the best cincinnati fish fries

i started a fish fry quest 3 years ago and i have been addicted ever since.  cheap, tasty food + cheap beer + pretty much the best people watching ever... that is like my idea of heaven.  here are the best fish fries.  you can thank me in cash... or fish.

Church: Mary Queen of Heaven, 1150 Donaldson Rd., Erlanger, KY 41018
Beer: yes
Why you should go: the cook is the chef from Izzy’s and the food is delicious and there is every sauce imaginable and pickles and there are a shit ton of huge TVs and projectors so you can watch March Madness
Menu: http://www.mqhparish.com/Fish%20Fry/2012%20Fish%20Fry%20Menu%20for%20Web.pdf

Church: St. Paul, 7301 Dixie Highway, Florence, KY 41042
Beer: yes
Why you should go: the chef teaches at Midwest Culinary Institute and they have amazing specials... on March 2 it is whole lobster
Menu: http://www.saint-paul-school.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/2-16-12-FISH-FRY-MENU.pdf

Church: St. James White Oak, 3565 Hubble Road, Cincinnati, OH 45247
Beer: yes
Why you should go: the fish is delicious and they have amazing salted rye
Menu: http://www.stjamesfishfry.org/St._James_Fish_Fry/Home_Page.html

Non-church: American Legion Post 484, 1837 Sutton Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45237 (Mt. Washington)
Beer: yes
Why you should go: the atmosphere really more than anything...
Menu: http://www.legion484.org/Bingo.html

fish fries i haven't tried but have heard are good:

• St. Lawrence: the place in Price Hill with the bakery which is supposed to have really good breaded shrimp
• St. Teresa of Avila: also Price Hill and rumored to have good fish
• St. Joseph Academy in Walton, KY: kind of far but rumored to have the absolute best hand dipped fish
• Immaculate Heart of Mary in Burlington, KY: this is a tip from julie of wine me dine me
• Hartzell United Methodist: all you can eat for $9 in Blue Ash

ode to picnic and pantry (apologies to pablo neruda)

and it was at that age...picnic and pantry arrived

in search of me. i don't know, i don't know where

it came from, from kitchen or a restaurant.

i don't know how or when,

no, they were not voices, they were not

words, nor silence,

but from a tavern i was summoned,

from the branches of night,

abruptly from the others,

among violent fires

or returning alone,

there i was without a meal

and it fed me.

i did not know what to say, my mouth

had no way

with names

my eyes were blind,

and something started in my stomach,

thirst or forgotten hunger pangs,

and i made my own way,

deciphering

that menu

and i tasted the first flavorful bite,

flavorful, full of substance, no

nonsense,

pure wisdom

of someone who knows everything,

and suddenly i saw

the breads

blue oven

and earthy,

salads,

palpitating plantains,

kale perforated,

riddled

with braggs, garlic and ginger,

the winding rice noodles, the roasted vegetables.

and i, infinitesimal being,

drunk with the great gastrointestinal

void,

likeness, image of

bounty,

i felt myself a pure part

of the gastronomy,

i wheeled with the jeni's,

my gut broke free on the open table.

the cake i have been fantasizing about for 15 years

i need a recipe.  the recipe i need is for some type of rum/coconut/pineapple cake.  the reason i need this recipe is as follows.  when i was in high school, i used to work in the gift wrap department at what was then hudson's and is now marshall field's.  i worked with a bunch of old ladies who would bring in food all the time on a varying scale of amazingness.

the person who brought in the best food was connie.  she was the best baker i have ever encountered.  and the best thing that connie ever baked was this super moist, rich, fluffy, boozy layer cake made with pineapple and rum and covered in a cloud of rummy coconut whipped cream.  i kept sneaking pieces of it and i don't really know if anyone else got to eat any.  it was the cake to end all cakes.

i harassed connie nonstop for the recipe but she refused to give it to me.  there is some generational thing that i do not understand where old people guard their recipes like cash.  i mean come on lady, i am a 16 year old kid who you will probably never see again after i go away to college, i am not going to steal your loved ones with this cake.

(i say that i do not understand this phenomenon but i do.  i have a couple recipes that i don't think i will ever give to anyone because i have a sick fear that one day i will be so bitchy and obnoxious and smell so bad that nobody will like me any more and the only way i will be able to keep friends is to feed them these foods.  i am so secretive about this that i won't even tell you which recipes they are).

anyway, connie was a really nice person other than the fact that she would not give up her damn cake recipe and she had nothing to fear.  but i could not get that fucking recipe out of her no matter how hard i tried.  eventually i gave up, and hoped to just forget the cake.

well i am now 31 years old, and connie is probably dead, and i am still thinking about that damn cake.  i need it.  i want it.  i must have it.  i have actually been scouring cookbooks and the internet on and off for years looking for a recipe and only recently have i been able to find a few that look like they might be similar.  but i thought maybe you readers would have something up your sleeves?

here are the recipes that are giving me hope and keeping me from giving up the dream:

http://carolynnsrecipebox.blogspot.com/2011/08/coconut-layer-cake.html  except i don't think it had almond flour in it (and i don't like almond desserts anyway) and it definitely didn't have white chocolate shavings

http://www.dallamiacucinadmc.com/2009/02/true-delights-pineapple-rum-cake-with.html (scroll down) except there was no zabaglione... the filling between the layers was just the whipped cream

http://lazychefrecipes.blogspot.com/2011/05/easy-pineapple-coconut-cake.html  except that it was not this easy

http://www.food.com/recipe/tommy-bahama-pina-colada-cake-449664  except again, no white chocolate

http://baking.food.com/recipe/pina-colada-cake-164836  except it wasn't cool whip

http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_ljwzo9VULr1qc5cg7o1_1280.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJ6IHWSU3BX3X7X3Q&Expires=1324496720&Signature=%2Bo2JOI2Zj6zYOtnWZZsQBs00DD8%3D  except the coconut wasn't toasted and there was no white chocolate dammit!  or maybe i am wrong about the white chocolate...?

please help!

sacred heart church ravioli dinner

i had been hearing rumors about this dinner for years but once it showed up in the saveur top 100 of 2010, i knew i had a date with destiny. after years of trying to hunt it down, beth mysteriously got a flyer in the mail and i marked my calendar. i am now on their mailing list myself because i filled out a request form. never in my life have i been more excited to get on a mailing list.

readers, i am here to tell you that it lives up to the hype. we got there at 1:00 and waited in line for an hour and magically tickets were bought and wine was opened and food arrived and we were in heaven. nobody rushes you out, regardless of the line. and if you can't wait (or if you're just really smart) you can get takeout. well actually you still have to wait for that but it is a ridiculously, wrongly good deal... 50 ravioli for $8. mamma mia!

now... the food. ignore the salad, dessert, and bread. they don't matter. what you are there for is the ravioli. and damn is it ravioli. it is homemade. it is stuffed with a delicious blend of spinach, veal, beef, and cheese (ricotta + parmesan is my best guess). and it is served with the most perfectly balanced, savory, rich, smooth, delicious sauce you have ever eaten. and if that is not enough it is topped with two of the world's most perfect meatballs. and just in case you are not in the mood for ravioli, you can get spaghetti. AND, just in case you can't pick, you can get BOTH. praise jesus!

after living most of my life in terror of organized religion, three years of eating delicious fish fries has completely broken down my fear of setting foot in a church in order to get some good food. i am now a born again cincinnati church food fanatic. and the sacred heart church ravioli is probably the best church food i have ever had. this is the real thing. eat it... if you can figure out when it's happening...

green eats

i saw krishna tonight and i realized that i still have not written a post about green eats... there is no excuse for this because she has had her awesome green/local/delicious catering business for almost a year now and my readers need to know about it.

stuffed mushrooms

a year ago krishna had a regular boring 9 to 5 office job and dreamed of one day opening her own catering business. she took cooking classes night to hone her skills and graduated from the midwest culinary institute last year. all her friends who had ever eaten her food (including me) were like "you can do it, your food is delicious, people will want it." she was not sure. finally she decided to take the plunge and quit her job and she has been going nonstop ever since.

arroz al horno with blood sausage

she cooks for people in their homes, does dinner parties and weddings, and she also does fun stuff like cooking demonstrations at park + vine and wine tastings at market wines. i have never been able to get her to nail down prices for me but that is because she will work with each of her clients' budgets to make food that is both delicious and within their price range.

gambas al ajillo

most the pictures in this blog are photos of a spanish meal that krishna made for maggie's birthday back in january. it was delicious and muy autentico. maggie used to live in spain back in high school and had very specific recipe and ingredient requests, and krishna was able to give her exactly what she wanted.

salad with potatoes, oranges, and red peppers and i have no clue what it is called in spanish

there are so many catering businesses popping up all over cincinnati right now. even if you are specifically looking for a caterer who focuses on fresh, local ingredients, you have your choice. of course i think you should choose krishna for all your food preparation needs because she is my friend. but also she is just a damn good cook. over the past few years i have tried all different kinds of things she has made... brunches, indian food, appetizers, this extravagant spanish meal, salads, soups, desserts. it is all ridiculously good.

red velvet trifle... totally not spanish but it's what maggie wanted

i remember one time krishna prepared an afternoon tapas-style cocktail party for her birthday. one of the things she made was this fig and caramelized onion spread with rosemary. i was obsessed with it. i loved it so much that the next time she made it she gave me her extras and i ate it on everything i could think of for days. and the thing is i don't even really like figs that much (i know that's crazy). it's like she just understood the flavor, texture, and qualities of the figs so well that she knew how to make them into something even better than they started off as (suck it, grammar nazis).

here is krishna serving up her awesome turkey chili at the findlay market chili cookoff

krishna just knows what she is doing with every ingredient in the kitchen, and spends pretty much every free moment learning about and working with local and sustainable food sources. she is always traveling to different farms to find out where to get the best of whatever specific food product she wants, she belongs to vegetable and meat CSAs, and she is very active in the cincinnati slow food movement. there is nothing she puts in her recipes that doesn't belong, and at the same time she comes up with totally unique flavor and ingredient combinations. her food is clean and fresh. the flavors and ingredients are distinct, bold, and thoughtfully created. everything always looks amazing and tastes just as good as it looks.

eat this now: salted rye at skirtz & johnston

like everyone else i have been peeping in the windows at skirtz & johnston every time i have been to findlay market for the past few months, only to pass it up for gelato or rib tips or a waffle or all of the above. today my friend christine was visiting and we were feeling adventurous (and we had to go to the bathroom) so we went in.

mr. t says, "low carb diet? i pity the fool!"

on the counter they had big plates of fat, tempting slices of bread, including this salted rye. i have been obsessed with salted rye ever since the first time jesus brought it into my life at the st. john white oak fish fry last year. well that salted rye was nothing compared to this. soft, chewy, salty, caraway seedy... YUM. we also tried the roasted garlic asiago bread (delicious) and ogled the desserts (beautiful) but this salted rye stole my heart. you must eat this bread.

huevos rancheros

to thank brian for being such an awesome roommate i decided to make him breakfast today. i told him he had his choice of omelettes, scrambled eggs with chicken mango sausage, or huevos rancheros. he chose huevos rancheros so that is what he got.

i had never made huevos rancheros before so i used a combination of the mark bittman and smitten kitchen recipes. mainly i used mark bittman's method but i embellished them a la smitten kitchen by using black beans instead of refried and adding in some fresh salsa and some guacamole.

i won't make you wait to ogle the deliciousness

for the salsa i used herdez salsa taquera which is one of my absolute favorite jarred salsas. i can make my own salsa but i am lazy and herdez is good and cheap. you can find it at pretty much any of the stores around here. if you feel like a more tomatoey salsa, go for the herdez salsa casera. i am a big fan of herdez in general.

as for the beans i got a can of black beans and threw them into some onions and garlic and thyme which i had been cooking until the onions got soft. then i softened them up a bit and added a bay leaf and some lime juice and salt and pepper. they simmered for a while.

then i just put it all together the way mark bittman says and they came out delicious and we put the fresh salsa and guacamole on top. i don't have a specific recipe for fresh salsa but it is really easy, you just chop up some tomatoes (i had some delicious ones from my uncle's garden and the farmer's market) and a hot pepper (from my garden this time) and some onion and garlic and cilantro and then mix it all together with some lime juice, a little white vinegar, and plenty of salt.

this is approximately what your fresh salsa should look like

you may as well make these huevos rancheros yourself because the only place you are going to find any that are even close to this good around here are at tucker's and they are only going to give you a tiny little speck of their fresh salsa. actually i am maybe lying, i bet take the cake does huevos rancheros that are even better than this. i don't know that for sure but it just seems likely.

taste of the nfl... yawn

one of the great things about blogging is that you can really learn a lot about yourself. you do new things so that you can blog about them and in the process you expose yourself to experiences you may never have had, and are forced to come up with opinions on them so you have something to write about.

my name is liz and i have learned that i do not like the taste of the nfl. (read my post from last year for a full breakdown of the event).

i can't blame the freestore foodbank. after i met with them, i was really inspired about all the efforts they put into the event and the hard work they do to make it both fun and significant. when i went this year, i noticed they had made a number of changes such as making the freestore foodbank theme more prominent, doing away with the donation table, and the restaurants seemed to have quite a bit less food on hand so much less was thrown away. in fact, i didn't actually see any food get thrown away. i observed the green dog table packing away their leftovers. and if anyone else threw food away, it happened discreetly. that was great.

my one moment of joy was getting the last miller high life. it is the champagne of beers after all.

and it's really a worthwhile event. it raises a shit ton of money for hungry people. bengals fans get to meet their favorite players. lots of good food is available and the alcohol is free flowing. it's just not for me. it's too crowded. loud music is thumping in the background. a lot of the food is cold-ish or warm-ish or dried out or over or underseasoned. jean robert's chicken was a dry, bland waste of food. i love jean robert normally so this is not to knock him... it's just the nature of this kind of event where you prepare food ahead of time and leave it out. the scallop prepared at the midwest culinary institute table was so chewy and gummy that i had to spit it out (and i'm not a food spitter outer).

dojo was excellent but it's an ice cream cart so there's not a lot to mess up. the green dog blt was yummy. pretty much everything else was somewhere on a scale from unmemorable to kind of gross. i will not take the time to individually insult restaurants that i know can make much better food on their home turf.

this is how kieran feels about taste of the nfl

on top of that you have unnecessarily loud, thumping music... crowds of oblivious, geeked up bengals fans (and i don't give a shit about the bengals)... piles of uneaten food and plates and cups and silverware everywhere. there is nowhere to sit and your eardrums are screaming for a break. fluorescent lights beat down on your pupils. the decor is mid-90s convention center chic. do you enjoy a modicum of personal space? too bad. people are spilling drinks on you and shoving things in your face and jostling you. they ran out of anything but miller lite 2 hours ago. the cocktails taste like kool aid. you can't even get drunk enough to pretend to have fun because the line for the bar is so long.

the taste of the nfl is a fun night for a lot of people that raises a significant amount of money for a great cause. i totally support it. however, i never want to go to it ever again. yes, i know i am a complete asshole. i don't know what to say. it's just not for me.

what i did this weekend... i pickled

i don't really have a recipe, i just kind of loosely followed the recipes in the link in my previous posts on the topic of pickling (especially sierra's). you are just boiling up some brine + spices, throwing the veggies in a jar, pouring hot brine on top, letting them cool, then putting on lids and popping them in the fridge. my general proportions were as follows:

• 1 part salt
• 2 parts sugar
• 2 parts water
• 4 parts vinegar (i used a variety including white, rice wine, white wine, and tarragon)
• various combinations of the following herbs/spices: fresh dill, dill seed, turmeric, mustard seed, celery seed, coriander seed, black peppercorns, dried onions, fresh garlic. i just threw it in and did not measure how much.
• i used the following vegetables: carrots (blanched), cucumbers, green beans

first i made pickled carrots because i had a bunch of carrots laying around. i made way too much brine so i knew i was going to be making more pickles very soon...

oops

next i decided to do cucumbers, because it is traditional (and i love them), and green beans, because i love them.

pretty!

as if that was not enough pickles i had to go out to jungle jim's to get cucumber kimchee because i was seriously craving it after that post the other day. yes i bought it today and i have already eaten a quarter of the jar. yes that is a 32 oz. jar.

i have zero self control so i have already gotten into the pickled carrots even though i just made them yesterday. they are so delicious. right now i am cooking up a huge pot of rice in my rice cooker and i am going to eat all these pickles with the rice all week for lunch, with probably some beef bulgogi or grilled chicken or something. i am going to try to save a couple jars for more than a week so i can see what they taste like after that long but i don't know if i will make it.

food safety note: these are all refrigerator pickles. that means they only last for a few weeks and must stay in the fridge. you can make pickles that will keep in your cupboard if you know proper canning procedures, but i don't so just fyi.

eat this now: geeta's mango chutney and ning chi chili with garlic

i always seem to do my best cooking for myself, and cousin brian now that he lives with me. i think it is because i feel more comfortable just throwing a bunch of shit together and seeing how it comes out without worrying if it will be good. that usually leads to something really interesting and delicious. if i know i am cooking for other people, i tend to be less creative because i am concerned that things won't work and they will not enjoy their meal.

when i went to jungle jim's with my mom last month, i picked up lots of different delicious ingredients which i have been throwing into all kinds of dishes. today i had some leftover rotisserie chicken and wanted some curry chicken salad.

do not try to live one more minute without these condiments

let me just stop and talk about rotisserie chicken for a second because i have some strong opinions on the issue. first of all the only place in my opinion in cincinnati to buy rotisserie chickens is the fresh market. yes i know it is expensive to shop there but this is one thing that is worth buying there. their rotisserie chickens are usually $7-8 and i can get at least four meals out of them. unlike pretty much every rotisserie chicken i have had, which starts out tasting ok but gets a weird flavor and texture after being in the fridge, their rotisserie chickens still taste like normal chicken a few days later. also they are just more delicious from the start, and the skin is not all gooey and weird.

anyway so i had some leftover rotisserie chicken in the fridge. i was poking around and found geeta's mango chutney which i thought would be perfect with the curry. i am a big fan of mango chutney of any type but geeta's is just the shit. the flavors are bold and the spices in it are whole and potent. big chunks of mango and you can taste everything separately (the flavors do not all just blend together like other jarred chutneys). it is spicy and sweet and salty. so good.

i also wanted a little kick so i pulled out the ning chi chili with garlic. i have been absolutely obsessed with this condiment since opening it last week. i already liked the various chili with garlic variants that you can get (all those little plastic bottles with green lids and roosters on them or whatever) but this is just a completely different thing. first of all it has no vinegar or preservatives. it is literally just big ass chunks of garlic and super spicy chilis in oil with a little salt and sugar. it is so absurdly garlicky that really no one should ever eat it if they are going to be around other people but i do it all the time and make people suffer and it is so worth it.

here is my damn good curry chicken salad

anyway so i threw these in with the chicken and some madras curry and then some mayo and colman's mustard, and some chopped up pecans and dried apricots and shredded carrots. then i stirred it all up and put it on bread and it was delicious.

eat this now: korea kimchee

korea kimchee is by far the best jarred kimchee you can buy, at least in cincinnati. the only place around here that i know of that sells it is jungle jim's. the best part is that not only do they do the standard pickled cabbage but they do all kinds of other things (my other favorite is the cucumbers). it is super spicy and delicious. the flavors are bold and authentic and far better than anything else available locally (especially that nasty fabulous ferments crap... bleah).

crappy cell phone pic so you know what it looks like

i really want to make my own pickled things. i am too lazy to learn how to do canning so i am going to try to do fridge pickles like sierra does on forkheartknife. i am absolutely obsessed with pickled green beans so i have to do that. i also want to try making pickled garlic.

does anybody know how to make kimchee? is it hard? this might be one of those things that i am better off just buying.

florida vacation

cousin brian* and i took a trip to ft. lauderdale where we laid on the beach or at the pool all week. it was nice and relaxing. we also ate some good food. here are pictures.

we went grocery shopping so we would not eat out too much

i tried to make grilled cheeses but i was drunk and burned them. we put easy cheese on it to mask the burned taste. not my most shining culinary moment but damn that tasted good after 2 bottles of wine...

here is a picture of a meal that turned out a little better

we went to miami to see andy and diego and we ate at a brazilian place where i had moqueca de peixe... yummy

apparently the oil leak has not yet hit ft. lauderdale

coconut panna cotta with orange and pineapple sauce... this was the most refreshing and delicious dessert

we found some good new york style pizza

fresh, simple, amazing peruvian ceviche

i finally got some more lusted-after oysters

some hot meat... and two steaks

we had sushi on our last night in florida and it was damn good

oh yeah we also went to the beach

i know i am really from cincinnati now because the first thing we ate when we got home was skyline

*not actually my cousin

forkheartknife

it has been a long time since i have been this excited about a place and a post. i am so excited i don't even know where to start. we have a lot of things coming together here. i will break it down.

forkheartknife

forkheartknife is a new catering kitchen and occasionally a casual restaurant on main street just south of liberty. i first heard about it from this soapbox article via wine me, dine me.

the kitchen

the minute i finished reading the article i was totally excited. fresh, interesting, cheap food in over the rhine = awesome. the story of how co-owners sierra and leah decided to start their kitchen = emotional. the innovative, dynamic style of the kitchen = intriguing. i had to know more.

sierra's blog

my next stop from the article was the forkheartknife blog. i read the entire blog in a couple of hours. i was so fascinated that i started in on the clean plate club blog, sierra's former blog. yes, i am a stalker. i was just totally into the awesome photographs and even more so, sierra's writing style. here, i will give you some examples:

i flipped through my recipes and found this tart recipe (bon appetit?). they are beautiful and when leah and i did our taste testing i was jumping around yelling YUM with my mouth full and the chills on my arms. a sure sign that we had struck gold. this one is vegetarian with asparagus, piquillo peppers and goat cheese baked in an egg custard with a sprinkle of spanish paprika.

i make a lazy pickle, or “quickle” (because i like making combo words, too). i don’t have a granny to teach me the fine nuances of canning, and so i get stuff in a jar with a tight lid and keep everything in the fridge for safety. for veggies like cukes, peppers, okra, onions, green beans, softer veggies: pack a jar with the vegetable, heat the pickling brine on the stove and pour it over the jar after it comes to a boil, making sure that the seasonings are equally distributed in each jar. the lids go on while things are still really hot and that usually leaves me hearing the POP of the jars sealing. things cool down and they go in the fridge for up to a month. i love them in the first week, usually still nice and crunchy and fresh tasting. not that they get less crunchy, but its fun to taste how things change while they are hanging around longer…

little known fact: long ago, before i even started culinary school, i lived in providence, rhode island for 6 months. while i was there, i worked at a bakery, as a barista and counter person. i would have to go in at 4 in the morn and dust all the flour off the glass display shelves, arrange the bread, scones, muffins, cookies, etc. and i fell in love with food then. that is when it happened. walking in there on a cold morning when it was almost impossible to get out of bed, and having it be hot and steamy from the ovens.. the glass fogged up… the smell… romantic as hell. i gained about 20 pounds in those 6 months, eating that bread and marveling at its perfection.

i swear i got the chills when i put this bite in my mouth. i wanted to do something bacon wrapped for this party (how is it ever wrong?). and i remembered jenna raving about this bacon wrapped date thing she’d had at a wine dinner at dunham cellars.. stuffed with manchego made for the perfect combo! manchego cheese is my favorite, its spanish and its got a great, smooth, nutty flavor. with the sweet date, the nuttiness grounds the bite, the crispness and saltiness and fat of the bacon adding everything else you would ever want! EATING FOOD IS SO AMAZING!!

the combination of straightforward, to the point descriptions plus the uncontainable excitement for food itself and feeding other people that comes through in every sentence just got me. that plus she makes pickles!

pizza night

a quick segue into pizza night. one final reason i became fully obsessed with forkheartknife. pizza night is a thing that used to happen last summer. a group of guys who are all amazing cooks would get together and make this amazing pizza (homemade everything... dough, pizza sauce, sausage, you name it they made it) on thursday nights in the take the cake space.

the pizzas were an absolute revelation. i could not get enough of them. they would make seven kinds of pizza, plus two appetizers (usually some variations on bruschetta... my favorite was the tuna paste mashed up with fresh garlic... yum). occasionally there was a sorbet which i never seemed to be able to get my hands on.

you would show up at like 7, pay $10, bring all the wine and beer of your own you wanted, and just hang out and chat and eat. the appetizers came out first and then one by one, the pizzas. it was just one pizza at a time so you would kind of snack all evening while you drank and met new friends. the food was amazing, straight up skilled kitchen creativity, and it was also just such an experience going there and eating awesome food and talking to people who loved food and relaxing and having fun, all while knowing it could not last forever or probably even much longer.

pizza night was so good that i vowed to myself i would never breathe a word about it on this blog. i only told maybe five or six of my friends about it. i never even took pictures of it (and i always take pictures). it was so awesome and felt so tenuous and fleeting that i was scared it might get overrun with people and disappear forever. and then at the end of the summer it was over. now it is just a memory for the people who were able to experience it. however, rumor has it that the pizza night guys are hard at work developing their new idea of opening a full on restaurant. i am very excited about this but i know it will not be the same.

here is the point of me talking about pizza night: on one of sierra's blogs, i found this post. she had been to pizza night! and then i found this post. and this post. and this post. and this post. she had made the sorbet at pizza night!!!

after that i was officially obsessed. i had to meet this girl and eat her food.

sunday brunch

a bit more internet stalking and i learned that forkheartknife was open last week for thursday dinner and sunday brunch. they are just getting started and don't know until that week when they will be open. so they post it on facebook and twitter. if that is too hard for you then fine, more food for me.

anyway i had to go asap so i rounded up erin and we went for brunch. we sipped coffee outside while waiting a few short minutes for a table and then we decided we had to try one of everything on the menu. it was wonderful and everything i hoped it could be. we ate some delicious things:

fruit gazpacho and lemon bread pudding with raspberry sauce

bacon and collard green frittata and spiced roasted potatoes with chimichurri and red pepper romesco

if those photos don't sell you then there is nothing i can say that will. the food was awesome. fresh, simple, to the point, and very flavorful. the bread pudding especially impressed me. i am not a big sweet breakfast person and it was perfect. the lemon custard (was it custard?) was tart and rich without being too sweet. the raspberry sauce was deeply flavored and balanced the lemon perfectly. the bread itself was thick and chewy and totally able to handle the strong flavors of the lemon and raspberry. so. damn. good.

on top of all that we got to meet sierra and leah who are just as awesome in person as they seem on the internet. sierra even gave us a couple of muffins which we munched on later that afternoon. they were moist, tasty carrot muffins with big fat juicy raisins and pineapple chunks inside. delicious.

thank you forkheartknife for living up to all my wildest internet stalker dreams! i am excited to see how this place develops. you should get there as soon as humanly possible, but don't forget to make sure they are open first.

return to taste of the nfl

long time readers will remember that last year, i got invited to attend taste of the nfl. those readers will also remember that after the event, i wrote a post about it that stirred up some controversy. in a nutshell, i thought it was a good event in concept (raising money for the freestore foodbank while allowing bengals fans to eat good food and meet the team), but in practice it was kind of disturbing for the following reasons: a) there was very little emphasis on the fact that the event was actually for the freestore foodbank, b) a shit ton of food was being thrown away at an event that was meant to benefit hungry people, and c) nobody seemed to be the least bit bothered by those things.

so i wrote my post and put my opinion out there and got a lot of feedback, both in comments and in personal emails. some people agreed with me and others thought i was being obnoxious. it was one of the most interesting debates we have had on this blog so even if i came across as an asshole i felt like it was worth it. and at any rate, i was sharing my opinion which is what this blog is all about. if you don't like it, don't read it.

i was sure after that post that i would stop getting invites to free events (most of which i don't attend anyway) and sure enough, the invites slowed to a trickle. nobody likes a blogger who bites the hand that feeds her. i figured my taste of the nfl post probably annoyed and/or offended a lot of people who might have previously thought of my blog as a potential marketing opportunity for them and they probably would not be reaching out to me anymore. and that was fine with me.

so imagine my surprise when i received the following email:

Hi Liz-

Taste of the NFL is coming up soon and we remember your post from last year’s event. You made several good points that we’ve wrestled with ourselves. Food waste has always been a difficult issue as is our attempt to balance our identity with the Bengals connection. This is actually an event that happens in many NFL cities with the cooperation of the league, so NFL and Bengals ID is not only valuable but dictated to some extent. However, maybe it’s possible to raise our ID.

The reason for the e-mail: Would you be willing to get together with me and the folks here who plan the event so we can get some of your ideas about these issues? We always want to do things better if we can. Please let me know.

Best regards,

Brian M.

Vice President of Communications & Strategic Planning

Freestore Foodbank

i could not believe it. here i wrote this fairly negative critique of the event, and i am sure people at the freestore foodbank were offended by it (this was after getting past my shock that they had even read it... i am always a little taken aback when i find out that people actually read this blog). but instead of writing me off, they wanted to talk to me. of course i said yes.

the meeting took place a few days ago. i was invited to tour the new freestore foodbank facilities on central parkway, which are beautiful. i also got to see the cincinnati cooks kitchen, which is awesome. here is a description of cincinnati cooks in case you have not heard of it:

Cincinnati COOKS! is a free, ten-week culinary training program that prepares low income, at-risk individuals for employment in the food service industry as well as teaches life and job skills components to ensure the graduates success. Currently operating from the Rosenthal Community Kitchen, Cincinnati COOKS! uses donated and rescued food to prepare meals and snacks, much of which is used to feed children in our Kids Café Program.

i learned that not only are people enrolling and getting important job skills from the program, but they actually have an 80% graduation rate, and even more importantly a 75% hiring rate. that is awesome.

brian and a couple of his colleagues took me to lunch at enzo's (which is awesome and deserves its own post and i can't believe i hadn't been there yet) and we had a really open, honest, and interesting conversation about the taste of the nfl event. i learned that they make as a profit approximately $160k-$200k at the event. all the food is donated to the restaurants by their vendors, and the restaurants donate staff time to prepare food for and work at the event. the alcohol is donated. the bengals items are donated. the serving items (dishes/napkins/silverware/etc.) are not donated, and are the cheapest items possible (which is why they are not recyclable). the bengals are contractually required to be there for at least an hour, and do not get any extra pay for it since it is during their spring mini-camp. the use of the space is donated.

the freestore foodbank gives restaurants guidelines for how much food to prepare so that there is limited waste. they recommend about 200 servings, and absolutely no more than 300. over 1000 people attend the event but the organizers are aware that no one can try everything, hence the limit. some restaurants listen to these guidelines and some don't. also, it's impossible to predict which dishes will be a hit at the event and which will be ignored. sometimes restaurants make less food than they are supposed to so that they can appear to be popular.

another thing i learned (which i guess i sort of knew but did not really think about) is that the taste of the nfl is a national event. all (maybe? maybe it is just some) of the nfl teams do a similar event. the cincinnati event raises the most money of all of them except for the taste of the superbowl event (which i think is just on a whole other scale). it is the second highest grossing event that the freestore foodbank does (the highest grossing event is the rubber duck regatta).

we talked a lot about how to raise awareness of the freestore foodbank at the event. my view is that most of the people who go to the event are there for the bengals and don't know (or maybe don't care) that they are actually also raising money for hungry people. it's very much a party atmosphere and showing a slideshow of starving babies or something would not be appropriate or effective. but we discussed different ideas of how to bring the freestore foodbank more to the forefront of the event.

we also talked about the food waste. i'm not sure there is much that they can do to resolve this problem. i was really impressed at how much thought the freestore foodbank has given this issue. they have investigated programs like second helpings in indianapolis as an option. but there are a few problems. first, any food that is prepared at the event is no longer re-servable by law. second, much of the food is prepared a day or several days in advance, making it even less likely to be safe to eat after the event. finally, transportation of the food is a big problem since only recently did the freestore foodbank acquire a refrigerated truck, and it's not big enough to hold all the food. plus, even if they were able to transport it, they would not have a place to store it that late at night. and then what would they do with it?

they don't like throwing it away, and maybe there are other solutions that they have not thought of, but i was really impressed with how much thought had gone into this issue. they are very aware of the problem and want to do things differently but can't think of a feasible solution. i'm not saying this should be the end of the road on this discussion, but they are actively seeking solutions, and just haven't found any yet, and i respect that.

this was one of the most interesting and refreshing conversations on the needs of our community and what a very dedicated organization is doing to resolve them that i have had in a long time. and i have a lot of those conversations believe it or not. a lot of my concerns about the taste of the nfl event were assuaged and the freestore foodbank was open to my ideas about how they could make some changes.

continue to suspend your disbelief for a second: they have invited me back to the taste of the nfl. so i will be at the event and will give you a full report on how things measure up as compared to last year, and with a new perspective on what goes into it. if you would like to join me, mark your calendar for june 16 and don't forget to buy your tickets.

foods i ate while my mom was here

in lieu of an actual blog post (which i am too busy/lazy to write), i offer you these photos of foods my mom and i ate while she visited me last weekend.

tomato bisque and salad at lavomatic

tacos at taqueria mercado

random appetizer dinner mostly from jungle jim's and also leftover steak from honey

turkey muffaletta and ginger slaw at melt

my mom and me just before spending half our day wandering around jungle jim's

new(ish) cinci food blog roundup + some of my non-cinci favorites

in an effort to avoid packing i decided to poke around on urbanspoon and what do you know, a whole slew of new cincinnati food blogs have popped up! very exciting. i have added them to my blog list to the right, but in case you don't check it or are reading this on your google reader, here they are with their descriptions:

• amateur foodies: "Amateur Foodies will have restaurant reviews and photos and recipes from our home cooking, but we are hoping to really add to the "blog landscape" by consistently discussing ingredients, sources, food politics, and more. We have found the CinciLocavore Yahoo Group listserv to be fantastic. And there are a number of great local foodie blogs. But, we'd like more crossover where "average" readers looking for information on restaurants or recipes also get exposed to the kinds of issues and questions that are common place on CinciLocavore - including the importance of local foods, sustainability, policy, and more...We also really wanted a personal outlet for what we care about, so a blog was a pretty straightforward choice..."
• hold the mustard: this blog does not have a description but it appears to be a dude who hates mustard and likes sports bars, burgers, pizza, and other casual food
• epi-ventures: "Epi-ventures is written by me, Courtney Tsitouris, a graphic designer, writer and cook in Cincinnati, Ohio... Food plays an important role in my life and though I spend my days toiling away in the marketing profession, cooking and eating make my heart go pitter-patter. My free time is spent attending culinary school at the Midwest Culinary Institute, cooking lavish meals at home and eating in restaurants all over town. I take the business of dining out seriously, and much of what I have to say comes from an earnest attempt to observe, taste, smell, and feel every nuance in each restaurant that I visit... I also take the business of dining in seriously. The recipes on this site are the result of many hours in the kitchen — trying to master technique, experimenting and setting occasional fires..."
• hyde park foodie: "...I am a passionate consumer of food, beer and wine, and the venues that bring them to me. I like to cook, but I am no chef. I like to eat out, but I am not a snob. There are people who get paid for this, people who are trained for this, people who make their career writing reviews, and that is not me. Who am I as an eater? Am I like you? I love a good meal. I enjoy a good burger, a thick ribeye steak, a hearty burrito with extra spice, a fiery indian curry, a sweet thai curry, an oozing chocolate fondant, and most importantly, sharing it all with friends... And I love drinks as much as food. I love a nice cold beer on a hot day, or a cold day, or a Spring day. I am spoiled by 5 years in London's vibrant pub culture where the imperial pint was born. I also love a hearty red wine in a proper big glass. What types, grapes, regions? I don't know, I like to try them all..."
• adventures in dining with kids in cincinnati: "We are a family of four that lives in Blue Ash...We have no culinary experience at all, other than eating in restaurants... We are not foodies. At ALL... We are going to try to stay away from chains like Outback and O’Charlie’s but we might go and we might review them. Our reviews will be fairly short and to the point following a basic format with a funny stories added in here and there for your amusement. Bathrooms: The bathrooms, I know it is a little odd to review the bathrooms. However how clean the bathrooms appear and the amenities become important when potty training and diapering. One of our biggest issues are baby changing stations, when they are not in the men’s bathrooms it makes it difficult for dads to change the baby’s diaper..."
• the cincy gobbler: "Follow The Gobbler as it reviews local restaurants and events in Cincinnati. It'll give you the inside scoop on all the great spots to check out and award "Turkeys" to each that it visits. For those cooking aficionados out there check out the recipes Ms. Minno attempts!"

welcome, new bloggers! i love food blogs and i am really excited to see more popping up here in cincinnati.

in case you want to check out some awesome non-cincinnati food blogs, here are a few of my favorites:

• we are never full: "This blog covers the border-line food and drink obsession of two Brooklynites (Amy’s American, Jonny’s English) with anecdotes and recipes from our weeknight meals at home, special occasion dinners out, and vacations studiously built around the search for the authentic, the fresh, and the delicious."
• momofuku for 2: "I’m just your average girl who loves to cook and who loves noodles... In 2007, I visited New York, and one of the places I wanted to eat at most was Momofuku Noodle Bar, but it almost didn’t happen. My first visit to Momofuku seemed like fate, it never would have happened without a lucky string of delayed flights, flukey taxi drop-offs, and the willingness to wait 45 minutes for the restaurant to open... A couple of years later I had my wedding and honeymoon in New York City. Instead of taking care of wedding details such as flowers or hair and makeup, I hit up all 4 Momofukus. (There happen to be 5 ‘fukus now, but it’s a good excuse to go back.) It was absolutely delicious: a fried chicken feast..., the Ko lunch menu, watching the chicken wing chef lovingly caress each wing before plating, these are memories that last a lifetime, my friends!"
• go ramen!: "I'm just a ramen addict that can slurp 24-7. I created this blog to promote ramen eating. I hate seeing all the good ramen shops disappear when they don't deserve to. Let's try to keep them all in business. GO RAMEN!"
• the wednesday chef: "The Wednesday Chef is written by me, Luisa Weiss, a writer and home cook in Berlin, Germany... I grew up in Berlin with an American father and an Italian mother. This gives me all kinds of questionable authority on food, and the ability to speak several languages. It also means I like all kinds of things: Leberwurst sandwiches and Pflaumenkuchen when I'm in Berlin; pizza al taglio and roasted rabbit in Urbino; dan dan noodles and char siu bao in New York. I am perpetually homesick, so I cook to anchor myself and find joy in the small things: a perfect apricot, the texture of sea urchin, the smell of bread baking in my kitchen. And writing about food, well, it seems to go hand-in-hand with cooking for me. This website was started in August 2005 as a way of working through a mountain of recipe clippings from The New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Five years later, that pile doesn't seem to have gotten any smaller..."
• the hungry mouse: "The Hungry Mouse is a visual guide to food and cooking, and does just the opposite, relying more on pictures than words to demonstrate a recipe. Jessie’s signature, step-by-step photo recipes are designed to show you what each stage of cooking looks like. So you know just what you’re in for before you step into the kitchen as well as when you’re in front of the stove... Jessie is not a trained chef. She just loves to cook and write. (It’s really that simple.)..."
• fried wontons for you: "Hello, my name is Shao and welcome to my recipe keeper, travel log, and food diary. Born in Guangzhou, China, I have been living around the Center City area of Philadelphia for over twenty years. I started this blog to combine two of my favorite interests: photography and cooking. I believe we eat with our eyes first, but we should never judge a dish simply by its appearances and even smell. For me food is meant to nourish, a vehicle for storytelling, and a way for me to say “Thanks for always being there.”, “You’re the best.”, and “Never give up.”"

happy reading!

cincinnati gelato drama!

as many readers know by now i am a huge fan of dojo gelato. i think it is the best gelato i have had outside of italy. and i have tried many excellent gelatos in places like new york, miami, chicago, san francisco, etc. very food minded places. i just love dojo the best.

well it seems that madisono's is kind of jealous of the success dojo has had. if you ever go to the madison's store in findlay market, you will see a sign in the window advertising how their gelato is only $2, not $3.75 like dojo's. they don't say "like dojo's" but it is implied.

so today i got this press release from madisono's advertising how they have honey lavender gelato which they are going to be serving at the flower show. i remembered honey lavender as a flavor that dojo had before. i checked their blog and in fact they did have it back in december, and maybe other times too but i am too lazy to look back any further.

so then i searched the madisono's blog (because he lists his new flavors there as he comes up with them) and found no mention of honey lavender. hmmm... so where did they get that flavor idea? i don't know but i am definitely sensing some drama here. scandalous!

fish fry fridays... facing the fear

as long time readers know, i have a serious fear of organized religion which normally does not affect my day-to-day life, food-related or otherwise, very much. however during this season of amazingly delicious church fish fries, my fear gets in the way of my need to consume tasty food at a low cost.


last year, i faced my fear head on and went for some god and cod. while the fish was crazy good and i was proud of myself for facing my fear, i remain terrified of fish fries at churches. it is bad.

i am not one to shy away from a challenge so i have decided that this year, i will be eating at a fish fry every friday from now until the end of lent. i have no idea when that is but it can't be that far off from now since i feel like people have been avoiding meat for a while now. ok i just looked it up and it is april 3.

every friday from now until then (well except maybe this friday since i will be wasted off my ass at bockfest), i am here on this blog publicly committing to go to a fish fry.

here is my calendar so far:

• march 12: st. francis de sales in east walnut hills for lauren's birthday
• march 19: st. boniface in northside with the dojo gelato crowd
  
• march 26: mary queen of heaven in erlanger
• april 2: TBD
  

now i need your help. first, i need suggestions for the best fish fries. also, i need company because i am seriously too scared to do this on my own. friends and readers who are not stalkers, please comment here if you either a) know of good fish fries or b) will join me on my quest. i will update the calendar as i decide on locations.

tuna taco nirvana

i have a lot of different things that i make with varying degrees of success, but the one thing that i am really amazing at making is tuna tacos. what i do is make grilled tuna, put it on some corn tortillas, throw on some salsa and red cabbage slaw and maybe guacamole, and then die of happiness.

here is my recipe for grilled tuna (scroll down). you can also find my guacamole recipe there too. for the corn tortillas, what you want to do is heat up a skillet really hot and put them in for about 1 minute per side to soften them up and cook the corn a bit. don't just eat them out of the bag, they will depress you. cooking them makes all the difference. you could also throw them on the grill with the tuna if you want.

a belated photo of the tacos

here is my red cabbage slaw recipe. this changes every time i make it. for example, today i added pomelo and shredded carrots and i used all lime juice (no lemon) and a little seasoned rice wine vinegar. other fun substitutions/additions are using orange juice or lemonade, adding raisins or chopped dried apricots or fresh pineapple or whatever you think sounds good.

so you just grill the tuna, heat up the tortillas, and then put a little salsa on the tortillas (today i went for herdez salsa taquera) and then the tuna and then the slaw. they are amazingly delicious. i like them so much that i hardly ever make them for other people. i feel like if you eat my tuna tacos then everything else i make for you will be disappointing. i make them for myself all the time though, especially on random days like today when the opportunity to grill unexpectedly falls out of the sky and lands in my lap. sorry i don't have a picture, i ate them too quickly and forgot until it was too late.