I spent most of Saturday judging a wing contest at Sawyer Point.  My lips have finally regained feeling in them after the “hottest wing” competition, and I got to know Jessica Brown from Fox 19, a fellow judge.

Color me surprised when I get a call from her around 9 PM that evening:  ”Julie, can you come in and show us a procrastinator’s recipe for Mother’s Day?”

Well sure, I can.

As we ate dinner, I thought about what I’d present.  I resigned myself to not baking– the call was at 9:45, and I didn’t think I’d have enough time to prep.  Then I realized:  a trifle.  Easy and delicious, Mother’s Day-appropriate, and pretty enough for television.

So, enjoy my first foray into food demos on television, and here’s the recipe for those of you who were interested.

Spring Trifle

Spring Trifle

For the cream:

1 quart whipping cream

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the berries:

3 cups berries of your choice: I used strawberries and blueberries, but raspberries and blackberries work nicely as well.

1 pound cake, your favorite recipe (or you can use Sara Lee; I won’t judge)

Amaretto, or your favorite liqueur.

Method:

With either a hand or stand mixer, whip the cream until stiff peaks form.  Add the sugar and vanilla extract.  Set aside.

If you are using strawberries, slice the berries.  Cube the pound cake into bite-sized chunks.

In a trifle dish, clear bowl, or other pretty serving dish, start with a layer of whipped cream spread on the bottom, then follow with pound cake, sprinkle a tablespoon or so of amaretto over the pound cake, and top with berries.  Alternate layers as described, ending with a top layer of whipped cream.  Garnish with any extra berries you may have.

This is best if refrigerated for a bit, but eating it directly out of the container after making it is completely okay.

Northside is the epicenter of the Cincinnati Tacosphere. Fact.

You have Tacocracy, the hard-to-pronounce, anti-establishment taco joint, that fills their tacos with potatoes and very un-taco-like fillings, surrounded by old airplane doodads in an old goth bar.

Then, you have Django Western Taco, with its cowboy flair, serving either individual or family-style tacos and a variety of other tex-mex inspired dishes, including chiles rellenos and stone bowls.

The newest taco joint in Northside goes full on luchador, with black and red decor and calaveras (think the black-and-white mexican sugar skulls from Dia de los Muertos) and a menu that includes a variety of tacos, burritos and appetizers. Barrio Tequileria is owned by the folks that bring you the Taco Azul food truck, home of my very favorite food truck taco, the bulgogi taco (which, unfortunately, is not on the menu at Barrio– they are going for authentic LA here).

Four of us popped in after an event at Pallet 23, and at 7 PM on a Thursday, it was quiet, filling up slowly as the evening wore on. Our busser came by with water and wholeheartedly endorsed the elotes, which are something I love that I rarely find on menus in Cincinnati: grilled corn (on or off the cob; I choose off) with chipotles, mayonnaise, cotija and lime. My group of four got two orders (it’s a small order for $3) as well as guacamole to share. God bless Nada for upping the guacamole quotient in Cincinnati when they opened, since before that I’m not sure anyone realized what good guacamole could be. Barrio’s is standard– avocado, lime, garlic– but very fresh and very good.

Drinks were had all around– I went with the reposado margarita, which is on the tart side and not too sweet (which I appreciate). I tried a sip of my friend’s El Diablo (tequila, creme de cassis, ginger beer and lime), which was refreshing, and just a touch sweeter than my margarita. Their cocktails, developed by Lindsey Laubenstein (formerly of Enoteca Emilia and smoQ) are all fresh– no mix here– and it shows.

Tacos were ordered, served on a large, round tray. I ended up with a lengua taco and a camaron taco, while friends grabbed pescado tacos and carnitas tacos. The carnitas were deemed the favorite of one friend (who also ordered camaron tacos), and my pescatarian friend (with the fish tacos) really loved the beer-battered cod and slaw combination. My favorite was the lengua, which was well-seasoned and super tender, and I loved the slaw on the camaron, but my major complaint is that the tortillas did not quite hold up to the not terribly saucy tacos, making them a bit difficult to eat. All three of us had problems with the flour tortillas. No matter– we still used our forks to eat what fell out, but ask for an extra napkin or two.

On the way to the restrooms, I got a peek of their back patio which opens this weekend for Cinco de Mayo. It has a full bar, tons of seating, and agave plants dotting the whole area– it’s a tiny bit of LA or Mexico in the middle of Northside.

Check it out– it’s chill and laid-back, but unlike pretty much any other taco restaurant in Cincinnati, takes reservations on OpenTable– so no wait if you plan ahead a bit.

I’ve been quiet for a little while. Work, life– things happen. I’d been intending to post all week, but between Boston, Waco, and a few other things– well, I decided I needed to write about something really positive.

I love the things home cooks do and share around the city.  I can name a dozen chefs in town who started off cooking for friends and family, or on a very limited basis, who now own full-fledged restaurants.

As much as reviews drive wine me, dine me, what I’m really fascinated with are the dishes around town and the stories behind them.

This is one of those stories (insert the Law and Order “doink doink” here).

A few months ago, I was in 1215 with some girlfriends and chatting with my regular barista/waitress, Theresa Nguyen.  I mentioned I was going to head home and find some food and she said, “Well, I made banh mi for the staff. I have extra. Would you like one?”

Never one to pass up a banh mi, I accepted.  It was delicious– crusty bread, flavorful chicken filling, lots of fresh ingredients.  Occasionally, I’ll stop in and she’ll have something else– spring rolls, for example.  Everything is fresh and homemade and she shares it with genuine passion.

A few days ago, she texted me to tell me she was bringing in banh mi, and wondered if I’d like one.  Well, yes, of course!

This version involved chicken, roasted “beer-butt” style and combined with a yellow curry sauce and topped with a tangy carrot-cucumber slaw and cilantro.  Incredibly good; one of the best banh mi I’ve had.

While I was eating, we chatted about her inspiration.  ”I’ve had lots of banh mi, and I always thought I could do better.  Banh mi traditionally uses French bread, but it falls apart so easily.  I use bolillo [a Mexican bread] because it’s still crusty, but holds up better to the ingredients.”

Does Nguyen plan on doing more than occasionally feeding customers at 1215?  She’s not sure– perhaps a banh mi night at 1215 is in the future, or maybe some late-night bites.  Keep your eye on her, though– this won’t be the last time you hear of her.

I have always wanted to write a headline like that.

Despite the impending snowpacalypse (I am still waiting for it…), today was the media preview day for the Cincinnati Reds’ food, one of my favorite treats each year. I love taking my lunch hour and trying new food, hanging with the mascots, and generally just looking forward to baseball season. I was commenting to Michael Anderson, their PR person, about how much better the food has gotten since I started WMDM 5 years ago. Now, there are tons of delicious options that reflect our hometown– good on you, Reds. Investing in players AND food? I am more than OK with that.

This year, Frisch’s, which has been a sponsor of Reds on Radio for a really long time (since the 60s, at least) is now offering Big Boy sandwiches at two locations at the Great American Ballpark. I love that the Reds are embracing local brands: La Rosa’s, Montgomery Inn, UDF, Penn Station and now Frisch’s– it adds some character to the ballpark.

There are a bunch of other delicious treats as well. Some of them, like the Macho Nacho, Smoked Prime Rib Sandwich and Lo Mein Noodles are available in the ballpark. Others, like the Fried Pretzel Sticks, are available only in the Machine Room and still others are Suite-specific. Check out my photos below for some shots of the food I tried today.

I often wonder if Martha Stewart gets emergency cleaning texts from her friends: “Martha! I have mustard on my shirt! What do I do?”  Or if Alton Brown gets random cooking science phone calls from his sister-in-law, “I mixed milk in vinegar, what’s that reaction called?”

I am no Martha or Alton, but I do get emergency cocktail questions from my friends.  ”Julie!  Where can I get *insert obscure liqueur here*?”  ”Julie! OMG I just had the best cocktail at *insert cocktail bar here*.  How can I make it?”

My favorite recently: “My friend and I want to make Brooklyn cocktails.  Where the heck do you get Amer Picon?”

I take these sorts of things as a challenge.

It took me a few months, but I did the research.  Amer Picon is a bitter (I knew that going in), essentially France’s answer to Amaro.  Unfortunately, it’s not available anywhere in the US– at least that I could find.  With a little searching, I discovered that the Torani company in California (yes, they make the syrups you get at coffee shops) makes a version, and it’s as close to the original as you can get: 78 proof, full of gentian and orange and other ingredients said to prevent malaria in sailors (Amer Picon’s original purpose).  It is still pretty difficult to get: unavailable at the Party Source.  Unavailable in the state of Massachusetts (where my friend lives).  You can, however, order it from BevMo or Liquorama.  It’s not a super-expensive liqueur, but it’s so important for the Brooklyn Cocktail.

If you are familiar with the Manhattan, the Brooklyn will seem familiar, too. The base is rye and instead of sweet vermouth, you use dry.  Throw in a couple of teaspoons of Torani Amer and Luxardo Maraschino, and garnish with a cherry.  It’s much less sweet than a Manhattan, a little spicier and a little more complex.  It’s darn tasty and, since I now have the ingredients, will go into my cocktail rotation.

You will find that the shipping on a bottle of Amer is about the cost of the liqueur, but it’s worth it– it’s great in the Liberal cocktail, Picon Punch, or the Picon Curacao Highball.

The Brooklyn

2 oz rye (I used Russell’s 6 year)

3/4 oz dry vermouth (Dolin)

2 teaspoons Luxardo Marsachino Liqueur

2 teaspoons Amer Picon (or Torani Amer)

Assemble in a mixing glass over ice.  Stir until chilled, serve in a cocktail glass with a cocktail cherry (I use Filthy Black Cherries).

A couple of years ago at the first FoodBuzz Blogger conference in San Francisco, the final night was hosted by Outstanding in the Field. All of us– and there were probably 100 or so– packed into a distribution warehouse, surrounded by food that would be sent to stores and restaurants across the San Francisco area. We ate local food, passed family-style, in a communal setting. I couldn’t help but sit there and go, “Man, I wish one of these would happen here”.

That’s the idea behind Outstanding in the Field– get people who are interested in food to eat where food is made and grown, cooked by people who understand local, seasonal ingredients.  It’s great fun, and you learn quite a bit about the food, your surroundings, and your new friends.

Four years later, Cincinnati gets their first Outstanding in the Field dinner, hosted by Carriage House Farms and executed by Chef Michael Paley of Metropole. The dinner is Sunday, October 13th, 2013, and t

ickets will be available on the Outstanding in the Field website beginning March 20.

Check out the website for Outstanding in the Field to learn more about the concept, and as soon as tickets are live, I’ll tell you all about it.

Don’t try to argue with me there. If escargot weren’t traditionally soaked in garlic butter, green with parsley, Bourgogne style, would most people eat them?

Thought so.

I had my first escargot encounter on my first trip to Paris in 2007. I was charmed by the shells, the tongs, the tiny fork, the endless bread to soak in butter. Okay, the snails themselves were nothing to write home about, but garlic and butter can’t be bad.

I now try escargot just about any time I see them on the menu. I’ve ordered Taste of Belgium’s many times, which are very traditional Bourgogne style, with a smidge less parsley. I’ve ordered them around the country, to varying degrees of deliciousness. Sometimes they’re little, black balls that you could bounce off the nearest wall, sometimes there isn’t enough garlic, and sometimes they’re just plain oily. I’d say I eat them about once every two months or so.

When visiting La Poste recently for a bite before Kate and I saw “Amour,” I saw escargot on the menu and when Kate said she was game, ordered them. I figured, from the description, that they’d be fairly typical escargot.

Hardly.

The escargot are certainly treated with some butter and garlic, but the sauce is thicker, and even better on the accompanying bread that Bourgogne-style. There’s a heavy hint of sage, which lends depth to a dish that could be one-note. The escargot were perfect– not rubbery, but tender. The whole-grain, toasted bread held up to the sauce. I think I now have the ideal escargot, the ones that get compared to other escargot. Katy and I fought over the last bite (she generously allowed me to have it). Accompanied by an After Hours (Campari and soda; apparently Chef Dave Taylor’s favorite drink

If you think you don’t like escargot, try these. If you love escargot, these will reignite your romance.

* Yes, I’m an Austen fan. How could you tell?

Expect to see more posts on dishes I love in the future.  Have a dish to suggest?  Fill out this super-quick form to tell me about it!

The lovely folks at the Carnegie have presented me with two pairs of tickets to the Art of Food!  I’m giving one pair of tickets away over on Facebook, but the other pair?  Here.

The Art of Food is the annual event at the Carnegie that features local artists and chefs honoring food.

The opening reception for The Art of Food will take place Friday, March 1, 2013 from 6pm-9pm in The Carnegie Galleries. During the opening attendees will have the opportunity to sample edible creations by more than twenty of the area’s top chefs while feasting their eyes on the culinary-inspired artistic works of artists Kelly Romer Armstrong, Eric Brass, Leah Busch, Valerie Escobedo, Timothy Gold, Sandra Gross, Dorie Guthrie, Debbie Hook, Joyce Kaufman, Rosie Kovacs, Pam Kravetz, Frannie Kroner, Carla Lamb, Megan Lemay, Carole Lichty-Smith, Trinidad Mac-Auliffe, Cheryl Metzger, Carla Morales, Becky Norris, Karen Saunders, Lori Siebert, Sheida Soleimani, Jenifer Sult, Jeff Sutherland, Katie Swartz, Amy Swoboda, Tom Towhey andJen Ustick.

Cost to attend The Art of Food opening reception is $25 for Carnegie Members and $40 general admission, in advance; $35 for Carnegie Members and $50 for non-members, at the door.  More than 600 guests are expected to attend the opening.

Tickets are available through The Carnegie Box Office, open Tuesday through Friday, Noon – 5pm, online at www.thecarnegie.com, or by phone at (859) 957-1940. Admission to view the artwork on display in The Art of Food is FREE after opening night and open to the public Monday, March 4 through Thursday, March 21, 2013. Gallery hours are Monday – Friday, 10am – 5pm, Saturday 12pm – 3pm.  (Please note The Carnegie will be closed Saturday, March 2, 2013.)

A few things:

1. For entry, comment with a suggestion of a restaurant I should review (bonus points: if you look up which restaurants I’ve already written about.  Well, no bonus points, but it would be nice).

2. You have to be 21 or older, as there is alcohol at the event.

3. You must be able to attend on Friday, March 1.

4. You must include an email address in your Disqus account– not in the post itself (don’t get yourself spammed).  Otherwise, I can’t contact you.

Comment away!

I am going to jump out on a limb here and say it: Ryan Santos is one of the most interesting folks in the Cincinnati food community today. He uses hyper-local ingredients, including items he’s foraged out of his Prospect Hill back yard.  His dinners are themed, but not obnoxiously so– more like a concept than anything else.  He’s one of the most active on Twitter, talking about his kombucha-making adventures, or showing how he tweaks a recipe, like his grilled milk dessert. He doesn’t run a restaurant; instead, he has a high-end, pop-up dinner two weekends a month in the off-season Streetpops location on Main, or more recently a collaboration with Steven Shockley at Pallet 23.

Santos also can’t leave well enough alone.  Though his Arts and Lettuce dinners have been hugely popular, selling out every seating and gaining extensive waiting lists, he’s packing up and heading to Belgium to stage (which is essentially a restaurant internship) at In De Wulf.  ”I think their approach to dinners is similiar to mine, and similar to my past experience at Townhouse [under Chef John Shields, one of Food + Wine's 2011 Best New Chefs]: modern and creative cooking, in the middle of nowhere, with an intense focus on seasonality,” says Santos.  He’ll be in Belgium for the month of April, with a brief sojourn to Paris, before he comes back to Cincinnati to start something new.

That new thing is a partnership with Carriage House Farms, which they first experimented with at a dinner in November.  The dinners– now just called “Please”– will occur the first two weekends of each month, June-November, outdoors at the farm.  All of the produce will be grown at the farm, in a plot exclusively for Please.  For example, “peas at their peak are at their very best when eaten immediately after being picked. We’ll do a pea dish, where we dont pick the peas until right before they’re plated” — something that no other restaurant is doing.  Meats will come from other local farms, like Napoleon Ridge and Mud Foot.  They’ll be utilizing a hunter and a forager for wild game and produce.  The catch?  There’s no electricity where they’ll be cooking, so they’ll be cooking with fire on cast-iron instead of in a full restaurant kitchen.

Pretty challenging.

Please will also be creating other items from the farm’s crops: a malt vinegar made from Carriage House Farm’s wheatberries, as well as an estate beer, from their wheatberries, cultivated wild hops, honey and herbs. These are “related to, but not exclusive to” the existing, pop-up dinner.

Pop-ups are becoming the rage– with Date by Steven Shockley, Jose Salazar at Pallet 23, and Frances Kroner’s Feast.  What differentiates Please from everyone else?  ”Some pop-ups are more family-style or casual. I think we take some risks to push people out of their comfort zone while trying to deliver something we proudly think is delicious, making something new a little less frightening,” Santos says, which makes me think of the much-maligned sweetbreads, which he served at the last Arts and Lettuce dinner I went to and was immediately gobbled up by everyone– including several diners who were a bit hesitant about sweetbreads.  Delicious, a bit out of the ordinary?  Success.

As far as the future:  Santos isn’t certain.  There is talk of a bricks-and-mortar restaurant, but nothing officially planned.  He’d like to do more collaborations with his chef friends: Jose Salazar, Nick Marckwald from Underground, Elias Leisring from Eli’s (and his “giant smoker”), or Chef Michael Paley from Metropole, who Santos feels “has the indoor version of our outdoor setup at Carriage House.”  He’d also like to take lessons from the ladies at Thai Express, who could “cook circles around myself and most other chefs in town.”

Maybe his next collaboration will be with them?

There are still seats available for March Arts and Lettuce, and check out his website to view a video from his dinner at Carriage House Farms or to keep abreast of the goings-on in Belgium and beyond.

Ah yes, it’s that time of year again… my favorite time of year, actually, when the Cincinnati Magazine Top 10 Restaurant list comes out.  For the past few years‘ lists, click here.

1. Orchids at the Palm Court

2. Jean-Robert’s Table

3. Nicola’s

4. Senate

5. Abigail Street

6. Cumin

7. Via Vite

8. Dutch’s Larder

9. Bouquet

10. Eli’s

For those who are counting, Hugo, The Palace, Boca and Sichuan Bistro fell off the list (Hugo because it’s now closed). There’s always one “surprise” on the list– this time Eli’s.  If the list is about high end service, Eli’s makes no sense, but the trend in dining is towards a small menu done very well– and Eli’s is the best barbecue in town, hands down, and you can fill your belly (and soul) for under $10.  Dutch’s Larder is similar– though it’s not as expensive as some of the restaurants on this list, you can get some amazing charcuterie or a sandwich, paired with a beer.

Featured New Restaurants:

Metropole

Jimmy G’s

M

Quan Hapa

Mantra on the Hill

What do you think are the top ten restaurants?  And what is your favorite new restaurant?