Friday’s Food Excursion

Followers of the Al Dente Facebook page likely saw a remark from my friend Mary Kate, who questioned why I would spend a day off from work going grocery shopping:

This…this was not merely a grocery shopping trip. Yes, I was going to multiple grocery stores. Yes, I would push a cart around and load it down. But, no, I wasn’t grocery shopping.

I’d say that it was somewhere between feeding my obsessions and food tourism.

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Flour City Pasta is a longtime favorite of Al Dente. We stop by their booth at the Central New York Regional Market each week, sometimes even when we don’t need anything, to pick up a half-pound. They are regulars at farmer’s markets around Rochester and their products can be found on the shelves at organic food stores, like Syracuse’s Green Planet Grocery. They recently relocated from Fairport to the village of Pittsford, which gives them much more exposure at a cost.

Jon Stadt, the owner, said that the landlord owns the building only. They have no storage area on site, keeping their organic flour offsite in Pittsford storage space, and the building owner has to rent space for dumpsters that his tenants can use.

The new space has an open working space, welcoming onlookers to watch malfadine and conchiglie tumble from the machine, or as pastamakers fashion fresh ravioli on a work bench facing the door. Wooden pallets were retrofitted into the wall and window shelving, while wooden crates surround the ravioli freezer and other non-wooden items on the floor. F. Oliver’s, an artisan oil and vinegar shop, has floor space along the right wall.

Jon was pretty proud of his new digs as he showed The Wife and I around. Ravioli production was just getting underway, as a restaurant had just come in and claimed the remainder of the fresh product. The bread guy was on his way as well. A refrigerated case upfront held sauces and meatballs, making Flour City a one stop shop for dinner.

When we mentioned that we were headed to Trader Joe’s to pick up some gluten-free stuff, Jon said that he has requests for a gluten-free pasta but cross-contamination makes that impossible. He showed the gluten-free Le Veneziane-brand pasta that he recently started carrying. The corn-based pasta is considered to be the best gluten-free option made in Italy. We added a bag of that to a box of braised beef ravioli and went on our way to Trader Joe’s.

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Following the load up at Trader Joe’s, we made our way to the Park Avenue Neighborhood for a visit to the city’s F. Oliver’s outlet. The Rochester storefront is one of three for owner Penelope Pankow (Canandaigua and Ithaca mark her other locations, in addition to the space at Flour City Pasta).

F. Oliver’s does not press the oils themselves. They import oils and vinegars from around the world, infusing them with fruits, peppers, and herbs in specially crafted pots.

I have received gifts from F. Oliver’s in the past. My CEO said that if I ever had the time, that I needed to stop in for a tasting. Allison was behind the counter on Friday, walking The Wife and I around to taste infused oils and vinegars. The tasting was very much like a visit to a winery, with swirling and using the palm of the hand to warm the contents of the tasting cup to bring out the flavors. Allison asked us what flavors we liked, what foods we ate a lot of and moved with precision to offer tastes of oils that we would enjoy, as along with a complementary vinegar.

Blood orange oil and fig vinegar? Yes.

Blood orange oil and espresso vinegar? Oh yeah!

Persian lime oil with blushing peach vinegar? Very much so.

I think what stands out about both Flour City Pasta and F. Oliver’s was that the owner was out front, not hiding in an office. Penelope talked with The Wife for a few minutes, chatting about the recent wave of expansion the business has gone through as well as her future plans. She suggested that we head to South Wedge next to explore a couple of shops along South Avenue and have lunch at one of her favorite spots, Open Face. She ran in back and actually printed us directions from the store to Open Face. Who does that?

Penelope does.

Three bottles of oil and vinegar later, we left for lunch.

***

What stands out at both of these businesses is their owner. They are the face of their companies, working the floor while the people are there and leaving the backroom stuff until later. They interact with customers, walk around their stores pointing out things that they are proud of, and ensuring both the quality of their product and the experience.

I’m under no illusions that owning a small business is an easy thing to do. Jon is at that shop all six days it is open, plus he’s on the road at the farmer’s markets in the region. The expansion felt by F. Oliver’s meant tremendous risk for Penelope and her business. They didn’t flip switches overnight to build their cult following of devotees like me.

Did Jon and Penelope have others things to do — better things to do — than talk to The Wife and me? Probably. But, they also understand that building relationships, no matter how good the product or service, is what sustains a business long term.

And good on them.

Flour City Pasta is located at 5 S. Main St. in the village of Pittsford. Its storefront is open Monday through Saturday. You can find them at nearly every farmer’s market in Rochester and the Central New York Regional Market in Syracuse. Their pasta can also be ordered online.

F. Oliver’s Rochester location is at 747 Park Ave. They also have locations on Main Street in Canandaigua and in the Gateway Commons district of Ithaca. Those stores are open seven days a week. F. Oliver’s can also be found at Flour City Pasta. Their products can also be purchased through their website.

MYO: Pan-searing flour

This was originally posted on January 23, 2011. I’m going back in time for two reasons: 1) I took photos of my last batch. 2) I’m coming across a lot of recipes calling for a seasoned flour. The writing reflects the very early voice of this blog, but the recipe holds. 

I like Wegmans‘ Menu magazine. The recipes are pretty good, for the most part. I qualify my statement because of their simplicity and lowest-common-denominator approach to cooking. Menu is a venue for Wegmans’ store-brand products. Take their recipe for bowtie pasta with vodka blush sauce and chicken. The vodka blush sauce is purchased from the prepared foods section. No skill. No simmering to cook the alcohol off. Just open a package and dump into a pan. It irritates me, but then again, I get irritated over little things.

In other cookbooks and publications, pan-searing meat like chicken begins with a dusting of flour, sprinkle of salt and some cracked pepper. Wegmans, like any good retailer, makes their own seasoned blend, but there’s a cheaper way to do it. Make your own.

Untappd: An app for showy drinkers

If you are a Facebook friend or Twitter follower, you’ll no doubt see the occasional item that looks like this:

Surprisingly good — Drinking a Ruthless Rye IPA (2012) by @sierranevada @ The 112— untp.it/15lhUjs

— jaredpaventi (@jaredpaventi) February 16, 2013

Last week while in Dallas, one of my former students marveled at how I was still able to post Tweets after my sixth beer. I explained that I was talented. In reality, I’m not. I (wait for it) have an app for that.

Untappd (tagline: Drink Socially) is the FourSquare for the beer-loving set. Whereas FourSquare makes you think that people care about what store/airport/restaurant/room of the house you are currently in, Untappd allows you to announce what beer you are currently imbibing. The app is a reflection of its co-founder Tim Mather: “a melding of technology and…love for all things beer.” 

It’s not just a grocery list. It’s an attitude.

A necessary attitude when battling the zombie shoppers at Wegmans Fairmount.

Jared’s Irrefutable Laws of Cooking Steak

One of the good traits I picked up from my father (and there are few) was an understanding of how food should be cooked, particularly meat. We would eat steaks, typically on Saturday nights after mass (assuming I was not at work) during the summer. He would let them sit out for an hour or two, letting them come to room temperature, grill them then let them sit so the juices would collect.

He likes his beef rare. Whenever we’d go out for dinner, he would order burgers medium rare (you never know what happens in the kitchen) and steaks rare. Because my mother was under the delusion that blood meant imminent disease and death, those Saturday night steaks were almost always medium well.

Watch my electric meter spin

When we bought The House back in 2007, we had no idea what the hell this thing did. The GE Advantium on the wall adjacent to the refrigerator was sort of a mystery. Our realtor raved, telling us that all of the new houses with high-end kitchens came with them, but when we asked her what it did, she shrugged.

Convection ovens are one of the must-have appliances in kitchen renovations and new homes. They cut down on cook times and are relatively easy to clean. It’s the happy medium for a double wall oven when space does not allow for it.

Naturally, we were skeptical when we fired it up and cooked chicken breasts on a rainy day when I didn’t feel like grilling. Jokingly, we’ve named it our cancer oven as the pulsating interior lights give it that nuclear reactor feel. But, unlike a microwave, the Advantium uses a series of 1,000-watt halogen bulbs to heat air that is circulated by fans to cook food. Those chicken breasts? They were partially frozen. The Advantium cooked them through in six minutes.

Al Dente Conversion Chart

Every so often, my sister calls me with a cooking-related question. It used to be recipe questions (“How do you make chicken cacciatore?”) but now its more measurement-type stuff — how many cups are in a quart (4) or how many tablespoons are in an ounce (2)?

It got me thinking about how to make it easier for her. I have a nifty magnetic conversion chart next to my stove, but that only does cups, tablespoons and the like. Sometimes, you need more.

So, I offer you “more,” in the form of the official Al Dente Conversion Chart. Download it, post it next to your stove/oven/wood-fired pizza oven/campfire and give it a glance. And, if you have any suggestions, send them along. There’s always room for a version 2.0.

Kitchen Essentials: Tools

A canister full of awesome.

There are just some things that every kitchen needs. Not that you want…need. For me, this breaks down to spices, tools, cookware and books. We’ll wrap it up with the tools and gadgets you need on hand.

I have a weakness. Okay, I have more than one weakness. For our purposes, we’ll talk about what happens when I walk into a Williams-Sonoma. Like a mosquito to fluorescent light, I’m drawn to the gadget section. Do I need a lobster cracker? No. (Jared trivia: I don’t even like lobster.) That doesn’t stop me from playing with it. Wooden spoons? At last count, I had eight. Yet, I check them out as they were a new invention. It’s actually worse at an outlet mall. The Corningware/Revereware store has a massive selection of Oxo-brand tools that sucks me in like a kid a Toys R Us.

When it comes to kitchen gadgets there are the necessities and the luxuries. These are what I would call the basic necessities for your kitchen.