to go with the chicken and the steak.

jennipea382 · October 2012

You know, the garlic mashed potatoes were good but we were all totally obsessed with the sweet mashed potatoes! So much so that I'm reconsidering going with a different buffet than we had picked out or doing plated meals, haha. FMIL doesn't really like sweet potatoes that much and even she loved them. So for anyone that doesn't think they would like the sweet potatoes - try them!

lizrywedding · October 2012

I went and fell even more in love! My future in laws were very impressed. I loved the walleye, the pecan crusted chicken and the salmon. The coconut shrimp was good too! We also decided to go with black table/chair linens with pink napkins and sashes. All his idea, which I originally wanted but didn't think he would go for!

jennipea382 · October 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_minnesota-minneapolis-st-paul_pec-tasting-event?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:81Discussion:0c55cf06-dd64-4507-bdd6-38bee7796ed1Post:9fcc1afb-6ac6-4919-8ecb-32d66075b6b9">Re:PEC tasting event</a>:
[QUOTE]I went and fell even more in love! My future in laws were very impressed. I loved the walleye, the pecan crusted chicken and the salmon. The coconut shrimp was good too! We also decided to go with black table/chair linens with pink napkins and sashes. All his idea, which I originally wanted but didn't think he would go for!
Posted by lizrywedding[/QUOTE]

Ohh that sounds pretty! We're going with all white tablecloths/napkins. I don't think we will do chair covers because they're just not really in the budget for us. They also don't have any sashes or other linens that would go with our colors :-(

PEC tasting event

Re: PEC tasting event

Choose Another Board

Search Boards