[Edible Wow] Pierogi in Metro Detroit

When the Dodge brothers opened their Dodge Main automotive assembly plant in Hamtramck Township in 1914, the area was little more than a sleepy community of French and German farmers. When the call for work went out at the plant, Polish immigrants descended upon this tiny township (and later fought for it to be recognized as its own city). This two-square-mile area was built to accommodate tens of thousands of immigrant factory workers, resulting in densely packed housing with family homes crammed into 30-foot lots. At its peak in 1930, the city had 56,000 people in it, 83% of which were Polish.

The Polish immigrants brought with them their own cultural traditions, and soon Hamtramck was filled with hundreds of bars, beer gardens, Polish restaurants, Old-World bakeries and sausage shops.

Polish cuisine is rooted in the rich farming fields of Poland where potatoes, cabbage and beets thrived. Thus much of what we know as traditional Polish food is heavy with these ingredients: golabki (stuffed cabbage), cabbage soup and stew, sauerkraut (pickled cabbage), beet soups, potato dumplings, potato pancakes, and potato and cheese pierogi are all staples of a traditional Polish diet.

[HOT LIST] Solid chick blogs

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

Who run the world? Girls. EID is giving some love to fellow female food bloggers Beyonce-style this week. There are some that focus on recipes, some on restaurants, and some a mix of both. A couple of them are down in the trenches as fellow freelancers; some are chefs, some are students, some stay-at-home moms. Because female food bloggers tend to get categorized somewhat dismissively as mere "cooking" blogs -- or worse, "mommy" blogs -- these girls don't always get their due in a world full of loud, flashy, graphic-heavy man-blogs. I couldn't have sifted through the plethora of local female-authored food blogs without a little bit of help, so this Hot List comes with special thanks to Noelle Lothamer, whom I contacted for a consult after deciding her blog was getting the #1 spot regardless (ashe is also an admin for the Michigan Lady Food Bloggers).

#1 Simmer Down!
It's mostly a cooking blog (with eye-popping pictures; both the author and her husband are photogs), but it is also the somewhat personal blog of Detroit-area freelance writer and musician Noelle Lothamer. Followers of Simmer Down! read along as Noelle charts not only her own cooking and family adventures (like planning her wedding earlier this year), but also as she covers Detroit's DIY food scene from events like Tashmoo Biergarten to the Detroit Holiday Food Bazaar, which she organizes. Noelle is also a freelance food writer for Model D and the Metro Times. 

#2 Take a Megabite
She says she's "Just a redhead who likes to bake," but Ferndalian Meg Dekok does so much more on her Megabite blog. This blog is a brain feast -- pretty pictures! funny words! WHAT'S THAT, I WANT TO EAT IT! She takes things that are awesome and combines them into things that are MEGA awesome. See: Nutella-Filled Donuts, Monte Cristo Waffle Sandwich, Chocolate Salami. And all so pretty! I think I might love her.

#3 Okie Dokie Artichokie
This Ann Arbor-based blog is a beaut. Author Stephanie Russell is a personal chef and also a freelance writer, and this well-written, witty blog focuses on delivering interesting, somewhat eclectic recipes with gorgeous pictures and a little bit of Stephanie's life mixed in. A navigation bar on the right allows you to easily view different recipes by category (such as "comfort food," "healthy," "Peruvian" and "noodles").

#4 The Wine Gal Blog
Ericia Bartels is the resident "wine gal" and event coordinator at Angelina Italian Bistro, and this blog is all about her adventures in wine (including sitting for the sommelier exam and lunching with the president of a legendary Italian winery). In between personal and professional anecdotes are some fantastic wine finds, and you can stop by Angelina anytime to talk vino with the pro. (Their monthly wine tastings are hugely popular and tend to sell out quickly.)

#5 Fruitcake or Nuts
It's a simple, straightforward, and regularly updated cooking blog with easy-to-follow and none-too-fancy recipes. There's nothing flashy about the design or presentation, and recipes tend to have more of an everyday appeal. And honestly, that's kind of refreshing -- after all, you can't make chicken galantine until you've mastered basic chicken.

Bubbling under 64 Square Foot Kitchen, Dog Hill Kitchen, The Savage Feast, Mira Uncut, The Last Bite, Kitchen Chick, Hungry Girl Por Vida

[Real Detroit Weekly] Halloween Party Foods

Christmas is for kids. Valentine’s Day is for breeders and people who’ve had lobotomies. But Halloween? Halloween is the ultimate adult holiday, from the socially acceptable skimpy costumes to the part where you eat candy for breakfast, lunch and dinner WHY? Because you’re an adult and you can. What better way to honor this most important celebration of the seven deadly sins than with a ghoulishly gluttonous fetish-y fete? Now, we’re no Martha Stuart and we also know the only reason you’re doing this is to (a) show off your skimpy costume, or (b) see all the chicks you invited in their skimpy costumes, so we’re going to keep this as simple as possible with these ready-made recipes.

Spiked Apple Cider
One gallon of Michigan apple cider to one quart of Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum. Too strong? Pussy.

Pumpkin Beer
You simply MUST have some on hand, and one of the best on the market is Michigan Brewing Company’s Screamin’ Pumpkin Spiced Ale, available wherever Michigan craft beers are sold.

Candy Caramel Corn
Take a bag of candy corn and toss it with a bag of caramel corn in a large serving bowl. Done.

Candy-Coated Caramel Apples
Halloween is a time for treats, so take the classic fall culinary delight of caramel apples (make your own with DIY kits sold in cider mills and grocery stores) and add a little something extra: after rolling the apple in caramel, then roll it in a mix of plain Halloween-colored M&M’s and Reese’s Pieces for a festive orange and black that tastes like summer diets shot to hell.

Day of the Dead Cupcakes
Get some standard Devil’s Food cake mix and chocolate frosting (we like Duncan Hines’s Creamy Home-Style Classic) from the store and make a few batches of cupcakes. To decorate in your Halloween theme, skip the fancy carved jelly candies and piped buttercream frosting; buy some skull candies from the store (your best bet will be grocers that cater to a Hispanic clientele), or make your own in advance following these simple steps:

Ingredients
Skull molds (optional)
Decorations of choice
1 tsp. vanilla
2 small egg whites (or whites from 1 large egg)
1 tsp. light corn syrup
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch

Directions
1. Sift powdered sugar in large mixing bowl and combine corn syrup, vanilla and egg whites in small bowl until well blended. Add liquid mixture to bowl containing sugar.

2. Use hands to mix sugar and liquid together until it begins to form a soft, gritty dough. Shape into a large ball and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3. Pull off 1 heaping tbsp. of dough at a time and form each into the shape of a skull, or press the sugar dough into each mold. Use cornstarch on hands and surface to keep dough from sticking. Set the sugar skulls in a cool, dry place to harden overnight.

4. Decorate your sugar skulls the following day using a small paintbrush dipped into food coloring or sugar frosting with a pastry bag or frosting tip.

Roasted Pumpkin Fondue - we've already covered this earlier this week with Y Kant Nikki Cook

See the original story here.

[Y Kant Nikki Cook] Roasted Pumpkin Fondue

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

It's fall and it's almost Halloween (let's just go ahead and state the obvious, which is that this is the BEST time of the year), so this week we're ditching the Hot List and Feature sections and instead bringing you all easy and unique fall-themed recipes using some of our favorite ingredients (like pumpkin, and cheese) as part of our brand-new Y Kant Nikki Cook section (read more about it here). We're going to launch it with something that is near and dear to our hearts: a roasted pumpkin stuffed with Swiss cheese fondue. Serve this at your Halloween party instead of boring old spinach artichoke dip!

Ingredients
1 large baguette (about 15 inches cut into 1/2-inch slices)
7-lb pumpkin (medium-sized and thoroughly washed)
1-1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup vegetable broth (or reduced sodium chicken broth)
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2-1/2 cup gruyere cheese (coarsely grated)
2-1/2 cup emmental cheese (coarsely grated)
1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 450°F; use bottom rack.
2. Toast baguette slices in 1 layer on a baking sheet in oven until tops are crisp, about 7 minutes. Let cool.
3. Remove top of pumpkin by cutting a circle around stem with a small sharp knife. Scrape out seeds and any loose fibers from inside pumpkin with a spoon (including top of pumpkin; roast seeds with olive oil and sea salt for another quick party snack). Season inside of pumpkin with 1/2 teaspoon salt.
4. Whisk together cream, broth, nutmeg, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Mix together cheeses in a large bowl.

5. Put a layer of toasted bread in bottom of pumpkin, then cover with about 1 cup cheese and about 1/2 cup cream mixture. Continue layering bread, cheese, and cream mixture until pumpkin is filled to about 1/2 inch from top, using all of cream mixture. (You may have some bread and cheese left over.)
6. Cover pumpkin with top and put in an oiled small roasting pan. Brush outside of pumpkin all over with olive oil. Bake at 450°F until pumpkin is tender and filling is puffed, 75-90 minutes.
7. Cut wedges through directly the skin of the pumpkin and serve with more toasted baguette slices (everything but the pumpkin skin itself is pretty mushy, but the roasted pumpkin flesh and cheese concoction is a great topper for toast points).

This is why I don't do this.

After four long hours of fighting with a flimsy pumpkin carving knife (they don't make them like they used to), having to stop mid-way to run back to the store for more heavy cream after discovering the one I bought last week was curdled, then spending almost 45 minutes doing dishes in my tiny studio apartment sink with no dishwasher, I was reminded of all the reasons why I "can't" cook. I spent the last hour thinking of all the other things I could be doing and how that block of emmental paired with the baguette is just a fine and dandy meal all on its own with blessedly no prep and no clean-up. Now I have 7 pounds of cheese-stuffed pumpkin jammed in the fridge between all the beer.

For more photos, check out the "Y Kant Nikki Cook" album on our Facebook page.

[Real Detroit Weekly] Battle of the Bulge

What with all the tailgating going on, here's a little game day gourmet for 'ya. Also, these foods go REALLY well with beer.

Truffled Deviled Eggs
Why have regular deviled eggs when you can throw some truffle oil in there? (IKR???) These little picnic staples are easy to dress up by just adding some truffle oil (easy to find in specialty stores), then they get an extra fancy-pants kick with the addition of smoked salmon, parmesan and grape tomatoes. Make the eggs at home, transport them in a sealed plastic container or a plate covered in shrink wrap, then top them off when you're ready to eat for some easy game day gourmet that will put others' potato salads and taco dips to shame!

Ingredients:
-12 eggs
-3 cups mayonnaise
-2 Tbsp truffle oil
-4 Tbsp finely chopped black truffle peelings (optional)
-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
-1/4 cup thin-sliced smoked salmon (you don’t need to smoke it yourself, over-achiever)
-1/4 cup shaved parmesan cheese
-6 grape tomatoes, washed and cut in half length-wise

Directions:
-Place the eggs in a pot and cover with tap water. The level of the water should be about 1 inch above the eggs.
-Bring the pot to a boil and cover. Then turn off the heat and let sit for 13 minutes exactly.
-Uncover and run the eggs under cold water if using right away, or refrigerate until ready to use.
-Peel the eggs and cut in half lengthwise. Remove the yolks from the whites. Mash the yolks with a fork.
-Add the mayonnaise, truffle oil, cayenne and truffle peelings.
-Whip until very light and fluffy. *If you want a little more truffle flavor add a little more truffle oil. Proceed with caution, it is very easy to over-truffle.
-Spoon the yolk mixture into the whites. Store in fridge until ready to use. Top with a single slice of smoked salmon, parmesan shavings, and grape tomato half.

Bacon-Wrapped Venison Burger
This is Michigan, where deer hunting is a $500 million annual industry. Chances are if you're not a hunter yourself, your Uncle Teddy/Bobby/Larry/Jerry/Kenny is, and you know when he comes home with a fresh load of Bambi that meat will fill up four freezers for the next year, so you might as well start enjoying it. Venison meat is lean, mild and extremely flavorful. The saltiness of thick, smoky bacon will offset the venison's mild gaminess, leaving you with a beautiful bacony burger and that manly sense of accomplishment that comes from "living off the wild." The patty mixture can be made in advance and refrigerated overnight, ready for you to fire up on your portable George Foreman and grunt along with the other meat-grilling men.

Ingredients:
-6 slices applewood-smoked bacon
-2 minced shallots
-2 lbs. ground venison
-1 tsp minced garlic
-1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
-1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
-1 beaten egg
-6 firm hamburger buns (stop by a proper bakery for these; those wimpy grocery store plastic bag buns won’t do this justice – try Avalon International Bread’s 313 Burger Buns)
-salt and pepper
-crumbled bleu cheese (optional)
-arugula (optional)

Directions:
-Slightly cook the bacon in a skillet over medium heat (cook only long enough to get some drippings; the bacon should still be limp enough to shape around burger patty and finish cooking with the burger).
-Use the bacon drippings to sauté the garlic and shallots until softened. Empty into large mixing bowl and let cool.
-Once cooled, add the ground venison, Worcestershire, parsley, salt, pepper, and the beaten egg until evenly combined. Refrigerate the whole mixture for about 20 minutes (or until ready to use).
-Preheat your outdoor grill for medium-high heat.
-Shape the meat into 6 patties (this will make 6 LARGE patties). Wrap a slice of bacon around each patty and hold in place with toothpicks. Grill to desired temperature. Add bleu cheese and arugula to taste.

German-Style Made In Michigan Sampler Platter*
Nothing says "Pig Skin Party" like actual pig in skins. The sausage-and-cheese plate is an art form; the idea is to get a quality sampler of different sausages and cheeses together with various accompaniments and bread for a simple crowd-pleasing spread. In Germany this is actually called "Abendbrot" and is a standard evening meal shared with the family. Use fresh bakery bread to make sandwiches or just sandwich cheese and mustard between two slices of sausage. And much like any other German dish, this is meant to be enjoyed with BEER. Not like foofy France and their high-falutin' "charcuterie" plates and wine pairings. You eat sausage? You drink beer. There is no wine in football. The best part is, it's easy as hell to make: just slice and serve.

Fixin’s (for 4-6 people):

3 packages of sausage – try to get a mix of pork and beef. Dearborn Sausage Co. makes a wide variety of pre-cooked and smoked sausages.
Try:
-Mild Hunter’s Sausage
-Smoked Sausage
-German Knockwurst

3 blocks/wedges of cheese – you’ll want firm cheeses with sharp flavors that are easy to slice.
Try:
The British Invasion (three firm yellow cheeses similar in body to cheddar though smoother and creamier): Red Leicester, Double Gloucester, Shropshire (a blue-veined yellow cheese, like stilton smashed into cheddar)
-or-
Made in Michigan (warning: these may be a little difficult to track down but Gahblessya for trying): Zingerman’s Creamery Great Lakes Cheshire, Grassfields Farms Gouda, Traffic Jam and Snug’s Blue Asiago

3 small jars of gourmet mustard – do a tasting of all Michigan-made mustards!
Try:
-Charley’s Ballpark Mustard (original flavor)
-Sansonetti Sauces’ Spicy Curry Mustard
-Sweet Lorraine’s Honey Bee Mustard

6 fresh-baked medium-large dinner rolls – try Avalon International Breads Russell Street Rustic Italian
1 jar pickles – we recommend McClure’s Garlic Dill Pickles
2 sticks unsalted butter (for spreading on bread)
6 large heirloom tomatoes (sliced for sandwiches)

*All local products are available in area specialty markets, such as Holiday Market in Royal Oak.

Read the full article (with more recipes) here.

Real Detroit Weekly Extended Cut: Union Street

It can be easy to get caught up in the glitz and glamour of all the pretty, shiny new restaurants opening around town (and Slows), but there’s nothing quite like the old favorites, the places that have become Detroit staples: reliable, dependable, ever-present. Like your best friend from grade school who you don’t get to see as often as you’d like but you know will always be there for you.

Going into 2011, start revisiting some of these old favorites, like Union Street in Detroit’s Midtown. Located right across the street from the Majestic complex, Union Street has offered the local crowds a relaxing, comfortable, friendly place to eat and drink for more than 20 years. Whether it be hipster spillover from across the street, students from WSU, medical professionals from the DMC, older couples from the suburbs in town for a show at the Fox or DSO, art lovers from the DIA, area residents, black or white, young or old … you get the picture. Union Street is one place that is truly a melting pot of local culture. Even the workers – many of whom have been there for 10 years or more – run the gamut from artist to writer to musician to Master’s student to physicist. And that’s ultimately what the heart of Detroit is all about, and one of the things that make it great.

“This is Detroit’s best side, what it is and what it can be,” says Executive Chef John Wesenberg of the restaurant’s always-eclectic crowd. “People interact here, do business here. There’s a lot of laughter here,” he says, ironically over the din of laughter and conversation at 2:45 on a Wednesday afternoon. “We’re right here in the heart of it.”

Wesenberg was a patron here before he was the chef, and himself has been here 10 years. This is the kind of place where people come to talk to each other without distractions: there are no TVs anywhere, no sports or CNN, just a diverse mix of people all enjoying each other’s company.

The menu is equally diverse to fit the patronage. Union Street’s menu doesn’t easily fit into any kind of categorization, so let’s call it upscale casual contemporary American as a catch-all. But the prices are modest, appealing to all wallets, and the food is consistently GOOD. Wesenberg has two culinary degrees and has worked in high-profile kitchens, but ultimately it is this rich comfort food (don’t hold the butter) that he loves. They take great care in everything they do, from the housemade sauces and dressings to butchering their own meats and seafood and smoking their own brisket made with their own dry rub blend.


Take the Jumbo Lump Crab au Gratin, made with meaty chunks of shelled sweet crab in a decadent béchamel sauce topped with a six-cheese blend baked on top and served with sourdough toast points. Or the Lobster & Shrimp Casino Pasta, made with black tiger shrimp and lobster claw and tail meat sautéed with garlic, shitake mushrooms, diced tomatoes, spinach, white wine and crushed red pepper tossed with vermicelli pasta and “casino butter” (made with garlic, red pepper, white wine and, naturally, butter). Say it with me now: butter makes things better.

These dishes are downright decadent, and also damn delicious. You'll find a lot of seafood on the menu here since that is Chef John's particular passion, much of it doused in some sort of butter or cheese or cream (blessed be). For lighter fare try the black sesame seared Ahi salad, a top-grade cut of succulent Ahi tuna encrusted in black sesame on a bed of greens with their housemade mustard vinaigrette (French mustard grain and white wine, making for a light, complimentary flavor).

There is of course their popular Dragon Eggs – chicken breast stuffed with gorgonzola then battered and tossed in their HOT Rasta hot sauce. (No, really: it’s hot. If I’m saying it then it’s true times 10.) And as a pizza lover I can also tell you the thin-crust pizza made with a four-cheese blend is garlicky buttery deliciousness, and the Marghertia Pizza is one of the options available on their $5 special menu offererd Monday and Tuesday nights after 6 p.m. (Have I mentioned that yet?) And for my fellow turophiles (I love that word!), Union Street always has had and always will have baked brie on their menu (there was a period of probably 3-4 years where that was all I would order whenever I came here just because I could. Remember when Friday's had baked brie on their menu? Now I'm going waaaay back. That was actually how I discovered baked brie, and just as I started getting excited about it, it started disappearing from menus everywhere. Now it's rare to find it on a menu unless it's just a special, but not at Union Street, heavens no. No, it's always there. Dependable, like I said...).

The menu is updated regularly and there is always a different batch of specials worth investigating (like an asiago cheese tomato bisque I tried on a recent but unrelated trip); this is the kind of place where you will NEVER be disappointed. Also a great place for bottomless mimosa Sunday brunch, as well as a great place just to get a drink: they’ve got a small but handsome boutique wine selection and a nice collection of craft beers. Tuesdays are $2 beer specials, Wednesdays are half off wine bottles, and the selected Beer of the Month is available for only $2 all month long. A motto above the bar reads “Life is too short to drink cheap beer,” which is a true statement though I’ll tell you what, those $2 drafts ain’t Bud Light. (Short's award-winning Key Lime Pie ale was a recent selection, and while the selection of Michigan craft brews is humble they always have Founders Porter or Breakfast Stout by the bottle, which is enough for me.) Also, every Monday night select martinis are only $5 from 4 p.m. to close.

There is another sign posted above the bar that states "Dignity cannot be preserved in alcohol." Ay, there's the rub. But without alcohol I probably wouldn't be able to convince myself I still had any dignity so it's all very circular, no?


Union Street has an eclectic urban saloon-meets-speakeasy-meets grungy rock bar feel, and the crowd and menu is equally as idiosyncratic. It is friendly and comfortable, the kind of place you can go by yourself to get some work done and not be hassled but also great for meeting a friend to catch up or getting together a rowdy group. Or if you’re Jack White or Kid Rock, you can totally hang out here because that’s what you did before you were famous and in this place, this place that isn’t really known as a see-and-be-seen kind of place, no one will even bat an eye in your direction and the waiters may still remember you from when you played at the Gold Dollar. Your hands WILL be greasy when you leave (BUTTER), but you will be full and happy. And while you may have forgotten about it or taken it for granted while caught up in all the Roast-crepes-OMGSLOWS hysteria, Union Street is still there for you. Like a good neighbor. Like State Farm. It is the Detroit restaurant equivalent of State Farm.


Jumbo Lump Crab Au Gratin Recipe

8 oz. jumbo lump crab (shelled)
12 oz. white wine (chardonnay, pinot grigio or Chablis)
6 oz. heavy cream
1 oz. grated parmesan or Romano cheese
1 oz. Asiago, shredded
1 oz. mozzarella, shredded
1 oz. aged Spanish Manchego cheese, shredded
1 oz. Swiss Emmentaler cheese, shredded

Mix all cheese together

Reduce wine by half in sautee pan
Add jumbo lump crab
Add heavy cream and reduce by 20%
Add 2/3 of cheese blend – DO NOT stir by hand – gently fold in cheese with spatula
Pour into oven-proof ceramic serving bowl, top with remainder of shredded cheese and place under broiler in oven or in toaster oven

Cook until cheese is bubbling and lightly browned

Serve with toast points, tortilla chips or pita bread

Read the original version here, but know it is less one Slows reference, one self-deprecating joke about my dignity, and two mentions of State Farm.

A Craving for Guacamole and a Trip to Nino Salvaggio

Earlier this week I had a wicked craving for some guacamole. At the time I was in Troy, so I decided to swing by Nino Salvaggio International Marketplace to pick up the fixin's (fresher than they would be from a Meijer).

There are three different Nino Salvaggio locations in metro Detroit--Troy, St. Clair Shores, and Clinton Township. All offer the same fresh produce and quality meats and cheeses, as well as on-site bakeries and delis which offer fresh products made daily, without anything pre-packaged.

Nino Salvaggio takes the concepts of freshness and quality and applies it to all areas of their markets. Chefs trained in culinary institutes prepare the daily selection of 75 different entrees, sides, and salads made fresh and packed for you to take home, and the bakery offers an endless array of fresh-baked goods and pastries, as well as a selection of imported treats to satisfy a more cultured palate. There are 15-20 kinds of bread baked fresh daily. The glass pastry counter is filled with pretty mouses and tortes and fruit flan made from produce picked that day. You can also get whole cheesecakes from St. Clair Shores' Cheesecake Shoppe, voted the #1 cheesecake in metro Detroit and just one example of how Nino Salvaggio also promotes other locally-based businesses. There are also hundreds of varieties of imported olives, cured meats, and cheeses. Meats and cheeses are cut in-store by trained and certified cutters, and as for their cheese selection...well, how does 305 choices sound?

Meat cutters chop your meat the day you buy it and Nino's makes their own kabobs, sausages, and hamburger patties. If seafood is more your style, the market offers over 100 fresh seafood items flown in fresh 6 days a week and cut the same day it is put on display--this fish is fresh enough to make your own sushi without worry, and if you don't find the particular sea-faring item you're looking for, they encourage special orders. The grocery portion of the store boasts a tremendous selection of imported and exotic items (at fair prices) from a variety of different culinary traditions all around the world--but it's also practical enough for a person to do his casual shopping as well. Nino Salvaggio is also one of the largest purveyors of supremo coffee beans in the country, with their Master Blender producing 32 blends daily from plantations all over South America and Africa.

The wine selection is enormous, daunting even. With over 3,000 labels in can be difficult to sift through, and due to space issues the wines are only loosely organized by region and style. And while they do offer a wide variety of mid-range labels, their pricing is still on the average to high side. I did find some labels I was excited to see, including Los Vascos Cabernet Sauvignon (a wine I hated the first time I tried it due to its overwhelmingly pungent sense of terroir) and Emilio Moro Ribera del Duero, a true knock-your-socks-off wine (and my first foray into Tempranillo) that you can probably find a few bucks less than the $32.99 they were charging...but it might turn into quite a journey to do so.

And now I must share a memory. I was introduced to Emilio Moro Ribera del Duero when the importer--Christopher Canaan at the time, though I'm not sure if this is still the case--was at an industry wine event at the Whitney. I was there with the person I was dating then whose father owns the Riecine vineyards in Tuscany (they've been known to make a killer La Gioia); their winemaker was also at this event. I got to meet a number of different importers and sample more wines than I had ever done previously, and one--Emilio Moro--began in me a lifelong love of Spanish wines.

Nino Salvaggio also offers a full floral and gift basket line, with fresh-cut flowers flown in 6 days a week from all parts of the world and bountiful gift baskets overflowing with sparkling fruits that can be shipped to anywhere in the continental U.S.

But the produce is where Nino Salvaggio International Marketplace really shines: for 32 years they have exercised the highest standards and have set those standards for all other gourmet marketplaces. You will not find a single bruised fruit or wilted green, as their team of educated workers comb through the items three times a day to weed out any undesirables. Overnight the produce is stored in coolers with humidity levels set to the item's appropriate requirements. They take great pride in offering items you will not find in any other grocer or market, from exotic tropical fruits to 15 different kinds of eggplant. They also have a number of signs posted to help you along your way, indicating the heat of a pepper or the uses of an herb. Nino Salvaggio recognizes that as the economy has globalized, so has cuisine, and they enjoy being able to proclaim, "If you can't find it here, you probably can't find it anywhere." Nino Salvaggio has helped define lifestyle food retailing over the years, and has defined itself as the region's benchmark of quality, availability, and exceptionally high standards. And all of the prepared foods they sell are assembled on the premises from fruit plucked right out of the produce bins, and sold with the highest standards of freshness and quality.

When highest levels of quality marry exceptional customer service, the result is something like Nino Salvaggio. (Don't get me wrong, Eastern Market, I love you too...it's just that sometimes I want to buy fresh produce at 7:30PM on a Tuesday, or at any time on a Sunday.) The staff at Nino's is trained to be very knowledgable and helpful, and they are willing to cater to their customers in any way they can. A place like this is aces in my book.

So, getting back to that guacamole...I must first preface this by saying I do not cook. I eat. I eat lots. But I do not cook. I know everything about food, but if you put a pile of it raw in front of me, I would not know how to magically transform it into the creative and cleverly-presented dishes I like to review. It's a sad thing--like a brilliant musician gone deaf, really...only not really--but it's the truth. I've been spoiled by frozen pizza, no-fuss cheese, and boyfriends who like to cook. So there it is. I've lived to the ripe old age of 27 never having learned to cook beyond scrambled eggs and...did I say frozen pizza yet?

So. That guacamole. That guacamole was my first attempt at "cooking" (granted, there was no heat source involved) since my tween years when I fancied myself a baker (I can make a mean banana bread). If you think I'm kidding, ask anyone who knows me personally. It's painfully and completely sincerely true.

After running a 7-second Google search, I found a recipe I thought sounded particularly appealing. See, I don't really care for onions, but I love garlic. Good guac for me is free of onion chunks and HEAVY on garlic. To the point that it would be coming out of my pores. Two days later. (This is why I love Woodbridge Pub.) I found a recipe that suited this preference, and off I went to Nino's.

Guacamole by D-Tales:

2 - peeled and pitted Hass avocados

1 Tbs - lime juice

1 tsp - kosher salt

1/2 tsp - ground pepper

1 cup - chopped Roma tomato

1 - minced shallot (I only used about half as I'm not a big onion fan, though shallots aren't as strong)

1 Tbs - minced garlic (I really like garlic so I used more like 3 Tbs)

1/4 cup - minced cilantro (I skipped this since I would have had to buy a bundle of cilantro just to use a pinch)

1 - small serrano pepper, minced (I used about half...it is hot)

Directions: Blend. (Note: it is very difficult to mash avocado with a fork. You'll need a blender or a potato masher at the very least, unless you like your guacamole extra-chunky.)


So, how was it? Well...you see that "note" above? Suffice it to say I own neither a blender or a potato masher. So. It tasted great, though. Just. A little. Chunky.

Ah, well. This is why I pay other people to make food and serve it to me. Those who can't, review, right? Bah. I'll just keep dating boys who like to cook.