Koral Hamburg, A Couple Long Walks, and a Silver Chafing Dish
Posted on 27 March 2008 under Antiques, Cookbooks, Hiking, Restaurant Chit-Chat | 8 Comments
Click the above image for a larger version.
Note: Part of this blog entry is written with my friend Mike Ingels of the blog The Erie Hiker in mind. I know Mike and his wife are always looking for interesting areas to hike and spend time. Here are a couple nice places to head to.
One of the things Mary and I really enjoy doing is going on day-trips. Just get in the car and drive somewhere nearby, having absolutely no plans whatsoever, just a “target area”. While I’ve been to Grand Rapids, Michigan quite a few times, I’d only heard of the little burgs of Grand Rapids and Waterville, both in Ohio. Of course I hear of these cities mostly because of school closings and traffic reports on 13abc. Also, both Waterville and Grand Rapids have taken quite a beating recently because of what’s become annual flooding. Both cities have sounded to be rather interesting and I’ve said so to Mary on a couple occasions. So yesterday morning we headed through Toledo and then southwest along 24 for quite a scenic drive. We hadn’t had breakfast yet, so we decided to wait until we got into Waterville before finding a place to grab a bite.
Mary hadn’t remembered there being a Koral Hamburg location in Waterville until we actually saw it yesterday morning. Established in 1926 and growing to multiple locations over the decades, the Waterville location is now once again the only location left. With its inviting exterior and bright-and-friendly dining room we were frankly surprised there weren’t more patrons than there were yesterday.
As it was 10:55 a.m. and breakfast hours were until 11:00 we were able to order a breakfast for myself and a lunch for her. Mary ordered the restaurant’s signature Cheeseburger, seen at the top of this post and something she apparently was looking forward to since we got there. When the sandwich arrived I thought it looked rather ordinary. However, on tasting it I have to say it’s one of the better burgers I’ve ever had! What’s unique about it isn’t only the flavor of the meat itself, but also how the flavors of the condiments and the bun have apparently been selected to blend into what’s a very flavorful sandwich. Meanwhile, I ordered a Farmer’s Omelet which, while quite enjoyable, very satisfying and not at all disappointing, was the same breakfast dish I’ve had in countless other restaurants.
Leaving Waterville we headed along 24 again toward Grand Rapids, stopping at the visitor center at Fort Deposit.
Toward the top of the enlarged image (to the left) of the map on the sign (click on the image for a larger version) you can see “You are here”, which has been painted over. This park is the beginning of a trail, seven or eight miles long, which follows the river all the way to Grand Rapids, Ohio. The map itself dscribes a lot of activity which ocurred from this area into Fort Wayne, Indiana, and then further south to the Ohio River at Cincinnati. Besides the lengthy trails along the river and some amazing views with accompanying historical markers, the park also offers picnic areas with the ubiquitous cast iron grills on posts and public rest rooms that aren’t outhouses. (They’re in the back of the beautiful visitor’s center shown below.) This summer we’ll probably head back down to this area and walk the trail. Unfortunately, yesterday’s brisk wind along the river was far too cold for such a lengthy walk.
Click on the above image for a larger version.
We walked around the Fort Deposit site for a while and shot some photos, and then headed on down to Grand Rapids, Ohio. The first thing that got my attention was this building which houses a bed & breakfast called, simply, The Mill House.
Built in 1889 as an operating mill house, the bed & breakfast now hosts guests in four bedrooms. This is just the kind of bed & breakfast we like to look for, so we took a brochure from the box on the front door. We’ll likely be staying here at some point this summer.
It wasn’t too long ago the Couzin’s Restaurant and the rest of Grand Rapids, Ohio was flooded under 5-or-more feet of water from the nearby river. The restaurant had been completely remodeled in 2003, and is now finished undergoing other renovations due to the recent floods. Yesterday after browsing through the town’s countless antique, craft and specialty shops, we found Couzin’s Restaurant to not only be open, but with a warm atmosphere and a fire in the dining room’s fireplace. Mary and I each had a slice of their wonderful homemade pies with some coffee. The pies are large, probably 10″ diameter, and each slicece is one-sixth of a pie, at a current price of $2.50. Mary’s slice of Banana Cream Pie was so rich and creamy she deemed it to be better than that of one of my closest relatives, which is really saying something. My own slice of Dutch Apple Pie with Crumb Topping had a beautiful apple flavor and was just moist enough to complement the toasted topping itself. This is definitely a destination restaurant for special occasions.
Because of the age of the city of Grand Rapids there are a number of curiosities that you need to seek out or you won’t notice them at all. While the steel brochure box in the image to the left is empty, the fact that the tree has literally grown around it makes it interesting on its own. Beyond this box you can see a mural in the rear dining area of one of the town’s many restaurants. (Click on the image for a larger version.)
What we found interesting were the many shops I’d mentioned earlier in this post. Two of the items we found are in the image below. The cookbook, “The Margaret Rudkin Pepperidge Farm Cookbook”, contains Rudkin’s autobiography, including how she and her husband first founded the baked-goods company in their barn in 1937. Some of her personal bread and cake recipes are included in the book’s 500+ recipes, including pages of discussions and “rules-of-thumb” regarding making the best baked goods. I felt this was quite a find at $5.
That was, until I found the chafing dish.
This silver-plated chafing dish from F.B. Rogers Silver Co. (see the image below) includes an outer container for water, with the dish itself having the handle attached. The cast base is designed to hold one Sterno can for heating the water. Mary and I really like this chafer, and feel it was worth the whole eight bucks we paid for it. This weekend I’ll get on it with some decent silver polish, and once it’s cleaned up I’ll post a better photo.
Apparently both Waterville and Grand Rapids have various festivals in the summer, with Waterville having a farmer’s market and Grand Rapids having their Apple Butter Fest and other events. As both of these places are less than an hour’s drive for us, we’ll likely be back many times in the years to come.
Dutch Cooking & The Longevity of Foreign Exchange Student Relationships
Posted on 5 November 2007 under Cookbooks, Food Destinations | 3 Comments
I really had fun putting this meal together for these ladies Saturday evening! This get-together and dinner was my idea, not theirs, as I know for a fact these three gals don’t get together enough as it is. The pork ribs were rubbed down with some Pork & Poultry Seasoning from the Alden Mill House, put into a 300 degree F oven at about 12:30 p.m., flipped over once at about 2:30 p.m., but otherwise were left to sizzle in their own juices. At 4 p.m. the ribs went to the grill, set on the lowest-possible heat, for an hour’s basting in Sweet Baby Ray’s original BBQ sauce. A 4 lb. tub of Stouffer’s macaroni & cheese hit the oven for that same hour, and the cole slaw was dressed just before serving. All of this was served with the wonderfully-fun Clive White Truck, a 2005 California white wine, in a bottle with a Chevy Cameo on the label.
So, what does this have to do with Foreign Exchange Student relationships? Here’s the thing …
The gal on the right is Monique Schoonen, who hails from Amsterdam. Back in late 1979 she was a foreign exchange student here in Monroe County. But the family she was staying with wasn’t treating her well. Basically, they were acting as though she wasn’t there, not including her in meals, not taking her anywhere … she went to school, and that was all. Of course, that’s no way to treat any student, especially foreign exchange students who are lost in an unknown environment anyway. My wife Mary, in the middle of the above photo, at the time not yet even knowing Monique as a friend, caught wind of what was going on and had an idea. Patricia Gardner, in the left of this photo (and a school bus driver at the time), and her husband Charles own a fairly large house where they were raising five kids of their own. Mary asked the couple if they could help, knowing what kind of love their house contained. Even though they were in the midst of a remodel of their century-old home, they took Monique in.
That changed everything in all their lives. Monique became much happier, she and Mary became very close friends … and Pat and ‘Shorty’ had their first of what ultimately became 14 full-time foreign exchange students. And as Pat also became the local leader in that organization, taking in temporary students looking for local homes, she figures 25 foreign exchange students have lived in their house over the years since Monique first showed up, looking desperately for a loving home.
Monique has returned at least every-other year for a visit since 1980. Her visit in 2005 included her husband and four children. The Dutch are tall … at 202 centimeters, their son Ludo just passed the seven-foot mark! Their youngest two are 14-year-old twins, the lovely Jyp, and my buddy Bram, a budding cook I like to stay in touch with. A jar of the Pork & Poultry Seasoning I used on these ribs is going back to Amsterdam for Bram, along with some other things.
Monique knows how much I like cooking. While I was finishing up this meal, she placed a package on the counter next to me. It contained the hardbound Dutch cooking today. The publisher’s web site is all in Dutch, but this particular book is in English. There are some wonderful dishes in this book! Monique pointed out the recipes for Bitterballen: Bite-Size Croquettes, which are deep-fried balls of beef ragout, and Endive ‘Stamppot’ with Mushrooms and Cheese, a stamppot being a mashed dish, this one being made of mashed potato, endive and mushrooms, with bacon and cheese. The Tomatoes Stuffed with Egg Salad sounds great (I love sliced tomatoes on my egg salad sandwiches!) There’s also the recipe for real Dutch Apple Pie, a Meat Stew with Cranberry Compote, and a recipe for Rabbit with Mustard Cream Sauce.
From the back of the book itself:
60 modern and traditional recipes of favourite Dutch foods; Traditional foods to savor - well-known appetizers, classic cakes and tarts, good and honest stews and one-pan dishes, plus timeless favourite desserts. In Dutch cooking today the best of yesteryear is combined with some of today’s most tempting foodstuffs. Here are all the classic recipes but in a leaner form and given delicious twists with ‘new’ and readily available ingredients. This cookery book reflects and celebrates all the pleasures and unexpected variety of Dutch cooking today.
These three ladies continually tell me a trip to Amsterdam has to be in my future. Monique told me the other day they live downtown, within walking distance of the famed Farmer’s Market.
I love traveling. I probably should have been a foreign exchange student myself. Amsterdam … yes, one of these days, I’ll get there. Hopefully, soon.
An Older Attitude Toward Cooking
Posted on 14 September 2007 under Cookbooks | No Comments
This past Sunday, just prior to meeting Dixie Dave at his restaurantin Birch Run, Mary and I stopped into an antique shop a couple miles east of his place. There I found a 1945 copy of a 1934 cookbook titled “The Mystery Chef’s Own Cook Book”. We know now the “Mystery Chef” was Chef John MacPherson. The Chef had a radio show on NBC, and wouldn’t give his identity. Here’s a bit from his introduction … consider this to be “food for thought” for the day:
Perhaps I should start this book by answering a question that so many have asked: “How did I, a man, ever come to take up cooking as a hobby?” Well, the answer is — I didn’t take up cooking as a hobby. Some would say I drifted into it by accident, though I myself don’t believe such things happen by accident … In (a) boarding house I joined forces with a man who, like myself, had been used to the best of everything in life. After talking it over, we left the boarding house; took a furnished apartment, and started to cook some of our own meals. At first we broiled chops and steaks, and then I roasted a piece of beef. It was good. I roasted a chicken, cooking vegetables as well as potatoes, and we began to feel that we were getting somewhere, so we invited our first guests to dinner. They seemed to think we were quite marvelous. By this time I got a real thrill out of cooking, and I began to branch out and cook new things. If those first guests had said to me that it would not be many years before Royalty would ask to be invited to dine in my home, I would have thought they were crazy, and yet that very thing did happen …
Perhaps I should answer the question that I am sure many would ask: Why do I call myself The Mystery Chef? The reason was a good one at the time I decided to use it. My dear mother, who was alive at that time, was horrified when she first heard that I had taken to cooking as a hobby … My mother became reconciled to the fact that I had become expert in the art of cooking, but she always thought that I should keep it under my hat. She had trained each of my sisters to have a complete knowledge of household management … but for a son to be taking an interest in the kitchen — well, that was different! Now one could hardly call (radio) broadcasting about cooking “keeping my hobby under my hat”, so that in deference to my mother’s wishes, I decided to use the name of The Mystery Chef. Now that my mother has passed on, and I have become known to millions as The Mystery Chef, it is better that I keep that name, because after all, as I have so often said in my radio talks, “Who I am doesn’t matter. It is what I have to say that counts.” And I say, “Always be an artist at the stove, not just somebody who cooks.”
Wild Game: Dixie Dave’s ‘Old Dixie Inn’, Birch Run
Posted on 9 September 2007 under Cookbooks, Game Cooking, Grilling, Hunting, Michigan Cuisine, Restaurant Chit-Chat | 1 Comment
Ok, where do I start here? Right … the beautiful Apple Dumpling with Homemade Vanilla Sauce you see in the above photo. Flaky pastry on the outside, real apples on the inside with the flavor and juiciness you’d expect from real apples, and the vanilla sauce being not too sweet, with just the right amount of vanilla to perfectly compliment the apple dumpling itself.
Longtime readers, check out that card. Yup, that’s the one … the restaurant I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I wasn’t sure was still open. That’s where this wonderful dumpling came from, just this afternoon.
I’m not saying this dumpling was good just because I screwed up. I’m saying it was good, because … damn … this was the best apple dumpling I’ve ever had. Bar none.
It was $3.50. Really, that’s all. It could feed two people, just like the server said. But yeah, I ate it all. I’d eat more of the second one I’d bought, but Mary’s made off with that one …
For new readers, here’s a little history of my screw-up with Dixie Dave’s. Heck, I don’t think Chef Dave Minar, Dixie Dave himself, knows all this yet, but here it is:
- Last year at Cabela’s, I found the 4th edition of Dixie Dave’s wild game cookbook. I’ve never made anything out of it, but decided I wanted to visit the place. Besides, his recipe for Pan-Fried Testicles was a great way to gross out teenagers.
- Dec. 14th, 2006 - Blogged about Gift Cookbook Recommendations, and included Dixie Dave’s book.
- Jan. 4th, 2007 - Included Dixie Dave’s cookbook in my list of the Ten Strangest Cookbooks I own, and included some of the titles of recipes in the book.
- March 5th, 2007 - In my discussion on Scary Foods, I once again mentioned Dixie Dave’s recipe for Pan-Fried Testicles before talking about how Chef Tad sprung Steak Tartare on Aaron and I one evening.
- August 24th, 2007 - This is where I screwed up. While building my Michigan Cuisine web site, Dixie Dave’s web site threw the wrong kind of error. And in trying to call them, the phone company interrupted. I lamented how they might be closed. Really, even though those two things happened on the same day, I jumped the gun and posted it. I won’t do that again, because …
- September 1, 2007 - I received a comment from Chef Dave Minar! Yup, Dixie Dave’s Old Dixie Inn IS open! Other Emails from him followed on the same day.
Darn …
So, to make a long story even longer, after a family reunion up in Millington, Michigan, just this afternoon, and getting up the right kind of courage, I opened the front door of Dixie Dave’s Old Dixie Inn in Birch Run, on the corner of Birch Run Rd. and Dixie Highway, took a deep breath, and asked if the Chef was in.
There he was, cooking for his patrons like any real Chef will.
Chef Dave and I had a nice chat, talking about food blogging, about his work on Mike Avery’s Outdoor Magazine (seen in the Toledo and Monroe areas on Buckeye channel 5 on Saturday mornings), about his being invited to do Taste of the Nation: Toledo but not yet being able to, about his selling 20,000 copies of the cookbook, with a new one on the way … It was a very nice visit, lots of fun, and I’m glad I stopped in to give him the personal apology he deserved.
Unfortunately, this evening Dixie Dave’s web site still isn’t working. Even the link he suggested I use on this page at the Outdoor Magazine web site links back to the Outdoor Magazine web site itself. I hope that gets taken care of soon, as Dixie Dave’s deserves an online presence.
The restaurant itself is very unassuming, tucked into the SE corner of that intersection of Birch Run Rd. and Dixie Highway:
The menu contains a large number of dishes I’d like to try. As Mary and I were just coming from a huge family reunion, where lots of German Lutherans try to out-cook each other (pics tomorrow!), we were full to the gills! But Chef Dave’s menu … how about some Blueberry Walleye? Or maybe Bronzed Pork Chops with Jack Daniels’ BBQ? Or an Elk Steak with Woodland Mushrooms? There’s some stuff on here I just have to try at some point. Like the Sportsman’s Appetizer, “Dixie Dave’s own recipe of elk and venison paté and smoked wild game sausage, served with toasted French bread“. There are dishes you never thought you’d see in Michigan, like Louisiana Bayou Wild Boar, Medallions of Elk Forestiere, and even Wild Game Steak; “Please ask waitperson for the selection and preparation of the steak of the day.” Of course, for those less inclined toward game, there’s Chicken Cordon Bleu, New York Strip, Fish & Chips with Slaw, and even Spaghetti with Meat Sauce. Me, I think I’m headed toward the Al-E-Gator, “Farm-raised gator sautéed with lemon butter“. Thank you, sir, I’ll have that with a side of Fluffy White Rice …
Ya’ know, I’m probably lucky Chefs in Michigan don’t seem to have the egos Chefs do in other areas, or Chef Dave could have come through that kitchen door with a knife! I know, because when I showed up at the Frog Leg Inn this past Friday afternoon through the kitchen door, Chef Tad muttered to Sous Chef Janelle, “… where’s a knife … a really big one …” … and all I could find was a metal ladle …
Thanks for the understanding, Dixie Dave! We’ll definitely see you again!!
I Love Cookbooks … Especially When I Win One!
Posted on 19 June 2007 under Cookbooks | 1 Comment
So yes, this is the first time I’ve ever won a cookbook, but the fact that I did makes it all the more unique!
Over on Serious Eats, my favorite food web site out of NYC, they have regular contests. Someone will send them copies of a cookbook, and they’ll “cook the book” over the next week, making one recipe a day. Meanwhile, back on the original post for the book, they’ll accept comments, answers to a particular question related to the book. Once the week is over, they’ll pick as many random comment posters as there are copies of the book as winners.
Yesterday, Serious Eats’ Robyn Lee sent me an email indicating that, out of 114 comment posters for dessert master David Lebovitz’s latest book The Perfect Scoop I was one of the five winners! Good stuff, especially on a hot and humid summer day.
The current contest over at Serious Eats is for “The Summer Shack Cookbook”:
It’s a season for clam-digging, lobster-steaming, fried boardwalk fare, and grilled corn—just a handful of the many shore foods covered in Jasper White’s Summer Shack Cookbook. White is proprietor of The Summer Shack mini-chain of restaurants, which serve his version of comfort food—the simple and fresh fare he was raised on as a boy … And, as is custom now on Serious Eats, we’ve got a number of copies to give away. Just leave a comment here telling us what your favorite shore food is and where you get it. Nine (9) winners will be chosen at random from the comments section at the end of the week.
Yesterday, they made the Classic Maine Lobster Rolls from “The Summer Shack Cookbook”.
Ummm … honey?? See, this new cookbook is on the way … you know that ice cream maker? Yeah, that one … 
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