Category: orlando

ha.  You didn’t see that coming did you?  So goofy in the season of politics which I hate and so often find divisive and without focus on the common good.  Happily finding other things to do than watch debates which don’t really answer my questions.

Last week we went to a cooking class demonstration in the Whole Foods Lifestyle Center.   A free class we didn’t know what to expect going into it.  It was led by Chef Bruno Fonseca of 5ive Gastronomy.  He came in with comments that he wasn’t going to teach chefy things but rather, things that would be doable for a home cook and that they would be great sides to accompany a holiday meal. 

He started out by demoing a shallot sherry vinaigrette.  He oven roasted some shallots with a little olive oil and a pinch of sugar and salt.  Sugar?!  Yeah, sugar and is it that big a deal?  Could have been honey or agave. There was a lady who was a  walk in to the class and was a complete unhappy jack-wagon with her comments about sugar.  She was crazy indignant that he would use a pinch of sugar and not be able to tell her the total amount she would ingest.  She was really snipy and uncaring in her presentation and tried to drive the bus and Chef Bruno with her comments.  He stood his ground well.  Really, a pinch of sugar between you and your 20 new closest friends isn’t going to be what takes you over the edge.  If it is, you shouldn’t walk in to a class and work at the ruination of our planned evening.  He whazzed it up in his fierce roughly five hundred dollar blender while adding some grapeseed oil and then a bit of olive oil.  Doable on every level but my blender doesn’t touch it.  He combined the dressing with frisee and spring mix with goat cheese, roasted beets and pepitas.  My friend Karin said, ‘I’m in love with this salad.’  Boys, get yourself this blender and you can wow the ladies too!

As he started the second course he dropped parsnips and celery root in a sous vide.  I don’t really find that totally accessible for a home cook.  I am more or less accomplished and probably wouldn’t do it.   He threw out the set up of a sous vide as about $500.  I likely wouldn’t just because I know I wouldn’t use it often even knowing my eggs could be sublime. I was excited about trying both parsnips and celery root as I am not sure I have had either previously.  He started some mushrooms in butter and thyme.  And pulled some previously prepped and roasted butternut out of the oven.

Then he started the piece de resistance which wasn’t the finale.  Butternut squash and mushroom risotto.  I have had risottos here and there and this was a down to earth representation of a long cooking dish.  His stock wasn’t homemade-you can use boxed but throw in some herbs, thyme is his favorite.  He added a lot of butter to the hugest beat down cooking pot and set some onions sweating.  The usual sort of risotto stuff, then added the arborio rice.  He dumped in a half bottle of drinkable wine and began with the scoops of stock.  Nothing unusual.  He finished with butter, loads of parmesan and the mushrooms and butternut squash as well as some pumpkin oil which I found amazing.  I love it as much as I hate truffle oil.  I must be the only one in America who doesn’t care for truffle oil.  I wish I did because everyone finishes with it now and I can’t get past one bite.  This was likely the best risotto I’ve had.  It was a little toothier than I wanted but it was so flavorful I think I will try it at home.

He brined and roasted a chicken and finished some sprouts in bacon fat.  Brining is kind of miraculous and I’ve not done it before but I think I will.  His chicken was so moist.  Yeah, I said moist.  Butter under the skin delightful.  I like sprouts finished other ways but this was nice with the cream finished parsnips and celery root.  I liked those very much.  A nice textural and flavor change from potatoes.

No dessert but with food this good I can do without. Also fairly accessible if you are willing to spend the time.  It’s all about time.  You also have to care about it.  So many could do it but just don’t want to.  You can tell how much Chef Bruno really cares for food and clearly, the people he cooks for.

 

 

 

Z has probably had the most drawn out birthday of his life, going on a month or so of celebrations.  We started out with a dinner out with my parents rounded out with a birthday feast at his sisters and various shopping sprees for his favorite Legos.  He is an AFOL which is either fun or expensive, depending on the day.  The piece de resistance in his loot bag was a pair of tickets from his parents to take a 75 minute airboat ride out at Loughman Lake Lodge.  About an hour from home off the beaten path at the end of a dirt road.  We pulled in, deeply out of our city element amidst giant pick-em-up lifted trucks and motorcycles parked in a field next to the swampy lakeside.  A country band tuning up on the patio next to the lodge which houses a restaurant (bar) serving up fried okra, pickles and catfish.  We checked in and were walked by our guide, Carl to the airboat.  The other party that was booked to join us was a no-show so we got the boat all to ourselves.  Carl did a great job pointing out bald eagles and nests of baby gators.  The wind was high and there were lots of people out in the swamp in other smaller (sportier?) airboats so we didn’t see any big fella gators.  He drove effortlessly over beds of swamp grass and flowering water plants through alleys and more open water.  He took us all over back waterways and we really didn’t even encounter other boats which I guess was due to his skills as a captain.  He said he’s lived in the area and on the St Johns River his whole life and from the weatherbeating on his skin I judge that to be fifty plus years.  It was peaceful in a noisy rackety kind of way-feeling like we were the only ones for miles and miles.  I love the teeming loneliness of the swamp.  The distinct feeling that it is filled with live just below the surface that buzzes with dragonflies and the occasional large seabird.  I have been waiting to do this for a long time and I wasn’t disappointed.

seriously.  Was ever a restaurant more anticipated?  Maybe, but not by me.  I don’t know what it was.  The romance of the south?  Gin cocktails?  Pork in numerous incarnations?  Whatever it was, I was so there!   Cask and Larder is a new restaurant in Orlando that is devoted to the pantry[ref]

lard·er/ˈlärdər/

Noun:

A room or large cupboard for storing food.

[/ref] and to booze [ref]

cask/kask/

Noun:

A large barrellike container, used for storing liquids, typically alcoholic drinks.

[/ref].  As soon as I could conjure an excuse (two rough and tumble months of work finished!) I set a reservation through opentable for Saturday night with all the beautiful people that Winter Park, FL has to offer.

Our table was ready when we arrived and we goggled in looking over the room, tall white millwork lined with rows of preserved foods that were only vaguely identifiable.  The menu is set and printed each day and I stole it and put it in my purse for reference.  They also deliver spicy cheese straws in a julep cup and a clipboard with sheets for brews, cocktails and wines with a charming red stamp that reads 86 for items that have run out.  I ordered the gin & jarred which arrived with curly top skewered bread and butter pickles.  Quite crazy that cocktail.   It held ransom smalls gin, dolin blanc vermouth, house pickling liquid, bittermens habanero shrub.  Really?  Shrub? A shrub is a beverage unto it’s own and is made from fruit (in this case habanero juice), sugar and a liquor.  Not my usual.   It wasn’t sweet nor did it have heat.  The pickling liquid was probably the most prominent.  We ordered a ham tasting with three different southern hams.  It included a sweetish one, one more cured and one that was aged 400 days-nice dry and salty.  They were served on a wood slab with flaky biscuits and crazy interesting accompaniments-pickled green (like unripe) strawberries, farmer cheese and a sweet chile jam.  Crazy good.  Who even thinks of pickling green strawberries?      Ok, Z ordered grilled lamb heart for his protein.  Weird right?  I know it.  It had some crazy popcorn grits, apples with peanuts and was he said, grilled on the outside and beating on the inside.  I tried it.  A little rare for me and I had to not be a thinker in that moment.  I myself ordered the brisket.  Braised and sitting in a big juicy puddle of jus.  The brisket was sitting on a smear of mustard and had really nice acidic freshly pickled giardiniera.  So tender and two tiny rolls on the side to bring it home. I am going to make some giardiniera.  Maybe this weekend actually.  The proteins are large enough to share and the sides are definitely designed that way.  We had the creamiest succotash filled with corn, squash and ham hocks.  I have a hard time with some of the chew on the hocks.  Mentally I had a hard time with the foot thing but I ate it.

Somehow we spiralled out of control at that point and ordered two desserts.  Home-brew doughnuts and caramel pudding topped with thinned sweet glaze for dipping that we spooned through when the doughnut bites ran out.  Ridiculous.  We also had the sweets treats plate which that day was a trio of sugar:  soft individually wrapped salty caramels, soft smore bites and rich buckeyes.  A fantastic food experience.  I couldn’t wait to go and I am so excited to go back.

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had my birthday dinner on Saturday night at Jiko at the Disney Animal Kingdom Resort.  We headed over a little early to take a look around.  As with most Disney resorts there is lots to see and the Animal Kingdom Lodge is not the exception.  They have thoughtfully laid the resort out around a fringe of the ‘savanna’ at the edge of the Harambe Wildlife Reserve.  Animals (the grazing non-eating each other varieties) roam somewhat freely within feet of the hotel adding ambiance and to the fascination.  Fire pit, chairs and a giant pool-oasis in the desert (or swamp in this case).  There are African artifacts sprinkled in cases throughout the lounge including masks from quite a few countries.

The deep scents of spices fill the public space calling you to eat.  We chose Jiko for it’s African inspired dishes.  They have an extensive South African wine list and the decor is intereting with a lighting system running from sunrise to sunset every half hour and lighting masquerading as birds hanging from the low ceilings and off of the walls.  Looking out at a watery streamlet in a shady grove it feels like an oasis.

Everything we ate was heavily spiced with peri-peri, sambal and chutney.  Z started with roasted wild boar with mealie pap, truffle oil and micro cilantro and I chose a taste of Africa including four dips each distinctly flavor and textured.  For supper I had the vegetarian option of bunny chow curried vegetables in a perfectly round na’an pocket with lentil and chickpea felafel with sauteed spinach and yoghurt sauce and Z a Peri-Peri chicken with herb roasted potato, mango sambal and onion jus.  We passed on dessert but they brought us a light mousse cake for my birthday and two Madagascar chocolate cookies that were the perfect last bite.  Everything was deeply flavored and as vibrant as an African sunset – at least the ones I imagine.