foodguy's blog

Ode To A Billy Goat

It was supposed to be our year. This was the year the Cubs were supposed to make it to the finish line, the big show, the World Series. All year they were unflappable. They'd save a lost game in the ninth inning, then come back the next day to defeat their opponent by several runs. For once it seemed the curse was gone. That somehow after 100 years they had finally overcome the largest deficit in the major leagues. But it was not. Once again the Cubs fell to defeat. As a fan I took it in stride as just another year. But now I'm watching the start of another World Series with a tear in my eye. This year it was supposed to be for us. It was supposed to be our year.....!!!

The goat will meet his match someday. Because this is baseball and it is eternal.

 

 

Technorati Tags: Cubs,baseball,curse,billy goat

The State of Food in 2008

A sometimes annoying habit we all seem to have this time of the year is to focus on the future. We all dream about what can be and worry about what will be. So let's join the fray and gaze into our crystal soup pot and take a peek at the future of food for 2008.

First on the list is sustainable agriculture, aqua-culture and well just culture in general. These "culture" words are not just marketing buzzwords anymore. They are essential attitudes to protect our way of life. Wars, politics and diseases somehow always cycle back or through the lack of food or water or both somewhere on the planet. Our own mass consumerist society must learn to live within a framework of sustainability in all things or in very short time there will be very little left for us to consume. Along with a few high profile celebrities and politicians, Chefs are right up front driving the bus on the these issues. The movement to use only locally produced products are popping up on menus ranging from haute cuisine to corner bar. It began as early as the '70's and has now blossomed into a mandate for food products that are grown or raised locally, naturally and even organically. The smarter more market savvy Chefs look for products with a story as well. Those are foods from farms, growing regions on land or sea that are trusted for their process of bringing products to market in a manor that promotes environmental awareness and stability.

Chocolate is growing up. The same attention to origin and terroir once reserved for wine has now invaded the world of chocolate. Chocolate makers and aficionados used to be the only ones who needed to know the percentage of chocolate liqueur in a bar of chocolate. The average Hershey's consumer didn't need to know if their cacao beans were from Costa Rica, Venezuela or the Ivory Coast. But like everything else in our complicated lives, these bits of knowledge are becoming more important when you buy or use chocolate these days. And it's going to get even worse. Large and small chocolate makers are taking these qualities very seriously and are using them to market chocolate in some very intimidating ways. If you haven't shopped for chocolate recently, you'll soon see that you'll feel like you should have a degree in gastronomy in order to buy a friggin bar of chocolate!!! This story gets even better when you add recent claims by nutritionists that dark chocolate, in moderation of course, is a super food that will help prevent or delay heart disease and cancer among other ailments. We may soon see chocolate clinics popping up in malls next to Jenny Craig.

The National Restaurant Association is predicting that the restaurant industry will reach over half a trillion dollars in sales this year and that nearly 30% of those sales will be in quick service restaurants. On average, Americans now spend over half their food budget on restaurants. This figure is higher in metropolitan areas with a lot of drive thru windows. Restaurants in the Twin Cities will continue to grow. We will see more and more small Chef operated restaurants, single food concept restaurants and high cuisine restaurants with casual attitudes. What does this mean to the average Joe on the street? Not much since he's probably on his way to a fast food joint anyway.

But just in case he needs to know what's going on around the corner, the most important trend will be small restaurants in neighborhood locations around the metro. This is where the future menu trends will come from. Besides being tasty places to eat, they are the laboratories where creative Chefs will come up with some of the exciting new directions in food. This will also where we will see the development of single item concepts like barbecue, noodles and even cupcakes. Meanwhile, the white tablecloth, coat and tie restaurant of old is on it's last legs. A few will hang around, but newer players in that arena will build more casual venues where guests will fell comfortable wearing jeans while spending big bucks on their foie gras.

However 2008 comes out, it will be a year of change, excitement and adventure in the world of food.

 

Life is like great mashed potatoes. It should be full and rich and yes even a little lumpy at times.

 

Happy New Year !

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Ghosts of Holidays Past

The holidays get to me like that they do everyone else. I know I need to just give in and accept the holidays as they are today, crass commercialism and all. It sure would be nice to crawl out of bed like Scrooge on Christmas morning and embrace them with the innocence of a child once again. In that "spirit" of holidays, here are two classic mid 19th century recipes that will fill you with all the merriment, and good will towards men you can handle.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THE FOODGUY !!

Wassail Punch

Serves 8-10

6 bottles Good Brown Ale (Ex: Summit Winter Ale or James Page Burly Brown Ale etc.)

12 small Apples

3 whole Cloves

3 whole Allspice

3 broken Cardamom seeds

1- 3" Cinnamon stick, broken

1 Tsp. Ground Ginger

1 Tsp. Ground nutmeg

2 cups Sugar

3 cups Dry Sherry

1 cup Brandy or Cognac

Bake the apples at 350° for 20 minutes, or until tender. Remove from the oven and reserve at room temperature.

Tie the cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and cardamom into a cheesecloth bag, place it with 1 bottle of ale, the ginger and nutmeg, into a saucepan or crock-pot and heat gently for 10 minutes. Remove the bag and discard. Pour in the rest of the ale, the sugar, the sherry and the brandy. Heat for 20 minutes. Pour into a large bowl and float the apples on top. Serve hot.

 

 

Sugarplums

Makes About 4-1/2 dozen

1 cup Raisins

1 cup Pitted Prunes, small

1 cup Pitted Dates

1 cup Currants 

1 cup Candied cherries or dried cherries or dried cranberries

1 cup Shelled Walnuts

1/2 cup Confectioners' sugar

2 Tbsp. Unsweetened Cocoa

1/2 Tsp. Ground Cinnamon

3 Tbsp. Honey

1 Tbsp. Grated Orange Zest

1/2 Tsp. Almond Extract

Granulated Sugar

Using a meat grinder or a food processor, grind the fruit and nuts and mix well. Work the mixture with the cocoa, cinnamon, honey, orange zest, almond extract and as much confectioners' sugar as it takes to form 1-inch balls. Roll these in granulated sugar, then place on a rack to dry for 24 hours. Place in small brightly colored candy cups to serve.

The Sudden Good-Bye

My short lived career in radio is over for now. I enjoyed mornings with John Hines on KTLK. There is something about communicating with folks on the radio that is totally different than T.V. I've done a bit of both now and I've gotta tell you that I definitely prefer radio. I think I enjoy the intimacy of conversation with a caller or the host of the show that can get into some depth. And working with John Hines was easy. He's an affable guy with a wide range of interests and great knowledge of life in the Twin Cities from a personal as well as an historical perspective.

I plan to make it back to radio again...don't know when or where yet...but it will happen. So in the meantime, keep checking in here. When I get back from Chicago (real soon) I'll start up with local reviews and tidbits about the restaurant biz in the Twin Cities.

Thanks for all the great emails and kind words while I was on the air...

Tobie

Forepaugh's Magic

The Forepaugh's mansion is a beautifully preserved Victorian "Painted Lady" built in the hey days of lumber barons, railroad barons and retail barons. Joseph Lybrandt Forepaugh was the latter and built his first St. Paul home on Exchange Street. And like many other old homes from that era, it fell into a long period of ill repair until purchased by the current owners in 1983 and lovingly restored to the turn of the century opulence of the original inhabitants. This was at a time when Victorian was in as a design theme for restaurants. Neighbor W.A. frost just opened their giant oak doors and across the river Winfield Potter's had already been wowing guests with ornate wood and stained glass. Restaurant names like Blue Horse and Chouette were on everyone's top ten lists and the memory of Charlie's Cafe Exceptionale was still fresh in the collective culinary consciousness. Fine dining meant Beef Wellington, Coquille St. Jacques and Roast Duck Al Orange. Mobile phones were the size of small children, T.V.'s were low def and Ronald Reagan was munching jelly beans in the Oval office. I first visited Forepaugh's Restaurant when the restaurant first opened over twenty years ago. I had not been back since and when I walked in the other night I felt like nothing had changed. And that was a good thing. 

Forepaugh's is caught in some sort of double time warp. The environs have been purposely maintained to help us relive another time and place. And the menu, though partially updated to 21st century tastes, still has elements of a time when food was rich, indulgent and had to be Continental in order to be good. Also a good thing. The food is well prepared and the service is impeccable. And that's all I'm going to say about it. This is an experience where the sum is definitely greater than it's parts. Do I recommend it? Absolutely. This is a must for anyone who needs to remember what dining was like twenty years ago or anyone who needs to feel like there is still a connection to our past that you can experience in food as well as environment. This is not a virtual experience, this is real. I felt though as if  I were under dressed by 1980's standards. I was in slacks and a shirt. One guy in our group did wear the requisite for the time, tie and jacket, but not one woman was in a dress. An interesting comment on who we are today I thought. The women looked great though!! (yes I meant it) 

The group I was with by the way was not my usual dining brigade.  I was meeting an old friend from Chicago who was in town to give lecture on magic. His name is Eugene Berger. He is a master at close-up and has taught hundreds of magicians around the world. I have hired Eugene and several of his protege to work in several of the restaurants I've been involved. Close up magic is a great form of entertainment for restaurants. It's quiet, it keep adults and children entertained and its cheap. Magicians work mostly for tips. The trick, so to speak, is to find great story tellers that also have good slight of hand skills. The cheesy, showy magicians who twist up balloon animals turn me off and most restaurant patrons as well. Eugene is a great story teller. He had my usual companions captivated with stories accompanying his magic as well as tales about Penn and Teller, Sigfreid and Roy, Doug Henning and David Copperfield, all magicians he has either worked with or consulted with in his career. 

Finally, it was very appropriate to have dinner in the mansion with a magician...the place is haunted. Here's a story I found about the Forepaugh's mansion. Enjoy it and when you go there for dinner, say hello to Molly.

"Many of the staff believe that it is Molly, a chamber maid who hung herself on the third floor, who has returned to the house. Restaurant owner James Crnkovich recalled an event in which the staff had worn 19th century clothes. A waitress was getting one of the dinning rooms ready for dinner and saw a unknown woman wearing the same type of clothing walking down the hallway, where she promptly disappeared.

Staff have also reported hearing someone walking around in the upstairs room. One day the staff was just opening up the restaurant and heard Molly tramping around the 3rd floor. The staff called the police, who responded with a K-9 unit. The dog refused to go any higher than the 2nd floor, but was eventually coaxed higher. No one was found in the restaurant and the police accused the staff of calling in a false report."