Friday, December 13, 2013

It's The Holidays: Time To Talk About Food

I want to take a break from trying to write the next scene of my latest soon to be unpublished novel and I especially want to take a break from thinking about our dysfunctional political system.  Instead, I want to write about something I know we all care about.  Food.  

The Ten Best Things I've Ever Eaten


1 - On Sunday mornings in Freeport, Illinois my father would make fried egg and tomato sandwiches while the womenfolk were at church.  To this day, when I am alone in the morning and hungry, I will whip up a fried egg and tomato sandwich.  It is the only positive memory I have of my father.

2 - On chilly mornings when Annabel, who worked across the street from Estes Park Schools, gave me a ride to Miss Soth’s third grade class, we would stop first at Jerry’s Sandwich Shop where Annie would order me up a stack of pancakes.  She taught me how to pile the butter on between each cake and drizzle the whole thing with syrup.  I felt like a regular at the counter and after polishing off my pancakes, I’d walk across the street to school.

3 - The reuben sandwich at Hummel’s Deli in Cinderella City was to that moment in my life (I was 20) the single best thing I had ever tasted.  LIght rye bread studded with seeds, a creamy layer of sauerkraut that to this day has never been duplicated, thinly sliced pastrami (at that time in my life a completely exotic ingredient), great swiss cheese.  I worked at Craig Rehabilitation Hospital back then (fulfilling my Conscientious Objector obligation) and piled many a patient into an ambocab  for lunch at Hummels.  Those culinary forays remain among my favorite memories.

4 - The first time we went fishing with Felipe in Belize, I caught a (at least to my eyes) monstrous baracuda, among other things, and after the morning was done, Felipe landed us on a semi-secluded beach (within walking distance of a palapas bar just a dozen yards or so upshore).  While the four of us (Bud, Janet, Kathie, Me) had drinks, Felipe wrapped our catch along with some well chosen vegetables in foil, grilled them, and had them waiting, along with a stack of warm tortillas, for us when we returned.  It was the best fish I’d ever had, including my grandmother’s fresh caught trout in Estes Park.

5 - I spent the better part of an afternoon making the tamales in Rick Bayless’ MEXICO ONE DISH AT A TIME.  I rigged a makeshift steamer out of a broiler pan with the help of half a roll of tin foil and was skeptical about my chances for success.  An hour later, Kathie and I shared a steaming hot tamale.  OH MY GOD!  I’m not sure anything has ever tasted that good.

6 - We took a cheese making class at Luca d’Italia a few years ago with Frank Bonnano.  Among other things, we learned how to make mozarella, ricotta, and burrata.  The next week hadn’t reached the half-way point before we launched our first attempt at mozarella.  After two failed attempts, the third batch was perfect.  It ended up costing us four times what it would cost in the store, but we were proud.  The same thing with the ricotta.  We even used our first successful batch to make a ricotta based gnocchi that has become a staple around our house (although with store bought ricotta).  A burrata is a combination of ricotta and mozarella, with the fresh mozarella wrapped around the hot and creamy ricotta.  It is, to my mind, the quintessential cheese appetizer when accompanied by thin wedges of crispy and garlicky bread.  Our version was pretty good, but we learned a really important lesson as a result of our cheese making classes:  For God Sakes!  Go to a restaurant and order the burrata.  Don’t try this at home.  Taking that advice, the burrata at any Bonnano venue makes the entire meal worth the drive.  I mean it.  If you are a cheese lover, nothing beats the burrata at Osteria Marco, or Bonnano Brothers, or Luca d’Italia.

7 - Kathie, Franny, and I visited Annabel in the hill country of Texas one spring break.  We drove to a little town between Austen and San Antonio and had beef brisket on sheets of butcher paper with lots of Texas toast.  I’m not a barbecue lover, but if that joint was in driving distance of my house, I would live there.  As long as we’re talking brisket, the brisket sandwiches at Masterpiece Deli are even better than the Cubans at Masterpiece Deli.  I never thought I could say that about any sandwich.  I can’t believe there is a better sandwich in Denver.

8 - The Pescador Zarandeado at Tino’s in Puerto Vallarta is my favorite all time fish dish.  It is even better than Felipe’s barracuda in Belize.  First of all, Tino’s is the premier fish joint in PV and that’s saying a lot.  When you order the dish, they bring out the whole fish for your approval before they cook the thing.  The finished product arrives with crispy skin and white flaky flesh on a huge vegetable laden platter with a plate of warm tortillas nearby.  Wrap the fish and vegetables in a tortilla and realize that life, at least at that moment, is good.

9 - I’ve written about these before, but the steamed buns (pork belly) at Bones in Denver are simply the best apps in the city.  I refuse to believe there is anything anywhere that compare, and believe me I’ve been looking.  In fact, the only app in contention is the flash fried peppers at the same place.  


10 - There are so many other dishes, but I’m going to limit myself to ten.  The amuse bouche at The Restaurant at Meadowood the last time we were there took my breath away.  We had dinner four nights in a row at that restaurant (we decided to camp out at Meadowood the entire time -- a wise decision, I hasten to add) and the same dish dazzled me each time.  It was baby carrots, radishes, and other root vegetables from Meadowood’s amazing garden, dressed in a barely perceptible vinaigrette, resting on a bed of snow laced with olive oil.  OH MY GOD!

Happy Eating