Chef Allen Susser Shows Off of his Ripe Mangoes

We already know that mangoes are a tasty tropical fruit packed with fiber but did you know that they can lower your blood sugar?

In a study led by Edralin Lucas, Ph.D., associate professor of nutritional sciences at Oklahoma State University, 20 adults (11 males and 9 females) ingested a daily dietary supplement of 10 grams of freeze dried mango (equivalent to approximately 100 grams of fresh mango) for 12 weeks. Blood sugar levels of all participants significantly declined.

Mangoes are also loaded with over 20 different vitamins and minerals like C which has long been known to enhance wound healing and immune function and A, crucial for vision and healthy skin. In addition, mangoes are rich in folate and polyphenols which help the body make blood cells and limit inflammation.

The best news is their popularity is rapidly spiking which means better quality and more choices! World per capita consumption has increased 32 percent since 2005 and total import volume for 2012 was 804 million pounds. Each year mango festivals throughout the Caribbean celebrate the fruit’s essence. One biggie happens every June at St. Lucia’s Jade Mountain Resort. This year, Chef Allen Susser will be treating guests to a mango cooking class, grove tours, and mango cocktails on the beach with the Grand Pitons towering in the distance.

Photo courtesy of Jade Mountain St. Lucia

Food for the Skin

Imagine this…You are at the Cayman Cookout for no other reason than to explore the many facets of top cuisine using Cayman Island grown ingredients. You’re at a foodie getaway in paradise…is there really any way to top this experience? Well, food isn’t all about your stomach afterall…there’s food for your brain…food for your skin. The Ritz Carlton Grand Cayman’s La Prairie Spa Silver Rain immerses your body’s every extremity in indulgent luxury. Enter the spa on the hotel’s lower level and you’re transported to walls of faceted glass and quartzite. Falling waters underfoot permeate the senses as a rushing river flows beneath a floor of carved, translucent glass. This represents the significance of Switzerland’s world renowned healing waters.

Back to the foodie theme…their 60-minute, full-body Caviar Massage! Just to get it straight, you won’t be having actual fish eggs kneaded into your skin, just a super advanced caviar-infused lotion. La Prarie’s signature caviar beads are a cocktail of advanced peptides, minerals, and vitamins A, B and D resulting from oils and waters extracted from Caspian Sea sturgeon eggs.

Besides delivering an instant lift to the skin through immediate nourishment, the inclusion of caviar in this skin care treatment is also proven to be effective at encouraging your body to create collagen protecting your skin from air pollutants that clog pores. After your session, make Robin Leach’s “Champagne and caviar dreams” a reality by ordering a glass to sip while relaxing on the beach in your day bed.

Photo courtesy of La Prairie Spa

Gasthaus Aescher Wildkirchli

Switzerland’s Appenzell, a half-canton of only 66 square miles, is packed with more charm and cultural richness than normally found in many countries. Cradled and protected by the surrounding Alpstein massif (mountains), this terrain would normally be inaccessible if it weren’t for the region’s intricate trail network linking dozens of welcoming guesthouses and mountain hotels that just happen to serve delectable cuisine.

You don’t merely do lunch high above the lush green meadows. Food is interwoven into the fabric of Swiss culture like hiking, yodeling, skiing. Notice how these active pursuits pair nicely with the more than 400 indigenous cheeses, microbrews like Vollmond (full moon), and a wide variety of cured meats like Mostbrockli (dried beef). Each bite of these morsels is a direct act of savoring the essence of mountain living. Hiking is a great place to start. Terrain widely varies from narrow tractor roads passing through vast emerald meadows to well marked mountain trails steeply switch backing along rocky cliff sides to lofty summits. Each turn upward on narrow gravel paths not only offers “wow-inducing” vistas but also time to mingle with Swiss hikers of all ages.

Cave Coffee

It’s clear that folks here take their pastime seriously including satiating their appetites after this prolonged physical exertion.

One stop I had the opportunity to experience was situated along a panoramic ridge trail leading to Ebenalp and the limestone caves of Wildkirchli which contain evidence of habitation dating to the Paleolithic era. You’ll know the summit is near when as you continue your steady climb tight along a rock ridge, a striking gabled wooden building tucked underneath a rock outcropping comes into view. Upon reaching the grand terrace of Gasthaus Aescher Wildkirchli, a restaurant with hostel-type guestrooms on the second floor, you get the definitive sense that it’s time to take a break. The hearty food served here

Venison and Rosti

is made on site with fresh local ingredients. During hunting season, same-day caught venison, elk, and mountain goat are served in a stew called Hirsh Peffer. Similar to Stroganoff but more flavorful, the perfect side dish to accompany it is Rösti, a type of hash brown rich in butter, crispy on the outside, and soft on the inside.

Don’t even think of asking for a mere glass of water or soda here! Spectacular mountain views in every direction serve as a reminder of just how far you’ve climbed and how much more there is to explore after lunch. Since calorie counting is now a laughable notion, go for the complete experience and order up a Cave Coffee named after nearby Wildkirchli Caves where prehistoric bear skeletons were located over 100 years ago and an underground chapel resides. The Cave Coffee’s main ingredient is Alpenbitter, a schnapps made from over 40 herbs, spices, local roasted coffee, and generous clouds of real whipped cream on the top. Or perhaps wine is more your style. Go with Sauser, a locally made unfermented grape juice. And for a dessert that will even wow the die hard Swiss hikers filling the tables around you, their signature sundae features a few scoops of coffee and vanilla ice cream buried under a towering mountain of house made whipped cream.

photos courtesy of Steve Mirsky

Food Lovers Guide to the World

Another cookbook this is not, a compendium of food history and stories cover the world by region in extreme detail in the Food Lover’s Guide to the World.  From Indonesia’s selamatan, a traditional Javanese feast featuring a parade of dishes from glistening coconut milk curries, pickled vegetables tinted yellow with fresh turmeric, to sticky-rice sweets in every color of the rainbow; Javanese opor ayam, a chicken curry fragrant with cinnamon and coriander; rustic char kuey teow (wok-fried noodles with cockles and shrimp) at night markets in Malaysia; to thick, chewy huaraches (foot-long, handmade tortillas) covered with searing hot arból chilli salsa and a tangle of sautéed cactus at street stalls in Mexico City, this book covers it all. Armchair and active travelers alike will delight in each section’s can’t-miss lineup of unique food festivals annually scheduled across the globe.

Beyond ingredients and dishes, you’ll also learn about the interplay of cultures that ultimately defined these flavor combinations. Like how invading armies from Turkey, Afghanistan and Persia introduced roast meat, fragrant casseroles and sweetmeats alongside the Quran and the onion dome. In the west, Burmese conquerors brought seafood stews and hot and sour soups from Southeast Asia. Traders, warlords and refugees from China and Tibet trekked in dumplings, noodles, and introduced stir-fry from over the Himalayan ridge.

The massive size and depth of Food Lovers’ Guide to the World makes no apologies to those with marginal interest in culinary wonders. The sheer detail and vivid full page photos serve as a reminder of the ways books can still be more enjoyably immersive than browsing blogs or skimming tripadvisor.

Coverage results from reading a review copy

One of Many Ekiben Bento Boxes

A Japanese “pop-up” bar installed right in Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall?  3 sake sommeliers along with a sake samurai serving up 90 kinds of jizake (handcrafted rice wine) prized across Japan painstakingly produced by small batch regional brewers.  Yours sold in flights of five for $25!

This is your glimpse into how this year’s Japan Week (March 19-21) will be shaping up.  In conjunction with celebrating Grand Central Terminal’s centennial and other Japanese cultural highlights like geisha face painting, and kimono shows, here are 2 must-experience “on-the-go” food and drink offerings.

Tachinomiya

“The tachinomiya, or standing bar, a long tradition in Japan, typically features a wide range of sake and shochu, especially in large cities like Tokyo where it is common for business commuters to have a quick drink prior to boarding a train home,” says Yuki Tanaka, Executive Director, Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO). “New Yorkers will have an authentic taste of this phenomenon with a dazzling selection of fine sakes from 9 Japanese prefectures (provinces)”.

Ekiben

Ekiben are bento box meals specifically sold in railway stations throughout Japan. What makes them stand out is their unique fresh regional ingredients at an average price of $10.  Sampling these boxes will effectively serve as a culinary tour of Japan’s diverse regions.

Some train stations are so famous for their ekiben that people go out of their way to visit that station just for the food.  Examples include Toyama prefecture, known for its Masu no Sushi (Salmon trout sushi) first created in 1717. This ekiben offers a layer of vinegar-marinated rice topped with thin layers of salted rainbow trout on the top. Bamboo leaves are laid on the bottom to preserve the color and flavor of these natural ingredients.

60 miles north of Tokyo, the Gunma prefecture is renowned for its 2 two popular ekiben: Toge no Kamameshi and Joshu no Asagayu.  Toge no Kamameshi is a rice bowl prepared in a large earthen pot (keeps ingredients hot) while Joshu no Asagayu, a low calorie rice porridge commonly eaten when you are sick or hung over is usually served in the morning.

Photo courtesy of Japan Week

Cayman Local Bounty Served at The Brasserie

The Caribbean is filled with fresh from-the-tree & garden ingredients along with daily just-caught fish right off shore. Up until just 5 years ago, many Cayman Island restaurants simply had key ingredients shipped in from elsewhere instead. On the surface, this may seem like lunacy. Why not simply harvest what’s in your backyard rather than have it shipped from around the globe? The answer is twofold. First, more obscure island produce couldn’t be farmed and sold profitably. As a result, island chefs didn’t prepare many dishes featuring this local bounty. Several events at Cayman Cookout remarkably showcased how this is changing in the Caymans and how star-power and talent of top chefs is helping to make it possible.

Dean Max Harvest Dinner at The Brasserie

It wasn’t so long ago, 2010 to be exact, that The Brasserie in Grand Cayman’s Georgetown planted their first crop of island fruits and vegetables like sour sop, bread fruit,

Raised Bed Gardens on The Brasserie’s Terrace

callaloo, and akee. Now their extensive onsite organic raised bed gardens provide the bulk of these ingredients for their kitchen’s caboose-style cooking. Dean Max and executive chef Niven Patel’s Harvest Dinner at Cayman Cookout deftly showcased dishes using these staples as well as same-day caught wahoo and snapper from the restaurant’s very own fishing boats, Brasserie Catch I & II. Before gathering around the communal dining table outside under the stars next to the raised bed gardens, Dean Max introduced one of his fisherman who then pulled the catch of the day from the back of a pickup. Max held them up for all to see before stowing in ice filled coolers…and then hosted a chef narrated dinner as each plate was served.

Run Down with Anthony Bourdain

At this Cayman Cookout event, “Run Down” really had a dual meaning. First there’s the rundown…a smorgasbord

Anthony Bourdain Promoting Cayman Cuisine

of local specialties ready for the tasting. And then there was Anthony Bourdain  microphone in hand, on the Ritz-Carlton‘s Great Lawn  sampling and making signature remarks at each and every table featuring Cayman dishes prepared by local chefs ranging from classic rum cake, conch chowder, Cayman-style Jerk to….Run Down, a locally celebrated stew.  This event also offered superb opportunities for tasting Caybrew’s full lineup and rum punches featuring Seven Fathoms Rum.

Restorative Rhum with Bar Chef Adam Seger

Imagine a lineup of Cayman rums like Governor’s Reserve and Tortuga with a few off island favorites like Havana Club and Ron Zacapa. Then get Adam Seger to provide a guided tasting

Adam Seger Leads Restorative Rhum Tasting at Cayman Cookout

of each one while lounging on the lush palm studded terrace of 7 Restaurant poolside at the Ritz-Carlton underneath the sunshine’s warm embrace.  So why exactly would rum be considered restorative? The answer lies in Seger’s fresh made bitters and extracts derived from tropical herbal infusions. Always taking a chef’s approach at the bar, currently Nacional 27, Seger is also the guy who founded and still owns Sour Mash Bourbon Bread Company, which produces gourmet bread, biscuit and pancake mix from spent Bourbon mash.

Photos courtesy of Steve Mirsky. Coverage made possible by participating in a sponsored visit

Which Part of Italy Will You Experience? Sign Post in Boston’s North End

There’s no doubt that each city across the world boasts unique food offerings. But if time is short and you don’t have opportunities for full immersion, taking the right food tour makes the difference between being a clueless tourist or gaining a full understanding of where to go & what to buy.

Take Boston’s North End for instance…a casual stroll down the cobbled streets of America’s oldest Italian community reveals many tempting savories in late 19th century store windows. But only after taking Boston Food Tours run by Michele Topor do you really learn the distinction between longstanding neighborhood food shops and those that may be recent newcomers not necessarily maintaining the same Old World standards.

Each 3 hour Boston Food Tour walk is like gathering for a cooking class. Formerly a nurse and also trained chef, Michele has lived in the North End for 40 years. She primarily focuses on the gli ingredienti veraci (authentic ingredients) key to producing la bellissima cucina italiana (distinctive Italian cuisine) not only in the neighborhood but throughout Italy. Before even walking the streets, Michele gathers groups together for an overview of local immigrant history and a description of Italian regional food ways. Michele clarifies right away that there is no overarching “Italian” cuisine. Italy’s 20 regions each have unique culinary traditions. Many Italians in the North End emigrated from Sicily and this reflects what type of market ingredients are readily available…like the sesame seeds baked into cookies were originally introduced during Middle East incursions long ago into Italy’s southern-most island.

Michele fully imparts her appreciation of the Mediterranean diet….beans, olive oil, and plenty of seasonal produce are now of course highly sought after as an integral part of a healthy lifestyle. But these foods were originally favored simply because they were cheap and readily

Michelle Sharing Her Knowledge on the Tour

available. It was only when newly minted Italian Americans began enjoying a higher standard of living that they began splurging more heavily on meats and cheeses…ingredients we most commonly identify with the ubiquitous pizza and pasta of today. Which leads us to spaghetti and meatballs…they aren’t eaten together. Italians traditionally eat a succession of small courses…primo, secondo, and contorno with salad at the end of the meal…that’s right, the end….to promote digestione (digestion). And those rich sweet desserts like tiramisu? They are eaten in the afternoon allowing for digestion before a later dinner at 8 or 9 p.m..

Some other intriguing Italian foodie factoids I acquired during the tour:

• Cannolis originated in Sicily

• There’s actually mozzarella made in certain regions from water buffalo milk

• A by-product of cheese making, Ricotta (literally translated means re-cooked) reflects the fact that Italians waste nothing

• Biscotti originated from spare living conditions…they can dry out & still be fine to eat.

• Stemming from family recipes, authentic balsamic vinegars come from Modena and must be fermented for 12 years.

• And probably the most joyous tidbit of them all…Prosciutto does not elevate cholesterol!

Here are some shops we visited who also ship anywhere in the U.S. for those needing to pack light for those back-at-home kitchen experiments you’ll no doubt be plotting during the tour.

Maria’s Pastry Shop – This pasticceria has no set recipes…Maria says it all depends on weather. Trays line the display cases with fresh baked daily biscotti, marzipan, pasticiotti, cannoli, and my favorite…Aragosta aka lobster tails (flaky pastry shell filled with vanilla mousse cream). And

Authentic Ingredients Direct from Italy Inside Polcari’s Market

besides eating by the slice, her homemade pannetone makes great French toast!

Polcari’s Coffee–This is the store to buy authentic Italian ingredients for your own kitchen. Join the cue of locals who stop in daily for a wide variety of bulk dried beans, grains like wheat berries, corn meal for polenta, Arborio rice for risotto, and liquorice stalks that can be chewed as a healthy palate cleanser. Canisters behind the counter brim with Camomile flowers for making your own tea and carob pods…seeds from these were once used as a measure of weight and are now prized for their high fiber. Michele showed us the visible difference between 2 types of cinnamon sticks…a thinner hard cinnamon stick known as cassia comes from China, Vietnam and Indonesia while true cinnamon from Sri Lanka used in Italian recipes is thicker, more fragrant, and crumbles more easily.

De Pasquale’s Homemade Pasta Shoppe – I walked away from this tiny but widely stocked shop with some wild boar sausage, artisan pastas, and my favorite…Castelvetrano olives.  Other treats in the offing here include homemade fresh filled ravioli and gnocchi; DOP San Marzano tomatoes, a must for homemade sauce; and cheeses like smoked scamorza & molierno with truffles.

Photos & complimentary attendance courtesy of Boston Food Tours

Sajen Jamu: Even Though It’s a Little Bottle, Somehow It’s Just Enough

Indonesia has long known about Jamu.  Blended as a type of herbal tea and imbibed as a medicinal beverage for centuries, Jamu represents an offering made to the ancient Balinese and Javanese gods. A small company based in the San Francisco Bay Area called Sajen Jamu is the first to bring this beverage to the United States.  Founder Morsinah Katimin originally from Central Java, has a strong passion for sharing her often overlooked heritage.  “The Chinese have their acupuncture and herbal teas, the Indians have their Ayurveda, Indonesians have their Jamu”, she says.

Who better to bring this art of healing to the U.S. than somebody who has Jamu making as their family tradition.  Morsinah’s ancestral grandmothers blended Jamu for their families and communities in small hamlets (Para’an and Gagaran) in the mountainous regions of Central Java near Borobudur, an Ancient Buddhist Temple.

Each family who makes Jamu in Indonesia has their own concoction of root spices, leaves, barks, fruits, stems, flowers, and flower buds that when combined promote health, wellness, and beauty.  Here in the States, Morsinah also uses real ingredients…minimally processed, sustainable, and organic whenever possible.  Her Sajen line is sold in the following 3 varieties:

Jamu – Turmeric

Certified by the American Diabetics Association, this drink is sweetened with organic agave and packed with detoxifying anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatory ingredients.  Tumeric is known to eliminate free radicals in the body while lowering cholesterol and blood sugar levels.  In addition to this super root, this variety also boasts a powerful cocktail of manganese, iron, magnesium, Thiamin, Vitamin B6, Potassium, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin C, Calcium, and Vitamin E2.

Jamu – Ginger Turmeric

A perfect alternative to the caffeine jolt, this is a delicate blend of the two root spices most  commonly found in Asian cooking.  Aromatic, peppery, pungent, and sweetened just right with agave, it’s easy to see why very few kitchens in the Malay Archipelago are without these two roots.

Tisane – Beets Q

A delicate blend of red beets commonly found in Central Asia, Europe, and the Americas, along with fruit juice commonly used in Asian cooking all work in concert to boost your energy and help fight high blood pressure.  Red beets are known for their high levels of anti-carcinogens and carotenoid content.  They are an excellent source of folic acid and Betacyanin, its characteristic red pigment that’s easily absorbed into the blood stream leading to what several studies say eliminates free radicals.

And guess what?  The best part is trying it out for yourself.  You don’t have to bother hunting down a bottle in your local health food store.  Just make your selection in their online store and you’ll be as close to Indonesia as you can get without booking a flight!

Photo courtesy of Sajen Jamu

Russian Standard Vodka

When somebody mentions premium vodka and rum, what most likely springs to mind are brands like Grey Goose and Don Q. And for good reason…these liquors undergo rigorous standards of production such as multiple distillation, quality ingredients, and specialized aging. But these established giants certainly can’t rest on their laurels. Plenty of upstart distilleries constantly nip at the heals at these standard bearers. Thanks to complimentary tastings of Flor de Cana Slow Aged Rum and Russian Standard Vodka, I was able to compare them head-to head with Svedka and Mount Gay, no slouches in the liquor pantheon.

I discovered that it’s all in the after-burn when savoring the distinctions between these top notch liquors. All of them taste fine at the first sip and it’s a given that the swallow is mellow with no wincing or mandatory chasers. But the true measure occurs once it’s down the hatch and what’s left on the palate. Also, after mixing in cocktail recipes as well as straight up juices and sodas, I discovered that top quality liquors are best enjoyed simply…either neat or with a splash of unsweetened fruit juice. This was definitely the case with Flor de Cana and Russian Standard.

Russian Standard is made using glacial water from Lake Ladoga, the largest lake in Europe spanning more than 17,000 square kilometers, and about 219 km in length from north to south. It’s also evident that the lake produces some of the softest water on Earth. The other key ingredient is winter wheat, a fragrant crop of the Russian Black Steppes’ fertile soil. This hardy wheat is planted in the fall, before the first snow falls. During the winter months, blankets of snow protect the grain as it matures slowly, gaining strength and

Flor de Cana

building protein.

Flor de Caña boasts a heritage dating back to 1890 at the San Antonio Sugar Mill, in Chichigalpa, Nicaragua. Today the fifth generation of the Pellas family continues producing this single estate rum using the finest molasses from sugar cane harvested from the next-door farm fields. Production still follows centuries-old guidelines for 5-time distillation, and slow-aging it to an rich-flavored amber in small American white oak barrels. Not only are no additives used but the rum sits in non air-conditioned traditional barrel houses providing a natural, undisturbed environment for the full flavor to unfold.

photos courtesy of Steve Mirsky