Tag: 210325

Let’s talk IPAs

So annoyingly popular

IPAs are so popular right now I almost try to avoid writing about them, not because I don’t enjoy them, but, look, they’re almost too trendy. And I don’t want to inundate people with IPAs all the time.

I think I may have overcompensated a bit, though. Let’s be serious; IPAs are far and away the most popular craft beer style in the country. You walk into a brewery, any brewery, and you know you’re going to have several IPAs to choose from and probably one or maybe two each of any other style they offer. That’s just the reality of the craft beer scene.

They are so popular because they taste so good. The bright hops feature big notes of tropical fruit, citrus and pine, and just an abundance of freshness. It’s incredible how flavorful they are.

With New England-style IPAs, you’re drinking a beer that looks like a glass of orange juice, and honestly, often doesn’t taste that far off from that.

It seems brewers have an almost endless supply of hop combinations to play with, and play with they do. The winners are the beer drinkers of this country.

It’s just that sometimes IPA culture is a bit much — this is the style of beer that causes people to do irrational things, like wait in really long lines just for beer. But that doesn’t change the way they taste.

Here are three IPAs I’ve had recently that reminded me how terrific this style is.

Hi, Jack New England IPA by Hobbs Brewing (Ossipee)

A friend handed one of these to me before we hit the slopes for some very late winter skiing and snowboarding, and I just couldn’t be more grateful. Yes, we can definitely talk about whether or not it was a great idea to have a beer before I tried to clumsily manipulate onto and then off of a chair lift, but I have no regrets.

I think a lot of the amped-up IPAs of today can be a bit much on the gut — I don’t know that I’d call them heavy but some of the big ones can bog you down, between the alcohol, the hops and, I think, the yeast.

This IPA is an explosion of fruity hop flavor but in a less robust package. It’s delicious and extremely easy to drink. What I’m saying is, you could have several of these, and I’m not saying you should, but I’m saying you probably will want to.

Donkey-Hoté Double IPA by Throwback Brewery (North Hampton)

Speaking of amped-up IPAs, here’s one. This is aggressive — aggressively hoppy and bitter — and yet surprisingly easy to drink, so be careful, as this comes in at 8.2-percent ABV. The pour is hazy and the flavor profile features big notes of citrus and apricot. I think a beer like this is your “reward” beer. Sit down, relax, put your feet up and enjoy this hop-bomb after you’ve accomplished something, such as an afternoon of yard work.

603 IPA by 603 Brewery (Londonderry)

I’m a little embarrassed to say that I don’t think I had ever had this beer before. Not sure what I was waiting for. This is excellent. In addition to tropical citrus notes, the brewery says the brew features notes of lime, orange and melon, and, yeah, that’s pretty much right on. I think you will pick up the lime, which just makes this brew especially interesting. This is a terrific “anytime” IPA.

What’s in My Fridge
Green Head IPA by Newburyport Brewing Co. (Newburyport, Mass.)
One of my all-time favorite IPAs, there’s just something about this beer. Maybe it’s just personal nostalgia or maybe it’s because I like the tag line, “The beer that bites you back,” but this West Coast-style IPA has just always been a winner for me — deliciously hoppy and bitter. Cheers!

Featured photo: Hi, Jack New England IPA by Hobbs Brewing. Courtesy photo.

Dan and Sean Gagnon

Dan Gagnon of Manchester, his son Sean, wife Debra and daughter Kimberly McEnerney of Bedford are the family team behind NH Dan’s Seasoning (nhdans.com, find them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter), a company offering a line of three seasoning blends for cooking anything from steak, chicken and fish to all kinds of vegetables. A master carpenter by trade, Dan Gagnon originally created his seasoning almost 20 years ago for himself that he later shared with family and friends — a spicy blend now known as the Live Free or Dry Rub, made with sea salt, ground pepper, paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, dehydrated onion flakes, ground cumin, dried oregano and dried thyme. Two more similar but milder blends would follow: the Granite State Seasoning, which adds dried basil and rosemary leaves to offset the heat, and the Mild ‘n’ Wild Seasoning, which has less of a kick due to a reduction of its hot ingredients. All three are mixed and bottled locally and are sold in more than a dozen stores, including the Manchester Craft Market at the Mall of New Hampshire and Hand Made-In at the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua, as well as online through Etsy. The Hippo recently spoke with Dan and Sean Gagnon.

What is your must-have kitchen item?

Dan: One of my top things to use is probably the grill.

Sean: I’m big on the Instant Pot, not going to lie. It’s a godsend. You can do everything in that thing.

What would you have for your last meal?

Sean: Mine would be lobster. A full lobster with butter, and some fries on the side.

Dan: I’d have to say a lobster as well.

What is your favorite local restaurant?

Sean: T-Bones [Great American Eatery]. The Bedford one is probably the one we go to the most because it’s the closest to my house. We’re both carpenters and they’re our biggest client. … I’ll usually look at the specials, or I’d probably go with the salmon.

Dan: CJ’s [Great West Grill in Manchester]. I like their salmon too.

What celebrity would you like to see trying one of your seasonings?

Sean: Because I’d want an actual honest review, I’ll go with Gordon Ramsay. If he tried my dad’s cooking, I don’t think he’d complain!

Dan: Tom Hanks. He’s a very good actor and I’d definitely love to make something for him.

What is your personal favorite seasoning that you offer?

Sean: I like the Live Free or Dry Rub, because I’m a fan of heat. A little goes a long way too, so you don’t have to add much to your food. … I love putting it on chicken.

Dan: For me, probably the Live Free or Dry Rub, on steak. My grandson would say eggs. He won’t eat eggs unless he has the rub on them.

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

Sean: I’m seeing a lot more different varieties in cultures of food. I love to try different foods from all around the world.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?

Dan: I like making shepherd’s pie, of course with beef, onions, corn, peas, carrots and mashed potatoes.

Sean: Pizza, just because I love the experience of creating it with my family. I’ll usually do a light sauce, with extra cheese, pepperoni and sausage.

Filet mignon, roasted red smashed potatoes and cooked asparagus
From the kitchen of Dan Gagnon

Filet mignon: Season the filet with NH Dan’s Live Free or Dry Rub, wrap in bacon and use two toothpicks to hold in place (remember to remove them when ready to serve). Place in the refrigerator for two to three hours to let the seasoning be absorbed into the meat. Remove and leave at room temperature for 30 minutes. Grill on high for three to four minutes to sear. Lower grill to medium/low and cook until preferred temperature. Remove and let sit for around 10 minutes before serving.

Roasted red smashed potatoes: Boil desired quantity of small red potatoes until soft, then remove and place in the refrigerator for one hour to cool down. Use parchment paper to place the potatoes on and flatten them to around a ¼-inch thickness. Place parchment paper on top of a cookie sheet, put olive oil on the paper and season both sides of the potatoes with NH Dan’s Granite State Seasoning. Place potatoes on parchment paper, preheat the oven to 425 degrees and put potatoes in for 30 to 45 minutes. Turn over halfway through and cook until the outside is crispy.

Asparagus: Put olive oil in a frying pan, remove the lower part of the asparagus and place in the pan. Add some NH Dan’s Mild ‘n’ Wild Seasoning. Cook on medium/low heat and cover pan. Cook until asparagus is soft but still has a crunch.

Featured photo: Left to right: Debra Gagnon, Sean Gagnon, Kimberly McEnerney, and Dan Gagnon.

African and Caribbean flavors

ToKoss Take-Out opens in Manchester

When The Stuffed Sub closed last year, owner Chris Munzimi of Afro Paris, the beauty supply store next door, immediately took notice. He and other family members had been looking for a space to open a restaurant, and the newly vacant spot on Elm Street in Manchester was perfect.

ToKoss, a takeout-only eatery offering hard-to-find African and Caribbean dishes like oxtail stew, turkey tail, jerk chicken and cassava bread, in addition to house subs, burgers and wings, opened March 9. Munzimi, his younger brother Romeo Masuku, cousins Christian Mumpini and Junior Munzimi and family friend Jonathan Manono are all investors.

Masuku, whose family came to New Hampshire from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the early 2000s, said the restaurant’s name is derivative of the Lingala word “kitoko,” which means “something good” or “beautiful.” Its logo features an African safari tree.

“We wanted to bring some culture to the city of Manchester,” Masuku said. “We’re trying to incorporate dishes from the continent of Africa itself, and also dishes from the Caribbean islands and other Latin American countries. … Some of the recipes come from my mom directly.”

ToKoss features several options that are available all day, like chicken tender or house-marinated steak subs, cheeseburgers with a variety of add-on options, and salads. Traditional African or Caribbean meals become available starting at 3 p.m. — those include oxtail stew, curry chicken, jerk chicken, and pondu, or cassava leaves. Each comes with rice and one or two additional sides, like sweet plantains, fries, corn on the cob, and samoussas, or meat-filled pastries.

“The oxtail stew is something that everybody loves. That’s been the biggest seller,” Masuku said. “Oxtail is something made in Africa and the Caribbean islands as well. … The differences are in the spices used. We’ve identified house spices that we use here to try to incorporate everybody.”

You’ll also find a rotating menu of specialty items served on most weekends, like goat meat stew, catfish stew or smoked turkey tail, which can be ordered with any side. Other a la carte items have included wings, baby back ribs, fried shrimp, chicken or house-marinated steak kabobs, and beignets, also known in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as mikate.

“[Beignets] look like small doughnuts, but just fried. They’re very popular in Europe as well,” Masuku said. “You can eat them virtually with anything.”

Soft drinks like Coca-Cola, Sprite and Fanta are sold in glass bottles out of a refrigerated case.

“In Kinshasa, which is the capital city of where I was born, when you go out to restaurants you’ll usually see Coke products come in glass bottles,” Masuku said, “so we brought that in here just to have that little bit of nuance. … We’re going to try to add ginger beer also.”

In addition to takeout orders via phone, Masuku said ToKoss will soon be offering online ordering and delivery through a third-party service.

ToKoss Take-Out
Where: 1293 Elm St., Manchester
Hours: Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 3 to 9 p.m. (may be subject to change)
More info: Find them on Facebook and Instagram @tokosstakeout, email [email protected] or call 232-4399 to place a takeout order

Feautred photo: Oxtail stew over Caribbean rice with curry chicken and a beef samoussa. Photo by Matt Ingersoll.

Ready, set, cook

Milford’s Chris Viaud to appear on Top Chef

Milford chef Chris Viaud will appear as a contestant on Season 18 of Bravo’s cooking competition series Top Chef, which will premiere Thursday, April 1. He’ll compete in several challenges with 14 other executive chefs and restaurateurs from across the country, preparing dishes for celebrity judges Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons, as well as previous Top Chef finalists. Filming for the show took place in Portland, Oregon, late last year. As they say on the show, the winner receives $250,000, a feature in Food & Wine magazine, an appearance in the annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, Colorado, and the title of “Top Chef.”

Viaud is the executive chef and owner of both the farm-to-table restaurant Greenleaf (54 Nashua St., Milford, 213-5447, greenleafmilford.com) and the sandwich and pastry shop Culture (75 Mont Vernon St., Milford, 249-5011, culturenh.com). He grew up in Massachusetts and attended Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., where he studied food service management. Prior to opening Greenleaf and Culture, Viaud spent three years as a chef at Deuxave, a fine-dining French restaurant in Boston, where he honed many of the creative techniques and skills he still practices today.

How were you approached for the show and what was the casting process like?

One of the prior chefs at Deuxave, Adrienne Wright, was actually a contestant on Season 16 of Top Chef. She was the one who kind of inspired me and motivated me to toss my hat into the ring. She sent in my name and then somebody from casting reached out to me to begin the interviewing and auditioning process. There were many steps involved, and I had to think a lot about how to best express my talent to get to the point of being chosen for the show.

Had you been a previous Top Chef viewer? Were you familiar with the show’s format?

I’ve been watching the show since around Season 10 or 11. It’s definitely one of my favorite cooking shows to watch, because I often feel a deep connection to the chefs. This is all raw talent and their real struggles and self-battles that come through on the show.

Do you remember the moment you learned you had been selected to be a Top Chef contestant and what was going through your mind at that time?

Yes, actually. So just before Culture had opened [in August 2020], I was sitting in the empty building doing paperwork, and I got a call from an unknown number. Typically I don’t pick up unknown numbers, but I just had a feeling. … I was told that I had been selected to compete in the new season. I ran around the building and drove from Culture to Greenleaf. My wife Emilee was working the line at Greenleaf, and I took her aside and told her the news, and then I was just speechless after that.

You learned soon after that you’d be traveling to Portland, Oregon, for filming. Did you have to familiarize yourself with the food scene over there as part of your overall preparation?

I had not been there before, so it was also a bit of a surprise for me to learn that I would be going to Portland. I wasn’t too familiar with it, so I did have to do some research on the food community out there and what grows around that area. In New England, for example, we focus a lot on the four distinct seasons when we think about produce, but over there, there is a lot of produce that is grown year-round. So those kinds of things definitely took me outside of my comfort zone.

Did the experience make you realize anything you hadn’t noticed before as a viewer?

I’ve done cooking competitions before, but nothing quite like this at all. You get that realization that this is all really happening once the clock starts ticking. That 30 minutes you get is a real 30 minutes, and it flies. … All of us on the show became very well-connected, and being able to share our expertise with one another was one of the most rewarding things about the experience.

What was filming like in the midst of Covid?

There were multiple Covid tests before leaving but also throughout the course of filming. The production company took several extra measures to make sure the judges and the contestants were staying safe. We had to wear masks whenever we weren’t filming and we had to keep our distance from one another.

Top Chef: Season 18 premiere
The episode will air on Bravo and will feature Milford chef Chris Viaud
When: Thursday, April 1, 8 p.m.
How to tune in: Check your television service provider’s listings for the channel number, or stream the premiere online at bravotv.com/live

Feautred photo: Chris Viaud. Photo by Stephanie Diani/Bravo.

The Weekly Dish 21/03/25

News from the local food scene

• Get ready for Easter: Still wondering about what to do for Easter Sunday this year? Visit hippopress.com for our annual Easter listings (available for free to everybody thanks to our members and supporters), which include details on local restaurants and function centers serving special brunches or dinner menus, as well as bakers, chocolatiers and candy makers offering unique creations of their own. Easter Sunday is April 4, so be sure to place those orders or make those reservations soon. For the most up-to-date availability, check the websites or social media pages of restaurants, bakeries and function centers, or call them directly.

• Chili chowdown: The Amherst and Merrimack Lions Clubs are now offering recipes available for purchase from contestants that participated in their “virtual” chili cook-off on March 2. According to Amherst Lion and event co-captain Joan Ferguson, there were 10 entries total, with submissions divided into two categories of either individuals or Lions Club members. Each chili was judged by three local celebrity chefs for its taste, smell, heat, creativity and presentation. Visit e-clubhouse.org/sites/amherstnh to access the virtual cook-off and download the recipe list. Bonus recipes from previous cook-off winners are also available for purchase. The cost is $10 for five recipes, $15 for 10 recipes or $20 for all of them, with proceeds benefiting the Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation of New Hampshire.

• A drink to history: Join New Hampshire Humanities for The Hot Drinks Revolution, a virtual event happening on Friday, April 2, at 5 p.m. Dr. Whitney Howarth of Plymouth State University will talk about history’s role in making drinks like tea, cocoa, coffee and Coca-Cola the popular beverages they are today, discussing Atlantic slave-sugar trade, cafe culture in colonial days, the indigenous resistance to tea plantations and the tale of the coffee bean in Latin America. Visit nhhumanities.org to register via Zoom.

• Lemon freeze: Salem limoncello producer Fabrizia Spirits has recently introduced new frozen versions of its ready-to-drink canned cocktails, according to a press release, in three flavors: Italian lemonade, Italian margarita and Italian breeze. The frozen cocktails follow the same exact recipes as their canned counterparts, made with limoncello, freshly squeezed Sicilian lemons, premium vodka and tequila and all-natural fruit juices. They’re sold in mixed 12-packs and are currently available in retail stores across several states, as well as online. The introduction of canned cocktails to Fabrizia’s product line a few years ago has been a major sales driver for the company, according to the release, as it has enjoyed a nearly 250 percent increase in profits since 2018. In the several months since launching the Fabrizia Lemon Baking Co., it has expanded its offerings to include limoncello-infused blondies, biscotti and whoopie pies. Visit fabriziaspirits.com.

Treasure Hunt 21/03/25

This was a necklace that we found in my mother’s jewelry collection. It seems to be a coin in good shape. Can you give me any advice on it? Should I leave it in the casing or remove it? Any information will be helpful.

Karl from Dover

Dear Karl,
What your mom has or had is a Morgan 1921 silver dollar. It wasn’t uncommon to find dollar or half dollar coins in necklace form (sometimes other coins as well). Condition on most is poor but the coins, if older like hers, are usually real silver.

The Morgan dollars were minted from 1878 to 1904 and then again in 1921 like yours. If you look closely on the back of the coin, between the D and the O of “dollar,” there should be a tiny letter. That will give you the mint where it was struck (made).

The value on them in general for the year 1921 is in the range of $25 to $40 depending on the condition. If it were mine I would leave it in the setting until you bring it to someone to see. If you are looking to sell it, let them remove it. Until then don’t clean it; just keep it as you found it.

Note: Never clean coins yourself. Always let a professional in coins handle that, because cleaning can lower the value of coins.

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