Fun Playing with the Bounty of the Garden

Is the fall equinox here already? Almost. The garden is turning down, and I have barely shown you any of the goodness Bob worked so hard to produce. So - at the risk of making all of our mouths water for things soon to be gone until next summer - here are some of the highlights:

Garden BLT:

Bob's Made From Scratch White Bread

 
Assorted Garden Tomatoes - Black Crim (our favorite) Front and Center, the Yellows are Azoychka

Garden Lettuce and Tomato Slices

Trader Joe's Organic Mayo with Chopped Garden Chinese Flowering Chives

The chives lent a new and crunchy dimension to the already fabulous BLT. Bacon came from Czuchraj Meats at the West Side Market.


Caprese Salad - Garden Tomatoes, Fresh Mozzarella, Basil, Balsamic, EVOO, Salt & Pepper


Slovenian Sausage (Czuchraj Meats), Ohio City Pasta with Garden Tomatoes, Grilled Long Island Peach with Butter


Whole Wheat and Long Island Peach Pancakes






More Czuchraj Meats Slovenian Sausage, Grilled, with Garden Tomato, Green Beans and Pepper.


Garden Lima Beans




Simmered Lima Beans Sauteed in Olive Oil with Garden Peppers

We're not done yet, but we feel the minutes ticking down for our precious plants. Gotta play with your food while the sun shines (and the garden grows)!

Fun Playing With Polish Boys

You read that correctly. Polish boys. Not the New Orleans "Po' Boy." But a Cleveland specialty, served up by a ten year old Cleveland classic - the Seti's food truck. Seti's may be found Monday through Friday, from 10am-4pm, in the parking lot of Dean Restaurant Supply, E.34th & Woodland Ave., Cleveland, OH 44115. Seti's is also available for catering. Though I had read some praises of Seti's from no less than Cleveland's Iron Chef Michael Symon, it wasn't blinking strongly on my radar. Until the weekday that I needed to stop at Dean Supply for some catering supplies (Dean has an awesome selection at great prices). 

And there, in the parking lot, with only a small bench for the assembled waiting customers - there it was:

 

The menu is right on the truck:

Since it was my first time, I had to try the "Best Polish Boy" - which is a  grilled Polish sausage topped with slaw, fries and BBQ sauce. Chili and cheese are both available for a small upcharge. But I had mine "off the rack" as it were. It was hard to get decent photos juggling the goods in my car, but here it is:

The sausage was perfectly cooked and steaming hot, and it snapped beautifully when bitten into, yielding porky juices and tender flavors. My only complaint was that the BBQ sauce sort of took over the sandwich, muting what seemed like wonderful coleslaw, and turning crisp fries mushy. Still, this sandwich made for a great lunch.

I returned to Seti's a few weeks later with my husband in tow - he's lived near Cleveland for almost 60 years and had never had a Polish Boy! We needed to remedy that, and we did.

Bob's Best Polish Boy 

Bob agreed with me that the BBQ sauce overwhelmed the sandwich a bit. But that didn't stop him from enjoying every messy bite!

I opted for the Chili Dog for my second experience:

Chili Dog with Mustard and Chopped Onion 

I'm not a big chili dog kinda girl - but I really loved this sandwich! The chili wasn't very spicy, so the onion and mustard each got to play a note in the final taste.

Fries

The fries were fresh, hot, and crispy. The perfect side for a chili dog.

Seti's offers fun food at a cheap price (our lunch for two, with beverages, totaled $10). We had fun playing with Seti's Polish Boys and their other offerings - and though a picnic table or other seating appliance would be nice, the car worked just fine both times. The food is served hot enough (and wrapped well enough) to take some travel, say to an office downtown or a nearby suburb. But when food smells this good, it is so hard to wait!

I Have Given Myself Over to the Pork Side, Episode I - Bacon

Cue the Darth Vader music! I now realize that it is pointless to resist. I have given myself over to the PORK side!

As most of you know, I was raised in a Conservative Jewish house on Long Island, in New York suburbia. We did not keep kosher (though my father's mother did), but we generally observed quite a few of the dietary rules imposed by Kashruth - more as a cultural than religious matter (my mother wouldn't know what to do with a sausage or pork roast if you gift-wrapped it for her). Drinking a glass of milk with a meat meal, for example, seemed gross (and it still does, to me), and I never put cheese on a cold meat sandwich - but that doesn't keep me from enjoying veal parmigiana. And other than the occasional package of bacon (after all, who doesn't like bacon), you would seldom find any shellfish or pig parts in the house where I grew up. Ironically, after I moved out, my mother because enamored of ham and cheese sandwiches; ham had always been an unidentified object in our house, and I always passed on it at school lunch. My pre-marital exposure to pork was mostly bacon (yum!) and the occasional taste of mass-market sausage (not so yum).

Since I moved to Cleveland in 1995, I have been exposed to a world of artisanal pork, and have tasted many varieties of chops, roasts, sausages, and charcuterie with pleasure. It was with this background that we ordered half a Berkshire hog from Blue Egg Farmer Kathy Breychak this year.

Our first tastes of our hog were mostly bacon. We also sampled some sausage, which we ate like burgers:

Inspired by Michael Rulman's BLT Challenge, we enjoyed a few amazing BLT's once the tomatoes came in this summer.

BLT: Garden Lettuce, Tomato, & Hungarian Pepper, Bob's White Toast, Breychak Bacon, Mayo

None of our BLTs would have been eligible for Ruhlman's contest, because the butcher of the hog smoked the bacon (and the mayo was Hellman's). These were some of the most delicious moments of our summer and fall, though.

BLT "Deluxe" - with Farmers Market Egg:





 







And finally - the last BLT of the season - on Bob's Freshly Baked Wheat Bread - I couldn't bear to toast it!


















 






And now, summer is over and the tomatoes are gone. Sniff.

We have used the bacon grease in so many kitchen applications; the smell and taste have been everywhere - no old coffee can for this liquid gold! I tried - I tried to resist my feelings. But the rich, sweet smell and taste of the Pork Side had me in its grasp. Would there be no salvation? Save me Obi-Wan Kenobi - you are my only hope!

To be continued . . . .

Fun Playing with Comfort Food at Bar Symon

Our EGullet friend Kris is on her annual visit to her hometown of Cleveland (she lives in Japan). So, we will indulge in some Cleveland-area restaurant food fun over the next couple of weeks, notwithstanding that our garden is finally busting open with summer goodness.

Last night, we enjoyed a meal at Michael Symon's latest venture, Bar Symon. It was great to see former Lolita stalwarts "Chaty" Matt Harlan and FOH Manager Nolan Cleary and to taste a bit of Cory Barrett's dessert magic. We East-Siders so miss them - and it is a 50 minute drive to Bar Symon from my home, so I don't suppose we'll be going too often. Our loss.

Bar Symon screams "comfort" from the moment you enter. From the 40-plus beers on tap to the comfort food on the menu - comfort is the operative word. Though there is an upscale element in the layout and lighting, jeans and t-shirts feel perfectly appropriate. If this place was in my neighborhood, I'd be living at the bar - which, as noted, features over 40 varieties of beer on tap, and more varieties in bottles (and $1 Pabst Blue Ribbon cans). Prices for the other beers start at $4 and the pours are generous (and the selection of barware extensive, to compliment the various beer styles). I enjoyed the Ayinger Celebrator Doppel Bock and the Aventinus Weizenbock - I've had both before from the bottle, but never on tap - and tap does make a difference. Wow!


The Tap Handles - 40+ on Tap and More in Bottles


The Secret Room Behind the Tap Handles

A most cool piece of beer technology.

The place was pretty darn crowded for a Tuesday night and beware - reservations are not accepted. Our friend Edsel arrived early, though, and got us on the list, so we didn't have to wait for a table once we got there from the East Side.

One of the first things we noticed was the staging area for the delicious butter - I can't stand being served beautiful bread in a restaurant only to tear it apart with rock hard butter. That will not happen at Bar Symon.



Bar Symon sources its bread from a newly opened bakery, Blackbird Baking Company in Lakewood (which opened the same day Bar Symon did). Tom Clark is the owner, with his wife ,and he formerly worked at On the Rise Bakery on the east side. They are located on Detroit right before the Rocky River Bridge (thanks Matt for the info update!). The sourdough is simply extraordinary.


Bread Service



We decided to split some appetizers before ordering mains. Like its sister Lolita, Bar Symon has a tasting-friendly menu. We started with the "Big Board" of three house-made sausages with pickles, mustard, and the most amazingly tasty grilled bread:




Smoked Kielbasa, Spicy Lamb & Mint and Pork & Fennel Sausages Big Board


Highlighting the 3 Mustards and Pickled Vegetables



The pickled ramps were especially savory! Ramp season may be over in Northeast Ohio - but not at Bar Symon! Kris ate all of my share of the mushrooms and pronounced them delicious.


MEAT!

I do NOT go to Michael Symon's restaurant to eat vegetables or fish - we know what the stars will be!



My plate of sausage tastes.



How could I leave that amazing grilled bread off! Seasoned simply with salt and pepper - the secret is the toasting over wood chips and not just the grill! We all marveled at how magnificent it tasted.


Goat Tacos

Every night, Bar Symon offers a special - Tuesday is Goat Taco night. The four of us split these two lovelies - succulent and moist, and accented by fabulously zingy chiles and house-made salsa.




PEI Oysters, Symon Cocktail Sauce, and Lambic Mignonette



The oysters were pristine - and the mignonette was simply amazing - a light wash of lovely flavors that didn't overwhelm or drown any of the oyster flavor. The Symon Cocktail Sauce was tasty - but the Lambic Mignonette divine!

I didn't think we'd have the wherewithall for entrees (which each come with a side) after this - but we did. And I'm so glad that we did!


Grilled Meatloaf, Pickled Banana Peppers, Lola Ketchup

My entree. This was NOT my mom's meatloaf. And I love my mom's meatloaf. But I loved this too. I realized it wasn't beef (which was the only meat in my mom's meatloaf) - Nolan revealed it was a mix of veal and pork - which made it very light, yet richly tasty. And my mom never crusted her meatloaf - but the crust, and the grill treatment, gave this slab of goodness wonderful mouthfeel and depth of flavor. And those peppers - yum! I even enjoyed the ketchup - though Chef Michael revealed to me that it contains quite a bit of coffee - I swear, it is so well balanced in flavor and texture that I wouldn't know that if he hadn't told me (and coffee usually makes me gag).


My Side - Bacon Creamed Corn

This side is one of the Bar Symon dishes that hails from Lolita - and is executed wonderfully at Bar Symon! After all - it has Chef Symon's favorite vegetable - Pork!


Mussels - White Ale, Chilies, Garlic & Parsley

This was Kris's entree. Truthfully, I'm not that crazy about mussels. Had I not gotten partially full on appetizers, I would have probably tasted one anyway - but it just didn't appeal. Apparently, according to my dining companions, it was my loss.


Mussel Sauce

Kris raved about this - I really should have tried it. Next time!


Fried Brussels Sprouts

Given the Symon treatment of pork fat and more pork fat - even an ambivalent brussels sprouts eater like Kris was won over!


Smoked & Braised Pork Butt, Pickled Cabbage Slaw

Bob's entree - simply perfect pork-smoke-and-sour flavors. He actually finished all the slaw - and left over some of his meat - and that never happens.


Garlic Greens (Escarole)

This was the only dish we didn't relish - but none of us is a big escarole fan. Nothing bad or wrong - just much less sexy than some of the other food.


Crispy Fried Organic Chicken, Truffle Honey & Rosemary

This was Edsel's entree. Anyone who has ever complained about portion sizes at a Michael Symon restaurant needs to visit Bar Symon and order this - a full half of a chicken, battered and fried to perfection! For $15! Plump, juicy, succulent - these adjectives all came to mind as I tasted.


Soft Polenta

Another item channeling Lolita - and the perfect side to the exquisitely tasty fried chicken - corny, savory and creamy (ah- the power of cheese!).

Our companions did an amazing job cleaning their plates - Bob and I needed boxes. And it was our companions who ordered desserts (though I confess to asking for the extra spoons - but more than a bite or two was out of the question).



This sundae featured house-made Edmund Fitzgerald Porter Ice Cream, house-made caramel (my weakness) and pretzels. Cory - you did it again!



Kris opted for the Coconut Sorbet - delightfully refreshing!

And so - the East Side Contingent sadly departed Bar Symon - sated with fabulous flavors, but sad with the knowledge that the restaurant seems, at least, so far away. The Westsider, of course, was extremely happy to have such a fabulous food outpost so close to his home.

The prices top out at $17 for the most expensive entrees, and the burger is less than $10! Bar Symon is designed to accomodate anyone who enjoys delicious food, at a tasty price in a comfortable atmosphere. And the patio looked simply lovely - no wonder the kitchen was still hopping at 9pm on a Tuesday! We most enjoyed playing with our food (and the fabulous tap beer selection) and hope to get back before too long from the far reaches of the East Side.