Reading List for July 12-16

1. "Advocates run ads urging Senate to pass food safety bill", from The Washington Post

"A year after House Democrats and Republicans overwhelmingly approved legislation to improve food safety, public health advocates are growing frustrated that the Senate has yet to take up the bill."

2. "A Humane Egg", from The New York Times

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law requiring that all whole eggs sold in [California] conform to the provisions of Proposition 2, the humane farming law that was [passed] in 2008."

3. "A more healthful mayonnaise? Maybe", from The Washington Post

"The time seems ripe, then, to reevaluate mayonnaise. Is it worth eating? And, if so, is one kind better for you than the others?"

4. "Online grocers: Keep on trucking", from The Economist

"Internet grocery shopping is booming. If only it were profitable"

Dinner with Friends

As I've mentioned before, I am a lucky/blessed woman because my husband likes to cook and is very good at it. I couldn't resist writing about the meal that we shared with our friends Randy & Kim this past Sunday evening. Randy made the first course, and Topher made the second.

What We Ate:

• Appetizer: Roasted garlic and two types of French cheese, Fol Epi and Morbier - paired with Buena Vista Carneros Rosé of Syrah
• First course: Sweetbread marsala served over polenta - paired with Franciscan Chardonnay
• Second course: Homemade potato gnocchi & ribeye steak, topped with mushroom gorgonzola sauce and served with sautéed spinach - paired with Buena Vista Carneros Syrah

Suffolk Spotlight: Amici's Pizza Cafe

The second place on my summer "to-dine" list that I visited this week was Amici's Pizza Cafe, a locals' favorite in downtown Suffolk.

I must admit that I wasn't too impressed with Amici's the first time I ate there, earlier this summer with two girlfriends: the food was delicious, but the service left a lot to be desired. Last night, though, my friend Meredith and I had a great time. We sat out front on the shaded patio, munched on bread with garlic butter, and sipped pinot grigio (well, I did at least; she's preggo) while we waited for our entrees. Thankfully, the wait wasn't nearly as long as last time.

What I Ate:

• The first time: Penne ala Vodka - spinach & andouille sausage over penna pasta in a tomato cream sauce
• The second time: Veal Piccata - veal cutlets with capers in a light lemon-white wine sauce over spaghetti

Amici's menu also includes a great selection of pizzas, a huge Greek salad (which my friend Kim got on my first visit), and salmon & artichokes over asparagus risotto (which I plan to try next time). Bottom line: Amici's is good, and I'll probably eat there again. But it's more casual than Primo 116, both in atmosphere and in cuisine; so for a special occasion or fancy night out, Primo 116 is still my favorite Italian in Suffolk.

The Scoop:
Amici's Pizza Cafe is located in downtown Suffolk at 157 E. Washington Street. You can reach them at (757)923-5300. They don't take reservations.

A Speakeasy in Old Towne Portsmouth

This week I checked two places off my summer "to-dine" list, and I can happily report that I enjoyed both.

On Tuesday evening, I met my friend Stacy in Old Towne Portsmouth for dinner at Still. This place definitely gives off a 1930's speakeasy vibe: You enter at a street-level door located on a side street with almost no signage and then immediately walk down a half flight of stairs to the dimly lit bar and lounge, which features leather arm chairs, low tables, and exposed brick walls. The only windows are small ones near the ceiling. All dishes are served in small, tapas-sized portions, and the cocktail menu is extensive.

What We Ate:

• House bread with bacon jalapeno cheddar butter
• Fresh spinach salad with poached egg, bacon, and tangy tomato dressing
• Panko encrusted oysters with New Orleans remoulade
• Spicy chicken vindaloo over saffron rice, with mango chutney & naan bread - definitely has a kick!
• Shrimp and andouille sausage tossed with penne in a spicy tomato cream sauce
• "Melt in your mouth" bread pudding with whiskey hard sauce - amazing! the bread was much lighter than a typical bread pudding, so the dish overall wasn't as heavy
• To drink: a vodka martini with a lemon twist (me) and a whiskey sour (Stacy)

We also considered the arugula salad with roasted pears, the curry chick peas, the sauteed gnocchi, and the glazed pork over polenta, and we almost ordered a second dessert: peach blackberry cobbler. I'll definitely be back to Still!

The Scoop:

Still Worldly Eclectic Tapas is located at 450 Court Street (at the corner of Queen St.), Portsmouth, VA 23704. Find them on Facebook.

Note: The image above is from the Still website.

Reading List for July 5-9

Wheat Rust and World Farming (from The Economist)
The return of wheat rust: The disease eating away our daily bread
Rust in the bread basket: A crop-killing fungus is spreading out of Africa towards the world's great wheat-growing areas

The Debate about Soda Taxes
"Soda taxes: politics v. public health" - blog post by Marion Nestle (3 July 2010)
"Experiments in soda taxes and pay walls" - TIME blog post (2 July 2010) & related article (dated 12 July 2010)
"To Tax or Not to Tax? States Enter the Soda Wars" - NPR story (May 2010)
"Is Soda the New Tobacco?" - NYTimes article (12 Feb 2010)

Just for Fun
"Both @cookbook and @Maureen are the [Twitter] streams of Maureen Evans, a 27-year-old from British Columbia who is studying for a master’s in creative writing at Queen’s University Belfast," and she tweets entire recipes in 140 characters or less. (from NYTimes, 21 April 2009)

Wowed by Wegmans

Another highlight of our road trip to Pennsylvania this past weekend was the visit (or visits, since we went three times in 24 hours) to Wegmans. That's right, a grocery store.

Topher and his parents were already huge fans and were looking forward to it the whole drive, but I'd never been before and wasn't sure what all the fuss was about - boy, was I impressed!

Wegmans isn't just any grocery store, as customers in the Northeast can attest. It has an amazing array of fresh vegetables, meats and seafood (whole red snapper! live lobster!), plus a café that offers pizza, subs, sushi, pasta, Chinese, Indian, and other hot dishes.

The deli counter tempted me with summer harvest pasta salad (corn & lima beans with either rotelle or fiori pasta) and curry chicken salad.

They had an entire alcove devoted to tea -- literally hundreds of different flavors and varieties.

They had pre-made cheese plates with walnuts and dried apricots & cranberries, and a full case of goat cheese & goat milk, both plain & chocolate!

And the Mediterranean bar featured olives I'd never even heard of: Cerignola, Maddelena, Mantequilla, Piccante, Picholilne, and Nicoise-Coquillo.

The bakery was our downfall: on Saturday my in-laws split a fruit tart, and I shared a chocolate croissant with Topher. On Sunday, we arrived just after they opened and picked up breakfast & snacks for our drive -- fresh baked glazed and sour cream donuts (still warm!), and low-fat blueberry, whole wheat bran, and whole wheat pumpkin muffins. I was eyeing the pretzel rolls and cheese rolls but decided they weren't really breakfast foods.

Too bad the closest Wegmans is in Fredericksburg (northern Virginia), almost three hours away. :(

Note: Both photos in this post are from here.

Solid Picks in State College, PA

This past weekend I traveled to State College, PA, with my husband Topher and his parents for my brother-in-law Bryan's wedding. We were blessed with beautiful weather and a safe, relatively traffic-free road trip.

My father-in-law and Topher share the ability to find great restaurants in any town they visit, and they didn't disappoint this past weekend. On Saturday we tried out two local restaurants in State College, and both were solid picks.

For lunch we stopped at The Deli (picture above) at the corner of Heister Street and College Avenue, which borders the Penn State campus. We debated whether to sit indoors or out (they have a cute sidewalk patio) and ended up indoors, in a back dining room with dark wood walls, retro leather booths, and a huge skylight.

It took us a while to order: the menu is more like a book, and everything sounded delicious. I was torn between the macadamia nut & cilantro crusted salmon and the bunless burger plate (both from the Lite, Lowfat, Lowcarb menu), but then I went with something completely different.

It also took a while to get through the beer menu: they had an impressive selection of brews on tap, including one of my summer favorites, Dogfish Head Festina Peche.

What We Ate

• Me: Middle Eastern Roasted Lamb Wrap (hummus, baba ghanoush, tomato, sprouts, onions, spinach, olives, & cucumber sauce in a whole wheat wrap) served with veggie couscous
• Topher: Chipotle Burger (cheddar cheese, spicy chipotle salsa, & a whole chipotle pepper on a kaiser roll) served with sweet potato fries
• Patty: Chicken Fajita Pita (peppers, onions, lettuce, tomato, & sour cream in a pita)
• Jim: Triple Decker Deli Reuben (grilled corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, & Russian dressing on rye bread)

For dinner we went to Otto's Pub and Brewery. A member of the Pennsylvania chapter of "Buy Fresh Buy Local", their menu lists the regional farms, bakeries, wineries, and creameries from which they get their ingredients. My mother-in-law "Miss" Patty was so impressed with the statement about their beef - "local, pasture-raised, hormone-free beef cattle ... their feed is supplemented with the spent barley from our brewery" - that she ordered a burger.

What We Ate

• For starters: Chicken wings w/ two sauces (sweet & spicy garlic and mango habanero)
• Me: Catfish po' boy (blackened catfish with lettuce, tomato & remoulade sauce on a toasted kaiser roll) served with garlicky green beans, and a glass of red sangria to drink
• Topher: Fish & chips - perfectly battered: not too heavy, but not so light that it flaked off the fish
• Patty: Mushroom swiss burger (half-pound pasture-raised beef with sautéed mushrooms, onions and swiss cheese on a toasted kaiser roll) served with green beans*
• Jim: Roasted butternut squash ravioli topped with gorgonzola cream & fried sage

*Patty has a severe allergy to garlic, so we always have to check with the waiter/chef to find out what items on the menu are safe for her to order. Both The Deli and Otto's were extremely accommodating: they made sure that none of the meats were seasoned, and Otto's even cooked her burger on a separate surface to make sure that no stray garlic from the grill accidentally found its way to her plate. And of course, her garlicky green beans were served sans garlic.