2008 Winners

The winners of 2008 are here.

Best of Time

It's time for Eating Tampa's 2008 Best of Poll. Visit here for the categories and VOTE!

New Address

It's official. I'm finally moving this page to a new address, so update your bookmarks and RSS feeds.

I've expanded my interests a little, but there's still a page about food and restaurants in Tampa called Eating Tampa. It can now be found at -

http://www.recreatingtampa.com/eatingtampa/

The intro to Re/Creating Tampa can be found here.

The desire to write about more than food, and a burning interest in placing ads, prompted my move to a new space. It sure would be nice if this hobby could pay for itself!

The new page still needs to be tidied up a little, but it's essentially all in place, and that's where all the new posts will be going. This site will remain here for quite some time since it has all the archives. But, over the next month or so I'll change all the links in the old reviews (and update them about closings and address changes) to the new version at the new place. Everything should be neat and orderly for the 2008 Reader's Poll in September.

My first new post (i.e. a post that can be found there, but not here) is about visiting Steamy Kitchen's Chef Jaden Hair at the Rolling Pin last Thursday.

Drop by the new place and let me know what you think!

Round-up

Yikes! I've been spending so much time futzing around with a new design I forgot to put up new content. The other day I even went to Carrollwood Cafe & Deli (on the recommendation of the Urban Eater) to have something to write about. But instead of taking a photo of my sandwich and writing up a post I became so engrossed with tweaking some CSS I forgot to pay attention to my meal.

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Speaking of new designs, Jaden at Steamy Kitchen has just trotted out a super clean and sleek looking page. Hmmm, let's see what that embed from ABC 7 looks like (never mind, the embed code doesn't work). Here's Jaden doing Vietnamese Iced Coffee and Asian Nachos on What's for Dinner?

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Laura "the Mouth" Reiley mentions some new food websites. One, Urbanspoon, was kind enough to ask if I wanted Eating Tampa reviews to be a part of their site. Of course I agreed, and wished them luck, but I'm pretty wary of sites that scrape for content rather than have a dedicated editor. Results can be erratic. Also, no link luv from Laura who name drops (but doesn't link to) Florida Food Hound (who moved to Gainesville last summer) and The Urban Eater (who is now a Culinary Sherpa) as the sorts of food blogs one might find on Urbanspoon. Alas, Eating Tampa must remain a part of the great unwashed "etc."

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Sacre Bleu wine emailed me and offered an opportunity to try their wine after I asked "I wonder if the wine is any good?"

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Following close on the heels of the Tampa Tribune's revamped food section, the St. Pete Times re-designs their own page.

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Jeff Houck meet the executive chef for the Florida governor and learns that Gov. Crist eats lots of salads.

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Brian Ries deals with food politics more than most other Tampa-area food writers. This post is prompted by the recent NYT article that suggests 27% of food available for consumption in the US ends up in the trash.

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The Culinary Sherpas visited the Food and Wine Festival and report back. Also here.

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The Tampa Locavore continues to photo-document his lunches. Stogie, eat more veggies!

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Sometime between now and Monday I'll unveil the new page(s) and new URL, in the meantime let's all raise a glass of wine to American vintner Robert Mondavi. Salud.

Sacre Bleu Wine

Sacre Bleu wine just zapped an ad over to my in-box. I followed the links to find out if they're associated with Tampa in some way only to discover they're based in Minnesota.

But what caught my attention is their embrace of social networking to promote themselves. Not only do they keep a MySpace page, but they also keep a Blogger page, an Itunes page, a YouTube page and they podcast. You can join their mailing list and download wallpaper, brochures, and posters.

"We began with our Internet site www.sacrebleuwine.com just this past spring. Shortly thereafter we put up our Myspace platform then quickly followed that up with podcasts via The Sacre Bleu Wine Network through iTunes, blogs, creative videos from our master winemaker on Youtube, newsletters and most recently Facebook. The impact of all of this has been nothing less than profound.

"There is little doubt that Sacre Bleu's core consumer could have discovered the brand outside of these media venues. It would not have been likely since we did no conventional advertising whatsoever."

The future of marketing?

They still have a few things to learn about internet marketing, however. The email they sent is a .jpg. They need to send text that I can copy and paste. Googling the keywords venue tampa sacre bleu business buddies got me nowhere, and I'm too lazy to re-type all the info in their image. Nonetheless, they seem to be heading in the right direction.

I wonder if the wine is any good?

La Casona Review

JB and I recently ate lunch at La Casona. We were on our way to Pho An Hao, but it seems to have been replaced by a BBQ joint. Not in the mood for BBQ we began driving at random and pulled into La Casona without much forethought, and with no knowledge of its menu other than what we could speculate by the name of the restaurant.

It was crowded during lunch time and the waitress was wonderful. Just by telling us that she was the only waitress that day we understood that service was going to be slow. Communication goes a long way, and I bet a lot of annoyance at restaurant service could be ameliorated by simply talking to the customers.

JB had the tilapia and I had the mahi-mahi. Her meal came with a salad and sweet plantains, mine with salad and tostones (fried plantains). Other tables around us got some wonderful looking rice dishes that I'll probably try the next time we visit (and other dishes that I now know is mofongo). Each lunch cost $10.

I was really happy we stumbled into La Casona and we'll add it to our places to visit. The menu is Puerto Rican/Latin/Caribbean.

Glancing around the web I see that I need to try the mofongo, which is a mashed plantain dish native to Puerto Rico, seasoned and served with a fried meat and a chicken broth soup.

(No pictures! My cell phone has lost its ability to take pictures. Stupid cell phone.)


5709 N. Armenia
813-414-9774

In Defense of Food

I'm a huge fan of Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma, (see review here) but only a big fan of In Defense of Food. The first two sections of Defense, "The Age of Nutritionism," and "The Western Diet and Diseases of Civilization" fit perfectly with Omnivore's posture of investigative journalism. While Omnivore included Pollan as a character, it came across as a non-biased, or relatively low-biased, intro to the foodstuffs served across America. The first two sections of Defense adhere to this even-handed journalistic method, but the final section, "Getting Over Nutritionism," slips into more assertion and weaker argument and investigation.

Pollan is upfront about the final third of this book. He refers to his suggestions as "eating algorithms." He doesn't recommend what you should eat, but what you should think about before you eat. Mostly I agree with him, but there are few people in the United States who can live, and eat, the way Michael Pollan does. Lesisurely dinners prepared from foods out of your home-grown garden sounds like a great way to live, but re-arranging one's life to create space to eat well may be impossible for most.

That said, there's still a bushel of great advice in this book. Even if you can't afford the time to grow your own garden, or eat every lunch gathered with friends and family, you will at least come away with an understanding of why eating anything that says "low-carb," "low-fat," "enriched," or "fortified" is probably a bad idea.

In Omnivore Pollan researched where our food comes from. In Defense his research starts with asking why we think about food the way we do. Why are Americans obsessed with cholestrol, trans-fat, omega-3, and omega-6? What do nutrients have to do with food?

Pollan pulls together several threads that brought us to the nutrient-obsessed culture we have today. Three of these threads are lobbyists, scientists, and nutritionists. Together this triumvirate has eradicated any common sense about food that might have once been found in this nation. That this is a particularly national problem is very much a part of Pollan's argument. Other cultures have long histories that have allowed them to create food cultures promote health. The French paradox ceases to be a paradox when you consider the culture that surrounds eating, and the hundreds of generations that have contributed to creating foods, and ways of eating, that combine in healthful ways.

Not only is the United States, a melange of many cultures, lacking this kind of food tradition, but it also suffers from a technophilia that rose to dominance in the 20th century and made it seem like science could solve every problem. Chemists began analyzing food to see what made it tick, and nutritionists began promoting these ingredients/nutrients as ways of achieving health. If Wonder Bread can be enriched what does it matter that it's made out of processed flour and a little extra sweetener? A lot, according to Pollan.

When early nutritionism didn't really work as advertised nutritionists did more research and uncovered micronutrients. Once micro-nutrients were discovered, they argued that now food chemists could mix and match ingredients to promote perfect health. Unfortunately, it seems like everytime a nutrient was thought to help or hurt later research overturned these findings. Pollan argues that this rises out of the simplified way of doing research. While nutritional research may be correct for a single ingredient it couldn't predict how the ingredients all worked together in the food, or in relation to a human body. Food, and our relationship with food, is far too complex to be reduced to a simple formula.

Pollan's argument persuaded me. Especially reading the two books in conjunction.

One of the pleasant things about reading Pollan is that he doesn't take the tone of a scolding moralist in his writing. There is no right answer or rigid formula you must follow to health, only some thoughtfully considered common sense which he sums up in the opening of the book. "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." The rest of the book explains why the American diet is not really food, but food-like products, and why Americans continue to eat long after they've consumed more than enough to meet their nutritional needs.

Pollan's perfect world of eating that he tries to conjure up in the last third of the book will probably never make it into most people's daily lives. But, that shouldn't stop anyone from striving. Even if you're not eating green beans out of your own garden, you can still eat more fruit and vegetables and less meat. There are common-sense strategies for eating that seem to have been forgotten. In Defense of Food is a great reminder that food should lead to health, not type-2 diabetes.

The King Is Everywhere

Shhhh, be careful what you say. The King is listening.

"Burger King hired a private security firm to spy on the Student/Farmworker Alliance, a group of idealistic college students trying to improve the lives of migrants in Florida."

Ever wonder how the King can afford to sell a burger for a dollar?

"And hundreds, perhaps thousands of migrants have been enslaved by labor contractors and forced to work without pay."

It's the blood of the enslaved migrant worker that makes the tomatoes so sweet!

(via the SPT who got it from the NYT)

TGIF Giant Round-up

We Are Never Full provides a recipe for an astonishingly delicious-looking Sandwich de Merguez.

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It's an hour long, but if you haven't read Pollan's work this is a good way to get the gist of what he's writing about. Michael Pollan speaks at Google.

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A flexitarian is - "a vegetarian who occasionally eats meat."

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Local Quizno's not doing so well? Keep an eye out for Smashburger.

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I'm not much of a fan of fast food, but if you are be sure to check out Fast Food Critic, "researching the fast food world, one burger at a time."

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Tampa I Am turns forty and celebrates at Circles.

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Green Eggs loves the bang bang shrimp at Bonefish grill (not the first time I've heard this, though I've yet to try it).

Stunt Cooking

Bob Blumer explains how to poach fish in a dishwasher.

Dishwasher Salmon with Cilantro Sauce

Month of Cocktails - #26 Beer

Last night's cocktail was - beer!

Frankly, I think I've had enough of cocktailing. Most other recipes I might want to make call for ingredients that will simply languish around the house for years (how often will I use benedictine?). And, this was supposed to be a cocktail celebration, not a cocktail challenge.

It's time to return this blog back to food. The drinking was fun, but it's time for my lost weekend to come to an end.

Tomorrow I'll be back on track with a review of Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food.

Month of Cocktails - #25 Volga Volga

No picture of this one. Imagine if you will a glass of cool, clear water on ice. Now you know what a volga volga looks like. This is vodka, creme de menthe and tonic water. Not as good as the stinger. Tastes a little like cough medicine. Good for those who want to 'tussin up without the 'tussin.

Month of Cocktails - #24 Ward Eight

A ward eight is a whisky sour with grenadine instead of sugar syrup. It was 2:1 lemon juice and bourbon and a dash of grenadine. The recipe I have calls for some bar sugar, but the grenadine makes it sweet enough for me. Shake everything in a shaker with ice and pour neat into a highball glass.

Month of Cocktails - #23 Screwdriver

Sunday night I was hot and thirsty and not really in the mood for a cocktail at all, so I fixed a screwdriver. After I took this picture I loaded the drink with even more ice and OJ. After I drank it I stuck with iced orange juice for the rest of the night. I think I used a 3:1 ration of vodka and juice with this one.

Month of Cocktails - #22 Mint Julep

I spent Saturday afternoon with a mint julep aficionado, and drank one down before the Kentucky Derby. The joy of the julep was dampened by the death of Eight Belles, but we toasted her life and pondered the mysteries and histories of the derby tradition.

This julep was strong. I think I must have had a double. The special metal julep glass (silver? pewter?) kept the drink deliciously frosty for the entire time it took me to drink. The sprig wafted mint under my nose every time I took a drink. It was great. I doubt if I'll be whipping any up any time soon, but I can see how I might make the Derby and mint juleps and annual event.

The meaning and history of the mint julep has come up on Eating Tampa before.

Month of Cocktails - #21 Vodka Sour

It's been a week since the last month of cocktails! It seems like busy-ness seeks me out, when what I really want to be doing is sitting on the beach with a frozen fruit cocktail.

I concocted a vodka sour because I didn't have time to hit the liquor store and the libations were running bare. I love the sours and am getting tired of the sweets. I also understand now why vodka is such a popular spirit for cocktails. It mixes well with lots of stuff. Before this month of cocktails I think I'd only purchased one, maybe two, bottle(s) of vodka in my life.

The vodka sour is 2:1 vodka and lemon juice with a maraschino cherry dropped in. Some recipes add sugar, but it's not necessary.

New Blog

Don't worry, I haven't stopped drinking, but I've been spending my time working on this page -

Re/Creating Tampa.

I'll update the cocktails tomorrow.

Month of Cocktails - #20 Rusty Nail

Tonight's drink is a rusty nail. Recipes differ, but I choose 3 parts scotch to one part drambuie. Pour both on ice and stir. One of the better drinks I've tried this month.

The image will have to come later. Also, I probably won't immediately post drinks #21 and #22 since I will be immersed in the wonderful world of exam grading. With any luck I'll be able to get caught up on Sunday. I can say that Saturday's drink will definitely be a mint julep in honor of the Kentucky Derby.

Month of Cocktails - #19 Pina Colada

This is my first blender drink. It seems like a lot of hardware just to mix a drink, but the results sure are delicious.

This version uses 12 oz. pina colada mix, 4 oz. rum, and 3 cups of ice all blended into a frothy concoction.

I'm really dropping the ball on this month of cocktails. Interspersed between cocktail recipes I should be spinning tales about the exotic history of the spirits that make up the drink or the secret history of the cocktail, or at least name-dropping cocktails in movies and books.

I suppose my favorite movie cocktail moment is early in the first Thin Man movie when Myrna Loy walks into the bar where William Powell is drinking and asks him -

"How many drinks have you had?"

"This will make six martinis."

"All right. (To the bartender) Will you bring me five more Martinis, Leo? Line them right up here."

When did drinking and drunks stop being funny? Is MADD to blame? I remember as a child watching Foster Brooks (who was a tee-totaler) doing his hi-lar-ious stand-up drunk routine. (Hilarious to the child version of me.)

Here's a clip of Brooks performing at a roast of Don Rickles in 1970. Brooks is probably the only one there NOT drunk.

Month of Cocktails - #18 Havana Sidecar

A few drinks over the last couple of weeks have really stood out. This is one of them. I was about to go into sugar shock with all the sweet drinks last week, and have discovered I have a real fondness for the sours. Anything with lemon is good to me.

The Havana Sidecar is a Sidecar (traditionally made with brandy) made with gold rum.

1 1/2 oz. gold rum, 3/4 lemon juice, 3/4 triple sec shaken with ice and poured into a cocktail glass.