Epic Portions

Author: Todd

  • Epic Travels: The Red Iguana (Salt Lake City, UT)

    So summer is starting, which means conference season for my work.  This means I get to travel a bit and eat food at exotic locales.  This week I had the pleasure of heading to Salt Lake City, Utah.    That’s right – when I think exotic, I think Salt Lake City, home of the LDS (Mormon Church), trollies, hardworking pioneers, and lots and lots of white people.  Well, one thing we know about white people – they love their mexican food.

    Killer Mexican? Absolutely.
    Killer Mexican? Absolutely.

    This is evident at Salt Lake City’s Red Iguana restaurant, a hip, continuously packed mexican joint across the highway from downtown Salt Lake.   After being seated, we were brought delicious, tangy salsa, home-made chips, and tasty margaritas made from your choice of around 8 different tequilas (all under $6.50).  The Red Iguana seems to be known for their creative and playful interpretation of mexican Mole sauces (pronounced MOH-lay), which they make from dried and fresh chiles, nuts, spices, herbs, fruits, and vegetables.  Upon opening the menu, I was seduced by this little number:

    “PUNTAS DE FILETE A LA NORTEÑA: Top sirloin tips sautéed with bacon, jalapeños strips, onions and fresh tomatoes, served on top the almond mole. Refried beans and tortillas complete this much loved dish.”

    Mother of God.  Word?  Serious?  An almond mole?  While I’ve never actually been brought to the point of licking a plate at a restaurant, I dare say that I came close on this particular occasion.  Perhaps the best (and most lacking) description that I can come up with right now (its 5:30 AM after a red-eye flight) is this: almond mole sauce tastes to be the mexican equivalent of a hearty, smoother, vodka pasta sauce. Er, except without the cream.  And the tomato.  And it has almonds in it.

    Almond Mole with sirloin tips, bacon, and jalapeno slices.
    Almond Mole with sirloin tips, bacon, and jalapeno slices.
    "Is this almond mole hitting on me right now? I mean, maybe I'm getting mixed signals, but I think there's chemistry here."
    "Is this almond mole hitting on me right now? I mean, maybe I'm getting mixed signals, but I think there's chemistry here."

    The menu presents a ridiculous number of other delicious possibilities, including the more traditional (or at least more common) Mole Negro, a mole composed of dried chile mulato, negro pasilla, Mexican chocolate, raisins, peanuts, walnuts & bananas that can be tossed with chicken or turkey, sprinkled with a blend of queso ranchero and cotija, and then topped pickled red onions. If you’re into chocolate-based Mole, this one will surely knock your fucking socks off.  If you’re into that kind of thing.


    Red Iguana
    736 West North Temple
    Salt Lake City, UT 84116
    801-322-1489
    Online: http://www.rediguana.com/home.html


  • Epic Travels: JetBlue JFK Terminal Eatery

    Inside JFK airport's new JetBlue terminal Inside JFK airport’s new JetBlue terminal

    Betcha never thought you’d see a place in an airport terminal reviewed on a food blog.  I betcha a million dollars.  You know why?  Cause airport eating sucks.  It sucks so bad.  Todd hates flying for 4 major reasons: 1) security (usually former prison guards), 2) jet lag, 3) non-free access to the inter-webs, and 4) horrendous food on the plane, at the airport, and even on the way to the airport (strip clubs, hooters, and “Chotchkie’s”-styled terrible chain restaurants just don’t do it for me).

    Why?  Why do this?  Especially to the poor traveling public, many of which do not appreciate being frisked for no good reason only to go on to eat at one of the many terrible airport burrito chains.  [Fun side-note: to create your own burrito chain, use any fun combination of the following words, in any order: baja, chipotle, fresh, fast, fiesta, amigo, taco, pepper.  Now you too can open the fun, new “baja amigo fiesta fresh” restaurants in the airport of your choosing!]

    Well, friends, the world changed when JetBlue decided to be a unique example of an American airline taking their heads out of their backsides and opened an airport terminal that actually acts as a functional hub for a modern, traveling, HUNGRY populace.  The new Terminal (#6) at JFK airport in New York is a beacon of gastronomical hope in a world of shit-laced peanuts and crappy, greased up tacos.

    An airport foodcourt for the 21st century
    An airport foodcourt for the 21st century
    Eateries opened include a cake place (serving NY cheesecake among others) called “Aunt Butchies,” as well as a “Famous Famiglia Pizzeria,” a NY-style pizza chain that started on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.  How about that?   A NY Cheesecake/pizza place in…New York.  An airport that actually desires to serve regionally-styled food to the gazillion people that pass through it a year?  And that’s not all friends…

    "What? It's 6 in the morning and you want breakfast? HELL NO! You're getting a corned beef and swiss sandwich! Too early you say?! Fine - you're getting peppers on it too!"
    "What? It's 6 in the morning and you want breakfast? HELL NO! You're getting a corned beef and swiss sandwich! Too early you say?! Fine – you're getting peppers on it too!"
    Bam! Meat and Peppers! In the morning! Take that, Todd's jetlagged internal clock!
    Bam! Meat and Peppers! In the morning! Take that, Todd's jetlagged internal clock!

    Among many others, there is a burrito place (yes – ‘mex and the city,’ witty if not slightly offensive), a smoothie place, Dunkin Donuts (god yes), and an honest to god Boar’s Head Deli.  Boar’s head!  A great mass-market deli meat now forms the basis of an airport deli, which, by the way, employs a touch-screen ordering system.  I was as shocked as you are.  So the next time you have the choice between flying direct on some crappy 5:30 am flight or taking a quick spin through JFK, remember that your trip could be substantially more pleasant given good architecture, free WI-FI, ample laptop plugs, and food that actually makes you look forward to grabbing a bite at the airport.  Oh yeah, did I mention that you can order food at a laptop stand and they actually deliver it to you…in the airport.

    For more info: http://www.jetblue.com/about/jfk/food.html

    For more about the even more hoity-toity dining opportunities in JFK: http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/sunday/travel/ny-trglobe5886195oct19,0,7935547.story

  • Heavenly Cheese Plate

    Good livin’ starts with Cheese!  Southern Season, the world’s greatest gourmet store (http://www.southernseason.com/) is having a cheese sale.

    Oh.  Boy.  A sale.

    At the most expensive gourmet shop ever.  So…we ended up spending a mint, but a smaller-than-usual mint…on cheese.

    This cheese plate/dinner included:

    • Mimolette
    Mimolette is a hard, aged cheese that looks like a cantelope. Somewhere between Cheddar and Gouda.
    Mimolette is a hard, aged cheese that looks like a cantelope. Somewhere between Cheddar and Gouda.
    • An aged Munster – gotta love the stinky cheese
    • An Italian Gorgonzola – nice, smooth bleu, and…
    • A lite, mild double creme (can’t remember the name to save my life)

    To round it out, we mixed in some kickass Prosciutto de Parma (italian!), Dry Salami., fresh tomatoes, and basil and garlic olive oils.  Finally, we stacked it all on  cherry, chocolate bread and pieces of a rustic, country loaf from Weaver Street Market (our local food Co-op)

    Good God.  Delicious!

    Cheese Plate of the Gods!
    Cheese Plate of the Gods!
    Gorgonzola, Munster, and Tomatoes
    Gorgonzola, Munster, and Tomatoes