Roll Mops in Cleveland

If you're ever in Cleveland go check out The Greenhouse Tavern. Chef Jonathan Sawyer opened this vinegary oasis in Cleveland 2 yrs ago with the local community at the top of his list.  At the beginning of the week, Sawyer was battling Iron Chef Zakarian in a duel over mint in Kitchen Stadium.  He lost by a hair but that mint parfait with that chocolate dirt stoner sandwich will live on.

Our co. manager Kit looked up a good spot to have our closing night party. She told me I'd be happy with the selection. Oh, And I was...we were to sample most of their menu...including their BBQ roasted pigs head served with brioche buns to assemble pulled pork. or the sloppy Jo-Nut. Imagine the perfect homemade sloppy-Joe meat inside a big savory zepolli donut with a little douse of their smoky sezchuany homemade BBQ sauce.

Surprisingly, or maybe not, there's good food in Cleveland. From Michael Symons influence, from the more upscale Lolita's to his 'BSpot which is a salute to the way people in Cleveland eat. the fried bologna sandwich there brings me back to when my mom, Chef Pisegna, would serve these up after school on white bread with ketchup.

even the restaurants that aren't boarded up, its hard to find anything open before 4. most don't stay open past 10, its odd. I think it's a city that revolves around the Cavs schedule. or sports here in general.  I ordered the lamb burger with fonduta cheese (add cream to Fontina cheese and you get fonduta...this nice spreadable, slightly stinky cheese that goes great with any burger. and olive dusted fries with yogurt dip. The side of spicy chili braised greens and cannelloni beans is a perfect side flavor. I washed it all down with some good gingery beer.

This morning I headed to Cleveland's West Side Market...and I got a free breakfast out if. The vendors don't seem to mind you eating a whole orange or half a banana if they can see your reaction or try and throw you the best deal. In the first aisle I was full on just grapefruit and orange samples. except for the Jew. he walked away with a half pomegranate and the vendor woman said 'now thats too much'

It was built for what it still is-a town marketplace in the 1840's. You can spot it from the large clock tower that sticks out of the Ohio City section of Cleveland. I picked up some Bison from a butcher. Now that my veggie burgers in good shape, I'm gonna freeze it and play with doing the best simplest Bison Burger after tours over. Perhaps involving Cheddar or Stilton cheese. maybe caramelized or pickled shallots. Ingredients that wont cut thew sweetness from the Bison, which most people don't realize, isn't very gamey at all.

At, De Caro Produce Rob picked up some Nopale cactus, Jicama, and Mango salad...plus some ready made mole enchilada's. Just piles of enchilada's all individually separated. 6 or sop different veg and meat varieties. I got the mole/pork and Julian a black bean

Jicama, Nopale Cactus, and Mango Salad w/ mint

I stopped into Meditteranean Imported Foods and bought a jar of Roll Mops which is pickled herring rolled up and usually skewered with gherkins or mini vidalia onion sitting in vinegar. At the Spotted Pig, we used to serve this cut up into little sushi looking rolls and a dollop of lemony craime fraiche (Cream Freesh for South Park fans). I didn't know how anyone else prepared it...or if I'd even like it. But I knew I liked it. When I was bored during changeover at the Spotted Pig, I snuck a few quick bites of these roll mops in the fridge under the cold station when I had the chance.

When I saw the jar, shipped from Sweden, I had the hankering for a recreation of the herring special...maybe on toast instead. So i picked up a $1 bag of mixed greens, olives, and greek yogurt. Back at the hotel I did a little 'mis en place' on the office table with todays paper. Julian had some spare sourdough  slices and herb butter from. To prepare my vision, I gave a good wipe of the bread with herb butter. tossed some of the mixed greens in a  separate cup with olive oil from the olives. I cut the roll mop into sushi rolls and layer them out lengthwise on the butter and topped with the greens, torn olives and leftover raspberries from yesterday. I didn't like the raspberry. You can try them with some good kettle potato chips. and tuck in!

When you think appetizing, I know pickled herring isn't the first thing to come to mind. but in arctic, gray cleveland all i wanted to do is be inside. I could picture our Nordic relatives back in the day, chowing on this stuff and it didn't seem so nuts. and you know what?...Its good. If you like vinegar, it's good. The salt from the fish and olives and crunch from the chip.

veggie burgers in Toronto

Julian, The Jew, & Coyote at Kensington Market

Next time you fly to Toronto you'll want to give yourself a good 2 hours to get out of Pearson International. Not that I necessarily needed to be greeted with a box of Canadian Maple Cremes as I got off the plane but it could been a smoother transition.  When I finally made it to the Minority Report cop behind the booth to stamp my passport I felt for a second like I was staring at an actor in an interrogation room...but that movie was in the future, like 30 years from now. A lot of Toronto aside from the prices feels somewhere in the nineties.

From certain points in the city, Toronto looks a lot like Chicago with spurts of a working class German city taken over by lots of Asians. December here most days looks a lot like a London Fog add. everyone's all fit and pretty and groomed. And the restaurants-obviously theres money here but they all stop somewhere shy of something interesting like a clever new Fort Green Brooklyn restaurant. They don't push the envelope. its also normal to wait more than an hour for food and everybody seems fine with it. From an American perspective at least, service here's not the best. But I don't mind. The food here tho has been killer.

My first free morning I followed Spadina to Longs asian market. Health wise at least the food safety here in Canada actually has stricter rules than ours. Interesting. So I wasn't afraid of the bagged whole fish or the 3 ft long salted spear fish or the saran wrapped inverted pork rectum. A ton of things you won't catch most places outside of New York City. Across the Street is Pho Hung. the mass amount of people always eating here is a good sign. Lulu ended my obsession with this mysterious packed house and treate

It was a short walk to Kensington Market- like a separate bohemian section of town. a few local butcher shops where small rows of quail and pheasant and all kinds of game sit in the front windows..A spice shop called The House of Spice was like a dark bookstore with rows of large jars of every spice imaginable. Instead of buying a $6 jar of turmeric, I could fill a bag twice the size for a dollar. Check out 'the Patty King' for a slamming good Jamaican patty-fresh out of the warmer. I asked the old Asian man behind the counter if he had coco bread 'Ya Mon' he says all nonchalant, in a spot-on Jamaican patois. Is he for real?? Try the curried goat patty. also try the callaloo (spinach) patty with coco bread. further down Kensington is Wanda's pie in the Sky. you'll probably catch Wanda giving one of her cake makers a lesson on the perfect pointy merengue. Be sure to order the sour cherry pie.

Wanda

My first of 3 trips to Kensington during the month of December, I also befriended a boxer named Saint Nicholas that lived on top of a mountain of rugs in his dad's rug shop in the center of Kensington. I've been a magnet to boxers and American bulldogs recently...and I have to explain my crazy obsession to owners just so they don't think I'd walk off with their dogs. I think its a sign that I need another dog. Charlie would want that.





In our building here management put up signs in the halls and elevators that forbid Christmas trees or wreaths from the building. It was the beginning of December so management put the word out in advance. its a fire hazard and therefore no flammable tree's.

After mentally preparing for a tree break in, we ended sneaking in a 13 ft tree wrapped tight in string and 2 large white plastic bags. maybe it would look like a carpet??  Anyway that was gonna be our excuse in case the doorman stopped us. we got in! We stuck the tree in a trash can filled with water. Over the next 3 weeks of ornament donations from our friends and a ping pong match and a night we stayed up till 5 cutting out snowflakes from doilies, our living room (and tree) looked like a glowing shrine to Ping Pong, Canada, underwear and bras, and a tribute to Kim, Jong Il. Our New Years eve bash was a perfect blowout before we had to ditch the tree we named Charlie. He was a good tree.

Indoor Sparklers on New Years Eve

For Julians birthday we went to SPiN. Susan Sarandon started this ping pong hall chain first thing after her divorce with Tim Robbins. I wonder if it was something to do with her split...  we also visited the Milwaukee and New York versions earlier this year.  Our journey in pics...

SPiN Toronto

SPiN Milwaukee

New York City

One of us got the idea to take balls as ornaments for the tree So we (accidentally) took a few and cut small holes and they fit perfectly on the tree lights. looking up 20 floors from King St, you could see the orange glowing balls in the middle a skyscraper of just darkness.

I made it my mission to perfect the veggie burger in Toronto. My first veggie burger attempt was in San Francisco... I used beluga lentils, celeriac, barley, almonds, porcini's, figs, and rye bread crumbs. I wanted something different from the way most restaurants prepare veg burgers-which (taste-wise) is usually decent but the texture always mushes up when you bite into the burger. I have yet to taste a burger that, like a real burger, holds its shape and texture in the middle without being too dense. the result of my first attempt? the celeriac made it a bit too sweet and it was more dense than I wanted.

Maybe something mushy wasn't so bad. After all, the celebrated veggie burger at 'Plant' in San Fran, one of the best I've had, is beet and black bean based and had the mush but, come to think of it, I didn't mind the texture. Maybe a veggie burger isn't supposed to be compared to a real burger when it comes to taste/texture. Its it own thing. I went back to the drawing board in Toronto and borrowed this beet idea to see what I could find. for my ingredients I used small diced roasted beets, black beans (canned is fine), roasted chestnuts, cider vinegar, spanish onion, brown rice (cooked in mushroom stock), porcini's, falafel flour, and panko for the outside. The result is a crispy exterior with a semi mushy inside. the falafel flour (as opposed to chickpea flour) was a key ingredient for that crispy and flavorful firmness. The porcini adds the meatiness and the chestnut, with its fried plantain consistency, adds a perfect sweetness. Turns out I can make a good veggie burger.

Only in Canada, are outdoor ice rinks as popular as American ballparks. We couldn't find a good ice fishing spot so we ended up at Alexandra Park's Ice Rink a few days of the week...don't forget your spiked cider!

sly and pastrami and Tim Tebow

Enough Hair fans came up to me this week after the show not necessarily to say good job but more to tell me I needed to update my blog. Austin was a long time ago:) like this one woman...this semi familiar really pretty blonde middle aged woman. She grabbed me as I was rushing out and told me she drove from new york just to tell me in person that I needed to update my blog. she told me because of my blog she has become a bit of a chef

uhhhh I think its about time. Maybe I'll start in Philly and rewind...

I've been fortunate to have Lee Zarrett, 'the jew' be part of the Hair trifecta. Probably because of tours he's done in the past...so he just knows the good spots...that or the closeted journalism major in him. So we just end up at the good spots. The deli spots in particular. the kind of old school Jewish delis that carry the sliced fatty pastrami on rye bread with good old fashioned yellow mustard.

Before sound check the first day Lee escorted Julian & I up towards Rittenhouse Square to the Famous 4th Street Delicatessen. The good deli's that come to mind...I'm thinking Canters or Jerry's in LA or Katz's in New York. Katzs to me, has the best pastrami sandwich. Famous Fourth Street's pastrami however close, is not as good in taste but looks more appetizing.  Fourth Street's specializes more in making eating time damn tasty but also making everything look massive and pretty. Its like a full plate of breakfast in the morning. It just appeals to us as eaters more than a small plate of food. Am I crazy or do we WANT our food in the morning to look a bit huge? If not actually huge, at least give the impression of something with substance. And the Matzo ball soup was special. The softball sized Matzoball in the light chicken broth (minus the chicken) was a stark reminder that i don't need to salt everything. Macrobiotically speaking at least, when you talk about the yin and yang of our taste buds, it fit the guidelines for being tasty and savory with very little seasoning. Its then I realized how much I crave salt:) And how much I didn't need it. Am I that hooked?

The 55 degree days here made for a good run along the Schuykill [pr: scoo-kl] river. With all the bread and pasta I've had the last few weeks, this was a good idea to stretch out my running legs. And Philly along with Boston is a big running town.  so I put on my shoes, set my Roots playlist, and followed the flags on Ben Franklin parkway to the Art Museum and east up the Schuykill river. Even without the lights that normally light the boat houses, it's still a picturesque jog. I just wanted a quick pic from the steps of the art museum like a proper tourist. Thats another thing, I'm getting off the point but whats so special about the 'Love' sculpture? which looks a lot smaller in person. Just before I'd reached the infamous steps, I had to dodge my way around the camera friendly tourists taking turns getting there kids under the 'Love'. I guess its colorful and pretty but why not go see a Jeff Koons exhibit instead? at least then you'll get your large colorful display and maybe a little nudity kick out of it.  anyway I was passing the steps and I see out of my right eye was Rocky Balboa...Seriously. with a kind of halo above him and his classic gray sweatshirt and fedora. Sly Stallone himself was sitting on the stoop just kickin it with his two friends, both black. Neither of them was Apollo.  I told Rock I didn't have any money but that I'd love a quick pic. He clearly noticed the pathetic starstruck glint in my eye...the kind you get when you feel like you're immediately in a  time and place (in this case Philly in the eighties) other than your current reality...

Sly & I

Once I told him I didn't have money but that I'd love to take a photo with him he probably realized he didn't have any other options and I probably looked interesting enough so he obliged to entertain me and my Rocky obsession. He was one of those guys that rattles off his resume at 100 miles an hour because well... those are his business skills...especially once I told him I was an actor. 'yeah' he says in his spot on Balboa dialect "I work with Stallones ex-Manager now. I'm his number one impersonator' he claimed, very matter of fact. He extended his thick hand very much like Rocky would and I shook, still in disbelief .  'Mike Avello'...nice to meet you...Yeah at the end of the year I'll be pulling in $500,000 dollars...just doing this stuff alone. I told him I was doing Hair down the Academy of Music and all 3 of them lit up. One of his friends chimes in...'That the one down on Walnut?
'Broad Street and Locust' Its that pretty red opera house down from City Hall,' I say. And it is. This theatre, one of the oldest in the country (1856), from the inside especially, is one of the most beautiful houses we've played.  from the stage you could easily picture some epic Mozart opera being performed.

'Oh thats the nice theatre,' Rocky agrees. He lit up. 'Hey can you get me a ticket? actually 2 would be great. I would love to take my fiancé, he asked trying to eek out the last drop of his business prowess. I should've asked if his fiancé looked like Adrian but I didn't.  He emptied his wallet and wrote his number on his business card. I guess according to his card he also paves driveways. It was too last minute to try and get him a free ticket from our press girl which i had thought about doing. Mike suggested he would pose for any group pics if I could get the tix. After all, how cool would it be to see throwback Rocky and his mysterious woman (probably not Adrian) roll up to their seats? Keep an eye out for Mike Avello if you live around Philly. It was seriously one of those out of body (and era) experiences you don't get very often.

For lunch, after grabbing a few apple dumplings from the Amish at Reading Terminal (a Philly staple) we walked to Sabrina's cafe down freezing cold Callowhill Street, just past the Catholic school and hospital. Inside you could tell it used to be some late night 70's lounge or bingo hall, with its brown arabic tiles and arches. And it probably used to get pretty smokey. not that it actually smells like tobacco but you can sort of imagine it being a smokey furnace inside. Bolero prints and cool local artwork line the booths and there's a warm nostalgic feeling about the place that makes me hungry for brunch. In the same way that being in an airport makes me hungry.

It was too cold to really get in the shopping mood but we took a [brisk] stroll up the ninth Street Italian Market. It reminded me of that Bloomfield strip in Pittsburgh. All the butchers and sausage makers and sprinkling of Mexican markets. It was enough to say we did it but time to get warm. We found this Asian man burning cardboard produce boxes by the curb of an outdoor produce market, maybe his shop. Maybe the gas prices were too high so he was burning them to stay warm. The flame's got pretty large at one point. So the Colombian and I start snapping pictures. At least we got something out of this busted cold weather:) After we warmed up with an Americano with steamed milk from Elixir cafe. This is the best of a weak field of coffee in this town. La Colombe needs to step it up. Its one drip away from that burnt Starbucks taste.

On a sports note, I was sad to miss the outdoor Hockey game btwn the Flyers and Rangers the day we arrived in Philly.  but happy however to see the Bronco's upset the Steelers today. Even though something about Tim Tebow just pisses me off, I'm still happy for them. The Bronco's were due for something positive.