Spring Showers Bring…New Restaurants

As we shake the final rainy days of spring and look forward to a forecast of sunshine, we’re anxious to get out and about. And the good weather’s not the only reason. In the past months, Boulder and Denver restaurateurs have been busy creating new spots--and reinventing old ones. This weekend and next week, they start to open their doors (and food truck windows). Here’s what to keep your eye on.

BOULDER

Tangerine – This breakfast and lunch spot from the chef/owner of Arugula promises to bring retro fun to the beginning of the day. Opens Saturday, June 4.

The Kitchen [Next Door] – The Kitchen’s third venture is focused on approachable, community dining and sustainability. Soups, salads, and sandwiches make up the menu, and the restaurant's floors, bar, and windows are made of recycled materials. Opens Thursday, June 9.

DENVER

Justice League of Street Food - This hip group of food trucks kicks off its summer parties at a new location, TAXI, with food from Steuben’s, Biker Jim’s, and more. First event is Saturday, June 4.

Linger - In the Olinger Mortuary, the hub of Lower Highland, the owner of Root Down opens a restaurant dedicated to crafted cocktails and global street food. Opens Tuesday, June, 7.

-Kazia Jankowski

Kazia Jankowski
Associate Culinary Director

Recipe Search Tools Aren’t Always What You Think

Recently, NatureSweet tomatoes sent over a last-minute request for recipe testing, and the first thing I did was open my browser. Crunched on time and in need of reliable ideas, I knew I could turn to the internet for recipe research. What I didn’t know at the time, though, is just how many options I had—or that there’s mounting criticism to some of the biggest of these.

I visited sites I knew well, like Epicurious.com, but as the New York Times’ article Can Recipe Search Engines Make You a Better Cook points out, I could have turned to Google’s recipe search. Or Bing. Or I could have checked out Foodily. Or Cookzillas. Each of these search tools would have pulled up countless tomato recipes for me—or they might not have. The recent NYT article notes that these sites are still primarily designed by programmers, not foodies. Which means that a search for no-bean chili might actually turn up a recipe packed with jus the ingredient you didn’t want. Similarly, these tools are likely to only pull recipes from the major food websites, like Allrecipes.com, but not chefs’ blogs.

So the takeway? Recipe search engines are still in the early stages of development. We’re eager to see how they take shape in the next several years, especially given that recipes are one of the most searched items on the internet. But for now, we’ll stick to going to the sites we trust.

Here's a list of our go-tos:

MyRecipes.com
Epicurious.com
Chow.com
EverydayFood.com

-Kazia Jankowski

Kazia Jankowski
Associate Culinary Director

Blog Pick: Fooducate

After our Food Revolution speaker-and-movie series, we got an influx of emails. We want to eat better food. One way to do that is to begin to better educate ourselves. For that there’s Fooducate, a blog and mobile app (pictured here) that breaks down what makes up the food on grocery store shelves.

The Fooducate blog offers regular updates on topics, like artificial colors, food allergies, and unfamiliar back-panel ingredients. But what’s even cooler is the Fooducate mobile app. For those moments when you’re grocery shopping and you can’t decide if a cereal has too much sugar—or not enough real fruit—pull out your smart phone and use the Fooducate app (available at the App Store) to scan the bar code. Fooducate will pull up a rating of the product as well as a list of product warnings (too much sugar, artificial ingredients, controversial additives). In seconds, you can decide if you’re dropping a product into your grocery cart or putting it back on the shelves.

-Kazia Jankowski

Kazia Jankowski
Associate Culinary Director

CSA Season Begins

The Boulder Farmer’s Market kicked off last weekend—and next weekend, most ski mountains shut down for the season. Which means that right now, you’re probably thinking more about skinny carrots than skinny skis. If that’s the case, you’ve got many options to get your hands on the season’s produce.

Of course, there are the farmer’s markets (in Boulder and Denver), but there are also countless CSAs. These Community Supported Agriculture programs allow you to buy a share of a farm and receive regular deliveries, all summer long, of the farm’s best. Early summer, greens will fill your fridge. Mid-summer, expect juicy, red tomatoes. And late summer, watch out for squash and pumpkin.

To kick start the CSA season, Eileen, our in-house CSA devotee, and our Culinary Team share their favorite local programs:

Stone Bridge Farm CSA
Ollin Farms
Oxford Gardens Boulder
Grant Family Farms

Please let us know if you have others.

-Kazia Jankowski

Kazia Jankowski
Associate Culinary Director

Eric Skokan - Chef and Owner of The Black Cat

On Tuesday we were fortunate to be joined by Eric Skokan, the chef and owner of The Black Cat farm-to-table restaurant in Boulder. Eric grew up on a farm in Virginia, has been a professional chef for more than 20 years, and just in the last three years started his latest, and most personal venture.

Eric's philosophy is to reduce, reuse and recycle as much as possible. Food scraps go to the chickens and pigs, and because he grows most of what is served at the restaurant, packaging is drastically reduced, as well. For the few items he can't grow himself, Eric tries to source GMO-free, local, and organic products, with his goal for the restaurant being to someday be 100% GMO-free.

Eric grows hundreds of varieties of vegetables, fruits and herbs, as well as several breeds of chickens, turkeys, pigs and sheep. He says that depending on the farm to supply the restaurant has been a wonderful creative challenge, and as such, he has found ingenius ways to use what is in season all year round (even in the winter!) while still keeping the menu fresh and unique.

Check out his seasonal creations at The Black Cat.

Photo courtesy of http://www.jamesbeard.org/

--Christie Wood

Christie Wood
Culinary Assistant