Food Draws Tourists

The Travel Industry Association completed its first large survey to determine the market for "culinary tourism."

The results confirm the Sarasota Convention and Visitors Bureau's pursuit of these tourists and investment in Restaurant Week, a promotion of local fine dining that was held for the first time last May.

The survey last summer of 2,364 leisure travelers found that food or wine were a reason to travel or helped determine the destination for just less than 8 percent, or 12.6 million people.

That's a small but potentially lucrative market. Most likely to participate in the future were people with post-graduate educations and a household income of $100,000 or more.

The culinary traveler is also more active than other leisure travelers. They were more likely to check out cultural attractions, spas, parks and historic sites.

Kathleen McLaughlin

Petrosian

Housed in ALWYN COURT, one of the most beautiful landmark buildings in New York City, and just around the corner from Carnegie Hall and a short block’s walk from the entrance to Central Park, is a renowned restaurant with the best kept brunch secret in the City. For a mere $28 one can choose from a wide variety of appetizers, entrée’s and deserts that quite frankly could boggle even the most sophisticated palate. Well, have you guessed the restaurant? Of course, it’s the fabled Petrossian.

Petrossian made his name introducing Russian caviar to France and the rest of the world back in the roaring 20’s. In sync with the era of their entry on the world scene, this famous restaurant’s décor, designed in the art deco style by Ion Oroveanu, is replete with Lalique crystal wall sconces and a magnificent crystal beaded serpentine Lanvin ceiling chandelier. Bronze sculptures from the 1930’s decorate pedestals in the window niches and are scattered throughout the restaurant, while the rooms main feature, a curved bar backed by glorious mirrors with etched Erté female figures, looks out over the tastefully appointed room. The seating is comfortable and the tables discretely separated with sufficient leg room for even the tallest diner.

Brunch for me and my companion was selected entirely from the prix fix brunch offerings with one notable exception. We simply could not resist the Petrossian Teasers from the ala carte menu ($27) with exquisite tidbits of foie gras, smoked salmon, and caviar canapé. We savored each succulent morsel and agreed that Petrossian’s reputation was not only richly deserved but perhaps underrated.

Our brunch selections began with the Cured & Marinated Herring Sampler and the Salmon Roe Blinis with Crème Fraiche. The three herring filets - marinated in cream dill sauce, traditional pickled, and pink Madeira sauce – and garnished with springs of dill, were tender, silken, and extremely flavorful and accompanied by tiny sweet gherkins; a perfect compliment to the robust herring taste. To this reporter’s palate, the herring fillets were a superior choice to the salmon roe on blinis. The blinis were slightly doughy and just a bit thick but the goodly portion of salmon roe was of exceptional quality, firm and full, bursting with flavor. Other offerings on the Appetizer menu that did not contain processed fish were plentiful such as Poached Pear & Maytag Blue Cheese Salad in a Balsamic Vinaigrette; Borscht With Crème Fraiche & Pirojkis (see recipe in Cook’s Corner); Ricotta Blintzes With Berries & Crème Fraiche; Asparagus & Proscutto Salad With Parmesan Reggiano and more. So if you are one that likes smoked fish but in small quantities, there are choices galore. And for you smoked fish and caviar lovers, the ala carte menu includes samplers as well as servings by grams of all caviar offerings according to taste and pocketbook.

Before moving on to the entrees, mention should be made of the old-world flavor of the service. The staff was professional, knowledgeable, polite and anxious to please but while the restaurant was full and bustling, there was no waiting line so the service while not rushed, seemed a trifle too efficient. More time between courses would have been appreciated to allow one to fully savor each delectable treat with sufficient time to digest and even anticipate the next course. But once the meal was served and the table cleared there was no pressure to vacate the table and we lingered over coffee and conversation. Each menu offering was served with European style cutlery specifically designated and sized for a particular menu item, with a fish fork as required, a flattened desert spoon as necessary and of course a gold plated caviar paddle; and presented in dishes designed to maximize eye appeal. In the case of the herring sampler, the serving dish was a 4 sectioned glass flat with each herring filet snug in its own compartment with one left over to house the gherkins.

My entrée selection was the Smoked Fish Cobb Salad while my companion selected the Sturgeon Burger with Zucchini Fries and Caviar Crème Fraiche. The salad was an extraordinary presentation of rows of diced white, classic smoked, Black Sea spiced, and dill marinated salmon, each in its own row and separated by rows of diced tomatoes, blue cheese, quartered egg, diced avocado and crisp (and I do mean crisp) bacon, over a bed of field greens delicately drizzled with a light dressing so that each flavor stood on its own and yet melded well with the others… the plate looked as good as it tasted. The burger was a misnomer as the sandwich consisted of a filet of sturgeon over a large ripe tomato on a bun accompanied by a pot of the caviar crème fraiche dressing and deep fried zucchini slices that were crisp on the outside and softly silken on the inside.

The dessert menu was somewhat limited compared to the large appetizer and entrée selections but I selected a Chilled Coconut Cappuccino with Coconut Daquoise & Kahlua that was a feast for the eyes as well as the palate, providing you like coconut. The drink/desert was served in a large glass and was a light and satisfying alternative to sorbet after a filling meal. My companion opted for an Apple – Cranberry Strudel with Cranberry Rum Ice Cream & Green Apple Salad that was a knockout. The strudel was one of the plumpest and most flavorful I have ever tasted and the accompanying ice cream over the shredded apple salad was a masterful stroke of flavors and textures. This is a paring worthy of a master chef, which brings us to the matter of Michael Lipp, Petrossian’s Executive Chef. Michael is a young, talented and enthusiastic chef dedicated to promoting healthy and ecologically conscious cuisine. Hats off to him for his innovative and creative recipes which are artistically presented and delicious to eat. All in all a most memorable way to spend a Sunday enjoying a special meal in a gorgeous environment with family and/or friends… and close enough to Central Park to walk off the extra strudel pounds.

By Barbara Penny Angelakis

I would like to introduce our readers to a new American vodka called Blue Ice Vodka, crafted by Master Distiller, William Scott, at the Silver Creek Distillery in Rigby, Idaho. For bottle collectors, the bottle is a really nice design, a pretty blue with an embossed ice flow design on the back of the bottle. For vodka connoisseurs, this very smooth vodka is made in the United States in the traditional manner using potatoes, from Idaho Russet Burbank potatoes and glacial pure water. Blue Ice Vodka is made in small batch productions, and has a five-stage filtration process, and a four-column fractional distillation, and is also all natural and is additive free. This vodka is also gluten-free, which I never much paid much attention to previously, until my friend, Hal, developed a gluten allergy, and no longer could drink his preferred beverage. Hal, Blue Ice Vodka could become your new beverage of choice, since only 1 percent of all vodkas are made from potatoes.

I first tried Blue Ice Vodka at Vodka Fest held in New York on October 27, 2003, where I had the opportunity to sample vodkas from some of the major and some newer distilleries. I was so impressed by Blue Ice Vodka that I wanted to try it again at my home. At a recent gathering of our usual crowd of friends, my husband and I decided to see what our group thought of this new vodka. This special group of friends: Annette and Neal, Penney and Bill, and Randi and Roger, like Ed and I, belong to a Gourmet Club, where we not only create gourmet meals, but also enjoy experiencing excellent wines and spirits, so we thought that this would be a good tasting group. I first had our guests sample Blue Ice Vodka neat, then made up a batch of Cosmopolitans for them to experience. The group consensus was that the vodka was very smooth, clean, and had a very good taste. The group consensus of the Cosmopolitans, were, well, I had to keep making up new batches all night, shaken of course, not stirred, if that gives you any indication. Whether you prefer your vodka neat, chilled, or blended into a martini, I think that this vodka holds its own against other luxury-quality vodkas. It has certainly earned a place of honor on my drinks table.

By Debra C. Argen

Gravlax

Gravlax, also known as gravad lax or gravlaks (in Danish and Norwegian), means buried fish. It is a Scandinavian appetizer consisting of thin sashimi-like slices of salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill.

During the Middle Ages, gravlax was made by fishermen by salting the salmon and lightly fermenting it by burying it in the sand above the high-tide line. The word gravlax comes from the Scandinavian words grav, which means literally "grave" or "hole in the ground".

Today, gravlax is made by curing salmon in sugar salt, pepper and dill and takes only 2-3 days to finish.

To make the gravlax, I went with the basic recipe from an old Scandinavian cookbook and started with a 3 lb peice of wild caught salmon.

Cover the salmon - skin side down - with a mixture of salt, sugar,and pepper - covered with fresh dill. Wrap the salmon with plastic wrap and put a weight on top of the filet. This needs to cure for 2.5 - 3 days.
The final step is to rinse off the cure and remove the dill. Slice thinly with a sharp knife and serve with a mustard and dill sauce, or fresh lemon.

Gravlax Recipe
1-cup salt
1-cup sugar
Pepper to taste
1 bunch dill rinsed
One 2- to 3-pound fillet of salmon, pin bones removed

1. Mix together the salt, sugar and pepper.

2. Place the salmon, skin side down in a shallow baking dish, and cover with the spice mixture

3. Lay dill on top of fillet and wrap with plastic wrap.

4. Put weights (bricks or cans covered with foil) on top of wrapped fillet and let rest in refrigerator for at least 48 hours.

Health Benefits of Wine

In the past several decades, scientific studies have measured the health properties of wine. A 1940 study showed that wine contains the vitamins A, B and C, as well as 13 minerals essential to human life. In 1970, a professor at the University of Bordeaux hypothesised that wine could protect the cardiovascular system. His theory was confirmed in a 1982 study on rabbits. Shortly afterwards a worldwide study by the World Health Organisation showed that France had the lowest death rate from heart disease in the industrialised western world, despite the French habits of smoking, eating fatty foods and shunning exercise. Only the Japanese, with their low-fat diet of fish and rice, had a lower rate.

The first American journalist to speak of the French Paradox was Edward Dolnick, in a 1990 article for the magazine Health. In this article, French doctor Jacques Richard credited wine with protecting the French from heart disease. A year later, 20 million Americans watched a 60 Minutes broadcast on the same subject.

Findings on wine's health benefits have led to a renewed appetite around the world for this ancient drink. From 1949 to 1998, the number of wine-producing countries has jumped from 40 to 74 and production has risen by 85 percent. Today more people than ever drink wine for health and for pleasure.

Add more vegetables to your diet

Here are some easy ways to incorporate more vegetables into your diet:

Add grated raw vegetables to batters and doughs for quick breads, muffins and cookies.

Choose a wide variety of salad greens, including arugula, chicory, collard, dandelion greens, kale, mustard greens, spinach and watercress.

Look for pasta made with vegetables, such as spinach or beets. Stir-fry vegetables with tofu or just a small portion of poultry, seafood or meat.

Order a vegetarian pizza instead of a meat-based pizza.

Use vegetables as a base for or as added ingredients in soups.

Enrich or thicken soups and sauces with cooked and pureed vegetables in place of cream or whole milk.

Add grated raw carrot to lean ground beef or turkey when making meatloaf or meatballs.

Add chopped vegetables to your spaghetti sauce.

Enjoy vegetables as snacks by keeping them ready to eat in the refrigerator.

Many different kinds of vegetables fill the produce section of your grocery store, so don't limit yourself to familiar favorites. Try some unusual vegetables, such as jicama, kohlrabi, okra or watercress. You may discover new favorites that add both interest and health benefits to your diet.

American Caviar

American caviars are a tasty, versatile alternative to endangered beluga caviar. Did You Know that American caviar now rivals Russia's in quality?

As of January 2006, the United Nations banned export of beluga sturgeon caviar from the Caspian Sea region, because the traditional source of the sought-after roe, reaches the brink of extinction.

With the new ban on Caspian Sea beluga caviar, American chefs are going domestic with our wonderful American caviars.

Caviar, of course, is the eggs of sturgeon which from the earliest times thrived in American waters.

Settlers of America discovered sturgeon to be the most prolific fish of the North American continent. Americans, at first, disdained the sturgeon on which the Indians thrived, and sturgeon was fed only to slaves.

The American caviar industry got started when Henry Schacht, a German immigrant, opened a business catching sturgeon on the Delaware River. He treated his caviar with German salt and exported a great deal of it to Europe. At around the same time, sturgeon was fished from the Columbia River on the west coast.

In the beginning of 19th century, the United States was the major producer of caviar in the world and produced 90% of the world's caviar. By the end of the nineteenth century, the United States was the largest producer of caviar in the world, processing more than 600 tons a year.

In the 1880's, a small town in New Jersey was sending 15 trains loads a day with caviar from the Delaware River sturgeon, headed first to New York and then to all the European capitals.

At one time, caviar was so common in America it was served in saloons to encourage thirsty drinkers. Hudson River sturgeon were so plentiful that the flesh was referred to as "Albany beef." A nickel could get you a serving of the best caviar available in New York, and many of the most lavish establishments, including the Waldorf Astoria, offered free-flowing caviar as an amuse-bouche opening to an elegant meal.

Caviar was also a common food in California during the gold rush days.

Recently, the United States has made a strong comeback in caviar production.

The Pain and Suffering Fois Gras

Foie gras, French for "fatty liver," is made from the grotesquely enlarged livers of male ducks and geese. The birds are kept in tiny wire cages or packed into sheds. Pipes are repeatedly shoved down the birds' throats, and up to 4 pounds of grain and fat are pumped into their stomachs two or three times every day. The pipes puncture many birds' throats, sometimes causing the animals to bleed to death. This cruel procedure causes the birds' livers to become diseased and swell to up to 10 times their normal size. Many birds become too sick to stand up. The birds who survive the force-feeding are killed, and their livers are sold for foie gras. Learn more about investigations of foie gras factory farms.

People around the world have spoken out against the cruelty of foie gras. In 2004, California passed a law banning the sale and production of foie gras effective in 2012, and Chicago banned the sale of this cruel product in 2006. His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI denounced force-feeding as being in violation of Biblical principles, and foie gras production has been outlawed in the U.K., Germany, the Czech Republic, Finland, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, and Israel.