Cocktail-Inspired Foods Star At SF Chefs

Do you want to have your cocktail and eat it too? Good news, you're in luck. What was once an impossible dream can now be your reality if you head to one of the cutting edge restaurants that are turning America's favorite cocktails into food. While poptails (cocktail popsicles) have recently become popular, these new cocktail eats aren't dessert, but rather part of your proper meal.

During the final day of SF Chefs, a food and wine festival in San Francisco that highlighted chefs and winemakers of Northern California, Chef John Madriaga of San Francisco's Spruce Restaurant presented his Bloody Mary-inspired raw tomato wedges appetizer. With lemon juice, salt, pepper, celery, onion and vodka they deliver cocktail flavor in a more substantial packaged. These are only the beginning of a long line of possible cocktail flavored foods. If you want to get creative, you could try making Bloody Mary fries, martini devilled eggs or even gin and tonic French toast. These plates are designed to simply have an alcohol-infused flavor. Since they are marinated or infused, the liquor soaks in giving you the impact of a drink in a satisfying meal packaged.

Madriaga warned the Huffington Post of his creations, "One slice won't get anyone drunk, but eventually — if you eat enough — they could. I tell people not to have more than three or four." If you are looking for something to give you the flavor without the hangover, try the latest UK craze: cuptails. These cocktail-inspired cupcakes take classic sweet drinks, such as a pina colada or strawberry daiquiri, and turn them into a cute, bite sized piece of cake. But beware — these can still pack an alcohol punch if the frosting is made with liquor.

Don't want to bother making cocktails for your next party? Serve these alcohol-infused, cocktail-inspired foods and everyone will be pleased. Having your cocktails — and eating them too — never tasted so good.