I recently had the pleasure of attending the first annual Taste Williamsburg/Greenpoint street festival, which was a benefit to build the Northside Town Hall. There was food and drink from dozens of the neighborhood’s best joints, including Traif — a restaurant “celebrating pork, shellfish, and globally-inspired soul food”. Their version of street food? Braised Pork Cheek over Cream of Wheat with Prune Jus… outstanding!
The perfect weather made for a great vibe, and the wine and whiskey tastings didn’t hurt either! Williamsburg is fast becoming a foodie mecca, and this event proved it. The afternoon ended with a taste of Van Leeuwen’s Bourbon Vanilla Ice Cream, and some great live zydeco — ten bucks to the first person who can name this band, because I’d like to see them again:
The calendar is so jammed with film festivals, I seriously think that the week between Christmas and New years is likely the only one in which a festival doesn’t occur. Then again, there are probably a few on that week, too. The point is, what makes these festivals special? How are filmmakers and attendees to choose? Well, one way is by looking into how the various fests differ and no, this has not suddenly become a film blog. It’s just that the Florida Film Festival has figured out a way to single itself out. Can you guess how? That’s right…food!
The opening weekend of the Florida Film Festival (FFF) held at the Enzian Theater in Winter Park (a suburb of Orlando) is dedicated to film, food & wine and this year’s theme was Flavors of the South: Grits, Grace & Gravy. I was honored to have been asked to help organize the food part of the weekend and host a luncheon panel chock-a-block with James Beard Foundation award winners. In fact, I was the only one on the panel not in possession of one of those wonderful little medals.
As you can see from the above-linked main food, film, wine main page, there were loads of events to attend. Opening night included more pork and Maker’s Mark than you could shake a stick at, something the three people in this pic didn’t mind one bit.
L to R: IFC's Alison Willmore, your author and Chef John Currence enjoy the copious pork and bourbon on offer at the FFF opening night party.
After watching this blog slowly come to life over the past couple months, I’m thrilled to finally be able to join my crew here at Eating is Fundamental! I have known Mark and Eugene for over a decade, and one thing we’ve always shared is an almost abnormal love of food and wine. Not just consuming it, but talking about it, cooking it, and generally just obsessing over it. I spent from ages 16-30 in restaurants before leaving the industry, and even that didn’t deter my love for all things surrounding it. “It” can be just about anything, which is why folks like us never seem to tire of discovering the next great chef (or thinking we have), visiting vineyards the world over, or simply exploring our own back yard — for me, that’s the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.
Case in point: I recently walked over to my favorite butcher, The Meat Hook and was invited to taste something rather extraordinary. In a hushed tone, I was ushered to the back room to share in a discovery that had just been unearthed at a local yard sale earlier that morning — a bottle of Clementina Gin from The Philippines that appeared to be about 70 years old. I tentatively took a sip and was blown away by how much flavor it still had, despite the unidentified little black flakes floating in the bottle. It was surprisingly floral, not unlike Tanqueray Ten, with hints of fresh grapefruit and chamomile flowers. If anyone knows anything about this gin, please chime in! Until then, I look forward to sharing my adventures and discoveries here, and hope that you will, too.
It had been two-and-a-half years since I’d been to LA and to those of you who don’t travel very much or have no reason to visit Los Angeles very often, that may seem perfectly normal but for me, that was an eternity. I used to live there and even after I moved back to New York, I would hit LA about twice a year. So as a result, things have changed a bit and I found myself playing catch up on my visit in late-March. For example, Culver City has turned into a hot bed of eating and drinking joints and as a result, the income level of the nabe has risen. (All of this info is from a hasty survey of a few friends. Don’t hold me to its scientific authenticity.)
At any rate, Tuesday saw me eating two equally delicious meals at restaurants within a mile of each other and on opposite end of the financial spectrum. Lunch took me to K-Zo which bills itself as “Tokyo-style sushi, nouvelle-Asian small plates” and an extensive sake menu. The menu was expansive and expensive and the food was gorgeously presented, to wit:
Oysters, uni and caviar at K-Zo in Culver City, LA
In many ways, 2009 was a transformative year for me. My father’s estate was settled after a long process, I sold the family apartment in New York City that I had lived in, off and on, for over 30 years and moved out to East Hampton on the Eastern end of Long Island. While the apartment was in the process of closing, I embarked on a 7,200 mile, 18 state, nine week road trip from NYC to Texas, throughout the South and back up to New York.
While on this trip I discovered many wild and wonderful things, including 7 of the 12 entries below on my list and several of the honorable mentions. I met the amazing food writer John T. Edge whose book “Southern Belly: The Ultimate Food Lover’s Companion to the South” was one of my key culinary guides to my trip and who in turn introduced me to chef John Currence of City Grocery (and James Beard award winner, Best Chef, South) and they both in turn pointed me in the direction of Chefs Frank Stitt and Chris Hastings of Birmingham, AL and Mike Lata, Sean Brock and Robert Stehling of Charleston, SC. More on all of them, later.
Through these folks and Sigrid Tiedtke of the Enzian Theater in Winter Park, FL (home of the Florida Film Festival) I was also introduced to Southern cuisine and a wonderful organization called the Southern Foodways Alliance, with which I hope to have a long and fruitful relationship!
So here, without further rambling, my top food moments of 2009, presented in chronological order.
Unassuming doesn't cover it, but inside is pure pie gold!
March – Craig Brothers Cafe & Mary’s Family Pie Shop (De Valls Bluff, AR):
Good lord. De Valls Bluff is pretty much the capital of Nowhere, Arkansas, has fewer than 800 residents, is a 90 mile drive SW from Memphis and is 8 miles off the interstate but good lord the lunch you can have, there. You’d never run into this place by chance, of course so take heed. The only reason I know about it comes from reading “Southern Belly,” which guided me to a number of fine eateries in the South. Calling Craig Bros. Cafe a shack is not an exaggeration. It’s a small, unassuming building on Walnut Street and is the kind of place unadventurous eaters and “safe” travelers would avoid. Sucks for them, because it’s exactly that kind of place where one can finds sublime eating experiences, as is the case with their BBQ chopped pork sandwiches. Served with mild, medium or hot sauce (I go with medium) the sandwich is the perfect mix of juicy slow-smoked pork and crispy burnt bits served, as is the Memphis-area style, with slaw on the sandwich, wrapped in tissue paper.
After lunch, head across the street to Mary’s Family Pie Shop (look for the house with “Pie Shop” spray painted on it) for some of the most delectable pies on earth. $8.60 for a large! Try the chocolate, coconut or any other kind she’s got. You’ll thank me.
2 medium Spanish/Yellow onions, peeled and roughly chopped
6 cloves garlic, smashed
A few springs of fresh Thyme
1 cup white wine
2 quarts Water
1 Lemon, halved
A few cloves
shells/heads from 1 lb of Maine shrimp, preferably raw
Salt and pepper
N.B. You can throw all sorts of things in the stock. The original recipe called for celery and fennel, nether of which I really care for, so I left them out and milled tomatoes which didn’t really fit the flavor I was going for (and I don’t have a food mill nor access to really nice, fresh tomatoes in January) so I left them out too. I didn’t hew too closely to any one recipe and adapted a few different ones to suit my taste. Also, the amount of stock you can make will depend on the amount of water and shells you use. The amount I gave you should make enough for two.
Heat a large pot (4+ quarts, preferable enamel) over medium-high heat and add oil. When the oil gets hot, add onions and sweat them for a minute or two. They don’t need to be cooked/translucent. Add garlic and thyme and cook for another minute or so. Add the wine and simmer for another minute and then add the water. Squeeze the juice from the lemon in the water and then drop the lemon halves in. Toss in the cloves and shrimp shells and heads, season with a very little kosher salt and fresh black pepper. Bring to a boil and then lower heat to a simmer. Simmer the stock for a good hour, until it’s reduced. Try not to boil it or it will reduce too quickly. If this happens, add more water. The trick is to have 3-4 cups of stock for every 3/4 cup of uncooked risotto (2 main servings) you will end up using.
NB: Don’t be afraid to taste the stock and add ingredients to suit your tastes.
When the stock is done, pass it through a fine sieve or a chinois. If you are going to use it immediately, put it back on the stove at a very low heat. Enough to keep it hot, but not high enough to boil/reduce it any further. If you’re not going to use it right away, let it cool slightly and it can be refrigerated for a few days or frozen for an extended period of time.
In keeping with the wintery theme of my last post, I’d like to give you all a few suggestions on how to eat healthily and often, locally during the winter months when, in the vast majority of the country the amount of local produce in supermarkets dwindle (if they ever carried local produce, which most don’t). What many folks don’t know is that winter is not solely the domain of apples, root veggies and frozen peas. Check out these charts for an idea of what kinds of fruits and vegetables are available in which months. In those cases, it’s the San Francisco area but here’s a national guide. Remember that even these are not steadfast rules. Within various communities there are local farms with cold frames and greenhouses that are bringing more and more fresh veggies to farmers’ markets even in the depths of winter!
Now on to seafood. Two of the most delectable sea creatures I can imagine come into season during the fall and winter months: bay scallops and Maine shrimp. In the Northeast, Peconic and Nantucket bay scallop season starts around early November and continues until March. This year’s Peconic haul looks to be the best in years (similar stories are floating south from Mass.) and may even top last year’s haul of 9,942 pounds. If that seems like a small amount to you, it is but consider this: according to Newsday.com the entire statewide haul (which comes exclusively from Long Island waters) was a mere 53 pounds as recently as 1996 while in 1982 it was 500,000 pounds. As a resuly, prices fluxuate greatly. This year the retail price during the first week was about $19/lb where I live in East Hampton and it’s since ballooned to about $25/lb. However, consider that even at 10,000 lbs for the season, that’s only $250,000 retail! The Baymen are getting much less than that.
Well, Winter is upon us. The skies darken obscenely early, the ground is cold and hard and we all (at least those of us not in Florida, San Diego and Southern Arizona) succumb to a little bit of the doldrums, aka Seasonal Affective Disorder. Some of us worse than others. I have recently been diagnosed with a rather severe vitamin D deficiency and while researching the treatment (vitamin D supplements, duh!) I discovered that some doctors think regular supplements of D may help this seasonal malady. Since our bodies manufacture the majority of our D through exposure to sunlight, when we’re not exposed to the sun very much, we have much lower D levels and thus, we have symptoms a D deficiency. Rocket science it ain’t! What are they? Well, according to Easy Immune System health, some are: colds and flu, cavities, depression and S.A.D. (a ha!), Osteoporosis, hypertension, asthma, several cancers and MS.
According to the Vitamin and Supplement guide:
Can you get enough vitamin D from sunlight alone to avoid vitamin D deficiency symptoms?
If you live north of 40 degrees north latitude (about the latitude of New York City) or south of 40 degrees south latitude (about the latitude of Wellington, New Zealand), for at least half of the year, you can’t.
In Boston, Massachusetts, for instance, there is insufficient ultraviolet radiation in the sunlight for skin to make adequate amounts of vitamin D from early November to early March. On the South Island of New Zealand, vitamin D deficiency is a real risk from early May to early September. In Calgary, Alberta, residents don’t get enough vitamin D even if they get daily sun exposure from October until nearly April. And in northern Europe, Alaska, and Russia, the problem is even worse.
Go ahead and do a Google search on Vitamin D and you’ll notice a lot of new research that points to D being important on a number of levels and indications that it can help safeguard against many maladies (fatigue, chronic pain, cancer, MS, obesity, stroke, etc.) can be found all over the net.
All that said, I am taking supplements because I went to a doctor and was tested and prescribed 5,000 IU, daily. DO NOT take my word for it, especially if you’re on any medication. However, if you find yourself down in the dumps, getting frequent colds or just want to make sure you’re as healthy as you can be, go to your doctor and get your vitamin D levels checked. I’ve only been on the D for a few days and I’ll let you know how I feel in a couple of weeks!
New Orleans is a singular American city for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is its food. The bounty of land and sea present itself in its culinary history and, as with the Lucky Dog carts, literary history, as well. We’ll leave any kind of an in-depth look at New Orleans food until I’ve been back a few more times, but the city is swimming with Creole, Cajun, French and other assorted flavors and if you’ve never been, consider these pictures a very small sample of what’s on offer! You can see more pictures from New Orleans and other cities in our Flickr stream, here.
Cochon's Fried Alligator (front) and Hoghead cheese.
My visit to Smitty’s was at the very beginning of my culinary, historical, filmic and sporting visit to the South. As per John T. Edge’s proclamation in his brilliant tome Southern Belly: The Ultimate Food Lover’s Guide to the South, I ventured not West of I-35. Keep it East of I-35 in Texas, says John T. and you’re still in the South. well, for 9 weeks and over 7,000 miles, I kept it South of the Mason Dixon Line and East of I-35 and had some extraordinary food, sobering experiences and really odd encounters.
After South by Southwest, I hopped in my rental and made the 540-odd mile trip East to the Crecent City, The Big Easy, NOLA…N’awlins. I hadn’t been there in about 30 years, so I really had no idea what to expect. All I knew was that I was excited to visit what is the only US city with its own fully-developed native cuisine and one that is still trying to recover from one of the worst natural and governmental disasters in American history.
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