MARGARITA SPECIAL – ECLIPSE MARGARITA, IN HONOR OF THAT  TWILIGHT MOVIE COMING OUT. YAY! JOSE CUERVO, BLUE CURACAO ORANGE LIQUOR, FRESH LIME, CRANBERRY JUICE, CHATEAU MONET RASPBERRY LIQUEUR. ONCE YOU STIR IT, IT TURNS BLACK LIKE A VAMPIRE`S HEART! WE STILL HAVE HEINKEN LIGHT FOR THREE DOLLARS. GO TEAM EDWARD!

Local First Ogden Kickoff Party

Thursday, July 1, 7:00 p.m.
Sonora Grill, 2310 Kiesel Avenue, Ogden
Tasty food samplers, a silent auction, and live, local music will be offered to celebrate the launch of Local First Ogden. Get to know the small-business community and come out to show support for buying local in Ogden. Sponsored by local eatery, Wing Nutz. Free to the public

Last week, Steve and I went to Abravanel Hall down in SLC to see Anthony Bourdain talking about food and travel, celebrity chefs and about being a dad and eating strange foods in third world countries. He is a great writer, a knowledgeable chef, and a very funny and insightful speaker. He spoke for a certain period of time and then he opened up the floor, took some questions and then when he was done speaking he just walked off stage and split. A very cool guy…if he was still speaking, I would still be sitting there.

Almost immediately upon landing I found myself in Spice Market with my uncles Gene and Roger. None of us had been there. I’d only read about it online. From Ogden, it seemed like it would be my kind of restaurant. These 2 live in NYC, but had never gone to eat at that place and it’s a kind of party scene so they really needed an excuse to go. This really isn’t where most 65 year olds go. Then again, my uncles are way beyond cool.
The menu was amazing. We ordered a prix fixe dinner, which included ‘5 courses with 10 tastes each’ in the words of our stunning waitress, who I later found out was studying to be an actress. The food was intoxicating. And there was so much food with so many spicy flavors. An abundance of decadence. I was lavished with essences, soups, salads, slaws and ingredients, components, hints, scents, suggestions, forks and knives. Lime leaves, galangal, taro,sumac, Thai basil, saffron,  lemongrass, ramps, papaya, eel, douchi, halo halo, the kitchen sink!…they had stuff coming out of all over Asia. It was amazing. Someone had told the maitre d’ I was the Executive Chef of the Sonora Grill, the Best Mexican Restaurant in Utah, USA, I think it was Gene, because the next thing you know, here comes the maitre d’, with another course of food, and followed by a young man, Felix, with more food, and then more food and more food. O this isn’t my first rodeo. I’ve been here before…Felix and the maitre d’…and they were really chatting me up too. I would have said something but my mouth was full of food! They were peeling grapes and stuffing em in my mouth!As it turns out, by the time several courses had passed, I found out that those two were studying to be actors too! I half expected Chef Vongerichten himself, you know, he could be an actor. He always reminded me of Martin Scorsese anyway, but then I came to my senses. I was suffering from sensory overload. I got a hold of myself. I saved room for dessert. I got a quick cab ride down to Union Square Park and went out for late night espressos with an old friend!… Sleep?… Sleep Shmeep bleeped the sheep. I’ll sleep when I’m dead!

Someone asked me about a particular Mexican food preparation yesterday when I was at the bank getting some cash. She said it was marinated roasted pork with lemon and oranges and it was totally delicious but she just couldn’t remember the name of the dish. I said it sounds like Cochinita Pibil.
She said O that’s it! It’s Cochinita Pibil.
I said I love that dish. It’s one of my favorite things in life to eat that dish.
She goes yeah it’s sooo good.
I ignored the person standing nearby who said ‘O that’s not Mexican food.’

Mexican food isn’t just one cuisine, though some people tend to imagine that it is. Mexico is a big place and it encompasses a large and varied culinary tradition. Cochinita pibil is, as the name suggests, a suckling pig, roasted in a Pib. A Pib being the Mayan word for a small shallow rectangular pit used for cooking seasoned meats, which are wrapped in banana leaves in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. The dish was made popular in this country several years ago when it was featured in the film Once Upon a Time in Mexico…

 BTW, Here’s a recipe for Cocinita Pibil

4lbs. Pork butt cut in 3 inch cubes
8oz. Achiote paste
10 cloves of garlic
2 limes, cut in half
2 lemons, cut in half
2 oranges, cut in half
8 dry bay leaves
2 t. ground cumin
½ t. ground cinnamon
1T. dried oregano
1T. Kosher salt
2T. ground black pepper.

Squeeze the citrus fruit juice out, add everything together and mash it up with your hands until you have a bright pink paste that you’re rubbing all over the pork meat.
Next you’ll need
1 lb. of banana leaves
2 white onions cut in quarters
5 roma tomatoes cut in half

Line a baking pan with the banana leaves, add the pink achiote and citrus marinated pork into the banana leaf  lined pan and top with the onions and tomatoes. Fold the banana leaves over the meat and roast it in your oven at 325 degrees for 3 hours. Or until this sweet and sour pink cochinita meat just falls apart when you put your fork into it. Serve it with fresh tortillas and avocado slices.

 And get ready to freak out because it is gonna be a flavor explosion in your mouth!

Still looking for the perfect father’s day gift for dad? Bring him to our sister restaurant, Rickenbacker’s bistro. We’ll be serving a BBQ lunch buffet from 11am to 4pm, Sunday June 20. Can’t wait to see you there!

Every Friday the Sonora Grill flies in fresh fish from Hawaii. Fish so fresh that when you come down to get your ceviche, it’s really going to blow you away. Chef Courtney is creating exciting new dishes utilizing this seafood that has been out of the pacific literally about 20 hours. You’ll be able to taste the freshness. This latest and greatest of his creations, the fresh mahi mahi with burnt orange vinaigrette, pico de gallo, pepita-poblano salsa…it’s off the hook!

Every Friday and Saturday the Sonora Grill flies in fresh fish from Hawaii. Fish so fresh that when you come down to get your ceviche, it’s really going to blow you away. Chef Courtney is creating exciting new dishes utilizing this seafood that has been out of the pacific literally about 20 hours. You’ll be able to taste the freshness. My favorite is the fresh big eye tuna with nopales, capers and lime juice.
Well, and also the Lemon Cured Sea Bass with chile and cilantro…seriously. So delicious!

I’d been living in San Diego for about a year and was trying to get out of the business of being a chef. Of course, however, cooking was the only thing I really knew. It was 1990…or ’91…

I got a call from a chef I’d previously worked for in Berkeley. He offered me a job as his Sous Chef at his new restaurant in the Shattuck Hotel. Well, I’d have to move back home to Berkeley. I asked my girlfriend if she wanted to sell her truck, pack everything we owned into a U-Haul and drive to Berkeley so I could take this job. She said, ‘sure, why not?’
So we quit our jobs, sold the truck, and gave notice that we were moving out of our apartment. We got a U-Haul and packed it with everything we had left. We were on the porch drinking iced tea when I got a phone call from the chef. He said, ‘Chris, I got bad news. I got fired.’
‘You got what? Why?’
‘I got in a fight with the Hotel owner. He insisted I put Caesar salad on the menu. I don’t want Caesar salad on my menu. It just doesn’t fit. It doesn’t work for me. Neither one of us wanted to bend on it… He insisted, I refused, and I got fired.’
‘What?! I love Caesar salad, dude. I have everything we own in a U-Haul and no place to live and now I don’t have a job? What’s wrong with Caesar salad? I totally love Caesar salad!! Are you out of your mind?!’

This, by the way, is my recipe for Caesar salad dressing.

Caesar salad dressing

2 egg yolks
1 whole egg
2T. lemon juice

1C. canola oil
1C. Pure olive oil
2T. lemon juice
2T. water
1t. kosher salt
2 cloves garlic
2 anchovy filets
More Kosher salt and add some fresh ground pepper to taste

Make sure the bowl of your food processor is clean and dry, put in the blade and then put the eggs and 2T. lemon juice in the bowl of your food processor. Turn it on and blend the eggs and lemon juice together. With the blade still spinning, add the oil, drop by drop. A good way to do this is to use a squirt bottle. Fill it with the oil and then drop, drop, drop. Whether you use a squirt bottle or not, after you have added about 2 tablespoons of the oil, in this way, you’re beginning to establish an emulsion and you can begin to add the oil in a small steady stream, until you’ve added all of it. Then add the rest of the lemon juice, water, salt, fresh garlic, and anchovies.

Traditionally, one would toss it with fresh Romaine lettuce, Parmesan cheese and toasted croutons. That’s exactly how I have made it for the last 20 years and to this day I still love Caesar salad.

Anyway, we drove north that night, to Berkeley. I immediately applied for and landed, the job as the Sous Chef at the same hotel, but under a different Head Chef. Caesar salad was definitely on the menu. Make mine with extra anchovies…