Food Facts – Page 7 – THE DUDE OF FOOD

Oida! Oktoberfest Wedding. The Dude of Food loves Munchen, Bavaria und Helles bier!

Oktoberfest approaches again and the Dude of Food can barely wait!

The original Oktoberfest celebration began as a wedding party in Munich on October 12th, 1810 when Prince Ludwig of Bavaria (later King Ludwig I) married Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. All of Munich and the surrounding areas were invited to enjoy the joining of these 2 love birds. It’s been written that approximately 40,000 folks attended the party. The celebrating included a large feast, jousting and a horse race in the Sendlinger part of town at the current Oktoberfest party grounds. The wedding party lasted for many days. Everyone partied and good times were had by all.

There was entertainment at the Marienplatz, the Promenadenplatz and other spots about the city. 32,065 buns, 3,992 pounds of Swiss cheese, 400 kilos of mutton, 8,120 sausages and 13,300 pairs of smoked sausages were distributed for free. 6,125 gallons of beer and 98 gallons of Austrian white wine were also served. 150 musicians entertained the fun loving crowd.

The actual wedding took place in the Court Chapel of the Munich Residenz.

I worked for Heidi Klum for 9 years on Germany’s Next Top Model and fell in love with the awesome crew, German people and their culture overall. Oida! Ish liebe Bavaria und Germany. Vielen danke und prost.

The United Nations World Food Program

The United Nations World Food Program is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger. This agency and the good people that work here are doing something to help. Go to their web page and get educated about what is going on and how your business can help.

You may be able to help pick up the waste left over by these camps too. Trash left behind

The Dude of Food picks a new California Chardonnay Taste Test leader.

The results are in. From the 6 bottles tested in round 1 of the Dude of Food’s search for the best inexpensive California Chardonnay on June 22, 2015 we have a winner. The notes have been compared and the winner of this tight competition was Sonoma County’s Storyteller Chardonnay. That was until I updated this story on July 28, 2015. While the Storyteller was holding down the 1st place spot the Dude of Food added three more bottles of Chardonnay to his list. The new results follow-

1st Place – Nitty Gritty Chardonnay Napa Valley 2012 3.9

2nd Place – STORYTELLER 2012 3.8

3rd Place – Ghost Pines Chardonnay blend 2013 3.6

4th Place – Kendall-Jackson Vinter’s Reseve 2013 3.5

5th Place – Benziger 2012 3.3

6th Place- Frei Bros Reserve 2013 3.2

7th Place – Hawkstone 2013 3.0

8th Place – EDNA Valley 2013 2.9

“Favorite Pizzeria in Firenze” says the Dude of Food

If you happen to be visiting the incredible city of Florence, Italy and are hungry for a piece of pizza then get yourself over to Pizzeria del Duomo next to the Duomo church. This is the place! The staff is hospitable, they make great food and have tables out front in the plaza to sit and enjoy your slices. Be sure to try the meatball pizza. I love this place and went to visit daily. Motto grazie.

When in Florence the Dude of Food loves Bar Porta Al Prato.

Seen from the street, Bar Porta Al Prato looks like this corner building. Sitting quietly, this recently opened culinary beauty awaits your entrance, offering everything one could desire once you make your way through the doors and into the soul of this gem. I went daily.

Bar Porta Al Prato in Firenze offers both a great indoor environment or a huge patio out back to enjoy. The staff here are awesome, extremely helpful, talented, generous and fun besides offering many delicious and thoughtfully prepared Tuscan dishes.

Their menu offers everything from pizza and gelato to pasta and fine wine and everything in between. What a great way to spend quality time dining with your family, friends or team while in Florence.

The delicious wine comes from local vineyards that produce some excellent flavors. The homemade gelato is delicious and kid approved. (see photo below)

Thank you Bar Porta Al Prato for everything. The Dude of Food thinks you guys are doing a great job. Keep up the awesome hospitality and great food. They can also be found on Facebook by searching Bar Samus Porta. Grazie.

The Dude of Food likes Georges Burgers in Santa Monica

http://georgesburgersla.com/

You are on the Westside. The traffic is a bitch. The air is not as hot as the valley that you escaped from. It’s overcast and you don’t surf anyways. There is no parking by the beach. It’s a mess all over. The Dude of Food knows the best thing you can do is go get some food at Georges Burgers on Lincoln Blvd and head back home. Georges Burgers is located at 3101 Lincoln Blvd in Santa Monica, CA 90405

The George’s t-shirt I have has been to Europe at least twice if not 3 times.

Don’t be one of those idiots that eats in your car and then opens the door and leaves your trash on the ground.

You can call in your request ahead at 310-452-0445

They serve breakfast all day too!

Thank you George’s Burgers.

“Saibling, Char, whatever. Steckerlfisch is awesome!”, the Dude of Food.

luds lunche — **Brotzeit made by the Dude of Food in Sindelsdorf**
photo: pete pearce

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steckerlfisch

If you like fish, especially salmon then you’ll most likely love Saibling fish, also known as Char. It is a lake fish once forbidden to be eaten by all Bavarians, except King Ludvig himself. It’s referred to by some as ‘the Kings fish’. A heavy penalty would come to those caught stealing the King’s fish.

Munich vendors in the local beer gardens have these grills designed so they can put a fish with a stick running through the center of it in a good spot to cook over the charcoals. Make sure to visit these fish vendors, set up in the beer gardens, as they are worth checking out. Get yourself a date, a masse of beer each, a bowl of obatzda to share, a pretzel and your choice of stick fish in paper and set up at a table with your friends and enjoy the fun. You won’t be disappointed. The English Garden is really nice and one of the largest urban parks in the world. The Hirschgarten is 2 hectares in area, dates back to 1791 and has deer’s in it. There are numerous beer gardens of various sizes all over town and all worth visiting.

When south of Munchen, in Sindelsdorf, on farmer’s market day you will most likely find a vendor selling freshly smoked Saibling fish. The Dude of Food says run, don’t walk, to this vendor and get the biggest fish you can choose. I cannot speak for the Forelle, which is supposed to be ‘as good’ but never sells out as fast as the saibling fish. The third common fisch you will see is Mackerel which are also really good. Personally, I think Saibling is the best and I love the town of Sindelsdorf. Oida Sindelsdorf family und prost. Vielen danke und liebe. Ein prosit, ein prosit . . .

Steckerlfisch can be eaten for breakfast, brotzeit, lunch, dinner or while sleep walking at night and is best consumed with cold German Helles Bier. Get some!

It’s better than ice cream!

The Dude of Food meets Off The Shelf catering and likes it!

Good food is what fuels good thoughts in good creative people which is what the Dude of Food happens to be. It’s when the middle managed, mucky mucks and bean counters sitting in the offices eating their favorite foods from their favorite restaurants decide to save $80. on crew lunch cost by budget cutting catering costs for the hard working stage crew that catches the attention of folks and creates division in the ranks. Caterers are painted into a corner and forced to try and prepare healthy meals on a peanut butter and jelly budget.

The creative chef, Yossi Faigenblat, worked for Dustin Hoffman as the actors private chef. The food was ‘All That’ and Hoffman encouraged chef Yossi to get into the catering game. That was in 2003. They opened a craft service /catering company for the movie industry. The kitchen line up has changed over the years and Off The Shelf has grown and now operates a couple trucks in New York and a few more in Los Angeles. Off The Shelf has both catering trucks and craft service trucks so their awesome creative food can be shared with all of the folks behind the scenes that make the actors playgrounds look so fabulous.

In Feb 9, 2010 Saveur magazine did an article (issue # 127) on movie industry catering companies that included Off The Shelf’s quality food preparation. The link below will take you there.

http://www.saveur.com/article/Travels/Fresh-Off-The-Truck

OTS is not cheap but will do wonderful things with the budget you have. The goal at Off The Shelf as told to the Dude of Food is ‘high end quality food and making people smile’ and this is something the folks at OTS catering are doing quite well. The Dude of Food would like to personally say ‘Thank you OTS and keep up the great work.”

Off The Shelf can be located at the following web address. http://www.otscatering.com/

OTS can also be followed on Facebook and other social media outlets.

The Dude of Food infuses tequila

On a visit to the Border Grill in Santa Monica, on an Easter Sunday morning, I was introduced to a cool new flavor. The Dude of Food was intrigued and decided to try to recreate this awesome taste at home. The famous chef and restaurant owner, Susan Feniger, knows about food and her staff impresses. The bartender on Sunday made us try this tequila infused with cucumber and jalapeno peppers and it was delightful. This was the flavor I needed to try an re-create.

So I went to the store and bought some agave tequila, cucumbers and a jalapeno pepper and put it all together in a mason jar. In a few days I looked forward to a cool refreshing taste.

A few days later I had created a spicy tequila that didn’t have quite enough cucumber flavor, but was still really good. The Dude of Food says ‘try this at home’.

teq — click photo to see what Elaine @ Dishes Delish says

The Dude of Food likes Loveless Cafe Plain Ol’ Hot Sauce.

Off of Highway 100 in Nashville is a place called the Loveless Cafe. You may not be close enough to walk in but you can go to their web page and check out the stuff they make.

http://store.lovelesscafe.com/product/hot-sauce/sauce-seasoning

The Plain Ol’ Hot Sauce is one of the secret ingredients the Dude of Food adds to his homemade michelada recipe. It adds the perfect amount of spice. Truth be told, the Dude of Food also likes Red Rooster, Frank’s, Texas Pete’s and Crystal from Louisiana. They all go great in a michelada, on grits, greens, smothered chicken, gravy, stuffing, waffles, wings, eggs and much more.