The Dining
Room on the German Airship Hindenburg (1937)
❖❖❖
IN THIS ISSUE
TRINIDAD AND
TOBAGO:
CHIPS OFF THE SOUTH AMERICAN BLOCK
By Marcy MacDonald
NEW YORK CORNER SD26 CELEBRATES
ITS FIFTH BIRTHDAY
By John Mariani
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TRINIDAD
AND TOBAGO:
CHIPS OFF THE SOUTH AMERICAN BLOCK
By Marcy MacDonald
The
Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago have been
invaded countless times over the centuries. In
Port of Spain, the capital, there is a huge sign
that reads "Invader's Gate" -- a sort-of
'where to' for modern day invaders in what is now
the center of town. So, when jetBlue, which has
been lobbying for more destinations in the
Americas, offered me a ride on their inaugural
flight to Port of Spain, just in time for the big
daddy of all Caribbean celebrations, Carnival, I
jumped at the chance.
Instead of the usual
JetBlue arrivals terminal offerings of biscuits,
nuts and ear phones, a huge Trinbagonian spread was
laid out near the gate, complete with a steel band
and mercifully brief speeches. Everything that
reflected 'real' island cuisine lay before us --
according to the group of Trinbagonians on JetBlue's
staff being treated to a round-trip flight home --
particularly the callaloo, a stew that has run
through the veins of every Trinbagodian since long
before Columbus arrived.
The two islands are
very, very different. Trinidad has always been a
business-and-party island, while Tobago has always
been laid back and,for some, title contender for
several of the best beaches in the world. They share
the fact that both broke off from South America a
few billion years ago. The topography is different
than most islands of the Caribbean -- more mountains
and hills, but the capital city’s savannah is flat downtown, although it is
hilly a few streets away.
One of those streets
climbs up to the Hilton,
called the “upside down" hotel because the
penthouse is on the lowest floor, down mountain,
with a staggering view. One of the first "big
box" hotels on the island, it's still one of the
best, with a first class poolside restaurant that
rocks at night with tall, gorgeous women in brief
apparel chaperoned by low brows who can afford the
fare.
The Carib Indians first
invaded the islands and renamed them “land of the
hummingbird” -- now the official bird of Tobago --
followed by Columbus, Spain's sailor-in-chief, who
named Trinidad after the Holy Trinity. (He did not
visit Tobago.) Many invaders followed -- the
French,Portuguese, Dutch and other Europeans, East
Indians, Syrians and Middle Easterners, Chinese,
Africans and, finally, the English -- who all came,
saw and conquered their desire to return home.
There's even a Hindu temple, called Temple of the Sea
(right)
on an island off the coast.
All these people filled their
pots and pans with New World ingredients and began
to develop a new cuisine culture that has resulted
in diverse multinational plays on dishes found
throughout the Caribbean as well as specialties of
each island.
"Eventually, they found
they could grow anything but wine," says veteran
actor Geoffrey Holder, a New Yorker by way of
Trinidad. Enter the national dish,
callaloo (below).
Every family has a favorite recipe, as does local
television news presenter Nellon Hunte. "Callalou is
'dashing bush,' a plant with huge leaves, dasheen or
taro -- which some may call 'the callaloo bush' --
mixed with okra, coconut milk, chili peppers and
cilantro and garlic,
onions, potatoes, so it's thicker than water. And
that's before you add the crab or salted meat to the
stew. Some like it chunkier, they don't cut up
everything as finely as others do." Hunte, however,
is a vegetarian, so he forgoes the seafood or meat
in his callaloo.
Other local ingredients
like plantains, fufu, yams and others began to be
added to already spicy stews like callaloo just for
extra kicks. Literally. The cooks follow Amerindian
customs of smoking fish over wood and leaves, known
as barbacoas.
Traditional barbeques and callaloo are “T&T
rituals," but for Hunte without meats or shellfish.
"Bull," exclaimed Holder,
a Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor who left the
islands decades ago, although the islands never left
him. "You can't have callaloo without the shellfish,
or Bake-and-Shark without the fish." It was as if
the voice of God had spoken.
Bake-and-Shark (below, right)
is another traditional dish, although often kingfish
is a substitute for the shark. A drive to Maracas
Bay brought me to a cove with a fishing village and
a string of Bake-and-Shark shacks across the road
from the water. "Bake-and-Shark is the most famous
street food on either island," said our guide, "with
shark so fresh you'll be happy you've bitten it
before it's bitten you."
At Annie's shack,
which has somewhat more ambiance than some of the
others, she takes a bigger-than-hamburger bun and
bakes it to give it the Trinibagodian crunch. Into
the bun goes a hot, deep-fried wedge of shark. An
enormous selection of add-ons is nestled on a huge
table and includes sliced pineapple, chutneys,
vegetables, nuts, chickpeas, salad creams and
dressings with additional temptations like pepper
sauce so hot it will make you weep. Then you dab
your eyes and shuffle off to Annie's two enormous
fridges full of a wide variety of drinks, including
a "banana fruit juice" that contains not a molecule
of fruit or natural juice, banana or otherwise.
With
the multitude of cultures here, with roots in
Spanish, French, Asian, Indian, African and
Amerindian, the juices and sauces are always a
surprise. TV food show host Ted Nelson swears by the
stalls around Chaguaramas National Park. "There is a
small Syrian population in Trinidad and Tobago and
they run a series of street food shops along the
main drag in the Woodbrook neighborhood on Ariapita
Avenue. I have never had such amazing gyros before.
For about five or seven dollars, you will get a
tight, tasty wrap of awesomeness. I will never
forget the tongs grabbing a generous portion of lamb
meat dripping with juice and laying it on the bread.
Then they covered it with sauce and other extras
before dripping some spicy pepper sauce."
Artists like Dionne
Warwick are frequent travelers to the islands, and
not just for celebrations. Carnival or no, every
Sunday evening Tobago rocks with “Sunday School,” an
enormous outdoor party that erupts at Buccoo at about
8 p.m. The Buccooneers steel band plays
everything from dance hall to hip hop on the beach.
There's some superb
dining in Port of Spain, including 51 Degreeson
Cipriani Boulevard. The Crew's Inn has a wide
ranging menu of tempting seafood and sumptuous
deserts, but yachties still love Sails in
Chaguaramas, which offers dockside fare, plus a
range from shepherd's pie to stuffed jalapeno
peppers, served in an air-conditioned pool room.
Romance tops
the bill at The
Lure as you view turtles, sharks and
kingfish in a saltwater environment. (Dine on the
terrace.) For diversity, you can't go wrong
with the Seahorse
Inn in Black Rock on Old Grafton
Beach Road, with a long menu that includes seared
tuna with garlic mash and the old classic
lobster Thermidor. Their Creole pork chops
stuffed with pine nuts or duck breast with pineapple
sauce and potato roti are amazing. Roti is a
split pea-infused bread wrapped around curried meat,
shrimp or vegetables; lamb is a national favorite.
There are many
other traditional dishes popular throughout the
islands. Pholourie is a split pea doughball with
tamarind sauce. Pows are taken from the Cantonese pao-tzu:
steamed, wrapped buns filled with both sweet and
savory meats (pork is a favorite). Chicken geera, which
originated in East India, are pies of beef, cheese,
fish and aloo
(the Hindi word for “potato”), seasoned with
cumin. When these are rubbed in clarified
butter and grilled until crisp, served with a couple
of fried eggs, they're called either “Buss-Up-Shut”
(left)
or just breakfast.
At trés
chic Battimamzelle
(below)
haute cuisine is high on beauty. The menu changes
weekly, and runs the gamut from kobe beef buljol to a red
hot oxtail pepperpot, a meat-based stew highly
spiced with Amerindian seasoning like casareep.
Tobago is equally
diverse, with restaurants like Shirvan Watermill
for fine dining inside and outside of an old
cut-stone watermill with a menu that features
seafood of all descriptions, topped off with ginger
cheesecake.
The place to see and be
seen, however, is the Hilton Pool Terrace Restaurant (below), where
all of the women wear black and sport the highest
heels and all of the men wear their pants too low.
The center of the capital
boasts hotspots like Flair restaurant, which serves
experimental entrees with kale and quinoa salad as
well as callaloo. Verandah restaurant, as do many
within the center of Port of Spain, has a high,
terraced patio. Weekly menus change in what owner
Phyllis Vieira describes as "free style Caribbean"
dishes. Wings Restaurant and Bar is a combo
rum shop and restaurant near the university for
cheap Indian food, blowtorch hot. Trotters is the
sports saloon of choice with 20 gigantic screens;
women just hate it. On the other hand, women
love lunch at Veni
Mange in an old, traditional West Indian
cottage, and its callaloo is one of the best on the
island. Veggie entrees are many and varied.
Business lunching
doesn't get better than at Prime, in the
ground floor of the BHP Billiton tower.
In a place where the
heat can top 100 degrees in summertime, it's
surprising that More Sushi is so superb,
particularly if you sit in full view of the
entertainment, aka, the sushi artists. Eco Lounge on
Ariapita Avenue is a find for upscale night life in
a 21st century plantation style house.
The hottest spot for
the young and responsibility-free is Drink! --a wine
bar with reasonably priced snacks. 51 Degree
Lounge is clubby and jammed with bad singers every
Thursday night for Karaoke. Warning: it's on
Cipriani Boulevard, where it's difficult to park: it
took us 40 minutes --with a guide.
And one of the best Italian
specialty restaurants is on Tobago:LaTartaruga,
for homemade pasta and killer deserts.
Cheapo? Blue Crab on Main Street in Upper
Scarborough for Creole cooking, macaroni pie, fig
salad and unsweetened natural juices.
When the annual Lime Festival takes
place, everyone wears white with just a touch of
lime, and the party travels down mountain and across
town to the soignee Hyatt Regency Hotel at the port
to commemorate the art of “'Liming,” or just
hanging out to perfection (the French equivalent is
the 'flâneur'
-- with no visible means of support). At the Lime,
one price covers everything, from Dom
Pérignon to dry sherry, accompanied by the
cuisines and the music of every nation, in the same
place. You promenade from booth to booth,
sound to sound, drink to drink until you've had
enough.
❖❖❖
NEW YORK CORNER
By
John Mariani
SD26
CELEBRATES
ITS FIFTH BIRTHDAY
Technically, SD26 is five years old, but its
story goes back a lot farther than that.
The “SD” stands for San Domenico, a
totemic ristorante
in Imola, Italy, where in 1970 Gianluigi Morini
and Chef Valentino Marcattilii set into motion a
modern form of fine dining Italian-style that
had worldwide influence, not least on New York
restaurateur Tony May, who 26 years ago opened
San Domenico NY on Central Park South in homage
to the Imola original. At that
time, the only other Italian restaurant in NYC
presenting such a refined cuisine in such elegant
surroundings was Il Palio, which May also opened
and later sold. San Domenico paid homage to Morini
and Marcattilii by reproducing signature dishes
like the uovo
in raviolo with white truffles, and many of
May’s chefs had worked in the Imola kitchen,
including Paul Bartolotta, Odette Fada and Theo
Schoenegger--all of whom went on to distinguished
careers on their own.
May’s own commitment to raising the
image of cucina
italiana dates back decades, including
running a series of restaurants and helping create
the program for Italian culinary studies at the
Culinary Institute of America (for which he
compiled the textbook). So San Domenico was
the highest expression of the way he saw Italian
cuisine evolving.
So no one was happy, then, when May closed
San Domenico seven years ago over a lease dispute,
but, with his daughter Marisa (left) he
opened a new version of San Domenico called SD26,
on 26th Street and Madison Park. Its
contemporary design and size were expansive, the
atmosphere more casual, with a long, well-lighted
bar up front--manned by master bartender
Renato--and a long, bright open kitchen and
salumeria/formaggeria to the rear, from which you
may order the finest Italian charcuterie--San
Daniele prosciutto, culatello,
bresaola,
smoky Speck,
mortadella--and
an array of Italian cheeses that begins with
imported mozzarella
di bufala. A platter of four selections for
two people runs $26. I had not
dined at SD26 in about 18 months, so I was
delighted to find, on its fifth anniversary, the
food is better than ever, for the past three years
under Chef Matteo Bergamini (right). One
of the unexpected pleasures of SD26 is that so
much of the menu is offered in appetizer or entree
portions, and at the bar-lounge you can order an
array of dishes from fried calamari to sliced
steak on bruschetta,
with nothing above $21. There’s also a five-course
tasting menu in the
dining room at a remarkable $70. The
menus change with the seasons, but certain dishes
have become classics here, from the famous uovo in
raviolo to the grilled baby octopus
over fava bean puree, with sun-dried
tomatoes and a rosemary gremolata ($16/$24). For the truest
taste of the Mediterranean, order the poached
shrimp and calamari salad with zucchini, tomato
confit and pink peppercorns ($26), and if you
love baccalà,
you’ll find the rendition here among your
favorites, with a radicchio salad, caper dressing
and potato crisps. On
my latest visit I enjoyed the Piemontese specialty
ravioli del
plin stuffed with goat’s cheese, with a
fennel puree and the lush addition of foie gras to
gild the lily ($20/$34). The fettuccine with
lamb ragù
($14/$26) has long been a staple that the kitchen
dares not take off the menu, flavored with
summer’s mint, favas and ricotta informata.
But the dish that took my breath away was a
new one--Canaroli risotto (below) cooked
in tomato water with crudo
shrimp ($28)--a masterful amalgamation of very
subtle ingredients (I thought the tomato juice was
lemon) that bring out the best in each other. Our
main courses were boneless roasted rabbit with
favas, sheep’s ricotta gnocchi
and Castel Vetrano olives ($22/$36), and something I almost
always order: the slow roasted baby goat on the
bone with rosemary potatoes and braised
artichokes ($28/$42).
I sometimes skip desserts in Italian
restaurants (especially in Italy) but never here.
The gelati
and sorbetti
($10) alone are too delicious, and the panna cotta with
a balsamic reduction and perfect
strawberries ($14) is irresistible too.
And SD26’s tiramisù
($14) is the best in town. You can also
count on a perfectly made espresso here.
The wine list, under sommelier, is finely attuned
to the cooking and, aside from every major
producer you’d hope to see, there are plenty of
smaller estates well worth trusting her on.
So, five years--or twenty years later--the San
Domenico spirit that began so long ago in Imola is
alive and well both there and in NYC, and the Mays
have never wavered in their dedication to showing
visitors from everywhere how extraordinary a
balance of the old and the new can truly be.
SD26
is open for lunch Mon.-Fri., for brunch of Sat.,
and for dinner Mon.-Sat.
❖❖❖
WE'RE SHOCKED! SHOCKED!
Six
ex-"Daisy Dukes" and two others have filed
a lawsuit against Johnny Utah’s restaurant in
NYC (right)
claiming that female employees are forced to work in a
"hyper-sexualized work environment" including regular
"propositions" and groping from customers, requiring the
women to "sit on male customers' laps. . . take off
their shirts when they ride the mechanical bull and kiss
other female employees," and to wrestle with each other
in
a kiddie pool full of jellied cranberry sauce.
FOOD WRITING 101: READ OVER WHAT YOU'VE WRITTEN BEFORE
ACTUALLY SUBMITTING IT
“Ms. Jackson’s food doesn’t have the
buzz-cut professionalism of some restaurant food, which
seems to have been produced by Adderall-chewing line cooks
who practice their brunoise in front of a mirror while
listening to `Eye of
the Tiger.' "—Pete Wells,“A Recipe Book
That Does Not Stray Far Restaurant
Review: Delaware and Hudson,” NY Times (Aug. 18, 2014).
❖❖❖
Any of John Mariani's
books below may be ordered from amazon.com.
Modesty forbids me to praise my own new book, but
let me proudly say that it is an extensive
revision of the 4th edition that appeared more
than a decade ago, before locavores, molecular
cuisine, modernist cuisine, the Food Network and
so much more, now included. Word origins have been
completely updated, as have per capita consumption
and production stats. Most important, for the
first time since publication in the 1980s, the
book includes more than 100 biographies of
Americans who have changed the way we cook, eat
and drink -- from Fannie Farmer and Julia Child to
Robert Mondavi and Thomas Keller.
"This book is amazing! It has entries for
everything from `abalone' to `zwieback,' plus more
than 500 recipes for classic American dishes and
drinks."--Devra First, The Boston Globe.
"Much needed in any kitchen library."--Bon Appetit.
Now in Paperback,
too--How Italian Food Conquered the
World (Palgrave Macmillan) has won top prize from the
Gourmand
World Cookbook Awards. It is
a rollicking history of the food culture of
Italy and its ravenous embrace in the 21st
century by the entire world. From ancient Rome
to la dolce
vita of post-war Italy, from Italian
immigrant cooks to celebrity chefs, from
pizzerias to high-class ristoranti,
this chronicle of a culinary diaspora is as
much about the world's changing tastes,
prejudices, and dietary fads as about
our obsessions with culinary fashion and
style.--John Mariani
"Eating Italian will
never be the same after reading
John Mariani's entertaining and
savory gastronomical history of
the cuisine of Italy and how it
won over appetites worldwide. . .
. This book is such a tasteful
narrative that it will literally
make you hungry for Italian food
and arouse your appetite for
gastronomical history."--Don
Oldenburg, USA Today.
"Italian
restaurants--some good, some glitzy--far
outnumber their French rivals. Many of
these establishments are zestfully described
in How Italian Food Conquered the World, an
entertaining and fact-filled chronicle by
food-and-wine correspondent John F.
Mariani."--Aram Bakshian Jr., Wall Street
Journal.
"Mariani
admirably dishes out the story of
Italy’s remarkable global ascent
to virtual culinary
hegemony....Like a chef gladly
divulging a cherished family
recipe, Mariani’s book reveals the
secret sauce about how Italy’s
cuisine put gusto in gusto!"--David
Lincoln Ross,
thedailybeast.com
"Equal parts
history, sociology, gastronomy, and just
plain fun, How Italian Food Conquered the
World tells the captivating and delicious
story of the (let's face it) everybody's
favorite cuisine with clarity, verve and
more than one surprise."--Colman Andrews,
editorial director of The Daily
Meal.com.
"A fantastic and fascinating
read, covering everything from the influence
of Venice's spice trade to the impact of
Italian immigrants in America and the
evolution of alta cucina. This book will
serve as a terrific resource to anyone
interested in the real story of Italian
food."--Mary Ann Esposito, host of PBS-TV's
Ciao
Italia.
"John Mariani has written the
definitive history of how Italians won their
way into our hearts, minds, and
stomachs. It's a story of pleasure over
pomp and taste over technique."--Danny Meyer,
owner of NYC restaurants Union Square
Cafe, The Modern, and Maialino.
❖❖❖
FEATURED
LINKS: I am happy to report
that the Virtual
Gourmet is linked to four excellent
travel sites:
I consider this the best and
savviest blog of its kind on the web. Potter is a
columnist for USA
Weekend, Diversion, Laptop and Luxury Spa Finder,
a contributing editor for Ski and a frequent contributor
to National
Geographic Traveler, ForbesTraveler.com
and Elle Decor.
"I’ve designed this site is for people who take
their travel seriously," says Potter. "For
travelers who want to learn about special places
but don’t necessarily want to pay through the nose for
the privilege of staying there. Because at the end
of the day, it’s not so much about five-star
places as five-star experiences." THIS WEEK: 5
MYTHS ON ALL-INCLUSIVES
Eating Las Vegas
is the new on-line site for Virtual Gourmet
contributor John A. Curtas., who since 1995
has been commenting on the Las Vegas food
scene and reviewing restaurants for Nevada
Public Radio. He is also the
restaurant critic for KLAS TV, Channel 8 in
Las Vegas, and his past reviews can be
accessed at KNPR.org.
Click on the logo below to go directly to
his site.
Tennis Resorts Online:
A Critical Guide to the
World's Best Tennis Resorts and Tennis Camps, published
by ROGER COX, who has spent more than two decades
writing about tennis travel, including a 17-year stretch
for Tennis magazine.
He has also written for Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, New York Magazine, Travel &
Leisure, Esquire, Money, USTA Magazine, Men's Journal,
and The Robb
Report. He has authored two books-The World's Best Tennis
Vacations (Stephen Greene Press/Viking
Penguin, 1990) and The
Best Places to Stay in the Rockies (Houghton Mifflin,
1992 & 1994), and the Melbourne (Australia) chapter
to the Wall Street
Journal Business Guide to Cities of the Pacific Rim (Fodor's
Travel Guides, 1991).
nickonwine:
An engaging, interactive
wine column by Nick Passmore, Artisanal Editor, Four
Seasons Magazine; Wine Columnist, BusinessWeek.com;
nick@nickonwine.com; www.nickonwine.com.
MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET
NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Editor/Publisher: John
Mariani. Editor: Walter Bagley. Contributing Writers: Christopher Mariani,
Robert Mariani, John A.
Curtas, Edward Brivio, Mort Hochstein, Andrew Chalk,and Brian Freedman. Contributing
Photographers: Galina Stepanoff-Dargery,
Bobby Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.