Upcoming Specials and Our trip to Florida Part II

We have lots of exciting specials coming soon, with several focused on authentic traditional Cuban dishes. Two of these are two of my all time favorites; Tasajo and Boliche.

Tuti's godmother Lilia (We call her Gia) is an awesome cook and makes some of the best Cuban food I've ever had, she is one of the main reasons I love the cuisine to begin with. She makes what we loosely refer to as "Tasajo" though it might be called "Aporreado de Tasajo" which technically means "Tasajo stew" though the way she prepares it is really nothing like a stew, or maybe "Tasajo Criollo." Though it is hard to say because like all Cuban dishes everyone has their own style of making it. Tasajo is a dry cured beef, imported from Uruguay. My understanding is that it originally was made from horse meat, though not to worry, it is only made with beef and is USDA inspected these days. It is quite expensive and has very limited availabity.

A picture of Tasajo with side dishes:




I LOVE this dish. I can eat it and eat it and eat it until I hurt. Then do it again the very next meal. Until it is gone. I have been wanting to share this dish at the restaurant for a very long time, but there was just one problem - no one knows how to make it. Except Gia! So, when I was in Miami I took the chance to have a conversation with her (translated through my mother in law of course as I am only ordering-at-the-Cuban-bakery fluent in Spanish) and she told me her general recipe and technique for cooking it. I say general recipe because Gia is 90 something years old and does most things from memory. Still at her age she will not get out of the kitchen! It is actually a fairly simple dish in terms of ingredients but the transformation and the flavor yielded are unique. To sum it up, the beef ends up shredded with a unique texture, has a red appearance and is complimented by the texture of the sauteed peppers and onions and tomato sauce in it. It is a slightly salty dish as it is made from cured dry beef, and so it is complimented perfectly by fluffy white rice, she usually serves it with black beans, thogh I don't need anything with this dish but a nice, toasty hunk of Cuban bread slathered with butter. Boy am I hungry just thinking about it! I am planning on making this dish for Friday and Saturday's special (provided there is enough for two days, depending on demand) and we will also be serving Chef Jeff's delicious Gazpacho soup with serves as a perfect appetizer to this meal. The Gazpacho will be made with tomatoes from our garden and will be packed with flavor. We sold out last time he made it, so I am sure you will love it! I hope you will come try the Tasajo, it will be a unique culinary experience. I do not know when you will get the chance to try it again, if ever!

Another favorite dish of mine is Boliche, also called Carne Asada, which is not the Carne Asada you get in your taco at Taco Bell. It is basically Cuban pot roast, and is, without a doubt one of the most flavorful preparations of beef anywhere, and if I can make it just like Gia does, will be something we make on a more regular basis at the restaurant. The roast is first marinated in spices then is stuffed with ham, olives and roasted red peppers (sometimes carrots)then cooked in its own juices on low heat for hours, sliced, and covered in a sauce made from the drippings and spices. The concentration of flavor is - ah well, I really can't describe it. I can only tell you once you try it you'll be hooked. I was. I am planning on making this dish for next Friday and Saturday's special. Again, I hope everyone can come out and try this wonderful, traditional Cuban dish, as made by our inspiration, Gia.

A picture of Boliche, ours will be slightly different, each is stuffed a little different. This one does not have the sauce on it:



I also brought back from Miami Cuban crackers. These crackers have a unique texture and we will be doing an appetizer with them in the near future. They will likely be served with fresh Chevre from Integration Acres and a Guava jam. Traditionally, cream cheese is spread on the crackers and then a slice of guava paste is placed on top. This will be our spin on that.

Enjoy!

Veggies with Sol

How many restaurants do you know of that grow, harvest and process their own organic veggies and deliver them directly to your table in the form of delicious salads, salsas and soups? Sol does! Check out these pics of our awesome, super flavorful, pesticide and insecticide-free veggies.





We weren't sure how this crop would turn out given the dry summer we had, but I feel I've developed what is a pretty good method for producing (at least) tomatoes. I plan on expanding production next year to provide even more of our fresh veggies including squash, strawberries, lettuces, cabbage, etc. There was only so much time this year as we were of course concentrating on getting the restaurant itself going, but each year I expect we will be able to expand production. This year I concentrated on tomatoes as we use a ton of those (maybe literally) for our fresh fire-roasted salsa, salads and for (when Chef Jeff makes it), our delicious Gazpacho soup. Coming soon as a special, by the way, read the blog about our upcoming specials for more about that.

To grow these vegetables chemical free, I start with a technique I picked up from the U-pick fields we used to go to when we lived in Miami. They mound the rows, cover them with plastic and plant the strawberries and tomatoes. There is no weeding. I also do not water the plants all summer either. Only when the plants are put in the ground and that's it. They are pretty much on their own from April until September. I feel like letting the plants grow naturally instead of babying them allows them to develop stronger roots, leading to a healthier plant better drought and pest resistance, etc. I only stake and reinforce the plants as they get larger. This year has been extra hard to keep the plants upright because they have grown SO large. This year I used compost from Integration Acres. Chris Chmiel brought over two truckloads and I am not sure if it was the compost or not, but I have never have tomato plants with such a high yield of fruit, especially considering the dry summer.





So here they are, extremely flavorful, colorful, and sweet tomatoes, with more flavor than you will ever find from anything store bought. I expect we will be able to supply ourselves almost entirely through the end of September if we are lucky, so hopefully you will come in and experience the difference of locally, organically grown direct to restaurant produce before the season is over!

Our Trip to Florida Part I

Our family goes on a week long vacation once a year to Ft. Myers Beach, FL. Tuti has been going since she was a baby with her family and after we met I started going with her too. We have a timeshare the same week every year, and as the extended family has expanded, we now have 4 of fifteen units in the building. So, after forty years, and with around twenty family members present, it is safe to say that this is as much a tradition as it is a vacaton. We are sort of like the sea turtles that come back there every year around the same time to lay their eggs; it is innate, it is instinct, it must be done. However, this year we were faced with a predicament, one named Sol. Our restaurant. How could we leave our fledgling business unattended for over a week? COULD we leave it unattended, and WHAT would happen?

The answer was YES. Of course we could. We have an excellent staff, it is one of the keys to our success and what allows us to set ourselves apart as a dining establishment. Our staff is more than employees,they believe in and enjoy what they do and understand the goal we have in mind. The experience must be exceptional. The food, the environment, the service. More responsibility was doled out and when we came back, the restaurant remained. Thank you staff!

This year we were especially anxious to get to the beach, because a "renourishment" program was set in place last year to combat the erosion that has taken place over the years. How big would the beach be? How far would we have to go to drag or chairs and coolers and other necessities near the water's edge? The beach had eroded to only a few feet from the volleyball net. They were working on this project as we were there last year; a barge pumped sand from out on the distant horizon to the water line and an excavator worked the sand into place to form the new beach. Each day we could see the beach approach several noticeable feet closer to in front of our building. They were nearly to in front when we left. There is a picture hanging in Sol of the excavator at sunset. It was one of the most interesting things to see happen, and had the stunning backdrop of a perfect Gulf Coast sunset. I couldn't help but snap dozens of shots trying to capture the scene.

The reactions to the "new" beach were mixed. Of course when you change something you have been used to for years not everyone gets used to it right away. In the process of pumping the sand to the shoreline, many shells were pumped as well. While shelling has been almost nonexistent for many years at Ft Myers, there were now many beautiful shells to look for, albeit mostly smaller ones as the larger ones appeared to have been chewed up in the pumps and were the source of several punctures and cuts on our feet throughout the week. (Some of us figured to wear aqua socks earlier on in the week than others.) Also, the almost always present sting rays seemed to have shyed away this year, though we saw dolphins close by nearly every day.

Thinking back though every year as I do when we go, each has been different. Different animals make themselves seen, the beach is in a different place, we do different activities, the experiences are always slightly different. And yet we look forward to it, whatever it will be, because it is always the same, and it is always there, and we expect it to be that way for another forty years.

While I tried hard to overcome the psychological condition that never fails to inflict me at the end of the week of vacation - that one where I swear I was abducted by aliens and lost a week and then they dropped me back off, or where I fell into some sort of wormhole (both of these because how else to explain the instantaneous passage of a week's time?) I was though, also ready in some ways to come back. I thought about how the vacation was constantly changing, evolving into something different, and yet we always looked forward to it, and I thought about the restaurant and wanted to get back to it, because it too is a constantly changing thing. Evolving, providing new experiences, and the best little bit of this Tropical life I can have in Athens and that I can offer to others. So for it too, I was excited and ready to get to work, to see what had changed when I got back.

But first, I had to go to Miami...