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Cooking and Chef Recipes

Dish with the Divas where you will find out all the secrets that only a true Diva would know!

Scott Joseph's Orlando Restaurant Guide proudly presents: The Divas of Dish. Featuring the Diva Pam Brandon and Diva Anne-Marie…

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Wine

Advice on wine and food pairing from area sommeliers.

Advice on wine and food pairing from area sommeliers.

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Scott's Travel Log

Restaurant recommendations around the world.

Follow Scott Joseph as he travels the world in search of...

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By Features

Looking for outdoor dining, Sunday brunch, a place for a banquet or somewhere quiet?

Looking for outdoor dining, Sunday brunch, a place for a banquet or somewhere quiet?

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Celebration at Rocco's

Rocco's Italian Grille & Bar is celebrating its Foodie Award win as Best Italian restaurant with a special happy hour Thursday. The gathering will feature live jazz and 2-for-1 drink specials. See the details below:

Read more: Celebration at Rocco's

 

Divas Chip In With Cioppino

Part aromatic stew, part finger food, cioppino (pronounced chuh-PEE-no) is a mouthwatering mélange of fresh seafood that

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Shrimp, mussels and Chilean sea bass are chipped in for a bountiful cioppino.
originated on the docks of romantic San Francisco, and is adored ‘round the globe as bouillabaisse in France, brodetto in Italy and suquet de peix in coastal Spain.

Cioppino recalls the raucous days of the California gold rush, and we imagine swarthy Italian and Portuguese immigrants pulling their catch from the icy waters of the Pacific to “chip in” a bit of this, a bit of that, comprising this communal brew of all things yum.

With the flavor-intensive cioppino, you can stick with Sauvignon Blanc, or be fickle and jump to a fruity Beaujolais. If you prefer your cioppino on the spicy side, try a big, bold Syrah.

Read more: Divas Chip In With Cioppino

 

Adobo Grill in Chicago's Old Town

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Adobo Grill in Chicago's Old Town
CHICAGO -- I had a hard time convincing my friend to join me in a visit to Chicago’s Adobo Grill. “I hate Mexican food,” he said. “Just give it a try,” I said.

Adobo Grill is now one of my friend’s favorite Chicago restaurants. Like most people, the only “Mexican” food he had tried was bastardizations and variations on a Mexican theme. Tex-Mex is only scantly associated with true Mexican cuisine, and many restaurants outside the Southwest do their own interpretations of what Mexican food is based on what Tex-Mex is. It isn’t difficult to understand why someone would dislike those results.

Adobo Grill gets back to the basic roots of Mexican cuisine. Perhaps still not a literal translation, it comes close, and the total experience is a pleasant and satisfying one.

Read more: Adobo Grill in Chicago's Old Town

 

Homeowners for Haiti Update - David Ramirez Will Appear

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Award-winning pastry chef David Ramirez
More details are coming together for this Saturday's Homeowners for Haiti event at the Central Florida Home & Garden Show. Award-winning pastry chef  David Ramirez will be part of the team cooking a fabulous menu for attendees. Ramirez was the captain of the 2009 Team USA, representing the country in the internationally acclaimed Coupe du Monde de la Pâtisserie, aka the World Pastry Cup, competition in Lyon, France.

Ramirez will join fellow chefs Michael Mullen, Jorge Olivera and Michael Rumplik to prepare such items as Focaccia-Crusted Lamb Chops, Tropical Crab Cakes with Mango Salsa, Tobias-Braised Short Ribs, Pan-Seared Diver Scallops, and Chocolate Sabayon for dessert. In addition, we'll be pouring wines from Rodney Strong and Opici.

Tickets are limited and MUST be purchased in advance. The cost is $25 and includes admission to the Central Florida Home & Garden Show. All proceeds from the event -- and by that I mean every cent of the $25 -- will go to purchase housing for victims of the Haiti earthquake. The Little Haiti House, a prototype of the specially designed homes that will be manufactured in Central Florida and shipped to Haiti for assembly, will be on display at the show.

This is a really wonderful event, and I know the food of all of these chefs and can tell you, this is an amazing deal.

The Homeowners for Haiti food and wine event is Saturday, March 20, 2010, from 6-9 p.m. at the Orange County Convention Center, North Concourse. Click here to purchase tickets.

 

Rangetsu Closing

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Rangetsu, the Japanese restaurant and sushi bar that has been a prominent fixture on International Drive since 1986, will close at the end of the month. General manager Takashi Kikuchi told me that the economy was a deciding factor. "We used to get big parties," said Kikuchi, "but conventions are down, Japanese tourists are down, and we have too many employees."

He said the building was under contract to be sold, but could not give any details about the prospective buyers. The current owner, according to Kikuchi, is in Japan. He also couldn't say what will happen to the many koi in the ponds in front of the restaurant, although he was certain they would be cared for.

Rangetsu, which was spelled with a hyphen for many years and whose name means orchid moon, has 350 seats and a staff of 40. The last day will be March 31.

   

Steak & Salad

Steak and Salad is the Least of What Is Offered Here

steak_and_salad_estThe sign out front couldn’t be less enticing, a plainly unadorned marquee with the words Steak & Salad in red lettering on a white background. In the restaurant’s defense, that is the name of the restaurant, though that alone is worth a lesson in the pros and cons of good marketing.

I had passed the small building in the 1300 block of Mills Avenue for months and couldn’t think of a good reason to stop. Then one day a blackboard had been placed outside that read, “Now serving Turkish food.” Now there was a reason to stop. Now I have even better reasons to go back.

The way I heard the story, the owners opened the restaurant, which was the former Friends cafe, with a menu that featured the eponymous food items, your basic salads and basic cuts of (decidedly inexpensive) meats. Then a server pointed out to the owners that they were of Turkish descent, and perhaps they might try serving some of their traditional homeland foods.

So a separate menu was added with such things as kebabs and kofte and bulgur pilav and red lentil soup.

That soup, also indicated on the menu with its Turkish names, mercimek corbasi, was a little bowl of spicy liquid heat, with the lentils more pureed than in pebble form.

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Adana Kebab
For my entree I had the adana kebab, which the menu calls a spicy meatloaf. That’s pretty much the perfect description. The ground meat concoction was freckled with bits of red pepper, which added tastes of fire. But just in case that wasn’t enough spice, a whole grilled jalapeno was included. The meat and pepper were atop a flat pita, which also had slices of tomatoes and raw onions. You could either eat with a knife and fork or fold it all up into a wrap. At first I wanted to add a little tzatziki or other sauce, but once I started eating it I realized none was needed. A generous serving of bulgur pilav was included.

I also had the kofte, which are sort of like meatballs, and the shish kebab, which ahd sirloin steak tips and mushrooms. (I could leave without having some sort of steak.)

Dinners also include a choice from an array of side dishes, which are identified as salads. The shepherd salad was a mixture of large chunks of chopped tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and green peppers in a vinaigrette, a light and fresh-tasting salad. Eggplant and spinach salads were more like dips, along the lines of babaganouj or hummus. And they, too, were delicious.
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Shepherd salad


The restaurant is small, fewer than 40 seats by my count, but it’s tidy and has the look of having been recently painted. Tabletops are a sort of greenish marble design, although no actual stone is present. A small bar has seating for three or four people at large wicker stools.

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The dining room at Steak & Salad is tidy, tiny and comfortable.
Oh, about the bar. The menu lists a number of cocktails, but be warned -- these are not made with actual liquor. They are fashioned out of wine-based liquids meant for restaurants with licenses restricting them to beer and wine. To me, this is sort of like offering chopped steak fashioned out of tofu.

If, like me, you’ve passed Steak & Salad and dismissed it as unworthy of your time, I hope you’ll stop in. The folks are friendly, the setting is comfortable, and the food -- at least the Mediterranean fare -- is quite good.

Steak & Salad is at 1326 N. Mills Ave., Orlando. It is open for lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday. The phone number is 407-898-0999. The Web site is steakandsaladorlando.com.
   

Chef Henry's

Restaurant reviews tend to follow a pattern, one that chronicles the meal itself, starting with appetizers, then soups and salads and on to entrees. But a review of Chef Henry’s requires one to start with dessert. Simply put, the apple strudel here is phenomenal.

This isn’t exactly news. I’ve raved about the strudel since I first wrote about this family’s original restaurant, Chef Henry’s Cafe. And the strudel was singled out for my very first Foodie Award for Best Dessert, in 1999. Then, as now, the strudel was made Henrys_frontby Estera Brestowski, chef Henry’s wife. Words can’t do it justice. There is no way to adequately describe the buttery flakiness of the pastry or the sweetly tart taste of the apples and how they are baked perfectly to that elusive point between too crunchy and too soft. It just can’t be done.

Of course, the strudel is even more enjoyable when it comes at the end of a meal as wonderful as one at Chef Henry’s. The food is simple, really, but the flavors are complex. And the execution is masterful.

My guests and I started with an array of appetizers, including halusky, a potato dumpling mixed with cheese and a touch of bacon that can only be described as a sort of Slovakian mac and cheese. But even a fancier version than those currently being touted at expensive restaurants around the country. And bryndzovnik, a puff pastry filled with sliced potatoes, sour cream and cheese. And gazda kobasz, a classic Hungarian style pork sausage.

Read more: Chef Henry's

   

Get Grilling Tips From the Pros in Scott's Grilling Garden at the Central Florida Home & Garden Show

 

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Spring is here. It’s raining outside right now (March showers bring April...that doesn’t sound right). It has finally warmed up to a temperature resembling Florida. And Daylight Savings Time returns this weekend -- don’t forget to set an alarm so you can watch all your atomic clocks reset at 2 a.m. Or is it 3 a.m.? I forget.

Anyway, it’s spring, and that means grilling outdoors. It means doing some other things outdoors, too, but for now let’s keep our minds on grilling, shall we?

I love throwing things on the grill. I like to cook a nice juicy steak, of course, but I’ve also done a prime rib and a stuffed turkey on the trusted Weber. Sometimes I use a gas grill, but I prefer the heat of charcoal. That’s just me.

But I’m no expert by any means. And I can always use some advice. That’s why I’ve invited chefs who have a particular skill with the grill to be part of my Grilling Garden cooking stage at the Central Florida Home & Garden Show. The show is March 19-21 at the Orange County Convention Center, and I’ll have chefs each day doing demonstrations and giving tastes and recipes.

On Friday, at noon, Tim Keating, executive chef at Flying Fish Cafe will whip up some gazpacho and cook some of the fish he’s known for at the popular Disney’s BoardWalk restaurant. Then at 2:30 Dan Drayer, executive chef for Talk of the Town restaurants (Charley’s Steakhouse, FishBones, MoonFish, Vito’s Chophouse) will be cooking some halibut and talking about the best way to cook a big hunk of meat.

Click to see who else will be grilling at the show...

   
Thursday, 18 March 2010

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