Events: HOMEARAMA Cooks for a Cause and Taste of NFL

I'm telling you, Cincinnati is just hopping with food-related events this week-- and most of them benefit charity as well.

First is HOMEARAMA Cooks for a Cause, part of 7 Days for SIDS. Visit HOMEARAMA (which is at Long Cove in Mason-- I drive past there every day and the homes are amazing, if opulent) on Wednesday, June 11 where you can sample creations from several local restaurants, including Andy’s Mediterranean Grill, Chalk Food and Wine, Brown Dog Café, Daveed’s at 934, HUGO Restaurant and Lounge, Jags Steak and Seafood, Jean-Robert at Pigall’s, Mesh, Polo Grille and Red Restaurant. All of the demonstrations occur in the kitchens of the homes between 6-9 PM. The demonstrations are included with your $12 admission (part of which benefits 7 Days for SIDS on Wednesday only), but you can pay an extra $20 for a VIP reception that includes food from Whole Foods from 9-10 PM at the clubhouse.

The next event is on Friday, June 13-- Taste of NFL. This one benefits the Freestore Foodbank and features 30+ chefs/restaurants and current and former Cincinnati Bengals. It's at Paul Brown Stadium from 6:30-9:30 PM, and admission is $100, which includes dinner by-the-bite, a silent auction, a live auction for dinners with players and coaches, and a raffle featuring 20 Nights Out-- 20 $100 gift certificates to various local restaurants. Whew! The list of chefs/restaurants and their featured dishes is breathtaking-- I'm looking forward to trying Cincinnati Cooks! maple chicken and ribs, mesh's braised pork belly and Seny's steak and potatoes. Registration is required. Tickets can be reserved by calling Jennifer at 482-7539 This one's a great night and a fantastic cause. See you there!

Review: Ollie's Trolley

I don't generally get political in this blog, but I have to admit that it is kind of cool that on Saturday afternoon, I had the perfect, post-partied-too-hard meal from a guy who may just have catered for the next President of the United States. After our night out with friends at Mr. Pitiful's, Hotel Plays, Tavern on the Hill, and back to my place for more socializing, the perfect meal had to be a burger. Terry requested Ollie's Trolley, so that's where we went.

Ollie's Trolley is hard to miss-- it's on Central Parkway in the West End, and it's a red trolley surrounded by pictures of local and national African-American leaders: Mayor Mallory, Martin Luther King Jr., Ken Lawson and Judge Leslie Isaiah Gaines. More prominently, on top of the trolley, are two huge photographs of the trolley's owner, Marvin Smith, with both Barack and Michelle Obama. He's been catering Obama fundraisers around town for some time. Besides catering, his food is take-out only, but there are chairs and tables outside if you can grab one.

I had no idea that Ollie's was a chain, did you? I did some Googling in preparation for this post, and found out that Ollie's (and the Ollieburger) is a super small but national chain. I mentioned to Terry that there was one in Washington, DC, and he thought it sounded familiar-- he'd walked by it many times! According to an article I found based in Louisville, in the 70s there were a zillion of them, but they never really took off. There are now some locations in Louisville, the one in Cincinnati, and and a couple in DC. Apparently the ones in Louisville stay close to their burger roots, and the one in DC apparently also serves Lebanese food. The Ollie's here serves soul food along with burgers-- ribs, rib tips, turkey tips, deep fried hams and turkeys, and a bevy of sides.

We decided that burgers were the best bet. We each got an Ollieburger and fries. The fries were crispy and seasoned with paprika, some cayenne and celery seed. The burgers had a similarly-flavored sauce (Roadfood mentions that they're based on the same spice mix), onions, Swiss cheese, lettuce and tomato on a soft, cornmeal-dusted bun. The burgers were good-- juicy and messy-- and really inexpensive. It's hard to find a non-fast-food burger that is under $5, but this fits the bill. With fries for both of us, the bill was $13.

I can't wait to go back and try some of their barbecue (but I think I'll leave the deep fried ham to someone braver than I-- Terry?)!

The Boyfriend’s Excellent Summer Eating Adventure

(Ed. note: We have a guest blogger this summer, the ever-wonderful Boyfriend. )

A few weeks ago, Julie and I were having lunch at Habanero in Clifton when I was reminded of something I’ve believed for a long time: The country’s best cheap eats are often found close to college campuses.

This shouldn’t be surprising. College students love to eat out but don’t usually have much money. They don’t usually go for complex or sophisticated fare, but there will always be a market for feeding good food at bargain prices to college kids.

Though it has been more years since college than I’d like to admit, I well remember counting out change from my coin jar to finance a Saturday-night burger. Late-night pizza, the cost divvied up among five or six people in the dorm, was a staple back then, as I’m sure it continues to be for college kids today.

I attended a marginally accredited, mid-sized state university in a “college town” in the Deep South. And although, even in those days, there were plenty of fast-food chains available, my favorite places were the locally owned mom-and-pop joints. And what’s truly amazing is that most of them are still there. I still visit all of them from time to time, whenever I find myself in that part of the country. One place, I swear, serves the best wings and fried pickles I’ve ever eaten (and after a recent trip there, Julie concurs). Another serves an incredibly flavorful and juicy hamburger with a peppery ketchup-based sauce and the strongest onions I’ve ever eaten. Probably my favorite place had, among other things on an extensive menu, my all-time favorite char-grilled hamburger steak, smothered with a mountain of sautéed onions.

Or am I wrong? Is it possible that my long-ago favorites aren’t really all that great…that my taste buds are colored by nostalgia? It’s no matter, I suppose.

As a high school teacher, I have a fair amount of free time during the summer months, especially this summer. And as someone who feels a need always to be productive, I’ve decided to undertake a major summer-long project: Lunch.

And this is where I need your help.

What are your favorite food memories from college? I’d love to hear them. And, especially if you attended college within an hour’s drive or so from Cincinnati, I’d like to know what your favorite food haunts were. Give me the names of the restaurants, along with your favorite dishes at those places, and I hereby pledge to treat myself to lunch at least twice a week for the next two months, investigating and reviewing your recommendations.

(I didn’t say it was a noble or worthy project, just a major one.)

Please respond soon. I’m hungry.

Sunday Dinner: Damn, it's hot.

You read me correctly there. Damn, it's hot. It's 90+ in June, with 90+ humidity. It is going to be a long summer. Most Cincinnatians aren't used to this kind of heat until at least July. All I want to do is sit on top of the air conditioning vent and drink lemonade. Okay, I really want gin and tonic. Ugh!

We didn't feel like cooking indoors today, so Terry is firing up the charcoal grill and we both made a few things indoors-- all chilled and uncooked.

First, cucumber salad-- one of my favorites. Sometimes I do it with bacon grease (which is how my grandma did it), but I wanted something a little bit healthier. This is inspired by Nigella Lawson's recipe, with a few of my own touches.

Cucumber Salad

3-4 medium cucumbers, sliced quite thinly. I used a v-slicer (since Terry doesn't have a food processor); I often use a food processor or just a knife. Very thin, please! You can leave skin on or not; I chose to leave it on.

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar-- it's my favorite white vinegar; I only use the regular white stuff to clean. White balsamic would work, so would white wine vinegar or champagne citrus vinegar or whatever.

4 tsp white sugar

kosher salt to taste (about 2 tsp)

1/4 cup (or so) fresh dill, chopped finely. I used more-- more towards 1/2 cup.

Toss the very thinly sliced cucumbers into a bowl. Whisk together the vinegar, sugar, and salt and pour over cucumbers. Toss until coated. Sprinkle with fresh dill and toss some more. You can eat this right away, or, for optimum flavor, stick in the fridge for a bit. The salt will draw out a bit of water, but it'll taste better. Trust me.

We also made Roquamole, also from Nigella Express. This is awesome (and the reason I wanted something a little lower fat for the salad) and a little different and very rich. I imagine it could be stomachache inducing if misused. It also has approximately one million calories per bowl, so this is something to serve at a party-- in fact, I intend to serve it at my next one. I used Danish blue instead of the Roquefort, and it turned out just fine, thank you. I also threw in some lemon juice to keep the avocado from oxidizing and that helped brighten the flavor.

A third dish was some simple shrimp with Terry's homemade cocktail sauce. I don't know why anyone buys it in a jar--all it is is ketchup, horseradish, worcestershire, lemon and Tabasco. Mix it together to taste-- we both like it really horseradish-y.

A bit earlier in the day, I braved the sun (and my very hot fire escape) to plant some herbs. It's funny-- I lived in a house with a yard for four years and never really managed to garden. Now I live in an apartment in the middle of a cement jungle and want to grow herbs. Ah, well. I ran over to City Roots and picked up some containers, dirt and herbs. If you know me well, you'll know this is fairly significant, as Julie doesn't like to mess with dirt. Yuck. But I braved the dirt and now have a lovely herb garden planted. I still have some dirt left, so I think I'll swing over there tonight and pick up 2-3 more herb plants. Right now I have lemon thyme, mint, basil, chives, and rosemary as well as two patio tomato plants-- I think I'll grab some dill and some more basil. I love fresh basil.

(Tomatoes)

(Basil and rosemary, apparently making friends)

(Chives, mint and lemon thyme)

I hope to spend a bunch of time using these lovely herbs this summer.

Best (and worst) food at ballparks

Oooh, looks like Terry has half of his work done for him: The New York Times put out a scorecard for major league ballparks (it's accompanied by an interesting article about ballpark food)! I've only been to two ballparks-- GABP and Shea Stadium-- but I'd definitely agree with the writer's opinion on Skyline being one of the best things there. It's pretty good and pretty indicative of something traditionally Cincinnati. And the nachos ARE pretty bad, but I think the hot dogs are worse. I didn't have anything other than a hot dog at Shea Stadium, but darn was it good.

What's your favorite food at an American ballpark?

Recipe Dealbreakers

I read the article in the New York Times on recipes and what turns people off from making them. I read a few comments, posted my own, and got to thinking: Is there anything I won't try? I haven't had luck cooking tofu-- I can never get it to taste like anything other than paste-- but is that to say I wouldn't try a recipe if someone sent it to me and said "here, this is the mother of all tofu recipes"? Marla swears that she has some good tofu recipes, and I'll try them. Not really a "dealbreaker".

A lot of people said that their "dealbreaker" is odd ingredients-- you know, the spice you need a teaspoon of but rarely use again. Terry often says, "Man, I'd love to make that, but I don't have X," and usually I have it-- I love buying sauces and spices.

Another comment that came up on the Ruhlman blog is cook vs. some other designation-- that you have to be willing to do everything to be a cook, otherwise you're just faking it. This reminds me of the Foodie discussion we had here a couple of months ago.

So are you a cook? What makes a cook? Is there anything you refuse to touch in a recipe?

Cincy Chic: Ameri-French

Don't forget to stop by Cincy Chic's Chic Chef series-- this week is Ameri-French! I won't be able to attend tonight, but I can't wait until next week!

Review: The Summit Room at Midwest Culinary Institute

I was lucky enough to be invited by MCI's director, Joe Moss, to The Summit Room's preview evening on May 22. In an earlier post I gave you a bit of the background, so let's skip the niceties and get on to the food.

We were greeted with glasses of champagne and the first dish of the evening-- a spicy tuna tartare on top of buckwheat noodles. Awesome! What was great about it is they kept the beauty of the dish-- elaborate plating, beautiful presentation-- despite the fact that we were eating one-bite versions of each dish, and they were served on plastic plates. I was very impressed by this. The flavor of the tuna was nicely complimented by the spiciness of the dressing, which came from kochujung, a Korean garlic and pepper paste.

On the ice sculpture, they served some antipasto-- cheeses, meats, and a tapenade made of eggplant, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, and the biggest capers I've ever seen.

We then moved on to the entrees-- we didn't discover the second courses until after we had entrees, so our experience was slightly out of order.

Duck breast with barley, wild mushrooms, red wine and orange was my first and was most impressive. The duck breast held up well in the hotel pans, and the barley and mushrooms were a nice, rich compliment lightened up by the citrus and red wine.

The risotto cake held up fairly well, too-- though I think I would prefer this as an appetizer than an entree. It is, however, a lovely vegetarian choice.

The next dish, the pork, was my absolute favorite. It involved roasted pork with chipotle and tomatillo sauce, pickled jicama, fried plantain and house-made chipotle ice cream. You get hot and sweet and creamy and cold and sour all in one bite. The chipotle ice cream was surprising-- creamy and sweet, then as it hit the back of your throat warm and spicy. Just awesome. I hope to go back just to get this dish.

As warm and rich as the pork was, the Arctic char was creamy and light-tasting. It was served with some jicama as well as mashed chickpeas, saffron cream and some fennel. Delicious.

We then discovered the second courses, which were tucked away and a little hidden. They were great and inventive-- I could make a meal out of the arugula and gnocchi, with goat cheese and favas. I don't like favas, generally, but I liked them cold and just barely cooked.



The other salad was a composed salad of asparagus, bread, raisin puree, pine nut puree, and parmesan. Beautifully presented, and quite delicious. I loved the sweet and rich raisin puree!

And now for the desserts. Oh, the desserts. We tried all three, of course. This is why I need to actually *go* to the gym:

The rich, dark brownie with banana, passion fruit puree, and malted ice cream on the side was my favorite. I never thought that banana and passion fruit would go together, but boy, did it.

We also had rhubarb tarts with fromage blanc, port, and mint. The rhubarb was cooked in port, and the tart filled with the fromage blanc and topped with the rhubarb. A great use for this seasonal vegetable (which I need to cook with, and soon).

The other item in that picture is lemon custard, topped with pistachio, honey and lavender on top of a crisp cookie. This reminded me of tart lemon curd, with a nice contrast of salty pistachio and sweet honey. Wonderful.

The Summit Room is an absolute gem. The prices are great-- $7-29-- and the flavors are pretty adventurous for Cincinnati. When Joe and I chatted after dinner, he told me about the lamb-- not featured at this tasting, but it involves encapsulated mango puree. Molecular gastronomy in Cincinnati-- who knew? If you want cutting edge food at a good price that helps future chefs shine, you need to try out The Summit Room.

Cincinnati E.A.T.S

Food, friends, charity-- three things that go together (or should), and is, in a nutshell, what Cincinnati E.A.T.S. (Epicurians About Town Society) is all about. It's an eating group recently formed by some YP-types (though most certainly not only for YPs!) who want to take over restaurants on their slow days to meet new friends, eat great food, and support good causes. Their first outing is on June 10 at Lavomatic. For $36, you get a 3-course meal (including, I hear, the rhubarb-pistachio pavlova, which is fantastic) , and a portion of the proceeds go to 7 Days for SIDS (started by the de Cavels after their daughter died from SIDS several years ago).

Want to join me? Check out Cincinnati E.A.T.S' website and RSVP by June 8th.

Mini Reviews: Terry's Turf Club, Taste From Belgium

Such a busy weekend! Besides a cookout, my grandmother's 80th birthday party, Summerfair and Fringe Festival, I've had virtually no time to eat! I do have a big Summit Room review coming out in the next day or so, but for now, these will have to tide you over:

Taste from Belgium: I ran into Jean-Francois at Fringe on Saturday (I hope you got to eventually see Anna!) and have great news: crepes are at Findlay Market! Currently, you can get them in caramel fleur de sel and lemon with lavender sugar. I tasted them both at Taste of Cincinnati, but I have to tell you: they're much better at the Market. I think that most food suffers some loss of quality when produced for a festival. These were softer and less crisp, and incredibly delicious. I also hear, straight from Jean-Francois, that we should look for savory crepes-- filled with cheeses and meats-- to come to the Market sometime very soon. Yum!

And for your viewing pleasure:

After Summerfair, Terry and I were both over-sunned, a little tired and a lot hungry, so we ran to Terry's Turf Club for some lunch. We hadn't been there since our first review which was back in January! I am pleased to report that it might even be better. The fries were crisper, and the burger-- yum. I got peanut sauce and goat cheese on mine, which was creamy and spicy and incredibly messy. I was debating which sauce to get, so Terry (restaurant owner, not boyfriend) sent out a plate with a bunch of sauces to try. The mango-jalapeno was really good, too.

And, because the Balboa's debate got me hungry, I went to Penn Station for dinner last Wednesday. So it's not authentic! I don't care, it hit the spot: