Author: John Fladd

The Weekly Dish 24/08/08

News from the local food scene

• Food trucks and muscle cars: Windham’s Recreation department will host aFood Truck Festival and Car Show on the grounds of Windham High School (64 London Bridge Road, Windham) on Sunday, Aug. 11. In addition to eats from local food trucks, there will be music and games of cornhole. For more details contact the Windham Recreation office by phone at 965-1208 or by email at [email protected].

• Dinner and a show: The Atkinson Resort & Country Club (85 Country Club Drive, Atkinson, 362-8700, atkinsonresort.com) will host Drag Me To Dinner, an evening of fine dining with a Tastes of Spain menu and drag entertainment, on Saturday, Aug. 10, beginning at 6:30 p.m. The event will be emceed by the duo of Kira Stone and Kris Knievil. Tickets are $65 through Eventbrite.

• Bubbles: August’s Brunch and Bubbles event at Flag Hill Winery (297 N. River Road, Lee, 659-2949, flaghill.com) will take place Sunday, Aug. 11, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. This month’s brunch menu will include sparkling Cayuga and a full mimosa bar with a farm-to-table brunch featuring mac & cheese bar, fresh pastries and fruit, quiches, frittatas and more. Tickets are $65 each, available through Eventbrite.

• International wine-off: Wine on Main (9 N. Main St., Concord, 897-5828, wineonmainnh.com) will host an Old World vs. New World Wine Class Tuesday, Aug. 13, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Participants will taste and compare wines. For example, how does a French Crémant stack up against a premium sparkling wine from California made in the Champagne method? The cost is $35 per person and the class is limited to 20 people. It includes six wines and light snacks. Reserve your place at Wine on Main’s website.

Caipirinha

The story goes that everyone in Brazil drinks caipirinhas when it’s oppressively hot. And because Brazil is on the equator, it’s oppressively hot pretty much all the time.

The ingredients for a caipirinha couldn’t be simpler: a lime, sugar, and a couple ounces of a Brazilian alcohol called cachaça, a sort of cousin to white rum. Most rum is made from fermenting molasses, a byproduct of sugar production. Cachaça is made by fermenting unprocessed sugarcane juice. It tastes like a slightly sour, faintly musky rum. That sourness plays extremely well off crushed limes.

Because the caipirinha — which is apparently pronounced “kai·pr·ee·nyuh“ — is so entrenched in Brazilian culture, it has inspired strongly held beliefs and heated disagreements. One of the most strongly argued caipirinha disputes is whether it needs to be made with granulated sugar, as caipirinha purists insist, or if it can be made with sugar syrup, like 95 percent of the sweetened cocktails in the world.

Because of my deep commitment to world peace, I decided to try the two versions side by side.

Here is the classic recipe for a caipirinha:

  • 1 lime, sliced into wedges
  • 2 teaspoons table sugar
  • 2 ounces cachaça – which is apparently pronounced “kuh-shah-sah,” which sounds like an obscure type of martial arts weapon. “This is no ordinary murder, Higgins; this man was killed by a cachaça.”

Muddle the lime wedges and sugar in the bottom of a cocktail shaker. There will be a lot of juice, so don’t smash the limes like you might normally with a muddler. Grind it down hard, for longer than you might normally, but make sure you don’t splash.

Add cachaça and ice, then stir thoroughly with a bar spoon and pour into a rocks glass. Some bartenders suggest garnishing it with a lime wheel, but there is so much lime in this drink already, that seems a bit like overkill.

The theory is that the sugar acts like an abrasive and helps strip citrus oil out of the lime peel. That seems unlikely; logic would suggest that the crushed lime produces so much acidic juice that the sugar is dissolved almost instantly and doesn’t have time to abrade anything. But let’s withhold judgment; sometimes Reality ignores Logic mercilessly.

OK, let’s set this aside and make a second caipirinha, with sugar syrup. Do everything the same, but add two teaspoons of simple syrup at the same time as the cachaça.

Crush, crush, crush, pour, pour, clink, clink, clink. Stir, stir. Pour/clink/gurgle. Let’s take a look at the two caipirinhas side by side.

They both look and smell delicious.

Taking a sip of the caipirinha made with syrup: **Raised eyebrows** This is a very solid cocktail. It’s a little sour and musky from the cachaça, just sweet enough, and a love letter to lime.

That’s going to be tough to beat. Let’s try the classic caipirinha: **Pupils dilate, ceiling opens up, the sound of angels singing fills the kitchen**

I realize that I’m still standing in my kitchen, but for just an instant I was sitting on a patio surrounded by tropical flowers while samba music played in the background.

The caipirinha made with sugar is better by several orders of magnitude. This is the real love letter to lime, written with a fountain pen, using sophisticated metaphors and a complex rhyme scheme. In comparison, the other one was a late-night text, asking, “U up?”

(I drank both versions, by the way; I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.)

I think I’ll open a summer-only pop-up bar called Cai-Piranha.

Featured Photo: Photo by John Fladd.

In the kitchen with Joe Savitch

In April 2024 Joe Savitch left his job of 10-plus years to start doing mobile street vending.

“We originally were looking at various franchise concepts and ultimately decided that that was still working for somebody else. So using my background in marketing and branding and web development and all the things that I had done for the last decade or so, we came up with this concept kind of through a series of just organic conversations,” Savitch said. “We ultimately decided to center our food around all kinds of things in cones — from snow cones to waffle cones. We put fun things like chicken and waffles and taco cones, which we premiered this year at the Taco Tour. We also make a handheld Japanese-style crepe cone. Our plan is to be creative and leverage our creativity as much as we’ll leverage the cones, and have some fun with our food.”

What is your must-have kitchen item?

A sharp paring knife. It is a simple yet versatile tool that can do many jobs and often goes overlooked.

What would you have for your last meal?

Probably chicken broccoli with ziti. My mom would make this for me as a kid and I haven’t had it in a long time. … And since carbs wouldn’t be of concern any longer, I’d probably have some cheesy garlic bread and a glass of red wine.

What is your favorite local eatery?

Tucker’s. … I always enjoy going to Tucker’s for their incredible creations.

Name a celebrity you would like to see eating at your food truck?

Alan Ritchson. This also was a tough one. My first thought was Anthony Bourdain or Tyler Florence, but I think Alan would be a lot of fun to see at the truck. I think he would place a big order. To maintain that Reacher physique, he’s got to get a lot of calories.

What is your favorite thing on your menu?

Chicken & Waffles — fried chicken in a waffle cone. This is one of the first items we conceived when working on this project. It is a non-traditional twist on a classic dish that everyone enjoys.

What is the biggest food trend you see in New Hampshire right now?

Authenticity — and freshness. With so many restaurants cutting back staff in favor of digital tablets and ordering, I see many customers just looking for an authentic interaction and ordering experience. On top of that, they are looking for fresh ingredients. Most customers are interested in hearing where we get our various products — the ice cream, maple syrup, soda, etc.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home? Why?

I love to make Thanksgiving dinner. I get to break out fun recipes from the past and look for new things to mix in every year. My kids help me make the snowflake rolls and my oldest has taken over pie duties. We get to work together and have fun. They may only end up eating the rolls and pie, but it isn’t about the eating; it’s about the cooking. —John Fladd

Chicken Broccoli with Ziti
From Joe Savitch

1 pound ziti cooked and drained
1 pound broccoli (can be frozen steamed or fresh steamed)
1 pound chicken breast chopped into bite size (1-2-ounce) pieces
flour
1 pint of half & half
salt and pepper for seasoning
oil

Prepare the noodles and steam the broccoli. Set aside.
Cut the chicken into 1- to 2-ounce pieces. Dredge in flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Pan-fry in a little bit of oil. Cook the chicken until it browns on both slides, about 5-8 min.
There should be enough flour/oil to create a roux in the pan. If not, add a little more flour and butter (1:1 ratio) until there is a light roux formed in the pan. Add the half & half and heat until it simmers. If you want it to be saucier add some chicken broth.

Add the chicken, broccoli and noodles to the pan and heat through. Season with salt and pepper as needed.

Pup’s day out

Dog cafe prepares to open in Nashua

Ashyana Hall is in the final stages of launching Nashua’s first dog cafe, Pup In a Cup.

“It’s kind of a passion project that I started around two years ago,” Hall said. “I’ve been a dog trainer for about a decade and the biggest problem that I kept finding with my clients is they have nowhere to bring their dogs in the winter to practice socialization and be out with them. And especially this year, this year’s a great example of we’ve just been in a heat wave. They have nowhere to bring their dogs in the summer either now.”

Hall’s idea was to give dog owners a place to sit down with a snack, a cool drink or a cup of coffee, maybe meet some fellow dog people, and give their dogs a calm, vacuum cleaner-free space to relax.

“We’re going to have a full drink and snack menu for the dogs,” she said. “That’s mirrored to the human menu, so we make our own teas and smoothies and with that we have teas and smoothies that are dog-safe, dog-friendly and that are for them as well. The snacks look the same, or as close as we can get as possible. So you could go and enjoy a macaron or something like that with your dog.” The cafe’s baked goods will come from Lighthouse Local in Bedford. “They do a bunch of really cute doughnuts, they do cupcakes, and scones,” Hunt said. “So they do a bunch of different, just fun sweets and cookies. All the bakery goods for the humans are locally sourced from there.”

Pup In a Cup will also have two Quiet Rooms available for dogs, or even human children, who are still working on their people skills. Hunt sees them as a way to make the café more inclusive.

“As a trainer,” she said, “most — half if not more — of my clients were there for behavior modification, reactivity, things like that. You can rent [a Quiet Room] out for about 50 minutes and be out in public without your dog getting overwhelmed by there being too much going on because your dog’s not ready for it.”

At this point, Pup In a Cup is almost ready to launch. Human restaurants are inspected by the Health Department, but animal food — including food for dogs — has to go through the Department of Agriculture.

“The main thing that’s getting approved right now is the kitchen itself,” Hall said. “We’re essentially creating an airlock system [around the kitchen]. There is absolutely no direct access from the area where the dogs and people are to the kitchen. ” Hall said that she is excited to get started.

“I’m looking forward to the experience of it all,” she said.

Pup in a Cup
Pup In a Cup is expected to open in the second half of August.
295 DW Highway, Nashua, pupinacupcafe.com

Food, crafts and a lot of whoopie pies

Great New England Food Truck Festival returns

Jody Donohue knew she was on to something as she watched a woman funnel a two-pound whoopie pie into her mouth.

Donohue’s company Great New England Craft and Artisan Shows (gnecraftartisanshows.com) is in charge of the Great New England Food Truck Festival (gnefoodtruckfest.com) Saturday, Aug. 3, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Hampshire Dome (34 Emerson Road, Milford, 673-8123, hampshiredome.com). Fourteen food trucks will be set up outside the Dome, with 35 vendors inside. There will be live music, a children’s area, and a whoopie pie eating contest.

Which brings us back to the whoopie pie woman.

Donohue’s company was putting on a similar event on the Seacoast in July.

“Someone brought a gallon zip-lock bag,” she said. “As soon as the timer started and they said ‘go,’ she took the whoopie pie, stuffed it into the gallon bag, squished it all up, ripped a hole in the corner, and was squeezing it into her mouth. Is that insane or what?”

Although this is the first year the Food Truck Festival in Milford will include a whoopie pie eating contest, it is the seventh year for the Festival itself. Donohue is especially excited about the venue.

“We’ll be inside and outside the dome,” she said. “It’s a 94,000-square-foot dome! It’s an air-supported structure; there aren’t any beams inside. It’s beautiful.”

Most of the vendors inside the dome will be artisan craftspeople. There will be jewelry-makers, hot sauce vendors, and pet product designers. Donohue emphasized the variety of crafters in attendance.

“We have someone that makes cards out of aluminum cans,” she said. “She cuts aluminum cans up for her designs and makes her own cards. We’ll have 3D printing materials there. There’s a sticker booth with thousands of stickers. We have Make Your Own Teddy Bear [station] this year. You can pick out the fabric and then go through the experience of stuffing it, choosing accessories for it if you want, and naming it.”

The main draw for a food truck festival, of course, is the food trucks, which will be parked outside the Dome.

“We have 14 different food trucks here this year,” Donohue said. “You’re going to find anything from trolley dogs, popcorn, fresh squeezed lemonade, Mexican food like burritos and tacos. We will have sausage, peppers, onions. We’re doing a cannoli truck. We have Kona ice there. We’ll have a Jamaican truck, a pizza truck, Chinese, a coffee truck [and a] barbecue truck.”

When not eating food truck food, attendees can play cornhole and listen to live music. In the KidZone, there will be bounce-houses, face-painting, bubble play and chalk-drawing activities. “We’ll have a raffle,” Donohue said. “It’s a scratch ticket raffle. You have a chance to win $100 in scratch tickets and those proceeds benefit a local lacrosse program.”

Donohue is looking forward to a good turnout this year.

“It’s open to the public, and it’s a great way for everyone to come together, enjoy themselves for a day, and hopefully forget about life for a while,” she said.

And enjoy the drama of the whoopie pie contest.

The Great New England Food Truck Festival
Where: The Hampshire Dome, 34 Emerson Road, Milford
When: Saturday, Aug. 3, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Info: gnefoodtruckfest.com
Admission: Adult tickets are $8 each, children age 14 and under attend free.
Parking is free.

The Weekly Dish 24/08/01

News from the local food scene

• New doughnuts: What the Fluff! Donuts (87 Amherst St., Manchester, 233-1215, whatthefluffdonuts.com) slated to hold its grand opening on Thursday, Aug. 1. Located across the street from Victory Park and the Victory Parking Garage, What the Fluff! will serve “exceptional donuts [made] with the finest ingredients,” according to the website.

• Weenie Weekend: Celebrate Weenie Weekend Five at Candia Road Brewing Co. (840 Candia Road, Manchester, 935-8123, candiaroadbrewingco.com) Saturday, Aug. 3, and Sunday, Aug. 4. To commemorate the release of its Vienna lager, Wiener Lager, Candia Road will devote its entire menu to 24 different hot dogs.

• Tomatoes forever: Learn how to preserve fresh tomatoes to make salsa and sauces at Joppa Hill Educational Farm (174 Joppa Hill Road, Bedford, 472-4724, sites.google.com/theeducationalfarm.org/joppahillfarm), Sunday, Aug. 4, from 2 to 3 p.m. This class will be taught by Betsey Golon, certified master food preserver by the University of Maine. Tickets are $20 per person if purchased online, $25 at the door. This event requires registration.

• Veggies forever: The Tuscan Market (Tuscan Village, 9 Via Toscana, Salem, 912-5467, tuscanbrands.com) will host a class called Pickling, Italian Style! on Sunday, Aug. 4, from 4 to 6 p.m. Participants will learn to make homemade giardiniera and some knife skills, too. Tickets are $70 each through the Market’s website.

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