The fourth installment of our annual Fruitcake Haiku Contest is now complete. Roger Allen of Tampa has taken this year’s top prize.

Roger’s winning ditty:

Fruitcake fairy dance
Tchaikovsky spins in casket
Nutcracker breaks jaw

Our judge this year was legendary baking expert Rose Levy Beranbaum, whose latest book “Rose’s Heavenly Cakes” is a must-buy for baking fanatics. Her Fruitcake Wreath is the first fruitcake I’ve seen actually looks delicious. You can find the recipe here.

As is always the case each year, it isn’t possible to run all of the hundreds of haiku poems we get, so here’s a sample of some of the best we got:

Don’t waste good bourbon
Pouring it on the fruitcake.
I’d rather drink mine.
Nancy M. Hester
Tucker, Ga.

New menu item.
Fruitcake for school lunch. Watch out!
Could cause a food fight!
Sandi Behrens
Hollywood

Fruitcake recycled:
Free-weight, book end, doorstop, brick,
Anchor, foot stool, log
Elizabeth Cover
Hudson

Fruitcake for Christmas …
My question for Santa is:
Will a fruitcake flush?
Linda Sherry
Clearwater

Yuletide cheer is here
A fruitcake for a sweet tooth;
It’s recession proof
Virginia N. Rhoades
St. Petersburg

A fruitcake can be
Unwelcome and full of nuts,
Like reindeer droppings.
Suzanne Stone
Lake Placid

Let’s give peace a chance.
Fruitcake to our enemies.
Make pastry not war.
Tammy DiCaprio
Chesapeake, Va.

“Pee-Wee’s Playhouse” is
My favorite Christmas special.
He thinks fruitcake’s gross
Madeline Weiland
Gurnee, Ill.

Three really wise men
Chose not to eat the fruitcake.
Everyone else sick.
Toby Srebnik
North Lauderdale

Fruitcake is winter.
Nutty, sweet, holiday — wait
My doorstop always
Stephanie Steele
Clearwater

To write a haiku
Would take away precious time
While I bake fruitcake.
Elizabeth Gomez
Valrico

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I talked with my grandfather, Dale, in Baltimore last night for Thanksgiving. He’s 93, but you’d never know it. He sounds like a man at least 40 years younger.

Eventually we got around to talking about food. His wife, Ethel, who was on the speaker phone mentions that he likes “all that weird stuff.”

Like what, I asked. Like turkey gravy on waffles the day after Thanksgiving.

Apparently, it was a tradition when he was a boy for his mother to make gravy out of the turkey leftovers and pour them over waffles.

I’ve had chicken and waffles. I like that a lot. But not turkey gravy.

“I don’t see what the big deal is,” he said. “It’s just bread.”

Which, of course, got me thinking about about leftovers in general.

AllRecipes.com estimates that we downed an average of 2,225 calories yesterday. There’s no information on what kind of a dent the day after puts on our wasteband.

(If you’re at all concerned, the Seminole Heights Bicycle Club has just the right event: The Thanksgiving Leftovers Bike Ride at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. It will be an easy 4-mile ride from 1203 E. Powhatan Ave. in Seminole Heights to the 22nd Street Park, where Club cyclists will dine on leftovers and share belly laughs over lunch. The ride will be very easy with a slow pace. The only thing you need to bring are bicycle helmets and an appetite. Contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for more information.)

But I digress.

For a starting point on the Road to Leftovers, take this dish from AllRecipes. The author calls it “a tasty and exciting way to use all of your thanksgiving leftovers.”

BLACK FRIDAY PIE

1 cup mashed potatoes

1/2 cup cubed cooked turkey

1/2 cup cooked cut green beans 1/2 cup turkey gravy

1 cup prepared stuffing

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Ready In: 55 minutes

Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F. Thoroughly grease a 9-inch glass pie plate.

Spread mashed potatoes onto the bottom and up the sides of the greased pie plate. Fill potato crust with the turkey, green beans, and gravy. Smooth stuffing on top of the turkey and gravy to create a top crust.

Brush top of pie with melted butter. Bake pie until stuffing is golden and crispy, about 40 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Makes 4 servings.

The National Turkey Federation also has some suggestions on dishes, not the least of which is rolling the bird into enchiladas:

GREEN CHILE TURKEY ENCHILADAS

1 tablespoon butter

1 medium onion, peeled and diced

1 teaspoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup chicken broth

2-4 ounce cans of chopped green chiles

¼ teaspoon cumin

1/3 teaspoon oregano

1/3 teaspoon coriander powder

1½ cups shredded turkey

2 cups cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses

1 pack corn tortillas

1 pint sour cream

2 green onions, chopped

Salsa
Add the butter to a warm sauté pan. Add onions and sauté until translucent. Add garlic and cook until it becomes aromatic.  Add flour and cook for 1 minute.

Pour both cans of green chiles into pan. Add cumin, oregano, coriander, chicken broth and a little salt and pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes at low heat.

Place turkey in a mixing bowl. Add 1/3 cup of the green chile mix, 1/3 cup of sour cream, 1/3 of the cheese mixture and salt and pepper. Mix well. Grease a 13x9 baking dish.

Place 1 to 2 tablespoons of filling in each tortilla and roll up. Place the rolled tortillas in the baking dish seam-side down. Continue to add rolled tortillas until the top layer is filled.

Pour the rest of the green chile on top of the enchiladas and sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Serve with sour cream, green onions and salsa.

For my friends who need to stay gluten-free, dairy-free and meat-free, here’s a recipe from cookbook author Cybele Pascal:

CREAMY HARVEST SOUP

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, diced (1 cup)

1 tablespoon minced ginger

2 cups cooked sweet potatoes, yams, or winter squash (mashed, diced, roasted, etc, or a 10 oz. package if using frozen)

2 Fuji apples, peeled, cored, diced (or Gala, Braeburn or Jonagold apples)

4 scallions, chopped

2 teaspoons curry powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups pumpkin (15 oz. can)

3 cups chicken or vegetable broth

1 cup apple juice

roasted pumpkin seeds, or chopped scallions for garnish (optional)
Heat olive oil over medium heat in a heavy pot. Add onions and ginger and cook, stirring often, for 4 minutes. 

Add sweet potatoes/yams/squash, apples, scallions and curry powder. Cook a couple minutes, stirring often, until apples soften slightly.

Add salt, pumpkin, broth and apple juice. Stir, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover loosely, and cook at a simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring every so often. 

In batches, puree soup in blender, (or use a hand blender), until smooth and creamy. Return to pot, warm through, and serve piping hot, topped with a sprinkling of roasted pumpkin seeds, or chopped scallions. This soup is even better day two.

And, for something equally as delicious and far more humorous, here’s a suggest from Food Network’s Alton Brown:

 

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I had the good fortune of chatting on Monday with Stephen Asprinio, chef, sommelier and restaurateur and former contestant on season No. 1 of “Top Chef” on Bravo TV.

Asprinio was the first person on the series to identify himself as a wine expert - and the last, I believe - and thus set himself apart on the show. Not enough to win, of course. Harold Dieterle took that season, but Stephen remained in the mind’s eye of “Top Chef” Nation ever since.

Asprinio went on to start a restaurant in Palm Beach, which he sold. He’s in Manhattan now, plotting his next move, which may include a restaurant in Dubai.

Anyway, I wanted to chat about holiday wine pairings with him and he was gracious enough to agree to record a Table Conversations podcast.

During the interview, I lobbed a hand grenade at him, asking what pairings he would suggest with some of the difficult personalities at the Thanksgiving table. It’s worth listening to, if only to hear his laughter at the question.

For the grumpy grandfather? Asprinio suggests “something tough, lean, mean and green” like a sharp, in-your-face, acidic Italian white wines.

For the perfect brother-in-law and his perfect wife, he’d pair an elegant pinot noir from Oregon, something that’s balanced and has fresh, fruity and Burgundian properties. (His words, not mine.)

And for the aunt who always wants to talk about her surgeries at the table?

“Something that has more style than substance, one of those big Napa Valley Cabs,” he said. “One of those big names everyone wants to talk about but who, at the end of the day, is not really worth the conversation.”

Which got me to thinking: What wines would I employ at the table to combat the awkward people in each of our lives?

I think it might go a little like this:

Louis M. Martini 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon

Price: $17

Flavors: red cherry, sage, blackberry.

Comments: “Nice and fruity.” “I usually don’t like reds because they’re bitter. This was not bitter at all.”

Phrase you should use to fake your wine expertise: “My, this is a fruit-forward selection.”

Pairs well with: The neighbor who brags about how he got out of the market before the recession.

*

La Crema 2008 Chardonnay

Price: $20

Flavors: This Sonoma coast has lots of citrus personality.

Comments: “The finish on this wine gets better the longer it stays on your palate.”

Phrase you should use to fake your wine expertise: “You may notice the abundance of subtle pear notes.”

Pairs well with: The sister who constantly brags about her children and their abundant hobbies

*

Hess Select 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon

Price: $17

Flavors: Cherry, plum, mild oak

Comments: “Not as bold as some Cabs … but that’s a good thing.”

Phrase you should use to fake your wine expertise: “This tastes like Mendocino County grapes should taste.”

Pairs well with: Single, misfit, refugee co-worker who unfortunately took you up on an offer to join you at the table despite your wish that she not do so.

*

Santa Margherita 2006 Chianti Classico

Price: $19.95

Flavors: Wild berries, spices and cherries. Subtle oak.

Comments: “This Chianti is one of the more elegant ones I’ve tasted.”

Phrase you should use to fake your wine expertise: “I’m not sure if you know this, but the word Chianti refers to the 35 miles of hills between Florence and Siena.”

Pairs well with: The nosy aunt who insists on checking each year on the status of your reproductive properties.

*

Jordan 2007 Russian River Valley Chardonnay

Price: $30

Flavors: Creamy, yet acidic, with apple, lemon and pineapple notes

Comments: “Can I please have a straw for this bottle?”

Phrase you should use to fake your wine expertise: “These grapes obviously were harvested in the early morning hours.”

Pairs well with: The sister-in-law with the immaculate makeup, outfit and Martha Stewart-worthy dish that she “just threw together.”

*

Red Diamond 2007 Merlot

Price: $10

Flavors: Plum, a little caramel and red berries

Comments: “Only 10 bucks? This is a steal.”

Phrase you should use to fake your wine expertise: “Washington State produces wonderful wines that rival those in Napa. This drinks like a $15 bottle.”

Pairs well with: The table’s designated food critic who picks at his food and complains how bad things were at Chez Panisse last time he was in Berkeley.

*

Cambria Julia’s Vineyard 2007 Pinot Noir

Price: $19.99

Flavors: Dark purple with a round palate, balanced acidity and a slight tannic finish.

Comments: “This is like drinking liquid cranberry sauce, only better. And I like cranberry sauce.”

Phrase you should use to fake your wine expertise: “The nose on this is generous, ripe, earthy, spicy and exotic.”

Pairs well with: The off-color uncle for whom the dinner table is a place to test out his latest blue material. Racial stereotypes, inappropriate language, sexual innuendo, you name it. All get served up with the gravy and stuffing. (And by gravy and stuffing, we mean, oh, never mind.)

*

Folie a Deux 2007 Amador County Zinfandel

Price: $24

Flavors: Raspberry, plum and blackberry with a smooth finish. Strong flavor but not overly tannic.

Comments: “I’d drink this wine with just about anything. It’s that versatile.”

Phrase you should use to fake your wine expertise: “I could swear I taste at least 5 percent Teroldego in this glass.”

Pairs well with: The football cousins for whom Thanksgiving is a holiday to gather and give thanks - for middle-of-the-week marathon NFL games.

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Unless you ate or worked at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Washington, D.C., you probably have never heard of Jérôme Girardot. The respected pastry chef was known for his quiet nature and his ability to turn chocolate into art. Former co-workers remember him saying that, “Anything you can see or imagine I can create in chocolate.” Monuments. Fifty-inch-tall Easter eggs. Anything.

Girardot was born in northeastern France and began learning about pastry as a young boy. Eventually specializing in chocolate, his career led him to the Ritz-Carlton in St. Thomas and later to the Ritz in Washington, D.C.

In February, Girardot, 32, was found dead at a park in the west side of Alexandria, Va. The state medical examiner declared his death a suicide, according to Washington City Paper.

To honor their friend and colleague, two dozen chefs and food celebrities will come together on Dec. 3 in Orlando for‘ A Night of Extreme Taste’ at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes. (Two more events in Chicago and Washington, D.C., are planned.) Proceeds will go to The Jerome Girardot Fund established to support his children, Noah, 5, and Luc, 3.

During the event, guests will be served the signature dishes of 12 noted savory chefs at individual stations as well as pairings of fine wines and spirits. Fittingly, 12 pastry chefs will collaborate to create a grand dessert buffet. All guests will receive a box of chocolate truffles created for the event by four celebrated chocolatiers, including Norman Love.

Participating in the meal will be Food Network’s “Ace of Cakes” star Geoff Manthorn; “Food Network Challenge” host Keegan Gerhard; Bravo’s ‘Top Chef’ contestants Jeff McInnis and Mike Voltaggio; Norman Van Aken; Melissa Kelly; and two-time world pastry champion and Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin executive pastry chef Laurent Branlard.

Tickets are $95 per person. For more information or to purchase, go online to www.jeromegirardotfund.com

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Here’s a bit of sad news for milkshake and ice cream lovers in Tampa: Snack City, an institution on Columbus Drive, is out of business.

Of the five decades the West Tampa institution had been around, Alfredo Naranjo , 77, owned it for three. He catered to a diverse clientele with tropical fruit creams for his Hispanic customers, saffron-laced Kesar Pista ice cream for Indian visitors and Lychee Nut ice cream for Asian treat-seekers.

Last year when Miami celebrity chef Michelle Bernstein came through town, I took her to Snack City to try the decadently creamy Dulce de Leche.

Me? I couldn’t resist a scoop of wonderfully fresh Guayaba. They also served what I thought were the best milkshakes in Tampa.

I spoke by phone this afternoon with Silvia, Alfredo’s wife of 54 years. She told me the shop closed two weeks ago.

She told me that the business hadn’t made a profit for three or four years. Recently, the store hadn’t made enough to pay the electricity bill. Rumors circulated online for years that the store was on the ropes.

“Alfredo is 77 years old,” she said in broken English. “We can’t work for nothing no more. It’s a shame. He makes the best ice cream.”

To put this in context, consider that when Snack City opened, it was during the Golden Age of the ice cream parlor. It survived the commercialization of ice cream, the franchising of ice cream shops and changes in the national diet.

As historian Gary R. Mormino wrote in the Tampa Tribune July last year:

Tampa entered the modern age with the arrival of Henry Plant‘s railroad in the 1880s. The transportation revolution made it possible for red snapper caught in Tampa Bay to be sped to New York’s City’s Fulton Fish Market in 24 hours.

Vast amounts of ice were necessary to refrigerate fish, vegetables, and beer. Tampa’s first ice factory opened at the Government Spring in 1884, in today’s Ybor City.

With abundant supplies to make ice cream, soda fountains and ice cream parlors followed, some palatial and ornate, others simple and unadorned. By 1893, Tampa boasted seven ice cream parlors.

Cuban immigrants brought a rich tradition of blending tropical fruits with cream and sugar. Heladarias (ice cream parlors) competed to see which prepared the finest sapodilla, alligator pear, and mango helados. In 1896, The Tampa Tribune praised the “Famous” ice cream served at “El Original,” a parlor on 14th Street in Ybor City.

Tampa Bay area dairies supplied tankers of milk and cream, but many produced their own specialties. Poinsettia Dairy, begun by William Barritt, manufactured ice cream. In 1915 it became the Tampa Dairy Company, and in 1943 it was acquired by Borden’s. Southern Dairies also made ice cream. Many Latin families also operated dairies.

By the 1920s, national brands arrived in the Tampa Bay area. Good Humor trucks and carts, manned by employees in their distinctive white uniforms, circulated widely.

The post-war decades introduced still more competition as national companies, such as Dairy Queen, Baskin-Robbins and Carvel, entered the Tampa Bay market. A few local favorites, such as Snack City in West Tampa and Bo’s in Seminole Heights, have managed to survive.

Following World War II, however, affluence meant owning a refrigerator with a freezer compartment. People could enjoy ice cream at home, anytime.

By the 1960s, as national chains started opening shops in malls, the old-fashioned Mom and Pop parlors, along with drug store soda fountains, were becoming sweet memories of a less hurried time.

Former Tribune reporter Phil Morgan wrote the definitive profile of Alfredo and Snack City in 1998. (Times reporter Jeff Klinkenberg wrote a great profile last year, too.)

Included in Phil’s story was this excerpt:

Ice cream smoothed the path to self-reliance after Naranjo came to this country. He and his family were able to leave Cuba in 1962, three years after Castro took over. His first job in the United States was as a janitor in a factory in Elizabeth City, N.J. It took him a year to learn English. He then rented an ice cream truck and saved to buy it. He saved to buy a second, then an ice cream shop and a coin-operated laundry.

He started taking annual vacations to Florida and decided to move here. He loved the weather. It was close to Cuba’s weather.

Havana was heaven to him, Naranjo says, smiling at the memory. He lived in El Vedado section, in a tall building overlooking El Morro fortress and El Maleco’n, the broad boulevard that stretches along the beach. He and a friend used to say that “the best part of the world is Cuba. The best part of Cuba is Havana, and the best part of Havana is El Vedado. And the best part of Vedado is here, where we live.”

He would love to see it again, but he would never go back for a visit, even if he could, as long as Castro is in power.

“I’m an extremist,” Naranjo says. “I’m political ... in every detail of my mind.”

His 21-year-old granddaughter, Stephanie Llona, stopping by on this Friday night, sums him up:

“He is a perfectionist, an idealist. He likes things done his way or no way. Very stubborn. Big, big heart,” she says, kissing him on his forehead on the way out the door.

His wife of 43 years, Silvia, says he “looks tough, but he’s not.”

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Today, during the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ home game against the Green Bay Packers, Lee Roy Selmon will become the first inductee in the team’s Ring of Honor at Raymond James Stadium. He’ll be joined by teammates from the 1979 Bucs squad that made the franchise’s first playoff run.

‘Twenty-five years after his retirement, the Hall of Fame defensive end is probably as well known in this area for his namesake restaurant (and expressway) as he is for his legendary football prowess.

I had a chance to sit for lunch with Selmon recently at his Boy Scout Road restaurant to talk about new dishes recently introduced on the down-home Southern-meets-gameday menu.

A plate of sliders — diners can choose from brisket, pulled pork, ground beef or hot dogs — are is now on the lunch and dinner menus ($5.99 to $6.49).

Peppercorn-crusted ahi tuna with wasabi, ginger and soy sauce ($6.99) and sweet potato fries with sweet vinaigrette ($5.99, above) are new appetizer choices. Spicy Jalapeno Rocket Pockets ($4.99), with bacon, jalapenos and three cheeses with red peppers sprinkled on top inside a crispy shell, are a great starter, too.

Selmon said his favorite is the Tropical Salmon Salad ($10.99, above), which features grilled and glazed salmon on a bed of baby spinach tossed with fresh strawberries, feta cheese, toasted cinnamon pepper pecans and sweet banana chips in a strawberry balsamic vinaigrette.

Yes, Selmon loves salmon. Keep the giggles to a minimum, please.

The new items are an effort to refresh the menu and give diners less expensive offerings so they can afford to eat out during the economic downturn.

Selmon learned about food while* working on the family farm as a boy in Oklahoma. He learned about restaurants while under the umbrella of OSI Restaurant Partners, home to Outback, Carrabba’s, Bonefish Grill, Fleming’s and Roy’s.

Selmon’s isn’t known for items like ahi tuna, but he said it reflects an effort to stay flexible in the marketplace.

“I relate a lot to my sports background and how the game changed somewhat from the time I came in as a rookie until I got out of it 10 years later,” Selmon said. “There was a lot of running when I came in and a lot of passing when I left. The fans changed, the presentation changed. Over time, we’ve been doing some changing at the restaurant as well to enhance the customer experience.”

“Our core values don’t change, like the fundamentals of sports,” he said. “I think it brings out the best in us when it happens.”

Next up are plans to expand to a seventh location, this time on State Road 60 in Brandon. It’s expected to open in March.

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Celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse started working on a cookbook a little more than a year ago, just as the economy took a nosedive. His worry: People would lose sight of cooking fresh and putting out good meals.

With a goal of helping home cooks adapt to time constraints during the week, he wrote “Emeril 20-40-60: Fresh Food Fast.” It’s published by HarperStudio.

Lagasse, proprietor of 11 restaurants including two in Orlando and one in Miami, visits the Tampa area at 3 p.m. today with a stop at the Books-A-Million in Westfield Brandon Shopping Mall.

The book is broken down into three sections: recipes that can be completed in 20 minutes or less, 40 minutes or less, and under 60 minutes.

We talked recently about the book for a Table Conversations podcast (you can listen to the entire interview by clicking here).

Emeril - how do you say in this country - was beyond cool. First, he tracked me down after I had a bout of brain flatulence and gave him the wrong number to call for the interview. I was walking through the newsroom in a panic when the cellphone in my hand rang.

“Hi Jeff, It’s Emeril.”

[Me trying to sound cool, while saying it loud enough for the newsroom to hear] “Oh, hi Emeril.”

Second, he put up with me telling him that when he was younger, he looked like a Jonas Brother. Then he tolerated me saying he now looked like the cool uncle of the Jonas Brothers.

Doubt me?

I rest my case.

Anyway, here’s an excerpt of the interview:

I’ve been fascinated by the psychological 20-minute threshold when it comes to cooking. Why do you think it’s important to have the three time frames?

We’re all busy and we all have different lives. Some of us have kids and we’re running around to ballet and school things and soccer. Some of us are just hardcore workers who are working longer days and the days are getting shorter. I really wanted to give people a sense of time, I wanted to give them a sense of quality and, if you thumb through the book, you’ll see that unless it’s a cultural dish, most include very simple ingredients that are in your pantry. There are a lot of side dishes we seem to forget about.

No. 2, I wanted to do what I’ve been preaching about for years, which is reducing the intimidation factor. I wanted to let people break it down and absorb it and cook it. A lot of the photographs, like the Kicked Up Shrimp Fried Rice and the Fettuccine with Peas and Ham have multiple photographs because I wanted to show people in the beginning, in the middle and at the end when they should add various ingredients. I think it will make them feel comfortable to see the technique.

When I see these cookbooks that say, “It’s a 20-minute recipe,” I’m thinking in the back of my head, “I don’t have a Viking range at home and a giant walk-in restaurant cooler. I hope these things are tested under real-life circumstances.”

Our test kitchens are basically home kitchens. We have three different modules for that. We have an upscale module, basically for expediency. We have a regular, down-home gas system. We have a few independent gadgets like a fryer and a steamer. And we even test them on electric appliances as well. We never ever take it to the commercial side of things. These are recipes for the home cook. This is not a chef’s book or a restaurant book.

I don’t think I’ve interviewed anyone who could be recognized, like Cher or Sting, by one name. With your level of success, how do you keep your food rooted in reality?

Well, I’m basically plugged into reality. … I was on (“Good Morning America”) yesterday. It doesn’t get any more real than when Whoopi Goldberg brings a bag of groceries that I have no idea what’s in it and I have an hour to cook what’s in it. It doesn’t get any more real than that.

I try to constantly preach that I put my pants on the same way as everybody else. I come home and I’m faced with the same things. I’ve been at the office and I get home later than I wanted to be or at the restaurant later than I wanted to be. I gotta spend time with the kids, try to teach them how to read, try to put a meal on the table, try to help my wife who’s been running around crazy all day as well. That’s reality, and when you forget about that, then it doesn’t become real anymore. For me, if it’s not real, then I don’t really want to be in the game.

That explains the Chili Mac recipe.

(Laughs) That’s exactly right. The nachos aren’t bad either.

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What’s that?

That’s the seafood ceviche you could be eating if you went to Zoofari tonight.

The Lowry Park Zoo’s 23rd annual food festival fundraiser takes place from 7-11 p.m. tonight. One major change: The Baldwin Connelly “Rhino Club” (a VIP-level ticket) moves to the Safari Lodge, the zoo’s new 17,000 square-foot indoor events facility.

For one ticket price, guests sample food from 60 restaurants from around Tampa Bay. (Did I mention the open bar? Good.)

The 2008 Zoofari “Best in Show” winner Ceviche returns, hence the seafood in the top photo.

Come to think of it, that trophy would be an excellent serving container for heaping amounts of cured seafood. I’m just sayin’.

The 2008 “People’s Choice” winner, GrillSmith, returns as well, along with such vendors as First Watch, Longhorn Steakhouse, Sonny’s Real Pit BBQ and G. Elliot’s Brunchery and Catering. Newcomeres include Giordano’s, Perkins Restaurant & Bakery and Datz Deli.

Entertaining the throng will be the Gainesville-based band Sister Hazel. You might know them from this song:

Entertaining the festival also will be Jason Young, Nate Najar, Alan Darcy, Grupo Havana Swing.

Oh, and The Vodkanauts:

Artwork also will be for sale at the Art Safari, as well as during a silent auction sponsored by Frame By Frame Galleries. 

The artwork is done by animals that use brushes, feet and noses on canvas with non-toxic paints as part of their enrichment program.

Tickets are $85 at the front gate. VIP/Group packages featuring early admission at 6 p.m. are $140 in advance by phone, and group packages are available.

Artwork also will be for sale at the Art Safari, as well as during a silent auction sponsored by Frame By Frame Galleries. 

The artwork is done by animals that use brushes, feet and noses on canvas with non-toxic paints as part of their enrichment program.

Tickets are $85 at the front gate. VIP/Group packages featuring early admission at 6 p.m. are $140 in advance by phone, and group packages are available.

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In February 2004, Jonathan Reynolds wrote a travel piece for the New York Times about wintertime vacationing in the Berkshires at the posh Wheatleigh Hotel in Lenox, Mass.

The article, headlined “Cuckoo for Cocoa,” lauded a chocolate-themed tasting menu by the hotel’s then-executive chef, J. Bryce Whittlesey.

“Whittlesey took over the kitchen two years ago, and the quality and imagination shot up directly,” Reynolds wrote.

The story explained how Whittlesey grew up in Latin America before moving to Florida. He later graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and trained in France before moving back to the United States.

Reynolds wondered if Whittlesey’s chocolate menu was a gimmick, or whether chocolate could, “enliven unsweetened dishes without contrivance.”

The writer went on to rave about the dinner, which he described as a culinary adventure worth a visit to the hotel to experience. The article helped establish the chef’s reputation in the region.

Fast forward four years. Whittlesey now owns Chez Bryce on Davis Islands, serving an eclectic menu for a devoted, growing customer base. I started eating there two years ago after the Plant High graduate returned to Tampa to open the restaurant.

On the Friday before Halloween, Whittlesey revisited the chocolate dinner idea with a night dedicated to a seven-course tasting menu.

He started with a spear-caught hog snapper crudo with caviar and tempura fried salad complemented by white chocolate, which has a high cocoa-butter content Whittlesey uses to balance the lean fish.

Later came pan-seared diver scallops and seared foie gras with blood orange vinaigrette and shaved fennel with cocoa nib nougatine.

Much moaning could be heard by patrons.

More were elicited by the butter-poached lobster with candied endive, orange and coriander with orange chocolate, which gave it a more subtle flavor than the traditional lemon dousing.

My favorite course: an applewood-smoked, bacon-wrapped venison loin with a coffee and spiced poached pear and celery root puree with 70 percent espresso chocolate. It was the best venison I’ve ever eaten.

For dessert, he presented “Textures in Chocolate”; White chocolate mousse, dark chocolate souffle & milk chocolate-espresso pot de creme served in an egg shell.

It was crazy delicious.

It also was extremely difficult for Whittlesey to replicate, mostly because he had difficulty finding commercial-quality venison locally. Finally, a purveyor in Orlando came through.

Whittlesey told me during the dinner that the tasting was a one-time event, but he plans to cycle some of the dishes through the regular menu.

Here’s a photo gallery I put together with photos from the outstanding evening:

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For more than two decades, St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church has put on the Tampa Greek Festival during the first weekend of November. And for all that time, Mary Nenos has prepared the baked goodies.

A member of the church since 1956, Nenos, 82, was one of the women who started the festival.

“I recruited everyone,” she remembered. “I went to the parish council, who were all men, and they were afraid to do it. I hit the table. I said, ‘If you don’t do it, the women will do it.’ They said, ‘We can’t let the women embarrass us.’ So they did it.”

That first festival took place at Curtis Hixon Hall on the Hillsborough River. There was no school or gymnasium at St. John’s like there is today. The event was a huge success. Curtis Hixon is now gone, but the church has a school and a gymnasium and enough land to have the event on its property.

The festival, which draws thousands of visitors, begins at 11 a.m. today at the church on the corner of Swann and Armenia avenues and runs through Sunday. Proceeds will benefit LifePath Hospice.

Nenos and dozens of helpers started baking in early October to prepare for the onslaught of hungry patrons who will want to fill their bellies with tasty spanakopita spinach pastries, gyro lamb sandwiches, honey-dripped baklava and powdery kourambiedes butter cookies with almonds.

During one Monday in mid-October, Nenos was busy preparing hundreds of pounds of dough to make a spice cookie called melomakarona.

“You can call it phoenikia if you want,” she told a visitor. “It’s easier.”

As 13 women in an adjacent room rolled the dough she made, Nenos manhandled 25-pound bags of flour and sugar with a helper handing her two pounds of butter and a half-dozen eggs at a time to dump into a mixer. The four cups of Crisco for every batch? She scooped those herself. She also handled the few ounces of Henry McKenna sour mash straight bourbon whiskey that gives the cookies a caramel flavor.

“One tablespoon for the pot, one for the cook,” a helper joked.

“No, no, no,” Nenos said with a laugh before noting that all the alcohol burns off when you bake. She then asked a friend to remove a large pan of pastichio from the oven. Nenos cooks lunch for her helpers, too.

The favorite treat among festivalgoers is koulourakia twisted butter cookies.

“People like to dunk them in coffee,” Nenos explained.

What makes Greek pastries so good?

“Love,” she said with another hearty laugh. Nenos laughs a lot.

Need proof? Check out the end of this video:

The irony is that she never learned to cook before she got married.

“I didn’t even know how to boil water,” she said. “My sister told me, ‘When you get married, you’re going to call me to make breakfast for your husband.’ You know what happened? I made him cook. I was smart.”

Cooking for thousands doesn’t intimidate her. The first week of October, she and the parish women baked 6,100 koulourakia in one day

“People don’t have the guts to cook,” she said. “Me? If you spoil it one time, that’s alright. The next time will be okay.”

Here’s a gallery of photos I shot the day I visited Nenos and her co-horts:

IF YOU GO

WHAT: 2009 Tampa Greek Festival, with food, music, Greek dancing, outdoor shopping and kids’ activity area

WHEN: 11 a.m. – 10 p.m. today and Saturday; 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: St. John Greek Orthodox Church, 2418 Swann Ave., Tampa

ADMISSION: $2 at the door; free for ages 12 and younger

 

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