MissouriLife Articles

Tomato tales

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:13:31 GMT

Vegetable to fruit and everthing in between

By Nina Furstenau

The 1978 movie Attack of the Killer Tomatoes begins with a tomato rising out of a woman’s garbage can in a parody of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 The Birds. They find the woman later, and it isn’t pretty.

The movie ends ominously for the tomatoes. They are cornered in a stadium and then stomped and squashed by humans. All except one, who survives when the hero sings to the gigantic tomato girl the love song “Puberty Love.”

You have to understand that there were three, yes three, sequels to Attack. The movie is a pop culture icon.

Since love of tomatoes wins the day in Attack, I will begin there.

George Washington Carver, who grew up at Diamond, courted public favor for the tomato back in 1918 when we were still reluctant to eat them, publishing How to Grow a Tomato—115 Ways to Prepare It for the Table. Carver considered tomatoes the oranges of the Missouri garden and thought tomatoes were a good addition to the table and to the nutrient-poor diets of his neighbors. He was right. Just one medium-sized tomato provides about half of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin C. Plus, there’s the taste.

No coaxing is needed today. In an informal survey (taken while walking around during my day), the tomato was the unanimous pick for favorite garden vegetable. Americans eat an average of about one hundred pounds of medium-sized tomatoes per year, almost half of them fresh and the rest canned, according to Robert Hendrickson in American Tomato. The best of those come right out of our Missouri gardens, and most are never vengeful. Nor do we typically stomp them.

In fact, my vote for best tomato moment is when I’m waist-high in sticky leaves, out amongst them in their element, if you will. Try it: Gently clasp the fruit of this vine, notice how the pluck of harvest resounds along both the stem of the tomato plant and your arm; sink your teeth through ripe pulp, thrust out your chin and—wait for it—catch the dribbles.

The tasty burst upon the tongue has an additional advantage: With focus, it can stay with you throughout every bite of a summertime meal.

Despite amazing flavor, the tomato began humbly. It first grew in the Andes and is still found there, throughout Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, growing wild like shriveled grape clusters on a vine. It became a cultivated crop in Central America and then Mexico after Mayan seafaring traders brought the seed to the Yucatan, Hendrickson says. The traders called the fruit tomatl, or xtomatl, and so prized it that tomato images are traced on heritage pottery from the region.

The tomato began its circuitous journey back to the New World by first joining up with Cortez. In 1521, after battling Aztec uprisings, Cortez and his group took tomatl seeds from the Chichen Itza market back to Europe, Hendrickson says. The seeds, jostled by an ocean voyage, took root first in Spain, where the new fruit was hailed as a rare new food.

Its lush color and plumpness gave it an allure it never acquired in the Americas. It began to be called the “love apple” and gained a reputation of being an aphrodisiac. And truly, the inside of a tomato looks a bit like a human heart—the very seat of love—with its four chambers.

A Spanish chef is said to have combined the fruit with olive oil, spices, and onions to create the first tomato sauce. People living on the perimeter of the Mediterranean adored the new food, perhaps in part because of its aura of mystery, and a developing cuisine flourished around the tomate. The Spaniards took the seeds into Asia, and the tomato continued to become a major player in the diets of many nationalities.

Semantics, however, played a role in the tomato’s slightly sinful new image. “All Spaniards at the time were called Moors, and one story has it that an Italian gentleman told a visiting Frenchman that the tomatoes he had been served were ‘Pomi del Moro’ (Moor’s apples), which to his guest sounded like ‘pommes d’amour,’ or ‘apples of love,’” Hendrickson wrote. Hendrickson also cites another version, which claims that the phrase “apples of love” derives from the Italian pomo d’oro (golden apple), identical to today’s Italian name for the tomato, pomodoro. In fact, yellow tomatoes were among the first varieties to be introduced to Europe.

That tomatoes were titillating, perhaps as oysters are today, made way for a darker image. Membership in the nightshade family didn’t help. The tomato’s first botanical name, Lycopersicon, which means “wolf peach” in Greek, is close to Lycopersicon esculentum, a reputedly deadly aphrodisiac. German tales give tomatoes a sinister aura, linking them with werewolves and the witches needed to evoke them, a practice known as lycanthropy (hence, wolf peach). By 1544, the plant was aligned with mandrake, henbane, and belladonna, all extremely poisonous plants, by Italian herbalist Pietro Andrea Mattioli, in his Commentaries on the Six Books of Dioscorides.

The unbecoming image was actually true—for the leafy parts of the plant. In fact, all parts of the tomato plant except the fruits are toxic and cause severe digestive upset. Though fully ripe tomatoes have virtually no alkaloid toxin, a Cornell University study says less than two ounces of tomato leaves are likely lethal for an adult.

So, let’s not graze on tomato leaves in the garden.

One folk story has it that an English host served the talked-about tomato to a grand gathering after which all in attendance became ill. The cook apparently diced up the leaves of the plant as well as the fruit. After this, the English opted for safety and relegated the tomato to the greenhouse for floral ornamentation, not consumption. An English traveler wrote in 1596, “these love apples are eaten abroad,” but went on to describe them “of rank and stinking savour.”
Northern European countries regarded the tomato as a mere curiosity for over a century.

Stateside, the lush, scarlet image of the tomato was too much for our Puritan forefathers. A little resistance was in order, and we took our cue from the British and Germans. At first, Missourians used tomatoes primarily as a remedy for not-so-appetizing pustules.

Tomato suspicion lingered until 1820, or possibly 1830, when Col. Robert Gibbon Johnson of Salem, New Jersey, declared he would eat a bushel on the courthouse steps. In this possibly tall tale, his doctor predicted frothing at the mouth and tortured death. Two thousand people came to watch. Though Thomas Jefferson grew the plant at Monticello in 1781, not until Johnson ate the tomatoes publicly without dying did people believe.

Talk about Show-Me philosophy in play.

By 1835, the editor of the Maine Farmer wrote that tomatoes were safe to eat, and seed catalog listings for tomatoes grew exponentially throughout the next century. In 1863, a popular seed catalog listed twenty-three cultivars, and among them was Trophy, the first modern-looking large, red, smooth-skinned variety, which fetched five dollars for a packet of twenty seeds. Today, Heirloom Tomatoes of Hilliard, Ohio, currently offers more than four hundred varieties of heirloom tomatoes, typically for $2.95 per seed packet. Popular varieties of tomatoes that grow well in Missouri are Beefmaster, Better Boy, Big Beef, Celebrity, Jet Star, Lemon Boy, Pik Rite, Pink Girl, and the Missouri Pink Love Apple, according to the University of Missouri Extension web site.

Botanically, tomatoes are giant berries, yes, berries, or fruits belonging to the potato family, but legally the tomato is generally a vegetable. To counter a case brought by John Nix, a tomato importer, the U.S. Supreme Court held in 1893 that the tomato and all plants “grown in kitchen gardens, including potatoes, carrots, turnips, beets, cauliflower, cabbage, celery, and lettuce” had to be considered a vegetable when it was served in soup or with the main course of a meal, although it could be considered a fruit when eaten as dessert. Thus, Nix and others had to continue to pay a 10 percent tariff on imported tomato vegetables.

Regardless, we’re a tomato-loving lot. In addition to the fresh tomatoes we each eat each year, nearly six million tons of tomatoes grown in the United States are processed annually into canned goods. No matter how you slice it, the cautious Puritans were overruled.

With so many Missourians with backyard gardens, it’s hard to tolerate less-than-fresh tomatoes at restaurants in the summertime. Some chefs are nimble enough to create dishes based on regional food freshness (See Missouri Life June 2008 “The New Organic” for more on Community Supported Agriculture farms). Sycamore restaurant at Columbia takes this step with delicious results.

Ordering Sycamore’s fresh tomato salad is to look onto a plate of orange, yellow, or tangerine tomatoes; red, pink, or blue tomatoes; white, green, striped, or oddly shaped, sweetly-husked tomatoes—in a word: heirloom. Chef and co-owner Mike Odette makes the effort to acquire unusual tomato varieties through his contacts with local farmers. The riot of color and flavor in Odette’s tomato dishes will put you in the fresh-tomato camp for life. Gazpacho at Sycamore is chunky and savory with pieces of colorful tomatoes in the mix. Sycamore’s intriguing tomato sorbet is sweet and cooling with just the right zing.

Mike believes in developing dishes based on what is freshly available. “There’s always certain ingredients that you understand will work well together,” he says of his rotating menu. “Having a mental library of those kinds of ideas gets me about halfway there.”

The restaurant itself has a slightly urban ambience, with high ceilings sporting rotating fans, mosaic tile along with hardwood floors, white tablecloths, and a long dark bar. Odette and his wife, Amy, and partners Sanford and Jill Speake wanted an open kitchen design, and in the refurbishment of Sycamore, they created it overlooking the diners from the rear of the building.

Of course, you don’t have to go out for a fine tomato. Missouri is not one of the top commercial producing states in the United States, which are Florida, California, and Georgia, perhaps because tomatoes never make it past our backyards and kitchens. I choose to think that we tend to choose flavor, too, over the hybrid qualities of tough skin for shipping and uniform ripening times.

Like Gershwin’s 1937 song, tomato, tomäto, it’s all the same to me. The tale of the tomato comes down to this: eating.

Heirloom or not?

What makes an heirloom tomato? Some are shaped like peppers or cherries or weigh in at two pounds. They are purple, black, striped, green, orange, yellow, and pink. Indeed, some are red. Seeds of a tomato do not easily crossbreed and will produce plants resembling the parents. Early cultivars did not change much because of this property and were kept in a family or community for long periods of time, thus earning the name heirlooms. Some varieties available today have been passed on for more than one hundred years.

Names of heirloom cultivars often read like hints to a deeper tale: Black Krim (Russia), Bloody Butcher (unknown), Tommy Toe (Ozarks), Mortgage Lifter (U.S.), plus the Missouri Pink Love Apple. Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds at Mansfield lists this cultivar as big, pink, and very rich-tasting: “It was grown since the Civil War by the Barnes family, who grew it as an ornamental, believing (as many people did at the time) that tomatoes or ‘love apples’ were poisonous.”

Heirlooms carry unique genetics and often a history. For instance, Polish is a cultivar said to have been smuggled into the United States on the back of a postage stamp in the late 1800s. Mortgage Lifter is said to have been developed during the Depression by a farmer who claimed one plant would feed a family of six. He sold the plants for one dollar each until he paid off his mortgage.

The tomato: heroic and tasty.

Nutritional value

A single medium-sized tomato:

• Provides about half of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin C. If the tomato is homegrown and ripened-on-the-vine, it may contain up to a third more vitamin C than a commercial, gas-ripened fruit.

• Contains vitamin A, some of which is in the form of beta carotene, thought to reduce the risk of certain cancers.

• Is a good source of potassium and contains B1 and B2 vitamins, iron, and phosphorus.

• Is fiber-rich, low in sodium and calories (only about four calories per ounce), and is cholesterol-free.

• Provides lycopene, the major carotenoid contained in tomatoes that is responsible for the deep red color. Similar to beta carotene, lycopene has been touted as a potent anti-oxidant, a molecule that snuffs out cancer-causing free radicals.

Sources: Dr. Sanjun Gu, Lincoln University vegetable specialist at Jefferson City; Michigan State University Department of Food Science study and Elaine Landau, author of Tomatoes

– MissouriLife Recipes –
Courtesy of Sycamore Restaurant at Columbia

Heirloom Tomato Bruschetta

Ingredients:
1½ pounds heirloom tomatoes, diced
2 tablespoons basil pesto
¼ teaspoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Combine ingredients and season to taste.

Serve at room temperature atop bread, preferably homemade, that has been brushed with oil, grilled, and rubbed with a garlic clove. This is also good as a pasta sauce or side dish.
Serves 6 to 8 as an appetizer.

Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho

Ingredients:
3 pounds heirloom tomatoes, diced (about 2
quarts)
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced small
(about 2 cups)
½ medium onion, diced small (about 1 cup)
2 ribs celery, diced small (about 1 cup)
1 quart bottled tomato juice
¼ cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon celery salt
1 teaspoon Tabasco
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a one-gallon, non-reactive (plastic, glass, or stainless) container, such as a pitcher. Using an immersion blender, zap the gazpacho a few times until desired consistency is reached. Gazpacho may be served smooth, like a beverage, or chunky.

Heirloom Tomato Sorbet

Ingredients:
2 cups water
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup sherry vinegar
¼ cup vodka
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cracked pepper
4 pounds heirloom tomatoes, peeled

Directions:
In a small saucepan, combine all ingredients except for the tomatoes. Stir over medium heat until sugar and salt are dissolved. Set aside to cool.

Process the tomatoes in a food mill to purée and seed them. Combine the tomato purée with the water-and-sugar mixture and freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s directions.
Serves 12.

Note: Flavored or infused vodka, such as lemon or pepper, may be used. The vodka is optional, but since this recipe doesn’t use much sugar, the alcohol helps keep the sorbet from freezing rock-hard.

August 2008

Nuts about nuts

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 18:42:59 GMT

Missouri supplies 70 percent of the world’s black walnuts

By Nina Furstenau

There’s something of eternity in the cycle of walnuts.

Each fall, they rain down, pebbling the earth under black walnut trees throughout Missouri. The sound of the yellow-green balls hitting the earth makes a remarkably soft thump for such a hard husk. Maybe you’ve stooped to pick the harvest, stained your hands or gloves, and kept a few to sprinkle on oatmeal, ice cream, and salads or to cook into cookies, muffins, and breads. Maybe you or someone you know has even taken walnuts by pickup truck to walnut hulling and collection points throughout the state.

Since long before the first pioneers, the harvest of nut trees has been a part of the American diet. Wild black walnut trees have been cut for furniture, split-rail fences, railroad ties, and other rudimentary uses, but they also drop deeply ridged, rich-tasting nuts in a muffled reminder of a greater cycle dependent on something outside man. Look around. This is what our land produces naturally. In fact, nearly 70 percent of the average world harvest of twenty-five million pounds of black walnuts per year comes from the wild walnut trees in Missouri, according to the Walnut Council based in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Perhaps for this reason, the American black walnut, also known as the Eastern black walnut, was named the Missouri State Tree Nut in 1989 in part by the effort of a second grade class in Stockton.

Pickup trucks across the state laden with black walnuts head to one of about 125 collection points in Missouri beginning October 1, and thirteen dollars per hundred-weight is exchanged for the unique nut found only in our region of the world. The natural range of black walnut trees is broader than Missouri. It stretches east through western Pennsylvania and Virginia, south to eastern Texas, and north to southern Nebraska. Black walnut is even scattered in New York and southern Canada, according to the Walnut Council. But it is here in Missouri where most of the nuts are collected and processed.

The Hammons Products Co. at Stockton is the only commercial processor of black walnuts in the world. Spotless floors display machines with steel drums that crack the super-hard shell much more efficiently than, say, spreading the nuts on the ground and driving over them or smashing them with a hammer while ducking flying shards.

After the nuts have been cured, or dried, for a minimum of two weeks in silos or collection bags stacked out of direct sunlight, darker nutmeats are picked out by hand, and shell bits that eluded infrared lights and shake-out holes are decisively discarded. A full 45 percent of the volume of processed nuts is made into black walnut ice cream. Another 50 percent becomes packaged nuts for groceries. The remaining nuts are packaged into gourmet food items like black walnut caramels or fudge, walnut brittle, honey gems, and truffles marketed by the Hammons Pantry. The discarded shells are also marketed by Hammons—six grade sizes in all, from fine to coarse—for use in abrasive cleaners and polish or in the cosmetic and oil industries. There’s little waste in the nut business.

The average crop harvest is usually about twenty-five million pounds. But the late freeze in the spring of 2007 in the Midwest nearly wiped out acorn production, therefore squirrels—the main competitor for the nuts, grabbing them out of trees before they fall where we can nab them—were predicted to be more aggressive and reduce human harvest to between ten and twelve million pounds. Even with the average yield, which is six to seven pounds of kernel yield per one hundred pounds of in-shell nuts, that’s still a lot of nutmeat.

When the nut is finally pried loose from its casings, the meat itself is bold, a bit dry on the tongue, and distinctive. Black walnuts can make your holiday stuffing more fragrant or be chopped finely as a crunchy coating for chicken or pork. Added to a salad with chicken, apples, and bacon? Oh yes, black walnuts are not just for dessert anymore. Other varieties of walnut are milder and make better snacking. The softer English walnut, for instance, is more well-known and cracks into beautiful halves. The butternut, a blonde cousin of black walnut, is a bit smoother than the Missouri black. The smaller, crunchier, and almost smoky-flavored black walnut has a boldness that complements and intensifies the flavor of a full-bodied dish.

Not surprisingly, since Stockton is the black walnut capital of the world, Stockton also has a first-rate restaurant that incorporates the nut’s flavor into its fare with flair.

Aubrey Foster, owner and chef of Bongo’s Bistro at Stockton and its new location in Silo Ridge Country Club at Bolivar, praises the one-of-a-kind flavor of black walnuts. “We all know black walnuts add distinctive flavor to desserts,” Aubrey says. As visions of rich, nutty oatmeal cookies and coffeecake flash through the mind, he adds, “You don’t need me for that. I’d like to see the black walnut expand into other foods.”

Aubrey, whose restaurant at Stockton opened in 1999, serves up several choices. “I think it complements fish well, especially strong-flavored fish like trout, and I like it on tuna and salmon.” He mentions walnut-encrusted salmon and black walnut and sausage stuffing.

Aubrey came to cooking and business later in life. He began with a degree in drafting but was always attracted to cooking and wine. At twenty, in New York, he saw Hungarian women in fields picking grapes, which perhaps sparked a lifelong interest in fine wines. At thirty, he began an old-world-style apprenticeship in Florida. For four years, he learned the art of fine Italian cooking and presentation and used it to run several restaurants there. In 1999, Aubrey came back to his home state of Missouri with the thought of opening a new-world hamburger joint. “I couldn’t do it,” he says, and Bongo’s Bistro was born, combining a curious and inviting mix of a casual hangout and a sophisticated restaurant.

There’s a relaxed feel to the restaurant at Stockton, which seats about thirty-five in one half and another twenty or so on the side, where Aubrey sells more than two hundred varieties of wines and a worldwide selection of beers. By 6 pm on a Friday evening, the parking lot already accommodates a Subaru with two kayaks strapped to its top, a Lexus, two motorcycles, and a Honda. The building is tan stucco with jaunty awnings. Inside, cherubs and monkeys grace the walls and menu. The waitresses are friendly and efficient, and several entrées are nutty. With the opening of the new Bongo’s at Bolivar, Chef David Vignoe now leads the Stockton location.

Chef David explains that his special dressing for the Bistro Salad incorporates honey, pumpkin spice, cream, and nuts. He mentions several seasonings in the bread for dipping into olive oil, Parmesan, and herbs and that his pizza crust is made from scratch. The salad flavors of grilled chicken, black walnuts, apples, and bacon sit well on the tongue. His Linguini with Black Walnuts in Clam Sauce is rich and satisfying; the nuts deepen the flavor and make the dish sumptuous. Plus, it is a beauty on the plate—the nuts almost meaty atop the fettuccine and clamshells as a garnish. Moscato d’Asti, an Italian wine from Umberto Fiore, complements the rich flavor of the black walnuts and pasta. A light Chablis, Aubrey says, is also a good choice.

Another stop at Stockton is the Hammons Black Walnut Emporium on the downtown square. Manager Diane Steele brings in an array of interesting foodstuffs to her bright, inviting space: black walnut syrup, fudge, and ice cream; coffees and chocolates from around the world; and gift items, such as art prints, funnel cake kits, books, candles, and cards. Her bakery stocks blueberry black walnut muffins, cheesecakes, black walnut cookies, and more. The ice cream offerings include peachy black walnut, regular black walnut, and a caramelized black walnut, made especially for the Emporium.

The Emporium will host an open house from November 16 to 18, which will feature free samples of holiday black walnuts. Then during Stockton’s Living Christmas on December 3, black walnuts will be roasted out front. The festival features a band, carolers, Victorian-costumed shopkeepers, and burning barrels for hand-warming.

After indulging in black walnut treats and the festivities, a rest may be in order. Just outside of town, Stockton Lake’s wind-whipped waves are beautiful any time of year. You may still see some boats bobbing in their slips, and the 25,000-acre lake also boasts fishing and more than 300 miles of undeveloped shoreline. The lake makes the list of best lakes for sailing in the United States (see King of the Road “The Wind in Your Sail,” June 2007). Orleans Trail Resort and Marina just off Highway 39 and RB Road, offers lodging, guide services, a marina, a pool, camping sites, and a restaurant. While lake views from the rooms are limited, the grounds are beautiful and near the water.

No matter if you are contemplating the cycle of walnuts at Stockton Lake, indulging in their rich flavor in your Bongo’s dinner entrée, or nipping over to the Emporium for roasted black walnut ice cream, the walnut is a good Missouri food to explore. Stockton showcases it well—from tree to table.

Click HERE for Tasteful Traveler black walunt recipes!

December 2007

Meals Cooked on a Wood Stove

Sat, 28 Oct 2006 15:19:30 GMT

*By Diana West* The aroma of home-cooked meals, baked bread, and pies will lure you back to a simpler time when food was slowcooked and savored. The Briar Patch old store near Anderson serves made-from-scratch meals cooked on a wood stove. Tina Keel, the owner, cooks supper every Friday and Saturday on an 1864 Home Comfort wood-burning stove. Since she can only cook one entrée on the wood stove, the first person to call for a reservation for fourteen or more people picks the menu and time. “I want the food to be hot and fresh when it’s served,” Tina says. “That’s why the first reservation picks the time.” One of the desserts is chocolate surprise pie, a recipe developed by Tina’s mother, Evelyn Nims, which uses coffee and peanut butter. “You won’t find it served anywhere else,” Tina says. The atmosphere adds to the experience. A tin-roofed porch that spans the front invites visitors to sit a spell. Old-time mountain music plays inside. Two gravity flow gas pumps flank the walkway. The wood floors squeak and groan. A potbelly stove adds warmth. A separate meeting room for groups is lighted with kerosene lamps. An antique baker’s case showcases canned jams, butters, relishes, stone-ground flour and cornmeal, Depression-era cookbooks, gifts, penny candy, and locally made crafts. “You can buy a large dill pickle, homemade lye soap, or even a stick horse,” Tina says. Purchases are rung up on a big brass cash register, wrapped in brown paper, and tied with twine. For a donation, you can hear live bluegrass or gospel music next door at the Ozark Outback Theater from April to November on Saturday nights. The Briar Patch is four miles west of Anderson on Route 76. Open Fridays and Saturdays 5 PM to PM. Reservations required. Call 417-845-3925. April 2006

Only Microbrewery in Northeast

Sat, 28 Oct 2006 15:18:44 GMT

*By Timothy Hill* Just off the square at Kirksville, Il Spazio offers an extensive menu, a casual atmosphere, and the only microbrews produced in northeastern Missouri. Roughly translated from Italian, Il Spazio means “the space.” Located in a spacious brick building built as a car dealership in the 1920s, owners Bradley Steenhoek and Jeff Newton extensively remodeled the interior to open Il Spazio in 2003. The restaurant has an Italian flavor, with a mural of the Tuscan hills adorning exposed-brick walls. The popular Neapolitan-style pizzas are baked in a wood-fired oven imported from Italy. Bradley describes the cuisine as an American bistro that reflects the country’s many ethnicities. Selections include Oriental Salad, Caribbean Chicken Wrap, Greek Pizza, Thai Chicken Pasta as well as pub favorites and more upscale offerings. Prices range from $5.75 to $24.95. The pub features a fireplace and couches where guests can choose from an extensive list of cordials, liqueurs, and wines, including Missouri wines. But its microbrews make Il Spazio unique. The brew master produces seven handcrafted microbrews. _Il Spazio is at 215 W. Washington St. Hours are 11 AM to 10 PM Mondays through Saturdays and to 9 PM Sundays. The pub is open later. For more information, call 660-665-8484 or visit www.ilspazio.com._ February 2006

Hemingways at Bass Pro

Sat, 28 Oct 2006 15:17:49 GMT

*By Barbara Gibbs Ostmann* Hemingway’s Blue Water Cafe is on the fourth floor of Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World in Springfield, that “Granddaddy of All Outdoor Stores.” This fine dining destination has a balcony seating area that overlooks the bustling store below. In the main dining area, a 30,000 gallon saltwater aquarium provides constantly changing entertainment. As attractive as the setting is, the food is the real star here. Executive chef Marcel Bonetti’s career has spanned three continents, from his uncle’s hotel in the south of France to hotels and restaurants in England, Switzerland, Australia, and now the Ozarks, where he has lived for almost a decade. His flavorful touches transform everyday foods such as chicken, shrimp, and chowder into signature specialties. The 350-seat restaurant was named for one of this country’s most famous sportsmen and writers, Ernest Hemingway. He once wrote, “I have discovered that there is romance in food when romance has disappeared from everywhere, and as long as my digestion holds out, I will follow romance.” At Hemingway’s, the romance includes Ozark catfish, sesame salmon, orange roughy, tuna, lobster, and other fish and seafood specialties. Or try the coconut chicken, Caribbean chicken, pork chops, prime rib, or almost any cut of teak. Even the appetizers are out of the ordinary—try alligator tail with sweet jalapeno sauce. You can order off the menu or opt for the elaborate buffet. The Sunday brunch buffet is especially popular. _Hemingway’s Blue Water Cafe is located in Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World, 1935 South Campbell, Springfield. Open 7-10 AM and 11 AM to 10 PM Monday through Saturday (9 PM Monday-Thursday in Feb.), 9 AM to 5 PM Sunday (brunch until 3 PM). For more information, call 417-891-5100 or visit www.hemingwaysbluewatercafe.com. Reservations are recommended on holiday weekends._ February 2006

National Honors for Westport Restaurant

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 21:29:12 GMT

While most great seafood restaurants are from coastal communities, a land-locked Missouri restaurant has made that honored list. The Bluestem in the Westport area of Kansas City and chef Colby Garrelts are being recognized as culinary luminaries” by the Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Program. Each year, nearly two million people visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. Visitors receive a pocket-sized guidebook that discusses the importance of eating sustainable seafood and reducing stress on over-fished species. The guide directs visitors to the Aquarium web site, www.montereybayaquarium.org, for a list of restaurants recognized for their support of sustainable seafood and environmentally friendly menus. Colby is one of ten chefs nationwide invited to demonstrate his skills at the program’s major fund-raising event, Cooking for Solutions, May 18 to 20, in Monterey. Such honors are not unusual for Colby, who was named one of the Top Ten Best New Chefs in America by Food and Wine magazine in 2005. “Our goal is to avoid over-fished products and support local, independent food purveyors where possible,” Colby says. “It simply makes for a better product to serve our guests.” Colby flies seafood in fresh from Honolulu each day, but shops at local farmers’ markets for produce. “If it’s not in season in Missouri, you won’t see it in my kitchen,” Colby says. His wife and partner, Megan, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, specializes in pastries and desserts. _Bluestem is located at 900 Westport Road in Kansas City. It is open for dinner only Mondays through Saturdays beginning at 5:30 PM. Seatings on Fridays and Saturdays are at 6 PM and 8 PM. Sunday brunch is from 10:30 AM to 2:30 PM. Call 816-561- 101 or make reservations on-line at www.bluestemkc.com._ *—By Diana Lambdin Meyer* April 2006

Best Soda Fountains

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 04:49:22 GMT

*By Susan Atteberry Smith* Before canned soft drinks and fast-food restaurants, back in the days of hand-cranked cars and Prohibition, there was the soda fountain. Even after the fizz of a Coke was just the pop of a bottle top away, drugstore soda fountains — all chrome and counter stools — remained community fixtures. In small-town Missouri, well into the 1950s and 1960s, where else could you experience the social scene and special-order a chocolate soda with just the right combination of carbonation and syrup? In most towns, soda fountains went the way of poodle skirts and saddle oxfords not long after drive-up and drive-through eateries moved in. Yet, in a few Missouri towns, the chrome, counter stools, and carbonation are back. And so are the customers. *AVA DRUG COMPANY* In the 1950s, David Norman could be found almost every day at Ava Drug Company. His father, Boone Norman, Jr., happened to be the pharmacist and owner of the family business, but that wasn’t all that attracted his teenage son. Flagged by a neon sign off the square in this Douglas County town, the drugstore was a gathering spot for many of David’s friends, who stopped by after school and Saturdays. “In those days, you had forty-five minutes or an hour for lunch, and all the kids came down here for lunch,” David recalls. David became a pharmacist himself, returning to Ava to work alongside his father and brother. With the store’s 1982 modernization, he took out the soda fountain, installed in 1950 when his grandfather, Boone Norman, Sr., was also a practicing druggist. It was a decision he always regretted, he says, especially when his father, who opposed the fountain’s removal, died three years later. In 2003, David, who had sold the pharmacy in 1991, bought it back and set about restoring the fountain. Luckily, the man who installed the original twenty-eight-foot-long counter and fifteen stools could still recite their measurements. The company that created the original neon sign still had its specifications. The creator of the original chicken, ham, and tuna sandwiches and the burger and coney sauces had handed down her recipes. Today, red-smocked servers replace the white-capped soda jerks seen in historic photos on the drugstore wall. However, from its original cash register and 1952 Seeburg jukebox to its retro sign and rolled-back prices (sodas, milk, and dips of ice cream sell for a nickel or a dime), those who remember tell David it is exactly the same. Better yet, it’s a social hub for a new generation. “About the time school’s out, at three-thirty or four, this place will be full of kids,” David says. Ava Drug Company, 124 W. Washington Ave., Ava Hours: 8 AM to 6:30 PM Mondays to Fridays, 8 AM to 6 PM Saturdays. 417-683-4127 and www.avadrug.com *WINFIELD’S RESTAURANT* The fizz has seldom stopped flowing at this Main Street soda fountain in Eminence, where the Current and Jacks Fork rivers cross the heart of Shannon County. The fountain had been part of the historic Hyde Building since 1923; the Hyde Building was built to house a pharmacy. But the fountain left town with a previous owner in the 1990s. So when Eminence native and longtime Missouri legislator Winnie Weber bought the building about six years ago, she had to travel to Blackfoot, Utah, to find a proper replacement. Fortunately, the replacement she found was an exact fit, says Paulette Williams, Weber’s sister, and the soda fountain has been up and running since the building’s one-million-dollar renovation in 2001. Recently retired as Winfield’s manager, Paulette, a former Eminence mayor, can still be found working there. Yet the Hyde Building, with its copper-paneled storefront, was a childhood haunt for her, too. She recalls visiting William “Willie” Hyde’s pharmacy after school, then making sure to show up on Saturdays because “they had comic books in the drugstore, and they were a dime.” Winfield’s doesn’t claim to sell Betty Boop memorabilia, butcustomers step even further back in time when they enter the main dining room graced by oak floors, a high tin ceiling, belt-driven fans, and shelves of Depression-era glass and old apothecary bottles. The early twentieth-century saloon-style of black soda fountain cabinets trimmed in burgundy and gold gets a wake-up call from giant Andy Warhol-like acrylic paintings by both sisters’ niece, Lisa Faulkenberry. They portray mainstays like the fountain’s famous Two Rivers Gumbo, advertised on a red and white can. But behind the antique counter, it all comes together in wellpracticed blends of soda, syrup, and ice cream. Campers, canoeists, equestrians, and bluegrass music lovers who converge on Eminence for vacations know it. “In the summertime, you can’t get in here,” Paulette says. “They all come for the atmosphere of having a banana split or an orange phosphate. Chocolate sodas are pretty much demanded.” Winfield’s Restaurant, Eminence Hours: 7 AM to 7 PM Mondays to Thursdays, 7 AM to 9 PM Fridays to Saturdays, 7 AM to 5 PM Sundays. 573-226-3400 *WILDWOOD FLOWERS, GIFTS & JEWELRY* Don’t let the name of John and Linda Musille’s downtown Mountain View business mislead you. True to tradition, there’s an old-fashioned soda fountain inside. From the mid-1950s until the early 1970s, the site of their modern-day business was a drugstore with a soda fountain, John says. The Musilles moved to Mountain View seventeen years ago from Boulder, Colorado. Two years after that, they reopened the soda fountain, which has once again become a centerpiece of the location. John takes pride in making the fountain’s soda drinks and ice cream treats as authentic as possible. “We do carbonate our own water and make ice cream sodas and phosphates the old-fashioned way,” says John. “There is definitely a process you go through in making old-fashioned sodas.” For example, a real old-fashioned float is not just soda and ice cream in a glass, he contends. “You put a little soda with ice cream and make a paste so it foams up,” he explains. “Then, add carbonated water and ice cream.” With a seat on one of the chrome-and-gray stools overlooking the railroad, the sidewalk, and the occasional pedestrian, the Musilles’s soda fountain is more of a place for men to cool their heels while their wives shop than it is a teen hangout, John says. He knows that most area youth are more likely to hit the drive-through at the McDonald’s on nearby Highway 60 if they want quick refreshment. Yet, a generation that hasn’t forgotten how good a real fountain treat tastes frequents the business. “What we’re seeing is grandparents bringing their grandchildren down to let them experience the oldfashioned soda fountain, the old-fashioned drinks,” John says. “And the kids love it.” Wildwood Flowers, Gifts & Jewelry, 108 W. First St., Mountain View Hours: 8:30 AM to 5 PM Mondays to Saturdays 417-934-6363 *BRADBURY BISHOP DELI & ROUTE 66 DINER* With a black-and-white checkerboard floor, red pendant lights, and 1950s memorabilia from Coca-Cola to Marilyn Monroe, the Bradbury Bishop Deli & Route 66 Diner in downtown Webb City harks back to its heyday — even though the occasional 1970s or 1980s oldie slips into the music. Even the menu serves up a bit of nostalgia and history with its list of phosphates, lemonades and limeades, and cherry, vanilla, and chocolate sodas. As they stand, the deli and soda fountain have been in operation since 1988, but the first soda fountain, a wooden one, was built in 1927 when C.S. Bradbury was pharmacist of the Electric Drug Co. In 1931, he partnered with son-in-law and fellow pharmacist Harry Bishop to form the Bradbury Bishop Drug Company, and the current establishment is its namesake. A stainless steel fountain replaced the wooden one in 1945. Today, the mid-century fountain is for display only, but servers still pump the carbonation to make the pop. The diner is a draw for travelers making their way along historic Route 66, especially classic car owners who cruise through on the second Saturday of every month. It’s also a favorite among locals, says Ana Gutheil, proprietor of the restaurant for the last six years. “It’s just the same loyal people who have been here before me and will be here after me,” she says. Bradbury Bishop Deli, 201 N. Main St., Webb City Hours: 6 AM to 2 PM Mondays to Fridays, 6 AM to noon Saturdays. 417-673-4047 and www.route66search.com *BREANNA’S OLD-FASHIONED SODA FOUNTAIN AND GRILL* With twelve stools and a century-old, restored soda fountain situated on the corner of Clinton’s Historic Downtown Square, Breanna’s Old-Fashioned Soda Fountain and Grill is one of the largest operating fountains left in its original location in the United States, according to owner Jennifer Shadwick. Jennifer had $126 to start the business in 1994, when she bought the 1887, three-story building that once housed Diamond Drugstore and named it after her now-nineteen-year-old daughter. In addition to owning a nearby coffee shop, she was pregnant with her son, Spencer, and her husband, Rick Harper, worked in Kansas City. Since restoring the old fountain “just a little bit at a time,” Jennifer says she and her family have become knowledgeable, thanks to observation and word of mouth, about making old-fashioned sodas and phosphates. And she distinguishes between the two: “When you say, ‘I want a soda’ that doesn’t mean pop. That means an ice cream soda. It’s a very different process.” Counting homemade root beer, sarsaparilla, and her eleven-yearold son’s “inventions,” Jennifer says, “there’s probably two hundred or more treats and eats that you can get in here, and we also have a grill.” Besides the soda fountain, penny candy in glass jars and décor dating from the 1930s through the 1950s attract a lot of tourists. Jennifer says babies to centenarians and visitors from every state in the union have visited the business. “We get pretty much every walk of life,” she says. Breanna’s Old-Fashioned Soda Fountain and Grill 100 W. Jefferson St., Clinton Hours: 8 AM to 5 PM Mondays to Fridays, 10 AM to 5 PM Saturdays. 660-885-4700 and www.clintonmomainstreet.com/breannas/ *SUPER SODA FOUNTAINS* *Henderson’s Drug Store* 523 First St., Glasgow Fresh-squeezed orangeade and cherry phosphates are two favorites from the 1916 soda fountain. Hours: 7 AM to 5:30 PM Mondays to Fridays, 7 AM to 1 PM Saturdays. 660-338-2125 *Saults Drug Store* 505 Court St., Fulton While a model train makes its rounds on a track above thesoda fountain, milk shakes, sundaes, smoothies, and more are served at the store, family-owned since 1937. Hours: 8 AM to 6 PM Mondays to Fridays, 8 AM to 1 PM Saturdays. 573-642-4186 *Main Street Galleria and Old-Fashioned Soda Fountain* 501 Main St., Weston Coca-Cola is concocted the original way at the fountain of this large antiques and collectibles dealership. Hours: 10 AM to 5 PM daily. 816-640-2825 dancingturtle5252@yahoo.com *Vandalia Drug* 112 N. Main St., Vandalia Fountain treats and a famous “nickel cup of coffee” are twoattractions here, where a soda fountain has been in operation since the 1950s. Hours: 8 AM to 6 PM Mondays to Wednesdays and Fridays, 8 AM to 5 PM Thursdays, 8 AM to 12:30 PM Saturdays. 573-594-2136 and www.vandaliadrug.com *Crown Candy Kitchen* 1401 St. Louis Ave., St. Louis Homemade chocolates and ice cream are served along with old-fashioned drinks at this soda fountain, owned and operated by the same family since 1913. Hours: 10:30 AM to 10 PM Mondays to Saturdays, 11 AM to 6 PM Sundays. 314-621-9650 and www.crowncandykitchen.com *Red Apple Grill* 42 Court Square, West Plains Buy an old-fashioned phosphate to go along with a cheeseburger or steak at this antique soda fountain. Hours: Mondays to Saturdays, 10 AM to 9 PM. 417-256-8777 *The Hardware Cafe* 5 E. Kansas St., Liberty Malts, shakes, limeades, ice-cream sodas, and phosphatesare the specialties at this fountain. Hours: 11 AM to 8 PM Mondays to Thursdays, 11 AM to 9 PM Fridays and Saturdays. 816-792-3500

Taking Tea in Missouri

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 03:05:40 GMT

*By Karen Mitcham-Stoeckley* Across Missouri, tables are set for tea in charming tearooms and parlors, from the Ritz-Carlton in St. Louis to Victorian homes in small towns. Some serve authentic teas, Afternoon Tea or Low Tea as it is known in Great Britain high society; others are simple country tearooms. Visit Missouri’s tearooms, and you can also use these recipes and invite a few friends to share in this time-honored tradition. Use Grandma’s china and linens. The Shady Gables Tea Room & Gift Gallery in Versailles is an authentic English tearoom, hosted by Reba Starling-Silvey. Scones and delicious desserts are baked fresh daily, and guests receive a perfectly brewed pot of tea cloaked in a tea cozy and poured through a silver tea strainer. Over seventy varieties of tea from around the world are available to enjoy and purchase. Reba’s daughter, Ashley, offers Tea and Etiquette classes by appointment. Both Reba and Ashley can share stories about tea, its sources, its various characteristics, and its history with those who are interested. When the weather permits, tea may be served in the gazebo in the cottage garden near the house of Heathcliff, the family rabbit, perhaps a distant relation to Alice’s March Hare. Tea is served in three flights: Cream Tea, served before noon, includes assorted scones, sugar cookies, real clotted cream, and lemon curd from England. Light Afternoon Tea consists of all of the above plus fresh fruit, finger sandwiches, dainty sweets, and fruit sorbet. The Queen’s Choice is a full-luncheon Afternoon Tea with Shady Gables’ Chicken Salad Croissant, individual quiche Lorraine, both savory and sweet scones, clotted cream, lemon curd, assorted finger sandwiches, fresh fruit, and a meringue filled with raspberry curd from England. Reservations are required, call 573-378-2740. A charming bed-andbreakfast is next door, also owned and operated by Reba. In Louisiana, travelers discover The Rosebud Tea Room located in an 1896 home on the main thoroughfare, Georgia Street. Open on Fridays and Saturdays by reservation, hostess Margie Willingham accepts reservations twenty-four hours in advance. Her scones and clotted cream with jam or lemon curd are in the Victorian tradition of Cream Tea as well as Afternoon Tea, which includes tiny, delicate sandwiches and fresh fruit, along with home-baked sweets. She offers special events for up to twenty-two guests for luncheons, showers, clubs, organizations, and birthdays. Restored to its late-1880s grandeur inside, a china collection adorns the dining room mantel and sideboard, as well as the tea table. Outside, the surrounding garden is a labor of love for Margie and her husband. Call for reservations, 573-754-3843. *SHADY GABLES RECIPES* *CHICKEN SALAD* 2 cups cooked chicken breast, finely cubed 1 cup apple, cored and chopped ½ cup celery, finely chopped ½ cup onion, finely chopped ½ cup walnuts, chopped 1 tablespoon dried parsley 1 tablespoon dried rosemary 1 cup tiny, frozen peas 1 cup mayonnaise (do not use salad dressing) Combine all ingredients. Chill and serve on a croissant with a lettuce leaf. Serves 6 *BLACK WALNUT, APRICOT & WHITE CHOCOLATE SCONES* 3 cups self-rising flour 2/3 cup sugar 1 tablespoon baking powder ½ cup (1 stick) butter, chilled and cut into small chunks ¾ cup chilled buttermilk 3 tablespoons black walnuts, finely chopped 3 tablespoons dried apricots, finely chopped 3 tablespoons white chocolate chips plus one tablespoon chips for glaze Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine flour, sugar, and baking powder. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or two forks, until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Make a well in the center and pour in the buttermilk. Stir until thoroughly combined. Add walnuts, apricots, and white chocolate chips. Thoroughly combine. Turn out onto a floured board surface and knead for one to two minutes, until dough is smooth and workable. Pat out a circle about ¾-inch thick. Cut with a small biscuit cutter (no larger than 2 inches in diameter). Bake at 450 degrees for about 8 minutes on a baking parchment-lined cookie sheet. Watch closely to prevent burning. Remove from oven and glaze while hot. Glaze: Melt 1 tablespoon white chocolate chips in microwave. Using a butter knife spread glaze very thinly on top of each scone. Serve warm. Hint: Scones can be reheated in a preheated 350 degree oven for 3 minutes. Scones may be frozen up to 4 months. Yield: 40 two-inch scones *ROSEBUD RECIPES* *DILLED CUCUMBER SANDWICHES* 4 slices of thin, white bread, such as Pepperidge Farm 4 slices of thin, whole wheat bread, such as Pepperidge Farm 4 ounces cream cheese, softened 1 medium cucumber, thinly sliced 1 tablespoon dill weed Cut crusts from bread and spread with the cream cheese. Cut each slice into two rectangles. Lay slices of cucumber on four slices of the whole wheat bread. Lightly sprinkle with the dill weed. Top with the white bread rectangles. Cut each sandwich in half to form small squares. Yield: 16 dainty sandwiches *TURKEY-CRANBERRY SANDWICHES* 8 slices whole wheat bread ¼ cup salad dressing ¼ cup pecans, finely chopped ½ cup dried cranberries, chopped 8 slices turkey breast, thinly sliced Cut crust from the bread. Spread salad dressing over the bread slices. Lay the turkey on four slices of bread. Sprinkle the nuts and cranberries over the turkey. Top with the remaining bread and cut into triangles. Yield: 16 triangles *MORE MISSOURI TEAROOMS* Visit these sites: www.teamap.com/states/state_MO_Name.html or www.teaguide.net/tearoomsmissouri.htm June 2006

A Few Good Times Pulaski County

Tue, 03 Oct 2006 19:06:01 GMT

Fort Leonard Wood's surroundings provide a range of attractions for the day-tripper or overnighter. The following are just a handful of the many engaging activities nearby. *The Rivers* Canoes are not the only boats floating on the Big Piney and Gasconade rivers; rafts, johnboats, and tubes are also available for rent on both rivers. Big Piney is a spring-fed, cool and fast-paced river. It's not too fast for a family, but Gasconade River offers a lazier flow with great swimming spots. Fishing in the rivers could yield trophy, smallmouth and largemouth bass. *Onyx Mountain Caverns* This attraction in Jerome was recently added to the National Register of Historic Places. During the 19th century, white marble onyx was heavily mined there, but tremendous dripstone formations of the onyx remain. An underground river and artifacts dating back to before A.D. 1,000 also lure visitors into the caverns' depths. Call (573) 762-3341 for more information. Rainbow trout fishing is popular in the Roubidoux Creek, and there is a wheelchair-accessible fishing deck on the banks. Experienced scuba divers will enjoy the twists and turns of the underwater caves in the Roubidoux Spring near downtown Waynesville. *Old Stagecoach Stop* The Old Stagecoach Stop is on the east side of Waynesville's square. This two-story stagecoach shop is located on the Wire Road, named after the telegraph line strung by Union soldiers. The structure was built in 1860 as a log cabin but was later transformed into a Union hospital during the Civil War. At the turn of the century, it was the Black Hotel, operated by the Black family. Mrs. Black sold 10-cent spaces in the balcony to people who wanted to observe Waynesville's last public hanging in 1905. Later, while Fort Leonard Wood was under construction, builders and troops lodged there. The building fell into disrepair until the Old Stagecoach Stop Foundation rescued it from being condemned in 1983. It is now open as a museum through September. Call (573) 435-6766 to tour. *Dixon Festivals* The Dixon Bluegrass Festival, celebrating the local musical heritage, takes place both Labor Day and Memorial Day weekends at the Bluegrass Park on Highway 133. This festival has attracted visitors from 40 states and abroad to hear the strains of the dobro, the country fiddle, and the bluegrass banjo. Held the third weekend in September, Cow Days is a festival rich with local history. In the late 1920s, the Dixon area was feeling the devastating effects of the Great Depression. For several months in 1929 and 1930, area merchants hosted a promotional program, called Cow Days, to attract customers to the city. The prospect of winning a live, healthy adult cow, along with dancing, cow-trading, dining, and parades, brought in thousands of visitors. The original Cow Days celebration lasted only for a few months, but Dixon businesses in the '80s decided to bring back the festival. Cow Days was reborn as a three-day festival featuring arts and crafts booths, street dances, entertainment, parades, beauty pageants, and food. Like the old festival, the new one is highlighted by a drawing for a healthy adult cow donated by local businesses. *Devil's Elbow* Devil's Elbow was once recognized nationally as one of the most beautiful spots in the country with its majestic 300-foot bluffs. Devil's Elbow, actually just a wide part of historic Route 66, is almost entirely surrounded by water. Lumberjacks coined the name after the bend in the river that surrounds the town, which they said was "a devil of an elbow." The town is located off Route Z in eastern Pulaski County. *St. Robert Restaurants* Diners in St. Robert can choose from authentic German and Asian cuisine. Many internationally born spouses of Fort Leonard Wood's military personnel have brought recipes and flavors from home and started restaurants in St. Robert. *Caveman Steak and BBQ Restaurant* Chandeliers, red carpet, waterfalls, and a German chef put them inside a cave and you get the Caveman Steak and BBQ Restaurant, which is east of Richland off Highway 7. Located 100 feet above the Gasconade River, the restaurant offers transportation from the parking lot below. Call (573) 765-4554. *Trail Ride* One of Missouri's longest-running trail rides, The 4-J Big Piney National Scenic Trail Ride features some of the finest trails and food a rider will ever encounter. Call (573) 774-6879 for a free brochure. *U.S. Army Museums* Fort Leonard Wood boasts several free museums, such as the Engineer, Chemical, Military Police, Fort Leonard Wood, and World War II Area museums. Call (573) 596-0780.