Among Florida’s Roaring Twenties grand hotels it seems Al Capone slept in many, including Casa Marina. The mid-1920s Prohibition era was profitable for Florida including Jacksonville Beach. The beachfront Mediterranean Revival club-like Casa Marina, complete with a sprinkler system, opened in 1925 to a high living bi-coastal clientele.
Casa Marina Hotel Penthouse Lounge, Jacksonville Beach, FL
Ninety years later on the deck of the Penthouse Lounge & Martini Bar overlooking the Atlantic’s pounding surf Casa Marina serves a premium Tequila Margareta – without the slushy ice – that I’m confident infamous Al would approve.
Read what intrigued even the big Al to Jacksonville Beach…
Blessed with Florida’s agricultural and ocean abundance at their doorstep, restaurants in St. Petersburg don’t have to search far for quality ingredients.
Smoked Fish Sandwich, Ted Peters Famous Smoked Fish, St. Petersburg, FL
A relaxed Gulf of Mexico life style and plenty of Florida sunshine draw residents and tourists to a plethora of cafes, fine dining, bars and beach side venues serving traditional fried fish platters to truffled wild mushroom risotto. With an emphasis on independent ownership St. Petersburg chefs have the freedom to experiment or just create the best grilled grouper sandwich on the beach. Here’s a dozen to try in the St. Petersburg area…
Rum Fish Grill’s lobster ravioliBone Fish Grill’s ceviche of scallops, shrimp
Lest one think St. Petersburg is an example of the old joke that Florida is ‘God’s little waiting room,’ the attendees at September’s Grand Tasting were well under the age of this seasoned culinary journalist. St. Petersburg is attracting residents from a vibrant cross-section of educated world citizens that thrive on the arts, sun, beach, boating and fine food. An explosion of fascinating venues more than satisfies all of these eclectic tastes.
Sea Salt’s bubbling panna cotta
With a rapidly recovering economy after the 2008 downturn, St. Petersburg, Florida has established itself as an art and restaurant destination on the Gulf of Mexico coast. Fourteen restaurants and eight wineries are featured in…
Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL & MFA Cafe
Both the Museum of Fine Arts and the Morean Arts Center are masters at engaging the imagination of visitors whether through first century Roman iridescent glass or discovering the best cupcake artist in St. Petersburg.
Cupcakes as edible art at the Morean Arts Center
Just like fine art, culinary creations can reach artistic heights. The Morean Arts Center has sponsored the Annual Great St. Pete Cupcake Contest for the past five years. It’s an opportunity for the city’s baking artists to be judged by both professionals and the general public. You can read about the region’s burgeoning art scene at…
La Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús, Quito, Ecuador
Since the start of history gold has been connected to the divine and the boundaries of people, state and heaven have intertwined in myriad and mysterious patterns. In post conquest 16th century Quito (Ecuador), An A-list of priests, monks and nuns from four of the Church’s most influential religious orders provided the patronage for a celebrated era of artistic expression.
La Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús, Quito, Ecuador
Sumptuous interior decorations, intricate carvings and golden altars express prominent Moorish geometrical figures, Italian Renaissance style and European baroque architecture. In the 1970s UNESCO dubbed it “Quito Baroque” in their 1978 designation of Quito as a World Heritage Site.
Just click the link to see many more photos and read the article…
The iconic soup of Ecuador: Locro de PapaOne of 200 varieties potatoes in Ecuador
At least 4,000 varieties of potatoes grow in the Andean Highlands that encompass territory stretching from northern Argentina through Ecuador. An important food staple for all pre-Columbian Andean cultures, the Incas created chunu – dehydrated potatoes that could be stored for up to a decade.
Read how a vegetable becomes a national icon and follow a simple recipe for an Ecuador national dish:
I travel for a living and am often in and out of hotels. USA hotels in particular offer…let’s be kind…sub par free “continental breakfasts.” Often I’ll grab a yogurt, hard boiled egg & fruit.
Yesterday, looking in a storage container where I keep paper plates/plastic cups etc for picnics, I came across a tightly sealed bag. At some point in the past several years I obviously grabbed a muffin, toast, jam & a pastry “on the go” and totally forgot… and I mean several years ago because I had not opened this bin for that long.
“Petrified” American hotel breakfast food. (2 – 3 years old – blemish free..click pic to expand.)
Lo and behold…on a black plastic plate were perfect stone hard “petrified” American hotel fast food with not a blemish upon them. It’s American genius…and the preservatives will keep me young forever…
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Cajun dishes rank among the most misunderstood regional cuisines in the United States. That’s not surprising since it is part of the melange of cultural influences that make up southern Louisiana – French, Spanish, Native American, African, Caribbean and Central America. Often confused with its spicier neighbor, Creole, true Cajun dishes share similarities but are less complex. Today’s Louisiana Cajuns are descendants of the survivors of the Grand Derangement – the British ethnic cleansing of Acadia, French Canada’s Maritime provinces, in the 1760s which resulted in the death of half the Acadian population. Given refuge by Spanish controlled Louisiana, they settled in undesirable disease ridden bayous and marshes. Liz Williams, Director of the New Orleans Southern Food and Beverage Museum stated, “It is very peasant food; a one pot food…it’s more the practices, the mindset rather than the ingredients” that determined Cajun recipes.
1/2″ thick boneless pork chops
Acclaimed New Orleans Chef Frank Brightsen commented, “The roots of Acadian culture are living off the land and that means hunting. The heart of Cajun culture around Lafayette is not coastal. Even in grocery stores you’ll find butchers. The pig is central to Cajun culture…”
pork chops with Cajun seasoningdiced salt pork
Simple Acadian dishes such as salt cod cakes became impossible in the absence of potatoes and salt preserved fish. Rice became the starch and the abundance of fresh fish, game, alligator and seafood the additions. Rice, shrimp, and peppers replaced potatoes, cod and cabbage, but a basic Cajun meal is still one dish or simply prepared.
minced parsley
What else constitutes Cajun cuisine – and traditional Acadian fare? Anything deep fat fried – alligator and crawfish (not in Acadia) fish fillets, potatoes, corn-on-the-cob, pork chops, rabbit, game, chicken, and shrimp. Crabs, shrimp and crawfish come steamed as well. Lots of carbohydrates accompany a Cajun meal – and an Acadian meal – with rice, potatoes and corn not uncommon on the same plate along with okra and beans.
blanch a tomato in boiling water
The greatest difference separating Cajun and Acadian cooking is spices. Acadian rarely goes beyond salt and pepper although they do use pickled combinations such as chow chow to enliven a meal. Cajun uses spices borrowed from Creole cuisine – a different fusion altogether. Of course world famous Tabasco sauce made for the past century and a half on Avery Island has become a Cajun standard even though its origin is clearly West Indian.
skin easily peels away from blanched tomato
Maque Choux is a classic Cajun side-dish that has elements of both Acadian and Cajun dishes. Most of the ingredients are Native North American – corn and peppers – with pork introduced by European colonists. If you visit Louisiana’s Cajun country you will experience variations including some that add sugar – a later 19th century addition.
diced peeled tomatoCajun seasoning mix
There are many variations on “Cajun seasoning.” It’s basically a mixture of salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, paprika, garlic, onion and assorted spices. The “assorted spices” are best determined by an internet search. Especially important if you have a salt preference, packaged mixes have varying degrees of salt – both Cajun and Creole cooking love salt – but I prefer less (more for taste and thirst than health reasons).
Maque Choux
Cajun Maque Choux with Pork ChopsIngredients – 2 servings (simply multiply all ingredients for more servings)
for the pork:
4 – 1/2 inch boneless pork chops
low-salt Cajun seasoning
for the Maque Choux
1/4 cup small dice salt pork
1-1/2 cup diced sweet onion
1 cup diced celery
1/3 cup diced bell pepper – green, yellow or red
1 cup diced, peeled fresh tomato
1/8 cup minced fresh parsley
2 cups corn kernels – cut from the cob or frozen
1-1/2 teaspoons low-salt Cajun seasoning
hot sauce to taste (optional)
Preparation:
Rub the pork chops with a thin layer of cajun seasoning and refrigerate while preparing the Maque Choux.
To prepare the peeled tomato: bring a saucepan of water to a boil. Drop a large tomato into the boiling water for 30 seconds (small tomato) to 60 seconds (large tomato as pictured.) Remove the tomato to a cutting board. With a sharp knife make a thin cut around the tomato. The skin will easily slip off with your fingers or the blunt side of a dinner knife.
In a heavy frying pan – preferably cast iron – sauté the salt pork until crispy and all the fat has been rendered. Remove the salt pork with a slotted spoon and discard.
Add the onion and sauté for 2 minutes.
Add the celery and sauté for an additional 2 minutes
Add the peppers, tomato, parsley, corn and Cajun seasoning. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
In an oven proof baking dish spoon some of the Maque Choux to make a bed the size of a pork chop and place the chop to cover half. Overlap the corn and pork for the remaining chops.
Cover with foil and bake for 90 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 30 minutes.
Serve with rice, a green salad, cold beer or a nice red wine.
salt pork in cast iron pansaute salt porkrendered fat (right) with crisp salt pork (left – discard)saute onions & celeryadd peppers, tomatoes, parsley, corn & seasoningarrange in baking dish overlapping pork and Maque Choux, cover with foil and bake according to directions
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Lodge at Torrey Pines, La Jolla, CALodge at Torrey Pines, La Jolla, CA
From the rustic refinement of La Jolla’s Torrey Pines Lodge to the local spunk of Rubio’s citywide Fresh Mexican Grill, there’s a locally owned venue in any price bracket for all residents to patronize in this southern California urban county, and they seem to happily do so often.
Ribs at the La Jolla Open Aire MarketSunset off Del Mar, San Diego
Sea, cliffs, beach and mountain vistas abound, the climate begs for outdoor dining and the region’s relative affluence blend to create menus of imagination and freshness – California Modern.
Come read about eleven restaurants and a market that exemplify the best San Diego, La Jolla and Southern California offers…
Kavala, Greecethe Imaret (early 19th century) now boutique hotel.
The twisting streets of Kavala’s old city reveals its recent past. The architecture is a mosaic of historical patterns befitting a port city serving empires. Known as Neapolis for its first thousand years, Kavala has born witness to dreamers and emperors since the 7th century B.C. It’s easy to marvel at the 16th century engineering beauty of the Kamares aquaduct from the fortress.
The Kamares aquaduct (15th century)
Adding to the charm of the city are important and entertaining sites in the nearby countryside – the impressive remains of Philippi, Lydia, the Krinides Therapeutic Clay Baths and vineyards on the mountain where Dionysus resided in the Pangaion Hills.
Ktima Biblia Chora vineyard on the slopes of Mt. Pangaion.
To get there, stay at, go to and dine please read…
Harrisburg the capital of Pennsylvania and Rehoboth Beach in far southern Delaware may be 165 miles apart, but they share similar European colonial origins, the Susquehanna/Chesapeake Bay river basin and legendary farmlands.
Wearable art at the Art League of RehobothLarry Ringgold, driftwood horse sculpture, Peninsula Gallery
From plein air painters feasting on the raw natural beauty of beaches and marshland to cutting edge jewelry design, southern Delaware has nurtured the arts for the past century. As the motto of the Art League of Rehoboth says, Art Grows Here.™
Abraxas Hudson, artist , owner Abraxas Studio of Art, Lewes, DE.
Before there was state government, before there was coal, iron, steel and chocolate, farm and tavern table were always next-door. The ingredients to make a creamy mushroom risotto, charcuterie, or a Polish vegetarian chili are still from the earth surrounding the Harrisburg/Hershey region.
Bar at Devon Seafood Grill
A spotlight on eight venues offering culinary creativity…
a community wood fired oven in Vathi, Sifnos, Greece
A community wood fired oven…producing cheese from goats and sheep from your farm…serving these dishes on the beach mere feet from the Aegean. Welcome to the 21st century Greek style.
ingredients for caper salad
The village of Vathi is a classic beauty. The winding road descends from the hills and one’s first glimpse is the gleaming white buildings clustered in a crescent on a white sand beach in front of the interminable clear aqua water of the Aegean. Read all about Nikos, Flora and Tsikali Taverna at…
“A restaurant is a story,” says Christian DeLutis the thirty-something Executive Chef of Tröegs Brewing Company’s Snack Bar. Once you enter the sleek modern brewery, located next to Pennsylvania’s famed Hershey Park, you may well wonder what is the story? Sharing the same space as the brewery’s expansive beer tasting room, a customer can certainly order fries, popcorn or a grilled cheese sandwich. Yet that’s where any similarity to average pub food ends.
beef pot roast beef pot roast served in a mason jar.
The hand-cut fries are served with aromatic hop oil and spicy ketchup. The popcorn may be seasoned with rosemary brown butter and sea salt, and the grilled sandwich will have three cheeses. Or you can try one of their specials of the day from the blackboard such as beef pot roast with root vegetables, duck fat mashed potatoes and a rich demi-glace, served in a mason jar. If this sounds too esoteric for a brewery in rural Pennsylvania then you haven’t been to Tröegs when up to 2,000 customers a day flock to the Snack Bar.
Snack Bar
Chef Christian DeLutis, who grew up in rural central Pennsylvania, started his career as an English teacher before turning towards food. After completing culinary arts training in Pittsburgh, he spent time cooking in Ireland before moving to the Washington DC and Baltimore area, moving up the ranks in top restaurant kitchens. His grandparents made their own sausage and salami, but Christian was classically trained under French chefs.
Snack Bar
This doesn’t mean the tasting room at Tröegs Brewing Company is white table clothes and suited waiters. It’s in the middle of a busy working brewery; there are long wooden tables and no waiters. Orders are placed at the Snack Bar counter, and you’ll have it in your hands within seven minutes. “It’s food that works with beer,” Christian states simply, even if it’s succulent, slow cooked sous-vide duck leg confit.
Chef DeLutis has based his menu concept on the popularity of locally sourced ingredients in the preparation of imaginative dishes being served in California’s prestigious wineries. Considering the explosion of national interest in fine craft beers, it’s only natural upscale breweries would follow suit. It’s to Tröegs benefit that Hershey is in the middle of the legendary Pennsylvania Dutch region known for the excellence of its agricultural abundance.
Locally sourced ingredients: bones for stocks, sous vide local duck, local Amish butter, breads made on site with locally milled flour
The Snack Bar sources much of its ingredients directly from local farms, orchards and dairies including fresh oysters from the Chesapeake. Christian believes in preserving as much summer produce as time allows. Personal relationships are cultivated with farmers and local producers to obtain the freshest ingredients such as local raw butter, lamb and beef. The Snack Bar staff of 30 includes bakers and butchers. They fabricate the cuts from the whole animal. One farmer buys the beer mash to feed to his cattle and then sells the cattle to the kitchen – the circle of life.
They cure their own bacon, prepare the sausages and pates, smoke their own briskets and make extensive use of sous-vide cooking which slowly infuses flavors into vacuum sealed ingredients creating dishes that improve while being held under refrigeration and are easily reheated. Even what products are not locally produced are customized, such as the large soft pretzels. They’re imported raw frozen from Bavaria, dipped in beer and topped with toasted malted barley from the brewery before baking.
Charcuterie board : house made & locally sourced
Chef DeLutis creates the menu with staff input. There will always be standard items he says, but the menu reflects seasonal changes and when new beers are released. He strives to maintain a lighthearted but disciplined atmosphere both in the kitchen as well as the dining space, which is shared with the beer-tasting bar. Promoting from within and encouraging staff members to engage in continuing their culinary development is important. Currently the cooks are writing reports on ingredient requirements that’ll serve as the basis of ongoing discussions with the farmers.
But does smoked lamb sausage with lemon marmalade, roasted beef marrow bones and rosemary ice cream on a fresh plum tart make business sense? “Snack Bar revenue equals retail beer sales, which came as a surprise,” says Chef DeLutis with genuine modesty. But a brewery is about beer, and the Tröegs brothers don’t disappoint.
A sample of Tröegs beers
Founded 20 years ago by brothers who grew up in the Hershey/Harrisburg area and became interested in home brewing, Tröegs has grown prodigiously with national distribution. They employ three microbiologists to keep their proprietary yeast strains healthy. The brewery propagates it’s own yeast. The hops are from the Pacific Northwest.
Brooke siphoned off fresh beer during tour
Brooke, our knowledgeable brewery tour guide, stopped half way during the tour of the compact, nearly Rube Goldberg like, modern facility to climb up one of the vast stainless steel fermentation vats and siphoned off fresh beer. It was a unique tasting to experience an almost ready craft brew. The actual tasting of several Tröegs beers took place next to the active bottling station.
Golden Dream Weaver Wheat was a peppery pilsner with German hops and back notes of banana. Troegegenator Double Bock was an 8.2% alcohol dark, full-bodied brew with notes of brown sugar, molasses and malt. Perpetual IPA is a homage to the best of Northwest Pacific Coast hops with back notes of pine and mint. Visitors can opt for a self-guided wander behind glass walls with lengthy storyboards.
Locally sourced cheeses, jams, fruit tray
Tucking into lunch was sheer pleasure reminiscent to this chef-writer of French country bistros. The charcuterie board was an artfully arranged selection of house cured meats, duck, chicken and foie gras pate, smoked trout mousse and chicken liver mousse. It was paired with an equally fine cheese board featuring Double Gloucester, Brigante, Buttermilk Blue and Smoked Gouda. The soup of the day was earthy charred sweet pepper bisque blended with goat cheese cream. And the Bavarian Oktoberfest pretzel was sheer fun with its coating of malted barley adding a counterpoint to the soft, warm dough. All paired well with the corked, slightly carbonated, Belgian style LaGrave Triple Golden Ale.
When you go: Tröegs Brewing Company and Snack Bar, Hershey, PA, is open all year with a busy regular clientele. Opening hours: Sunday – Wednesday 11:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. Thursday – Saturday until 10:00 p.m.
Cajun dishes rank among the most misunderstood regional cuisines in the United States. That’s not surprising since it is part of the melange of cultural influences that make up southern Louisiana – French, Spanish, Native American, African, Caribbean and Central America. Often confused with its spicier neighbor, Creole, true Cajun dishes share similarities but are less complex. 
Today’s Louisiana 
Travel with Pen and Palate 
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