SLCeats: Highlighting the best restaurants in Salt Lake City and Park City
A food blog about restaurants in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah. Ryan Kendrick's words and photos.
Demolition has begun at the Five Star restaurant on 268 South State. The new restaurant will be named ZY (pronounced zie) Food Wine and Cheese and will serve upscale American. It should open later this summer.
No word yet on where Five Star will be moving. The owner said they’re looking for places in West Valley.
I had the opportunity to listen to Chef Dave Prows of Costa Vida as he introduced their new gluten-free menu options. I went in expecting to see two or three menu options for those who can’t consume gluten, but was really surprised when he told us that almost the entire Costa Vida menu is now gluten-free.
I tried the chile verde burrito, and it was delicious. Instead of using wheat flour as the thickening agent for their sauces, Chef Dave developed recipes that uses rice, soy, and bean flour instead. And I gotta say: I couldn’t tell a bit of difference. The burrito was as delicious as always.
I also had a bite of the raspberry chipotle chicken, and that was tasty as well.
You can see their page discussing their gluten-free options here.
Oh yeah, one more thing: I usually don’t order desserts at Mexican restaurants, but their desserts are absolutely delicious. The key lime and tres leches were unbelievably rich and decadent.
Disclaimer: my meal was provided to me free of charge
Que bueno! Salt Lake City is apparently getting a couple new food trucks.
Stephanie from Frida Bistro is one of the owners of the Cuban Mobile truck.
According to a tweet from the newly created @cubanmobileslut Twitter account, things are happening quickly and they should be hitting the streets within the next few weeks. Follow their Twitter account to stay on top of the news and to find their locations. This is great news, since Salt Lake is in desperate need of Cuban food.
Also, there’s a new sushi truck cruising the streets called Cruzin Sushi. Judging by their tweets, they’ve mostly been hanging out at Gallivan, RC Willey, and Ocean Beauty.
So nice to see more food trucks. Hopefully the trend continues, and hopefully Salt Lake gets something figured out regarding the trucks. Seems like the Chowtruck has been spending much more time outside of Salt Lake City proper because of the difficulty they’ve had in operating within the city.
If you haven’t met my good friend Sofrito yet, you really need to. It goes well with just about anything. It can be served atop steak, on bruschetta, or in this case, topping green beans.
It’s a really easy thing to whip up. Total time took me about 10 minutes. What you’ll need:
About a cup of quartered tomatoes
Half an onion, quartered
One or two cloves of garlic, depending on how much you like garlic (I went with two)
Teaspoon oregano
Half teaspoon ground cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
Put everything in a food processor, and pureé. Move to a saucepan and simmer for about 5 minutes.
It’s a great way to dress up just about any dish. Give it a shot and let me know what you think.
Stuart over at GastronomicSLC has the skinny on the upcoming Tastemakers event. It’s a two night tasting event at various restaurants in Salt Lake. $20 for the food passport and $10 extra for beer and wine sampling.
Tickets may be purchased at saltlakemagazine.com
Salt Lake Magazine just announced that they sold out of the tickets, but that a limited amount will be available at the door on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Well, sort of. The Southern/Creole restaurant closed their doors in Salt Lake a few months ago to figure out their next step. Today they announced that they will be serving up their specialties every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month at Stone Creek Grill in Bountiful. The owners are some of the nicest people I’ve met, so I hope this is their first step back into a full-time restaurant.
Stone Creek Grill
1201 N 1100 W
Bountiful
Sunday Update: A good buddy of mine, Jeffrey of Yelp, has all of the updated locations for the trucks this Sunday. Go here for their planned locations.
So, here’s what I know so far about the whereabouts of the Salt Lake City food trucks this weekend.
Devilicious will be at RC Willey on Saturday from 11-3. So Cupcake and the Torta Truck will also be joining them.
The Lime Truck will be at the No More Homeless Pets adoption event both Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 7 pm. This will be at the PetSmart near 400 W 1850 South. I really, really hope they do well here because I spoke to Daniel, one of the owner, and recommended this event to them.
Roxy’s Grilled Cheese will be at REI/Canyon Rim Center today from 11-7 pm. They will be at Coffee Connection Sunday from 11 to 8 pm. Mention Yelp and they’ll add bacon to your meal for free. Bacon.
Chow Truck, Hodge Podge, and Korilla BBQ will be at the Canyon Rim Center (3150 E 3300 S) Saturday 11-7 pm.
On Saturday, the Cafe con Leche truck will be at the Rico Mexican Market, 800 S 500 E, from 11-2:30 pm, then on to Frida Bistro from 3-5 pm. Personally, I think this is a bad decision on the truck’s part. They are going to two locations that have very little foot traffic other than the market’s and the restaurant’s guests, which won’t be able to compete with the other trucks in the busier parts of town.
Seabirds, which is a vegan food truck, will be at Coffee Garden at 9th and 9th Saturday from 10-8 pm.
A few of us are going to do a “truck crawl” this afternoon starting at 1 pm at the Canyon Rim Center. Join us! For updates, follow me here.
I was invited to attend the unveiling of Creminelli’s new large format line of artisan deli meats. Cristiano has been developing these products for the past few years in order to enter the sliced deli meats category. His patience has paid off marvelously, because these new products are unbelievably tasty.
I had an interesting conversation with Jared Lynch, one of the founders of Creminelli. He went into detail about the fact that Creminelli is a huge supporter of the certified wellness program. All of their pork is purchased from ranchers who have committed to treat their animals humanely, without antibiotics, and who have committed to feed the pigs a strict vegetarian diet with no unsafe fillers. They say that you can taste the difference in the final product, and I believe it.
Cristiano told me about their new Salt Lake City processing facilities. Up until September 2010, they were operating in a small 6,000 square foot warehouse in Springville, Utah. They now operate in a 48,000 square foot facility near the Salt Lake airport. He told me that although they are not using all of the space at the moment, they will quickly grow into the space. Judging by the fact that they are shipping over 60,000 pounds (!!!) of salumi per week, I’m sure they’ll fill this facility in no time.
It was interesting to hear Cristiano speak. His face lights up with excitement and passion when he talks about his products. He mentioned how lucky he is to wake up every morning work on his passion. He is adamant that his salumi products in the U.S. are even superior to his family’s products in Italy (his brother and father still operate a salumeria in Italy). The superiority, Creminelli says, is due to the fact that the U.S. produces better, cleaner, and healthier pigs than they do in Italy. Superior quality ingredients going into the factory equals superior products leaving.
Cristiano’s family has over 400 years of experience in salumeria. Just like wine, there’s something to be said about centuries of experience in this field.
Here are some of my favorites from tonight’s events.
The Sopressa Salami is heaven in tube shape. Nicely salty with strong hints of garlic and wine makes this one of my favorite Creminelli creations. In fact, the Sopressa recently won a Sofi award.
The Pancetta is tender, fatty, and buttery smooth. Put it in your mouth and it practically dissolves on your tongue. Made from pork belly, it is a tasty substitute for bacon in any dish.
The Felino, according to Creminelli, is the most ancient salami recipe on record. It has a mild, rich flavor. Definitely a favorite of mine and perfect for an antipasto plate.
The Mocetta is made from the beef eye of round, and has a deliciously smooth, tender texture. This is one of Creminelli’s few beef products, and it’s a favorite of mine.
Creminelli’s large format line of products are available at many specialty shops throughout Salt Lake. Caputo’s, Liberty Heights, Whole Foods Trolley Square, and various Harmon’s grocery stores are now carrying these new lines. They have worked hard to price their products competitively with the market.
Cristiano makes, hands down, the best salumi in the U.S. Their pork is humanely treated and antibiotic-free. We are privileged to have him in Salt Lake City, so the next time you’re shopping, consider paying a few extra dollars to get high quality, local, artisan products instead of the mystery meat in a tube. You’ll be glad you did.
For more information on their new product line, click here.
Pogi’s Pizza Truck offers fresh-grilled pizzas. Choose from their selections, or design your own pizza. They also offer salads, garlic bread, pudding, and more.
Follow them on Twitter here.
I am a nut for crusty bread. I love the crunch that the caramelized brown crust provides. I found a super easy recipe that involves absolutely no kneading. Total prep time for this bread was around ten minutes.
Recipe:
3 cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the water, thenquickly mix the ingredients with your hand, just long enough to incorporate everything into a mass. It shouldn’t take longer than ten seconds to mix it. If you’re taking longer than that, you’re working the dough too much. I had to add a bit more water (maybe ¼ cup) to get the dough sticky enough.
Once incorporated, add a tablespoon of oil to the bowl (or spray the sides of the bowl with nonstick spray). Seal the bowl with plastic wrap, and set aside for at least twelve hours. Seems like a lot, but you need to give the dough enough time for the yeast to work its magic and for the gluten to develop.
Once the twelve hours are up, lightly pat the dough down, then fold the dough in no more than four times (see the video link at the bottom of the post to see what I’m talking about). Cover the bottom of the dough with corn meal and the top of the dough with a light coating of flour. Let sit for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, pre-heat your oven to 500 degrees. Yes, 500. It needs to be blazing hot to make sure the dough develops a caramelized crust. If you have a cast iron enamel pot, like a Le Creuset, place it in the oven and allow it to pre-heat as well. Now, a word of caution: my Le Creuset discolored on the outside as it reached about 425 degrees. I’ve been told that they can comfortably go up to over 500 degrees, but you may want to do a little research to find out for yourself. I also covered my lifting knob with aluminum foil to prevent damage.
Once everything is preheated, throw the dough in, corn meal side down, immediately cover, and put it in the oven. The beauty of using the Le Creuset is this: the pot traps in the escaping moisture from the dough, which then circulates around the dough in the pot. This is what develops the beautiful crust on the bread. As the starches heat, they turn into both a gum and sugar, which then caramelizes. This is what gives bread crust texture, color, and wonderful flavor.
If you don’t have an enamel pot, another technique is to get a pizza/bread stone, place it in the oven to preheat up to 500 degrees, and place a pyrex pan filled with water either beneath the stone or to the side. Throw the dough on the pizza stone, and the evaporating moisture from the pan will help increase the humidity in the oven. I’ve done both methods, and the Le Creuset method is much superior, but you can still get decent results with the stone.
Bake until the crust is a very dark golden brown. It’s recommended to cook the bread for about 2/3 of the time with the lid on, and 1/3 of the time with the lid off. My small loaves only took about thirty minutes to bake, so doing the math gives me twenty minutes with lid on and ten with lid off. Ovens vary, so just make sure you start checking on it about fifteen minutes in. But don’t open the oven for at least the first ten minutes as the crust develops. You need to keep every last bit of moisture in the oven that you can.
Once baked, pull out and allow the bread to cool down. This is important and the crust will continue to harden and develop as it cools.
Get some bread and jam or some oil and vinegar, and you’re ready for a treat! Experiment with different additions like garlic, onions, cherries, etc. I think I’m going to try a cranberry white chocolate loaf next.
Check out this video which shows the above process. Especially take note of how little time he spends mixing the dough.
SLCeats: Highlighting the best restaurants in Salt Lake City and Park City 