San Diego Restaurant Week 2017 - Girl Scouts cookie-off and event info

San Diego Restaurant Week is back for 2017 and runs from Sunday January 15 until Sunday January 22! Participating restaurants offer 2 course lunches for either $10, $15 or $20 and 3 course dinners for $20, $30, $40 or $50. It's always a great way to sample the menu at a discounted price!

This year, some participating restaurants's have incorporated Girl Scout Cookies into their SDRW menu to celebrate a century of these famous cookies being sold! Another perk of this partnership... local girl scouts were paired with fabulous female chefs around San Diego in a special "cookie-off" competition!  I sure wish I had this kind of opportunity when I was in a troop!

Sous Chef Jennifer Chan from Sea180 with Girl Scouts Kayla and Roni.

These were the Do-Si-Dos Peanut Butter S'mores Pie dessert created by Sea180. Each Girl Scout helped the chef prepare the samples and we (as the lucky guests of this media event) could vote on our favorite! 

This sample from Blue Point Coastal Cuisine won the popular vote! There were THREE items, shortbread seasame crusted ahi (using Trefoils), Lemon Pepper Shrimp (using Savannah Smile), and Asian Slaw with Peanut Sauce (using Do-Si-Dos).

Congratulations to Sous Chef Kristina Killian, Girl Scout Savannah, and the rest of the team on your win!

The other savory dish at the cookie-off was this Lamb Slider from Tidal's Chef de Partie Moira Hill. It incorporated Samoas into the demi sauce and used a tomato chutney with Savannah Smiles.

 Pacific Standard Coastal Kitchen executive chef Giselle Wellman, pastry chef Kaitlyn Dashnaw and girl scout Ana and Briony made Samoas Chocolate Bars!

Bruleed yuzu tart from 1500 Ocean; Orange Panna Cotta from Solare

Caramel Coconut Crema from Puesto used Samoas chocolate crujido and mocha sauce; Cupcakes from Rustic Root (didn't catch the description, sorry)

Pistachio Chocolate Marquise from Great Maple was a rich dark chocolate mousse with a crust of thin mints and pistachios, served with vanilla bean creme anglaise and a sprinkling of candied pistachio dust; Samoa Cheesecake from C Level & Island Prime was a coconut cheesecake with crumbled Samoa cookies and caramel in a flaky chocolate crust.

Samoas Bar from Bali Hai had vanilla shortbread, banana caramel and coconut mousse, mocha glaze, white chocolate feuillitene crunch and orange zest meringue; Troop Leader featured tagalong in a layered cake was from Tom Han's Lighthouse

We even got to have some drinks from Snake Oil Cocktails Co. that were paired with Girl Scout cookies! The drinks were not in the competition though!

If you're interested in trying one of these Girl Scout inspired treats, check out the list of restaurants on the Girl Scouts website here: http://www.sdgirlscouts.org/en/events/event-list/SDRW.html.

The full list of SDRW participants is here: http://www.sandiegorestaurantweek.com/restaurants/