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MMM! | Jungle Jim’s International Market

By on September 29, 2011 in MMM! - Major Mangia Memoir!

Jungle Jim's International Market highway sign

Like a beacon in the sky, Jungle Jim’s is a Foodie’s Paradise!

I’m sure you are like this too. Whenever you travel back home or to a city that you love, you always have a “hitlist” of local spots you have to visit before you leave.   For me, Jungle Jim’s International Market is always on the “list”.  Think about the craziest thing you would ever want to buy….duck feet? a whole pig’s head? the favorite chocolate you ate every day during your study abroad in Europe? Hot sauce called “sphincter shrinker”?  Yep, they have it at Jungle Jim’s.

Jungle Jim’s is the perfect blend of:

  1. Function (they have everything)
  2. Quirk (their decorations are eclectic to say the least – check out their website for photos),
  3. Adventure (there is a surprise at every corner and you WILL lose track of time exploring the expansive selection)

Our “Mangia Memior”  (what we’ll remember)

To set the scene appropriately, my father and I are both insane.  We go into a trance the moment we walk through the doors.  My mom loves food andloves the adventure, but she is along for the ride.  And poor Anthony…ahh poor Anthony.  He loves to eat, loves to cook and is definitely an adventure seeker, but unfortunately, just had jaw surgery.  This means that he can’t eat for 6 weeks.  My worst nightmare.  But Anthony is a saint and doesn’t even complain.

My dad and I wove through aisle after aisle, while mom and Ant trailed us with the cart.After an initial scattered quest, we aligned on what our “weird” menu item would be -  “cinghiale” (aka wild boar). Cincinnati was kind of chilly and a wild boar ragu would be a nice hearty meal.

To our dismay, the meat department was fresh out of cinghiale.  Said he just sold the last one and was surprised about it.  I guess all the Italians in greater Cincy had a hankerin’ for some wild boar ragu.

No wild boar, no problem.  Guanciale (pork cheek).  We could make a nice Amatriciana instead- a traditional Italian pasta sauce based on guanciale, pecorino cheese and tomato, originating from the town of Amatrice. We also purchased some baby octopus, cerignola and castelvetrano olives and rosemary bread.

For our Amatriciana recipe, click here Recipe for Amatriciana

Top 5 “MUST SEES” at Jungle JimsJungle Jim's bathroom

  1. Visit the Bathroom.  The facade is a Port-a-Potty. Hilarious. Check out this video for a real view.
  2. Scope out the Seafood section.  Tons of life fish, whole fish, shellfish. Awesome.
  3. Check out the Hot Sauce area.  The names alone, will cure depression.  You will laugh out loud.
  4. Look Up. Look Left. Look Right.  Amazing decorations EVERYWHERE.  An Amish carriage.  A bear dressed as a singing Elvis.  A talking Campbell’s soup can.  Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest.  Where do they get this stuff?
  5. Check out the produce. Bring your iPhone.  You will see fruits/veggies you’ve never heard of.  Look them up and see how to eat them.

 

 

 

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MMM! Oktoberfest Zinzinnati

By on September 20, 2011 in MMM! - Major Mangia Memoir!, Reviews, Travel Eats

"Bahama Mama" sausage with sauerkraut at Oktoberfest Zinzinnati

You don’t need a passport to party at a damn good Oktoberfest!

Dust off your lederhosen, empty your stomach and get your alcohol tolerance up.  It’s that time of year…Oktoberfest time!  Sausage, Beer and awesome outfits, here we come!

Oktoberfest Zinzinnati is a tradition that has been going on for ages, and for as long as I remember, we’ve always gone.  The festival in and of itself is pretty amazing.  It’s the largest Oktoberfest outside of Munich, Germany and combines old traditions with some hilarious new favorites.  Check out some of the footage from this year’s Weiner Dog Race, Barrell Rolling, Stein Carrying Contest, Chicken Dance and even Brat Eating Contest with the World Famous, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, crushing 35 brats in 10 minutes. Yum.  Also, this year, quite a few booths had signs about Travel Channel’s Man vs. Food visiting their restaurants, so we’ll have to be on the lookout for the Cincinnati episodes.

Our “Mangia Memoir” (what we’ll remember)

Our Pitocco family tradition is to meet the whole crew at Schmidt’s booth on Sunday at 11:00am (yes, my family is insane) and kick off the day with a giant “Bahama Mama” (in photo above). It’s a smoked mett with quite a spicy kick to it.  Really cleans out the sinuses and gets ya going for a long day of eating!  Mr. and Mrs. Weber (my husband’s parents) joined us this year and Mr. Weber sported a fantastic Oktoberfest hat with countless number of pins he’s collected over the years.

This is the one day of the year where we Pitocco kids actually acknowledge and embrace our German heritage.  Our mom, Kathy (nee Doerger…nice little German name) frolicks from block to block singing along with the German bands — old favorites like “Roll Out the Barrell” and the song they used to sing to me as a child “She’s Too Fat for Me” (Yes, I was a slightly overweight toddler.  My pediatrician even put me on a pediatric diet. Lardass).

Booth upon booth we gorged ourselves, stopping to chat with folks we haven’t seen in ages,  while watching fellow festival goers devour brats, sauerkraut balls and steins of beer. We even stopped to get our photo taken with little wooden German folk cutouts.

Oktoberfest Cincinnati cutouts

Embracing our German Heritage

One not-so-pleasant, but definitely memorable moment, occurred on our trot back to our car, where we all stood dumbfounded at what we saw -  A  homeless woman (who sadly also had some obvious mental issues as well) lifted up her shirt to expose her belly in order to gain the attention of a homeless man in a wheelchair, then thrusted her pelvis forward and pointed to her lady parts. Yikes!  It’s kind of embarrassing even writing it and believe me, it was even worse in person.

Besides that treachery, Oktoberfest Zinzinnati 2011 was a great.  I’m happy we were in town for it and happy we can spend time with our families, keeping fun traditions alive.  I’m already looking forward to next year!

Items Ordered:

  • Bahama Mama mettwurst
  • Goetta Sandwich on Rye (Goetta is a German-American breakfast meat comprised of sausage, steel-cut oats and spices.  It is specific to the German-American population of the Greater Cincinnati area)
  • Sauerkraut Balls
  • Goetta Nachos
  • Goetta Mac & Cheese
  • Brat with sauerkraut on pretzel bread
  • Fried pickles
  • Izzy’s Potatoe pancake [MUST EAT]
  • Izzy’s Corned Beef & Swiss on Rye Bun [MUST EAT]

The Verdict:

  • 5 stars overall
  • FOOD: I’m  not complaining, because everything was pretty darn delicious.  I do find myself gravitating to the more traditional Oktoberfest items like brats, metts, sauerkraut, potato pancakes and ruebens/corned beef.  The new twists on old favorites like Goetta nachos and Goetta Mac & Cheese are great to try, but my heart belongs to the traditional fare.
  • SERVICE: all of the vendors are in the Oktoberfest spirit, cordial and super helpful if you don’t know what something is.
  • AMBIANCE: this is reason enough to go even if you don’t like German food. Great tradition, fun music and awesome people watching.  Friday and Saturday are more of the party days, with huge crowds and tons of debauchery.  Sunday is a little more tamed (at least in the AM), so great for families or folks looking to really sample the food without getting trampled by drunken bafoons.

 

 

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MMM! | Finally, an Italian Market!

By on September 8, 2011 in MMM! - Major Mangia Memoir!, Reviews

Laurenzo's Italian Market Miami

Life without an Italian Market, is a life not worth living!

It’s been nearly 2 years.  2 years without the joy of having immediate access to fine Italian delectables.  Paper-thin salty prosciutto, milky fresh mozzarella, spicy “gabagool” (capicola) and guilt-ridden mortadella with pistachios.  Mama Mia!!!  I could go on FOR-EV-ER!  It’s sick, the amount of pure and utter pleasure I find from smoked meats (and don’t be gross!).

Sweet baby Jesus answered our prayers and alerted us to Laurenzo’s Italian Market in North Miami Beach.  For all of you Italians/Italian-Americans in South Florida, fret no more….this is your spot!  Maybe check it out this weekend?

Our “Mangia Memoir” (what we’ll remember)

We drove 30 minutes in Tony’s HOT. AS. HELL. car without air conditioning, obnoxiously singing to the soundtrack of In the Heights the Musical, just to keep our minds off the fact that our flesh was melting off. But when we got there….GLORY!

Skip the Laurenzo’s Produce Market.  There is not much there that you can’t find elsewhere.  Head directly to the market with the deli and plan to stay for hours.  We did.

Literally prancing through the aisles, with devilish grins on our faces, we terrorized this poor place.  We purchased roughly 10 gallons of olive oil, 6 pounds of really fun artisan pasta, a pound of fresh mozzarella, mortadella and prosciutto, fresh baguettes, calamari… ok, I could go on forever, but you would just think I was disgusting. Tony even found a bottle of wine, “Castranova” that was the same as his grandma’s maiden name, so of course, a couple of bottles of that were added.

We heard the workers speaking Italian, heard the butcher screaming over to the seafood guy who was bantering with the market guy.  It was pure bliss and it just felt so right.  Not pretentious.  A real “family” feel.   We grabbed a deli sandwich to share and some fried smelts and calamari.  Seriously, who has smelts?!  It was like being home for the Christmas Seven Fish Dinner (what the hell is that?  Well, that’s an entirely different post, but this site is pretty funny and video might give you a flavor for what it is for Italian-Americans).

Thank you, Laurenzo’s Italian Market for lighting up our lives and also providing the ingredients for us to make this glorious meal.

bruschetta with prosciutto fresh mozzarella and fresh basilhouse-made tomato pasta with spinach shrimp garlic 

The Meal: Bruschetta with prosciutto, fresh mozz and fresh basil.  Tomato pasta with spicy lemon garlic shrimp & spinach

The Details: We toasted the bruschetta, then rubbed garlic cloves over it, added the fresh mozz and put it under the broiler for a second. Then, added the prosciutto—it will melt right on to the mozz, but not dry out in doing it this way.  The tomato pasta was house-made at Laurenzo’s and the rest of the sauce was a one-pan creation.

The Verdict

  • Bruschetta: 5 stars
  • Pasta with Shrimp: 3 stars
  • Would You Eat It Again?  Bruschetta, definitely.  Pasta, maybe with some tweaks.
  • What Would You Change?  While we loved the “idea” of the tomato-flavored pasta, it wasn’t what we were hoping for.  I think the texture was a little gummy and the flavor wasn’t intense enough.  Also, from a visual standpoint, it was “off”, because the spaghetti sort of looked like carrots, creating a disconnect between what you were seeing and what you were tasting.  Next time, I’d probably opt for a traditional non-flavored pasta and throw in some tomatoes instead.

 

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MMM! | Blog Launch Party with Crazy Creations

By on August 23, 2011 in MMM! - Major Mangia Memoir!, Recipes

red snapper

Adventure anyone? What better way to celebrate the launch of a food blog than with fresh whole fish, a raw meat concoction and great friends? I don’t thing anything!

My loving husband decided that we needed to have a “launch party” for the birth of Mangia! Memoirs because of the hard work that went into it.  I believe that to be true, but I also think he may have been looking for a good excuse to have friends over, eat some food and down some wine.  Regardless, the impromptu launch party took place and let me tell you, we went on a culinary adventure joy ride!

beef carpaccioWe were thinking to go big or go home, so ended up creating food items that we had never ever made before and honestly, really had no idea how to.  First up, beef carpaccio.  For those not familiar with carpaccio, I’ve included a link, but it’s basically very very thinly sliced raw “something”.  There are seafood carpacci, beef carpacci, vegetable carpacci – you get the point. We’ve had these many times in restaurants, but the real kick here is that it is 100% RAW and I was serving it IN MY HOME.Blog Launch Party

I’d tried to do all the gruesome meat pounding before everyone got here, in order to salvage their appetites, but I’d have to say my favorite quote of the evening from our pal Kelvin, (as I lay delicate slices of meat on a plate), was “Soooo, uhh…that was marinated like ceviche, right?”  NOPE! Sorry, buddy, when I said raw, I meant RAW.  I honestly got a little nervous after that point, thinking “Alisa, what the hell are you doing serving raw meat to your friends?!  But the show must go on.  We served up the beef carpaccio with fresh arugula and shaved parmigiano, olive oil and fresh cracked pepper.  Overall, a HIT.

The “sleeper” favorite of the evening ended up being the pasta.  I really just made this as a “filler-up” dish from things we had lying around. Fusilli lunghi (long spirally pasta that looks the way someone’s hair would look if they got electrocuted)  pasta in a mildly spicy artichoke heart, tomato, garlic and white wine sauce.

Next up was the MAIN EVENT.  I’d been wanting to cook a whole fish for sometime (just to see if I could do it), and this ended up being the perfect night for it.  My husband and I went to the local fish market, Garcia’s Seafood, and purchased two jumbo red snapper and decided to follow the directions of 2 awesome ladies from Florida that demonstrated an ancient technique for baking fish.  Naturally, we found this on YouTube.  You can stuff the fish with any herbs you like (I chose lemon, rosemary and thyme), then pack the fish in course sea salt, creating a salt cast that develops over the fish and keeps it moist while baking.  The craziest part, is that the salt becomes hard like concrete and you have to literally CRACK the mold to get the fish out.  It was totally wild and so much fun! I used my grandma’s rolling pin for extra drama – thanks Gram.

The Verdict:

  • 5 stars!
  • Would You Eat It Again?: Heck, yea with multiple exclamation points
  • Would Would You Change? Buy more fish.  For a party of 6, two fish was a bit of  stretch as a main course.

Our “Mangia! Memoir” (what we’ll remember):

This was a food event worth remembering and I definitely recommend it.  The fish was moist and fell right off the bone.  The herbs that we had stuffed within the fish cavity infused the fish with flavor. And surprisingly, even though the fish was encased in salt, it wasn’t salty (Heads up, though – there were a few salty areas, mostly around the edges where the fish was right up against the salt cast).  Since this was a new technique for everyone, the whole party was centered around seeing this come to life, which ended up being pretty darn cool.

Every one watched in anticipation as the fish was stuffed, packed in salt and then put into the oven.  We then held our breath as the rolling pin smacked open the cast and inside lie the fully in tact and cooked fish.  Once we slid the fish from the bones, everyone, as if on on queue, starting picking at the remnant pieces.

I mentioned that the fish cheek is supposed to be very succulent and instantly everyone started going for it!  Then conversation shifted to how if you are ever stranded, you should eat fish eyes, because there is water in them.  Next thing I know,  people are going for the EYES!!  It was like be shot back to caveman era – everyone was so primal!

 

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MMM! | 2011 Italian Easter

By on April 24, 2011 in MMM! - Major Mangia Memoir!

Easter ravioli and angolotti

What’s better than keeping TRADITION alive and  prepping food for 3 days to share with 25 of your closest friends?  Nuttin’

Major Mangia! Memoir: 2011 Italian Easter Celebration with 25+ friends at our apartment in Miami.

Over the years, I think Easter has really started to make it’s way to the top of my list of favorite holidays. The preparation leading up to Easter (in the Catholic church) is filled with a lot of drama, sacrifice and I think the stories are some of my favorite. I also think that Easter is the start of something new for a lot of people–a rebirth, the start of spring and nice weather, and of course, Easter bonnets!

For me, I think it was all of those things! I wanted to gather all of our “transplant” Miami friends/co-workers to celebrate together, Italian-style! Continue Reading →

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