Fun Playing With Destin-Area Breakfast

What better way to start the day than with breakfast? We found a number of tasty options nearby and barely scratched the surface of the local offerings.

In all our prior years visiting Destin, we'd never succeeding in playing with food at the Destin Diner - it was a cool looking old railcar style place, but always seemed to be between owners during our February visits. The current operators of the space (now called Mary's Kitchen) have remedied this. They also operate a second Mary's Kitchen at Uptown in Fort Walton Beach, which is open until 8pm for dinner. The Destin version is open from 7:30am until 2:30pm, and offers daily "Blue Plate" specials beginning at 11:30am for lunch in addition to the generous breakfast and lunch menus. Due to the number of meals we ate there, Mary's will get it's own post. However, our first breakfast at Mary's, on our first morning in Destin, warrants a preview here.

Bob's Pancakes

Half Order of Biscuits & Sausage Gravy

My side of cheese grits

Bob's pancakes were light and dreamy. I honestly didn't love the sausage tossed into the gravy, but the white gravy itself was delicious and the biscuits were light and airy. They told me their biscuit maker makes them from scratch daily and they certainly tasted like it! People tend to love grits or hate them; I am in the former category and found these creamy, cheesy and serviceable. A lovely start!

Our next breakfast adventure took us back to a place that didn't really impress in years past, but has upped their game quite nicely. The Donut Hole now has three locations; on this trip, we dined at two of them. The original, in Destin, impressed us both times we visited.

Bob's: The Everything. 2 eggs, sausage, cheese grits (subbed in for homefries), 2 pancakes.

Mine: Texas Sweet Potato Pancakes with Praline Sauce

The quantity of food provided two full meals for each of us, and then some. But more important was the quality, which was very good and delivered at very reasonable price points. More of Donut Hole will appear in a later post.

We enjoyed two breakfasts at The Pancakery, just up the street from us. While they do use liquid egg product for their omelets, the fillings I sampled tasted of freshness and quality.

Mine: Crabcake Omelet 

They get the crab cakes already made from their vendor, which they said was a local product. They also source local shrimp for omelet making, but we didn't sample it. This mammoth plate gave me two meals, with some to spare! The quality of the filling and presentation of this dish almost made up for the use of liquid egg product. And to accompany this savoriness:

Sand Dollar Pancakes

What a treat! Why get a side of food service bread toast when there are freshly made pancakes in the house? 

Bob's: Strawberry Fields, pancakes filled with strawberries and topped with strawberry compote. 

This was a little too sweet for my palate, but Bob loved it.

Gone Bananas: Filled with fresh bananas and served with bananas foster sauce.

We both ordered this on our second visit, and didn't love it as much as our first visit. The Bananas Foster Sauce had a strong margarine/butter substitute flavor that wrecked the dish for us. So the trick to enjoying the Pancakery is to order carefully - they do a fabulous job with the pancakes themselves and some of the toppings are worthy. We will definitely return.

Crackings was recommended by our realtor, who is a food guy and is married to another food lover. Originally part of the still-existing “Another Broken Egg” chain, but recently taken independent by its owners, Crackings still felt (and tasted) way too chain like. It wasn’t bad but wasn’t especially good either, and more costly than other local options. The menu bragged about serving Hormel meats – that sort of sums it up. There are better choices. And to be fair, my realtor and his wife had lunch items not breakfast; perhaps they do better with that. 

Mine: Praline Pecan Pancakes - two sweet cream pancakes, filled with sweet crunchy praline pecans, drizzled with scratch made cinnamon cream cheese icing

This looks like a bit of a mess and that was how it ate. Way too sweet, and the parts that weren't covered with icing were quite dry.

Bob's: Banana Foster's it Up - a scratch made brown sugar, banana liquor, and butter cream sauce with fresh bananas with pancakes

Crackings actually did a better job with this dish than the Pancakery had, probably because they used real butter rather than substitutes. Bob clearly chose better than I! Having lots of sauce to drizzle where needed helped.

The final two places are almost polar opposites, but each delivered deliciousness!

Mama Clemenza's is owned by the couple that are part owners in Fat Clemenzas in Miramar Beach and Clemenzas at Uptown Station, Fort Walton Beach. The Miramar Beach location, 12273 Emerald Coast Parkway, Miramar Beach, Phone: 850-424-3157 is open Wednesday – Sunday 8am – 1pm. The Fort Walton Beach location is open 8am- 1pm Sunday in the premises of Clemenzas at Uptown Station, 75 Eglin Parkway | Suite 126 | Fort Walton Beach, FL 32591. Both locations offer an upscale, hand crafted breakfast and lunch experience. Though our second experience was marred by some technical difficulties, the house responded well and we'll certainly be back.

Sliced Oranges in olive oil with black pepper

So tasty that I tried to recreate it for our Snowbird group's Happy Hour. How'd I do?

Plant City Truck Farmer Honeybells with EVOO & Black Pepper

Back to Mama Clemenza's.

Bob's: Italian Breakfast Panini "Special" House-made Italian Sausage, sunnyside eggs and Gruyere cheese, served with side of Hollandaise and "side of the day" which was Raspberry Steel Cut Oats 

Mine: "Special" Seafood Quiche topped with Hollandaise, served with Croissant and "side of the day", Raspberry Steel Cut Oats (it ate like pudding!).

Bob's Banana's Foster French Toast: maple glazed sliced bananas and warm caramel sauce.

Mine: Croque Madame. An open faced egg sandwich with Prosciutto, and Gruyere cheese. Served with Side of the Day (Blackberry Steel Cut Oats) and an addition of Hollandaise sauce on the side.

The menu changes frequently and every day brings one off specials. Mama Clemenza's is not a cheap date, but the quality of the food is a notch above most local offerings and well worth it. Despite the hiccups on our last visit, we'll be back! 

Blue Collar Cafe in Fort Walton Beach is the only place in the area making real NY style bagels from scratch. And doing it quite well. But go early if you want a bagel, because they will sell out (by 10:30ish)!  We didn't get there in time the first time we visited. But the made-in-house biscuits almost made up for it! And that Maple Bacon - divine! The grits - nothing special. But there remains plenty of special to go around at Blue Collar Cafe! And at very friendly prices.

Mine: 2 Eggs Over Easy, Biscuit, Cheese Grits, Maple Bacon

Bob's: 2 eggs over easy, toast, sausage patty.

The bagels were worth the price of admission and a second trip. New Yorker approved. And though that cream cheese probably started life in a food service loaf, it had been whipped with a perfect touch of white pepper by the time it hit my bagel. Outstanding! As was the service, a real treat.

Mine: Plain bagel, not toasted, cream cheese, fruit.

No New Yorker would ever toast a fresh bagel.

Bob's: Poppyseed Bagel Toasted, Cream Cheese, Fruit

Another lovely touch - that fruit garnish isn't just a garnish - it's fresh, substantive fruit, which cut nicely through the richness of the bagel and cream cheese. And the sausage and bacon at our first visit.

Finally, a rare made from scratch breakfast in the condo, featuring Black Bear Bread Company Bread made into French Toast with Blue Eggs we got at the Sandestin/Grand Boulevard Farmers' Market, topped with Strawberry Syrup I made with Plant City Farmers' Fresh Strawberries.

And so we have breakfast in Destin and environs. Some lovely places to play with food, and a few others we didn't get to try. There will be more Fun Playing With Food from this trip, coming up shortly!

Fun Playing with Waffles

I've been wanting a good waffle iron for years. It never felt like there was a place to store it, so the dream went unfulfilled. Until my birthday this year. Seven months into not having a stove, it was time for a birthday present. Behold, the Iron Chef of Waffle Irons:

If I had learned nothing else from the cheap waffle iron I bought almost 30 years ago - don't cheap on a waffle iron if you want to make anything other than, well, waffles. This hunk of All Clad is built like a tank. And we've already started to put it through some unconventional paces, with great success. 

Our very first meal with it transversed the ordinary:

Savory Sweet Corn Waffle

We topped our first waffles with a Sausage Gravy made with our first bag of Hot Italian Sausage from our 2014 half Miller Livestock Co., Inc. Berkshire Hog. Served up with Farmers' Market Green Beans, it was a terrific way to inaugurate the new waffle maker.

The leftovers made for a fabulous breakfast topped with Tea Hill Farms poached eggs:

Out next waffle meal featured a regular buttermilk waffle (with a bit less sugar added to the batter), serving as buns for savory burgers. First up, Lamb-Chorizo Burgers served with Mint-Yogurt Raita, Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, Snap Peas (not pictured). Breychak Farm lamb combined with spicy Saucisson chorizo, Yum.

Bob was a bit overly generous in sizing the patties, and we had some leftovers. 

The next night, we rinsed and repeated, using a mixture of the Saucisson Chorizo and ground beef we received in connection with the Kickstarter campaign of Blue Loon Farm, and a batch of yeast-batter waffles. This time, we made the patties smaller, and so had enough for two meals! Spicy heaven on a waffle!

Meal 2

Next up: BLTs, on yet another batch of Yeasted Waffles! Our last pound of Brechak Farm bacon gave it's all, in an oven-baked weave of deliciousness.

Today's experiment involved potatoes. We'd gotten some beautiful purple spuds at the Geauga Fresh Farmers' Market, and this morning, I shredded, drained and waffled them:

Here, the waffles are topped with poached Blue Eggs from two different farmers, and our first sample of the bacon we got from our Miller Farm hog. The taters were cooked through on the inside and super crispy on the outside, with just a bit of butter brushed on the waffle iron and some salt and pepper added to the shreds before waffling. The beautiful simplicity of waffling speaks for itself. 

Fun playing with waffles - what shall we waffle next? 

Fun Playing With Food Trucks and Seafood in Boston

Since life has slowed just a bit, it seems like a good time to continue my report on our Boston trip. July seems like another lifetime ago, with warm sunny skies and a whole city at our fingertips! We moved to a downtown hotel to attend a convention the day after visiting Gloucester. A first order of business was to go on a whale-watching cruise. We encountered a number of humpbacks and enjoyed a very satisfying tourist experience.

Of course, we'd need to eat before embarking on the trip. A series of food trucks alternate at a traffic loop just across from where the boats go out; when we arrived, none of them was quite open yet, so we had time to ponder our choices. Though really, when you have a choice called "The Bacon Truck," pondering isn't really necessary.

Benny's crepes looked good - but not as good as BACON!

The Grilled Cheese: bacon, tomato, cheddar, havarti

The Hangover: Bacon, Hash, Fried Egg, Cheddar, Havarti

Our dinner that evening was less successful. Though recommended by local Chowhounders, Tapeo disappointed on almost every level. Perhaps our small appetites and lack of alcohol consumption had something to do with it, but food, and especially service, were lacking.

Paella

Our lunch the next day at Atlantic Fish Company went much better. 

Clam Chowder

Soft Shell Crab BLT w/Avocado, salad, dressing

Bob's lunch made me jealous! Mine, below, was good, but his was exquisite!

Grilled Local Scallops, corn cake, broccoli w/butter

It was a mistake to get the scallops grilled; they wound up a little dry.

The corn cake was marvelous, though. 

We really went over-board (so to speak) on being touristy for the Fourth of July. My history-buff husband wanted to go out on a lunch cruise to watch the USS Constitution come into the water, cruise the harbor,turn around and make a 21 gun salute. Normally, this occurs every July 4, but immediately following the 2014 edition, the Constitution went into drydock for a multi-year repair project, so this one was special. 

The weather was dreary, but the lively crew kept our spirits up for a fun afternoon! After the turnaround, they proceeded to give a detailed harbor tour that was interesting and entertaining.

The USS Constitution as she floats

We didn't expect much from the lunch buffet, but we were pleasantly surprised.

Clam Chowder

Lobstah Rolls!

Lobster Roll was the feature of this better-than-I-expected lunch buffet. The potato salad was also freshly made and pretty good, and the chowda seemed like a good quality food service product. The beef tips were kind of meh, but I wasn't really there for the beef, anyway. I skipped the salad, tortellini, chicken fingers and chicken salad rolls. 

A fun time in Boston Harbor playing with food and history despite the soggy weather, and some tasty eats!