Monthly Archives: October 2010

Brewzilla

October 29, 2010 | by Ben 2

As loyal readers know, we were given a couple free tickets to Brewzilla. Sarah had no interest in going, so I went with my friend Chuck.

Chuck’s first comment was that the Galleria was really active for this time of night. There were large crowds of people there already even though we arrived at 7pm, the start of general admission. We were given a set of 25 tear off tickets, a 5 oz. beer glass and a huge soft pretzel, apparently for the purpose of absorbing some of the alcohol.

The number of participating breweries–eighty–was incredible. Each of these was serving between 2–5 different beers, so there were literally a few hundred available samples. I tried to stick to beers I hadn’t previously tried, and most of them were really good. There was also excellent local representation: 13 breweries from Northeast Ohio. The Brew Kettle’s Quick Kriek was an excellent, slightly dry cherry beer, and Fat Head’s Phantom … continue reading

Michael Symon Interview

October 15, 2010 | by Ben 6

Food Network was kind enough to grant us a phone interview with Chef Michael Symon to help promote Cook Like an Iron Chef (on the Cooking Channel) and his new show Food Feuds. They admitted that they’re keeping him really busy!

(image from Food Feuds, courtesy of the Food Network)

I was the fourth person to interview him, after Katrina from Bite Buff, Nancy from Fun Playing With Food and someone from About.com. Audio from the entire call can be found here.

Heights Eats: Hi, Michael, and thank you for taking the time out to do this interview.

Michael Symon: No problem.

HE: This is a two parter. You’ve got a lot of restaurants in the Cleveland area and Roast in Detroit. How far do you plan to expand your restaurants in the area or beyond?

MS: Our immediate thought process is to really stay in the Midwest. That’s where we’re comfortable, … continue reading

Still Cooking

October 5, 2010 | by Ben 2

We’ve been lazy about blogging on home cooked meals lately, partially because we can never fit pulling out a camera amidst getting dinner on the table. I did get one decent photo lately, though, so I’m using it as an excuse to blog on some of our more memorable meals this summer.

Above is a pork bun based on David Chang’s recipe in Momofuku. It was made during one of summer’s hotter days, so I used the grill rather than the oven. It’s just cured and slow cooked pork belly with steamed buns, quick pickled cucumber, scallions and hoisin sauce. Our only criticism of this dish was that it was quite rich but too easy to take down. In a restaurant we’d be served a couple of these and leave wanting more. With all that yummy pork available, though, we ate so much we didn’t want breakfast the next day. Jonathan loved the buns (they were sweet and made with pork … continue reading

Beer Week Giveaway

October 1, 2010 | by Ben 20

People often discuss pairing wine and food, but beer’s compatibility with food is sometimes overlooked (although this seems to be changing). As Spicehound has pointed out, there’s a diversity and complexity of flavors found in beer that makes it wonderful with a variety of dishes. I’ve recently taken to enjoying Belgian-style beers with restaurant meals. While the food at Fire would be great with tap water, the Ommegang Three Philosophers (Quadrupel Ale with a hint of cherry lambic) I had lately there took everything up a few notches. The carmelization of the malts in some beers (i.e. Maillard reactions) often work well with seared meats. Alton Brown recently pointed out that both porters and porterhouse steaks originated at restaurants that served British porters, and that, not surprisingly, a porter is great with a porterhouse steak.

Sometimes a beer even only seems to fully reveal itself in the presence of food. I don’t generally like Dogfish Head’s Theobroma (a chocolate-cayenne-honey beer) but it … continue reading