Jack Frost Nipping At Your ... Taste Buds?

I think one of the reasons I like to talk and write about food is that it gets people excited. Food is the one thing that we as living beings all need. Even better is when you can get people passionate about the food choices they make. I don't necessarily mean that the food is healthy or local or sustainable, but that you can get into a healthy debate over who makes the best "insert-name-of-product-here". Since I've started writing this blog, nothing has gotten people more excited than their passion over donuts.

Starting with my first entry on Fractured Prune donuts, all the way up through my visit today at Jack Frost donuts located on the corner of Pearl and Fulton Roads in Brooklyn Heights, Ohio, everybody seems to have an opinion about whose are best. I have to say that many of the recommendations have been wonderful and almost all of them have led me to bakeries that are putting out some very unique and tasty donuts that the community can enjoy.

Our little group arrived today around 1:30 pm at the only Jack Frost storefront left in Cleveland:


My friends had already talked up Jack Frost for several months, so my expectations were high. However, nothing prepared me for the onslaught of donut goodness that was about to appear in front of me when I walked in that front door. The choices were staggering:





Generally speaking, the donuts come in two varieties, yeast-based and cake-based. The cake-based donuts had their flavoring components usually baked right into the dough. The yeast-based donuts were usually glazed or topped off with flavorful components. Only just recently have they started offering a raspberry filled yeast donut. One of my friends bought one and claimed that it was just marvelous, fruity without being too sweet. After listening to the woman working behind the counter give us a basic rundown of what was available today, I picked six that sounded good, packed everything back into the car and headed to my friend's house for some photography and a donut tasting.

Here is a shot of the box of Jack Frost donuts I bought today:


"Every Batch From Scratch" definitely instills confidence in me. Once I opened up the box, I was met with some extremely attractive donuts:


From left to right, top to bottom, we have a Caramel Twist, Banana Split, Cinnamon Sugar Apple, Blueberry Cake, Key Lime, and Chocolate Chocolate Nut. I will say that the one thing they all had in common was a very fresh taste. These had clearly been made very recently. Also, none of these donuts were in the least bit greasy. Now that you've met the players involved, let's give each of these bad boys a turn on the hot plate.

First up was the blueberry cake donut with a sugar glaze:


And a shot of the interior:


This had a wonderfully soft and delicate texture to the crumb. Unfortunately, the blueberry flavor was a bit muted and the sweetness from the dough and the applied glaze overtook the fruit flavor, which was a shame. I tried a bit of my friend's sour cream cake donut (similar style, different flavor) and it was very, very good. I think this donut really does have potential, the fruit flavor just needs to be amped up a little bit.

Second on the roster was the Caramel Twist:


And a shot of its interior:


This yeast-based donut was quite visually striking when I saw it in the store. Consisting of a chocolate glaze, a vanilla creme on top and then a caramel drizzle, it really looked like a million dollars. Unfortunately, the caramel flavor got lost in all of that chocolate glaze, which along with the vanilla creme were the predominant flavors. It wasn't a bad donut by any stretch of the imagination, but "Caramel Twist"? Nope, not so much.

The third donut I photographed and tasted was the Banana Split:


This yeast-based donut was a play on the flavors of an ice cream treat, the Banana Split. Underneath the vanilla creme in the top center lies a banana puree with just a bit of actual fruit in there. It was then sprinkled with powdered sugar and topped with a maraschino cherry. Conceptually, I really liked the idea of this donut. In execution, I think there were two small problems. First, like the blueberry donut before, the banana flavor was too subtle. If I had picked this donut up without knowing what it was beforehand, I might not have guessed accurately just by tasting it. Secondly, both myself and another friend who also tasted this donut thought that a chocolate sauce drizzle over the top of the donut might have really tied the flavors closer to the original ice cream treat.

The fourth donut I sampled was the Key Lime:


This yeast-based donut was the surprise hit of the entire box. Topped with a graham cracker topping and then a nice dose of key lime curd, this donut had it all; sweetness, tartness, texture and lightness. If I had to get a dozen of just one donut I tasted today, it would be this one. This one is highly recommended.

Next up was the Cinnamon Sugared donut with Glazed Apple topping:


And a close-up shot of the Glazed Apple topping:


This cake-based donut tried to mix the much loved cinnamon sugar donut with a complementary apple topping. The apple topping was actually quite good and had lovely chunks of apple that still had texture. The only real problem I had with this donut is that the cinnamon flavor was just not strong enough to stand up to the sweetness. Apples and cinnamon obviously have a definite affinity for each other, so on the conceptual level, this was a fantastic idea. The issue here is with the balance of the two primary flavors.

Finally, the Chocolate Chocolate Nut donut:


If I had to pick a runner-up in today's donut tasting, it would be this one. The Chocolate Chocolate Nut donut is a yeast-based donut that is then dipped in a chocolate glaze, coated with chopped peanuts, and finally finished off with a bit of chocolate creme. The contrasting flavors of chocolate and peanut may be simple, but they were extremely well balanced and played off each other quite well. The fact that you had both crunchy and creamy in the same bite was also a big plus for this one.

While none of these donuts register as my favorite all-time donut, all of them were tasty and two were simply outstanding. With the sheer variety of donuts available at Jack Frost, there is sure to be at least one flavor for every palate. I highly recommend that you stop by Jack Frost Donuts and put together a tasting for yourself to see what you like best. Heck, at only $4.70 for six different flavors, it's a fun way to spend an afternoon with friends or family.

When The Moon Hits Your Eye

On a rather dreary Saturday day recently, some of my foodie friends and I decided to try out a relatively new pizzeria related to the Cerino clan (think Carrie Cerino's in North Royalton), Eddie's Pizzeria Cerino. It had opened either late last year or earlier this year and the write-up I had read about it was very promising. They are located at 7305 Broadview Road, Seven Hills, Ohio and can be reached at (216) 236-6007. It took me the better part of an hour to get there from Akron due to the very inclement weather I drove through. But, as I pulled into the parking lot and waited for my friends to arrive, at least the heavy rains had stopped. However, not wanting to get myself or my camera wet, I took a snapshot of the front of the building while sitting inside my car:


Once inside, it felt warm and cheerful. The space was fairly large and it really felt open. While the kitchen isn't truly "open", you can see some of the activity from where we sat:


The menu was straightforward and to the point: This was going to be an Italian experience all the way. Pizzeria Cerino has all the usual suspects, appetizers, sandwiches, salads, pastas, and of course, the most important thing of all, pizzas! Here were a couple shots of the menu:




The back of the menu actually has a bit of history of Carrie Cerino, the matriarch of the Cerino food empire. It also talked a bit about Eddie's background and the philosophy of what they are trying to accomplish at the restaurant:


While we were decidedly there for the pizza, the four of us opted to split one of the appetizers, the pan-roasted clams:


The spicy tomato broth was spiked with Romano cheese, garlic, and just a bit of capricious heat. Here was my portion:


The clams were lovely and tender and the broth was just amazing. The toast points were made from the housemade focaccia bread, but as a accompaniment to the clams and broth, it just didn't make a whole lot of sense. Don't get me wrong, the toasts were freshly made and delicious. Unfortunately, bread this dry doesn't exactly soak up the tomato broth after you've finished the clams. Trust me, this was a delicious broth and when we realized how ineffective the toast was, we asked for a basket of the real deal, their fresh focaccia:


Just on it's own, this was fantastic bread. Finished with just a bit of cracked pepper, it had a lovely bite and the smell gave away the fact that this bread was made with maximum flavor in mind. There was definitely some cold aging of the finished dough and possibly even some pre-ferments used when they created this. Once I got past my predilection toward obsessing over the bread, it worked wonderfully well to help polish off the rest of the tomato broth from the clams.

While there are a number of toppings available to create whatever kind of pie you can imagine, we decided to go with two of the suggested pies listed on the menu. Since Pizzeria Cerino offers both a thin crust and a thick one, we decided to get one of each. First, we ordered a medium Pancetta and Pomodoro pizza on the regular crust:


And we also ordered an Italian Blue Smoke pizza on the thin crust:


And of course, a shot of each on my lunch plate:


Let's talk about the Italian Blue Smoke (left piece) first. I'm not a huge thin crust pizza kind of guy. I suppose part of the problem was that when I was in college, the only thin crust pizza I was exposed to was a particularly egregious version that my roommates always brought back from Mama Santa's in Little Italy. That being said, I have learned to love versions of this crust at places like Bar Cento and Lolita. Pizzeria Cerino wasn't quite up to par with those versions, but they did an excellent job nonetheless. The crust was crispy and at the same time just slightly chewy on the inside. The flavor of the crust was also excellent. This was mostly likely due to the fact that all the dough for the pizzas are cold-fermented for three days before being used. The toppings were nice, cooked chicken, pancetta, onions, and two different kinds of cheese. However, the predominant flavor of this pizza was the balsamic infused BBQ sauce. I liked this sauce, but there was just too much of it on the pizza. The other flavors were smothered by it. I would've preferred if the sauce had been drizzled almost like a garnish instead of it serving as the "sauce" portion.

The Pancetta and Pomodoro pizza was also lovely. This came out on the thicker crust, which I liked considerably better. The two crusts were actually made from the same basic recipe, so I have to assume that my preference was definitely due to the texture and not the flavor. This pizza was topped with Asiago cheese as well, so it had that nice lovely sharpness that the cheese combo on the other pizza lacked. Between the "bacon" flavor that the cooked pancetta brought and the sweetness from the tomatoes and the saltiness from the cheese, the flavors on this pizza were very well balanced. I would definitely order this pizza again.

In the end, with tax and tip, the bill only came to $15 per person. Plus we had enough pizza left over to send two people home with a couple extra slices. After looking over the menu, I don't know that the menu is exactly child-friendly, although the service staff seem fine with it. There just wasn't a special section specifically targeted at food for children. Although to be fair, since you could build your own pizza with whatever toppings you wanted, who's to say you couldn't just order a simple cheese or pepperoni pizza and keep the masses happy and fed.

I recommend that you give Eddie's Pizzeria Cerino a try for their vast array of Italian treats. We ended up having a lovely meal after such a rotten beginning due to the inclement weather. By the time our check was paid and we walked out the door, the sun had broken through the clouds. Truly a great way to end a great meal.

Meat Market by Day, "Meat Market" by Night

One of the many benefits that writing on a food blog is that I not only get to try a lot of different restaurants, but also that every now and again, I come across a diamond in the rough. When fellow food blogger Kathy and her husband joined up with me to attend the 2009 National Hamburger Festival back in July, we quickly discovered that there were only two vendors who had horrendously long lines. The first was Crave. The lengthy line was understandable as Crave had won several festival awards this year. The second was the Windsor Pub. Unlike Crave, the Windsor Pub had won no awards. Only wanting to stand in one of those two lines, we chose Crave. However, we all agreed that at some point in the future, we would descend upon the Windsor Pub in order to figure out just what the heck was going on.

When I mentioned to my local Akron friends that I would be trying out the burger at the Windsor, most of them reacted with almost abject horror. No one knew if the reputation still held true, but apparently the Windsor was much more known for their late night singles crowd than for their burgers. I indicated that while it may still be true, since the three of us would be checking it out around 5:30 PM, I seriously doubted it would be that bad. Apparently, I was right.

The Windsor Pub is located on the southwest corner at the intersection of East Tallmadge Avenue and Brittain Road. More specifically, they are at 1322 East Tallmadge Avenue, Akron, OH 44310 and can be reached at 330-633-5211. I searched on the Internet for a website, but was unable to locate one. From East Tallmadge Avenue, it was pretty easy to spot where the pub was located. Here was the sign out front:


Hmmm, "Best Burgers on this EARTH." We'll see about that. After pulling in and meeting up with Kathy and her husband, we started walked toward the front door:


The bar is actually fairly large, with a room off to the right containing additional tables and the bar area with a number of booths and tables. I would have to imagine that if it were filled to capacity, you could fit several hundred people. However, at 5:30 in the evening, there were just the locals, maybe twenty-five or so. We found the best lit table we could and sat down to start examining the menu. I will warn you, gentle reader, that the florescent lighting in the Windsor was pretty bad, so every photo I took had an unhealthy amount of yellowish tint to it. I've done my best to clean it up, but in the process, it washed out some of the other colors, too.

Here are a couple of shots of the menu:





The menu was a lot larger than I had first anticipated. Even though I knew I was there for the burger, there was plenty on the menu that would draw me back if I decided to return for another meal. The burgers come in two sizes, 12 ounce and 5 ounce. Each burger also comes with fresh cut fries or for an additional $1.90, you can get your pick of onion rings, Windsor chips, curly fries, chili cheese fries, or spicy potato wedges. Knowing how bad my luck with "fresh cut fries" has been in the past, I knew that I would be opting to upgrade to one of the premium choices.

Before ordering our dinner, we decided to start everything out with a drink. I asked for what was on tap and our server ran through about six or seven choices, most of which had the word "lite" attached to it. Not wanting to concede defeat, I asked if they Guinness in the bottle. Sadly, the closest thing to a dark beer they had was Heineken Dark. It wasn't my favorite, but I decided to roll with the punches:


As you can see from the menu shots above, you can get one of the pre-configured burgers or just build your own. Kathy and her husband decided to order the Windsor burger and the Big Mama burger. I decided to go with something dirt simple and ordered the Plain Truth, a burger with cheese, lettuce and tomato. Kathy went with the 1/3 pound burger and her husband and I decided to go for broke and get the 3/4 pound burger. I also ordered the onion rings instead of the fresh cut fries.

One thing you should know about the Windsor's burgers is that you cannot specify what temperature to which you want them cooked. When I asked for my burger medium, the server kind of gave me that, "Ummm ...". She indicated that all of the burgers are cooked between medium well and well done. Fearing that I would receive a 3/4 pound hunk of carbon, I asked if mine could be closer to medium well than well done. I wasn't entirely confident she cared enough to pass the message along to the cook.

After placing our order, we settled in to enjoy the conversation and our beverages. Amazingly, within five minutes of placing our orders, the server arrived back at our table with the food. Cooking a 1/3 pound burger to medium well is conceivable to me in five minutes, but a 3/4 pound burger? I guess I'd find out soon enough whether I'd be sending it back to the kitchen or not.

Here is a shot of my burger and onion rings:


There was a very good reason for the steak knife plunged into the center of my burger. You definitely need to cut this very large burger in half in order to eat it. Here is a side shot of the burger:


As I said before, the burger was enormous. However, the burger was also delicious. Any qualms about beef jerky were quickly dismissed as I noticed that the interior of the burger was actually cooked just slightly under medium well. This meant the burger was also pretty juicy, too. Both Kathy and her husband also liked their burgers as well. The Big Mama burger comes with BBQ sauce as a topping and I got to sample a bit of the sauce on a curly fry. I actually liked the sauce; it was a nice balance between sweet, sour, and smoke. While I didn't try a full bite of the Big Mama, the BBQ sauce has inspired me to put that on the list of things to try the next time I come back.

The onion rings were clearly homemade and had been batter-dipped before being fried. The onion inside the ring was nice and meaty, although I think it could've been fried just a little bit longer as they had just a bit too much crispness to them. The exterior batter was only slightly greasy, and while tasty, was just a bit too thick for my taste. The best onion rings I've ever had were when the onions had an almost tempura-like coating on them. Don't get me wrong, I would definitely take the Windsor Pub's version of onion rings over almost anything from the back of a Sysco food truck.

In a nice turn of events, Kathy ordered the fresh cut fries and let me try one. While they were definitely the size of most fresh cut fries, they weren't at all limp or greasy. In fact, they were quite good. So good, in fact, that the next time I go for a burger, I might just decide to skip the $1.90 upgrade and go with the fries that come with the burger.

While I don't know how "family friendly" the Windsor Pub was, there really were a ton of choices to pick from on the menu, so there should be something for everyone. The establishment does have more of a "Bar and Grill" feeling to it rather than a "Grill and Bar." However, the food we were served really did live up to the long line we encountered over a month ago when we attended the Hamburger Festival. The food was tasty and very reasonably priced. While I think that Louie's does do a marginally better hamburger, the fresh cut fries at the Windsor Pub definitely blows Louie's right out of the water. I recommend that you check them out when you have a chance.

[Ed. Note: Kathy's blog entry about the Windsor Pub appears here.]

The Best Canned Corn You Will Ever Eat

As a a resident of the state of Ohio, this is a time of year to which I always look forward. From the middle of August until the middle of September, many crops are local and in-season, but only one causes Pavlov-induced salivation just by the mere mention of it, Ohio sweet corn. There are many ways to prepare it and if done correctly, most of them produce a delicious ear of corn. However, I have been fortunate for the last decade and a half to have the pleasure of eating corn that is prepared in such a way that it magnifies the very essence of the corn itself.

Very good friends of mine (I'd really rather consider them to be extended family) have owned a little lakeside cottage at Berlin Lake in Deerfield, Ohio, for the last fifteen years. One of the owners of the cottage is a good friend, Lynn. What started as a tradition with his father many years before, his son Lynn decided to continue on with once the family had adopted their new vacation home. I have happily spent many summer weekends out at "The Lake" and have learned to love the allure of the relaxed atmosphere, spending time with good food and friends, and the almost always gentle zephyr that skips off the water and up the small incline between the dock and the deck overlooking the water.

When the evening comes and the boats and jet skis return to their ports of call, the lake takes on a calm stillness that is only enhanced when a full moon begins to rise in the distance, casting it's milky shadow on the undulating water:


By adding twelve hours or so to the above photo, you get this one instead:


What makes Lynn's corn so special can really be summed up in two concepts. First, he only does this when corn is in season and can be found locally. His corn of choice actually comes from a farm just down the street from The Lake at Stahl's Farm Market. While this is the main market right off of I-76 and Rt. 14, there is another smaller stand closer to the actual farm. Second, the cooking method Lynn uses ensures that the corn is cooked to absolute perfection. He actually pressure steams the corn right in the husks.

Apparently this method of cooking has become popular enough that one company, CanCooker, has produced a version that is pretty darn expensive. While I cannot comment on how well it does or does not work since I've never had the pleasure of using their product, at $110 a pop plus shipping, I'm not sure I want to find out. Instead, Lynn opts for a simpler five gallon metal open top bucket with a lid he can seal on top; something similar to the one found here. The metal buckets serve only one purpose, to cook the corn, so there is never any worries about food safety.

The first thing Lynn did was to build a raging fire in the pit behind the cottage:


He then placed eighteen ears of corn in each bucket, with the silk end facing skywards:


Using a garden hose, he first filled each bucket up to wet the corn and then emptied both buckets so that they each were only about 1/3 full (leaving the corn in the buckets while emptying):


Next, he placed the metal lid on top of each bucket and used a pair of pliers to crimp the lid on. Note that prior to using the lid for the first time, Lynn punctured a single hole in the lid using a screwdriver and hammer. He did this to allow the steam a place to vent:


After sealing both buckets up nice and tight, he placed two steel rails over the fire pit:


He then threw in a few more pieces of wood to make sure the fire was going to be even for both buckets:


Finally, the buckets are placed on the rails:


It took about thirty minutes before you could start to see the steam rising out of the holes in the lids, but once it got going, you could smell the sweet corn fragrance if you were anywhere near the fire. Once the buckets went on the fire, it took exactly ninety minutes until the corn was done. Wait, wait! I can hear your inner monologue right now, gentle reader. I really did say ninety minutes. That seems like an excruciatingly long time to cook an ear of corn, but I have eaten so many wonderful ears of corn done this way that I no longer question the methodology. It just works.

Towards the end of the cooking time, both buckets were steaming like mad. By filling the buckets 1/3 full of water initially, combined with the long cooking time, there was just enough water left at the end so that the buckets didn't run out before the corn was fully cooked.


Once the corn was fully cooked, Lynn used a flathead screwdriver to pry open the lid:


Using a carefully gloved hand (no need to get a steam burn at this point), he pulled out all of the ears and laid them on one of the stones of the fire pit for an eager and hungry group of family and friends:


Before you can eat the corn, obviously they needed to be husked. To peel, you hold your ear of corn with the silk end facing downwards. Each successive layer of husk is then peeled upwards:


When you have finally peeled back all the layers of the husk, Lynn simply removed all of the silk threads and threw them back into the fire. What you are left with was the perfectly cooked ear of sweet corn:


Not only did the husk protect the corn during the steaming process, but now it served as a handle with which to grab onto while you ate it. There were several condiments available for those who wished to partake. First, there was melted butter:


Additionally, salt, pepper, and Tapatio hot sauce was also available:


Today I had the pleasure of eating three ears of corn. The first one I ate simply as it came. It is hard to describe the experience of biting into something that is so crispy and juicy at the same time. By the end of our corn feast, my shirt was covered with splattered corn juices. The flavor was the very essence of corn. At the same time, it was a shining example of sweet corn. By the time I finished my third ear, my fingers and mouth were sticky from all of the sugar. With my second ear, I decided to try a more traditional approach and go for a coating of butter and salt. I've learned over the years that if you want to apply salt to your ear, you must first coat it with something that allows the salt to stick. Butter did the trick nicely for me. My final ear was coated with just a few drops of the hot sauce. All three were excellent, but I think that I have become a purist over the years and really prefer mine simply as it comes.

Once people got into their corn-eating groove, each found a spot to stake out and munch away. Here were three generations of corn eaters, Auntie, Niece, and Daughter:


Once all of the guests went through all of the corn, we piled them up next to the fire pit:


Lest you, gentle reader, think we were about to add these to a public landfill and waste valuable space, the field across the street from the lakeside cottage offered a far more "green" solution to the problem:


I had to wonder if the cows could smell the corn cooking away because they both seemed to know exactly when to approach the fence. There was something oddly satisfying knowing that there was absolutely no waste in this process. Local corn, bought at the peak of the season, cooked simply, leftover cobs fed to local cows pasturing on the field across the street, in the end to be returned back to earth in the form of fertilizer. The earth fed us and we returned the favor. This is how we should always eat.

While I always look forward to spending time out at The Lake, this particular time of year is really my favorite. If you can manage to scrape together the meager equipment required to pressure steam your own ears of local Ohio sweet corn, I highly recommend you give this technique a try. You won't be sorry that you did.