CTC Patio Café Cuisine Nights opens semester with Floribbean flair

The CTC Culinary Arts/Hospitality Department announced a new season of Patio Café Cuisine Nights dining experiences will open this Friday, February 12. The opening menu will feature a Floribbean menu. Dinner will be served from 6 – 7:30 p.m. in the campus Patio Café located in the Student Center (Bldg. 106).

Start the meal with a soup or appetizer: topped plantain cups - plantain shaped into a cup then fried for crunchy texture and topped beautifully with ground beef cooked in tomato sauce, achotte and olives ($4); seafood soup (sopa de marisco) - a delicate mixture of shrimp, muscles and sea bass cooked at a low temperature with a variety of vegetables simmered in clam juice and red wine to give it a true tropical feel ($8 or add a cup to an entrée for $2.50); and honey oat rolls ($1 or free with an entrée).

Salads include a heart of palm salad - a Floridian-style salad made out of hearts of palm, tomato, green onions, shrimp and garlic and can be topped with parmesan cheese ($8); and the house salad ($3.75 or free with an entrée).

The night's entrées are mahi-mahi with mango salsa - a succulent mahi-mahi steak grilled to perfection, topped with a delicious mango salsa. The mango salsa is made with sweet corn, tomatoes and delicious mango mixed with lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper ($12); key lime grilled chicken - chicken breast seasoned with Dijon mustard, ginger, garlic and lime juice then grilled to perfection and topped with a mustard ginger sauce ($7.50); and pork loin (pernil lojano) - slow-roasted pork loin basted with achotte, cloves, cinnamon, cumin, garlic, red onion and lime juice ($8.50).

All entrees are served with a choice of two side dishes. Choose from Cuban-style black beans and rice - white long grain rice cooked with black bean stock and peppers, onion, garlic and beans; yucca al mojo - boiled yucca root topped with a delicious mashed garlic sauce; grilled asparagus – grilled asparagus coated with olive oil and kosher salt; and chayote squash - slowly cooked in a skillet with olive oil, garlic, black pepper, sugar and red wine.

For dessert, diners can choose either flan or lemon cloud pie ($3.50).

Reservations are required by calling 254-526-1515 by 10 a.m. Friday morning.

The Patio Café is run by students in the culinary/hospitality program. The students select the menu items, prepare the menu and serve the meals thus giving students experience in the “real world” of restaurant work. The program offers an associate in applied science degree – hospitality management with four areas of specialization. These are restaurant and culinary management, food service management, food and beverage management and hotel management. The dual credit program offers high school students the opportunity to earn college credit while still in high school. To learn more about the program, visit www.ctcd.edu online.