we were driving on I-4 heading to the beach a month or so ago and I was reading magazines (bliss right?). I saw that a semi-local place was featured in Food and Wine magazine (May issue.) It’s called the Poor Porker and while I kind of have a love – hate with their name, I am certainly chuffed too have a hipster beignet and chicory coffee food truck in the Central Florida town of Lakeland. I immediately tried to find it on my phone to see if we could swing by but we had zoomed down the road before I could find where they might be. But, a couple weeks ago we were making a quick trip to Sarasota to see my sister before she skipped town/go to the aquarium/see my parents for pre-fathers day that happened to coincide with the Lakeland curbside market so we stopped by for some fresh beignets. Their cart (because truck isn’t really what it is) is a trailer with a sort of shack cobbled together on top housing a few people pouring coffee, taking orders and rolling out and frying dough. It has that new old style of industrial reclamation of Coleman coolers, old wood and artfully rusty industrial signage. The staff/owners are cool cat types with work aprons, tats and artful dustings of flour. We ordered an iced chicory coffee and two orders of beignets. One was what I would call the original variety, shaken in a bag of powdered sugary goodness and the other was in a little tray and doused with maple, bacon and a drift of sugar. They are made to order and HOT. The dough is really great, soft and pillowy and crisp in all the right ways. While you might think I’d love the bacon I was really all about the orginal. They were just so good with that cold coffee. If you are ever in the neighborhood I would recommend this as a good detour. You get the small town vibe with a healthy dose of hipster and a darn good treat. I hope they are around a long time.
Category: travel
loot
Z is home and he brought me some fun loot (family term for gifts.) Thai fish sauce, sambal, chile paste and Japanese sugar bombs. While I love all these things just fine, they are no match for having him home! Hurrah!
Oh-he got me some noodle bowls and art prints too!
preparation
so the backstory is this, Z has a job where the people around him travel all the time, and everywhere. They go to Africa and southeast Asia most often with some Canada thrown in now and again. He never really either ‘has’ to go or ‘gets’ to go. Depending how you look at it. This time he did. He was asked to go to Bangkok, Thailand for a marathon software developing session called hackathon. We consulted with Shands and the transplant clinic first for the ‘all clear’ and when he got that, we moved into an appointment with a travel doc (where Z got a Typhoid shot), a trip to the mall for a few new clothes and a trip down the sample aisle at Target. All this to say, I was both good and bad with the whole situation. What I mean by this is, it was hard to send him off for two main reasons. 1. I wasn’t going. 2. I wasn’t going. And by that I mean, I didn’t ‘get’ to go and how can I take care of him if he gets sick and do you know how far it is to Bangkok-it’s a fierce time difference of 13 hours during daylight savings time. It was easy to send him off for the opportunity of a lifetime. He would get the chance to flex some work muscles and see what and how other people are doing their jobs. It would give him a shot in the arm (in more ways than one) of excitement about work and the craft of it all. 
So, as the trip loomed with a 3AM wake up call on Monday we went out to brunch at Cask & Larder on Sunday after church for a final hand-crafted meal. We feasted. I, on a gin cocktail with fernet branca, lemon juice, and grapefruit bitters alongside a seven day cured pastrami with cipollini mushrooms, brussels sprouts and a fried egg. I have this new thing for bitters. They are so …bitter. The meat was amazing and the onions-meltingly sweet and tart with some kind of agro-dolce vinegar thing going on. He, on a blue corn tamale with scrambled eggs, skirt steak and chicharrones. Delightful way to relax and get ready for his upcoming adventure.
denver: biker jim’s
while on a mid-winter vacation to see my sister & her family in Denver we ate at an encased meat emporium called Biker Jim‘s. The decor is industrial and the doors were garage doors and although it was mid-January they were rolled up to let in a 65 degree day breeze. Kind of an alternative city crowd in that Denver way. Mid-week and late for lunch it wasn’t too busy so we took our time and perused the menu for a while because it was covered with exotic and far-fetched toppings such as I have not seen on dog types I have not eaten. You start with your protein
, be it elk (Z) or bacon wrapped beef (me) or other options like linguisa, buffalo, duck or vegan and top it as you wish. Z went with harissa roasted cactus, malaysian jam, scallions and onions two ways… for me…wasabi aioli, caramelized apple and shaved irish cheddar. Complicated flavors altogether but very balanced. The apple on mine was a kind of baked dry appley, not gooey sweet but richly so. The cheddar a good counterpoint of salty complexity. It was enjoyable in an ‘I’m eating a hot dog kinda way.’ We shared a side of hand cut potato chips – at the same time thick and very light. At some point in our meal I noticed Xena, Warrior Princess, staring down at us from the balcony-unnerving. Fun thing they had was Boylans instead of Coke or Pepsi in their fountain so I had root beer with my dog which was a perfect complement to the apple. It was a nice wrap up to our Denver trip and memories. Have I said I love hand-held food? I so do.
get away – go away
sometime in the vicinity of the ‘fall’ it all went awry. We had two notable and painful deaths of co-workers. Many people had an acute sense of loss and pain for reasons ranging to years of teamwork to being walked to their cars on dark evenings and weekends after staying open late for visitors. Then, fresh griefs as our pastor at church abruptly left citing an affair that he had every plan to continue and under allegations of spousal and alcohol abuse. Other small things felt bigger – hopes of peace for the season washed away in fell swoops. With thoughts only of mental escape we booked a cruise for five days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Five days of feet up, magazine and book reading, fruity cocktails, exploring new places without a care in the world. Total bummer that two days before we were scheduled to depart I got a cold that kept on giving – so far going on two months and still with a tickle of a cough. I think it was one of those things that comes when you let your guard down and begin to relax… But we booked it and I figured I could Purell my way across the Gulf of Mexico. We packed up and headed out for the blue skies of winter -except they weren’t. 
It rained in Tampa. It rained in Grand Cayman. It rained so hard in Cozumel that I bought a poncho (cough cough tourist) and was almost declared dorky for wearing it. Rain, rain, go away! Bright points? Of course. We perused the shops on Grand Cayman until the rain drove us inside and bought some chocolate bars from a non-English speaker in Cozumel while dodging raindrops. I saw the most gloriously large pod of dolphins. I was out one morning drinking coffee on the deck and reading/thinking/staring into the distance with two ‘old’ guys when we all three saw splashes of dolphins jumping. I didn’t have a camera and am probably better off for it since the image is ingrained in my mind. I would guess 70 to 100 dolphins were swimming a half mile or so (hard to say I guess) behind the boat. Stunning! We enjoyed our time-eating chocolate melting cakes for dinner, trying sushi, playing the penny slots and watching shows and celebrating some Christmas downtime. We sat open seating for lots of meals chatted with people from all walks of life. Getting away from our cares and definitely from it all.
My Urban Pantry 