Daily Loaf

We blind-tasted American Wagyu, Prime, organic and Choice from several different stores and Sweetbay’s basic New York strip  — the cheapest of the bunch — was our judges’ clear favorite. Great beef flavor, tender texture and enough fat to satisfy. Go figure.

[About Daily Best of the Bay: As we approach the Best of the Bay issue on Sept. 16 (and The Loafies the night before), CL writers and critics are posting some of their Best-of selections for 2009. You've still got time to vote for your own favorites; the Readers' Poll deadline is tomorrow at noon.]

Grocery stores often cluster, with a Publix across from a Sweetbay down the block from a Save-A-Lot. After Publix bought 49 Albertsons stores last year, several Bay area neighborhoods were left seeing double as the old Albertsons were converted into sparkling Publix grocers. Though the company has recently decided to close some of the doubled-up stores, two Publix stores in St. Pete continue their cross-street competition. Read the rest of this entry »

Friday, August 28: Mazzarro’s Italian Market
Weekly Wine Tastings. This week’s selections include domestic wines like red and white Rhone-style blends and Viognier.  Free. 1-5 p.m., 2209 22nd Ave. N., St. Petersburg (727-321-2400)

Friday, August 28: Datz Deli
Friday Night Winedown. Sommelier Patti Kuhl leads a free tasting and workshop to help shake off those work week blues, while Rebekah Pulley brings her folky tunes to the stage. Free. 5-7 p.m., 2616 S. MacDill Ave., Tampa (813-831-7000)

Saturday, August 29: Mazzarro’s Italian Market
Enjoy a selection of wines from the Piedmont region, including Barbera and Moscato and Pinot Noir from California. Free. 1-5 p.m., 2209 22nd Ave. N., St. Petersburg (727-321-2400) Read the rest of this entry »

Choice. Angus. Natural. Organic. Humanely raised. Grass-fed. Prime. Wagyu. Kobe. These days, there are more marketing terms associated with beef than ever before, all of which attempt to separate you from your food budget with promises of better quality or better moral character. And it’s important to know what those terms mean, especially if you’re concerned about greening your meat.

But for most folks, taste is the deciding factor. We might buy prime for the intense marbling, or Kobe and Wagyu for the promise of massaged, beer-drinking cows with intensely tender flesh. Grass-fed beef provides more old-school beef flavor, while organic gives us happier — and possibly more tasty — cows.

We cut through the marketing lingo straight to the meat of the matter by pitting six different, readily available, supermarket steaks against one another: Angus from Sweetbay, choice from Publix, humanely-raised from Publix Greenwise, humanely-raised from Whole Foods, prime and American Wagyu from Mazzaro’s.

Each steak, all NY strip, with one exception, was simply seasoned with the same amount of salt and pepper (by size) and each was grilled to medium-rare (although the thickest gave us a few problems). We then assembled a crack team of CL carnivores — foodies and amateurs — to sample the steaks in a blind tasting and rate the meat.

The results surprised the hell out of us. Find out the winner after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this past week:

Reconstructing a historic bat tower in Temple Terrace and how to build your own bat roost- Grant Rimbey investigates efforts in Temple Terrace to reconstruct an historic tower for bats, discusses a large community bat roost he designed for the Florida Bat Conservancy, and tells how you can purchase (or build) your own bat roost for your yard.

Summer Solstice: A brief history- Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, occurs this Sunday- June 21st. Here are a few facts you might not have known about it, from Linda Taylor.

Organics: How to eat well without breaking your budget- With the increase of demand over organic food in the last ten years you would think that a wide range of these products would be easily accessible. Here’s some some advice from Kelly Rothwell on purchasing healthy, organic food in this region without breaking your budget.
Read the rest of this entry »

With the increase of demand over organic food products in the last ten years, you would think that a wide range of these products would be easily accessible to most Americans, but this unfortunately is not the case yet. Many of the large companies are beginning to see the need for organic products and are beginning to expand their offerings in an effort to appease these needs. In the mean time, until organics are widely available at an affordable price, what are we to do? I am writing to offer some advice on purchasing healthy organic food in this region without breaking your budget.
Read the rest of this entry »

I think I know what the main cultural difference between French and American people really is: It’s the sandwich.

Being brought up in France, a country with strong culinary roots, I’ve always known that a sandwich for lunch isn’t a meal; it’s a snack. When you’re in a hurry, in Paris or elsewhere, you grab a sandwich au pate, au saucisson or au jambon. Not much choice there, since it consists of a piece of baguette, a thin spread of butter, and pate or salami or ham. It would not occur to a Frenchman to ask for more butter, less ham, or more baguette, and maybe a little olive oil. No, a sandwich is a sandwich.

You may wonder what I’m getting at. I’m talking about my lunch from Publix today. I was in a hurry and for the purpose of complete, full disclosure, maybe not really in the right mood for what was about to follow.

The nice sandwich lady at the Publix store asked me no less than 20 questions. It’s not a sandwich order; it’s an interrogatory!

I understand that she did her job perfectly, if not with the zest of corporate zeal, which I despise, but still, all I wanted was a sandwich, not to tell my life story to a stranger.

I may be the only one in America to wonder about sandwich interrogation procedures, so just to let you experience it for yourself, let me feed you with 20 sandwich-ordering questions. Now remember, all you really want is a roast beef sandwich, and you really couldn’t care less what goes into it, as long as bread and roast beef were involved. Read the rest of this entry »

Have fun while benefiting your health and the environment. You remember how to ride a bike, but do you remember how much fun it is to ride your bike? The feel of the wind as you ride down the hill as fast as you can, exploring all day through the neighborhood with your friends, or in college around campus in between class. Not only is biking fun for the whole family, all ages and skill levels, it is a great exercise and totally green.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money either for a good bike. With last Christmas’ bonus check, I purchased a used bike on craigslist of Tampa for $75, put new tires on for $30 and got a $50 tune up at Revolution Bikes; I now have a great bike I paid only $155 in total for what I have been told is worth $200-$300. It is a great and comfortable bike for cruising the Pinellas Trail or just riding through my neighborhood. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes when people think of salads, they automatically think “Borrrriiiinnng“. And then when they hear the word “organic” they automatically think, “expensive!”. Well it’s true that some salads can be boring and it’s also true that some organic foods can be a bit pricey. But in reality, you can make a fun organic blend salad that tastes amazing, isn’t hefty on the wallet and is made within 5 minutes!

The secret to this success is finding a salad that interests your taste buds. With the various amounts of veggies, cheeses, meats, dressings, etc., available, you can probably make a different salad each day for the rest of your life and never have the same salad twice!  Read the rest of this entry »

Finally finished off all the turkey leftovers? Great, time to start cooking again! Here are this week’s best bets:

Whole Foods – Grapefruit — from Indian River — are almost half-off at $.79/pound, so buy a bunch and whip up some snapper with herb salad and grapefruit from the Culinary Sherpas? (full ad)

Publix Greenwise Market – Florida-grown tomatoes — plum or vine-ripened — are a mere $.99/pound, perfect for any of these five recipes from Bon Appetit, courtesy of Fox 13. (full ad)

Sweetbay, Fresh Market and Publix after the break… Read the rest of this entry »

Stopped by the beautiful new Publix Greenwise Market in SoHo for some lunch today. After reading Laura Reiley’s cautious optimism about the massive selection of prepared foods, I thought it might be worth a try now that the market has almost a month under its belt to get the kinks worked out. If anything, it seems like the kinks have taken over.

Get past the confusing system of ordering everything from its own section, the areas delineated only by small, laminated “Order Here” signs that are often hidden by waiting diners and you’ll find a staff that has the haunted look of the harried and fearful. Or the defiant glare of workers pushed past the breaking point, just daring you to comment about the slow service. Or the downcast faces of truly practiced restaurant workers who want to avoid eye contact until they finish the task in front of them. If you’re looking for a quick, healthy lunch during a brief work break, it’s a horrifying experience. Read the rest of this entry »

Turkey, turkey, turkey. If you have an extra freezer in the garage, go ahead and buy a few low-cost extra birds for the future. Otherwise, pickings are slim this week, as many stores are either holding off on weekly ads thanks to the holiday, or spending more effort on gift options. Still, here are your best bets:

Whole Foods – Four Haas avocados for $5 makes for some mighty easy Steamy Kitchen guacamole. (full ad)

Sweetbay – Whole pineapples are just $2.88 each, perfect for some Culinary Sherpa upside down cake. Grapes are also a deal at $1.59, so buy a bunch and set them out to counteract some of the carb and meat leftover-loading. (full ad)

Fresh Market, Publix, Target and Wal-Mart after the break: Read the rest of this entry »