Poprocks in Paradise

 
One of our favorite vacation spots is in Mexico, on the Caribbean ocean known as the Mexican Riviera, near Playa Del Carmen. While we feel a bit guilty that this is not a spice mission vacation, many factors seem to lead us back to this same spot. We have enjoyed many Caribbean Islands and worked spices in as a factor, Jamaica for allspice and ginger, St. Lucia had an artisinal cocoa plantation. Grenada in particular was a wonderful education on the growing of mace and nutmeg and we thoroughly enjoyed our day visiting the nutmeg cooperatives. In St. Vincent we took a three hour drive, each way, to visit a tiny arrowroot plantation.  Yet it is pretty much an all day affair to reach these islands. Cancun is a very brief 3-1/2 hour trip, another 45 minutes south we reach our destination, the water is beautiful, the golf is world class and we have an all inclusive hotel chain which we enjoy called Iberostar. So, while we really enjoy the spice seeking vacations, sometimes we just really take a vacation that is not work related, sorry to disillusion anyone!

Spice House wins LTHForum's Great Neighborhood Resource award.

If you are any sort of a foodie who lives in the Chicago area, you probably already know about LTHforum.
Their website describes their forum as "the Chicago based culinary chat site", although often their discussions roam far off the radar from just the Chicago area. They are known to get in their cars and drive 100 miles to follow up on a hot tip for a good sausage, burger, bbq, fried chicken, ice cream, a farmer's market, a special Asian market, in fact, if you name it delicious, they will come. These people really know their food. You won't find a better forum out there filled with intelligent discussions about food, inspired recipes, photos ranging from wonderful home cooked meals to fine dining in top notch restaurants.This is no flippant toss-out-any comment-forum, so think your posts through thoroughly before you make them, or you may be taken to task! On a recent long road trip, we were having a conversation about molecular gastronomy, and we greatly enjoyed going online via the phone and searching the LTHForum site for this subject. What turned up was some very entertaining verbal volleys in this post about molecular gastronomy started by a high end chef. About two months ago, we were greatly honored to be nominated....

Chefs who give 110%

We are fortunate to have some very talented chefs as customers. Over the years these have turned into some really nice relationships. We are in awe of the talent these chefs possess. When we dine out, we choose restaurants whose chefs are our customers, and luckily, we have plenty to choose from. Currently, our filtering parameter has become whether the chef focuses on local ingredients and supporting both our local farmers and our local food community. There are many chefs on this list, and I would like to introduce you to the chefs that REALLY get it, over a series of posts. (Obviously if you are an active part of our food community, you don’t need to read this, you can’t help but already be aware of it.) The first chef on our list is Bruce Sherman of North Pond Bruce is currently nominated for the James Beard award “Best Chef: Great Lakes”.

Cherry Picking

Three Spice House staffers (myself, Desi, and Roxanne) took last Sunday off to drive up to Door Couny for a day of cherry picking.  This is an annual trip for me, to stock my freezer for winter pie making, but it was fun to have company this year.  We left right after work Saturday, still smelling of spices, and spent the night in Manitowoc before driving into Door County to look for orchards.  I've gone to Choice Orchards in Sturgeon Bay before, so we headed in that direction, but we found Cherry Lane Orchard just over the Door County line and went there instead.  It's a gorgeous little orchard run by a friendly, helpful gentleman who set us up with pails and belt clips and sent us out into the trees. 

GCM Chef Bbq, tomorrow night!

We are so excited that the big night is almost here. This event sold out about a month in advance, a sure testimonial to what a great evening it is. I look back over the years and remember when we were lucky to have a few hundred people show  up. One year I was the Chair of the event when it was sponsored by Les Dames d'Escoffier, and we were lucky to have around 35 chefs. We were shocked when we heard a rumor that market founder, Abby Mandel, was calling the chefs in advance and telling them what they were serving was not acceptable. We just could not believe that if a chef wanted to serve something as expensive as soft shell crabs, which we thought quite generous, this choice would be criticized. Who would look a gift horse in the mouth? Abby, if they were  serving the wrong menu! There were a few irate chefs, let me tell you. In retrospect, we all now see how far ahead of her time Abby was. Abby ALWAYS got it. All we wanted to do was throw a nice party, have some happy participants and chefs, and raise some money. It needed to go so much further than that. Now, we have evolved to what this food community is really all about.  If we want a good farmer's market, with sustainable or organic product, we all have to support it. The farmers are doing their best for us, but they need everyone to be on board, not just home cooks but restaurant chefs, caterers, even politicians are needed to smooth the path. This group of very talented chefs understands how important their role in helping to  educate the public has become, this is their chance to show off their skills and they are happy to share their expertise with you. One of the coolest things about this event, is the opportunity to meet the actual chef in person. All the restaurants send their A team.

Here, one of my very favorite photos from an early bbq, NOT on Abby's list!  Below, some more real local dishes being served tomorrow and some snippets of menu items being served.  We will really miss Abby at the BBQ, she was with us just last year. Her work is certainly being carried on.  

Visiting A Farmer's Market on Vacation?

I admit, it might seem a bit strange to seek out a farmer's market while on a hotel based vacation. The reason you go to a farmer's market is to buy the fresh produce and food you are planning to turn into delicious nature-inspired dishes over the next few days. Really fresh food requires only the slightest of preparation, nature delivers things that are pretty darned tasty when they are first harvested! So what is point in admiring food you are not actually able to cook with? A good market is sooo much more than just what the vendors are selling. It is about the connection to the land, the farmers, the food community that enjoys the market, the tastes, the musicians, the children and even the dogs. The people you intermingle with in a market community  will usually give you the best tourist experience a city unknowingly offers. You all have something in common, and it is easy to get the folks here to share stories, and cooking tips.

State Muffins?

Recently we were playing a food trivia game. The question was what type of muffin is the Minnesota state muffin? Huh? Do we have state muffins? Well the answer was blueberry and no, alas, we do not all have state muffins. Research of state foods turns up some interesting categories, and some states are way more ambitious than others in claiming foodstuffs as their own.

Ranjana's Indian Cooking Classes

Another recent  wonderful program for the Culinary Historians of Chicago featured an Indian chef and author from New York, Suvir Saran  His program was quite entertaining. Yet what was most unusual, is that the program was held at the home of Ranjana Bhargava, just South of Hyde Park, Chicago. The Historical Society was unavailable, and this gracious woman agreed to hold the lecture in her lovely home, where she also teaches Indian Cooking Classes.

Our spices go into Barackwurst!

After over fifty years in business, we have acquired some pretty special customers. Some of them are extremely discriminating about their ingredients. We understand that artisanal food crafting is only at its  finest when all of its components are also. So its makes us very happy to have customers such as Stanley Feder of Simply Sausage, Inc.  He makes some of the finest sausage in the world. He is also very creative, as demonstrated by the recently success of Barackwurst, the sausage he sold over a ton of, at the recent inauguration. 

CHC programs leads to discovery of French Patisserie

We have spent our lives as spice merchants. I believe it is true in many small businesses, this is not just a living, it is a calling. As such, it spills over into our personal lives, and our hobbies. We are consumed by the food world, and as such, the organizations we belong to for enjoyment tend to run along parallel lines.One of my very favorite groups is the Culinary Historians of Chicago. Their programs are both educational and entertaining, and sometimes lead to a fantastic discovery of a Chicago treasure of which we were unaware, like the French Patisserie Vanille.