Savor Sarasota at the Ritz

Last night, we enjoyed another $25 Savor Sarasota dinner - this one at the Vernona Restaurant at the Sarasota Ritz-Carlton (http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/Sarasota/Default). We went with our friends M & T.

The Ritz's Savor Sarasota menu is much more limited than those of other restaurants participating in the Savor Sarasota program - only two choices for each course. However the taste was excellent. This time, the service was very good, but on two earlier occasions, T & M had experienced problems with the service, including soup poured in T's lap instead of his bowl!

We started with a nice amuse-bouche of a bite of salmon & candied bacon.

The first course we all chose was a "popcorn bisque" of crab, mango, and mint. This bisque is fantastic! We had it last year as well.

For our second choice, we all chose Muscovy duck breast with Farro, Sunburst Nectarines and Confit Gesier, Champagne Gastrique. We loved this dish as well.

For dessert, three of us chose Key Lime pie and one chose chocolate cake. Both were excellent. The Key Lime pie was among the best I've tasted. The on-line menu lists crème brûlée as a choice, but that has changed.

For our wine, I chose a 2007 Font du Vent "Notre Passione" Côtes du Rhône Villages for $39. It was very pleasant.

The Ritz has an excellent wine list.

The complete Savor Sarasota menu offered by the Ritz is available at: http://www.savorsarasota.com/whats_cooking.php?id=32

C'etait Formidable!

Last Saturday evening, P & L, our friends & neighbors, treated us and three other couples to a superb feast. I always feel fortunate to eat one of P's dinners, since he's such a great cook.

We started with tasty appetizers - thinly-sliced baguette with different two toppings:
1. A homemade bruschetta spread with the following ingredients:

Muir Glen organic diced canned tomatoes & a pesto of:

·      2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed

·      1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese

·      1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

·      ¼ cup cashew nuts & ¼ cup of walnuts

·      3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced

·      Salt & freshly ground black pepper 

2. Tasso Tapenade (a delicious commercial product)

The next course was a very nice cold Vichyssoise (potato-leek) soup, with carrots, celery, vidalia shallots, 50% chicken stock/water; salt and pepper to taste; heavy cream

That was followed by an Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) salad of Arugula, feta, cherry tomatoes (which P added to the recipe), watermelon (1 inch dice),  and mint from his garden

It was dressed with a citrus vinaigrette

The main course was grilled butterflied leg of lamb with an Ina Garten yoghurt-mint sauce. P basted the lamb with a balsamic vinegar glaze just before removing it from the grill. The lamb was cooked to perfection and melted in my mouth. The sauce was fantastic! I love lamb & this was some of the best I've had.

The dessert was a terrific concoction called Espresso Jellies from a Giada de Laurentiis recipe available at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/espresso-and-chocolate-jellies-recipe/index.html

It included chocolate chips, heavy cream, espresso powder, and coffee liqueur. P also added a layer of raspberry coulis.

The wines included:

A Korbel rose brut with the appetizers

Zisola Nero d'Avola

Fetzer chardonnay (brought by another guest)

Ecco Domani pinot grigio (brought by yet another guest)

A Delicious Italian Dinner

On Monday evening, our friends M & T, who are making their annual visit from Germany, prepared a wonderful Italian dinner for us and friends L & P. I am getting very hungry as I relive that meal.

They brought some of the ingredients from Germany. M is a superb cook and both M & T are gourmets, who appreciate good food and wine. We have dined with them in four countries - the U.S., Italy, France, and Spain. We always have a great time with them and with L & P.

Table decorated with napkins in the colors of the Italian flag


The menu for the evening was:

Appetizers:
- Prosciutto di Parma (one of the best Italian hams) wrapped around Grissini (Italian breadsticks)
- Celery filled with spicy, creamed tuna
- Marinated olives
- Marinated pearl onions
- Ciabatta bread and a cream cheese & chive spread

The Appetizers

First Course
Risotto in red wine. The red wine was a 2008 Santa Cristina Sangiovese produced by Antinori in the Chianti Classico area of Tuscany.

Main Course
Tender morsels of chicken breast and scampi with truffles, asparagus, spring leeks, mushrooms, & capers in a saffron-champagne sauce.

The Main Course



Dessert
Strawberries with sugar & orange zest in a sauce of mild mustard, sugar, and balsamic vinegar. This dish was created by a chef at Don Camillo, one of the oldest Italian restaurants in Berlin.

The Dessert



Wines
- Korbel sparkling rosé brut
- Lugana San Benedetto 2010 from Zenato winery in the Veneto. (M & T, another couple of friends, my wife and I did a wonderful tasting at the Zenato winery in 2004.
- Vitiano Cabernet Sauvignon 2008

Vielen Dank!

Harry's Continental Kitchen - A Savor Sarasota Treat

Last night, we joined our friends M & T at Harry's Continental Kitchen for a Savor Sarasota $25 three-course meal. It was terrific. Three of us also did the wine pairing for an additional $10. The wines were ok, but nothing more.

The Savor Sarasota menu contained three appetizers, three main courses, and three desserts. Diners can choose one of each.

Two of us chose one appetizer and two chose another. Both were great!!!They were:
1. Bacon-crusted diver sea scallop, horseradish cabot white cheddar fondue, garlic crostini
2. Grilled soy-ginger marinated skirt steak sate, creamy ginger-cashew slaw and plum wine dipping sauce

Three of us chose one main course, and I chose another. Both were wonderful. They were:
1. Grilled gulf of mexico red grouper, tomato-basil vinaigrette, mediterranean rice with artichoke, black olives and roasted red pepper
2. Bacon-wrapped beef tenderloin, creamy mushroom demi, gorgonzola gnocchi.

Two of us chose one dessert and two of us chose another. Both were very tasty. They were:
1. Death by chocolate - layers of chocolate cookie crust, white chocolate raspberry swirl cheesecake, flourless chocolate cake, topped with chocolate ganache.
2. Triple berry pie with streusel topping and mixed berry sauce

The atmosphere was very nice - warm and relaxing. Service was friendly but a bit lacking. We had to remind them to bring bottled water which we had ordered and bread.

Harry's has a very nice menu, details of which are available on the restaurant's web site. Dinner entrees on Harry's regular menu run $26 to $38.

Harry's is located in the 5600 block of Gulf of Mexico Drive on Longboat Key. http://www.harryskitchen.com/

Savor Sarasota - Two Weeks of Delicious Bargain Dinners

For the past six years, the Sarasota Convention and Visitors Bureau has organized a two-week festival of bargain-priced dinners at a number of nice Sarasota restaurants. This year, 33 restaurants are participating. All of the restaurants serve a dinner, normally of three courses, for $25. Some restaurants also offer a wine pairing for an extra $10.

The portions can be small, more typical of European portions. That is fine for us. We consider many American restaurant portions too large for us.

We have participated for several years and have enjoyed some very nice meals.

The home page of this event is at http://www.savorsarasota.com/

A list of participating restaurants can be found at http://www.savorsarasota.com/whos_cooking.php

Mny of the menus can be found by clicking on the restaurant names at http://www.savorsarasota.com/whats_cooking.php

High on Low Country Cuisine

Last night, I took a stab at preparing a South Carolina - Georgia Low Country dinner for our German friends M & T, and for our neighbor friends P & L. The dishes were all ones that I had never prepared or tried. I was very happy with the results. In fact, I personally loved every dish. While not all of the dishes were strictly Low Country, those that were not were definitely southern. I found all of the recipes on the Internet.

M & T brought a beautiful orchid plant, which delighted my wife, and a bottle of Barolo, which delighted me. L & P brought a very nice champagne. We are blessed to have such wonderful friends. Thanks for the great gifts!

The evening's menu was:
1. Appetizers
- Spiced Pecans
- Shrimp Stuffed Celery
2. Salad
- Vidalia Onion Salad
3. Main Course
- St. Simon's Island Shrimp Bog
4. Side Dish
- Low Country Zucchini & Yellow Squash
5. Bread
- Honey Cornbread Muffins
6. Dessert
- Peach Cobbler
7. Wine
- Bortolotti Prosecco
- Fess Parker Riesling (for T, who prefers whites)
- Castello di Brolio 2003 Chianti Classico
- Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel 2004

The Spiced Pecan recipe was very simple, with only a few ingredients, primarily pecans, sugar, and cinnamon. I prepared it the previous evening. I obtained the recipe at

http://southernfood.about.com/od/nutsnacks/r/bl01101k.htm. I used only two cups of pecans rather than the 5 cups in the recipe because we had so much other food. The pecans disappeared.

The shrimp stuffed with celery included crushed pineapple, scallions, lemon juice, mayo, and tobasco sauce. It was very easy to prepare. I found the recipe at

http://southernfood.about.com/od/appetizersandsnacks/r/bl30409a.htm

The vidalia onion salad was from Savannah, Georgia. It was wonderful and easy to prepare. It included the onions, tomatoes, kernels of fresh corn basil, and a dressing of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and salt. For those who don't know, vidalia onions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidalia_onion)  are an unusually sweet type of onion first grown near Vidalia, Georgia. Cutting the kernels off the corn cobs was a bit of a pain, but worth the effort. I obtained the recipe at http://www.savannahbest.com/cooking/cooking.htm

While I found the dishes easy to prepare, they did take a bit of time due to all of the chopping involved and due to my inexperience.

I was happy with the wines. I did not try the Fess Parker, but T said it was good. For those who are old enough to remember, Fess Parker played Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone on TV in the l960s. We visited his winery in California several years ago.

We've also visited Castello di Brolio and Tablas Creek.

The Shrimp Bog was great. It had a number of ingredients I love, including shrimp, bacon, rice, and tomatoes. The recipe I used was only slightly spicey, but that could be changed by upping the amount of cayenne or adding tobasco sauce. Can't wait for the leftovers tonight. The recipe is available at

http://www.chefrick.com/st-simons-island-shrimp-bog-2/

The Low Country Zucchini and Yellow Squash was nice and also healthy, but not exciting. I could not find an exciting Low Country side dish that was easy enough for me to prepare and that did not include rice, which was already in the main dish. Otherwise, I might have prepared something like Hoppin" John or Low Country Red Rice, both of which sound delicious. The recipe for the zucchini and yellow squash is at

http://www.yummly.com/recipe/Low-Country-Zucchini-And-Yellow-Squash-Recipezaar

The Honey Cornbread Muffins were great and easy to make. The recipe is a 5-star recipe with 181 super reviews. It can be found at

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/down-home-with-the-neelys/honey-cornbread-muffins-recipe/index.html

The peach cobbler was delicious. We served it with vanilla ice cream. I was fortunate to find fresh and tasty Florida peaches at Publix. The recipe is at

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/southern-peach-cobbler-2/Detail.aspx

Lynches Pub & Grub - Sarasota Irish

We had a very pleasant meal last night at Lynches Pub & Grub (http://www.lynchespub.com/) on St. Armands Circle, Sarasota. Since the evening temperatures were perfect, we sat at an outside table.

Linda had a Darren Clarke sandwich - a 7 oz New York strip steak with sauteed onions and cheddar (they spell it "chedder") on a fresh baguette with a side of fries for $17. She enjoyed it.

I had an Irish Stew with lamb, onions, celery, and potatoes with a baguette for dipping in the sauce for $15. It was very tasty. The sauce was soupy rather than thick like American stews. Perhaps that's the way it is supposed to be. Some on-line pictures of Irish stews show similar sauces.

Linda's drink was a disappointing gin & tonic for $6. She could taste no gin.

My drink was very nice. I had a bottle of Magner's Irish pear cider for $5.

The menu has a mix of sandwiches, main dishes, and salads. One section of the menu is entitled, "Real Irish," and has five items:
- Cork Cottage Pie
- Corned Beef & Cabbage
- Irish Stew
- Fish & Chips
- Smoked Irish Salmon.

The menu also has some breakfast items.

They serve a number of Irish, British, and American beers and ciders.

The service was fast, efficient, and friendly. A woman, whom I assume was one of the owners, was paying close attention to every aspect of customer service. A number of the customers appeared to be repeat customers.

There are 8 tables and a bar inside, and 5 tables outside. The restaurant does not do reservations, but does preferred seating if you call ahead.

The Lynches immigrated to the U.S. in 1972. From 1986 to 2003, they ran a restaurant called "Lynches Landing" on Longboat Key. As I recall, one of the reasons they closed the Longboat Key location was because of a dispute with Longboat Key town officials over the restaurant's outdoor sign. I think the town contended the sign was too close to the road. I remember that Lynches cut their sign in half as a less-than-subtle message to the town officials.

The restaurant is located at 19B Blvd of the Presidents North.
Phone 941-388-5550

Lynches is a member of the Sarasota-Manatee Originals association of independent local restaurants (http://www.freshoriginals.com/). We had purchased a half-price gift certificate during one of the association's occasional on-line sales.