I hate to say I told you so, but Sarasota chef Darwin Santa Maria of oft-lauded Selva Grill made the same prediction about Peruvian food almost a year ago. Sarasota is home to no less than four decent Peruvian joints. Only question is: what about the Bay area? Know any great places to grab some ceviche, causa and sauces laced with glorious aji pepper?

(Thanks to Grub Street.)

For stainless steel cookware, typical dish soap and water will take care of daily use – and you can even throw most brands in the dishwasher — but you’ll want to have an abrasive cleanser on hand. Don’t scrub with anything metal and stay away from harsh powders and liquids like Comet or Soft Scrub; those will clean well enough but could scratch the surface of your beautiful pans.

Look for abrasives that are made for pans – like my fave Barkeepers Friend, available in most supermarkets. The powder is much finer and made from stuff that won’t mar the steel. They work best when the pan is just barely damp, scrubbed into surface with a nylon pad like you find on the back of most cleaning sponges. For tough jobs, soak the gunked-up pan for a while first. Even if you don’t have tough-to-remove food caked onto your steel, these cleansers will remove the inevitable discoloration and water spotting that comes from steady use. Giving them a good scrub every so often will keep your babies looking bright and fresh.

Copper is just as simple – you can use the same soft abrasives that you use on steel – but you’ll also want to add a commercial copper polish to remove the inevitable tarnish and discoloration. Squirt on, wax-off.

Tending cast iron is more troublesome, but rewarding when you put in the time. I’ve never been good at it, but the fine people at Lodge – the undeniable kings of cast iron – recommend heating your cast iron slowly when preparing to cook, with a thin layer of vegetable oil no matter what you’re preparing.

When you’re done, don’t use soap. Fine layers of caramelized food built up on the surface of the pan are what makes cast-iron non-stick, as well as adding flava’. Just scrub gently in hot water (cold can warp the hot metal) with a nylon brush. Loosen tough, caked-on food by filling the pan with water and boiling for a few minutes. After cleaning, wipe the pan with a touch more oil and store without the lid on to encourage air flow. Our own copy editor Anthony Salveggi likes to cover the pan with a towel to keep off dust that may stick to the oiled surface.

If you let the pan go south, or find an old one at a garage sale, rust is not a problem. Just scour the rust away with steel wool and re-season. You’ll want to coat the entire pan – inside and out – with melted shortening and bake in a 350-400 degree oven for an hour. After it cools in the oven, you’re golden.

Some food – like salt — can pit the surface of steel, iron and copper if it remains in contact with the pan for even a short time. If you’re boiling water for pasta, wait until it starts bubbling before adding the salt. Try to clean or rinse and soak your pans quickly after cooking to stop or slow the negative impact of sodium rich foods. The pits won’t stop the pans from cooking a fine meal, but who wants a $100 skillet that’s cratered like a 14-year-old’s face?

Like taking care of your coif or skin-care regime, maintaining your cook-gear takes a little time and a little effort, but the years of beauty are worth it.

Urbanspoon, a two year old Seattle company, has launched a free iPhone app that uses the GPS (or the triangulation system on old phones) to search for restaurants that are, theoretically, in your general vicinity. Usually this type of software is only geared towards the bigger metro areas with established dining scenes — which would likely mean that our own Bay area is out of luck — but Urbanspoon recently added Tampa/St. Pete to it’s list. Awfully nice of ‘ya.

No iPhone? Well, you can still log on the old fashioned way and do an actual web search on Urbanspoon’s site, as well as read local reviews culled from the rags (ours included) and customer reviews riddled with shills. Web-browsing … clunky, but it still works.

Rocky Aoki, the man who brought Japanese culinary showmanship to America with Benihana, died last week. According to the AP story, Aoki was surrounded by his wife and six children during his final moments, which must have been awkward considering he sued four of those kids — two from each of his first two wives — after they tried to take over his restaurant chain. Apparently, they don’t like his current wife.

Forget the gossip and dirt, though, and let’s remember the man for his accomplishments: teppan-yaki, stateside. Aoki opened his first Benihana in New York in 1964, starting an empire that’s blossomed into more than 100 restaurants and thousands of imitators. Every time a chop-socky chef flips shrimp tails into his hat, builds a smoking onion volcano, or tells a tired karate kid joke before serving you griddled steak and barely cooked veggies doused in soy, you have Aoki to thank.

Beyond Benihana, Aoki was a cool cat who wrestled on the Japanese Olympic team; raced cars, boats and motorcycles; was the first man to cross the Pacific in a hot air balloon; founded classic eighties porno mag Genesis; won backgammon championships; participated in a Cannonball Run-like cross country race in a stretch Volkswagon Beetle limousine; and once had a horrific boating accident that required 10 hours of surgery and multiple removed organs. When he came to three days later, he saw his wife and his mistress waiting for him bedside. Damn, player!

That’s a life well lived, worth a raised Mai Tai or two at whatever teppan-yaki joint you favor.

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.

Here’s where you can go to waste an entire lazy Wednesday work day:

Los Angeles Public Library Menu Collection

Collectible Meals Historic Menu Gallery

NY Public Libraries Miss Frank E. Buttolph American Menu Collection

Alice Statler Menu Collection, City College of San Francisco

University of Washington Historical Menu Collection

The Barack Star — a white pizza (uhm?) with ricotta, tomato, feta and pesto;
or
The Meaty McCain, your typical meat-lover’s special.
Gourmet will keep track of the sales and post a monthly victor on the restaurant’s website.

This opens up a whole new, unwanted layer to the already tough pizza decision making process. What if I want the meat pizza, but don’t want to throw in with McCain, or vice versa? Could I end up buying a pizza I don’t want in a meaningless show of political solidarity with my chosen candidate? Sigh. I’ll just take a plain cheese, thanks.

We actually ordered a bit of both. The McCain was fine, although the ham was a bit bland and chunky. The Barack was, well, odd. It tasted fine, creamy with a big hit of garlic, but the bright green pesto star in the center was a bit disconcerting. Draw your own conclusions.

Know about any other restaurants or stores running similar politico-gustatory polls?

That’s not stopping raw food impressario and culinary hottie Matthew Kenney from transplanting himself from progressive New York City to the most dreadful city in Florida. Yep, he’s opening a raw restaurant in Orlando called Cafe 118 (referring to the max temperature it’s food will reach). The place isn’t open yet, but the website already features a link for anyone interested in franchise opportunities. Before you jump on the burgeoning raw food bandwagon and start shelling out your uncooked dough, be forewarned that one of the reasons Kenney may be expanding out of his home base in NYC involves litigation and bankruptcy relating to some of his previous businesses. Whatever, Florida is all about second chances, right?

But after last night’s visit to NOLA Café & News Stand, I’ve found a most worthy replacement.

I met my friend Emily at the quaint eatery, located in a tiny annex behind the Walgreens on the corner of Platt Street and Plant Avenue, around 7:30 p.m. To my mild surprise, we were the only customers, which struck me as strange because NOLA is so warm and inviting inside, evocative of the Crescent City’s laid-back charms.

We started off with café au laits and an order of beignets, neither of which I’ve had since a visit to Café Du Monde in the French Quarter about nine years ago. The three square French doughnuts came to us hot, generously coated with confectioner’s sugar, and tasted as good as they looked, each bite through the deep-fried dough revealing a delicious, puffy interior. They were perfectly complemented by our chicory coffees, which were smooth and flavorful, a welcome change of pace from the standard cup o’ joe.

Our appetites suitably whetted, I ordered a bowl of their rich, buttery jambalaya, and Emily enjoyed an equally tasty Chicken & Andouille Gumbo fortified with a well-seasoned roux.

When I asked our young server about the dearth of customers, he cited the location as a problem, while noting that business picks up considerably whenever the local news media outlets run stories on NOLA. On its website, nolacafe.com, you’ll find links to a Fox 13 profile from February, as well as a March 21 story in the St. Pete Times.

Though it might not always have the business it deserves because of its off-the-beaten-path location, I think NOLA’s in a perfect spot, far enough away from the hustle and bustle to serve as a welcome, relaxing oasis of New Orleans flavor and ambience. I’ll definitely be back.