Mary D. Scourtes | January 2nd, 2012
Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages, I met chef Michael Vaughn who feeds about 200 hungry entertainers who live in some of the 61 train cars parked just outside of town. Chef Michael says he likes the adventure. “It’s definitely the greatest show on earth. We are the world’s largest city without a zip code,’’ he adds. The 16-year saw-dust veteran may have learned to cook in the south but his cuisine spans several continents. His international mix of patrons come from seven continents, including Uzbekistan, Uruguay, Russia, Mongolia and Paraguay. Michael invites the animal trainers, trapeze artists and others to bring him recipes and teach him about their special dishes that personify their home country.
Read more: Food fit for a circus clown: Behind the scenes in Ringling Bros. kitchen
Taylor Eason | December 5th, 2011
Each year, it can be a struggle to find just the right gift… the right mixture between snarky and original yet useful. Frankly, if someone is into wine or food, gift selections are a bit less challenging and cheaper than an electronics nerd or car enthusiast but if you’re going on ten years with a foodie, the gadgets might have run out. Or have they? I wrote about 25 pretty cool, unique items last Christmas that you might want to check out, but here are five food and wine items new to the market.
Read more: Online holiday and Christmas shopping: Five great wine and food gifts
Taylor Eason | July 8th, 2011
It’s amazing how popular you become when you have a house in northern California. Even one with pink carpet and hideous rose-print wallpaper. I actually underestimated the power of a second bedroom in wine country. Out of the 60-something days in June and July, we have hosted (and will host) 18 nights with various guests, mostly from Tampa. And we love it…it’s like having a little dose of “home” away from “home.” It hasn’t sunk in that we live here yet.
Read more: Life in California, part 5: Newfound popularity, food foraging and meeting James Laube
Mary D. Scourtes | July 6th, 2011
Having enjoyed dinners at Café Ponte sometime back, we happily found an encore performance. As soon as you enter, the welcoming host assures that you are in good hands. Proprietor Christopher Ponte, who trained at Johnson & Wales University and later at the Cordon Bleu in Paris, has also worked at the famed Taillevent in Paris and continues to earn a litany of accolades.
Read more: Don’t punt on Clearwater’s Café Ponte
Mary D. Scourtes | June 30th, 2011
Consider Wat Mongkolratanaram a way station for hungry nirvana-seekers who can’t cross the Universal Dateline. Every Sunday, the Thai temple affectionately nicknamed “Wat Tampa,” opens its compound, about a half-mile from U.S. 41 on the banks of the Palm River, to sell an amazing array of foods and produce.
Read more: Thai Temple tops for Tampa Thai tastes
Taylor Eason | June 25th, 2011
A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending an underground “Wild Dinner” in San Francisco. 80 people in an expansive, borrowed loft descended for a weekend evening to dine on food prepared by a chef who foraged all the food for this dinner. I know… uber California, right? Suffice it to say that this chef goes above and beyond what the celebrity toques do today.
Read more: How health departments can squash food entrepreneurs: Forage SF at risk
Mary D. Scourtes | June 8th, 2011
But if your mother is from Italy and makes unbelievable Saltimbocca or cannelloni, this isn’t your place. This is more an American-Italian pasta or piccata party place for celebrating graduations, anniversaries and birthdays. Maggiano’s can be as crowed and clamorous as Rome during rush hour, with enough chatter and boisterous diners to be a distraction, even more so as clanging dishes jar the senses. Normal portions are not to be expected. Unless you are a linebacker, you may need to cut yourself off, as steaks weight in at a pound while pasta tips scales over 24 ounces.
Read more: Tampa’s Maggiano’s is a mixed bag of Mama’s manna
Mary D. Scourtes | June 1st, 2011
Bungalow homes were popular for their simplicity, comfort and lack of ostentation. That can be said about the food at the namesake Bungalow Restaurant. If being “in’’ were all, the Bungalow would deserve kudos but there were some missteps.
Read more: The Bungalow Restaurant boasts a burgeoning crowd in Tampa
Mary D. Scourtes | April 20th, 2011
Tempting, Salted Caramel Brownies (Amelie’s French Bakery), luscious flan (Oliver & Henry’s), and petite cakes (The Cupcake Spot) call my name. No sweets craving went unfulfilled Sunday. The gastronomic gods dialed up a postcard-perfect day for Taste of South Tampa in Hyde Park Village. As independent restaurants ride out the vexations of an ailing economy, a cornucopia of veterans: Shells, CDB’s, and Tampa Bagel Co., and new kids: Eats, Pinkberry and Horizon Bay, among three dozen others, enticed eaters.
Read more: CineBistro’s neighborhood nosh knocks it out of Tampa’s park
Mary D. Scourtes | March 23rd, 2011
Aniko Rakoczi knows bacon. The co-owner of First Quality Sausage House calls the Hungarian fried concoction, teperto, flavors it with paprika, and cooks it crunchy during almost an hour of frying. These bacon bites, albeit a calorically prodigious lot, are pure porcine pleasure.
Read more: Safety Harbor’s Sausage House is smokin’
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