One of the favorite flavors of my life for the past 30 years or so has been that green paste they call guacamole. Back in 1984 Frisch’s Big Boy out of Cincinnati started shipping #10 cans of guacamole to the restaurants in Ohio so the topping/dip could be used in a few new dishes they were [...]]]>

One of the favorite flavors of my life for the past 30 years or so has been that green paste they call guacamole. Back in 1984 Frisch’s Big Boy out of Cincinnati started shipping #10 cans of guacamole to the restaurants in Ohio so the topping/dip could be used in a few new dishes they were rolling out. We received a couple of the large cans at the restaurant I worked at on West Broad St. just outside the I-270 loop. A lot of us had never had the stuff before, so manager Gus Pappas opened one of the cans so we could try what we were supposed to use. It was, as I wrote in the first line above, a “paste”, thoroughly puréed, and a singular pea-soup color throughout. Tasting the quacamole with the same kind of metal spoons we always placed at the tables (using plastic spoons for that kind of thing wasn’t in vogue yet), we found some of the stomachs in the room weren’t quite up to the task. I didn’t mind it, but it was, in fact, slightly odd while still being a little on the intriguing side.

Since that time I’ve had what I always assumed was actual guacamole on numerous dishes, from Taco Bell’s 7-layer Burrito (an unfortunate staple of mine in the late 1990s) to various Tex-Mex salads at joints purporting to be “authentic Mexican” (which in fact were more like New York City-made salsa) to lots of different sandwiches (yes, wraps too) that actually worked rather well with the paste included as one of the spreads.

As embarassing as this is to write, I found just past April 13th that the stuff I’ve been enjoying as guacamole for almost three decades isn’t anywhere near the wonderful goodness and amazing simplicity of the real, authentic dish. On that date, I picked up Mary after work and we headed to one popular BBQ pork restaurant in Toledo for a meal … only to find they were a converted Hot-n-Now and that they’re drive-thru only. Wanting a sit-down meal we headed another mile down the road to The Docks and decided to try El Vaquero, which we’d heard was as authentic Mexican as it gets in Toledo. On our way in we noticed a sign for Tableside Guacamole for $5.99. It sounded intriguing, so once we were seated we asked the server for it as an appetizer.

That’s when things got interesting. The server came back with a busser’s cart with the Tableside Guacamole sign on it. On the top of the cart was a number of metal bins, and the oddest mortar/pestle I’d seen. The thing was carved out of roughstone, and had a face painted on it like a pig. The server added chopped tomato and red onion to the mortar, along with chopped jalapeno. He then cut and pitted two Hass avocados, scooped the fruit out of the flesh and added the fruit to the mortar, along with some chopped cilantro. Finally, he squeezed a lime into the mix and sprinkled salt and pepper over it all. Using two spoons, he then proceeded to mash the bejeezus out of the mixture, then set the whole thing, mortar and all, on our table, just as you see it in the photo on the left. Ok, I’m the one that stood the menu behind it …

That guacamole was nothing at all like any other guac I’ve had in my life. It was thick and chunky, bursting with the individual flavors which contrasted well together while creating an overall flavor like nothing I’d had before. It was seriously addicting, so much so that Mary and I used the still-warm 4″ tortilla chips to polish of the entire mortar full of guacamole.

We had to have more. Mary’s simple question of “You can make this, right?” sent me on a quest these past few weeks. Fortunately, I found everything I needed, almost in one place.

If you’re driving through the city of Adrian in southeast Michigan just north of the Ohio line, you wouldn’t have much of a clue that there’s a fairly large Mexican community there. In the small downtown area is a single authentic restaurant, The Grasshopper, El Chapulin, that even serves a rather decent bowl of Menudo, the beef tripe and hominy stew that turns the stomach of so many sqeamish Americans. But southeast of the downtown area there’s a square mile or so straddling East Beecher Street between South Winter and Parr Highway that’s home to almost the entire Mexican community of the area. There are small buildings along Beecher offering handmade tacos and chalupas, a place called The Tamale Factory run by three generations of women that’s basically a hole-in-the-wall in the corner of an old auto shop, a small Mexican family sit-down restaurant called Mario’s Mexican Restaurant on the north side of Beecher between Oak and Treat that you can’t even get into at lunchtime because it’s so packed, a great family restaurant at Maumee and Dorothy called the Sunny Side Café that serves the most amazing Mexican breakfast dishes …

… and right there at the corner of Beecher and Gulf is one of my own favorite places to shop, Victoria’s Market.

Even though the market has been on my radar for a while, I’d never bought anything in the way of cooking tools from them. I’d vaguely recalled seeing some mortars at the bottom of the tool rack but it had seemed to me they were marble or some other kind of stone. Last week, though, when I headed in to actually look at the mortars and pestles, which are actually called a molcajetes and tejolotes, I found them to be of the exact same pig design as the ones used at El Vaquero. At that point I knew I was in business, and at $17.99 for the thing I just had to get one and get going with it.

Looking around the web for guidance wasn’t as revealing as I’d hoped it would be. One of the main issues I found was that a large number of recipes call for a bowl, not a molcajete. While some may consider such a point to be mere quibbling, it would seem to me that if you are attempting to make any kind of an authentic dish from any type of cuisine, you’d better darn well be specifying and using the correct authentic tools for the job as well. You know, it’s just like this: If you’re making Chinese food you need to use a wok over a high-temp gas burner, not a skillet on an electric stove. When we had the Tableside Guacamole at El Vaquero, there was also a cultural experience involved which added a certain value to the dish. If the server had made it in a bowl I doubt it would have had the same impact. His use of the molcajete brought forward our own respect for the Mexican culture, which was part of what I wanted in the dish when I finally made it myself.

On the web it turned out that, a little more than four years ago, Journalism Professor Holly A. Heyser had posted almost exactly what I was looking for on the hunting blog she was writing at the time. She doesn’t write that particular blog anymore, focusing elsewhere on her freelance writing and photography. In case her older work disappears at some point, I’ll repost a couple of her points about the molcajete which were most important to me:

Q: So how do you clean it?

A: Easy: I put it in the sink, run hot water in it and add a little dish soap, then use a scrub brush to get into all the pits and pores. You won’t be able to get out all the green bits – they really stick in there. But it’s OK. No one has died from eating guac out of my molcajete. After scrubbing, rinse thoroughly to get out all the soap, then turn it upside down to drain. It takes a while to dry out completely, because it’s a big stone sponge.

Alternate method: Rinse it out and stick it in the dishwasher.

Q: You mentioned something about curing the molcajete. What’s up with that?

A: The molcajete is made of stone, and if you just start using it straight off the shelf, you’re going to get bits of stone in your food. Not so good for your teeth!

To cure it, you dump in a handful of uncooked rice, grind it down, rinse it out, and repeat 3-5 times until the rice no longer looks gray at the end of the grinding. I won’t lie – this process is a total pain in the butt. But it’s worth it when you make your guac and all the people who eat it tell you it’s the best guac they’ve ever had. Your big fat head will make you forget all about the torture you endured.

While Ms. Heyser’s version of the guacamole was actually quite close to what I was looking for, there were some variations to it that were a bit different from what they did at El Vaquero. Most importantly, the technique and process were a little more involved than the simplicity we had seen at the restaurant. Her version uses the tejolotes to grind the ingredients to “pulpy bits”. While this certainly does sound good, I didn’t recall seeing the tejolotes at El Vaquero. This seemed important somehow.

Digging through my collection of more than 200 cookbooks I was somewhat shocked (I guess more like irritated) to find I’d never once picked up any kind of Mexican cookbook, authentic or otherwise. Michigan-based Borders Bookstores have all closed recently, so I headed to my second choice, a Barnes & Noble in north Toledo … only to find their cookbook section has been pared down to a whole three sets of shelves. And of course, the one “authentic” Mexican cookbook had the guacamole being made in a bowl …

Frustrated, I made the 12-mile-or-so drive to the large Books-A-Million store in Perrysburg, which is south of Toledo. There I found the cookbook section to still be an entire aisle, eight sets of shelves, with a decent selection of Mexican cookbooks.

Looking through all of the cookbooks spread across more than one shelf I discovered only one mentioned using a molcajete to make the guacamole. The book is Dos Caminos Mexican Street Food by Ivy Stark, Executive Chef at Dos Caminos and other restaurants in New York City and elsewhere. And lo-and-behold, the small chapter on equipment also included a photo of the same molcajete used at El Vaquero, the same one I had bought at Victoria’s Market.

Dos Caminos Mexican Street Food might soon become one of my most-used cookbooks. Street food can be an amazing thing, and when ethnic street food is done right it can be downright addicting. The guacamole recipe on page 71 sounded suspiciously familiar. And interestingly enough, the introduction to the recipe read in-part;

We prepare it tableside in a lava stone molcajete according to each guest’s specifications.

With this particular book added to my collection, I only needed to do one more thing.

For Cinco de Mayo of 2012 last week we took two of our kids and our granddaughter to El Vaquero for an appropriate and authentic Mexican dinner. Of course we asked our server for the Tableside Guacamole. A woman brought the cart to our table and began to make the guac. I started asking questions, only to find out she spoke very little English. I paid particularly close attention to what she was doing so I could possibly recreate it later, making mental notes on all the ingredients and processes. The guac was just as good as it had been the first time, if not even better. I asked our server about the “Guac Girl” and found out she is actually the owner’s wife! She hasn’t been in the U.S. for very long, but obviously she makes some of the best guac around. I mentioned what I was doing and where I’d bought the same molcajete. Our server was dumbfounded … He explained they had bought thirty of them for the large restaurant and had paid at least thirty dollars for each. More reason to like Victoria’s Market I guess …

With a plan in mind, gathering the ingredients turned out to be a bit on the interesting side. I headed to one of the “normal” American groceery store, and was sorely disappointed. $4.49 for three avocados that didn’t look so great anyway?? No thank you … I headed back to Victoria’s Market where I’d picked up the molcajete. The owner there had been kind enough to give me bits and pieces of advice, but now went full bore into it. For example, the Wikipedia entry for avacodo states, “A ripe avocado yields to gentle pressure when held in the palm of the hand and squeezed.” The owner doesn’t like people squeezing his avocados like this to test them as the fruit inside the flesh becomes bruised. So he keeps the avocados inside the walk-in cooler. He headed in there and came out with four beautiful, ripe Hass avocados. Looking at the sticker I discovered these weren’t from California as most recipes I found specified. They were actually from Mexico. I’m not sure if this makes any difference but it sounds good anyway … I also grabbed a few jalapeños, some key limes, Roma tomatoes and a nice bunch of cilantro out of the wall cooler. The red onions, which is what El Vaquero uses in their Tableside Guacamole instead of white onions, weren’t in the vegetable bins at Victoria’s Market, so I headed to another market in Adrian to grab some.

In making this recipe successfully the very first time I did it, I learned a few things. First of all, getting the pits out of ripe avocados and scooping the fruit out of the flesh is considerably less stressful than I’d imagined. In fact, it was probably the easiest part of the entire process. Also, the membrane needs to stay in the jalapeño when you seed it so more heat remains, else you may as well not even add it. And finally, don’t have anyone who might really like it test it for you. You may not get the guacamole back, let alone have any left for the rest of the family when they get home.

Before the recipe, some “food porn” … a shot of the bin of fresh-made pork rinds that sits next to the register at Victoria’s Market. I can’t stand commercial pork rinds myself, but these things? I could probably eat this whole bin given the chance …

Recipe: Authentic Molcajete/Mortar Guacamole

This recipe looks rather involved, but really it’s not. I’ve included a lot of descriptive steps for beginners who may not know how to accomplish some of the processes. This is actually quite simple. We hope you like it as well as we do.

Ingredients
2 ripe Hass avocados
1 large Roma tomato
1 red onion
1 jalapeño or serrano pepper
1 key/Mexican lime
fresh cilantro
sea salt
ground black pepper

Cut two slices of the red onion and give it a rough chop until there’s a couple tablespoons. Chop half the tomato the same size and amount as the onion, and add both to the molcajete. Cut the jalapeño or serrano pepper in half, remove the stem and the seeds (leaving the membrane), chop it half the size as the onion and add it too to the molcajete.

Using a sharp knife cut the avocados in half around the pit. Twist the halves in opposite directions to pull them apart … the pit will stay in one half. Hold that half in your palm and, with the knife in the other hand, plant the edge of the blade near the handle firmly in the pit. Twist the pit firmly with the knife and the pit will pop out of the avocado fruit. Using a large metal spoon, separate the fruit from the flesh on one side and gently scoop the fruit into the molcajete. If the avocado is exactly ripe, it will all come right out. Repeat with the other halves of avocado.

Roll the lime back-and-forth on a hard surface a few times to get the juice flowing. Cut in half along its equator and squeeze the juice from each half into the molcajete, throwing the juiced lime away. Give a couple teaspoons of the cilantro a fine chop and add it as well.

Using a couple large metal spoons fold everything together. Then simultaneously fold and chop the entire mixture together, continuing until it’s well-blended. Add a little of the salt and ground pepper and mix it in. Taste the guacamole, and add more salt and/or pepper as needed.

Serve directly out of the molcajete, allowing people to dip corn chips directly into it to eat.

Just like in 2011, we missed the annual Muskrat Dinner at the Monroe Yacht Club on January 9th. I only realized that this [...]]]>
A meal of muskrat at Erie VFW Post 3295 in 2008, topped with banana peppers and served with mashed potatoes, creamed corn and turtle soup. Click the image for a larger, more “in-your-face” version.

Just like in 2011, we missed the annual Muskrat Dinner at the Monroe Yacht Club on January 9th. I only realized that this morning when I drove past Erie VFW Post 3295 in Erie, Michigan, and noticed their sign. The Erie Post will host their annual Muskrat Dinner this year on Friday, January 27, 2012, beginning at 6 p.m. Click here for details from the 2008 dinner along with more photos.

Elk Lodge 1731 in Flat Rock, Michigan, is a little earlier with theirs this year and will hold their Muskrat Dinner on February 12, 2012. Or you can have spaghetti if the thought of eating muskrat freaks you out.

The Harsens Island Lions Club at the mouth of the St. Clair River south of Algonac has February 14, 2012, set aside for their Muskrat Dinner. That’s a beautiful area and is probably worth the drive just for this event.

February 25, 2012, is the date for the Muskrat Dinner at the Carleton Sportsman’s Club in Carleton, Michigan. We love Carleton, and had Mary’s first Mayor’s Excchange with them.

The Algonquin Club of Detroit & Windsor will hold their annual Muskrat Dinner on March 20, 2012 at … wait for it again … the Monroe Yacht Club. I still haven’t quite figured out why they use the Monroe club as their location, but they’ve also moved back their dinner by about a month.

And the Gibralter Rotary Club in Gibraltar, Ontario, will hold their Muskrat Dinner on March 24, 2012.

Don’t like the thought of eating muskrat? Have you tried it?? Didn’t think so …

In my last post I included a pic of one of the (what I call) Flint-style coneys at Swig Restaurant & Bar in Perrysburg, Ohio, just south of Toledo. I wasn’t all that happy with that particular pic, so with my birthday today as an excuse we headed back there for more. This is definitely a [...]]]>

In my last post I included a pic of one of the (what I call) Flint-style coneys at Swig Restaurant & Bar in Perrysburg, Ohio, just south of Toledo. I wasn’t all that happy with that particular pic, so with my birthday today as an excuse we headed back there for more. This is definitely a better representation of why I now enjoy these coneys so much, and so often. If you’re near Perrysburg and you’ve got a hankering for a good coney, Swig is where you want to go.

A couple weeks ago on a Thursday afternoon, we headed down to Perrysburg, Ohio. We didn’t really have any kind of actual destination in mind except to visit their rather expansive (for a small city anyway) Perrysburg Farmers Market. Mary and some [...]]]>
A coney from Swig Restaurant. The green tinge is from a neon beer sign overhead.

A couple weeks ago on a Thursday afternoon, we headed down to Perrysburg, Ohio. We didn’t really have any kind of actual destination in mind except to visit their rather expansive (for a small city anyway) Perrysburg Farmers Market. Mary and some of her other city leaders would like to start a Farmers Market here in Luna Pier and they’d heard quite a few good things about the one in Perrysburg. For example, the Market’s web site includes a well-built interactive map of the area including exactly where the individual vendors are. Looking at the tech of the area we also found that, in the garden islands of the sidewalks, there was 110v service on the building side (for table vendors) and 220v service on the road side of those gardens (for food trucks), along with potable water connections. Vendors included florists, farmers, bakers, food crafters selling preserves, sauces and spices, alpaca farmers selling yarns and finished knit or needled clothing, and many others.

Walking toward the car toward the end of our walk, I spotted this:

More than anything else, the word “charcuterie” on the sign for Swig Restaurant and Bar caught my eye. Mary had bought me Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing by Ruhlmann and Polcyn for Christmas a couple years back, and I really love the subject. After discussing the sign and seeing how busy they were, it made sense that we said we’d hoped to come back and visit Swig sometime, if only to satisfy our curiosity.

Our anniversary is October 21st. Last week when we were trying to figure out where to go for an interesting anniversary dinner, the subject of Swig came up. It was an almost immediate decision, and we headed there for dinner that day to see what was up with the place.

Walking through the front door in the middle of the afternoon on a Friday we found the restaurant mostly empty, but the bar completely full of customers.

Behind the bar on the wall you can see the nineteen taps for the beers that were available that evening. The chalkboard on the wall in the right side of this photo is the list of those beers so customers can see what’s available from anywhere in the restaurant. While there were a few national and international favorites available, some of these beers were more regional. After finding a table and meeting our server, I ordered a New Holland El Molé Ocho Spiced Ale brewed in Holland, Michigan. This beer turned out to be richly nutty, very smooth, and remarkably easy to drink. I don’t drink to get drunk, but I could have easily had a second draught of the Ocho. Maybe even a third … Mary had an amber ale that was quite good and had a nice bitter to it, but unfortunately we can’t recall which amber it might have been.

We ordered three of Swig’s handmade sausages. I ordered a coney, understandably being quite curious about what it might be. We had served beer-braised Kielbasa with pierogi at our small living room wedding seven years ago and then also at our larger reception the following June, so Kielbasa is what Mary ordered at Swig with a side of their fries. And in keeping with the Polish theme I also ordered a Polish sausage with a side of breaded onion rings.

I really need to spend a few moments to talk about this particular coney, also pictured at the beginning of this post.

Swig’s menu simply describes it as:

Coney – mustard, onion, Coney sauce 2.25

Longtime readers will know of my history with the Flint coney, having grown up on it at Angelo’s, developing multiple recipes for minor variations on the Flint coney theme, and serving the non-organ-meat version at the Luna Pier, Michigan, beachhouse in 2008, with Caleb serving it again there this past summer in 2011. They’ll also know from my writings that the Jackson style coney from Todoroff’s is quite similar to the Flint dish, and that the Michigan hot dog as served in upstate New York is an offshoot of the Todoroff’s version.

Of course the wetter sauce of the Detroit coney, as usual, is completely outside this conversation and is unworthy of any consideration whatsoever. It’s just not worth my time.

So yes, I know my Flint coneys. And I’ll tell you what, what Swig is serving, by design or not, is most certainly a Flint style coney. Either Swig redeveloped it on purpose from scratch (except for the bun), or it was an inadvertant “Hey, we seem to like the same stuff” … or they found my sauce recipe online, stole it, and made a few changes, leaving out the ground hot dogs, increasing the chili powder and lowering the salt.

No, they probably didn’t steal it, really. But even if they did, I wouldn’t mind. At least I can go somewhere now in the Toledo area and enjoy a Flint coney without having to cook the dang thing myself, sauce and all.

But one of the coolest things is that, in case you’ve forgotten, Swig makes their natural-casing coney dog in their own charcuterie facility. This is considerably more work than in the Flint coney restaurants in Genesee County where the traditional dog is either the Koegel Vienna or Koegel’s more-specific Coney dog. Swig’s handmade dog was just right in their version of the coney, being similar to the Vienna, and I was very satisfied with it.

Yes, I’ll have more of your Flint style coneys please Swig, thank you very much.

Swig’s Fresh Kielbasa, with house pickled peppers and a side of handcut “Fresh Fries”.

The Kielbasa Mary ordered had been made as a bun-size sausage and apparently grilled on a flattop. It was nicely mild, and contrasted well with the house pickled peppers lying on top. There could have certainly been twice as many peppers to top it off, but the flavor, texture and moistness of the sausage really made it great regardless. The fries were as freshly-cut as the menu claimed, with a few still stuck together in a good clump from the cutting process.We finished almost all of them, that’s how good they were.

The Polish Sausage topped with sweet & sour cabbage and spicy mustard, and a side of onion rings. The coney can barely be seen between the Polish Sausage and the rings.

The Polish Sausage I’d ordered was somewhat spicier than the Kielbasa, with a great garlic flavor and a crisp natural casing. The sweet & sour cabbage is reminiscent of what Chef Tad serves as a side for most of his dishes at the Frog Leg Inn in Erie, Michigan, and is a great compliment to the Polish Sausage at Swig. The spicy mustard really pulls the whole thing together and is more than just a condiment, it’s an integral part of the sandwich. And while the onion rings weren’t quite the best we’ve ever had, their flavor fit in well with the rest of the meal.

It was unfortunate we were so full after all this food. After all, there’s Swig’s signature dessert, which we didn’t have the opportunity to try:

Chocolate Covered Bacon Sundae - Chocolate covered bacon, bourbon roasted pineapple, vanilla ice cream, Guinness chocolate sauce. Awesome. 5.99

Oh yeah, we’re definitely going back to Swig. It’s only a matter of when. And then … we’ll have ice cream …

It was just over a year ago Mary and I were on Mackinac Island a few hundred miles north of here. One of the shops I had wanted to visit for a few years was [...]]]>
The Monster Candy, about 4″ in diameter, from May’s Candy Shop on Mackinac Island in the straits between the peninsulas of Michigan.

It was just over a year ago Mary and I were on Mackinac Island a few hundred miles north of here. One of the shops I had wanted to visit for a few years was May’s Candy Shop. Normally I would visit a shop like that solely for their goods, in the case of May’s the fudge their family has been known for since the 1930s on the island. I didn’t go there specifically for the fudge though that day. Head Candymaker Lee May was a friend from the University of Michigan School of Art & Design, where I was video studio coordinator while Lee was a student. Unfortunately, during that week last August, Lee was in Chicago getting things ready for graduate school in the fall.

A weird thing happened. I left the candy shop after buying … nothing. And I really don’t know why.

Fast-forward to just a few weeks ago. On their Facebook page May’s Candy Shop wrote, “Happy September 1st everyone! We’ve reached our last SPOTLIGHT candy of the season… Monsters! Remember, all you have to do is like, comment, or post on our page and you’ll be entered to win!” Four people commented, and ten plus myself clicked the “Like” link. Five days later, it turned out a Monster Candy was headed my way!

The box showed up this morning:

The box itself is a classy thing on its own, being covered with foil-stamped white glossy paper. The old-style image of Arch Rock, a popular tourist attraction on the island, actually shows proper perspective of a sailboat on Lake Huron as seen through the opening in the rock from the correct height and distance. And while the box is definitely intended for use with May’s well-known fudge, the writing on the red tape holding it closed told what was actually inside.

When I opened the box I saw the Monster Candy as seen in the first photo in this post in a sealed plastic bag. It already looked amazing, the chocolate seemingly swirled on top as thickly as Lee’s people could get it on there without being sloppy. Flipping it over on a plate, it became apparent the foundation of the Monster Candy is dozens of walnut halves. But what’s that glossy stuff that had seeped through the walnuts? I had forgotten they had posted this particular photo from inside the main of their three stores:

I grabbed a sharp boning knife and, spitting the thing down the middle, found the utter deliciousness I was trying to figure out:

So why are they called Monster Candy when they’re so obviously a larger version of, well, something else? To be blunt, that term is actually copyrighted by another company. Besides, these are considerably larger and would have to be called the “sea” version of … that other thing. These are different though. I was concerned about Lee’s use of walnuts as I haven’t had good experiences with them and thought I wouldn’t like it. But these walnuts are certainly fresher than most others, not stale, and definitely not hard on the teeth. The soft caramel inside is amazingly smooth and not overly rich, having just the right amount of sweetness. And the chocolate is simply … It’s obvious May’s has tons of experience creating chocolate as this is some of the best I’ve ever eaten.

This Monster Candy tasted like I need more. That’s all there is to it. Thanks, May’s!

I think next time we go to May’s on Mackinac Island I’ll need lots of money. And maybe a flatbed cart.

I know. It’s been three months. Three entire months since that last post [...]]]>
A more recent pic of the Ground Bologna Sandwich Spread, an image that’s also a little more appetizing than the other one. Someone’s said all that’s missing in this photo is topping the ground bologna with a fried egg. I’m thinking that’s good thinking.

I know. It’s been three months. Three entire months since that last post way back on June 13th.

It’s been a busy time, what with a new infant granddaughter in the house, all the city events here in Luna Pier over the summer, and cooking the Snack Shack line at the waterpark in Dundee. Over weekends and on some holidays there are a lot of orders to cook, a lot of food to put out the serving window, a lot of party pizzas, chicken tenders with beer-battered French fries, mozzarella sticks … all the good stuff to provide energy for people playing in the water for hours on end.

Detroiter Thornetta Davis performs as headliner of the day-long and first annual Luna Pier Bootleggers & Blues Festival, July 23, 2011. Next year the festival will be two days with more than the five acts that entertained the crowd of 2,000 this year.

Unfortunately, I’ve found that it’s once again very difficult to be creative for the blog after cooking at work all day.

There have been some starts in that time and certainly some advances. The Joe Perry recipes I posted here officially landed on Joe’s own site, those recipes being the Salsa Ranchera and the Howling BBQ Sauce. I’m working on some other recipes for those sauces, one of them being meatballs. I’ve found creating pasta sauces is actually a whole lot easier than I thought, so a couple of those are in the works. And I’m wracking my brain trying to figure out how we might serve at the beach again next summer with the new beachhouse that’s going in not having a rentable kitchen space.

Had an interesting dream about that first image in this post. It seemed I was adding Panko breadcrumbs to the Ground Bologna Sandwich Spread, heating up some olive oil, and frying patties of the stuff in a pan like I would a good crab cake. I woke up fairly startled. I’ve had really good Fried Bologna Sandwiches before, not only in various homes but also in a barbecue joint called Baldy-Q’s in Swanton, Ohio, where the bologna was cut a good 1/2″ thick and fried in the pan slowly to heat it through. A Fried Ground Bologna Sandwich? On a grilled bun with provolone, with maybe lettuce and thick-sliced tomato? Yeah, that’s how these things get started sometimes …

So I’ll get working on some things. I really feel a need now to be craetive in the kitchen again, especially with the food variety at work being now more-or-less a constant. I just need to go shopping and get some decent ingredients. Let’s see, would that be an onion roll or a kaiser roll …

Finally, here’s a pic of our beautiful granddaughter Allie, photographed by Ashlea Phenicie at Sundance Photography. Yeah, I’m a proud grandpa.

My kids have been talking up this JR’s [...]]]>
The pics on this post were taken with the camera on my new phone, just to see what it could do. Yeah, not as good as any of the others. Sorry ’bout that … it does much better in better light though, so that’s what I’ll use it for.

My kids have been talking up this JR’s Hometown Grill & Pub place in Adrian, Michigan, for a while now. It went in where a former Fazoli’s location was … which I could never quite understand as that particular Fazoli’s always seemed to be packed, especially on weekends. My recent (last weekend!) high school grad-of-a-son, who shares my passion for food (and will join the Marines in a couple months) said he likes JR’s Philly Cheesesteak sandwich, even though he says it could be a touch greasier to add to the moisture of the sandwich (the cheese having the only moisture) and also to add “squishiness”. Yes, Adam really does think through the flavors and textures of his food, I wonder where he got that from …

So when JR’s added a second location a couple weeks ago, I became even more interested in checking it out. The new location is in Tecumseh, Michigan, about 15 miles north of the Adrian spot. In Tecumseh they took over what used to be Dobie’s Smokehouse, a place I used to go to regularly beginning in 2002 for hand-smoked BBQ ribs made with handmade sauces. When I’d first noticed Adam’s passion for food about 8 years ago, Dobie had given him a little tour of the kitchen. Mary and I had eaten there as well at least a couple times. So I feel a bit attached to the location itself.

JR’s hasn’t changed the interior of the previous Dobie’s much if at all, so to former patrons it’ll feel quite familiar. It still presents as a “smokehouse” with the decor seeming to be that of a transplanted Texas roadhouse, albeit a more modern (and northern) rendition of the concept. However, I’m not sure many actual Texas roadhouses the size of JR’s have that number of flatscreens …

One of my favorite burgers is the Haloburger cheeseburger deluxe with olives, topped with Hellmann’s mayonnaise, sliced green olives, lettuce and tomato. I know that burger rather well, having worked at one of the locations for over a year and making thousands of them (including just a few for myself). Going through JR’s menu a few things caught my eye … the Open Face Hot Beef sandwich, the Wet Burrito, the Taco Salad … but in the end, I decided on the Olive Burger:

Our Angus Beef burger covered with american cheese and our special olive sauce then topped with lettuce, tomato & onions

I went ahead and ordered one medium rare, with a side of the beer batter fries.

The burger arrived in a decent amount of time for a half-pounder, and looked rather nice. For the photo at the top of this post I only moved the bun back so you could see the olive sauce … that’s exactly how it looked. The fries were also in good shape, looking as though they’d come from a recently-cleaned fryer.

First off, the burger and fries tasted quite good. The burger was nice and juicy, the fries tender on the inside and crisp on the outside … all-in-all a very nice meal. But I had a few concerns. The meat was past medium rare, being more in the medium range. It probably should have come off the grill earlier in the medium rare range as it would still have cooked on its way to the table. The “special olive sauce” was more sliced olives than sauce. I was expecting chopped or even minced olives in a thicker sauce but it was instead as though it was simply sliced olives rolled in a good mayonnaise. And while the menu description read that the burger was “then topped with lettuce, tomato & onions”, these were underneath and were subsequently a bit on the soggy side because of the juiciness of the meat. Finally, the “beer batter fries” could have tasted more like the beer they’re battered with. I’ve some some gnarly-good fries that were done that way, and it’s an exceptional flavor especially with a good stout involved.

The thing is, as I wrote above, it was all quite good. I could easily eat this thing once a week if I lived in the area. But my perceptions from the menu description simply didn’t quite match what’s in the photo. That’s all there is to it. If I had to give JR’s Olive Burger some kind of rating, I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5.

Give JR’s in Tecumseh a whirl if you get the chance. I’ll certainly be going again. Maybe next time I’ll go after the Open Face Hot Beef sandwich …

After a couple decades in tech industries and avionics/electronics training in the Navy, after having entirely unstable employment positions where I never knew if a given day would be my last only because of circumstances outside my own control, I’ve finally given up on that nonsense and [...]]]>
The view of the waterpark from the front-of-house at work.

After a couple decades in tech industries and avionics/electronics training in the Navy, after having entirely unstable employment positions where I never knew if a given day would be my last only because of circumstances outside my own control, I’ve finally given up on that nonsense and headed back into the more-stable foodservice industry.

I kid you not.

Outside of our stint running the Luna Pier Beach House three years ago (which Caleb is doing again this year), I hadn’t worked in foodservice since 1984. I’d had a good four-year history in foodservice at that point. During the summer of 1979, fresh out of high school, I was a cook at a YMCA camp near Irons, Michigan, for three months. I learned the basics at that job, learning mostly how to cook grub in large quantities. From 1980 to 1981 at the Haloburger in my home town I learned what it takes to put out decent fast food in a timely manner. Then from 1983 to 1984 at a now-closed Frisch’s Big Boy on the west side of Columbus I was hired to run the breakfast bar (I was told it was the first in the area for the chain). It was at that point I learned the most, from a Vincent Price-looking Greek manager named Gus Pappas. It was Gus who taught his crew how to be passionate about the food we served, and how it’s never a mistake to throw something away if it was to the point where you wouldn’t eat it yourself (outside of personal preferences).

It’s difficult work for an almost-50-year-old man now. I’ve lost 30 lbs since February, which people comment on almost daily. The hips and knees still need more exercise and more Motrin to help me get through the pain after work and in the mornings. I get frustrated during meal rushes as I occasionally lose a bit of focus keeping multiple orders straight, which is fortunately getting better. And the heat off a couple Blodgett convection ovens while working through 50 lbs of bacon for the Sunday morning breakfast buffet is enough to make this middle-aged guy want to take a nap in the walk-in.

However, one point has to be made clear: I’m happier than I was in the majority of those tech jobs.

In the tech world it’s difficult to keep customers and bosses happy. With software they all expect continuous upgrades, they expect even beta versions of software to be almost bulletproof, and any problem is expected to be fixed almost immediately regardless of how difficult or intense the actual problem might be. With electronics (outside the calibration sector), upgrades also need to be continuous, and newer tecchnologies have a tendency to be considerably more difficult to learn and use than their predecessors.

Meanwhile, hamburgers, steaks, fried chicken and the like, and the cooking techniques for them, really haven’t changed in a half a century or more.

People try to change those cooking techniques though. Claims are made (especially for school lunches) that baking fried chicken, fries, onion rings, corn dogs and similar foods tastes better and is more nutritious then deep frying. Baking will never give the same crispness as actual frying, with the nutrition and flavor being directly related to the oil used in frying. A “sous vide” burger doesn’t interest me whatsoever, so you’re welcome to keep it to yourself. And in my opinion molecular gastronomy will turn out to be a passing fad the way fondue did in the 1970s. Doode, it’s a kitchen, not a science lab.

The work is about a passion for real food, the way Gus taught us at Frisch’s, combined with a serious appreciation for how that food makes the diner feel. That’s what makes customers happy in foodservice, and being able to do that is very satisfying indeed.

So that’s why I’m where I’m at once again, in the foodservice industry and happy about it. But what does all that personal history and conceptual stuff have to do with the title of this post?

It has to do with this: After more than 26 years, to be happy in my work and to make customers happy, I’m back to making minimum wage.

A bit of clarification: This is not the fault of my current employer or any other foodservice operator, nor is it intended as a dig on any of them either. This is an industry-wide issue, and involves perceptions from both restaurant operators and their patrons alike about one single issue:

Menu Pricing.

A couple weeks ago an article on CBS Moneywatch caught my eye, a piece about the “10 Worst-Paid Jobs in America” by Kathy Kristoff. Seven of those worst-paying jobs are in foodservice:

1. Fast food cooks
2. Food preparation and serving
3. Dishwashers
—
5. Cafeteria/coffee shop counter attendant
6. Bartender’s helper
7. Restaurant hostess
—
9. Cashiers
—

A large part of the problem is that, not only do U.S. citizens consider this work to be mundane, below them and of a throw-away status, immigrants are more than ready to take their place. In The Nasty Bits Anthony Bourdain wrote:

The bald fact is that the entire restaurant industry in America would close down overnight, would never recover, if current immigration laws were enforced quickly and thoroughly across the board. Everyone in the industry knows this. It is undeniable. Illegal labor is the backbone of the service and hospitality industry–Mexican, Salvadoran and Ecuadoran in particular. To contemplate actually doing without is to contemplate mass closings, a general shake-out of individually owned and operated restaurants–and, of course, unthinkably (now) higher prices in the places that manage to survive. Considering that our economy and employment picture is now largely based on us selling hamburgers to each other, the ripple effects would be grave. … I suggest immediately opening up our borders to unrestricted immigration for all Central and South American countries. If the [Culinary Institute of America] grads don’t want to squat in a cellar prep kitchen for the first couple of years of their career, or are too delicate or high-strung or too locked into a self-image that precludes the real work of kitchens and restaurants, then they should just stand back and watch their competition from south of the border take those jobs for good. Everyone will end up getting what they deserve.

Americans, especially younger people, are largely unwilling to do the work (with wages possibly being a big factor), and the illegal immigrants are happy to step up to work harder for lower wages.

Let’s look at some numbers … in “How to Price your Restaurant Menu“, Lorri Mealey of About.com gives the equation for calculating prices from food costs using the industry standard of 35% markup. But here’s the catch: Labor is not calculated as part of the food cost before the markup. What this means is that, labor is stripped right off the profit margin, however low that might be. This is particularly troublesome for dishes where the labor cost might be higher due to more intensive prep work.

In the article “Cheat Sheet: Retail Markup on Common Items” by Kentin Waits on WiseBread we see that the markups for many items are much higher than for foodservice … clothing and shoes at least 100%, furniture and medicines upwards of 200%, eyeglasses better than 800% markup … but grocery is, interestingly enough, far less than that of menu prices at 5% – 25%.

The question arises: Why is food in general treated so differently when it comes to pricing than just about anything else?

In the Wall Street Journal, Sumathi Reddy has written quite an interesting piece on the subject of, “Unwanted New Item on Menu: Higher Prices“. The piece is rathering interesting in the context that the cost of labor isn’t mentioned once. Instead we see statements such as, “Increased food prices have hit the restaurant industry hard, causing some to pass on part of the cost to consumers for the first time since the recession …”, “… the $20 price increase instituted earlier this year [at Per Se] was due to overall increases in costs, ‘food being the most substantial.’ [general manager Anthony Rudolf] said it was the first increase since 2008 …”, and “… the cost of a case of eggplant has more than tripled, to $72 from about $20″.

Increases in labor costs are rarely mentioned, if ever. They’re certainly not accounted for, simply because those increases don’t exist.

Back here I discussed how milk prices have changed so little since 1975. Yup, same problem. It’s still ongoing, and workers at restaurants are suffering the same as farmers and their laborers.

In “Concession stand treats – a license to print money” by Paul Michael on WiseBread, Mr. Michael rants about the prices of concession foods:

“Be it a movie theater, zoo, church event or a local concert, you can expect to pay serious extra cash for a regular item. From the $5 bag of popcorn to the $4 corndog, these are premium prices for very ordinary foods. But you usually let it go, because you’re having a good time …  We’re talking a 97% profit margin on a simple Sno-Kone! … You could even hire someone to man the stand for you, at $8-$10 per hour you’ll easily cover the cost of that person’s salary with the huge markups you’re making from the menu.”

Head back on up to the cheat sheet on markups on common items. It’s on the same web site as Mr. Michael’s piece. Go ahead, I’ll wait … It’s easy to see that a 97% markup isn’t much at all when compared to other items. But less of a markup is expected only because food is involved. Otherwise Mr. Michael, you’d pay it without complaint just like everyone else. And if the markup was more inline with the rest, the food concession worker could then also get a competitive wage, if it were offered.

One of the worst aspects of the restaurant industry is seasonal employment. In response to a National Restaurant Association report yesterday, Ginger Christ reported “U.S. restaurants may add 425K summer jobs” in The Business Review. Jackie Headapohl on MLive.com reported more-specific local data with a piece titled, “Michigan to see 20,200 restaurant jobs added this summer“, also via the same NRA report.

The problem with these seasonal jobs is that they begin the season at minimum wage and never increase from that point. Even returning employees are stymied by this singular aspect of these positions, when they once again start at minimum wage for each successive season. Hence the perception of these as even more of a “throwaway job” than the rest of the foodservice industry.

In this post about the milk prices I’d stated specifically why I felt a gallon of milk should currently be $7.50 – $8, about triple what I’m paying at local grocery stores in SE Michigan/NW Ohio. Frankly, if foodservice workers, grocery floor staff and farmers were to actually make what they’re worth via a competitve wage, food prices across the board, from farmers to distributors, grocers, stand operators and restaurants, should also be at lease triple what they are. Those wages should also go up annually via cost-of-living increases and performance-related raises.

It would only be fair. For once.

I had a couple bottles of Joe Perry’s Rock Your World™ Mango Peach Tango Sauce available after last week’s recipe. One of the items I’d wanted to make with it was a salsa. But salsa by itself really isn’t anything … [...]]]>
A Mango Peach Steak Burrito topped with Mango Peach Tango Salsa Ranchera. Both recipes are below.

I had a couple bottles of Joe Perry’s Rock Your World™ Mango Peach Tango Sauce available after last week’s recipe. One of the items I’d wanted to make with it was a salsa. But salsa by itself really isn’t anything … it has to go on something.  You need to have chips, melt it into a block of Velveeta in a microwave for use as a dip, assembled as part of a taco, or even added to eggs in the morning for breakfast.

Joe Perry’s Rock Your World™ Mango Peach Tango Sauce contains, of course, mangos and peaches. But it also contains fresh lime juice. Thinking of all these ingredients, along with the requisite habañero peppers, led me in a more Tex-Mex direction. A burrito would be nice to have under this rather-potent salsa. But it had to be done right. Chunks of steak sautéed in butter, fresh lettuce and guacamole, real sour cream and cheddar … this had to be a thick burrito.

The salsa of course needed good tomatoes. Dei Fratelli just south of us in Toledo makes excellent canned diced tomatoes that honestly don’t taste os even smell canned. They’re good canned tomatoes. They can a petite diced tomato that’s perfect for making salsa. I could have used fresh tomatoes but … it’s not tomato season. So I didn’t.

Cilantro is also good for use in salsa, but not too much. To balance it I used some fresh cilantro leaves. But what really kicks the fruity flavor of this salsa is more fresh-squeezed lime juice. With the fresh lime juice in Joe’s sauce so it simply makes sense.

By itself this salsa is hot. But even then it’s very enjoyable. This is thanks to Joe’s focus on rich flavor, then heat in his sauces. Adding the salsa to a dish tones it down a bit depending on the dish and how many other ingredients you add. So it’s something nice to have a bit of fun experimenting with. Enjoy!

Mango Peach Tango Salsa Ranchera

Ingredients
2 14.5 oz cans petite diced tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped sweet onion
1 tablespoon granulated garlic
6 tablespoons Joe Perry’s Rock Your World™ Mango Peach Tango Sauce
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
Juice of one lime
Kosher salt

Mix the tomatoes, garlic and Joe Perry’s Rock Your World™ Mango Peach Tango Sauce. Chop up the onion, and add to the tomato mixture. Add the cilantro leaves and lime juice. Add Kosher salt to taste.

Mango Peach Steak Burritos

Ingredients
Flat-Iron or Strip Steak
8″ Tortillas
Lettuce, cut into thin strips
Mango Peach Tango Salsa Ranchera (recipe above)
Cheddar cheese, shredded
Sour cream
Guacamole
Unsalted butter
Ground pepper and Kosher salt

Cut the steak into strips about 1/4″ x 1/4″ and a couple inches long. Season with the salt and pepper. Over medium heat, sautée the steak in just a little melted butter until it’s slightly browned. Remove the steak from the heat. Quickly warm each tortilla. Build burritos in the warm tortillas using the steak, guacamole and lettuce. Close each burrito and top with sour cream, some of the salsa and shredded cheddar cheese.