Daily Loaf

Friday, May 29: Cork and Olive Carrollwood
Toffee and Wine. While it may seem like an odd couple, the eight wines and white, milk and dark toffee presented at this tasting reveal the delights of the delectable duo. Complimentary tasting with purchase. 6-9 p.m., 10019 N. Dale Mabry Hwy., Tampa (813-868-3733)

Friday, May 29: Vintage Wine Cellars
Wide World of Cabernets. Tonight’s lineup highlights 10 rich, intense cabs from five continents and highlights their similarities and differences. Reservations are required. $25. 7-9 p.m. 3629 Henderson Blvd., Tampa (813-879-2931)

Saturday, May 30: Vino 100
Sippin’ Saturday. A weekly wine tasting that features a broad selection of international wines. Free. 1-7 p.m., 5056 Fourth Street N., St. Pete (727-522-8466)

Tuesday, June 2: Publix Apron’s Cooking School
How to be Fruity. Learn to incorporate fruit into your everyday diet — enjoy what you eat while getting the healthy nourishment that you need. $40. 6:30 p.m., 7835 Gunn Highway, Tampa (813-926-4465)

Thursday, June 4: Carrollwood Cultural Center
Wine guide Charles Visalli will cover the ins and outs of wine in this six week series of classes. This week — food, cheese and wine pairings. $25. 6-7:30 p.m., 4537 Lowell Road, Tampa (813-664-1430)

Sunday, June 14: B-21 Fine Wine & Spirits
B-21’s Tour of Italy tasting and sale will feature Italian wines such as Barolo, Chianti Classico and Supertuscans. $25 before Jun. 12, $30 at the door. 2-5 p.m., 43380 US Hwy 19 N., Tarpon Springs (727-937-5049)

Tuesday, June 16 and Wednesday, June 17: Armani’s
Sharpen your cooking skills in this two-day culinary course with chef, author and TV personality Nick Stellino, who is joined by Cristina Mariani-May of Castello Banfi, Tuscany’s premier wine estate, along with Michael VonBurg, Armani’s Chef de Cuisine. This extravagant event focuses on Italian food and wine, and includes a cooking class with Chef Stellino and a VIP dinner reception featuring menu items specially created by chefs Stellino and VonBurg, all perfectly paired with select wines from the Castello Banfi estate. $50 cooking classes, noon-3 p.m.; $65 VIP reception and dinner 6-10 p.m., 2900 Bayport Dr., Tampa (813-874-1234)

Thursday, June 18: Carrollwood Cultural Center
Wine guide Charles Visalli will cover the ins and outs of wine in this six week series of classes. This week — Aromas and Bouquets of Grape Varietals. $25. 6-7:30 p.m., 4537 Lowell Road, Tampa (813-664-1430)

Thursday, July 2: Carrollwood Cultural Center
Wine guide Charles Visalli will cover the ins and outs of wine in this six week series of classes. This week — Tasting Wines from Around the World. $25. 6-7:30 p.m., 4537 Lowell Road, Tampa (813-664-1430)

Thursday, July 16: Carrollwood Cultural Center
Wine guide Charles Visalli will cover the ins and outs of wine in this six week series of classes. This week — Dessert Wines and Sweet Treats. $25. 6-7:30 p.m., 4537 Lowell Road, Tampa (813-664-1430)

Saturday, Aug. 8: Vino, Java and Jazz
This event at the Florida Aquarium will feature wine samplings, special dishes, desserts, coffee and jazz music. Proceeds from a silent auction will go toward the Tampa Bay Region of the Easter Seals Florida organization. $65 in advance, $80 at the door. 7-11 p.m., 701 Channelside Dr., Tampa (813-769-5915)

Sunday, Aug. 16: B-21 Fine Wine & Spirits
Celebrate selections of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay at the Best of Burgundy and Beyond tasting and Sale. $25 before Aug. 14, $30 at the door. 2-5 p.m., 43380 US Hwy 19 N., Tarpon Springs (727-937-5049)

Just in case you missed anything, here’s a week of CL’s food blogging in easy, clickable blurbs:

Upcoming Bay area beer events
“Be Remarkable”- video of Greg Koch’s inspirational speech from 2009 Craft Brewer’s Convention
Grazing: Lunching at Cafe Hey
Nosh Pit Episode 15: Wat Tampa, Memorial Day wine, Edmeades winemaker Van Williamson
Organic farming can be more productive than conventional
Win beer fame from Schmaltz Brewing for your Bar/Bat Mitzvah pics
PF Chang’s giving away free lettuce wraps
Brews and bites : the beer and snack pairing marathon
Tampa Bay food, wine and beer events
The raw and living food diet: What is it?
Big error in the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day
Diet dilemmas: staying on track while you travel
$100 Case of Wine: Best wine deals at Mazzaro’s Italian Market in St. Petersburg
Classic Chili Recipe
Can hemp help create a green economy?
Bottle Shock movie released on DVD
Instead of beef and potato, try this lamb burger and eggplant fries

Brian was on vacation last week, and returns with tips for eating cheap with kids at Disney World. Plus, we talk Wat Mongkolratanaram and Memorial Day wines, and invite Van “The Vanimal” Williamson — winemaker at Edmeades Winery — into the studio to taste some Zin and talk about hunting boar in the vineyards.

Listen up!

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Wednesday, May 20: The Grape
Throughout the month of May, The Grape pairs interesting Italian wines not featured on the regular menu with a special chef’s tasting menu. It includes delectable selections like grilled shrimp crostini, Portobello carpaccio, paillard of chicken breast puttanesca and an artisanal Italian cheese plate. $35. 2223 N. Westshore Blvd., Tampa (813-354-9463)

Wednesday, May 20: World of Wines South Tampa
Wine-Down Wednesday. A wine tasting featuring several bottles from California, Chile and Australia along with snacks from Robert’s Catering. Free. 6- 8 p.m., 3431 South West Shore Blvd., Tampa (813-835-9463).

Thursday, May 21: Vino 100
This ladies night out features a wine tasting, appetizers from Let’s Eat and massage chairs to melt away workday worries. Free. 5-8 p.m., 5056 Fourth Street N., St. Pete (727-522-8466)

Thursday, May 21: WineMall
Sample fine wines paired with appetizers by Roy’s at this charity event that raises funds for leukemia and lymphoma research. The evening also features a raffle and a silent auction. Please RSVP to Courtney Simons at csimons@sptimesforum.com. $25. 6-8 p.m., 11246 W. Hillsborough Ave., Tampa (813-855-7711)

Many more upcoming events after the break: Read the rest of this entry »

The Raw/Living Food Diet is not some new-fangled crash diet trend. It’s been on the organic food scene for awhile and seems to be growing in popularity. So what exactly is it, you ask? It doesn’t just mean eating raw veggies all day, there are some stipulations.

First of all, yes, the food is raw. The practice is very close to veganism, except that everything is uncooked or barely cooked: food cannot be heated above a certain temperature, generally between 92-118 F, or 33-48 C., thus keeping its “raw” state. Raw foodists believe this also keeps all those nutrients and enzymes in the food, enzymes that our bodies need to aid in digestion and metabolic processes. According to this article from Life Extenstion Magazine, “Cooking of food, particularly if heat is prolonged and over 118 degrees Fahrenheit, destroys enzymes in that food, leaving what is commonly consumed by the modern person – an “enzymeless” diet.” “Eating food without enzymes makes digestion more difficult, deprives the body of enzymes, and leads to toxicity in the body, and to excess consumption of food, which leads to obesity and to chronic disease.” (Green Living Ideas) Raw foodists believe that those extra nutrients and enzymes will also naturally detoxify your body, leaving you with clearer skin, lots of energy, and can even help you lose weight. Read the rest of this entry »

I finally broke down and bought the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

It is wonderful and I highly recommend it. No more buying packaged bread for me. And my house smells like a bakery. However, it is a bit dangerous because bread makes my butt big and the fact that I slather it with butter doesn’t really help. I suppose I could have a worse habit, like crystal meth or something. Crystal meth, butter, crystal meth, butter — yep, I’ll take my butter!

I have made two types of bread so far, the 100 percent Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread and the Oat Flour Bread. Both were extremely delicious and healthy. However, I did notice the bread really didn’t rise well. I followed the very well-written directions, but the dough didn’t act right. So today I went to their website. There is a section listed “Errors”

One of the errors in the book is that all the recipes as written call for 1 1/2 packets of yeast, when it should be TWO packets of yeast! Huge boo-boo on their part.

If you have the book I suggest you check out the error section of their website.

But even with the problems, I still love the book and will continue to make my own bread.

Enjoy,
The Hungry Housewife

Is hemp our future economic stimulus? A recent article on Alternet.org written by Dara Colwell suggests so. Industrial hemp has 25,000 known applications. From paper (our Declaration of Independence and Constitution were written on hemp paper ), to clothing (your hemp pants will last forever ), to food products (according to this article, the Wall Street Journal stated that hemp is the fastest growing new food category in North America). Add in construction and automotive materials and you have a very sustainable green economy start-up.

But as most of you know, growing hemp in the United States is still illegal. The Drug Enforcement Administration has grouped this low-THC plant with its relative, marijuana. We are the only industrialized country on earth to prohibit hemp production. Canada even legalized growing hemp in 1997. Read the rest of this entry »

You can’t help but notice that juicing is all the rage today. And I don’t mean just squeezing an orange into a glass. I’m talking about beets, celery, kale, spinach, bell peppers and carrots. Juice bars are popping up everywhere while smoothie shops are slowly losing customers. What gives?

Juicing is one of the healthiest things possible you can do for your body. When you juice whole fruits and veggies you are basically just squeezing out all the healthful nutrients and vitamins and drinking them down. I recently was asked to review the Mercedes Benz of all juicers for my food blog, a Breville Fountain Elite. Read the rest of this entry »

IN FOOD NEWS:
If you didn’t read it, you should. Louis Thornton’s tirade against organic farming ruffled many a reader. The comments, as long as the piece itself, are full of information as well.

While we’re on that topic, the USDA is offering $50 million in grants to conventional farmers who want to turn organic.

May is brimming with great food and wine events throughout Tampa Bay. Read our list of them and don’t miss out. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s not news when 200+ location mega-chain Chili’s opens another door in the U.S. It’s not even interesting when it opens in France, although it’s doutbful anyone in that culinary Mecca would salivate over bland American “Tex Mex.” But when a burger haven like Chili’s goes into India, where the bulk of people eat vegetarian, that’s peculiar. Even vaguely newsworthy. Read the rest of this entry »

The USDA has announced it will throw in a total of $50 million conventional farmers to help them switch to organic. In comparison to bank bailouts, the amount might sound paltry, but we have to start somewhere.

Deputy Agriculture Commissioner Kathleen Merrigan said: “Assisting organic producers is a priority of the 2008 Farm Bill as well as for Secretary Vilsack and the Obama Administration… The objective of this initiative is to make organic food producers eligible to compete for EQIP financial assistance.” Read the rest of this entry »

The author furiously at work decorating cakes for class

 With the rise of all-things-cooking has come a slew of television shows, celebrity chefs, designer cookbooks, and yes, that one-time silly-frillyness formerly relegated to weddings and 3rd grade birthday parties: cake decorating. The cake decorating movement, in line with the new consciousness about cooking (see: slow food, organic food, food competitions, gourmet food, Top Chef, and more), is breaking boundaries and setting new artistic standards as the general public gets excited about everything food-related. Programs such as The Food Network’s Ace of Cakes highlight the possibilities (due in large parts to the liberal use of rolled icing, or fondant) that cake bakers, caterers, and decorators have these days. And possibilities are in abundance! The imagination is truly the only limiting factor as cakes take the shape of buildings, airplanes, dirt-bike racing courses, designer purses, and more. Read the rest of this entry »

Before you run out and splurge on your “organic” products, there are many things you may want to understand. The marketing campaigns from the companies who provide these foods tell you the benefits, and there are benefits, but fail to share all of the facts from the scientific community.

I must admit, when I began research for this article, I was expecting to paint a more negative picture about the organic movement. I just felt like there had to be criticism since most of our knowledge about organic food production comes by way of the folks who make the most money from its consumption. That’s like the fox guarding the henhouse. Instead, however, I find a highly regulated industry with a wealth of scientific data to support organic foods but, unfortunately, an equal amount of problems with it. Therefore, I’ll highlight what I’ve learned and you be the judge. Read the rest of this entry »

Grandpa Schleifer cooked like a real man. Auto mechanic, Polish immigrant, World War II veteran, speaker of seven languages, John Wayne fan… he was a hard-boiled New Yorker, who brought a gentle touch to all of his tough-guy activities.

And man, could he cook. As a young boy, I always got excited when this strong-armed, tire-changing, don’t-mess-with-my-friends-or-family tough guy, put on his apron and announced that potato-nick, kugel, and beef brisket would be on the table shortly. I knew I would eat well that day.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s quite possibly the most inventive, most outrageous PR stunt ever in California’s painfully conservative wine history. And you may have heard of it or maybe a blogger friend already applied for it. 

Murphy Goode Winery is looking to fill an actual full-time, six-month position through word-of-mouth and the blogosphere. The deal: $10,000/month, a free house, all the wine you can drink and flexible work hours. In exchange, you do what many people do already for fun: blog, post on Facebook, Twitter, post videos and work around the winery.  Read the rest of this entry »

Taylor went to China and all she brought back was this lousy podcast! We dissect her culinary travels, and discuss Brian’s review of Ocean Prime.

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Confused on which fruits and vegetables should you be buying organic? Yes, it can be expensive, but studies by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) show that there are some produce items that you should always be buying organic because of the amount of pesticides used on the non-organic kind and the porousness of their skins in retaining the pesticides.

Why should you care about the pesticides on your food? According to the EWG, “The growing consensus among scientists is that small doses of some pesticides and other chemicals can cause lasting damage to human health, especially during fetal development and early childhood. Scientists now know enough about the long-term consequences of ingesting these powerful chemicals to advise that we minimize our consumption of pesticides.” Read the rest of this entry »

Thursday, May 7: ABC Fine Wine & Spirits
This weekly tasting features wines and cigars. $10 (includes glass and $5 coupon). 6943 W Hillsborough Ave, Tampa (813-884-3792)

Thursday, May 7: Carrollwood Cultural Center
Wine guide Charles Visalli will cover the ins and outs of wine in this six week series of classes. This week — Elements of Wine Tasting. $25. 6-7:30 p.m., 4537 Lowell Road, Tampa, 813-664-1430

Thursday, May 7: Vino 100 St. Petersburg
This weekly tasting features wines picked for mom. Free. 5-8 p.m., 5056 4th St. N., St. Petersburg (727-522-8466)

Friday, May 8: Uncorked
This weekly tasting will focus on female winemakers in honor of Mother’s Day. $10. 6:30-8:30 p.m., 2706 4th St N, St. Petersburg (727-892-9463)

Many more after the break: Read the rest of this entry »

I listened to chef Ming Tsai last week on NPR’s All Things Considered. As part of their “How Low Can You Go?” challenge (cook a meal for four for under $10), Tsai cooked a chicken fried rice dish.

He related how fried rice is close to his heart because it’s the first thing he cooked on his own, when he was 10 years old, in Dayton, Ohio. Family friends arrived from out of town when his parents weren’t home. He invited the travelers inside with the traditional Chinese greeting, “are you hungry?” They replied they were famished. He’d never cooked before, but having watched his parents and grandparents make fried rice countless times, that is what young Tsai prepared for the guests. They loved it, and Ming Tsai said that was the first time he experienced the gratification of making people happy with food.

I’ve always enjoyed watching Ming Tsai, and not only because he’s a strapping fellow–tall, dark and handsome: His enthusiasm seems genuine, he manages to sound unscripted, and he engages his audience without pandering to them. Educated at Phillips Andover, Yale (Mechanical Engineering) and Cornell (Master’s in Hotel Administration and Hospitality Marketing) before cooking in Paris and Osaka, Tsai is a third generation Chinese-American who nonetheless identifies himself as “very Chinese.” I love that he hasn’t severed his ethnic roots; nor does he rely upon them for shtick.

Tsai was one of Food Network’s early stars, and as I listened to him on the radio, I remembered a New Yorker piece from that period (10 or more years ago) about a food personality guru hired to help groom Tsai for television. To encourage him to look up often from his food preparation and smile into the camera, the guru taped a photo of Tsai’s golden retriever just beneath the camera lens. I love that he was compelled to smile whenever he looked at the image of his dog.

But as yesterday’s NPR segment concluded, I realized I love Ming Tsai most because of what he and I share: a delight in making people happy with food.

This month, Consumer Reports puts their enormous resources to work tasting pre-fab, packaged chocolate chip cookies from 13 manufacturers, with nine classified as “good”: Nabisco’s Chips Ahoy! Real Chocolate and Real Chocolate Reduced Fat, Trader Joe’s Dress Circle Crispy Crunchy, Back to Nature Chocolate Chunk, Pepperidge Farm Nantucket Soft Baked Chocolate Chunk Dark, Mrs. Fields Semi-Sweet, Newman’s Own Organics Champion Chip Cookies, and Famous Amos Bite Size.

But the big winners were: Keebler Chips Deluxe Original (”a little like shortbread”) and Health Valley’s Mini (”buttery”).

They also ran down the best standing mixers, for those who deign to make their own cookies from scratch. No surprise, KitchenAid won the testing.

Full Consumer Reports press release after the break: Read the rest of this entry »

As promised I am writing to update you on my process through the Master Cleanse.  It was one of the most challenging experiences of my life and I will absolutely do it again!  You can do anything if you stick your mind to it and I owned this journey and stuck with it for 8 days.  There are many benefits physically to allowing your body to cleanse of old toxic matter and resting your digestive tract for a few days.  Once you get into the process you see how much your body holds onto and you feel more empowered to control what you allow into your temple each day.  You realize even more the importance of eating healthy, organic food. Read the rest of this entry »

In New York City you might find Williamsburg hipsters moving out to the suburbs for their own plots of land, transforming trucker hats and work boots from ironic to just plain practical. In San Francisco, neo-hippies and former tech workers buy a plot outside of town to get closer to the land, the ultimate expression of the locavore movement. Here on Florida’s Gulf Coast, the move from suburb to rural can be more a quest for jobs than a philosophical expression.

But farming, it turns out, is more than just tossing seeds into ground and waiting for food. The learning curve is steep and the cost of entry is high. What’s a young farm entrepreneur to do?

Enter the Florida West Coast Resource, Conservation & Development Council. Last year, this non-profit opened Geraldson Farm, a Manatee County-funded Community Supported Agriculture project. With one project under its belt, the RC&D is looking to get back to the basics by encouraging other local farming wannabes to get into the act. Read the rest of this entry »

Michael Ruhlman has made a career out of dissecting the relationship between chef and food. His three Chef books — Making of, Reach of, Soul of — are elegantly constructed stories about the life of a modern chef, from culinary school to semi-celebrity. His cookbooks range from the concise and unfussy Elements of Cooking to several glossy, pornographic tomes co-written with name-brand chefs.

He’s also the kind of guy who hangs out with Anthony Bourdain and Mario Batali, glorifies cured meat, and writes with unapologetic candor. He and Bourdain lambasted the culture of the TV chef with their own alternative awards show at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival two years ago.

In Ratio, though, Ruhlman turns back to what he started in Elements of Cooking, namely injecting something of the professional chef into the home kitchen. The core concept is that ratios are the fundamental building blocks of all cooking, by defining and understanding those ratios the home cook will begin to understand food at it’s base and begin to think beyond recipes.

Ratio is not the kind of book most people will slap open on their kitchen counter to make a quick custard for dessert. It’s shaped like a traditional hardcover novel and the few pictures are in black and white. But, like a good hardcover novel, Ruhlman can be gripping. His opening chapter immediately convinces that with a mere basic understanding of his list of ratios, I’ll be able to innovate and experiment willy-nilly with great success. Read the rest of this entry »

It turns out that not only is fish a great source of Omega 3 fatty acid, fish is easily fortified with pharmaceuticals that treat anything from high blood pressure or the risk of unwanted pregnancy to high cholesterol and bipolar disorder. How, you ask?

Waste waster treatment plants used to be called sewage treatment plants but no one wanted a sewage treatment plant on the banks of their river so we began calling them “Waste Water Facilities”. Waste water facilities do well at allowing the human waste collected for treatment to reach a neutral state of organic activity with out the spectrum of bacteria and viruses that are present in raw sewage. Treated sewage is used many ways, some of it is processed beyond the “treatment” stage by breeding worms in it and then capturing the discharge from the worms to use as organic fertilizer; what happens in Orlando, and other cities in Florida, is that this worm step is not taken — the treated sewage is released into the river. Read the rest of this entry »

You are an environmentally-minded individual.  You also enjoy consuming meat.  So yes, you have read the studies that show how livestock expel gas, and how said gas contributes to the greenhouse effect.  But at the same time, you just can’t bring yourself to give up eating McRibs. What is a carnivore to do? Read the rest of this entry »

So, one day young New York wage slave Julie Powell decides that she’s going to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child’s classic tome Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1. In one year. And, of course, she’s going to blog the whole thing.

Soon enough, national attention for the Julia & Julia Project came knocking at her door. After newspaper, magazine and television appearances, publishers starting throwing book deals her way, the holy grail of all food bloggers.

But a movie? Is there any cooking blogger out there who harbors even the remotest dreams that the kitchen lives that they portray on the interweb could be turned into a movie?

Julie & Julia’s release date is scheduled for August 7. Scripted and directed by Nora Ephron. Starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. Sheesh, now thousands of food bloggers will have even loftier dreams to be shattered.

New trailer for Julia & Julia after the break: Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this week, NPR announced a challenge — no, not matching funds for donations — for both home cooks and famous chefs: Cook a meal for four for under $10. No matter that we did this last year (admittedly with a $20 price tag), this is still an opportunity for all you frugal gourmets out put your recipe skills on a national stage.

Tomorrow — Friday, May 1 — is the deadline for entries. You can follow the current spate of recipes in the comments section of the original story, or read the recipes provided by NPR’s guest chefs: Jose Andres, Ming Tsai, and Navy Chef Michael Edwards.

Are you afraid of eating pork thanks to the outbreak of the swine flu? Or, more accurately, the outbreak of media hysteria over swine flu?

Well, don’t worry about it, you can’t catch a respiratory disease like flu from a slab of applewood smoked bacon or inch-thick chop, no matter how undercooked. This new strain that’s affecting humans hasn’t even been found in pigs. But that’s not stopping the hysteria bandwagon, among consumers, the media and governments.

Which means that American pork producers have had to go on the offensive. Read the rest of this entry »

Wednesday, April 29: Avenue Cellars Wine Bar
Avenue’s Red Wine 101 class features an overview of the dark side of the wine world, with a tasting of about ten examples. Reservations necessary. $25. 9662 Linebaugh Ave., Tampa (813-920-9991)

Wednesday, April 29: ABC Fine Wines & Spirits (New Port Richey)
This weekly tasting features wines and cigars. $10 (includes glass and $5 coupon). 6115 US Hwy. 19, New Port Richey (727-842-7749)

Friday, May 1: Vintage Wine Cellars
This week’s tasting features wines rated 90 points and higher by leading authorities. $25. 3629 Henderson Blvd., Tampa (813-879-2931)

More after the break: Read the rest of this entry »

Just for the record, I do not dress in drag, wear wigs, or try role-playing characters when I review restaurants. Although a couple of local chefs have claimed to me that they have my picture posted in the kitchen — some even offering bounties — I have no idea where they got the pic, or even if it’s actually me. Google search as much as you’d like; you won’t find any graven digital images of this critic.

But Ruth Reichl — former NY Times restaurant critic and current Gourmet editor — was famous for engaging in all sorts of costuming and characterization during her reviewing stint in the 1990s. And it worked admirably, causing her to experience the tiered treatment doled out by some of NY’s finest restaurants based on their perception of her worth as a customer, as detailed in her book Garlic and Sapphires.

In a stagey, but undeniably cute, video put out by Gourmet, Reichl revisited those years and characters. Video after the break:

Read the rest of this entry »

SunChips has announced that that by Earth Day 2010, they plan to introduce the world’s first fully compostable chip bag. According to their website, these inventive bags will will be designed to fully decompose in about 14 weeks time when placed in a hot, active compost bin. 

Currently, 33% of every 10 1/2 oz. bag is made with renewable, plant based material.

Check out the video of how the decomposition takes place and also a detailed article about the new SunChips bag.

CL Wine Editor and Corkscrew columnist Taylor Eason is in the middle of a two week tour through China. Not surprisingly, her focus is on the food and drink between the sightseeing trips. Here’s her Twitter and Facebook comments about her first few days in the Middle Kingdom:

4:27 PM, Apr 20th: Breakfast in Beijing: scrambled eggs sauteed with woodear mushrooms in sesame oil, steamed bok choy and pork stuffed bao. And lots of tea.

2:49 AM, Apr 21st: Lunch: 8 dishes. Lotus root with mushrooms, pork dumplings, sauteed pea shoots, sauteed celery with a foreign white veggie.

More photos and briefs after the break: Read the rest of this entry »

This week — with Taylor cruising around China — Brian invites a few guests to the CL studio: Zack, Jen and Zen Gross, owners of Zurritos and Z Grille. We talk about his rise through the culinary ranks, his uncompromising personality and how damn cute their little daughter Zen is. Listen up.

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The first time I visited Urban Oasis Hydroponic Farm was about a month ago, right at the tail end of a tiring and grueling semester at culinary school. The class load had been light, but the “real life” load hadn’t. The air was warm and already feeling like the first hints of summer. In Florida, it seems, we only have two seasons: summer or fall, maybe a week of winter occasionally. It was that unusual time of year when the nights are cold and the days are hot. Just a few more hours and it would be the weekend. My mind was thinking about other things, most certainly not a farm.

My classmates and I were going to the farm as part of a field trip for one of my culinary classes. The last one, technically. I am wrapping up my time at The Art Institute of Tampa and this was the final class in which I would be cooking in a lab setting. The instructor was Chef Paul Kennedy and the class was called “Art Culinare’,” which focused on the finer points of executing presentation and the study of great chefs. We also discussed the value of insisting on fresh, quality ingredients.  Each week, Chef Kennedy reminded us of these ideas as they were reflected in the theories of chefs such as Alice Waters, Charlie Trotter, and Thomas Keller, just to name a few. The theme was evident in each discussion, lecture, and suggestion the chef made to us. Read the rest of this entry »

Wednesday, Apr. 22: Cork and Olive
At the Single’s Sizzle and Swirl Cooking Class, learn how to create your own dish and pair wine with your new invention. $45. 6:30 p.m.-9 p.m., 10019 N. Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa (813-868-3733)

Thursday, Apr. 23: Kuba Cigars
At this wine tasting, sample dark chocolate, snacks and an assortment of cheeses. There will also be door prizes and a fine wine giveaway. $10. 7-9 p.m., 243 E. Davis Blvd., Tampa (813-258-8191)

Thursday, Apr. 23: Toasted Pheasant Bistro
Enjoy a four-course Chilean dinner complete with wine paired for each course. $45. 7-10 p.m., 14445 N. Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa (813-265-6700)

Many more after the break: Read the rest of this entry »