Dear Friends Our current exhibit, Restaurant/Restorative, sponsored by Viking Range Corp., which is on display at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, in New Orleans until September 24, continues with a discount for all members of the culinary service industry. Culinary service industry personnel will receive a $2 discount off regular admission. The discount applies to everyone who works with food and drink, including fishermen and farmers. That discount will remain in effect until the end of the run of the exhibit.
As people finish summer vacation and begin to think about returning to school, we would like to share favorite brown bag lunches. Please tell us what you loved (or hated) to eat at school. This could be pimento cheese sandwiches or crackers and bologna. We aren’t the food police, so we don’t care if it’s healthy.
It’s not too late to order your copy of Red Beans and Ricely Yours by Christopher Blake. You can purchase a copy online.
| Review of Beach Pit BBQ Restaurant |  |  Review by Christopher Blake
Tim DeCinces was a professional baseball player, who, on his swing through the South, found another interest. In between home runs, Tim was not wasting his gourmet palate on stadium hot dogs. Instead, he explored the inroads and byroads to seek out the magic of southern cooking wherever the team played.
Like so many others once he had the taste of southern cooking in his mouth, his mouth watered and hankered after those thrills once he was away from those little southern restaurant gems.
When this happened to Tim, he did something about it. Once he got back on home territory here in Orange County, he and some partners decided to do something about sharing the wealth of his experiences and to bring true southern pit BBQ to Costa Mesa, once of the beach cities in Orange County.
THE BEACH PIT BBQ on 17th and Tustin in Costa Mesa, California is a new eating out experience for all who crave the real thing.
Where tacos, burritos. and Chinese food have held the restaurant limelight for a long time, the Beach Pit BBQ has brought competition with the sweet smell of true, wood burning southern BBQ. They have learned about using the right woods in this slow cooking method and the sauces are definitely not commercial nor poured on. The BBQ sauce, for whichever meat is ordered, definitely becomes a part of meat.
It is a small place with two patios, and the waiters have been taught true southern service and hospitality.
In addition to the pork, there is chicken, ribs and brisket. Each served on a good sized soft French roll. They also serve a plate, and you can order a combination of any of the meats. Every entree is served with a choice of potato salad, cole slaw and beautifully cooked baked beans. You have a choice of mild or spicy.
They do not cheat on the iced tea, which is strong and full bodied, so that even as the ice melts, you still have tea and not just flavored water. The servings are generous, but if you have room, there is still home-made corn bread. There are no big dessert selections, but a good banana pudding, as well as an ice cream sandwich.
About the only thing missing are Handi wipes. There is no way out. You eat in a messy manner, will use your fingers and so handi wipes are much better than rolls of paper towels.
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| Recipe: Bacon-wrapped Chicken Breast with Cherry and Gin Sauce | |  For the last 10 years Two Chefs has been delighting diners of Miami with its simple yet robust and upscale fare. Two Chefs produces classic American cuisine inspired by Chef Jan Jorgensen’s Danish and European roots. The décor is upscale bistro style featuring classic cookware adorning the walls. Two Chefs is a landmark establishment in South Florida that engages as well as educates its guests. The second story of Two Chefs houses a classroom with a fully operational kitchen that Jorgensen uses to teach cooking classes and host private parties.
Two Chefs is located at 8237 South Dixie Highway/US1 in South Miami, Florida. Lunch is served Monday through Friday from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm. Dinner is served Monday through Thursday from 6 to 10 pm. On Friday and Saturday, dinner is served from 6 to 10:30 pm and on Sunday from 5 to 9 pm. An American Supper prix- fixe menu is available for $24.95 per person each night from 6 to 7 p.m. Reservations can be made by calling (305) 663-2100. Ample free parking is available.
This bacon-wrapped chicken breast features a cherry and gin sauce inspired by the Chef’s extensive collection of spirits. What began as a love of fine single malt scotch grew into an extensive spirits collection with close to a 1,000 bottles of vodka, gin, rum, tequila and whiskey.
Bacon-wrapped Chicken Breast with Cherry & Gin Sauce
Serves 4
Ingredients:
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 8 strips of smoked bacon (applewood smoked preferred)
• Salt & pepper to taste
For the Sauce:
• 1 cup of fresh cherries, pitted
• 2 oz. good quality gin
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 2 oz. unsweetened butter
• 4 oz. veal stock
• 1 tsp. thyme
• Salt & Pepper to taste
Preparation:
Season chicken breast with salt and pepper. On a cutting board, place 2 strips of bacon down and lay a chicken breast on top. Roll bacon around it, repeat with the remaining chicken breasts. Cook chicken on medium heat and flip on all sides to evenly render the bacon for 5 minutes until done. Set aside while you make sauce.
Preparation for Sauce:
In a sauce pot, melt sugar and cook cherries for 1 minute. Deglaze pan with gin and heat until reduced by half. Be careful when adding gin to do it away from any flame or heat source. Add veal stock and thyme and reduce in medium heat by half. Finish sauce by adding butter and heat through until sauce has a nice sheen and richness. Serve over chicken breast. This dish goes great with a side of herb- roasted potatoes.
~ Compiled by Addie C. King |
| Review of Soul Kitchen | | Soul Kitchen
by Poppy Z. Brite
Poppy Z. Brite has once again reminded me that everybody eats. In the latest installment of the New Orleans series revolving around the restaurant Liquor, Brite manages to capture the flavor of New Orleans – its culture and its food. She effortlessly allows Rickey and G-man to interact with interesting characters. But I realized that there will be no end of characters since everyone and anyone could eat at the restaurant.
This book is the third in the series. And the now familiar characters have maturing relationships and are expanding their horizons in the manner of real people. To her credit Brite continues to create stories that are logically centered on the restaurant. But she rather boldly ties up a thread that had been left unrevealed and unraveled in the first novel, Liquor. She reveals the history of the restaurant building the way New Orleaneans reveal the history of their houses.
But the most important element of this and the other novels for culinary readers is the commentary on the attitudes of New Orleans natives toward their food. This means - for this food-obsessed culture – how to prepare food at home, what to expect from food at a new restaurant, what to expect from food at an old restaurant, who can prepare the food, how the food should be served, whether it can even have been frozen, and hundreds (if not thousands) of hair- splitting variations of these themes. I love these novels because I know people like this. Brite’s novels capture the city like no historical analysis, like no sociologist can.
Read Soul Kitchen..
~ Review by Liz Williams
Buy Soul Kitchen |
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