Just in Time for the Holiday: Smoked Duck

Do you have a smoker? I do. It’s not something I would have run out and bought because smoking food has always sounded too elaborate for me. I picture beer drinking, back country men gathered around this contraption for hours poring over the right combination of woods and charcoal to get the meat just right. It’s just too much work. I love cooking in my kitchen and I love grilling but smoking just eluded me.

Then the Food Network came to my house to film an episode about BBQ beef ribs. They left me the grill they bought while here and it is also a smoker. I’m told it was about $150. Not bad. Now I’m a huge advocate of smoking meats and it is incredibly easy. I’m sure there are various devices that smoke meats but mine has a separate chamber for your coal or wood and the smoke flows through the main chamber and then out a chimney. The idea is to allow the smoke to permeate the meat adding great flavor while providing very low heat (175-200 degrees). The meat cooks very slowly over hours. This process breaks down connective tissues leaving the meat unbelievably tender. The process is simply to get a fire going in the outer chamber, put the meat in the smoker, close the lid, tend the fire by adding wood or charcoal over the next few hours, remove the meat then eat. The aforementioned elaborate part comes from the myriad of combinations of woods and techniques to get just the right “smoke”. Since I’m not a competitive griller/smoker I just use charcoal and hickory with the goal of keeping the fire hot and smokey. Again simple.

So what meat should you smoke? The answer is, whatever you like. Since my recent grill acquisition, I’ve done pork, beef and chicken; pretty standard. All of them came out perfect and delicious. A few weeks ago though, I bought a duck. I bought it on a whim not having a clue what I was going to do with it. Every time I opened the freezer, there was that duck. Still unsure of what to do with it, I decided I should defrost it. That would force my hand and make me cook it. A day later I had a defrosted duck but still lacked inspiration. When the light bulb finally went off I went outside to get the smoker fired up. With the coals flaming and while I waited for them to settle, I returned to my kitchen to dress this thing. While many folks have eaten and enjoyed duck, far fewer have prepared it. I’ve only made whole duck a few times myself but it has been years and I most certainly have never smoked or grilled duck before. I was up for the challenge.

I decided to stuff the cavity with a few flavors that I had on hand. After trimming the excess fat from around the cavity (there’s a lot of extra fat on a duck), I stuffed in a few orange wedges, onion, garlic, fresh thyme and rosemary. Then I very generously seasoned the outside with salt and pepper and headed to the smoker. On she went.

Over the next 4 hours I added a generous amount of new coals and water soaked hickory wood. I’d say I went out about once an hour to do this. It’s important to resist the temptation to open the lid too much but I did open it once just to make sure all was well. It’s a man thing. Not sure what I was thinking because it wasn’t going anywhere. It was missing head, feathers and feet (all the things required for escape). Now, four hours later, my duck looked perfectly smoked. To the kitchen with it because I wasn’t done. Since the fat layer on the outside of the duck is so thick, I wanted to be sure it was exquisitely crispy. To accomplish this, I popped her into a 450 degree oven for another 20 minutes. Her golden brown color now intensified, she was done.

Of course this was never going to pass Lisa or Olivia’s lips. Duck is completely out of bounds for them. So that left me and Lisa’s visiting father to enjoy this. Removing the breasts and slicing them, the pink smoke rings, a hallmark of a good smoking, permeated a full third of the way into the meat. The flavor was strikingly bold. Crispy, peppery skin surrounding moist perfectly smoked duck infused with the flavors of the garlic and oranges. I couldn’t have hoped for more. I followed up by enjoying the thigh and leg which also shared these striking qualities.

Ok not everyone has a smoker. I understand that. If you’re not ready to run out and buy one, the next best think would be to simply roast this same preparation at 200 degrees for four hours then remove from the oven. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees, then return the bird for another 20 minutes. Let rest for at least 15 minutes before addressing again. Certainly you will be missing the smokiness, but the duck flavors will stand very nicely on their own.

I have been away from my home for the past 2 weeks now and I can’t wait to fire up my new toy this long holiday weekend. Happy Memorial Day.

I was working -REALLY!

Don't worry about any personal transgressions. My daughter, Brittany, is on my left and her girlfriend, Michelle, is on my right. I know what you were thinking though.


Miami really is another world. It feels like its own country; more of a Latin, Caribbean, and South American fusion rich in culture, tradition and architecture. English is the second language as most strangers will begin a conversation in Spanish. Calling one business, I got the message, “For instructions in English, press 1 now.” Usually it’s the other way around. If the US is the “melting pot”, the spoon that stirs in the hot spice is found here. In particular, South Beach lives up to all of the hype that it gets. Beautiful people, sparkling pools, art deco hotels, ever flowing drinks and, yes, even the white retro Don Johnson blazers are abound. I’ve been here a dozen times in my life and I’m amazed during every visit.

I’ve had a pretty packed schedule the past couple of weeks and even my weekends had been consumed with chores. I was feeling a bit stressed with no free time on my hands. When the call came asking me to head to Miami on no notice, it just totally fit in to the hectic time I was experiencing. What I was unaware of, though, was that for the next 3 days, I would only work till noon. With every afternoon to myself, it was the perfect recipe for decompressing. I stayed at a small hotel on Collins Avenue just a few blocks from Ocean Drive, the proverbial strip. Much like New York, every walk of life is well represented from affluent to modest.

It was hot. Really hot. The kind of hot they make movies about. But the pool water was cool and refreshing so that’s where I spent most of my free time. I’ve walked the streets many times before, just people watching and exploring, but I stayed very close to the hotel this time and I have no regrets about that. The food on South Beach is hip and trendy and often a bit on the expensive side. If you know where to look though (and ask the right people) you’ll find lesser known gems that will knock your socks off. If you wish to dine poolside at The Fountainbleau or at one of their 8 restaurants, that is a respectable choice, but on the first day I chose the Anthony Bourdain approach of finding the local haunt. A bit of research and I found what I was looking for. Puerta Sagua is a South Beach hole-in-the-wall filled with natives and few tourists. There is nothing fancy here and it even looks a bit out of place amid the neon hews and art deco buildings. The menu is full of classic and simply prepared Cuban dishes like Palomilla Steak (a thin pounded spiced skirt steak) with black beans and rice or Roasted Chicken. Everything is infused with citrus and Cilantro. The tables are a bit wobbly and the silverware is direct from your high school cafeteria. Perfect.

My daughter lives and works in Ft. Lauderdale so her and a friend met me for lunch. After finding a coveted parking spot right in front of Puerto Sagua we made our way in to the seat yourself dining room. They were busy on this weekday and service was slow but I didn’t expect anything different. Brit ordered the aforementioned Palomilla Steak while I settled for a Media Noche sandwich. This sandwich (meaning “Midnight” in English) gets its name because it’s traditionally eaten after an evening of dancing in the Cuban community. It’s much like a Cuban sandwich except it’s served on a sweet egg bread and is smaller than its more well known cousin.

Media Noche

On the side, I ordered some Yucca fries. Sweeter and less starchy than a French fry, Yucca is traditionally served with a cilantro, lime, garlic sauce for dipping. It’s on the thin side not resembling the westernized salsas that us gringos are more accustomed to.

This meal feels like a street market in Havana which may sound unappealing to some, but nirvana to me. After the meal, Cubans often finish with a Cuban coffee that is more like an espresso. Way more powerful than a regular coffee and perhaps stronger than espresso, its bitterness is an acquired taste to many. I enjoy it but I struggle to understand how on a hot, sticky south Florida day so many folks drink this very hot drink. It’s served in a small espresso paper cup and I’m guessing it’s just something to sip as warm conversation continues. I imagine the caffeine helps combat the post lunch lethargy as well. After the meal, I enjoyed the rest of the afternoon poolside sipping Mai Thai’s with the girls. Clad in their Bikinis and oversized sunglasses, I know folks were wondering what the old bald guy was doing with these beautiful young women. I really had a nice time and I enjoy Brittany’s company as much as I ever have.

I returned to my hotel after work the following day in the mood for something different. Filling my need for local fare, it was time to check out the internet for some cool places. I immediately ruled out anywhere I couldn’t walk. Like New York, there are great places everywhere so there was no need to drive. I decided on a Sushi place called Sushi Samba and headed out. Not realizing it was Cinco de Mayo, I was unprepared for the large street festivals I passes but I was thoroughly captivated.

Street food. Something we should all get behind.

Since I was alone, there was no street dancing for me, but watching the live music and smelling the smoke rising from the street vendor carts full of chicken, beef and fresh corn only produces a festive mood. I grabbed a $5 Margarita and just people watched for about an hour but then remembered I was kinda hungry.

Walking into Sushi Samba was like walking onto the set of Saturday Night Fever meets Miami Vice meets Rush Hour. The room was full of indirect lighting not a bit of which was white (although there was plenty of ambient light from the large windows). The neon orange glow from the bar in the back with artfully decorated liquor bottles on the shelves was a focal point and the oval shaped sushi bar in the middle of the room was a centerpiece.

Cool bar

I liked this place already. A look at the menu let me know this was no ordinary Sushi restaurant or even Japanese for that matter. I saw things I didn’t immediately recognize aside from the traditional sushi stuff. Things like sushi “taquitos” with an aji dipping sauce (aji is a Peruvian pepper) and organic chicken with aji amarillo, purple potato mash and crispy onion. Is this place really Japanese? Turns out, this restaurant is one of several Sushi Samba’s around the US. It was started based on the experiences of some Japanese migration to Latin America where a fusion of their cultures produces rich Latin dishes with a very Japanese influence. This unlikely combination of flavors is unbelievable and truly special. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have my arms around traditional Argentinean or Peruvian fare, but I can do generic Latin fare pretty well and it is abundant in the dishes. I stayed true to my desire for sushi but with a bit of a twist. Aside from the usual tuna and uni that I order regularly, I departed with tradition and ordered a house roll called the “Green Envy”. There was the rice filled with tuna, salmon and asparagus but then it was crusted in wasabi peas (one of my favorite snacks while I was in Asia) and topped with an aji amarillo-key lime mayo. Every time I think there can’t possibly be another original sushi creation, I am proved wrong.

An amzing plate of sushi

If you are in one of the cities that Sushi Samba occupies (New York, Las Vegas, Chicago, Miami or Telaviv) and you are always on the hunt for a new and spectacular sushi experience, this is a must try. What a great business trip this was.

Teppanyaki Gathering

What a whirlwind of activity since my last post. Several cities, some great food, fun new cooking adventures and moving my dad from his old place into a new, more octogenarian-friendly condo. Since this is a food blog, I’ll spare you the details of the latter but suffice to say that without my kids, that would have been a nightmare. Still, I’ve gathered enough foodie experiences to blog for a while. I find it interesting that I’ve never posted about a restaurant here in Tarpon Springs that we probably go to more than any other. It may be because I never think to take my camera. Well that changed last week.

Our former neighbors are the proverbial “snow birds”. If you’re not from Florida, that is a common reference to the folks who winter here and summer in their northern domiciles. I’ve heard the term used derogatorily but I mean no disrespect. Mary Jane and Charlie are the best neighbors one could ever hope to have. We met 10 years ago when we moved to Tarpon Springs and there’s nothing you wouldn’t love about them. From upstate New York, they consider their home here their primary house and they spend about 5 months in a smaller place up north. There they enjoy a mild summer and spend lots of quality time with the kids and grandkids that they have missed for months. When here, I didn’t swing a hammer at my old house without Charlie showing up with his toolbox (not that I’m much of a hammer swinger) and Mary Jane could be found tending her plants and snipping fresh herbs for me to cook with. Charlie would pick the grapefruit from my tree and bring me all of the fresh juice I could drink in lieu of the fact they couldn’t drink it themselves due to a medication interaction. When they see my daughter, Olivia, they always bring some sort of gift and they are in constant request for new pictures of her. Seriously, they are the best.

As they get ready for their annual trek back up north, we neighbors have had a spring get together for their sendoff. Usually Mary Jane would cook to clear her fridge out for the summer or we gathered at one of the other neighbor’s houses for some cocktails and general communion. This year I thought we should go out to dinner somewhere. In all of the years we’ve been friends, we’ve never been out to dinner together. Our sites were set on Hiro’s Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse. Most people have eaten at a place like this. Its Teppanyaki style Japanese, meaning they cook it on a flat top grill right in front of you and the chef puts on a little show while he’s cooking. I’ve enjoyed this style of Japanese since my mom and dad used to take me to places like this as a kid. What’s more is that it’s a perfect place for a good size group to gather since the seating is circular around the cooking so folks can chat with each other even from across the way. There were about 14 of us so we encompassed 2 tables that were together and 2 chefs prepared our meal.


Tokyo, as we call it, has gone through some transformations over the years and not all of them positive. I remember when it was built, some 20 years ago, and it was a pretty good place to go at first. Unfortunately, in a community bustling with retirees looking for the “blue plate special”, the higher priced seafood and steak restaurant didn’t last. After closing, it sat idle for quite some time then reopened as one of those places that you can go paint your own ceramics. My daughter Brittany, now 20, attended a girlfriend’s birthday party there. She must have been about 7 or 8 then. My failure to remember the ceramic she created is an analogy for the establishment. It didn’t last long at all. Again idle. Then roughly 10 years ago a new owner came in. He did a great remodel and opened as Hiro’s Tokyo. With glistening new cooking tables shipped from Japan (at ten grand a piece) and a sushi bar, they opened to little fanfare. Lisa and I were fledgling in our relationship when we walked in the door during its first week. Our experience was terrific. The food was fresh and delicious. We frequented this place and were known to order their fried rice with extra “Yum-Yum” sauce for takeout. Lisa even fell in love with sea scallops, the big meaty ones (a big deal for a sworn seafood hater). And so began our bi-weekly dining until a few bad things happened. Noticing a drop in food quality and an interior in need of some repair, we took a hiatus. Finally about 4 years ago, we stopped back in and things seemed to turn around. The menu was new, the interior was redone, a new deck was put on and the sushi was high quality. We were back and haven’t looked back.

I don't think I've ever seen my son Josh, 21, in a tie

Their menu is quite large and typical for a Teppanyaki restaurant but they also prepare traditional Japanese in the back kitchen of you like. Their Sushi bar is as respectable as one could hope for outside of a major city and they often have some of my favorite and more rare finds. In the Teppanyaki room, the meal begins with the chef wheeling a cart to the table. He starts with the rice and vegetables. The show always includes a few standards such as the onion volcano and flipping an egg around on his spatula until finally cracking it on the grill for the fried rice.

Pouring oil into the about-to-be-lit onion volcano



Kids love this stuff although the fire that the chef starts can be a bit startling for the youngest guests. Olivia, age 4, is an aficionado of the performance and will not hesitate to call out the chef if he skips a step in his performance.

This night was wonderful. I enjoyed a rare beef filet and scallops cooked just perfectly and the entire group seemed to have a great experience. If you’ve never been to a place like this, I recommend you go. It’s not a quiet romantic dinner place and they will seat you at a table with others if you aren’t in a group. Every time Lisa and I go alone, we meet folks that have never been and are mesmerized by the unique way they prepare the meal. For now, Hiro’s Tokyo is our favorite restaurant in Tarpon Springs and we can be found there a couple of times a month.

Making the Best of a Day Off in Cincinnati

In my years of traveling on business, I rarely get a day off in an American city. Overseas, I would stay 2 or 3 weeks so the weekends were mine, but here in the US, I typically go home. Well this week was a bit different. I had a Tuesday in Cincinnati with no work to do so I just putzed around. Technically I was in Kentucky which is on the south side of the Ohio River but it all runs together. My first thought was, “What the hell is there to do in Cincinnati?” Rachael Ray and Giada De La Rentis have never had this town on of their getaway shows for the food network and I’ve never in my life heard a sentence begin with the words, “Next time you’re in Cincinnati, make sure you go…” Well, since my only other option was to sit in my room and stare at the great view of the interstate, I did a little research and off I went.

Before I tell you about that, I want to tell you how I choose restaurants on the road. Sometimes I’ll find them from magazine articles or recommendations from friends, but often they come from a website called Urbanspoon. It is the best restaurant review site for cities I have found and I look at them often. Like many others, it is driven by those who use it and they rank places very conveniently. You can certainly look up a whole city’s top 10 rated fine dining restaurants but you can also get a more granular search if you’re looking the best burger on the east side. You can search by price, type of food and/or part of town. It is that feature that I have come to rely on because at the end of a long day, I don’t want to drive 25 miles across town for a great steak. If that’s what I’m in the mood for, there is probably one closer.

It was Urbanspoon that lead me to breakfast at The Greenup Café.

A little nook in Newport, Kentucky, it would be quite easy to miss this place. In fact, I drove right past it once and had to turn around to find it. The sign is small. It is billed as French Bohemian breakfast (whatever that is exactly). The menu is small but eclectic featuring slight twists on traditional breakfasts, such as Pancakes with Maple butter and several daily quiche specials. Personally, I chose “The Morning After”.

Now I didn’t have a hangover but the breakfast sounded good. Two sunny side up eggs atop crisp hash browns with Goetta sausage gravy on the side and bacon. Unless you come from the Cincinnati area, you probably have never heard of Goetta sausage. I certainly had not. It is usually a pork sausage (sometimes beef) that is cut with oats to stretch the meat. It was brought to Cincinnati by German immigrants and is quite popular. In my European travels, I had many sausages and meat dishes made in this fashion. If this style is frugal with meat, it is not lacking in flavor. The spicing of this Goetta (pronounced “getta”) was perfect and there was no hint of oats in the flavor. I liked this a lot and I’m going to try to find it somewhere back home.

The rest of my midday was spent at the Newport Aquarium. While Louislovesfood is completely dedicated to culinary adventure, I have to admit, this place impressed me. With the bright and shiny Florida Aquarium in Tampa and my years of scuba diving, I was expecting to be unimpressed. That was a mistaken assumption. Not only do they have all of the requisite fish tanks with every fish you can imagine, there are numerous glass underwater tunnels with beautiful creatures swimming all around you. You really do get the sense that you’re swimming with the sharks.

There are other things besides fish, too. Near the frog display is the kids play area. Kids can only look in fish tanks so long before they need to spend a bit of energy, so they have a place where they can kick off their shoes and crawl through the maze of tunnels and tubes. Around the corner and past the otters is the Lorikeet feeding area. For a buck, you can get a cup of nectar that will make the birds sit on your hand and drink from it. A little “Alfred Hitchcock” to me, but most of these kids have never seen that movie.

The real treat of the day was dinner. Also in Newport is a little Italian place called Pompilios. Never heard of it? Of course you haven’t. But you’ve seen it. It was featured in the movie Rain Man. Now I haven’t seen the movie in years so I don’t recall the details but I recognized the checkered floor and the bar used in the scene. I will have to go back and revisit the movie now. Pompilios is a true neighborhood restaurant featuring from scratch everything. They make their own sausages and pastas and that’s always a winner in my book. I have never been to a restaurant that makes pasta that I didn’t just adore. Still somewhat content from my breakfast many hours earlier, I wasn’t up for a heavy Italian dish. Fortunately for me, the cannelloni portion was modest and just right. Rolled fresh pasta tubes filled with veal, beef and sausage and topped with the best Bolognese sauce I have ever tasted (and I love my version of Bolognese).

The freshness of the pasta is so clean and pure while the meats are tender and perfect. If I had an Italian grandmother, this is how she would have made it. I enjoyed my meal so much, I may go back tonight and that breaks one of my cardinal road rules about trying a new place every night. In chatting with an old friend after dinner, she asked how Pompilios stacked up next to my all time favorite restaurant, Al Forno. It took me a minute to formulate that answer. While both are Italian, that is their only similarity. Al Forno, in Providence Rhode Island, is bit more upscale and certainly more pricy. Pompilios is classic Italian fare in a family setting. Both are classy in their own right.

Now I don’t expect any blog readers to hop a plane to get to the greater Cincinnati area based on these recommendations. I respect that. But this day turned out far better that I could have imagined. If you do find yourself passing though this town on one of the 3 major interstates at either breakfast or dinner time, you would do far worse than to drive 10 minutes off the highway into Newport Kentucky for a meal. I certainly will.

I had a nice day off.

Simple, Elegant, Saturday Shrimp Pasta

It was a really nice Saturday. The sun was shining and there was just the hint of a springtime breeze. One of those breezes that has just a sliver of the cool weather we left behind. These are my favorite days. The plan for was pretty simple. Lisa had a work picnic and one of our daughter’s favorite friends was going to be there. Lexi and our Olivia are fast friends. Unfortunately our morning bike ride must have been too much for my dear 4 year old girl because she passed out on a quick errand at noon and the picnic was off the table. When Olivia naps, it’s for hours (and woe be to he who tries to wake her). I gently removed her from the car and placed her in the bed and curled up next to her. My days of napping next to my sleeping child are as coveted as they are numbered. Needless to say, Olivia was not pleased that she missed her playmate or that she changed the course of our day but I offered her a little boat ride as compensation. She accepted. What really relieved her pain, though, was an evening of play with the neighbor girl, Jordan. As the day ebbed away, I wondered what I was inspired to make in the kitchen. I was at the store for a short time in the afternoon to grab a few things for my dad (at 89, he’s recently given up shopping), so I explored a few idea of my own.

When I think of the spring to summer transition, I often think of seafood. I think of bright flavors that wake up your mouth and make you want to sit at a dockside bar listening to Jimmy Buffet or Van Morrison. Lemon, Parsley, Mint, Fennel and all of those tastes that I adore are so abundant. While I didn’t use everything in this dish, this recipe works on a spring Florida evening while sitting on my patio and I suspect it will in your kitchen just as well. I settled on a simple, elegant and tasty shrimp pasta. There is no fuss to this dish and it takes just minutes to prepare. The rewards are unbelievable. I think that most seafood pasta dishes fly way below the radar of the home cook. I know the first few times I made them many years ago, I sorely overcooked most of the seafood and the shrimp and scallops were like rubber. I was embarrassed and stayed away from seafood pastas for a LONG time. The trick is quite simple but crucial. You have to know when to add the type of seafood at the right time. For instance, most hearty fish like swordfish or Mahi Mahi can poach for a very long time and absorb all the great flavors of a broth but shrimp and scallops repel that same broth. They will get very tough after just a few minutes of over cooking. The way to deal with them is to add at the very end just before serving and allow their individual flavors to contribute to the dish rather that become homogenized.

Cream or no cream, that is the question. Here I chose “no” but I would not have been wrong to add it. I was shooting for more of a buttery broth for bread dipping rather than the rich complexity of cream. If I had used cream I would have probably wanted to add another seafood that could poach in that liquid imparting its flavor (clams or swordfish perhaps). It would not have been wrong to use Parmesan-Reggiano instead of Pecorino-Romano either. I had both but I decided I wanted the extra bite of the latter. It is a spring dish after all. So in the end I had a pasta dish that resembled a shrimp scampi flavor. The starchy fresh pasta held the buttery broth nicely and prevented even the slightest hint of that unappealing greasiness.

If you make this exactly as I did, I’m sure you will be quite pleased with yourself. If you chose to impart your own wisdom on this, you stand to be equally as happy. For goodness sake, do NOT overcook your shrimp or you will fail with the utter disgrace that I did so many times before.

Ahhhh, What a lovely Saturday I had.

Shrimp Pasta

(pssst- I chose a fresh pasta rather than dried. This recipe calls for the same but if you use dried, follow the cooking instructions on the box for an al dente pasta noodle)

9 oz fresh pasta (At my grocery, it’s in the refrigerated section next to the cheeses)
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 shallot
¼ cup white wine
¼ cup pasta water (from cooking the pasta), or a bit more
Juice of 1 lemon
3 tbsp capers
¾ lb jumbo or large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/3 cup Pecorino-Romano cheese
¼ cup chopped Italian flat leaf parsley

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook just a few minutes, maybe 3. Drain and set aside. Reserve ¼ cup pasta water. Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium heat melt the butter in the olive oil. Add the garlic and shallot and heat together for just a minute or two. Do not brown the garlic. Add the wine, pasta water and lemon juice and reduce about five minutes at gentle boil. Add the capers and shrimp. The shrimp will begin to turn pink right away. Turn after a minute. They will be done in two minutes. Turn the heat off and add the pasta to the pan. Then add the cheese and parsley and turn to coat. If the pasta is a bit dry add more pasta water (a few tbsp at a time). It will absorb into the pasta. You want a bit of liquid with this.

Slice a nice crusty bread to mop up any drippings from the plate.

I made this to serve 2 but we could have probably served 3 comfortably so I would double this recipe for a dinner for 6.

Eating Philly

Last week I went to Allentown, Pennsylvania. I found it to be a hearty, blue collar American city. The kind of place most people are proud to be brought up in but long to be elsewhere (funny how that works). Unfortunately, I didn’t really find any great food in Allentown. In fact, a trip to the Starlight Diner did give me some indigestion but the ambiance was a cultural experience, to be sure. A sniff of research, however, told me that Philadelphia, a mere hour away, held a few gems. So after finishing work on Thursday afternoon, I thought checking out the Philadelphia scene was the right call. I settled on an award winning restaurant by celebrated chef Douglas Rodriguez: Alma de Cuba. If you haven’t heard of this guy, he has quietly taken the food community by storm. His bio reads like a food deity; he’s done it all. He’s been creating original cuisine since boyhood, worked in prestigious Miami establishments, attended Johnson and Wales and opened numerous successful restaurants from New York to South Florida. He’s been recognized by The James Beard Foundation and made numerous television appearances. Even knowing this going in, I wondered what he could do with Cuban food to take it to the a higher level. I mean as much as I enjoy Cuban cuisine, most of my experiences involve beans, rice, and a well spiced meat –usually fish, pork or chicken. Cuban food, by nature, is for the people and not haute. I had no idea what I was in for. This was not from su cocina de abuela Cubano (translated –your Cuban grandma’s kitchen).

Their website describes this cuisine not just as Cuban but as influenced by the whole of the Caribbean. ‘Alma de Cuba’ means ‘Soul of Cuba’ but really the soul of the regional is represented. For a ceviche order I was presented with was a dazzling Tuna, salmon and black bass marinated in lime juice with a touch of soy and jalapeno with roasted sweet potato slices. The soy set this dish apart (not Caribbean at all) because it married so well with the island flavors.

Then a smoked Marlin in a malanga taco with pickled jalapeños followed. I mean, just look at this:

Malanga is a Caribbean root vegetable that was sliced and shaped to be a taco shell. It made for a starchy sweet shell that housed a succulently smoked marlin. For my entrée, the bartender (I eat at the bar even at fine restaurants) suggested a pork dish. Now I have a rule about pork. I don’t like to order things in restaurants that I can make at home. Most chicken and pork dishes fall into that category (with exceptions). Plus, I’d had Cuban pork before and I found it a bit bland. Still, since I’d asked for a recommendation, she stuck to her guns and said this was one of the best dishes on the menu and her personal favorite. Well, all right then. With that endorsement, game on!

I ordered the Lechon Asado (roasted pork) and was prepared to be disappointed. While I believed my lovely bartender, Poppy, the previous 2 courses were so amazing that this couldn’t be a hat trick of culinary perfection. Wrong. OK I’m not sure how they did this but I have never had such a crispy, tasty crust on pork while preserving just the right juiciness to the inner meat. I’m thinking there was a torch involved, seriously. The Yucca puree and slightest drizzle of black bean broth really let the pork be the star. It was a far cry from the heaping mound of beans and rice I’m used to. A pickled cabbage slaw stayed quite true to the Caribbean theme.

I loved this place –really loved it. I will not only go as far as to say this is the best take on Caribbean I have ever witnessed, but I squarely put this in the running for top dog restaurant n my book. I have unequivocally placed the Providence Rhode Island, Al Forno, as my personal #1 but this place is right there. A couple of good meals here and it might just overtake and move into that slot.

I also need to quickly mention another stop on this trip. Heading to the airport, I realized I was quite a bit early and near the Italian markets in Philadelphia. As a foodie, I thought it heresy to not visit the birthplace of the Philly Cheesesteak. Pat and Harry Olivieri are credited with inventing the steak sandwich back in 1933 and according to Philly natives, no other city on earth can reproduce the perfection of this sandwich. I’m never a fan of the claim that I can’t make something like the original but nevertheless , they do make one hell of a sandwich and it has certainly endured the test of time. A trip to Pat’s King of Steaks will transport you back to those days just after the depression where I imagine a great sandwich like this was quite a treat. Across the street is a baseball field, many little mom and pop establishments are working to make a living in this old neighborhood.

The Olivieri brothers were both hardworking kids from the neighborhood who opened a little stand at the Italian Market. Their steak sandwich with onions was a hit from the very beginning. So much so that they opened the little stand at the intersection where Wharton, Passyunk and 9th St meet. They were an immediate sensation and are to this day. Cheese didn’t come along until 1940 and Provolone was the original. Cheese Whiz was invented in 1951 and soon found its way to the steak sandwich at Pat’s. It is now the standard but other cheeses are also available if you have the audacity to look the guy in the eye and order it.

On the day I was there, it was 11 AM on a Friday and already folks were lining up. There were as many tourists as there were locals. I imagine they tire of us out of town visitors but they seem to share the outdoor picnic tables all the same. I ordered my sandwich “Steak wit cheese”. While that sounds simple, it is code. ‘Steak’ refers to the sandwich, ‘wit’ means ‘with onions’ and ‘cheese’ means ‘with cheese whiz’. That is the most standard order but there is a sign over the order window in the event you don’t know the lingo.

The sandwich itself was wonderful; fresh and juicy with melty hot cheese. While rich and tasty, I was surprised at how non greasy this was. They use a method with the onions that pulls most of the excess grease away leaving just well cooked shaved beef as the base for this sandwich. They’ve made it the same way for almost 80 years. I feel another notch has been carved into my foodie belt by eating here. Soon I will need a new belt.

Whew, my week was yet to be over as I got pulled out of the airport in Philly for a quick Friday night case in Washington DC but I got home just a few hours before Easter and had a wonderful time with the family. The culinary week was as good as any I’d had in a while but I am glad to be back to baseline. It’s off again this week on another adventure.

Can You Forgive Me? How 'Bout Some Steak

Sorry I’ve been a bit absent. It really is inexcusable but I’ll make excuses anyway (a skill known to my teenagers). I have about 3 articles in various stages of incompleteness and I just can’t seem to finish although I’d like to do that today. What IS noteworthy is a recent article I wrote for the Creative Loafing Tampa blog. Since its grilling season here in Florida, I decided the pure and unadulterated steak needed some attention. So here’s the link to this article. Hopefully that will be sufficient until I can get a proper posting up to my original and favorite parking lot of thoughts and ideas.