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09/30/08
Log Haven's chef celebrates fall with all kinds of mushrooms. Well, not ALL kinds...
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09/30/08
There will be a buffalo roaming in Salt Lake City, starting Thursday. Find it and win a buffalo bill worth $100. Meanwhile, enjoy the taste of buffalo on the plate.
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09/30/08
Driving down 1300 East the other day I finally stopped at Traces, a floral shop located in an old house. I was intrigued by a sign advertising herbs out front of the place. I walked to the left side of the house, through the main gate, and entered a surprisingly large urban garden. In what must be a full extra plot (and now very valuable turf) where another house could stand, I found hedges and bunches and rows of vegetation -- from flowers to gourds -- basking in the hot Indian summer sun. There were even trellises with white Concord grapes dangling in the effulgent air. I ordered a half-bag of Italian basil for a mere $3. Instead of reaching to some grocery store-style...
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09/30/08
Every great cheese needs a cracker. Now Beehive cheddar has one.
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09/29/08
New Yorker is 30 years old, but our meal there Saturday night made my tastebuds tingle like they were born yesterday.
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09/26/08
Driving in to the office the other morning, I noticed a sign that seemed to signal a trend that had played itself out: Arctic Circle now offers sweet potato fries.
Since the mid 90s, fried shoestrings and thick slices of this orange-hued tuber have been creeping out of the "swee'" potato's Southern-ish homeland and showing up on menus here and there across the West.
I first cottoned onto sweet potato fries at a cool little joint -- the Hob Nob -- in
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09/25/08
Mandarin restaurant in Bountiful indulges in a little seasonally inspired cross-dressing.
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09/24/08
25 Main serves good breakfasts in a cooler-than-St.George setting
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09/24/08
A great occasion for toasting.
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09/23/08
In short, St. George is not what you'd call trendy.
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09/23/08
Good restaurants make good neighbors
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09/23/08
Utah's version of Mexican food is ill-defined, but it can still taste good.
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09/22/08
Everyone in town is from far away, except for us. Whether we're sitting in a cafe or riding the Zion shuttle, we hear German, French, English accents all around us. I wonder: can this account for the quality of the food? Last night's dinner at Spotted Dog Cafe* featured an achiote-braised lamb shank with mint mashed potatoes and whole baby carrots on top of rosemary spaghetti squash, and a fillet of the inevitable farmed Utah trout, crusted with coriander, cumin and pumpkin seeds on wild rice. The vegetarian entrée (pictured), a tower of sliced, roasted vegetables based on a sweet potato and capped with a portobello, drizzled with basil oil, was gorgeous. Appetizers—tiny flatbreads with cauliflower purée...
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09/22/08
Okay, I have to admit that I had to miss the Iverson soiree, and just from reading, I don't know what some of these things are. Merlot sprouts??? Cork skewers?? (Could they mean corn??) That's the joy of my job—you never stop learning. I'll do some investigative reporting on these items and let you know. Meanwhile, savor this: Lump Crab and Avocado Puree
Minced beets, lemon oil Broccoli Raab and Scallop Ravioli
Sauteed golden raisins, local honey, chive oil Pork Tenderloin with a Red Beet and Balsamic Puree
Crisp bacon, sauteed arugula, and caramelized shallots Rosemary Toast Points with Poached Quail Egg
Merlot sprouts, and a Stilton mousse Cork Skewers of Sweet Potato Gnocchi
Roasted garlic, organic smoked...
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09/22/08
I'm a National Park junkie, but I've always been disappointed that the Parks' supporting businesses, like restaurants, have not measured up to the glory of the setting. Maybe that's starting to change.
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09/20/08
"Did Sysco contribute to the downfall of the small town cafe?" my traveling companion, the Salt Lake Crawler, asked me. The question came after I was presented with a choice of desserts at the only diner in town: chocolate cream pie, lemon meringue pie or cheesecake "that we make right here." And where do the pies come from? "They're delivered." I don't actually know if they were delivered by Sysco or some other food distributor and I'm sure that if Sysco didn't deliver these pies, the cafe owners would find someone else to bake them, or even bake some themselves. So, no, I don't think Sysco, or any other food broker, is to blame. I think it's the American appetite for consistency; our rootlessness is at the root of the problem. We move around a...
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09/20/08
Sitting at the Spring City Cafe this morning, we started talking with the folks next to us, which is what you do at a small-town countertop cafe and which is why drive-through breakfasts are contributing to the downfall of civilization. Anyway, we were talking about food (of course) and our new friends said that they had eaten recently at Big Rock Cafe. Was it good? "Well...they're trying..." We took that as a positive.
So as we wound down Highway 89 towards Springdale, we pulled over at the Big Rock Candy Mountain, a taffy-colored hulk named after the Depression folksong. The cafe at its base was founded in...
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09/19/08
Driving through Sanpete, huge turkey farms are the main roadside attraction.
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09/18/08
The folks at Winder Farms gave us four samples of their new line of frozen prepared dinners, and I ate them all. A full review after the jump.
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09/18/08
A friend reminds us of the further joys of seasonal eating.
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09/17/08
It's not just the aspen leaves and heat relief that make me happy to see summer end. It's the switch from summer to winter food: fall is a great eating season. I'm just starting to get those change of menu notices in the mail; a lot of Salt Lake restaurants piggyback (an especially apt word in this case) their new autumn-flavored dishes onto fall Dine-O-Round. That's what Tin Angel chef-owner Jerry Liedtke (the "t" in whose name I consistently forget) has done. So you can try the new seared and roasted achiote-rubbed pork loin with a white polenta cake and roasted green pepper mojo with seasonal baby vegetables with a seasonal green salad and orange caramel flan for just $30 at dinner—a great, get-acquainted price. But...
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09/16/08
Great grapes and great wine meet on the table—and in your mouth, if you call soon—at Grappa on October 13.
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09/16/08
In this case, birds and bees means beer and cheese, to be consumed for a good cause—an irresistable enticement.
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09/15/08
A Talisker chef opened up a whole new kind of restaurant last week. It was highly successful and it's already closed. How does this add up? Jump with me.
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09/15/08
I just received a rather strange package in the mail—a used box that once held envelopes, strapped with wide scotch tape. From the outside, it looked a lot like something my mother would send me; and even more so from the inside.
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09/15/08
Along with fried everything, butter sculpture has become a staple attraction at state fairs, including Utah’s. Some of us can’t help but wonder, why?
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09/12/08
After a hiatus of several years, Metropolitan is serving lunch again.
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09/09/08
The 3rd annual Farmers Market Chef Showdown took place Saturday morning at the Salt Lake Farmers Market in Pioneer Park. By 10:30 a.m., the competing chefs—Jerry Liedke from Tin Angel, Frody Volgger of Vienna Bistro and Chad Horton and Justin Shifflett from Metropolitan were already shopping the market for their groceries while Circus Brown from KRCL warmed...
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09/08/08
Celebrating 15 years of good food calls for a celebration featuring good food. That’s the kind of Mobius-strip thinking that led to Steve Rosenberg’s paella party on the patio at Liberty Heights Fresh on Friday night. Rosenberg founded Salt Lake’s epicurean boutique 15 years ago when “local” was not even a gleam in Michael Pollan’s eye and the store has been the go-to for area gourmets ever since, always on the cutting-edge of the food trends and consistently prompting impressed out-of-town visitors to comment, “You can get this in Salt Lake?” Friday night Steve and the guys set up a mammoth paella pan—empty, I could have...
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09/05/08
Chinese astrology may say it's the Year of the Pig, but to wildlife conservationists, it's the Year of the Frog.
And if you didn't know that when you showed up at the Hogle Zoo's annual Zoo-To-Do last night, you knew it by the time you left. Amphibians may not be the cuddliest of creatures, but last night they got enough love to make their cold blood warm. Pictures and information about frogs and toads all over the world adorned every bar and food table at the event, and there were a lot of them—Fleming's, ThaiFoon, Elizabeth's Tea Shop, Ruth's Chris, Finn's and lots of other area restaurants set up booths in the main plaza of the Hogle Zoo to feed the hordes of hungry zoo-supporters....
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09/04/08
Only seven more Saturdays of Farmers Market to go, so be sure to take advantage of Utah's best food shopping while it lasts.
This Saturday, the Third Annual Chef's Showdown (or as I like to think of it, Chef's Smackdown) starts at 10:30 a.m. Chefs from Tin Angel, Metropolitan and Vienna Bistro will have one hour to shop the market for ingredients and one hour to prep and cook a three-course meal: appetizer or salad, main course and dessert.
Then it's time for me and my fellow judges (Bill Allred from X-96 Radio from Hell and Andrew Wallace...
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09/04/08
Starting yesterday and going through September 6, they're celebrating Peach Days in Brigham City. Of course, there's a Peach Queen Pageant. There are also peach smoothies, peach shakes, peach ice cream, peach yogurt, and peach cobbler. Not to mention some seemingly irrelevant but evidently traditional dishes and events—Dutch oven pork and SCUBA burgers (I don't know what those are) and the Bonneville Rod and Custom Car Show.
Peach Days started in 1904, so it's entitled to its arcane traditions. A film festival is also mentioned on the Peach Days website, but I can't imagine...is this a festival of peach-themed movies? James and the Giant Peach? Peaches? Are there any other peach movies?
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09/03/08
 Shrimp is America's favorite seafood. We eat more of it than another swimmer in the sea. Here in Utah, Market Street restaurants serve more than 200,000 pounds of shrimp every year. And, starting yesterday, they're celebrating that fact with their annual Shrimp Festival, during which Market Street chefs go shrimp-crazy, coming up with an amazing array of new recipes.
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09/02/08
Snowbird's annual Oktoberfest is underway through Oct. 5 and if you've never been to this beer-soaked event in Little Cottonwood Canyon here are a few things you need to know.
Get the cup. If you're dithering about dropping $10 on the souvenir plastic "stein," don't. A 16-ounce draft costs $6.50 and with the refillable stein you get 22 ounces for the same price. The festival boasts a wider range of microbrews than previous years, including some special seasonals courtesy of Wasatch. Tip: If you've attended in a previous year, try to dig up your old cup. It's refillable this year too.
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09/02/08
Downtown Salt Lake City offered up two big crowds Saturday afternoon.
Some favored more formal dress, including ties for the men and business-style dress suits for the women. And name badges and other insignia ... all flapping in the windy, 90-degree plus heat.
Others went for somewhat more skimpy sequined bikini tops and feather head dresses.
The first group encompassed attendees to the big USANA convention at the Energy Solutions Arena, all doing their vitamin-intensive business.
The second, more free-wheeling group was made up by the hundreds of participants and onlookers at the 2008 Utah...
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