Ask any sommelier and they’ll probably tell you that the most food-friendly wine to drink is Riesling. I know what you’re thinking: “Riesling? Isn’t that a sweet wine?” Well, Riesling can be sweet. There are a range of Riesling wines running the gamut from teeth-aching sweet to pucker-the-mouth bone dry. The best food-friendly Riesling wines are of the dry, acidic … [Read more...]
Scheff’s Table – Simple Meat Sauce for Pasta
Many authentic Bolognese-style Italian meat sauce recipes for pasta are cumbersome and time-consuming. The sauce often has to cook for the better part of a day, or even longer. Well, here is a nifty meat sauce for pasta that can be made in under a half-hour - a great recipe for a quick weeknight dinner. Ingredients: 1 Tbs olive oil ¾ lb. lean ground beef, preferably … [Read more...]
Sip O’ the Week – Conquilla Brut Cava
If you’re a frequent reader of this column, you know that I love bubbly. But as much as I adore Champagne, the French sparkling wine isn’t typically within my budget. So, I often turn to Spanish cava to get my sparkling wine fix. Cava is a Spanish sparkling wine from Catalonia, which can be white or rosé. Only sparkling wines made in the French-style … [Read more...]
Bringing Home Bites of The Big Apple
Normally in this space, I write about local restaurants. It is, after all, called Utah Bites. However, this week I’m going to deviate from the norm and bring you some tasty snapshots of New York City, where I spent last week. I think it’s informative to look beyond our culinary borders from time to time and see what’s happening elsewhere, foodwise. And, I’ll see … [Read more...]
Currying Flavor—Not KFC but CFC: Curry Fried Chicken
A couple of weeks ago my son Hank was in town visiting and when I picked him up at the airport on Saturday night, I’d planned to take him to a popular Mexican restaurant near there. “Can we go to Curry in a Hurry instead?” he proposed. Sure! I’m always up for a visit to Curry in a Hurry. I mention this because last week Curry in a Hurry celebrated its 20th … [Read more...]
Sip O’ the Week—MidiCi Lemonade
Normally, I write about alcoholic beverages in my SIP column. But this week we’re going alcohol-free. And you know that if I’m writing about booze-free libations, they’d better be good. Well, I’d call the house-made lemonades at MidiCi Neapolitan Pizza Company not just good, but great. I’ve written about MidiCi here in Utah Bites in the past. It’s one of my … [Read more...]
Scheff’s Table – Bistro-worthy French Fries
In France, any bistro worthy of the name serves excellent French fries or frites, as they’re known in that country. Restaurants there wouldn’t dream of serving customers previously frozen fries from a bag as so many do here. It makes me a little crazy that so few eateries here make their fries from scratch because it’s so easy to do. The key to making … [Read more...]
Something Fishy—Top-notch Sushi & Izakaya at Layton’s Osaka
Long before the hoards of all-you-can-eat sushi spots invaded Utah, there was Osaka Sushi and Izakaya restaurant in Layton, which has been serving high-quality sushi (not all-you-can-eat) since 2003. During the past 15 years, Osaka has built a very loyal following, and justifiably so. For starters, although the types of fresh fish and seafood offered at Osaka … [Read more...]
Sip O’ the Week—BTG Wine Flights
At BTG Wine Bar wine lovers can enjoy a wide range of different wines available in 2-ounce tastes, 5-ounce pours, or by-the-bottle. But maybe the best way to sample an array of wines at BTG is by ordering one of their wine flights. The wine flights are composed of three glasses of 2-ounce tastes (6-ounces total), and BTG offers over a dozen different wine … [Read more...]
Scheff’s Table – Spicy Thai Noodles
Recently, I was looking online for a recipe to utilize some Thai rice noodles that I had in my cupboard. I came across a food blog called The Chunky Chef, which had an interesting recipe for 20-minute Thai noodles in a from-scratch spicy chili sauce. I made a few small tweaks to the Chunky Chef recipe and here are the results. The recipe is for the noodles only. … [Read more...]