Cincinnati Nomerati

Experience Columbus; Skillet:

2012-01-24T12:13:00.007-05:00

“I think I’ll get the biscuits and gravy.”

“That’s what I was going to get! Fine, I’ll get the quiche, and I also want to try the squash soup…maybe the grits?”

“Ok, so I’ll get the biscuits and grits, and you’ll get…”

“Ohh, look, pancakes!”

“Argh, do you want the pancakes or the quiche?”

"Both?"

When David and I go out to eat, we usually fall into a pattern of tense negotiations after perusing the menu. There are only two of us, and we usually want to try more than our fair share of items on the menu. We’ve grown to approach the issue as strategically as possible, ordering only the most desired items between the two of us.*

why can't I, eat all these menu items

It found it amusing to see similar reactions from our two fellow food bloggers (also invited on an 3-day-all-expense paid tour of the Columbus food scene) sitting across the table from us at Skillet in Columbus. Jane and Terry voiced their choices first, opting for the biscuits and gravy and the hoecakes. David and I looked at each other—those were exactly the dishes we were going to order. Opening our menus again, we scrambled to find our two runners up.

We finally decided upon blueberry pancakes and the rosemary sweet potato hash, as well as some of the house cured cottage ham, which stood out on the menu.

Hash

Ham

While I had some reservations about the mushrooms in my hash, I quickly got over it and ate much more for breakfast than I usually do—it was that good.

Skillet is a smaller restaurant in the German Village District in Columbus. Chef Kevin Caskey changes the locally-based menu pretty often, so you probably won’t see the same dish on repeated visits. That said, all the dishes we tried were excellent, so you probably won't leave disappointed.

Chef Kevin

must...take..moar...pictures

*The exception to this, of course, is Take the Cake Café, where we order just about everything on the menu without shame.

Pork belly bahn mi:

2011-12-22T08:31:00.001-05:00

This past summer, David and I made a lot of salsa. This was due in part to a breakfast experiment for David, which included him modifying his morning meals to include a spinach and orange juice smoothie, avocado and can of sardines (yes, really), but that’s a topic for another post.

Anyway, the cilantro. Cilantro is one of those things that you don’t realize how important it is in your recipe-and how grocery stores have an uncanny knack for being out of it when you need it- until you attempt to make salsa on a weekly basis.

And the amount it's sold in? Ridiculous. Most of the time it’s only sold either in a little box or a gigantic bunch, the latter of which you’ll probably just use a third of, then forget about in your crisper until weeks later.

So it was with crossed fingers that I made my grocery list for David’s latest welcome back-from-Michigan-dinner.

The menu, after careful deliberation, included Nem Nướng, adapted from the Angry Asian's recipe here, Vietnamese Coffee Jello Shots from the Food Librarian, and Pork Belly Bahn Mi with Spicy Cucumbers from the Kitchy Kitchen. And guess what a major ingredient in a bahn mi is?

Cilantro. Lots. of. Cilantro.

Luck was with me however, because when I arrived at the store, glorious bunches of cilantro awaited me, sitting pretty next to the Italian parsley.

I made the jello and the dipping sauce for the pork meatballs the night before, and marinated the pork belly in the beer and spices overnight.

I consulted one of my favorite cookbooks for advice on how to serve the Jello shots. What, you don't have a fancy Jello shot cook book? Just me?

I also made David a menu in the style of a treasure map, wetting card stock, folding and crumpling it, then staining it with instant coffee and using sharpie and oil pastels once it was dry to add some color.

I also attempted to make almost no-knead French baguettes. I followed the recipe. I even measured out my flour, which, if you know me, is a big step. This is what I got.

ha-ha

Comically flat and unusably dense, I opened the door of the oven, saw these paddle shaped loaves and began giggling hysterically. Fully anticipating this would happen, I had wisely purchased some back up loaves with the rest of the groceries, and so dinner was saved.

Other than the bread fail, dinner was fantastic. The Vietnamese Jello-shots were rich and strongly caffeinated.

I altered the pork meatballs slightly by adding paté to the mixture of the pork, and we also took the bahn mi to 11 and added paté to that as well. The pork meatballs and dipping sauce were delicious, and the bahn mi was even better than I could have anticipated. It is without a doubt, one of the favorite sandwiches ever made in our kitchen, and probably the best bahn mi we've had anywhere.

The spicy pickles were very good, though they required the Mandoline to prepare. That’s right, the kitchen implement dubbed in some professional kitchens as “The Tool of Death”.* By being careful and paying attention (and also using the guard that looks like a cowboy hat, always recommended) I escaped unscathed.

#1 maimer of thumbs worldwide

Success!

Beware of hungry kitties when you're enjoying your pork belly

*Just ask Dalia Jurgenson

Experience Columbus, Basi Italia:

2011-12-04T18:43:00.010-05:00

“Do you want to try some of this?” Joe asked, his fork hovering over his rigatoni. “Sure, thanks! Want some pork cheek? Who wants pork cheek?” I replied, glancing around the table and pointing to my plate.

“Oh, I’d love some.” Julie remarked, holding her own dish steady while David snapped close up pictures of smoked chicken risotto.

Though most of us had only met earlier in the day, gathered around the table at Basi, I felt like the group of food bloggers (brought together by Experience Columbus for an all expenses paid trip to enjoy the city) had known each other much longer than that. Maybe it was simply the love of delicious food that made me feel closer to my new friends. Or maybe it was the atmosphere that is Basi starting to soak in.

Let's play a game, how many DSLR cameras can you spot amongst the food bloggers?

Basi is in a renovated house with a beautiful courtyard, right in the middle of the Victorian Village neighborhood in Columbus.

The style of cuisine? Mediterranean and Italian. Owners and operators John Dornback and Trish Gentile have set out to create an approachable and friendly restaurant focused on delicious dishes and bringing the surrounding neighborhood together.

We did have a wonderful meal, though I enjoyed some dishes more than others. David raved about his veal ravioli, and I still think about the tender barbecue pork cheek I ordered. I thought the smoked chicken risotto had nice flavor, but the texture was a little off--it needed more liquid and was more a pilaf than a risotto--but that's really the only complaint I had about all the dishes we tried. The honey pistachio flatbread served as an appetizer was amazing, and I could have eaten two of them for dinner by myself.

John's enthusiasm for his restaurant was infectious

It gets hot in the kitchen at Basi

Pecorino and zucchini with toasted almonds

tomato cocktail with Gorgonzola cheese

Smoked chicken risotto with medjool dates, goat cheese and crushed pistachio

Veal ravioli with blistered tomato, arugula and Parmesan broth

Rigatoni with sweet sausage, tomato, raisin, fennel and pine nuts

Penne pasta with Shrimp, roasted red pepper bechamella and spinach

Braised pork cheeks with sweet potato, espresso BBQ and braised kale and Swiss chard.

Dessert

Taste of Belgium on Vine:

2011-11-03T17:51:00.004-04:00

I was taking a break from training my replacement at work on Tuesday, trying to ignore my rumbling stomach. I still had an hour until lunch, and my usual tummy-placating tactic -- nibbling on the random assortment of snacks in my file cabinet -- wasn’t working. Looking for distraction, I pulled out my phone and checked my Twitter feed. I wasn’t prepared for what I saw.

I turned to my coworker. “David’s in so much trouble.” I told her.

“Why?”

“He went to Taste of Belgium without me. We were supposed to go together later this week. And he went there today. Without me!”

“Uh-oh.”

Thus began the following exchange:

Red-Cooked Pork Belly:

2011-10-24T14:14:00.000-04:00

I was seven years old, and I was terrified. I peered down at the water sparkling below the high dive at our local pool and cringed.

I’d been shivering up there for a while, over twenty minutes, while those behind me waiting for their turns shot my parents dirty looks. Finally, the lifeguard climbed up the ladder, joined me on the board, and tried to coax me into jumping off. I refused. I’m sure he tried reasoning with me, but my seven-year-old brain remained set. Too embarrassed to climb back down, and too scared take the plunge, I was stuck.

So he did the logical thing. He shoved me off.

I managed to avoid a painful belly flop upon impact somehow, and when I surfaced, I was stunned to realize that I hadn’t perished in the water.

Note: I am not trying to imply that I am a piece of delicious pork belly

I swam to the ladder and got out of the pool. Then I walked back to the line at the high dive, waited, climbed up the ladder, and jumped again. And then again. And Again. I must have jumped off the high dive over fifteen times that afternoon.

So, what does this story have to do with anything? Hold on, I’m getting to it.

Nineteen years later, on Wednesday morning, I was experiencing a feeling similar to what I experienced on my first attempt at the high dive all over again, though I was nowhere near a pool and wearing substantially more clothing than a swimsuit. I was sitting at my desk, re-reading an email that had just arrived.

This past Wednesday afternoon, I resigned from my job of over four years at a law firm downtown.

It’s a little scary to change careers, admit it. Though real estate law isn’t exactly the most interesting thing in the world, I’m very good at my job. It pays well, provides nice benefits and I like the people I work with. It’s stable and reasonably secure. But it’s never been what I want to do with my life. It’s not even what I went to school for.

So when the opportunity to join a downtown advertising agency opened up, I found myself standing on a different sort of precipice, peering down at the possibility below and reasoning with myself.

A few lingering doubts kept trying to surface.

What if I don’t succeed like I think I will? What if it’s nothing like I imagined?

I countered with the positives.

A job where you’d like what you do and be excited to go to work every morning. A job where you can create new things on a daily basis. A job where your talents can be put to good use. Not being forced to use Internet Explorer.

And I jumped. And then David and I made pork belly to celebrate.

This recipe (also known as Hong Shao Rou) is adapted from Appetite for China, which is in turn adapted from one of Fuchsia Dunlop's books. Red Cook also has detailed tips for perfect red-cooked pork.

Ingredients

1 lb. pork belly
2 tbsp. peanut oil
2 tbsp. cane sugar
1 oz. strong wine (Shaoxing is traditional, but dry Oloroso or Amontillado work too)
1 in. piece ginger, peeled and grated (or 1/4 tsp. powdered ginger if you're lazy)
2 whole pieces star anise
2 whole dried bird's eye chili
1 whole cinnamon stick
2 tbsp. naturally brewed soy sauce
A few sprigs of green onion, sliced
3 - 4 cups of cooked white rice

Steps

Bring a quart of water to boil.
Briefly parboil the pork belly (about 4 minutes). You may have to cut the pork belly in half or thirds to fit in your pot.
Remove the pork and let it drain on paper towels.
When cool enough to handle, cut the pork belly into bite-sized pieces, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.
In a wok, add the oil and sugar, and set to a medium-low heat.
You must watch the wok intently. When the sugar begins to liquefy and brown, set the heat to low.
Gently swirl the wok and observe the color of the sugar. When it turns a deep ruddy-brown, you are ready to add the pork. If the sugar begins to bubble, foam, or blacken, it's burnt. Throw it out and try again at a lower heat or for a shorter time.
Add the pork belly pieces and stir vigorously to coat in the caramelized sugar and oil.
Add the wine, and turn the heat back up to medium. Continue to stir quickly until the meat in the pork firms up a little and the edges are slightly brown.
Add enough water to cover the pork (about 2 - 3 cups depending on the shape of your wok) and add the ginger, star anise, chili, and cinnamon.
Bring to a boil and let simmer uncovered for an hour (now is a good time to crack open some booze). Every 10 - 15 minutes, check on the water level and give it a quick stir. Don't allow the water to evaporate completely; the sauce will burn and you will be sad. Add extra water if you have to.
Toward the end of the simmer, you may need to adjust the heat up or down to achieve the right sauce consistency. Ideally, it should be silky, but not syrupy.
Remove the cinnamon stick, star anise, and chili pieces.
Add the soy sauce and green onion, and stir to combine.
Place pieces of pork on cooked rice, and drizzle with sauce. Depending on how lean the pork belly is, you may need to drain off some of the rendered fat first.
Stuff your face full of crazy delicious salty-sweet pork.

Stirring the sugar and oil while the wok heats up

The sugar has started to caramelize

The sugar likes to stick to spatulas. You might want to use chopsticks to stir on this step.

Commence face stuffage

Man Vs. Food Nation, Cincinnati:

2011-10-11T08:28:00.003-04:00

In late summer, one of my coworkers, Adam Turer, walked up to my desk looking like the cat who ate the canary.

"Guess what?!" He asked.

"What?" I replied, looking up from connecting the dots on a chain of assignments and merger documents.

"Adam Richman is coming. Here. Izzy's. For me!"
"WHAT!? When?!"

And Adam and I kept our mouths shut about the show until it became public knowledge that Adam Richman was coming. Even when the media speculated about where he was headed, both of us just giggled quietly in our cubicles. It was tough. Adam was nice enough to have lunch with me the other day and answer a few questions about the show. He also let me take pictures of his food. Thanks Adam!

1. Did you learn anything useful about your first attempt at the Reuben during your audition video? What was your strategy going in?

I took a different approach in my first attempt. I ate all the insides (meat, cheese, sauerkraut) first, then attacked the massive amount of bread and potato. I put down the innards of the sandwich, but couldn’t get through all the starch. I finished just over 3 of the 5.5 pounds in that first attempt. That was with basically no training. In my second attempt, and after talking to Adam and local competitive eater Joe LaRue, I stuffed myself at a Golden Corral 2 days prior, and I went at the 110 like a regular sandwich for the challenge. It tasted much better that way and the potato pancake on the sandwich tasted great. I cut the sandwich into eighths and went at it one slice at a time.

2. What’s Adam Richman like in person?

Adam is one of the sweetest, most genuine guys I’ve met. He really, really cares about his show and the people involved in making it. He called me as soon as we were done filming background shots with my son’s baseball team the night before the challenge to make sure all the kids and parents had a good time and to apologize for the amount of time it took. He signed autographs for the kids and his crew played sandlot baseball with me and my boy one day after we were done filming. At the end of a 16-hour day of filming, Adam’s still cracking jokes and making everyone in the room enjoy themselves. He works extremely hard to put out the highest-quality product in each episode.

3. Can you tell us anything about the episode that we might not know (without giving anything away, of course)?

I had no idea how much work goes into filming a 23-minute episode of television. The crew spent almost every hour of four straight days filming all over the city. I was exhausted and I was only involved in about 15 hours of it. I have not seen the episode yet, so I’m not sure exactly what made the cut. I know that a lot of hard work went into it by all involved.

4. What was the hardest part of the challenge?

The time limit. I’ve seen every episode of Man vs Food and Man vs Food Nation and there are not many challenges shorter than 30 minutes, except for the spicy challenges. A quantity challenge like this in half an hour is the biggest obstacle. There really isn’t time to get that second wind and rally in the closing minutes. You have to start and go full speed ahead for all 30 minutes. I think 45 minutes or an hour would be more appropriate for this challenge.

5. Do you still like eating Reubens?

Yes. I still go to Izzy’s about once a week. This experience did entice me to expand upon my usual menu choices, though. I needed to try some different things other than the reuben for a while. That’s one of the great things about Izzy’s; the reubens are the best, but there’s a lot more on the menu. I really like the Mex and the Codfather.

I'm pretty excited to see the episode, which airs Wednesday the 12th at 9 PM on the travel channel. Don't miss it! And no, I don't know who won. Adam's been impossible to crack.

Experience Columbus, Milestone 229:

2011-10-09T12:36:00.009-04:00

Last month, David and I joined bloggers from across the country for a mini vacation in Columbus. Over 3 days, we ate, drank and visited more food and drink related establishments than I thought possible. We were thrilled when we were first contacted by Experience Columbus a few weeks prior to our trip, offering to take us on a magical, all expenses paid journey through their city.

It makes the most sense to go in chronological order, post wise, and we have a lot of pictures. Seriously, you have no idea. It took me over 6 hours to edit them all, partly complicated by the fact that editing food pictures is very hungry work and you need to keep stopping for snacks.

Bicentennial Park

We hope that you enjoy our posts about Columbus as much as we enjoyed our visit. Our first stop when we arrived in Columbus was Milestone 229, a contemporary restaurant overlooking the newly built Bicentennial park. The restaurant and the park were very impressive, and it was a great way to start out our trip. After meeting our fellow bloggers and everyone furiously exchanging business cards, we settled in for a drink and a sampling of the menu at Milestone 229. Both my cocktail, named “the greensleeves”, and the all dishes we tried were excellent, as well as creatively presented.

Pimento cheese flatbread with veggies

prawns

Some familiar brews on that list

Skillet Macaroni and Cheese

And...out come all the cameras!

Pork Belly

These are the other fine bloggers we had the pleasure of meeting on our trip. I also got to catch up with Julie of Wine Me, Dine Me, who I hadn't seen all summer!

Hounds in the Kitchen
Blue Kitchen
Eat the Love
The Heritage Cook
Wine Me, Dine me (in Cincinnati)
The Hungry Dudes
A Thought for Food
Vanilla Icing

Multipass

Frankencookie*:

2011-09-14T13:22:00.004-04:00

It's alive!

“It’s amazing how much success you have in the kitchen despite your dislike of measuring and numbers,” David remarked casually one afternoon.

“Yeah, well,” I replied, “It’s like Ms. Vu told me my last day of Chemistry class…”

“Wait…Who said what?”

If you had to ask me my favorite teacher in high school, it would have been Ms. Vu, my chemistry teacher. Despite my, shall we say, complete ineptitude for conversion factors, I still enjoyed the class. At least until I dropped it.

Ms. Vu was a feisty Vietnamese lady with a thick accent, and what she lacked for in height, she made up for in attitude. No one had names in her class. You were either addressed as simply “kid” or your element name, which you were required to pick on the first day (Fe, represent).

Between actual Chemistry lessons, she regaled us with stories of swiping her friend’s moped and driving it full tilt into a chain link fence, or diving into a giant tub of sprinkles at a certain national chain of donut shops in only her underwear. “I wanted to see what it would feel like.” She explained casually. I swear I’m not making this up.

One day, after a particularly bad week of quizzes which I barely passed, she pulled me aside and gazed at me levelly. “Iron.” She said gravely. “You will not pass. You need to drop this class. Drop Chemistry. Find something you like better.”

I was only too happy to agree after struggling through the latter half of the quarter. But Ms. Vu wasn’t finished.

Cocking her head to the side, she gave me an assessing look. “Kid, it’s OK Chemistry is not for you. You are one of those people who will either succeed in life….or fail. Miserably. Just...crash and burn!” She emphasized the last part. I nodded, filed that away, and much to my parent’s dismay, dropped Chemistry the next day.

it's better to burn out...than..well, you know.

I’ve found that Ms. Vu’s prediction carries over to this day. I make very few dishes in the kitchen, especially with baking, that are mediocre. What I turn out -- whether it is beer muffins, scones, 7-layer bars or coconut macaroons -- turns out spectacularly, or is pretty much a complete disaster (remember calling the fire department when I tried to make donuts?). Thankfully, this creation falls into the first category.

yo dawg, I heard you like cookies, so I put a cookie in your cookie so you could eat cookies while you were eating cookies

I took much of the work and risk out of the recipe by using a mixes, but this could also be done with your favorite cookie and brownie recipes made from scratch. The jumbo muffin tin isn’t absolutely necessary, it’s easier to make them with one. The bake time will vary depending on how large your muffin tin is, so make sure to keep an eye on the oven and check with toothpicks often.

*title courtesy of: 5chw4r7z

Sichuan Bistro:

2011-09-02T13:19:00.008-04:00

Wordlessly, I handed David another napkin. I was getting a little concerned. As he was happily eating his way though his black pepper beef dish, he was starting to look a little...shiny.

"Should I stop this?" I wondered. I turned my attention to my plate of kung pao chicken, which was also formidably spicy. And that was when the coughing started.

It was like a wave, beginning at the back of the restaurant and moving to the front. Patrons started clearing their throats, then quietly coughing and reaching for their sodas. Even the 3 year old at the table next to us, who had spent most of the meal staring in fascination at my blond, spiky haircut, began coughing little toddler-sized coughs. We were the next hit, and I felt my eyes start to water. The waitstaff, who were observing the situation, just looked knowingly at each other and shrugged.

Someone had ordered a spicy sizzling dish. Which means the entire restaurant got to partake in the experience.

David and I had heard about Sichuan Bistro -- located in an inconspicuous strip mall in Mason -- from several favorable reviews. We had been on a mission to find authentic Sichuan Chinese cuisine, which was not an easy task. Many Sichuan dishes use the so-called “Sichuan pepper,” an odd spice which could not be legally imported into the United States until 2005 and, despite the name, isn't even related to either peppercorns or chili peppers.

The Sichuan pepper actually contains a mild natural anesthetic, and when paired with hot chili peppers, creates a highly prized sensation known as "spicy numb." Yes, the hot peppers are still hot. And yes, you may start sweating profusely like David, but as for the pain that can usually accompany an extremely spicy dish, the Sichuan pepper takes care of that.

Kung pao!

David and I knew we were in the right place for authentic Sichuan dishes when we walked into the packed restaurant. There are two menus available, one with common Americanized dishes on it, and the other with authentic Chinese cuisine. Both menus are brought to your table when you are seated, no secret password necessary.

David and I each got a dish off of the authentic menu. David picked the black pepper beef ($12.99), and I chose their authentic kung pao chicken ($9.99). We also got some tasty crab rangoon ($3.99), which I am partial to.

Both of the dishes were excellent. We’ll definitely be back the next time we’re in Mason.

Foot long Coney dogs:

2011-08-10T13:23:00.005-04:00

Grocery shopping can be perilous for those susceptible to impulse buys. Yes, those interesting and unplanned purchases that are never on the grocery list but somehow make it into the cart. There you are, trying to keep it on the straight and narrow, checking off staples on your list, and then you see it. You may wander over to the strategically situated display or aisle end cap and pick up the item. Usually by that time, it's too late.

It is an impulse buy. Resistance is futile. You will make your purchase.

David's somewhat immune to impulse purchases, but I am woefully liable to them. He's tried to curb my impulses various ways. For a while he insisted that we only purchase items on our list, which I solved by sneaking "miscellaneous" on every grocery list. He’s also tried beguiling me with sophisms or even making me carry the item around the store for 15 minutes. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Which is why he was keeping a close eye on me as we were in the process of selecting hot dogs for our cheese coney dinner that night. But not close enough. I'd spotted the foot long hot dog buns and that was that. I could not be dissuaded, and David could tell it was a losing battle. Exchanging the hot dogs we selected for foot long hot dogs to go with the buns, we continued shopping.

Giant coney, to scale

size matters, you know

We picked up some tater tots to make tater tachos (like nachos but with tater tots), and the dinner plan was complete.

I can haz coney?

Haha, no, kitty.

Insert Wok Pun Here:

2011-08-07T14:17:00.006-04:00

I don't think the woman in front of me realized how close she was to bodily harm. She was tying up both registers, whining at all the Sur Le Table employees in earshot about how they had charged her for the free knife sharpening service (apparently it's only two per household, FYI). My frustration steadily built up toward a violent eruption and potential disaster. David and I had been in line for 15 minutes. We just wanted to buy our wok and get out. At that moment, I was contemplating bashing the bleating, obnoxious woman over the head with the wok and telling her to put on her big girl pants and sharpen her own damn knives.

Sharpening knives is not hard. Exhibit "A", David sharpening the Global.
[Note for commenters below: that is a ceramic sharpening stick for a Japanese Global, not honing steel for a German knife. We know the difference. Look closely.]

Rewind a bit to earlier in the day. David and I were searching for dinner recipes. We'd been gifted with some very pretty bok choy, and were trying to find a nice recipe to use it in. We were already thinking Chinese because of the bok choy, but I will take any excuse to make a dish using crunchy water chestnuts. David decided he wanted to try moo goo gai pan, and we realized that we were lacking a wok. Among other things.

Kevin's pretty Bok Choy

So we (eventually) got the wok, heat diffuser, oyster sauce, multitude of other Chinese sauces, dry sherry, mushrooms, and miscellaneous other ingredients for our moo goo gai pan. Stir fry can be as simple or complicated as you would like to make it. In our case, it was more of the latter. Once we got the mise en place out of the way, things came together rather quickly, but the prep still took about an hour of both of us working together.

Beverage pairing: Fancy Tripel Hop Duvel

Were you aware that a new steel wok will most likely be coated with a toxic lacquer to keep the metal from oxidizing while sitting on the store shelf, and that almost unnoticeable, plasticky film needs to be removed before cooking in it to avoid poisoning your family? Good to know.

David and I followed this recipe to the letter (with the addition of the bok choy), and it came out wonderfully. I'd say it was worth the wok and the wait.

Wokka Wokka

A welcome back dinner fit for a king:

2011-07-25T11:18:00.008-04:00

fancy royal menus

your table is ready, your highness

"Ooooh!" I exclaimed, peering into the frozen case. "Look David, a pheasant!" David glanced back at me from the line at the cash register, skeptical. "Do you even know how to cook a pheasant? What are you going to do with it?"

"I don't know, something." I replied petulantly, yanking open the door to the case, and selecting one of the locally raised pheasants. As we left Findlay Market, I was still coming up with ideas on how to cook the bird. BBQ? Maybe some sort of coq au vin style dish? The possibilities!

Hey, what can I say. Some women impulse buy shoes, jewelry or purses. For me, it's poultry.

After arriving home, the pheasant took up residence in our freezer, where it remained for 5 months. Paralyzed by choice, I kept changing my mind about how and when to make it. Finally, though, I made up my mind that I was going to keep it simple and roast the pheasant with some herbes de provence. David's latest welcome back dinner presented the perfect opportunity.

After giving some thought to where I thought a pheasant might usually be served, I came up with the idea of a fancy medieval style feast. A few things come to mind when I envision such an event. The first is giant turkey legs.

It's very likely that I've been conditioned by years of Renaissance festivals to associate the two, and any historical inaccuracies aside, the turkey legs were always delicious. For an appetizer, I made goat cheese pate pinwheels, which are simple and require very little prep time.

Rosemary mashed potatoes and green beans amandine completed the main course. As for dessert, I eyed the fancy Valrhona chocolate in the cabinet and decided to use it to make chocopots.

I used a duck egg to make the chocopots as well as fancy cocoa

Speaking of chocopots, have you heard a certain Cincinnati blogger's serenade to the choco pot?

I generally have about two hours to get dinner ready before David arrives home from Michigan, which is usually around 8 PM. I leave work at 6. Cooking an entire 3 course meal with a cute but entirely useless cat as a sous chef can be challenging, to say the least. This past dinner required the use of the oven for four of the items, which called for a critical path chart. I also used a Gantt chart to further organize my thoughts on the order of prep.

graphs can be sensible and pretty

Tom + Chee:

2011-07-16T11:12:00.005-04:00

It may come as a surprise that this was my first visit to Tom + Chee. Given my love of grilled cheese sandwiches, as well as their many creative options, I knew it I'd end up there sooner or later.

I just kept pushing it for later, for purely selfish reasons. Oh, I looked at the menu online. I knew about the grilled cheese donut. I follow them on twitter, and see tweets of the daily specials and soups, which sound delicious most of the time. But I just couldn't bring myself to go there.

I knew that if it was anything like Melt Bar and Grilled, visiting Tom + Chee would be akin to opening Pandora's box. My will power would vanish, and indubitably I would construct some sort of goetta-triple-cheese-and-potato-chip-grilled-cheese-donut-monstrosity the likes of which has never been seen by man or beast.

Putting my fear aside, I visited for lunch this past week with two of my friends, who kindly let me take pictures of their sandwiches. And yes, I got the grilled cheese donut. And the mac n' cheese grilled cheese with bacon.

Tom + Chee was as awesome as I was afraid it would be. Service was quick and friendly, grilled cheeses were gooey and toasty, and the wide variety of coke products (diet coke, caffeine free diet coke, cherry coke zero and regular coke!) was a welcome surprise.

Hippy Chee: lettuce, tomato, cucumber and hummus with cheddar on wheat, $3.50

Hot N' Spicy Chee: pepperoni, hot peppers and onion, with pepper jack on wheat

The grilled cheeses were also very inexpensive for their size (my two sandwiches, even with the upcharge of bacon on the grilled mac n’ cheese and my soda were still under $10), which is a good deal. It's easy to see why they've been successful and able to open up a second location in Newport so quickly. I'll definitely be back. My donut creation awaits.

it calls

Iron Chef Cincinnati:

2011-07-05T19:07:00.005-04:00

If you didn't know, Thursday is a big day for four local chefs. Yelp Cincinnati is hosting an Iron Chef competition!

Chef Matt Buschle from Virgil's, Chef Josh Campbell from Mayberry & The Skinny Pig, Chef Steven Shockley (formerly of Maribelle's Tavern), Chef Mark Bodenstein of Parkers Blue Ash Tavern and Chef Bella Dolce from Roxy's will all be competing, in Iron Chef style, with one of four local ingredients which will be revealed right before the competition. The event starts at 7, and you can read all about it (and RSVP) here on Yelp.

We caught up to Josh Campbell to ask him a few questions about his feelings prior to the competition.

Good luck Josh! We're interested to see what you cook up. The event also supports the Freestore Foodbank, which is a great cause.

Operation Queso Grande:

2011-06-29T13:31:00.007-04:00

"I've got the stuff. Meet me by the cafe at 7 PM. Come alone."

I followed instructions and arrived at the specified location, cash in hand. Nervously glancing around, the exchange was made. After the money changed hands, I quickly stuffed my bounty into a Jeff Ruby's takeout bag. Other patrons were intrigued. "What's that?" They asked, craning their necks to get a better look in the bag. "Nothing." I hastily replied.

I discreetly placed the bag in the trunk of my car, and drove back to the apartment with my 15 lbs of not-for-retail-sale-for-food-institution-only Land O' Lakes Extra melt.

NOT FOR RETAIL SALE

You may remember my social media cheese dip experiment a while back, where I contacted Land O' Lakes to get some coveted Extra Melt, a melting cheese used by many Mexican restaurants that has been specifically engineered to kick the crap out of Velveeta when it comes to making a cheese dip.

You may also remember their subsequent response.
　

For a few days I couldn't look at the Land O' Lakes logo without being annoyed. "She's smug." I told David. "Land O' Lakes is sitting on a stockpile of Extra Melt, guarding it like Fort Knox. They're cheese Nazis, is what they are. Cheese Nazis!"

But I am nothing if not persistent. Determined not to be thwarted by Land O' Lakes or the limitations of retail sale, I made a few phone calls, and very shortly was in possession of three 5 lb blocks of the stuff.

And what do you make with 15 lbs of Extra Melt? Answer: Anything you want. It really is a superior melting cheese, and worth the hassle of obtaining. Happy hunting.

buffalo chicken nachos

Over jerk pork loin with a fried egg

Spicy Goetta Pancakes:

2011-06-24T13:28:00.003-04:00

There's something comforting about pancakes. Buttery, slightly salty and sweet with maple syrup, pancakes, at least for me, are on the Olympic team of a tasty breakfast.

Sometimes, though, regular pancakes are not enough. Maybe you've had a horrible day at the office, arriving home frustrated and jittery from the coffee you've pounded to try make it through the afternoon. Or maybe you hit it a little too hard with cheap Hudy Delights at a Cincinnati Rollergirls game and now you're hating life (hey, it happens). Or maybe you're depressed because the playstation network has been down for almost a month, or Mark Bittman has announced he's no longer writing The Minimalist column in the New York Times.

All of these situations, and more, are the perfect environment for spicy goetta pancakes. Note that I didn't say pancakes with goetta, which could easily be confused as pancakes with goetta on the side. No, spicy goetta pancakes have spicy goetta pieces inside the pancakes themselves, making a spicy, salty, buttery sweet meal to put you on the road to emotional or physical recovery.

Thanks to the advances of modern technology, you now have two choices for pancakes. While making pancakes from scratch is extremely easy, there is now an even more lazy option. The batter blaster. I imagine pancakes in a whipped cream can won't sit well with everyone, but we've found it very convenient. Especially when I only want four small, silver dollar sized pancakes. At 12:15 AM.

Goetta pancakes instructions:

1. Cook your spicy goetta, making sure it is nice and crispy. Place on paper towel to the side.

2. Put the pancake batter in a greased pan or well seasoned skillet (preferably the one you cooked the goetta in).

3. Drop the spicy goetta crumbles into the pancake batter.

4. Flip once, and remove once fully cooked.

5. Repeat steps 2-4.

6. Put whatever toppings you like on your pancakes (syrup, butter, jam, some award winning gelato) Consume. Let the healing begin.

Melt Bar and Grilled:

2011-05-26T08:00:00.003-04:00

It’s only been 3 weeks since National Grilled Cheese month, and my quest to have a different grilled cheese every weekday, ended. By my count, I made at least 30 grilled cheese sandwiches last month, 23 of which were different.

You might think I’d be tired of grilled cheese at this point, and that I’d avoid a restaurant that serves some of the most massive, insane grilled cheese sandwiches in the state.

You’d be wrong.

Enter the Melt Bar and Grilled, located about 15 minutes west of downtown Cleveland. Last Saturday, as I watched our location move closer and closer to our destination on the GPS, my dreams of traveling to the grilled cheese mecca became more of a delicious reality with each passing mile.

And then we were there!

We arrived in the middle of lunch rush, and the restaurant was pretty busy. We were told there would be about a 45 minute wait for a table. OK. David followed the official Melt procedure and fished a name tag for our party out of the big orange jack-o-lantern by the register (he ended up with “Kimm Chee”) and we resigned ourselves to wait for our ticket to grilled-cheese paradise.

45 seconds later, we had a table. Our theory is that the 45 minute wait is a test. If you are not willing to wait 45 minutes for one of the best sandwiches you may ever have, you are unworthy. When you come to Melt, you’ve got to want it. You’ve got to bring it.

David ordered the Prime Time Rib Melt, with prime rib, cheesy garlic mashed potatoes, provolone, horseradish sauce and au jus.

I chose the “Big Popper”, full of fresh jalapeño peppers, as well as cheddar and herbed cream cheese. The sandwich is beer battered, deep fried, sprinkled with powdered sugar and served with a sauce of mixed berry preserves. I also asked for a side of the honey chipotle tomato dip with the house-cut fries that come with every sandwich.

Melt, it has just been broughten

We ordered two pints and a pierogi to tide us over while we waited for our orders, which was very good and a nice size to split. David watched Kung Fu on the television behind me while I admired the décor.

cool take on stained glass

the ceiling

Our sandwiches arrived fairly quickly, and they were incredible. If I lived in Cleveland, I’d be at Melt all.the.time. And probably 3 pants sizes bigger. I’m pretty sure it would be worth it. The staff was extremely nice and friendly, and—this goes back to my previous post about the people in Cleveland—our server was full of suggestions on where we should stop by before we left.

A tale of two cities:

2011-05-23T12:59:00.020-04:00

Last week, David and I voyaged North. Our destinations? Columbus, and later, Cleveland. We took plenty of pictures, watched a lot of discovery channel on the hotel TV (which seems to have turned into the “extreme fishing show channel” these days) and of course, ate lots and lots.

Though kitty didn’t want us to leave, we stocked up on snacks and headed up to Columbus.

"You shall not paaaaack!"

How could I not buy XTREME pringles?

After arrival, we walked over to the Elevator brewing company, a brewpub in downtown Columbus. We tried almost all their beers, via the convenient “sampler” package, and ordered dinner. The star of dinner by far was the tasty tuna tartare, which was layered with crispy wontons. It made the presentation very attractive, and also was easy to eat. David really liked the Dark Horse Lager, we both enjoyed the Procrastinator Doppelbock, and I ordered a full pint of the nicely balanced Mogabi pale ale.

Elevator Brewing Sampler

The next day, we visited the North Market. The North Market is very different than Findlay. It’s definitely targeting more upscale clientele. There’s additional seating on the second floor, which we liked. We got some barbecue at Holy Smoke, some pretty chocolates and some wild boar bacon. Because when you see wild boar bacon, you don’t pass it up.

OMG

WTF

BBQ!

fancypants

The barbecue was OK, and obviously smoked over wood, though a little dry. Holy Smoke runs into the holding problem a lot of barbecue places fall victim to. Other than the butcher we bought the bacon from, no one at the market engaged us. Maybe it was because it was a weekday, but the Market had a really weird feel to it. We stopped and picked up some beers at one of the shops before we left.

Tripel Hop Duvel!

We also walked up to Chocoholique, a boutique shop filled with all sorts of chocolates of every flavor imaginable. And yes, these too.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at Barley’s brewpub, which had one of the most delicious raspberry wheat beers I have ever had. That evening, we went to Bodega, a local restaurant with plenty of beer on tap. We each got a pint and some nachos. Bodega does have a very nice draft list, but it was incredibly loud in the restaurant, so we headed up the street to the Surly Girl Saloon, where I ordered “the defiler”, a deluxe veggie panini with bacon.

We checked out on Wednesday and went South to the German Village, to visit the Book Loft, a gigantic independent bookstore. Filled with rooms and rooms of books, the place was so big David actually got lost in the store. I eventually found him and we spent way too much money on books. It's a really cool place, despite the terrible website. Don't be scared.

Lunch before we departed for Cleveland was Dirty Frank’s Hot Dog Palace, which I had been looking forward to. It’s a smaller restaurant, and it has a decent beer list and slushies you can add various liquors to. Since it was lunch, we didn’t indulge in the hard stuff, though David did have an “amazing larry” which was cherry slush and red bull. David ordered the “doginator”, a bacon wrapped hot dog, topped with beef brisket, barbecue sauce, cheddar and onion rings. I chose the “puff the magic popper” hot dog with cheddar cream cheese, fresh jalapenos, and plenty of bacon bits. We split the deluxe tater-tachos, which were absolutely awesome.

Ride the tiger...er..hotdog

I assure you, the tater tots are under there...somewhere

Doginator

On our way up to Cleveland, we stopped at someplace I’ve been hearing about for months: Grandpa’s Cheese barn. We stocked up on a few cheeses, some jerky, jams and jellies and continued North.

Could it be a trap? Worth it to find out.

Dinner that evening was at the Winking Lizard, a chain restaurant with a big tap list and even bigger bottle selection. Food was pretty standard bar fare, though David did get a kobe beef burger with Orval cheese and a fried egg. We tried some aged Orval, which was very unique.

a nice summery brew

Thursday morning, we headed over to Phoenix Coffee, a local coffee roaster located in downtown Cleveland, for an inside look at the roastery. We watched some batches of coffee roast, bought some beans and took a short video.

The weather was nice, so we stopped at the zoo for a little while. Cleveland’s zoo has a different feel to it than Cincinnati. It feels more Jurassic Park like. In addition to the zoo animals, we saw about 20 chipmunks throughout the park. They. are. everywhere.

fancy monkey only eats *peeled* grapes

Dinner that evening was a debate. We ended up doing a coin flip, and boy were we glad we did. We ended up at the Greenhouse Tavern, which was recently featured in the latest edition of Culture cheese magazine (Yes, there’s a cheese magazine, and of course, I buy it). We were seated in the front in the window, which was nice for people watching.

David chose the chef’s tasting menu, allowing him to pick four dinner items. He chose the foie gras steamed clams, beef tartare, Caesar salad and one more thing. Guess which one he picked?

Hint: Oink oink

Yes, David ordered the pig head. There are pictures of it in our twitter stream, if you’re curious. It looked pretty much like what you’d expect half a roasted pig head to look like. And it was delicious. The pork was tender and amazing. I recommend it, if you think you could get past the pigs head thing.

I chose the confit chicken wings with lime and jalapeño, which were also excellent, and the decadent “animal style” frites with cheese curds, bacon, gravy and fried eggs. We highly recommend the Greenhouse Tavern if you’re in Cleveland. David said it was one of the top meals of his life, and after eating the foie gras clams, he was literally speechless.

the animal style frites

On Friday, we headed out to Cleveland’s Westside Market. This was definitely one of my favorite stops on vacation. The Westside Market is incredible. Think Findlay Market, turned up to 11. Produce has its own area, a vast row of various vendors, with colorful fruits and vegetables stacked high. It was beautiful. And the Market?

Dozens of meat vendors, selling anything you could possibly want. Cannolis, all sorts of breads, pastries, homemade fudge with unique flavors. And cheese. Dear god, the cheese.

We sampled various cheeses and spoke to the cheesemonger at the counter for over 15 minutes. He had some helpful suggestions of what we should visit and where we should stop by in the market, and was extremely nice. After wrapping up over 3 lbs of various cheeses for us, he even threw some black truffle infused local honey into our bag. Between the cheese and honey, I was absolutely giddy.

We stopped by the Great Lakes brewpub next to the Market, and visited Penzey's spices, which is sort of like the Sephora of spice stores.

For dinner, we visited a restaurant the cheesemonger recommended—Happy Dog. Yes, another hot dog place. With an insane list of toppings and 20 beers on tap, including an amazing peanut butter cup coffee porter from Willoughby, dinner was great.

Hot dog with bourbon baked beans, smoked gouda, pickled onions and barbecue sauce...and a fried egg.

We checked out Saturday and headed West, to Melt Bar and Grilled, possibly the reason for our entire trip to Cleveland. A grilled cheese restaurant? I am so there. I chose the “big popper” sandwich, with fresh jalapeño, cheddar and herbed cream cheese, served with mixed berry preserves. The sandwich is beer battered, deep fried and topped with powdered sugar. And it was even better than I imagined. David chose the prime rib sandwich, which had mashed potatoes in the sandwich. Melt is a magical place, and it will get a post all of its own shortly.

We stayed downtown in both Columbus and Cleveland, and it was very interesting to see how different urban areas are in comparison to Cincinnati. Columbus and Cleveland are way bigger in size. Cleveland reminded us more of Cincinnati, and the people there were definitely more welcoming. Almost everyone we interacted with had recommendations for where we should visit, and seemed interested in how we had found the city so far. Columbus, not so much. Not to say we didn’t enjoy Columbus too—it has a ton to offer, but if we had our choice of the two, we’d definitely choose Cleveland. Though we did notice Cleveland has cameras everywhere--it's like an entire city of people that never read 1984.

our haul

Super Southern Sampler Special:

2011-05-14T13:08:00.007-04:00

the super southern sampler special in all its glory

David’s welcome back dinner took a swing for the South this time, with a super southern sampler special. After much deliberation, I decided upon deviled eggs three ways, baby back ribs with David’s favorite home-made bourbon brown sugar sauce, black eyed peas with smoked ham hock, white chocolate whopper pudding, buttermilk biscuits, and crunchy buttermilk oven fried chicken.

Much of the thought process was devoted to a debate about how to prepare the chicken. After considering deep frying the chicken, I considered my past and decided against going the full Paula Deen with it. I know that oven fried chicken may seem like a cop out to you, but I have my reasons.

The following is a true story:

Sophomore year in college, I was hanging out at my friend Caleb’s Ludlow apartment watching badly dubbed Japanese films and decided I wanted to make donut holes. We bought peanut oil and biscuit dough in a can, sugar and cinnamon, and I was all set to make donut holes, just like I watched my mom do when I was a kid.

I knew nothing about cooking with oil, smoking points, or where the lid to the pot we were using was. These proved to be rather important details.

After heating the oil to a point where I thought I saw “steam” coming off of the oil, I deemed it hot enough to put the biscuit dough into the pot. I took several small pieces, lowered them carefully in, and…ignition. They instantly caught on fire. The pot of oil followed suit, and thick black smoke began filling the kitchen, quickly moving to the rest of the efficiency. Without the lid to the pot, and with the impressive heat the pot was generating, we were unable to get close enough to smother the flames. Through my panic, I realized that we were going to have to do something I had never done before.

We were going to have to call the fire department.

I told Caleb to call the fire department and give them his address. Staring numbly at the potted inferno in the kitchen, he replied. "O.K. What's the number?"

"911! Did I really just have to tell you that?"

The fire department is right down the street on Ludlow. They were fast, and boy were they enthusiastic. Somehow, though, in a game of telephone, a pot of oil on fire had been translated into an entire stove on fire. The firefighters sprinted up the stairs. The leader of the group grabbed the scalding hot pot, smothered the fire with another lid, and threw the lidded pot of hot oil out the open kitchen window, into the parking lot below, an action that still puzzles me to this day.

He turned around and began hooking up a fan to blow out the smoke that was lingering in the apartment. As he was working, another firefighter charged up the stairs, hose in tow, ready to put out the stove that was supposedly about to catch the entire building on fire.

“Nah, man.” Said the first firefighter, waving him off, looking a little annoyed. I watched the firefighter with the hose start dejectedly winding the hose back up to take to the truck. He looked a little disappointed. I was never invited back to Caleb’s apartment after that.

So, because catching the kitchen on fire, or giving myself a nasty hot oil burn would really ruin dinner, I decided not to risk deep frying the chicken, especially without a companion who knew what they were doing in case something went awry. I marinated the chicken overnight in a mix of buttermilk, Frank's red hot sauce, elephant garlic cloves and a little diamond crystal salt.

David loves deviled eggs, and though I've never tried to make them before, they seemed easy enough. I decided to make three different kinds: chipotle, curry, and classic. My favorite was by far the chipotle, which had a little finely chopped chipotle in adobo.

can't go wrong with baby backs

The biscuits were really a product of the buttermilk chicken. I had half a container of left over buttermilk, and really, is there any question about what to do with left over buttermilk? No, there is not.

but mostly lard

I distinctly remember playing rock-paper-scissors with my 1st grade best friend, Jill Vescovo, in the Memphis lunchroom. Loser had to eat the other's black eyed peas, which was an awful fate at the time. So I added them to the menu. They were much better than I remembered, but I doubt the black eyed peas of my youth were simmered with a smoked ham hock for 3 hours.

The white chocolate whopper pudding really came out of nowhere. I wanted to make a malted chocolate pudding and garnish it with whoppers, but despite the fact I am told malted milk is readily available at Kroger, I couldn't find the damn stuff anywhere. So I settled for putting some whoppers in a bag and pulverizing them with the rolling pin, which worked just fine.

S'meeps:

2011-04-26T20:27:00.003-04:00

Open peep season is almost over, but one could argue that now is the best time go out and stock up, with the heavy discounts applied to those peeps that are still on the shelves. A few days ago, I saw the s'meeps idea on photograzing, and when I saw the candy on sale at a local grocery, loaded up a basket.

There are just a few steps to making s'meeps.

1. Purchase your peeps, and chocolate of choice. Hershey's bunnies seemed to be a no brainer.

2. Pick the bravest looking peep of the bunch to rally your peeps.

Peeponidus

Peeps! Prepare for GLORY

3. Assemble the s'meep.

I used the chocolate bunny's ears, which everyone knows are the tastiest part

4. Toast, while watching carefully to prevent a meltdown.

5. Enjoy!

Smashburger:

2011-04-25T11:22:00.006-04:00

Before I moved in with David to our college apartment in Clifton, I lived in the Loveland/ Indian Hill area with my parents. I had several part time jobs in the Mason Montgomery area, and yes, that includes working the Vortex at Kings Island, (because what kid who grew up in that area didn't do some time in an oh-so-fashionable blue polyblend polo?) and I drove through Fields Ertel several times a week.

Nowadays, I rarely venture up North, except when visiting my Dad. Driving around Mason, Westchester and Montgomery, I am usually struck by two things.

1. There is crazy development up there. What was once fields or lots are now entire massive shopping centers. Where'd that Whole Foods come from?

2. It's scary. It's the traffic that's frightening to me. I'm honestly surprised that only my first car was totaled by someone running a red light.

But there are lots of good things, despite the automotive congestion and exponentially expanding suburban sprawl. Lots of new restaurants, like Smashburger, have sprung up, and when my Dad wanted to visit one of them for his 51st birthday, I certainly wasn't going to turn him down. I did, however, ask him to drive there.

David and I each got different burgers with different sides. I chose the "Spicy Baja burger"($5.99) with guacamole, fresh jalapeños and pepper jack on a chipotle bun, and David ordered the classic ($5.99). I got the seasoned fries, and David picked the fried pepper rings.

pepper rings ehn-hance!

The burgers are thick, and rather prettily presented. I can appreciate the artful (though spicy) jalapeño arrangement. I really enjoyed the chipotle bun, and I like the fact there are several buns to choose from. The fries were nice and crispy, and the pepper rings were definitely interesting, though a little salty for us.

artful spicy arrangement

If we were up in that area again, I think we'd return to Smashburger. All the employees were friendly, food was served quickly, and the burger, especially on the chipotle bun, was tasty. I'd say it beats out Five Guys, which is quite a feat.

A grilled cheese a day...

2011-04-10T14:36:00.004-04:00

As many of my friends and acquaintances know, I'm pretty fond of cheese. Okay, that's an understatement. I may have a teeny, weeny cheese problem.

I also enjoy grilled cheese sandwiches. A lot. Most days when I come home from work for lunch, I have enough time in my lunch hour to heat my cast iron skillet (bought and reserved specifically for grilled cheese sandwiches) make a grilled cheese, eat lunch, then head back to work.

I've made different grilled cheeses with varying ingredients on 4/4, 4/5, 4/6, 4/7 and 4/8. This weekend I learned that April is National Grilled Cheese Month, so it only makes sense to continue the cheesy, delicious trend I've started.

So I've decided, for the rest of the month, to make grilled cheeses for weekday lunch when I come home. There's only one rule:

No repeats, including sandwiches I have made months prior. I figure this will force me to be a little more creative with the sandwiches.

Rather than posting my progress on the blog, I'll be posting pictures each day on my twitter feed here. I've already got a week's worth of grilled cheese planned out. Any combinations that I shouldn't miss? Got a favorite? Leave a comment and I'll try to work it into the schedule!

Bellevue Bistro:

2011-04-08T20:08:00.002-04:00

David and I have different priorities and routines on the weekends.

It can probably be explained with how we were each raised; in my parents' house, we were rarely allowed to sleep in. Weekends were time for chores and errands and outings to the zoo or the antique car show or bike rides or something. Rise and shine...here's your weekend itinerary. Ready, set. go.

David, on the other hand, views weekends as a chance to recharge, to sleep in, and to chill out. By the time he's up and moving, I've already planned out the day, and sometimes, I've even gone to the store and come back.

But most of the time, this happens:
　

"Hey, David....David..."

"WAKE UP DAVID!"　

Because of our conflicting ideologies on weekends, brunch rarely happens unless we plan on it. I don't put it on the schedule, and, after running around doing errands, usually don't get hungry until after most brunches are over.

Brunch is a meal, unlike dinner, that has to be specifically planned for. But there are a few exceptions, a few places that will stop me from filling our weekends with errands, social events and chores and put brunch on the schedule. Bellevue Bistro is one of them.

We've visited twice now for brunch, and the menu has recently changed and expanded. Everything that we've had there has been delicious, and some dishes come out on a almost sizzling, too-hot-to-touch flat skillet, which is pretty awesome. The place has character, with the Star Wars memorabilia and action figures placed strategically around the restaurant, and the local, rotating artwork on the walls.

I've gotten the goetta sandwich ($5.95) , and the biscuits and gravy (also $5.95), and both were excellent. The skillet potatoes were lightly seasoned and delicious.

David has tried the Kentucky hot brown Benedict ($7.95) with fresh baked biscuit, tomatoes, bacon, turkey, cheese, crab meat and fried eggs, topped with hollandaise. He raved about it all the way home. He also ordered one of their "breakfast bakes" and said it was fantastic.

We've met my mom there for brunch both times, and she chose to go a little lighter and try one of the salads on the lunch menu, which she liked.

We like Bellevue Bistro a lot, and I'm sure that we'll be back there soon.

Los Aztecas in Louisville:

2011-04-06T12:09:00.004-04:00

I threw up my hands in frustration and huffed at David. At the same time, David’s stomach let out an unhappy rumble. “This is stupid.” I said.

We were trying to enjoy the first night of our vacation to Louisville. But instead of seeing the sights and exploring the city, we were engaged in a knock-down, drag out discussion of where we should go for dinner. It was now rounding the half hour mark, and we were no closer to a decision than we were when we had sat down to weigh our options.

Someone had to take a stand. “Let’s go to Los Aztecas.” I said. Earlier in the day at Louisville Glassworks, someone had endorsed the place, and that was good enough for me, especially after our lack of consensus over the past half hour.

“Los Aztecas? Mexican? Are you sure?” David questions, bringing up the fact that we are at Taqueria Mercado downtown in Cincinnati at least one night a week.

“Yes. Los Aztecas. No more discussion! Shoes! Now!” I said, tossing David a pair of socks and grabbing my coat.

And off we went.

Los Aztecas is pretty much what we were expecting, and the staff were friendly. The restaurant was quiet, but it was a weeknight, a few days before Thanksgiving. Because we were on vacation, we decided to live it up, with margaritas, tequila shots, and the one of the biggest beers I’ve ever seen ordered at a Mexican restaurant.

We ordered the cheese dip, which had an amazing cherry tomato flavor, but a weird texture. It was almost as if the acids in the tomato had separated the cheese. Despite that, I still liked it for the flavor alone.

I chose to try a tostada, which comes default with barbacoa, and the carnitas with rice and beans. The carnitas were excellent, but the beans were a bit of a let down--they could definitely use some more fat and maybe some additional seasoning. The rice was unremarkably good or bad.

David ordered the one of their special plates, which he liked.

Overall, I'd say Los Aztecas is a pretty strong Mexican restaurant, and if David and I ever end up in an epic argument about where to eat for dinner in Louisville again, there is a good chance we'd return.

Staycation Dinner:

2011-04-02T18:43:00.004-04:00

David and I have been watching a lot of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations lately. On the show, he travels to different nations and countries, being a tourist, with a general focus on food and drink.

We have a love hate relationship with Anthony Bourdain.

We love his show. We hate Anthony, for nothing more than he’s out globetrotting, spending his days exploring Paris or on a beach, and we’re in Cincinnati in the middle of an unseasonable cold snap. Whenever a picturesque scene of the countryside of New Zealand or Puerto Rico comes into view, David and I jealously glare at the screen. “Asshole.” We mutter to ourselves. Not fair.

So for David’s latest welcome back dinner, I decided if we couldn’t go on vacation, I’d just bring the vacation to us. I quickly mapped out the plan for dinner.

you mean you don't mind map your dinners? Just me?

Vacation is all about relaxation, so I decided to keep the menu simple and Hawaiian themed. Another important part of vacation is the scenery.

kitty stayed out of the paint...mostly.

Spam is actually pretty popular in Hawaii. In fact, an item called “musubi”, spam wrapped in seaweed nori wrapper atop sushi rice, is so popular it’s sold as a snack in some gas stations. Thus, spam was a necessity.

I wanted cheese, but decided to put it inside the burger, juicy lucy style. Pineapple went atop the spam, and the burger was served on a homemade brioche bun. Brioche is a fussy dough, and even though the results were not quite what I was expecting, the buns were passable, and the bun was sturdy enough to stand up to the burger and its toppings.

Don't be fooled, the cheese is *inside* the burger

An integral part of vacation, to me at least, are frozen blended drinks. There was just one problem with that. David and I didn’t have a blender. It’s one of those things that we put off getting, pored over reviews and consumer reports for, and wavered indecisively about for the last few years.

With David out of town, I was free to go out and buy the blender of my choice. I didn’t know how David would react to my decision, but I figured maybe the banner might distract him from my purchase.

So bright... so beautiful... ah, Precious

After some research, I chose the KitchenAid 5 speed, one of the more powerful blenders available. And remember, with great power, comes great responsibility. And great pina coladas.

Aloha!

Izzy's:

2011-03-24T12:19:00.014-04:00

Though it has been around the corner for the last two years we’ve lived in our apartment, I’ve never set foot in Izzy’s. David would bring the option up, and I would immediately use my marriage veto powers.

To understand why, I have to explain about a job I had in my late teen years at a nursing home. A Jewish nursing home. And not just any Jewish nursing home, an Orthodox one.

I worked in the dietary department, and my duties consisted of assembling trays of food, bringing the carts filled with trays to the assorted dining rooms, retrieving the carts once the meal was over, and working with the other staff in washing all the dirty dishes in the industrial washing machines.

The home took the Orthodox part of their jobs very seriously. We kept full kosher, with two sets of dishes and entirely separate kitchens and dishwashers. We had a Rabbi on standby in case a meat fork went through the dairy dishwasher and unkoshered the whole thing. And don’t even get me started on cleaning the kitchens for Passover. Ever been tasked with cleaning an industrial oven with a toothbrush and razorblades? I have.

It was an interesting peek into another religion’s customs, and not a bad place for a college kid to work. My fellow staff were nice, and the management was extremely tolerant of my hair color, which at that point in my life, was pink and blue.

But it was the cow tongue that eventually got to me.

In additional to keeping kosher, we also served a lot of traditional food. Cow tongue day was the worst for me, with entire trays of half and whole tongues swimming in sauce waiting to be plated. I could see the taste buds, I explained to David.

Once I left the home for a more grown up job, I decided I never wanted to see another gefilte fish or matzo ball again.

I’ve grown a lot since college, and though my hair still isn’t its natural color, I’d probably be a lot less bothered by the cow tongue nowadays. Looking over Izzy’s menu of sandwiches, I realized that continuing to avoid an entire restaurant just because of a job in my past was pretty silly.

David and I have since tried 6 of Izzy’s menu items, including the tasty potato pancake served with every sandwich.

I chose to construct my own sandwich of three meats ($7.70) with pastrami, corned beef, and roast beef. I thought the corned and roast beef were good, but my favorite was by far the flavorful pastrami.

David chose to get the variety plate, choosing egg salad, chopped liver, potato salad and cole slaw. ($7.95)

While we were at Izzy’s I saw that for a limited time, Izzy’s is featuring the goetta Reuben ($7.95), which I decided I absolutely had to order. A little embarrassed to order a ton of sandwiches for the two of us, and since I also wanted to try their salami, we returned the next day.

We chose the salami combo ($7.70), the goetta Reuben, and the Mex' sandwich (6.95).

Corned beef, sweet yellow onion, jalapeno peppers, melted swiss and chipotle sauce

Salami, cream cheese, pesto, red onion and tomato

My favorite sandwiches that we ordered were the goetta Reuben and the 3 meat sandwich. I appreciated the simplicity of the three meats (especially the pastrami), and the flavors of the goetta Reuben, and I’ll be going back to get another before they stop making it.

David loved the salami combo—he particularly liked how the salami was broiled before it was put on the sandwich. Also, he says, “I’m a sucker for anything with cream cheese on it.”

I definitely feel silly for waiting so long to visit. David and I both agree we like the variety of sandwiches; you can order traditional deli sandwiches or one of their specialties, which have varied and creative ingredients.

It’s easy to forget that Izzy’s is a Cincinnati restaurant, much like Skyline, LaRosa's, or Graeter’s. For some reason it doesn’t seem to get as much press—though it definitely should. I know I am definitely happy to have pastrami within a block's reach.

It's a Miracle (berry)!

2011-03-22T12:21:00.005-04:00

David and I opened the little blister packet of pills and each removed one small, pink dot from the pack. Nodding to each other, we each placed one on our tongues and let them dissolve as instructed.

"Do you think it's working?" I asked.
"Only one way to find out." David replied.

So we turned to the drinks sitting in front of us, and our trip began.

Now, I know what you may be thinking. But before you go all D.A.R.E. on us, the tablets we were trying are very, very legal. Made from the extract of the Synsepalum dulcificum berry from West Africa, these tablets have a temporary, fascinating effect. We tried the actual berries at a friend's, and the effect was so interesting, we wanted to see if the tablets would work in a similar way.

One order from thinkgeek later, and we had a miracle berry tablets. The whole schtick is this: the berry changes your sense of taste so that sour things taste sweet by way of a glycoprotein molecule it contains. Unsweetened, tangy Greek yogurt tastes like cool whip, out of season strawberries taste like they were rolled in sugar, lemons taste like lemonade. Lime juice and tequila taste almost cloyingly sweet, and normally undrinkable cranberry juice tastes like it's had a cup of sugar added to it. Rumor has it that wine will taste like vinegar under the berry’s effects, but the Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, and rose that we tried all tasted extremely sweet and drinkable, like a Riesling or ice wine.

Though they don't work for everyone, one tablet will last about 1 hour. David and I decided to have our own little “flavor tripping” party, and created a menu the would highlight the effects of the berries.

For the drinks, we stuck with tequila and fresh squeezed lime, and cranberry juice (the kind in the organic section with no added sugar) and vodka. Pre berry, the drinks were intolerably sour. Post berry, the effect was amazing. Sweet and drinkable.

For the first course, we made a granita with lemon juice, without adding the sugar that is traditional to a granita. This dish is super easy to prepare and pretty hands off.

Step 1. Buy or squeeze lemon juice.
Step 2. Pour into shallow dish.
Step 3: Freeze for about an hour.
Step 4. Take a fork and break up the ice, then put back in the freezer.
Step 5. Continue to break up the ice until you have a product about the consistency of shaved ice. You're done!

For the main course, we decided on buffalo chicken lettuce wraps with homemade Gorgonzola cheese dressing.

Frank wasn't kidding around. This stuff is H to the O to the T

We also tried some Greek yogurt and strawberries, which tasted fantastic. We recommend trying this for dessert, as we noticed the fatty yogurt made the effects wear off a little faster.

After about two hours of the berry’s effects, David and I found that we were a little fatigued with all the sweetness, and ready for things to go back to normal. Our fantastic flavor adventure had come to an end, and I promptly started digging around in the fridge for a nice, high IBU IPA.

SmoQ:

2011-02-22T12:31:00.007-05:00

Barbecue and I have history. I’m not a Cincinnati native--I hail from Jackson,TN, and spent the pre Cincinnati years of my youth in Dallas, Texas, and Memphis, TN. Family visits are not complete without a visit to the local Pig N’ Whistle, and my grandparents have very emphatic opinions about dry rub vs. wet style slabs of ribs.

Maybe it’s for that reason I’ve never been enthusiastic about Cincinnati style chili. It’s not that I don’t appreciate it, it’s just not in my DNA like barbecue. You can keep your cheese coney, but do not come between me and my pulled pork sandwich.

Because of this, I knew it wasn’t a case of if we’d be headed up to SmoQ, but when. I first read about the newest addition to Cincinnati’s barbecue restaurant scene at the end of January on Polly’s blog. I bookmarked it for David and told him I’d like to go soon. In the last few weeks, we’ve heard nothing but great things about the restaurant (Julie called it a “trifecta of awesomeness”) and I knew we couldn’t delay any further.

No more waiting. We had to go to SmoQ, I told David. I wanted barbecue, and I wanted it RFN*.

We finally made it on Saturday for lunch with David’s dad, Derek. Knowing that we’d probably leave stuffed, we skipped appetizers and went straight for the entrees. Derek opted for a lighter lunch, ordering the smoQ-house salad, substituting brisket for the pulled pork. ($7.49) The brisket was excellent, smoked and flavorful, sliced against the grain to ensure tenderness.

David and I tried to coordinate our sides and dishes to try the maximum amount of food at SmoQ, but there is still plenty on the menu that we’re interested in, especially the chicken.

I chose the half and half ribs combo, featuring a generous half slab of baby back ribs and St. Louis Ribs ($21.99). For my sides, I picked the sweet potato brulee and baked beans.

St. Louis Style Rib

Sweet potato brulee

baked beans

David ordered the Uncle Jerry’s shrimp and cheddar grits ($16.99) with macaroni and cheese. Our server recommended the collard greens, so he also got those.

Grits with shrimp, andouille, onion, tomato, bell pepper and garlic in a jalapeño cream sauce

The baby backs had a nice pull to them and a delicious, sticky glaze, though I was partial to the tender St. Louis style ribs and their dry rub. I happily dug into my sweet potato brulee, which was more of a dessert than a side, and my baked beans, which were tangier than I expected and also had a little bit of pulled pork in them. We tried a little cup of the pulled pork as well (also delicious), and I’ll probably get ribs and pulled pork next time.

David liked the collard greens, as well as the macaroni and cheese, though I ended up swiping his and finishing most of it off. I’m a sucker for the crunchy topping and casserole style mac. I don’t think David minded, he was too busy oohing and ahing over his shrimp and grits. Presented beautifully, the stone ground cheddar grits were creamy and delicious. David talked about them all the way home.

Are we going to be back to SmoQ? Heck yes, we will. And soon!

Our server must have been psychic, because she brought out diet pepsi in a carafe for quick refills. Derek goes through diet soda faster than anyone I've ever seen.

*Right freaking now.

For someone special:

2011-02-14T12:30:00.003-05:00

David has long since learned that I have a very strong sense of whimsy. It’s not a bad thing, but it does take some getting used to. It’s responsible for many things in our lives, from our fantastic whirlwind of a wedding to the picnic table that resides in our dining room.

Our relationship is nicely balanced between the fanciful and the logical. And though David may sometimes point out the flaws in my often elaborate and sudden plans, he also knows that I have an even stronger sense of determination to see my whimsical masterpieces to fruition. Which meant when I woke up on Sunday morning wanting to make chocolate covered strawberries with edible gold garnish for a Valentine’s day treat, he voiced no objections.

I braved the snarled traffic mess that is Rookwood commons and visited Sur Le Table to get my edible gold leaf, but I imagine you can also order it off the internet. It comes, as expected, with a hefty price tag, but a little goes a long way and it’s a fun and impressive way to fancypants up a dessert.

Happy Valentine's Day, David; I love you!

Mt. Carmel Brewing:

2011-02-10T20:51:00.007-05:00

David and I first discovered Mt. Carmel’s beer in our later years in college. It was the packaging that caught our eye at first. Sold in a 1/2 gallon brown glass growler, we were intrigued by its unique appearance and the fact it was a local brew. When we tried the beer itself, we were hooked. We sought it out in local groceries, enjoyed a lot of pints where we could find it on draft, and even had a “growler party” with fellow U.C. graduates after David endured a particularly brutal quarter of algebraic topology.

Mt. Carmel has since upgraded to 12 ounce six-packs, which allows for wider distribution. The original line up has expanded to include seasonal beers, and more places than ever are featuring Mt. Carmel on tap. We were eager to meet Kathleen and Mike to talk about Mt. Carmel’s beginnings, current state, and what was on the horizon for the brewery. Luckily, they graciously agreed to take a few hours out of a busy brewing day to show us around the brewery.

Jared monitors the boil at Mt. Carmel's Brewery

You could drive by Mt. Carmel brewing every day and not know it—unless maybe you had the windows down, and then the sweet smell of the brewing process would tell you what your eyes had missed. The large white house has been converted into a brewery and office space, and also contains the basement where Mike homebrewed Mt. Carmel’s first batches.

As we entered through what used to be the children’s playroom, Kathleen explained the area will later be converted to a small tasting room. While we were able to take an inside look at the brewery, eventually brewing area will be off-limits to the public, both for production and safety reasons.

How many people are working in production?

“Jared and Mike handle the brewing, Virgil is the packaging manager, and he has a part time assistant as well. The full time employees are putting 50-60 hours in a week, each! We’re in the process of looking to get them some help. We do have some office staff, and an office manager.”

Did you ever think that when you started it would get this big?

“We didn’t! When Mike was brewing in the basement, I remember both of us getting so excited when we got an order in for a whole case of growlers. It caught on so quickly. I would say we had to make the decision within 6 to 9 months to quit our current careers and to go with it, or to shut the distribution down. We would have had to shut it down altogether, we couldn’t maintain just a little bit. At that point we couldn’t stop; there were just so many people that loved the beer. We didn’t want to let them down. And really, the fan base is what fueled us to keep going. It was very motivating, and still is to this day. We get so much wonderful, positive feedback from people in Cincinnati, and even the local government.”

The seven-barrel system that all Mt. Carmel beer is brewed on is surprisingly small for the actual volume of beer that is being produced. The brewery itself is very efficient and compact, and Mike, known fondly as “MikeGyver”, engineered all the plumbing and wiring to make best use of space.

“We outgrew the basement within the first year. For zoning reasons, we actually had to attach the brewery onto the house.” Kathleen says with a laugh. Eventually, they plan to convert the brewing area to a 30 barrel hot house.

How has the switch from growlers to bottles impacted sales?

“It’s definitely increased sales. The growlers were eye catching, but the volume was an issue. We were seeing a lot of sales on weekends, and the feedback we were getting was that people loved our beer, but they couldn’t drink that volume in one sitting. It wasn’t an everyday purchase, it was a commitment. The growler was great, but it was making it very difficult for us to grow. When we switched to the 12 ounce bottle in January 2009, the beer really flew off the shelves.”

We really have enjoyed the collaboration barrel aged beers between Mt. Carmel and the Party Source—we have two Jones IPAs that are aging, and one Tripel Rot from last year—so we asked Kathleen about what’s next for the series. The next available brew is the Quaff Brother’s Figgy Pudding, which is going to be featured at this weekend’s Winter Beer Fest. Figgy Pudding is Mt. Carmel's Winter beer with fig juice added, aged in Four Roses bourbon barrels.

In addition to the Quaff brothers collaboration, Mt. Carmel also brews Dewey’s pizzas seasonal beers.

Nicholson’s was the first place that Mt. Carmel beer was tapped. Kathleen mentioned, showing us the article that followed shortly thereafter in the Post.

Mike, busy brewing up a batch of Amber with Jared's assistance

What’s next for Mt. Carmel?

“Mostly expansion. We’ll be launching in Cleveland and Columbus soon. That’s exciting, but we’re being careful; we don’t want to oversell the product and leave our core area depleted. We’re all about slow, manageable growth. We do have some investment here, another family, so we’re still family owned. We didn’t want just any investment group to partner with. We wanted someone who understood what we were doing here.”

Do you do anything with the spent grain from the brewing process?

“We do. There’s a farmer in Adams county, Hazelbaker Meats. He has a portion of his cows on our grain, and as we expand, he’ll get more. The cows go crazy for the grain. They literally run up to it when it’s dropped off. Eventually we will be selling the meat from his cows in our retail area as well, which is exciting.”

spent grain awaiting pickup

What’s the most popular seller?

“Amber is our #1 seller. The Amber used to be Copper, and before that, used to be called the Celebration. The Nut Brown is #2, and it is very, very close to the amber. The Blonde and the Stout will flip in sales depending on which season it is. Stout picks up during the winter. Though sales are higher in the winter months, we actually brew the Stout year round. We’ve heard people call it the summer stout. It’s light, dry, crisp, clean.”

Amber ale: Slightly sweet with a light fruity aroma from the malt, medium bodied, featuring a hoppy finish with a nice bite to it

The nut brown, a toasty brew with a slight aroma of raisins that reminded us of toasted sourdough

Mike started brewing the big, imperial beers in the basement, but Mount Carmel’s seasonal line up evolved into brewing more subtle session beers with complex flavors. With than in mind, we inquired about seeing some bigger beers from Mt. Carmel in the future.

Will we see any bigger beers from Mt. Carmel soon?

“Some of the stuff we will be coming out in 2011 will be on the extreme side. We’re still developing the concept, but that is in the cards for 2011, after our launch in Cleveland and Columbus.”

Mt. Carmel will be attending the Winter Beerfest this weekend, February 11th and 12th, and, in addition to bringing several of their delicious year round line up, will also be bringing the collaboration beer we spoke of earlier. Make sure to stop by their booth if you’re attending or grab a six pack at your local grocery and toast to Mt. Carmel’s continued success, and the revival of Cincinnati’s brewing history.

Of queso dip and social media:

2011-02-05T12:54:00.008-05:00

I was resistant to twitter at first, like I imagine many other people were. After a few months of good natured badgering, I finally broke down and signed up for an account. Though I can see how it’s not for everyone, I’ve enjoyed interacting with my followers, readers and friends through it.

It also is a useful conduit to a lot of companies and corporations with questions and concerns. It seems that many organizations have realized the boost that social media can provide (when used properly) to their products. And which is why, on my quest for ultimate queso dip, I turned to twitter for some answers.

So where to start with a queso dip?

Agreed. Ro-tel. But not just regular Ro-tel. I wanted the elusive “hot” variety with habaneros. Despite my search of nearby groceries, that specific type was not to be found. I tweeted my laments, and reached out to ConAgra’s twitter account, where I was later contacted by the official Ro-tel account to assist in my search.

Congratulations ConAgra, your social media team is doing its job

In the end, though, a friend and fellow tweeter had my back, and located a few cans for me. And by few, I mean 10.

it's so beautiful

Apparently a favorite melting cheese of many Mexican restaurants (aqueria-tay ercado-may included) is Land O’ Lakes extra melt. I attempted to contact Land O’ Lakes via twitter.

what defines a "foodservice institution"?

….and the response was not favorable. Denied. Apparently you can buy a case of extra melt at Sam’s club—but it comes in a 30 pound box. Unwilling to try and eat 30 pounds of processed cheese in 270 days (the approximate shelf life of the cheese, according to Land O’ Lakes.) I had to find other options.

In the end, I came crawling back to the classic, Velveeta. Make fun all you want, but I myself respect Velveeta for its melting prowess.

Next ingredient? Meat. Bacon started out the top choice, but was soon overtaken by chorizo. But where to find chorizo? A quick response from Mayberry Grocery confirmed the chorizo was stocked there, only a few blocks away.

That’s the foundation for a solid, tasty dip—but I couldn’t resist adding some sriracha and a splash of modelo to the mix. And that’s the cheese dip that twitter built. Thanks everyone!

Hillbilly Tea in Louisville:

2011-01-20T12:37:00.009-05:00

Our first stop after arriving in Louisville was the the BBC brewpub. We grabbed some dinner and a few pints before heading back to the hotel to unpack. Side note: BBC’s Dark Star Porter had David talking about it for days. We mentioned to our server that we were visiting for the week and where we were thinking about heading next.

Trying to be helpful, he steered us away from the 4th Street live district (from what we gathered, 4th street live is to Louisville as Cadillac Ranch is to Cincinnati) and recommended we visit Hillbilly Tea, among other places.

As he was working in a brewpub, he already had street cred in our book. And if there is one thing that people should do more of on vacation, it’s listen to the locals. We’ve found it’s pretty easy to tell if someone is excited about their city and sharing its best places. And if you take their advice, you might find yourself somewhere that wasn’t in any guidebook.

David and I have met a few visitors to Cincinnati, and we always try to steer them to spots we think they would enjoy. So with that in mind, we took his recommendation to visit.

And we were not disappointed. The atmosphere is a lot like Take the Cake Café, where you order at the counter, then have a seat to wait for your food. A large variety of teas are available, which are served piping hot in a mason jar with a handle.

I chose to go with the pulled pork “pie’ ($6) with a side of pit roasted sweet potatoes ($3). David got the bison liver bites ($5) and the buffalo billy burger ($6)--served on a biscuit.

The pulled pork was tender and delicious, and went surprisingly well with the bun it was served on. Rather than a traditional style bun, the barbecue was accompanied by a choux like pastry. The sweet potatoes were charred and delicious and tasted like they had been made with lots of butter.

Moar butter plz

David liked his bison liver bites, served with house made tartar sauce, though I didn’t try any. His bison burger, which was just the right size after the bison liver bites, was served with crispy sweet potato chips, which we also enjoyed.

I liked Hillbilly tea a lot. If we were locals, I think that we’d hang out there often. And we’d probably start drinking a lot more tea, though apparently Friday and Saturday nights dinner is BYOB!

Interview; Steven Geddes of Local 127:

2011-01-10T08:30:00.001-05:00

When Local 127 opened, there were a lot of things said. Politics were heavy and tempers ran high. David and I were mostly oblivious to the craziness that was going on during those initial few weeks; our encounters with Steven and his staff were friendly, and the menu certainly looked appealing. Our first visit was in Fall 2009, and what a visit it was! Our chef's table experience was a wonderful way to end our afternoon of downtown apartment hunting.

Since then, things have settled down a little. We've been back to Local 127 and specifically sought Steven out a few months ago—shortly after Local 127’s one year anniversary—for his thoughts on the restaurant's beginnings, progress, recent changes, and future plans.

And of course, we had the pleasure of dinner at Local 127 too. Actually, between the chef's tasting menu Steven and his sous chef Kyle offered, I think we probably stuffed ourselves with at least 3 dinners between the 2 of us. We have no regrets.

Cheesy grits house-made house smoked hot sauce, bacon crisps, crunchy shallots and fresh herbs.

Can you tell us some more about fried chicken Wednesdays?

“It's a little twist on traditional fried chicken. We brine it and slow cook it in a full oven at an exact temperature, soak it in buttermilk and double batter it then fry it up to order. Some nights we will get a handful of orders, sometimes we get a lot. It’s always a fun evening.”

Steve smiles as he recounts an eventful Wednesday where one of the kitchen's many ovens emitted a loud "BOOM" during prep—blowing the doors open and shattering china—requiring the gas lines to be inspected.

"Needless to say, we were not opening for dinner service that night. We called our reservations, sent them champagne and apologies, but we had all this chicken left to cook. We didn't want it to go to waste, so we took it up to Neon's in OTR, threw it on the grill and had a blew-up-the-kitchen party. We try to make sure that nothing goes to waste if we can help it, and our food management supports the restaurant’s fair prices. Maybe some product we get in isn’t good enough to serve to a guest, but it still makes a great [staff] meal."

Our inviting bite: 14-hour sous-vide pork belly, caramelized onion, house-made white cheddar cheese foam (really rich and really good), and potato soup.

How have some dishes evolved? How long does it take to “perfect” a dish?

“I wouldn’t say a dish is ever actually finished evolving here. We start with a dish, and we like it, but they change as we go. Once we put it on the menu, for the next few weeks we're constantly tweaking. We're used to cooking spontaneously, which contributes to that.

“Our Chicken dish has gone through changes, though it’s always been two-ways. The potato skins are also constantly evolving and are very different from what we served our first week.”

chicken two ways

potato skins

I inquired about the menu section entitled “for the daring,” which is a selection of cured meats, and unusual cuts. It varies from week to week, but you might encounter chicken heart, liver mousse, or another daring selection.

chicken liver mousse with Riesling jelly

A daring selection: chicken heart

What are some popular menu items?

“Our cured and pickled plates were unexpectedly popular. I think one of the reasons is that the German heritage that is here really makes the cured and pickled plates appealing.”

Terrine

smoked chicken

We noticed Steven spending a lot of time attending to guests, and asked about the change. For the past six months, Steve has been spending some more time in the front of the house, interacting with guests.

"Though I still check into the kitchen regularly, I started wearing my formal apron now. It's sort of like a tuxedo t-shirt." He says with a grin, dropping off a cured and pickled sampler at our table.

(above) Smoked ruby trout with pickled onion, fresh herbs olive oil and lemon juice; brined hickory smoked chicken, sous vide pickled radishes and celery leeks; pork and chicken liver terrine with picked green beans; chicken liver mouse with riesling jelly and pickled pears; loma (pork loin) with bread and butter pickles; 6 month copa with pickled banana peppers; 9 month copa with pickled watermelon rind; aged mountain ham with candied watermelon rinds (below).

We enjoyed a sparkling moscato with our pickled plates, the refreshing bubbles complementing the variety of flavors in front of us.

I forgot to record what was in this soup, combined table side. David remembers the following: candied onions, Parmesan broth...and tasty.

I commented on how much I liked the texture the crispy wild puffed rice on the scallop dish we enjoyed next.

“Usually when something is missing from a dish, it's something crunchy or fresh herbs. Crunch is the only way you can hear food; it becomes part of the whole dining experience.” Steven says.

Pan seared sea scallop, turnip and tomato puree, braised lentils, browned butter, crisp puffed rice with celery leaf

Potato gnoccis with Parmesan cream, house-made sausage, pork and mushroom and crispy potato chips.

What are your thoughts on the general environment after opening the restaurant?

“There's always two sides to the story. Usually, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. We're here to respect the history of a famous building that's had 5 different restaurants in it, in a great city that has tremendous potential in the agricultural belt. All the things I had been looking for. I'd been looking for about 7 or 8 years.”

Warning, Pork overload! the Porkopolis, featuring Navy bean with dijon and shallot, and pork multiple ways, including ossabaw cross—a heritage hog from Virginia—tenderloin, short rib and baby back ribs, cooked for 18 hours low and slow in their own fat.

“Some people had started to take sides, and we went through a variety of ways of handling it. In the end, it was a very driving force for us. We are here to cook. And if there were people that were hoping we didn't succeed, it drove us that much harder."

The restaurant opened fairly quickly—exactly 39 days to the day they started prep to the day they opened. At one point in time Steven had 8 people in his loft in OTR on air mattresses helping them prepare for opening and those first few weeks of service.

Despite the positive attitude, the start was a little rocky. At one point, Steven said, there were more negative comments on Urbanspoon than people who had eaten at the restaurant. A fraudulent Facebook page was put up for the restaurant, saying offensive things about the Cincinnati community, supposedly on Local 127’s behalf.

“I've opened restaurants in Seattle, San Francisco, L.A., Miami Beach, New York City, Las Vegas. I'd never seen anything like it,” said Steven, shaking his head with a wry smile.

“Our goal became to fight for the truth. Don't worry about the haters—anyone out there that had a preconceived notion about what we were doing here. Our goal became to convert them. And quite honestly, we started out giving out chocolate chip cookies our opening week, as a sort of peace treaty!

"We're here to cook good food at a fair price and be a part of the city, support the farmers, the local economy and environment. I wanted to be a part of this type of restaurant, wanted to get connected with cooking of farm to table style, I think partly because as a sommelier, wine kept drawing me to the birthplace of the grapes, and I think food should have a sense of place as well. Many of the great food stuffs—our ham, for example—have such a connection with place.”

“Great food has to come from great farmers who care about what they’re raising.”

Apple crumble: caramelized apples. Oat crumble, bourbon ice cream and caramel gastrique.

Steven revealed his thoughts on the dark, flavorful graham crumble and one of Local 127’s signature desserts:

“Don't be afraid to pursue that deep mahagony color and flavor from thorough toasting. The flavor gets much more intense. The complexity is amazing, and it really takes that to another level. Cheesecake is a custard. What many people may encounter as cheesecakes are overcooked. We chose to make it in a jar, in a water bath, and watch it carefully. As soon as it starts to come off the side of the glass, you've overcooked it.”

Buttermilk panna cotta. Sour plum puree, little crumble, and buttermilk panna cotta put in whipped cream can to create a panna cotta two ways.

David commented on the unique flavor sour plum puree featured with the panna cotta dish lends to it.

“We're big fans of acids here. Acid is a great way to lift flavors up without over salting. One of the biggest strengths I have in the kitchen was my wine tasting training. We try to make sure all dishes have a balance of flavors—sort of like a conductor writing a music score—too much cymbal and it's out of whack. Ingredients change within the season, too, which is a challenge. We do use lots of salt in our sweet food. Growing up, I never understood why people put salt on their melon. Now I get it.”

How do you select the ingredients you use?

“We have a lot of house-made ingredients, but, for example, also have 15 different types of vinegar back there. We taste our vinegars and our cooking wines just like we do like we do wines by the glass. Cheap vinegar tastes like cheap vinegar. They're caustic, hot, bitter, sour. We’re very particular, and it makes a big difference.”

How have you seen the city change since you’ve opened?

“In the year and half that I’ve been here, OTR and downtown are much more vibrant. I've been living on 14th and Main. I spend a lot of time in the whole area, walking, riding my bike, taking advantage of a lot of the new bars and restaurants that are opening up.

“Vine street is becoming more and more alive every day. Our walk-in traffic has been much more than we anticipated, especially once we realized we were off the main traffic pattern.

“Cincinnati is an amazing city with a lot of potential. And while we appreciate all the customers and businesses that have supported us so far, I think that the people that live in the areas surrounding Cincinnati don't support downtown as much as they should, and they’re really going to miss out on a lot of the great changes this city is undergoing.

“A lot of the suburbs have become a lot of little villages. The city's center was where it all started. It was the center of commerce, center of travel, center of migration. And if they allow downtown to dry up, it’s like allowing your heartbeat to dry up.”

What can you tell us about the changes with Tonic on 4th’s location?

“Bringing Tonic back over here has brought a lot of energy back to this side of the restaurant. A craft cocktail bar of that size was a little too ambitious, and it was becoming evident that it wasn’t going to continue to support itself.

"Quite honestly, I should have done it six months ago. Now it's more intimate, it's smaller. The craft cocktail program is available in the restaurant as well, and we'll probably have the entire menu available up in the new Tonic loft space. Tonic's old location is now an event space, and we can handle from 10 to 300. We'll be trying to host events of all types in the future, including live music.”

Any final thoughts on the progress and evolution of the restaurant?

“I think a lot of the negativity is now water under the bridge. I think most people realized that we want what's good for Cincinnati too. We're not in it for the money, not in it for the fame. We're here for the direct connection to hospitality and making people happy. It's a very tough business to be in if you're not in it for the right reasons.

“We believe that hospitality is bringing someone into your environment and making them feel comfortable and welcome. Over a year and a half later, if the place were to close tomorrow, we would have felt like we accomplished what we wanted to accomplish.”

Barbecue, 6 ways:

2011-01-08T12:09:00.008-05:00

As we start 2011, I realized that in a few days, it will have been 2 years since Cincinnati Nomerati started. A lot has changed--for the better, I think--and reflecting back upon the past two years, I feel profoundly thankful.

I'm thankful that I have an understanding and loving family who lets me take pictures of their food before they eat it. I'm thankful that I have a husband that is (mostly) patient when I wander around in circles in the grocery, puts up with my crazy dinner schemes and doesn't flinch when I put an $8 wedge of cheese in the shopping cart. I'm thankful for all our friends we've made in the past two years. You guys are fantastic. I may not make 6 figures a year, but I'm plenty rich.

I'm also lucky to have friends that I can call up when I have a food question. I could be paralyzed by choice, staring at cans of tomatoes, or trying to find the best lard in Cincinnati, or where we could buy octopus. I have vast resources, and sometimes a knowledgeable friend is way more helpful than any cookbook.

Also, I am thankful for barbecue. And that I'm lucky enough to know a master barbecue judge with more sauce recipes than you can shake a stick at.

For David's latest welcome back dinner, I wanted to do something simple. Honestly, I think I'm still recovering from the Italian tapas meal. Indoor pulled pork was the way to go. I also wanted to make a variety of sauce styles to accompany the pork. The pulled pork itself was cooked immersed in about half a bottle of Listermann's smoked bock, and I modified and used this recipe with fuji apples, chipotles in adobo, and red onion.

I sent Cincyhound a message and asked for 5 simple barbecue sauces I could make without a food processor or a blender. After his very helpful response, I made the following sauces, and I snuck one store bought sauce in there to make things interesting. I tweaked the recipes a little from their original format, partly because I needed to make them smaller (I didn’t want gallons of sauce), partly because that's just how I roll.

Eastern Carolina Sauce:
1/3 cup white vinegar
1 tb + 1 tsp cider vinegar
3 tb dark brown sugar
1/t tsp chipotle powder
1/4 tsp sriracha
1/4 tsp Frank's red hot
2 tsp salt
Smidge san marzano tomato puree
combine and mix well

Western Carolina Pig Dip
2/3 cup white vinegar
1/3 cup san marzano puree
1 tb + 1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp Worcestershire
1 tsp salt
1/4 tb smoked paprika
1/4 tsp sriracha
1/2 tsp black pepper
combine and mix well

South Carolina Mustard Sauce
1/4 cup yellow mustard
2 tb + 2 tsp mesquite honey
1 tb +1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp san marzano puree
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp Worcestershire
1 tsp sriracha

Bourbon Brown Sugar Sauce
1/2 cup san marzano puree
1 tb + 1 tsp bourbon
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tb cider vinegar
3 tsp molasses
2 tsp Worcestershire
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 cup tamari soy sauce
1/2 tb hickory powder
1/2 cup smoked bock
Combine and simmer 45 minutes or so until reduced over medium heat

Big Bob's Very Cherry Dr. Pepper Sauce
1 cup san marzano puree
1/3 cup Dr. pepper, flat
1/2 a 10 oz jar of cherry preserves
2 tb brown sugar
2 tsp mesquite honey
1 tb molasses
1 tb + 1 tsp wine vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp chipotle powder
mix all ingredients and bring to a simmer over medium heat. lower heat simmer for 40 minutes, stirring frequently.

When David returned, I had the 6 sauces in numbered bottles, the pulled pork ready, and the testing began. In the end, he was able to identify the store-bought sauce pretty easily (he called it "the boring one"), and while I was partial to the very cherry Dr. Pepper sauce, he enjoyed the Carolina mustard sauce and the bourbon brown sugar sauce the most.

The bourbon brown sugar sauce had simmered for so long, some of the sugars had caramelized to make an extremely complex sauce. Also, I kept tasting it and was not happy with it, so I began throwing everything I could think of into it, sort of a "kitchen sink" approach.

Holiday spirit, eggnog and peppermint cocktails:

2010-12-27T21:30:00.016-05:00

Legend has it that when David was a child, he had a memorable encounter with store bought eggnog. While shopping with his mother during the holidays, he spied a carton in the dairy case, and asked if they could purchase the stuff. "You're not going to like it". She told him. David, feeling contrary, pestered her relentlessly while she attempted the rest of her shopping.

She finally gave in, but made him promise to drink all of it if he was so sure he wanted it.

After they got home, she poured him a nice big glass of eggnog. He took one swig, and decided that she was right; he didn't like it after all.

He tried to beg off drinking the rest, but his mom was not having it--she reminded him of the conditions under which she bought the carton. David decided that he wasn't going to drink it, even if he had promised. So he just sat there, staring at the glass of gradually warming eggnog. David can be very patient. I imagine he thought he could wait this out.

His mother's solution? To set the kitchen timer for half an hour. By the time it had gone off, she said, David had to finish his glass, or he would be in big trouble. It ended with a sorry scene of David, tears running down his face, trying in vain to choke down now lukewarm eggnog.

This was in the '80's, where consumers and companies were not nearly as conscientious about additives, preservatives and stabilizers, so I don't doubt that whatever eggnog David spied really was vile. And no, his mother had a heart and didn't make him finish his glass once the timer was up.

However, not all eggnogs are created equal.

Horizon makes a great eggnog that you can probably still get on the shelves if you are quick. With real nutmeg, great flavor and zero chance of food poisoning from raw egg (yay), it's perfect to make an eggnog cocktail. We also added caramel alcohol infused whipped cream, which Maureen thoughtfully gave us for Christmas.

eggnog cocktail:

1.5 oz. 100 proof bourbon
1.5 oz. Frangelico
3 oz. Horizon eggnog

Combine with ice in a cocktail shaker and shake like crazy. Pour into martini glass and garnish with caramel cream and nutmeg.

And what to do with your abundance of leftover candy canes? Why not take some of those leftover holiday frustrations and pulverize them to create a refreshing rim on a candy cane concoction with rumplemintz, vodka, white chocolate liqueur and half and half?

Pulverize candy cane with mortar and pestle. Coat the rim of a small glass in the candy cane dust.

combine:
1 oz. vodka.

1 oz. white chocolate liqueur

1.5 oz. half and half

1 oz. Rumplemintz

Combine ingredients in cocktail shaker and shake vigorously. Garnish with mini candy cane and a little vanilla whipped cream.

Four Roses:

2010-12-24T15:17:00.007-05:00

Kentucky is a bourbon mecca. A menagerie of distilleries and bourbon bars. A bourbon mountain, if you will. Though the options were plentiful, we decided to focus our energy on one distillery in particular--Four Roses.

I was first referred to Four Roses through Cork N Bottle's management, who have some of the finest bourbon selections in their store in the area. For a long time, Four Roses was export only, but now, we're lucky to have full access to almost all their bourbons.

Though we've used the small batch as a mixer, we are pretty partial to the single barrel. I've used it in everything from drinks, to panna cotta, to mashed sweet potatoes. The single barrel takes a unique barrel's characteristics and presents them beautifully. While Four Roses marries their small batch from a variety of single barrels to obtain the optimum balanced flavor, the individuality of the single barrel is what we love about it.

We'll be posting about some holiday bourbon cocktails next (including an anecdote about David's first and traumatic experience with store bought eggnog as a child), but here's some pictures of our jaunt through Four Roses distillery on vacation.

As Four Roses was exported for a long time, signs in multiple languages welcome foreign visitors. Our tour guide was very amused at myself and a tourist from Switzerland, with our Canon and Nikon, snapping away furiously during the distillery tour.

I felt bad for a few people from Atlanta. Even though the temperature was near freezing, the man of the group for some reason decided to wear shorts that day. It was hot and steamy in the distillery, though, which offered some reprieve for those used to warmer climates. The tourist from Switzerland, of course, was dressed appropriately for the weather.

Finished product

Wild Turkey warehouses across the street

watch your head, David

heads and tails

I wore my goofy hat all around Louisville, including our trip to the distillery

If you wish to make an Italian feast from scratch, you must first invent the universe:

2010-12-14T12:59:00.010-05:00

I was six hours into cooking, and I still had 3 recipes left to go. Frowning at the recipes taped on the cabinets in the kitchen, I crossed another off the list and set the dish aside. I sighed and looked at the cat. In that second, the pot of milk and heavy cream I was heating became possessed and started to boil over. I ran it over to the sink and tried not to burn myself. I looked back at the cat, who was looking suspiciously amused as he sniffed the spilled dairy on the floor. With only 3 recipes to go, I was too far in to turn back now.

The plan

When David takes his monthly trip up to Michigan for his job, I usually take the time I have to myself to relax for a few days, and make a nice dinner for his return. I'd already tackled an Indian meal, an elaborate dinner from Findlay Market, and a from scratch pizza.

I wanted to up the ante a little and make something more involved. After a few hours on tastespotting, I decided I wanted to revisit the Italian theme. But this time, I was not stopping at pizza. David likes Italian, but his main complaint is that at some restaurants the giant brick of lasagna that's served is simply too heavy. So the solution there? Italian, tapas style.

In addition to making lots of small dishes, for some naive reason I began to regret later, I enthusiastically decided I was going to do things the hard way. As I compiled recipes and made a Gantt chart, I realized that I simply didn't have enough time to make them all once I got home from work.

So I did the logical thing. I scheduled a personal day.

Fortified with a large dose of caffeine, I began the first recipe candying the orange peels for dessert--a layered bourbon vanilla nutella panna cotta made with kefir accented by candied orange.

I started the panna cotta next, to give it plenty of time to set. I adapted this recipe for kefir panna cotta to make it, making the vanilla bourbon layer first, then the nutella layer and using the freezer to set one layer before adding the next.

presenting: vanilla bourbon nutella panna cotta with kefir

Next, I cut tomatoes and prepped them for roasting for the roasted tomato marinara sauce for the lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs and chicken parmesan.

Yes, I used David's Global chef knife. Don't tell him, OK?

After roasting, I combined the ingredients and left them to simmer for most of the afternoon, while babysitting my orange peels.

I made ricotta cheese. It was actually very easy, but I was still absurdly proud of my accomplishment. While the cheese was draining, I made Parmesan meatballs and stuck them in the oven.

I then started on the pasta. We don't have a pasta roller, but I figured a rolling pin would do the job. Wrong. Making pasta without a pasta roller is a real pain. Roll until you think it's thin enough, then keep rolling. And then roll some more. It was still rather thick pasta, but it had a nice texture.

Next, the oven went up to 450 to roast chickpeas.

I discovered the cat loves chickpeas. Just plain out of the can. He goes absolutely bonkers for them.

The lasagna itself is made in the jumbo muffin tin, adapted from this recipe. It makes nicely sized portions that can be frozen and are perfect for leftovers.

As the lasagna cooled, I started the chicken Parmesan nuggets, and prepped the mozzarella zucchini bites, which David declared to be the best zucchini appetizer ever.

Even with the small sizes of the dishes, we had a ton of delicious leftovers all week. At the end of the evening, I was left with a new found appreciation of how difficult it can be to cook from scratch. No wonder lasagna prep used to be an all day event. It really takes all day to make.

My day of cooking really highlighted to me how lucky some of us are to have the luxury of going out to the store and buying those things (if we so choose), and how easily we can take something simple, like pasta, for granted. I never will again.
My arms were sore from rolling out dough for days.

the simplest dish like the concept of lasagna, has an elaborate recipe underpinning

Because you can't just eat the entire vacation:

2010-12-10T12:37:00.005-05:00

We ate a lot on our vacation. We ate and ate and ate. But even we need a break sometimes. When we were planning our vacation, David tasked me with the specific request to find things to do that were not edible or imbibe-able. Louisville has a lot to offer, and with a little research, I had a list drawn up of places for us to go where we wouldn't be stuffing our faces. You'll see plenty of food in the posts to come, I promise. But in case you are in the same boat in Louisville, this post might help you out.

We stayed in the 21C Hotel in the CBD downtown, which was an experience in itself. The hotel is also an art museum, featuring mixed media, photographs, sculpture, paintings and many other exhibits that is free and open to the public. We spend a good amount of time wandering around there and moving the large red plastic penguins around the hotel.

Around the corner from 21C is Louisville Glassworks, a studio that offers classes, and also the less intensive "walk in workshop" where you can create a variety of fused glass projects. I liked the studio--the staff showed you the materials, answered your questions, but otherwise left you alone to work. David and I worked together to make a fused glass plate, and I made a few pendants with dichroic glass. Once fired, Glassworks will ship your work to you in a large box with lots of bubble wrap to keep it safe.

We visited the Science Center, across the street from our hotel. This would be a great place to take little kids. There were lots of parents and children running around there. I instructed David to touch as little as possible. We were not getting sick on vacation.

I did not know that.

And yes, there is the Muhammad Ali center, and the Louisville slugger museum. We waved at those as we passed them by. David and I have a crippling lack of interest in sports. It's why we always lose at trivia.

We made a point to visit Churchill downs and the Kentucky derby museum on Friday to see the 2010 Clark Handicap, a grade 1 stakes race.

I was a bit of a horse nut when I was younger, and I still am. There are no pictures of the derby museum because I was too busy excitedly dragging David from exhibit to exhibit.

We made sure to get plenty of pictures the races. We had placed our bets on the entrants in the Clark earlier in the afternoon. David bet on a long shot, Giant Oak, because he liked the name. I thought I had it all figured out. I had done my research. I even went so far as to bet it all on my favorite to win.

The dapple gray rabbit ran away with the start...

but the chestnut bay finished lengths ahead.

Imagine my surprise when David's horse came in second, and later winning by a technicality due to the "winner", Successful Dan (the favorite, odds wise) getting all handsy in the home stretch and being disqualified.

Giant Oak, # 4, started in the back of the pack

It's a duel down the stretch!

Congratulations on your victory by disqualification, David

OK, fine. Maybe there was a teeny, tiny bit of imbibing

Hot Doggin’ It:

2010-12-06T08:30:00.003-05:00

A few months ago, David trekked out to a suburb of Chicago for a work expedition. When he returned from the windy city, he chronicled his adventures for me--and told me of the strange beefy beast that is the Chicago style hot dog.

“At first I didn’t understand it.” He said, after a detailed break down of the hot dog’s components. “It’s like someone tripped and dropped an entire salad on a perfectly good hot dog. But it’s actually really good. And nearly impossible to eat neatly.”

A Chicago style hot dog must have all these items on it, or it loses points:

It must start with a all beef frank, from Chicago, usually Vienna. It must have diced white onion, sweet pickled relish that’s usually bright green, mustard, a dill pickle spear, 2 little sport peppers, 2 tomato wedges, and a teeny bit of celery salt. And it must be on a poppy seed bun.

Also, do not forget. No Ketchup allowed. They’re serious about this.

It was around that time that I learned of Hot Doggin’ It, a restaurant specializing in authentic Chicago style hot dogs located in Symmes township. I was very curious about what David had encountered on his trip, so we visited a few months ago and met Ava and David Baldwin, the owners. We stopped in for lunch, chatted with owners a bit, and had a great time.

HDI’s location is a little tricky to find, it’s on the backside of one of the shopping centers on Montgomery road. After our second visit this Sunday, we feel justified saying it is definitely a hidden gem. A delicious gem covered in melty, golden cheese sauce.

moar cheese please

Chicago style hot dogs are very good, though messy, and the variety of condiments do compliment each other very well. In the same way that some people will never "get" Cincinnati style chili, I'm sure some people will never "get" the Chicago style hot dog. That said, I was pleasantly surprised. I opted to get a chili cheese dog with Vienna chili, while David ordered the Chicago style hot dog, which he shared with me.

I assure you, my hot dog is under there...somewhere

Considering my love of spicy things, we also tried some hot giardiniera. It has quite a kick.

We spoke to Ava in a little bit more detail this time, after she was done taking care of her regulars. As I walked up to the counter to get my free ice cream (twist, which I think is superior to chocolate or vanilla alone, with sprinkles) I heard Ava call out after a departing patron,“Give that baby a kiss for me!” We heard several people arrive and order their “usual.” and I also watched Ava and David interact with a native Chicago couple and their young boy.

Sometimes actions speak a lot louder than words, and you can tell that Ava and her husband really care. HDI won best hot dog last year from Cincinnati Magazine, and this year, were also part of the Best of the Best, serving up hot dogs at Cincinnati Magazine’s “Best of the City” party. “I think we served over 400 hot dogs.” Ava recalled. “People kept coming back for more!”

There is a map on the wall with pins representing native Chicagoans who have visited and the neighborhoods they came from. I overheard Ava taking down the family from Chicago’s address to add to the map.

It’s a bit of a drive from downtown for us, but our trips to Hot Doggin’ It have been worth it. The service is great, and Ava and David are passionate about their business; serving authentic, delicious hot dogs, and befriending their customers. They are, simply put, good people, making good food. And Ava sports some awesome, classy and sparkly eye glasses. I asked to take her picture, but that will have to wait until our next visit.

Capriole Cheese:

2010-11-30T11:12:00.010-05:00

One of the top priorities on my list of places to visit on vacation last week was Capriole.

It's no secret I have a cheese problem.

I've been known to plan entire shopping trips around what types of cheese I can get at what store. I've purchased and eaten an entire 3 lb half wheel of Cypress Grove's Midnight Moon aged goat gouda. I've thrown a cheese party. There is one drawer in our fridge perpetually reserved for cheese. And with Capriole, one of the top goat cheeses in the country, a mere 30 minutes away from our hotel in Louisville, a trip out to the farm was a given.

We didn't get to see much of the farm or the goats--it was a cold, rainy and dreary day on our visit. In the spring, the farm holds open houses, which I'd love to attend and we'll probably go back for.

We drove out through the rolling hills in Indiana, down a narrow road and finally made it to a long gravel driveway, with a sign simply stating "CAPRIOLE". The drive was wide enough for one car, and wound through the woods to the farm where Judy Schad, the co-owner of Capriole, keeps her 400 goat herd. She's been making tangy, creamy goat cheese for over 25 years.

David peered down the drive and gave me a look of annoyance. I knew he was thinking of his new car's 18" Pirelli P Zero rims. "I'm sorry about the path!" I pled. "I didn't know there would be a gravel path." Grudgingly, he started driving through the woods.

We walked into the steamy farm store, where we could see staff moving about in the back room, washing down the kitchen after a day of cheese making. We rang the goat bells for service and tried some of the cheeses that were available for purchase. As I watched the staff in the back, I noticed that one of them looked familiar.

It wasn't her face that tipped me off at first. It was the fact that though she was wearing gloves, a plastic apron, and dampened work clothes, Judy was also sporting a large pearl choker. "David." I whispered. "There she is!"

As we were sampling various cheeses, she passed by us with a large cardboard box. "Great weather out there, isn't it?" She said, referring to the gloomy afternoon.

I tried to say something, but couldn't figure out what I wanted to say. I was in the presence of someone that I truly admired and never thought I'd meet--a determined lady who has worked extremely hard for many years and makes great cheese, co-manages a successful company, and was whimsical enough to wear classy jewelry while cheese making.

So I settled for just smiling like an idiot, instead.

And just like that, she was gone. "Well, excuse me. I have to go cook!" She hustled past us with the box, presumably to the house across the drive. It was all I could do not to follow her out the door like a stray puppy, asking if I could stay at the farm as a cheese-making apprentice.

I know my reaction may seem odd to some of you that are not really into cheese, but hey--you've got your rock stars, and I've got mine.

David and I bought a lot of cheese: Sofia; a creamy cheese marbled with vegetable ash, Julianna, and aged raw milk cheese with herb rind; O' Banon, a milder cheese wrapped in bourbon soaked chestnut leaves; as well as two layered tortas, a caliente torta with herbs, and a bourbon chocolate torta with cocoa and bourbon soaked raisins (both aptly named fromage a trois). We took our haul back to our hotel and stashed in the mini fridge we had asked them to put in our room for cheese storage purposes.

Capriole cheese is available in many stores in the tri state, including Jungle Jim's gigantic cheese section. Whole Foods always has the plain goat cheese, Party source has some on occasion, and the Remke in Hyde Park Plaza has recently stepped up their game--I saw Sofia, Julianna, Pipers Pyramid and the Tortas there on Sunday.

Homemade Stock and Carnaroli Risotto:

2010-11-10T13:30:00.007-05:00

"Paper jam?!? Why does it say paper jam when there is no PAPER JAM!?"

I was at work late, attempting to prepare a package of pleadings to send for filing. And at that very moment, I was just about ready to take off my shiny black pump and start wailing on what I am sure is a very expensive-- yet incredibly fussy--copier.

I'd already taken the copier apart twice and pulled one crumpled piece of paper from it. Now I had opened it back up and, as far as I could peer into its gaping, mechanical maw, I didn't see any more paper. I put it back together and attempted to copy the rest of my packet--which was on page 177 of 250.

Paper jam! The copier informed me gleefully.

"That is it!" I grumbled, grabbing my half copied stack. I stomped down to the main copy room, where I was promptly thrust into a full-scale rubber band war between the part time employees.

And that is where I found myself that evening. Dodging rubber bands in the copy room after hours, at a copier covered with clown-rap quotes written on post-it notes. It was an unexpected turn of events.

When I finally finished all the copies, I left for home. The temperature had dropped considerably, and it was chilly. I was cold, and I had two wicked paper cuts. Luckily, it was national Men Make Dinner Day.

Carnaroli Risotto, how does it work?*

We had picked up some fancy Carnaroli rice from Findlay Market, and, with Jeff's helpful instruction, had made our own stock a few days prior with onion, carrot, celery and 3 pounds of chicken necks (which only cost $2 from Heist!), also purchased at Findlay.

We've made risotto before, after we started watching Hell's Kitchen and were curious what the big deal was. We've made it with beef stock, chicken stock, seafood stock and vegetable stock.

With me as sous chef, David made risotto and we roasted a pork tenderloin. On a chilly evening, the risotto was perfect, and the home made stock really took it up a level. The rice was very good, however, I'm not convinced that it's worth the hefty price tag ($9.00 a bag) as opposed to Arborio, which is less expensive.

"Tri-force" Stock recipe:

3 lbs. Chicken necks
3 lg. Celery stalks
3 lg. Carrots
3 lg. Garlic cloves
3 Bay leaves
1 md. White onion
3 qt. Water

Wash the celery, and peel the carrots, onion, and garlic cloves. Dice all the vegetables except the garlic, which you will leave whole.

In a heavy 5 qt. dutch oven, brown the chicken in batches. When finished browning, drain the rendered fat, leaving a few tablespoons behind. Add the diced onion and cook until translucent and softened. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.

Just when the pot has begun to boil, transfer it to an oven preheated to 170 - 180 F. This is probably about as low as your oven can go; you do not want the stock to boil or simmer, since the high temperature will destroy the subtle flavors. This is one of the key advantages of homemade over store-bought stock. Let the stock cook like this for three to four hours, stirring every hour or so.

When finished, strain the stock to remove the solids (especially the bay leaves!). The stock will be very aromatic and flavorful, but quite bland from the lack of salt. You can leave the stock unsalted for cooking purposes, or salt it to taste. We gravitate toward a ratio of 1 tsp of Morton coarse kosher salt per pint. The brand and type of salt you use can dramatically alter this ratio, though. CHOW has a good article on the sodium level of different salt types here.

Whatever stock you don’t plan to use in the next few days should be frozen. If frozen, the stock will keep indefinitely.

When the stock is refrigerated, you will notice a layer of solid fat that has formed on the surface. Do NOT skim or throw away. It carries a significant amount of the flavor. We're serious. Keep the fat.

*If you're up to date on your memes and parodies, or perchance your clown rap, you may recognize what I'm referring to.