Eat My Florida

Fireworks? Barbecue? Boston Pops? A celebration of independence? Bah!

As far as I’m concerned, the Fourth of July begins and ends on Coney Island, at the Nathan’s Famous World Hot Dog Eating Contest. For 93 years, people have been lining up to see this freakish intersection of speed and gluttony, fascinated and appalled by the enormous capacity of today’s competitive eaters. Last year, professional gurgitator Joey Chestnut performed a feat reminiscent of the Miracle On Ice, defeating six-time world champ and seemingly unstoppable force Takeru Kobayashi. Not only did Chestnut soundly beat the diminutive Japanese competitor, he set a new world record by eating 66 dogs and buns in just 12 minutes, 11 more than the previous top score.

Don’t think you can just show up and join the fun; these days you have to win a qualifying contest to enter the Nathan’s Championship. Go to the International Federation of Competitive Eating to check out other upcoming events, and get tips on how the pros do their grotesque thing.

St. Pete’s own Dairy Inn will also hold their, much more relaxed competition on July 4th, starting at 11:30 a.m. Stop by the restaurant to pick up an entry form, along with a great burger and a shake.

You can also read my piece on competitive eating to get a little more background, as well as a glimpse into my own mercifully brief foray into the stomach-stretching arts.

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Scared to send your child out of the house for hours at a time to run off their summer vacation energy? Now you’ve got something else to fear.

According to a NYT article, kindergarten and 1st grade kids put on body mass two to three times faster during the summer, compared to the school year. Some of that has to do with the lack of scheduled eating and activity enforced by schools, some has to do with sitting around watching TV and playing video games. Sadly, kids who need to gain weight also did better during the school year, putting on more mass, likely thanks to the almost-guaranteed offer of two-to-three squares a day from the government.

School cafeteria food may not be ideal, but Sarasota has the right attitude to help kids with nutrition. Pinellas and Hillsborough are a little behind the curve.

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The Florida Sun-Sentinel has a truly awe-inspiring series of retro cereal box photos posted on their website. Sure, there’s Quisp and and Mr. T cereal, but there are also many I’ve never heard of. Cap’n Crunch’s Punch Crunch. Grins & Smiles & Giggles & Laughs. And, perhaps my very favorite, Crunchy Loggs.

Makes me want to go out and buy whatever movie tie-in cereal is currently available. Maybe Indy’s Crunchy Skulls, or Get Smart Shoe Puffs, or Love Guru Fruity Genitalia. Mmm, artificially-flavored corn-puff penises.

If that’s not enough, here’s another good resource for retro cereal packaging, and another, and this one that’s a tad too high concept to be useful, but interesting nonetheless.

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Sort of. Greenpeace recently released a study that ranks supermarket chains by their commitment to sustainable seafood. Since GP essentially advocates taking a break from any type of fishing — not a bad idea, considering the apocalyptic scenarios outlined here — they are understandably a bit harsh in their ranking system. In our area, Whole Foods ranks highest, with a whopping 4 out of 10 points. Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and Target manage to eke out a 3, while all the typical supermarkets — Publix, Sweetbay and Winn-Dixie — fill the bottom of the list.

In other news, food personality Alton Brown announced he’ll be shifting the focus of Good Eats. “”I’ve been busy being clever, but now I want to use what credibility I may have to help people think about sustainability,” he told grist.com in an interview. He even offered to ride along with Greenpeace, saying “somebody needs to sink the Japanese tuna fleet. Everyone’s willing to point the finger, but nobody’s willing to pull the trigger.”

Damn, concerns for sustainability on the Food Network? Maybe they should have a talk with Paula.

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Hogs are running wild in 37 states. Florida is one of them, with the second largest population of wild porkers in the country. Why worry about a few feral pigs? They eat just about anything and can clear the ground of native plant and animal species at an alarming rate, wrecking the ecosystems of acres of protected land in a very short time. More development just means a higher density of hogs on undeveloped land. And they’re mean som’ bitches.

Check out these stats that show how Sarasota deals with its porcine problem. Yep, 2 trappers bag over 1,000 hogs every year, just in the SRQ. That might be a drop in the bucket of Florida’s pork population, but it sure is some tasty huntin’.

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Chipotle – the fast-food burrito joint owned by McDonald’s — has been trying to push more local foods through its restaurants for the past few years. Part of it is marketing, like their high-profile agreement with Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms (immortalized in Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma) to provide all the pork at Chipotle’s Charlottesville, VA locations.

Now, the restaurant chain is expanding their commitment, vowing to source at least 25% of at least one produce item from small and medium local farms at every one of Chipotle’s over 700 locations, at least when the veggies are in season. One item seems like a drop in the bucket, but with the massive volume fast food places go through it could mean big bucks for local farms.

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From our wine maven Taylor Eason comes inexpensive wines with our inexpensive menus (bolded wines will work for the whole menu, if you don’t want to go with course-by-course wines):

David Miller, Savant Fine Dining:
Sweet Potato Soup: Big Fire 2006 Pinot Gris, $15
Heirloom Tomato Salad: Columbia Crest 2007 Two Vines Rose, $10
Braised Lamb in Peach Gastrique with Sweet Potato Scallops and Baby Eggplant: Jaboulet 2005 “Parallele 45” Cotes du Rhone, $15

Fabrizio Schenardi, Pelagia Trattoria:
Polenta with Sauteed Mushrooms: St. Francis 2004 Red, $12
Open-Faced Ravioli: Masi 2006 Masianco Venezie, $15
Seared Salmon with Green Beans: Beringer 2006 Pinot Noir, $20
Fruit Crepes: Banfi 2007 Rosa Regale, $18

Seble Gizaw, Queen of Sheba:
Mashed Potato Salad: Bonny Doon 2005 Le Cigare Blanc California, $20
Lentil Soup: 7 Deadly Zins 2004 Zinfandel, $13
Lamb Tibs: Onix 2006 Priorat, $12

Grass Root Tofu Scramble: Sokol Blosser Evolution #9 11^th Edition

Elements, vegetarian menu:
Mushroom Medley: whatever red wine you use in the recipe OR Campo Viejo 2004 Rioja Crianza, $12
Ravioli: S.A. Prum 2006 Riesling, $12

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Thanks to reader Erica comes news of this local “natural” wonder from Tate Brothers Pizza on Davis Island. No word yet if it will be included in alongside modern monuments like the Eiffel Tower or the Golden Gate Bridge, but we’ll see. Better yet, you can own it for approximately pocket change.

Best part of the description -

“This continent is flavored with a mild wing sauce and has been frozen in carbonite to protect its value.”

Second best part -

“We DO NOT Reccomend eating this. It’s for display purposes only.”

Yeah, I don’t recommend eating these things even when they aren’t shaped like Africa and shipped cross-country.

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From Justin Richards at CL Sarasota:

After researching my UrbEx story about Hydro Taste farms in Myakka, where they grow fruits and veggies in vertical stacks using minimal resources, I brought a harvest home to try for myself. I put the veggies in fajitas, and while they were juicy and full-flavored, it was hard to get a good taste under all the sour cream and taco spice.

But the peach I ate, my God. It was this warped and deformed peach, with a little tumor-baby growing out the side of it. The twin-peach had its own sad little pit, even. But it was so good. It’s like, the flavor of a normal peach was within the flavor of this peach, but this went so far beyond. Peach-flavor receptors, long dormant after generations of industrial farming, were awakened in my mouth.

They’re not paying us, I swear. I seriously doubt the head of the farm will even read this post. I have no reason to endorse this fruit. It was just damn good.

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Can demonstration cooking sell-out a stadium? Probably not, but considering how much people shelled out for Food Network’s old lady, uhm, Grande Dame last week, Top Chef’s tour of 20 cities might generate a little buzz. I think it’ll depend on who the “four cheftestants” turn out to be. Anyone buying a ticket — Sep. 20 here in Tampa — for a Lisa, Mark, Nimma and Nikki cook-a-long? Me neither.

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Elements Global Cuisine — my new heroes of frugal cooking — have another $20 Menu Challenge dinner to serve up. This time, beef-eaters can get their nosh on, all for less than a double sawbuck. Recipes after the break: (more…)

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New details have emerged about this year’s American Bocuse D’Or chef team, to be coached and managed by Thomas Keller and Daniel Boulud. Keller, Boulud and other chefs have created a non-profit organization to take care of the details of making a team that can beat the world’s best chefs. Some of those details: a special training facility next to Keller’s French Laundry, $15k for team members, a paid 3-month sabbatical from whatever job they happen to have, and housing during training.

Not only that, but they’ll also be paying the expense of the eight teams they choose to compete just to make it to the final team, which I talked about here.

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This can only make the King Of Beers better, I imagine.