Rags and Rants...

Just some more on food mags, and some rants that just got me going. I can't help it. I get long winded..

Food Rag II

Being sort of on a publication roll lately, I got my September Bon Appétit yesterday and sped through it last night over cocktails. It was their “restaurant issue” which almost every food rag does usually in September or October before the thanksgiving and winter holiday issues. The “restaurant” part features their 10 top “new” restaurants in America, along with a recipe from each. The restaurants were from San Francisco; Seattle; Decatur, (Georgia); Brooklyn; Baltimore; Chicago; Houston; Austin; Cleveland; and Massachusetts. A little description of each place along with some words on the chef. Ho hum. The recipes tended to be homey with a twist – Braised Beef with Pears and Fresh Ginger, or Milk Braised Pork Shoulder with Semolina Gnocci. Anyway, something to tuck in the side of your mind for travelling. Seemingly stuck on “10” they also include “Top 10 Chicken Recipes with (get this) “Chef’s Secrets to crispy, juicy, perfection”. They don’t mention that one of the chef’s secrets is years of hard work over a hot stove in a crowded kitchen.

And lastly for the magazine, they have a recipe for “the best bloody mary”. Damn it, why does everything have to be “top” or “best”? why not: “A pretty darn good bloody mary recipe”. Anyway, to make this world stopping bloody mary of all bloody mary’s you need 18 ingredients. Merely boil some of them (tomatoes, carrots, golden beets, fennel bulb, and garlic) for 50 minutes, add salt and lemon juice, puree that, cover and chill. Then you have to grind celery seeds in a mortar and pestle, combine with the veggie puree, Worcestershire, hot pepper sauce, hot chili sauce (guess there’s a difference), and a Guiness(!!), cover and chill overnight, add the booze, then garni with pickled okra, lime wedges and serve. Whew!! So, instead of waking up with a hangover, staggering to the fridge, getting some tomato juice and pouring in the vodka, you spend about half a day chasing ingredients and the rest of it making the darn thing.

To do:

Tonight is First Friday in Leonardtown, there’s live music (by Fractal Folk) at the book store, and Fortune’s Turn on the square. Tomorrow action will continue in Leonardtown with a “beach party” with more music, and a “demonstration by the College of SOMD’s volley ball team. Hmmm….

This weekend is the annual “L’il Margaret’s Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Festival” at the usual venue Goddard Farm on Clay Hill Road. Although I do enjoy bluegrass in small doses, a weekend of it wouldn’t be my favorite thing to do. And, as also seems annual with this event, temps are supposed be into the mid nineties..

The St. Clements Island Museum will have it’s annual Children’s Day tomorrow.

Ranting place:

Well, he’s done it. The guy in the Enterprise who does the weekly advertising piece for SOMD restaurants actually comes out in print and calls himself a “reviewer”. Not once, but twice. Self appointed. This week’s article covers Captain Leonard’s, a place visited by the feeder last spring who pretty much liked the place and probably compared it to St. James Pub in that it’s exactly what you want a “Captain’s” place to be. The guy does a pretty accurate description of the physical place, but then the usual rote recitation of the menu with a few comments along the way. If you read between the lines, you might get just a little bit of down sided stuff: “A cup of cream of crab (soup) came out in minutes, and though (italics mine) creamy and nicely spiced, it could have been confused with cream of potato.” Excuse me? Why not just say the soup was tasteless? If you’re going to review, review.

People continue to amaze me. Sometimes they just don’t get it. Yesterday (Thursday) is the “hot dog guy” day near my office and I like to do that for lunch. We’ve discussed that before and I’m glad to see that others share my enthusiasm. I had a Brat yesterday, and it was by golly a genuine Johnsonville (to go along with the Nathan’s Hot dogs). Anyway, while standing in line awaiting my turn there was a lady ahead of me chatting with her co-workers, and a van drives up and stops, rolls down the window. Guy says to the lady in front of me: "hi (lady) what you doing?" Response: “I’m getting lunch – pause – you want something?” Guy in car: “Sure! Get me a half smoke loaded, a couple of dogs with kraut, and I think would like a brat!”. Great, she says, and continues chatting. Okay, what do you think she would do if some guy walked around 5 or 6 people in line and cut in front of her to get a half smoke loaded, a couple of dogs with kraut and a brat? Think she would complain? Is this any different? There are now 4 more orders in front of me. My comment of “maybe he should get in line” was met with a quizzical stare conveying “what’s the matter with you, buddy?" She just didn’t get it.

Okay, enough see you tonight and I will be

DFD.

Oh, a little postscript on DFD. Apparently, in St. Mary’s County, you also have to DFC (or Dress for Court) . Today’s emptyprise has a front page article entitled “Dress for courthouse success, or expect duress”, with details of people who have been excused for not dressing properly. Thank you, God.

Burgers and Fishies...

Of the approximately eleven food magazines I receive along with the four or five others that have food sections (Chesapeake Life, Coastal Living, etc.,), I still rate Saveur at the top of the list. It would be unfair to include “Art of Eating” in the same grouping as that is pretty hard core and you don’t read it for the nice pictures. Anyway, this month’s issue (No. 122) arrived as mentioned yesterday with a picture of a loaded hamburger on the cover with the banner “The Burger Bible”. Oh my, I thought, what have they done? Well, guess what. They pulled it off admirably. They devote complete pages to the bun, the toppings, the meat, the cheeses, grilling and broiling (including steaming – Ted’s Restaurant in Meriden, Connecticut), that are really informative. Like ribs and barbeque, hamburgers are a regional food, which they cover very nicely. The “PC” burger from South Carolina where Pimiento Cheese is dolloped atop, the “Juicy Lucy” from Minneapolis (with a core of molten cheese), the “Aussie Burger” from Sheep Station in Brooklyn that has pickled beets, pineapple rings, onions, tomatoes, cheese, and topped with a fried egg. They talk about White Castles (for you STL folks), and they even ferreted out the famed “Goober Burger” from Sedalia Missouri, a delicacy I shared with “Jack” Jackson on a trip back from Whiteman Air Force Base in my distant flutter testing past. They cover a myriad of “burger joints” from coast to coast (Sid’s Diner in El Reno, OK; Apple Pan in LA, and so forth). And yes HoGo, In and Out is mentioned. Multiple recipes for burgers, buns, etc. A great job.

And in the same issue is a great article on Chile Peppers for you hot heads. 48 varieties are pictured and described – ever hear of a Chapeau de Frade? Rocotillo? Quintisho? They’re all there.. Anyway, if you see one in a stand, pick it up. They do a great job. And just for the record, Gourmet occupies the second slot behind Saveur


Little Fishies..

remembering my appreciation of the inclusion of the Anchovy on my Caesar salad at Café Des Artistes, an alert reader passed along a link to a nice story "Give Anchovies Another Chance" from NPR on the little guys. I’m not the only one trying to elevate people’s appreciation for them. It’s a bit cutesy, but does have some good information and recipes. A quote:

“There are, I believe, two reasons why we don't care for anchovies in this country: We don't achieve the right balance of anchovies in our dishes, and we don't use quality anchovies”

Right on….and after you read about the burger and anchovies,
DFD

don't forget tomorrow night is First Friday in Leonardtown tomorrow night.. see you there

I went...

down not to the St. James infirmary, but to the Pub, much better place for lunch. I’ve talked about St. James Pub (on Mattapany and 235) a few times in the past, but last week afforded a chance to see if it’s still “got it”. Quick read: yessiree. As readers with a memory better than ye olde editor’s will remember, I like the place not because of the quality of the food, or the graciousness of the staff, I like it because it is what it is what it is. No pretentions of “dining” here, it’s where you come to eat. It’s just a pub that serves a lunch that you can depend on two years ago, last year, and this year. Rolled up paper napkin closed with green tape containing pressed silverware along with (that memory thing again), I think there is a paper placemat with local advertising.. Keno screens (I have never figured out that game) with whatever those cards are at the table (with the malt vinegar). CMT on the television. Servers that are not wet behind the ears, and although you might hear a “hon” once it a while, it’s all part of the package.

There’s also that white board with handwritten numbered specials on it, usually a sandwich of some sort, a heartier selection such as spaghetti and meat balls, or maybe meat loaf, and some kind of salad. Or turn to the menu containing exactly what you would expect to see. Tuna melt your preference? They got it. Burgers in a red plastic basket with (commercial) fries not double fried in duck fat fries, just fries. Want malt vinegar on those fries? Right there on the table for you. On the day we were there, a couple of Gyro’s with salad or fries from the board and menu fish and chips were ordered from our table. Upon ordering the Gyro we were asked whether we wanted chicken or lamb. Well, in another venue I might go off on why one would even think of offering a “chicken gyro”, but here it might be acceptable (well okay, I really don’t think so). You’re not here to reduce your cholesterol.. The (lamb, of course) Gyros arrived wrapped in that sort of leaky aluminum foil stuff, oozing white sauce (which I think is Tzakziki – cuc’s, yogurt, garlic) with lettuce, all falling out with your first bite. But it was tasty, the fries were fries, and the fish and fries were crispy and hot. Just what you would expect.

The big plastic glasses of tea/soda/water are refilled from those plastic fluted pitchers. Okay, you get the idea. It’s just right, it all fits. And the food is exactly what you expect issuing from that window behind the bar (with a Hell’s Kitchen plaque over the window). Some grease, a little sloppy on the presentation, but you don’t get surprised in either direction. A caveat is that I’ve never been there for anything but lunch, but if you want a solid, no frills get what you expect, go down to the St. James Pub, you might see your baby there!!

I hope you got your latest copy of Saveur – it’s another gem. You can read it after you

DFD

Slow Tuesday

The muses will take a rest today

Apparently the never ending Michael Jackson saga will have more chapters. Please let it go...

New Mickey Dee's is open on Great Mills

DFD

Weekend and FGT's

The weekend began with the final (cute play on words, eh?) River Concert. Instead of starting with Bernstein’s symphonic dances from West Side story, we began with the pitter patter? no, cacophony of driving rain which turned a normally placid food row into a river. Some of the vendors packed up, but those of us in the adult beverage booth stuck it out.






Eventually the skies at least calmed down and those that toughed it out were treated to a hastily revised program. And the fewer still that stuck it out to the very end were able to hear Brian Ganz perform Rhapsody in Blue. It is always stirring piece, a combination of classical and jazz, and even after 85 years, it’s still worth listening to. Especially when performed by such a talent as Brian Ganz. I had a pretty distant view, but he seemed to really enjoy performing it..

So the sun sets on another ert concseason,


<>

hard to believe it’s been a decade.

Saturday morning, after I dried out (from the rain, see) I decided to go over to the farmer’s market in the BAE parking lot to make sure we got some sweet corn to add to the evening’s menu which included grilled steak. You know that “seed catalog” syndrome? That’s the one where you pick up (or these days log into) the catalog because you just want to quickly order some tomato seeds, and by the time the order is placed you have succumbed to multiple “gee, that looks good!” thoughts and have 35 items for a hundred bucks. Well, a form of that got me at the market yesterday, and here was what resulted from the singular quest for corn:



Closer inspection will reveal I did get some smaller versions of zucchinis, and notice the green orbs below those little squash. Walking around the market, I spied some green tomatoes along side the plethora of ripe ones. Hmm, I thought, what the heck can you do with those? Then it hit me! Fried Green Tomatoes!! Into the bag!

Back at the digs, I started looking around for recipes for FGT’s. I started in my Cajun/Creole library but apparently that isn’t a Cajun tradition. The only one I found was in Egerton’s venerable “Southern Food”. Basically it’s what you would think, coat them with (something), and fry them. A Tyler Florence recipe turned up some nuances, like soaking in buttermilk, a couple others used panko bread crumbs, some flour, but most used an egg wash for binder. I pretty much opted for the Southern Food style, just some stone ground corn meal, added a dash of smoked paprika, and decided on using the beaten eggs.




Frying is always a bit problematic for the feeder, it always seems to result in not only coating the food in oil, but also the general cooking area. Cooking the tomatoes and generating a clean up job resulted in:



And they ultimately shared the plate with the grilled steak (Penzey’s Chicago steak seasoning) and corn (with lime zest and butter) which started the whole mess. Paired with a domestic Cab in the glass (and some peripheral reading material) it wasn't a bad meal:



I wasn’t real thrilled with the final product, the cornmeal tended to burn a little, and clumped to form an uneven coating. The tomatoes were pretty acidic (which I suppose is to be expected). But, it’s worth a try if you have a viable frying scheme…

A little tale (for the tail end): When I driving out of the farmer’s market, I happened to be behind the car of one of the other shoppers I had noticed stocking up on healthy, locally grown products. No doubt she would be making dinner for those kids in the car, teaching them the joys of real, not from Giant, healthy food. And, I was surprised to see them also turning on Millstone landing. Guess what? Left turn arrows go green, around the corner we go, her turn signal illuminates, and she turns into McDonalds!! What’s wrong with this picture..

Bet she didn’t
DFD