Kamado Grills

Japan is known for giving us unique grills. There was the hibachi which now is a picnic staple.Then there's the Kamado grill, a unique creation that can not only barbecue meat but also bake desserts . Thanks to this versatility this strange looking cooker is fast becoming an foodie trend.

New York Times Dining regular contributor, John T. Edge wrote about the Kamado in yesterday's Dining section. It seems more and more outdoor cooks are discovering the grill's charms and many assets. The eggs , as they're fondly called, are more compact than emammoth grills such as Weber. they are small egg shaped (hence the nickname) , green and dimpled, looking sort of like a giant avocado.They require less heat and therefore less coals to function. They also light faster and leave meats moist and succulent - in other words the perfect barbecue. Kamodos have only been in this country for about thirty years., due in part toEd fisher who first exported pachinko games to the United States.

Kamado grills are getting a big following thanks to their versatility. Not only can you grill typical barbecue meats on them, but you can also bake. Some serious egg lovers have baked Bundt cakes and cobblers on theirs. It's also good for baking pizza dough ,giving the crust a crispy firecrackled look. Kamado grills can also cold smoke fish such as salmon thanks to the wide disparity of temperatures.It can reach up to 1200 degrees Farenheit and goes down as low as 100 degrees.

Kamado grills are fast becoming an outdoor favorite. They are more versatile than the regular grill that just barbecue. More and more backyards will sport this odd shaped egg than traditional grills in future summers.

Champagne The Peasant Variety

Champagne is usually reserved for special occasions along with being the drink of the elite classes. However there is a slight but subtle change happening in this often times narrowed field. .More emphasis is placed on where the grapes are grown now as opposed to luxury vintner methods. The result is a more varied drink coming from small artisan wineries.

This is the subject of today's New York Times Pour column in their Wednesday Dining section. The article, written by Pour columnist , Eric Asimov, tells of a new trend hitting French vintners.It seems that where the grapes originate are much more important than who turns them into a vintage. This means the Aube section, long a supplier, is now in the spotlight.This area is directly south of Reims, the champagne capital of France where there was always a snobbery for this section, even granting it only second class status.

The champagnes from Aube are earthy and multilayered both in taste and body. Since the grapes are excellent in making pinot noirs, the champagnes have the same smoky taste as the wines. Some such as a Recolte Blanc has both floral and mineral notes, giving the drink a lighter than light flavor. Why do so many Aube based champagnes have many layers? Probably the soil has something to do with it. There have been tiny fossilized shells which result in chalky deposits. Chablis has the same sort of earth and has always given the world the best wines full bodied with many notes.

A new breed of champagne is bubbling up.It doesn't rely on the house that creates it. It's the earth - the terroir that now is taking credit and it is producing some amazing bottles of bubbly
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Mediterranean Dining

Summer is here and it's hot - too hot for cooking. What to do? Look to the Mediterranean for inspiration. Despite the soaring temps , cooks from this region create some of the world's best dishes. You can too without all the fuss and bother of a hot stove.

Salads are big in the Mediterranean diets Italians, Spaniards, French and Greeks are known for their delicious mix of greens and dressing. Think about adding provolone along with salami and capacola to mixed field greens. For a Gallic twist replace the cheese and meats with black and green olives and tuna . Both types can be served with crunchy sliced baguettes. A good Greek salad is also a hearty way to have supper. Add already made stuffed grape leaves, along with creamy chunks of feta and salty anchovies to arugula and bitter greens. Spain is a big seafood country and its' salads reflect that. Add some salted cod or shrimp along with avocado and herbs to create a tasty, good for you one. Morocco has an easy carrot salad that just has carrots along with lemon juice, spicy paprika and garlic.

Grilled meats are also popular thanks to the North African influence on Mediterranean cuisine. You could easily grill beef, and lamb kabobs along with cut peppers and onions. Serve with minty yogurt sauce for a true Moroccan treat. Couscous is a great side to this and it's ridiculously easy to make. You can add some chopped parsley, olive oil or even lemon juice for some variety. Orzo , another staple, can be made hot or cold as a salad with artichoke hearts and cucumbers.

Don't fret if the weather interferes with your cooking. Look to the Mediterranean region for delicious easy dishes to for your summer time dining. They're simple to create and can be made no matter how hot it gets.

Boardwalk Treats

Any New Jersey kid will tell you boardwalk food rules. Not matter where you go on the Garden State Coast Thea's some kind of seaside amusement area that has a large variety of fun foods ,. You can get sausage an dpeppers, fried Oreos and boardwalk staples cotton candy and candy apples. It a fun way to end a day at the beach.

I recently reconnected with boardwalk food at Keansburg Amusement Park. Technically the place isn't really a boardwalk and it's not on our state's oceanside.It's on the Raritan Bay with amazing views of Manhattan Brooklyn and Staten Island. However the park has the some kind of fun, (and somewhat seedy) allure of any of our other boardwalk like Seaside Heights or Wildwood. The food is relatively the same. A lot of Italians have had business since the boardwalk's early days in Altantic City so there's always pizza and calzones. Seafood also always predominates and almost every Jersey boardwalk has a raw bar where diners can also chow down on fresh fried fish and chips as well as crab legs, and raw oysters. These and other fast food places sell beer too, a boardwalk staple.

Sweets play an important part in boardwalk cuisine, Zeppoli, those yummy fried Sicilian dough balls, had their own stand at Keansburg. I was tempted to buy a bag of the fresh made, freshly sugared treats however got waylaid by those classics: candy apples and cotton candy. No trip to any boardwalk would be complete without them. I had a Granny Smith that was perfectly enrobed in a crunchy candy coating and topped with fresh coconut. The cotton candy was typical sweet and sticky,but fun to inhale. Other treats were ice cream along with waffles Italian ices (both are staples) and fried anything. Most boardwalks also have a homemade candy booth where there's everything from homemade fudge to saltwater taffy,along with molasses pops and haystacks .

Boardwalk food is a summer treat that has to be experienced. Anything from pizza to fries , to ice cream or fudge is spend to a fun day at the beach. If you're in Jersey visit our boardwalks for some culinary treats.

Hello Ruby Tuesday

If you think all chain restaurants are built alike, think again. Ruby Tuesdays has reinvented itself into a classy eatery, with a new upscale look and interesting haute Americain dishes. Best of all it's still maintained its' warmth and top notch cooking making it a must go to restuarant for a summer gathering or just a night out.

Ruby Tuesdays came about in 1972 when five University of Tennessee students wanted to create a business after graduation in Knoxville TN. It wa s named after the popular Rolling Stones song and quickly became a hit with students.It has since changed owners twice . It made my local mall twenty years ago and instantly became a local go to place. It had the best chicken Caesar salad along with excellent steaks. Rubys' salad bar was and still is chocked with unusual foods that wouldn't be found in a normal run of the mill one. Soy beans and pumpernickel croutons are side by side with the regular spinach leaves, broccoli and ham cubes.

Their new menu is reflective of haute American cuisine of today. I ordered the zucchini cake sliders which are deep friend zucchini fritters stuffed with goat cheese, There was also spaghetti squash, served both as a pasta and as a buttery side. This type of squash is rarely served in American box restaurants, Usually the more creative ones in our big cities such as New York, Chicago or even Washington have spaghetti squash on their menus. You can also get it when ordering th e all veggie platter .Ruby's also has gone Mexican by adding chicken quesadillas too. These are made more like paninis and have a wonderful crunch to them. A new dessert are red velvet and carrot cupcakes along with their classic after dinner treats and sweets.\

If you haven't been to Ruby Tuesdays in a while, drop by for lunch dinner or even a Sunday brunch. The changes are amazing both to the decor and the menu. It may be a stop in your local mall, but it the restaurant feels like classy metro hangout.

A Revolutionary Garden

This is the season for fresh veggies and herbs from the garden .It's time to harvest the small age and burnet. These may. Sound strange -even foreign to you however they were a big part of the Colonial diet.Before there were modern greens there were their wild cousins. Even though they were staples back in the 1600s and 1700s, they still can be used in today 's recipes.

This was the subject of a very interesting article in the Thursday Home section of the NewYork Times. Michael Totorello wrote this thought provoking article that deals with plants from the past four centuries. A lot was written about small age ,a precursor of celery.This was used as aside to meats.It still can be used today in salads and even soups. Burnet , a popular and well used herb ofPuritans was used for doctoring wine. it's light cucumber like taste could easily be added to any 21st Century summer dish. There is also skirret which instantly takeover the garden,Unfortunately it takes a lot plants to get enough pulp for dish.

Cooking these greens does take some patience.Purslane, another 18th Century "sallet green, has to be blanched first before cooking.Scozonera, another celery like plant has to be over baked to soften its woody core which can be super tough to eat. the tastes may be a little intense for modern palates however they can be softened with sautes in olive oil or butter. Scallions and garlic can also be added too or even spinach which was a very popular dish in the 1700's.

Travel to the culinary past this summer. Add colonial favorites like small age, purslane and burnet to your cooking.It's a neat way of connecting with our culinary past.

Flash Feasting Paris' Annual Dinner In White

Imagine a warm, summer's night. Thousands dress up in white to convene at a place for bacchanalian dining and drinking. There is music and dancing afterwards. Is it a new cult? A coven meeting to celebrate midsummer, No, it's thousands of elegant Parisians to have a flash feast in front of the Louvre Museum and Notre Dame Cathedral.

This version of a flash mob was written about in yesterday's New York Times Dining section by newcomer Liesl Schillinger. She tells of how a group of very well behaved city people came together at exactly eight o clock last year and had the grandest picnic of them all. It's an annual event, since 1988, called "Diner en Blanche" or "Dinner In White". Men wear pristine white suits while women float in dresses of the same snowy color.. They carried picnic baskets filled with foie gras, poached salmon and different cheeses.Champagne along with wine and water were drunk. Each table provides its' own meal along with linens and silverware. There was also dessert and hors d'ouevres too. Just as soon as the meal is finished, everything is cleared away and cleaned up. so that there;s dancing in t he squares.

Not everyone can just join in. There are private invitations. otherwise it would be the largest food fest ever (and quite messy in the end) . The actual venue is kept a secret until a few days before to avoid gatecrashers. However both New York and Montreal and planning on these flash feasts and of course - the invites are going out via Facebook and Twitter. Don't think that these dinners will have a few hundred gate crashers. There is also a penalty for those who behave raucously or don't clean up. They get barred from next year's Diner en Blanche.

it should be interesting to see how New York and Montreal's flash feasts do. Will both be as casually elegant as their French counterpart? Even more interesting how will the food be?