Must-have Cookbook!
Remember those old word problems we all hated in school – a train leaving New York and a train leaving Denver – that kind of thing? Here’s one – what happens when a train leaving Juárez and a train leaving Baton Rouge meet for lunch in Houston? Amigeauxs: Mexican/Creole Fusion Cuisine – that’s what.
Why Mexican/Creole Fusion? We don’t know. Who first thought of Asian/Italian? At least both Mexican and Creole have their roots in Latin language countries, uh we think. Actually they are a natural mix because of their common spicyness. Peppers are a main ingredient in both cuisines as are onions, garlic, rice and good times.
Bourdain in Russia
From the No Reservations Blog:
Zamir is a man of many parts. With limited experience in the American heartland,
he’s seen a side of this country in Baltimore, Detroit and Buffalo very different
from New York City. And apparently, he takes the “land of opportunity” thing
seriously.
Whenever we finish a scene, I see him huddled with our hosts, investigating some new
and unlikely business venture. In Baltimore, he became deeply involved in
discussions about the embalming and funeral industries. At various times, he’s
threatened me with film making and memoir writing enterprises. (Working title,
“Zamir: The Inside Story-Behind the Scenes With NO RESERVATIONS”).
He’s relentless about inquiring as to real estate values, pondering perhaps, the
possibility of making homes available at distress sale prices to Russian oligarchs
who might be considering vacation property in East Baltimore or Detroit. There was
talk of moving undocumented Ukranian “casino entertainers” across the Canadian
border, a fur-bearing perch farm, and drive-through organ harvesting (“We fly
doctors in from Kazakhstan! Cash on the barrel, Tony! We can have your kidney out in
minutes-and money in your pocket!”).
I guess it takes a Russian to really appreciate the American Dream.
Some other surprises. I find, walking into Al-Ameer in Dearborn, that Zamir speaks
very passable Arabic! He claims his military service as a technical advisor at a
power plant in Iraq-back in Soviet times-required he learn the language. I’m not
entirely convinced I buy that story. Maybe the Romanians were right about him.
And he has fans. The drunken debauch that was the Romania show, far from casting my
Russian friend in a bad light, has apparently won him an international reputation as
a party animal. Walking out of a club last night, he was mobbed. I stood there like
a lox while a dazzled Zamir signed napkins, baseball caps and extremities of all
kinds. He seemed very pleased at all the adulation. I know he’s VERY pleased to
still be alive after our snowmobile adventures yesterday. I drove-and those things
can go fast. Topping out at 65 or 70, I’m sure my less than skillful New Zealand ATV
handling came to mind. My ribs are still bruised from where his fingers dug into my
sides.
I hope all the attention and all the times he’s been recognized doesn’t go to his
head. He’s already begun making demands which some might find … unreasonable.
“Performance fleece-lined blue jeans for all outdoor scenes” “Red-and ONLY red M&M’s
to be available at all times.”
“All furniture shall be draped in white-and floral arrangements shall conform
exclusively to same color scheme.”
“Talent is NOT to be looked at directly by service staff.”
It’s only a matter of time till he asks for a trailer.
Whatcha Want On Your Dog?
Recently, a customer at the cafe requested that we add a slaw dog to our menu. For those of you not from the South, a slaw dog is a hot dog with mustard and cole slaw on it. Simple yet elegant. Also, not a particular favorite of mine – I’m not much of a cole slaw fan. But as I am like to do I am adding it to the menu. With the usual Stuart approach. Do I use a traditional Southern hot dog like Bryan? You know, one of those pork/chicken/beef/roadkill sausages that are bright red? Oh no.
You see, Southerners do a lot of things well in regards to food. One of them, however, is not making a quality hot dog. As much as it pains me to say it, Yankees have us beat on this. Vienna from Chicago and Hebrew National from New York are at the pinnacle of the American hot dog world but I did not even go there. I went to the original, Coney Island’s own Nathan’s Famous makers of the very first hot dog. The finest frankfurter I have ever tasted. So maybe we need to call this the Mason-Dixon Slaw Dog?
We will also be offering a dog with mustard and sauerkraut and another with chili and cheese.
I like my dog all sorts of ways. Although New Yorkers tell me that grown men don’t put ketchup on hot dogs I love it with a generous helping of mayo as well. So, using the comment box, let the world know whatcha want on your dog?
Peanut Butter Recall
Solon, Ohio (January 10, 2009) – King Nut Companies, a distributor of peanut butter manufactured for them by Peanut Corporation of America, today announced a recall of peanut butter distributed under the King Nut label. No other King Nut products are included in this recall.
King Nut took this action as soon as it was informed that salmonella had been found in an open five-pound tub of King Nut peanut butter. King Nut distributes peanut butter only through food service accounts. It is not sold directly to consumers. King Nut does not supply any of the ingredients for the peanut butter distributed under its label. All other King Nut products are safe and not included in this voluntary recall.
“We are very sorry this happened,” said Martin Kanan, president and chief executive officer of King Nut Companies. “We are taking immediate and voluntary action because the health and safety of those who use our products is always our highest priority.”
“Because we don’t manufacture peanut butter, we will do what we can to get this product out of distribution and will work with the manufacturer to inform others of this problem,” Kanan said. “We also distribute peanut butter from this manufacturer under the Parnell’s Pride brand, although we are not the only distributor. However, we have asked our customers to remove this brand as well.”
Kanan said that King Nut began contacting customers immediately to stop distributing all peanut butter with lot codes beginning with “8,” and immediately cancelled orders with the manufacturer.
Customers are asked to take all King Nut peanut butter and Parnell’s Pride peanut butter distributed by King Nut out of distribution immediately. For more information, go to www.kingnut.com.
Bourdain Visits Venice
On this Monday’s episode of No Reservations Anthony Bourdain visits the most romantic city in the world, Vinice, Italy. But don’t look for gondola rides and guys in funny hats pelting Italian Arias, as usual Bourdain plans to show us the real city, not the one in the brochures. According to his blog, this episode promises to be a visual feast.
In his own words:
This Monday, it’s Venice. And if nothing else, one of the most beautifully photographed episodes of NO RESERVATIONS. I’m proud of the look-and hope we managed to give a sense of how delicious the everyday food of the city can be. I draw attention-for benefit of any tech and film wonks reading this-to the use of our new toy, a 35 millimeter lens-adapted to DV cameras, which gave the episode the look of a big screen movie in parts. I’m besotted by Italy lately-and this was a fun one to make.
Even in the middle of tourist season, we managed, I think, to make Venice look hauntingly empty. A single street sweeper in an otherwise deserted Piazza San Marco, backstreets populated only by Venetians, sipping their drinks and looking idly out at the world, a private world of simple good things set against a backdrop of Europe’s most beautiful living museum, slowly sinking into the Adriatic. Baby softshell crabs, slowly stewed cuttlefish, cooked in its own ink, sweet and sour sardines, pastas you’d cheerfully kill your own best friend for a taste of-and the best damn risotto I’ve ever had. Eat first-or watching will be a torment.
Bobby Flay Tackles Talk Radio
Bobby Flay taking a taste of talk radio
J.M. Hirsh, AP
Celebrity chef Bobby Flay is launching a talk radio show on which he will offer advice to men on everything from dating, dining, dressing and how to nail a tough job interview.
The star of numerous Food Network programs will host “Bobby Flay Radio” weekly on SIRIUS XM Radio starting Thursday. Flay is signed on for a five-week run, but says he is open to more if the two-hour show goes well.
While the call-in show will touch on everything from sports to current events, Flay says food still will be the focus.
“Food transcends so much now,” Flay said in a telephone interview. “It’s become so much part of lifestyle. How you eat, plate it, how you dress and how you live all have a lot to do with one another.”
Flay’s wife, actress Stephanie March, will join him on the show occasionally.
“When basically I’m saying everything wrong, she’ll correct me,” Flay said.
Salmonella outbreak sickens 388
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An outbreak of salmonella food poisoning has made 388 people sick across 42 states, sending 18 percent of them to the hospital, U.S. health officials said on Wednesday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is trying to trace the source of the outbreak, which began in September. The Department of Agriculture, state health officials and the Food and Drug Administration are also involved.
The CDC said poultry, cheese and eggs are the most common source of this particular strain, known as Salmonella typhimurium.
“It is often difficult to identify sources of foodborne outbreaks. People may not remember the foods they recently ate and may not be aware of all of the ingredients in food. That’s what makes these types of investigations very difficult,” said CDC spokesman David Daigle.
Daigle did not specify how many people were hospitalized, but the percentage he gave puts that figure at about 70.
“Because foods of animal origin may be contaminated with Salmonella, people should not eat raw or undercooked eggs, poultry, or meat. Persons also should not consume raw or unpasteurized milk or other dairy products. Produce should be thoroughly washed,” he said.
Only Ohio state health officials have agreed to have their state named as one of those affected, with an estimated 50 cases.
Every year, approximately 40,000 people are reported ill with salmonella in the United States, the CDC says, but it said many more cases are never reported.
There have been several recent high-profile outbreaks of foodborne illness in the United States, including a strain of Salmonella carried by peppers from Mexico and that sickened 1,400 people from April to August of 2007 and an E. coli epidemic in 2006, traced to California spinach, that killed three.
Salmonella-contaminated dry pet food sickened at least 79 people, including many young children, in October and November.
(Reporting by Maggie Fox)
Happy Twelfth Night!
Originally posted at Edible TV on January 5, 2009.
According to Wikipedia Twelfth Night is “a holiday in some branches of Christianity marking the coming of the Epiphany, concluding the Twelve Days of Christmas, and is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “the evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany, formerly the last day of the Christmas festivities and observed as a time of merrymaking.
“The celebration of Epiphany, the adoration of the Magi, is marked in some cultures by the exchange of gifts, and Twelfth Night, as the eve or vigil of Epiphany, takes on a similar significance to Christmas Eve.”
Many of you may recognize Ed Levine from his stints as a judge on Iron Chef: America and as the food critic on That Money Show or as the editor of Serious Eats. He has, after all, made a career of eating so it is only natural that he is a hero of mine. With this in mind I have a very special Twelfth Night gift for all of the Edible TV faithful. Recently I stumbled on a series of videos from the mind of Levine entitled Chewing the Fat.
Chewing the Fat is a series of short video interviews (less than 3 minutes) from a list Levine made of, “interesting people I wanted to interview on camera.” So what people? How about Good Eats host Alton Brown. The seven clip series of Brown was shot, directed, and edited by Hamburger America director and author George M. Motz. The interview was shot in the Spring of 2008 and subjects include “Race, Class, and Food” and “Alton Brown on Hospitality.” Each video is poignant and humorous.
The new series is a knoshing session with Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain. The first webisode provides an intimate look at the two popular foodies including the revelation that Bourdain’s life has changed since the birth of his child.
I look forward to future episodes of Chewing the Fat and urge you to view each one by venturing HERE.
Happy Twelfth Night!
NYC’s Legendary Rainbow Room Closing
Rainbow Room to close restaurant, citing economy.
WNBC-TV reports that the owners plan to shutter the Italian-themed Rainbow Grill restaurant temporarily while keeping the establishment’s bar, banquet space and dinner-dancing going on the 65th floor of the RCA building.
The Rainbow Room has symbolized glamour since it opened in 1934, during the Great Depression.
Cipriani International chief operating officer John Higgins told WNBC the decision was “due to the current economic crisis” and a lease dispute.
A spokeswoman for landlord Tishman Speyer didn’t immediately respond to a call seeking comment Saturday.
- Rainbow Room: http://www.rainbowroom.com/
Chicago Restaurant Week
This week is Chicago Restaurant Week and to help guide you through here is the write up from Kathy Bergen and Phil Vettel of the Chicago Tribune:
Chicago Restaurant Week hopes to heat up traffic, sales with specials.
Chicago Restaurant Week returns for a second run in February, and with a vengeance, as the coldest economic conditions in decades are exacerbating the usual winter doldrums for the city’s dining establishments.
More than 130 restaurants will offer high-on-the-hog meals at easy-to-swallow prices, which is more than triple the number that participated last winter when the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau launched the program. Among those returning is one sixtyblue, the Michael Jordan-backed spot on West Randolph Street, which saw its typical February business double during the week last year.
“Especially with the economy this year, it just seemed to make sense,” said Arthur Greenan, general manager.
Kamehachi Restaurant Group opted in because it’s trying to stay aggressive in its marketing, said Carl Meier, operations director for the family-owned business with five spots.
We have 160 [employee] families depending on us to make the right decision,” he said. Its two full-service restaurants in the city, in the Old Town and Gold Coast neighborhoods, will participate.
A similar but smaller program run by Chicago Originals, an organization of independent restaurants, returns for a second year as well and will expand from one eight-day stint to two six-day stretches. From Jan. 25-30 and from Feb. 1-6, 14 restaurants will offer three-course lunches and dinners, for $24.09 and $29.09. Some restaurants will throw in a bottle of wine for an additional $20.09.
“Traffic and revenue doubled during the week last year,” said Didier Durand, who heads the group and is chef and owner of Cyrano’s Bistrot & Wine Bar. The restaurants range from Kiki’s French Bistro in River North to Oceanique in Evanston. The list can be found at www.chicagooriginals.com/restaurants.php.
These sorts of programs can be effective economic stimuli as long as the prices represent true savings from ordering off the menu, said Clark Wolf, a food and restaurant consultant based in New York and California. “It has to be credible.
“Locals get to try great restaurants at prices they can afford, restaurants get to stay in business and the wait staff gets to make some tips in a tough time,” Wolf said. “It’s cheaper than an ad, and people get to experience your restaurant.”
For Susanne Poilevey, co-owner of La Sardine, that last bit is key: “Once we get them here, they usually become customers.”
The convention bureau tweaked the program since last year, when some restaurants offered the prix fixe menus only for certain days within the eight-day period, which caused some confusion.
This year, all restaurants must be in the program for the entire period, but they have the option to offer the set price for lunch, dinner or both, said Meghan Risch, bureau spokeswoman.
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Watch Stuart Reb Donald
on Everyday Gourmet.
