On The Road With Kitchen Warfare (Day 7)
Today we’re back in Old Town and its our last full day before heading back home. Mostly we ran errands and got the property mowed but we left time to try two local eateries that had been on our list since we got into town.
The first was the Homestead Restaurant, a locally owned spot in Fanning Springs that wasn’t here the last time I was in town. We drove past this place a dozen times and it was always packed with locals. We already had our dinner planned so we decided to try the Homestead’s Breakfast Buffet. As anticipated it was quite good, a real cut above the low quality breakfast buffets often found at institutional restaurants.
The 2nd spot on our list was Ralph’s Burger House which has been in Chiefland ever since I can remember which goes back at least 20 years to when we first bought our property. Chiefland itself has changed almost beyond recognition but Ralph’s still remains, undaunted by the surrounding glitzy fast food franchises that have moved into town. Just don’t be late because closing time on weeknights is 9pm. Arriving just in the nick of time (take out only) we indulged ourselves with classic onion rings, giant milkshakes and burgers to die for. I’ve always enjoyed a good quality burger and when on the road always try to sample the local favorites. There are some most excellent grease bombs to be found along our highways and byways and you can be sure that Ralph’s Burger House ranks right up there among them.
In fairness to Ralph, you get a lot more onion rings than this, we ate quite a few before thinking to take a picture.
Homestead Restaurant
17313 NW Highway 19
Fanning Springs, FL
(352) 463-0040
Recommended? Yep!
Ralph’s Burger House
15 Rodgers Blvd
Chiefland, FL
Recommended? Yep!
On The Road With Kitchen Warfare (Day 6)
After a few days of visiting family in Kissimmee and eating great Cuban food in Tampa we headed back towards Old Town, FL to spend a few more days working on our property before heading back to our present day home in the hills of Can-Tuc-kee. On the way out of town we stopped at La Segunda yet again for a stock of bread to take back home and a hot loaf to enjoy on the way out of town.
This time our route took us up the west cost of the state and at the insistance of our 14 year old Bichon we took advantage of this and stopped at Honeymoon Island State Park to spend a little time on their Pet Beach. This little beach is one of the few public beaches that allow dogs on the west coast of FL. Unfortunately mid summer its entirely too hot (100F+) so we didn’t spend too much time.
After a few hour drive we arrived back at our home away from home and ate yet another Cuban sandwich from our ‘supply’ from Tampa topped off with a guava pastelito. I’m telling you this food is addictive to me, suffice to say I’d eat my own hand if it was between two slices of this bread.
A Leisurely Day On The Pet Beach
Recommended? Arf! Arf!
On The Road With Kitchen Warfare (Day 5)
One thing we haven’t really talked about is how much we Floridians love to eat. The sheer number of locally owned ‘one off’ restaurants is staggering. Of course all the chains you’ve heard of are well represented nearly everywhere you go (except Cedar Key!) but the number of unique and different eateries often inspired by Florida’s extremely diverse ethnic culture is mind boggling esp. after having spent so much time in the far less diverse Midwest. I’m of Spanish heritage, my grandfather emigrated from Spain to Tampa in the early 1900’s as did many Spaniards and Cubans over the years. In Tampa the fusion of food from these different ethnicities is very special to those of us raised there and there are many foods, ingredients and dishes that are hard and often impossible to find anywhere else. There are many traditional dishes but among my favorites are what is often called ‘street food’. In Tampa that’s Cuban sandwiches, deviled crabs (a very different Tampa style), stuffed potatoes, guava pastelitos, empanada’s and a host of other local favorites. I’ve gotten pretty good at replicating some of these great local delicacies but many have proven to be quite challenging. When I am able to visit my home town I usually spend a small fortune and go through a great deal of effort to get some of this great food back home. Not only to eat but to have reference samples as I try and ‘up my game’ on some of my Tampa style efforts.
And this is exactly what we did. First stop was the famous La Segunda Central Bakery for a fresh out of the oven loaf of Cuban bread (and many more loaves and other bakery goods to take back home). My grandfather’s house was just down the road in old Ybor City and this is where my father was born. In my house growing up a day was not complete without a loaf of Pan Cubano. While you may believe you’ve had Cuban bread before if you haven’t had it from a Tampa or Miami bakery it is almost an absolute certainty you’ve never had it at all. There is a lot of Tampa v Miami nonsense as to who first ‘invented’ the style of Cuban bread we find here in Florida and even a bigger scrap as to who ‘invented’ the Cuban sandwich (BTW it was in Tampa :)). In case your curious the debate centers on whether an authentic Cuban sandwich contains genoa salami. Both sides can point to evidence that supports their claim but at the end of the day is doesn’t really matter. Both the Tampa and Miami area’s produce great Americanized Cuban style food they’re just different. Their bread is fatter with more rise, ours is longer, thinner and tastes quite different. Which you prefer is a matter of personal preference BUT when someone tells they’ve had both and can’t tell a difference they’re either a tourist, a short timer (non-native) or possibly just have no sense of taste. In any case, simply do not believe them.
On The Road With Kitchen Warfare (Day 4)
The Best Day Ever!
Well at least one of them. This morning we got up and drove the 150 miles or so from Old Town to Kissimmee, FL which is just south of Orlando and no this isn’t going to be about a day at Disney. As far as that goes I spent most of my life in the Tampa/Orlando area and we locals know to stay as far away from that madness as possible. Instead we came to Kissimmee to spend a day with my aunt, uncle and cousins that I haven’t seen in years. Not only are they my family they’re among the best people you’ll ever meet. After a WONDERFUL afternoon of looking at old pictures and reminiscing of times and family members long passed we went to lunch at a Sonny’s BBQ where I picked up a great tip from my cousins – request your BBQ sandwich be made on Garlic bread. Good stuff.
We want to spend the day in Tampa (my home town) tomorrow so we drove the hour or so from the Kissimmee/Orlando area this evening after our visit. Just the few minutes of tourist traffic getting out of Kissimmee reminded me of why I live in the hills nowadays. Of course it didn’t help that we missed our turn. Twice.
A Day With Family You Haven’t Seen In Years
Recommended? YES! In fact go call them now.
On The Road With Kitchen Warfare (Day 3)
Today we wanted to take advantage of our location and head over to Cedar Key, FL for lunch. Located on the West coast Cedar Key is a small island town of about 800 residents. Due to its geography (no interstates or big cities for miles and miles) it remains largely untouched by corporate commercialism. No fast food and no restaurant chains, in fact rarely do you see a recognizable business name at all. But still Cedar Key is a tourist town, just not for those looking for the glitz and lights of Disney. Instead Cedar Key is a haven for writers, artists and others seeking to enjoy a more pastoral experience. You can make a nice day of pursuing the shops and snacking on the food which is exactly what we did. Because we’re driving to Kissimmee in the morning we can’t spend an evening at Cedar Key this trip but it’s great fun when you can. There are some great restaurants in Cedar Key esp if you interested in natively prepared seafood but there are plenty of good choices if that’s not your thing. Prices for these well known and respected regional eateries are VERY reasonable as is lodging. The restaurants, bars and clubs along Dock Street come alive on weekend evenings and the friendly nature of people of all sorts makes for a great time. It’s like a Jimmy Buffet album come to life and its an experience I guarantee you’ll remember fondly.
Cedar Key
Recommended? Yes but only if you’re cool.
On The Road With Kitchen Warfare (Day 2)
Today we reached our rental property in Old Town, FL which was essentially abandoned by the tenant. We’ve got some great friends in Old Town who have been looking after our interests and today we spent the day connecting with everyone and getting the utilities transferred et al. By the time dinner time came around we were starved and really looking forward to a meal at BBQ Bill’s in Chiefland, FL just down the road a piece. I don’t recall exactly when they opened (mid 90’s?) but over the years I’ve had many a breakfast and a few dinners at Bill’s and its always been pretty darn good.
Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way this time. I’ve always enjoyed Bill’s and I hate to say anything negative but it is what it is. We both had a sampler type platter - the ribs and pork were fair but the chicken breast was terribly dry, a real pet peeve of mine. Salad bar was adequate but the choices weren’t outstanding. On the other hand the service was typical of what you find in rural Florida’s locally owned eateries. Amazingly friendly and efficient. Once they see where your needs lie they’re all over it. I tend to drink a LOT of beverage with my meals so I can always tell when servers are paying attention.
I’ve had many a good meal at Bill’s and they were doing a brisk business so hopefully we were just the unlucky victims of a rare lapse in quality control.
BBQ BILL’S
1901 N Young Blvd (Hwy 19)
Chiefland, FL 32626
Phone: (352)493-4374
Recommended? Based on this one visit no. Based on my years of eating there I’d certainly try it again.
On The Road With Kitchen Warfare
Road Trip! Sounds great right? I’d love to tell you that some megacorp was sponsoring an insightful journey into the American heartland and back roads in an amazing culinary adventure (you know, like our hero Alton Brown does) but that would be about as far from the truth as is possible. Instead we’re taking a trip 800 miles from northern KY to my home state of FL to check out the condition of our rental property in rural Old Town that was abruptly and mysteriously vacated by the last tenant.
Normally I prefer a road trip to any other method of travel. I absolutely love Americana - from our food to our divergent local cultures and staying off the highways and on the back roads is my real idea of the prefect vacation.
But this trip is nothing like that. It’s a grueling 13+ hour drive down the most monotonous stretch of highway as can possibly exist in a large populated country, I-75. All my life I have had to travel up and down this ugly stretch of asphalt and I simply dread the idea of wasting another day of my life on it.
Day One
And that day was today. Foodwise I made a loaf of bread for some sandwiches to cut down on the # of stops. We don’t know the state of the property yet so after the 800 mile drive we took a motel room in Lake City, FL and got some Chinese takeout from China Wok (also in Lake City). While I never mention we may write about a food establishment on Kitchen Warfare I do tend to talk about food to anyone who will listen and or answer questions. Starving to death back in the motel room when we unwrapped the packages and opened all the delicious smelling containers we were delighted to find that the good folks at China Wok had put a few extras in our bag marked ‘free’. Nice folks and the food was excellent. My only regret was that we didn’t have enough room in our cooler to keep the huge amount of leftovers.
China Wok
4207 US Highway 90 West
Lake City, FL
(386) 755-3489
Recommended? 10-4 back door.
Sad Food Fact
U.S food producers currently dedicate about 4 million acres of land to organic production, which is only 4% of al U.S. farmland.
I know this is true because it was on TV 
I paused the Tivo and wrote it down word for word but then forgot to note the name of the program. D’oh!
Grocery Store Bread: Now With Metal Chunks!
At least 27 different SUPERMARKET BRANDS made by Sara Lee could be effected and have been recalled.
From the ‘Why We Like To Make Our Own Food” Dept: According to Reuters and other news sources a Sara Lee factory in Meridian, Mississippi has been spewing out loaves of bread potentially laced with chunks of metal. The company recalled the bread after they realized a flour sifter was damaged and possibly some metal had made its way into the bread. I take that to mean there were chunks of metal missing they couldn’t find. Not on the floor, not in the sifter(?) . . . D’oh! I guess its in the bread . . .
Even if you don’t think you’re a Sara Lee customer it may be important to understand and keep up with the recall. This is because Sara Lee made this bread for both regional and national groceries. The recall includes supermarket brands sold by Publix, Foodland, IGA, Wal-Mart and Piggly Wiggly among others. Plus as you may know with the recent dog food recall new products were added almost daily. While this incident should be far more contained and isolated, once people start looking closely who knows what else they’ll find.
Hopefully nobody ELSE ‘does it like Sara Lee’.
Reality Bites - Hell’s Kitchen vs The Next Food Network Star
Ever since Iron Chef of Japan became a cult classic U.S. television has been experimenting with cooking contests (including Food Network’s excellent American version of Iron Chef itself). From cakes to risotto we all want to know whose ‘cuisine reigns supreme’.
Allez Cuisine!
Two of the most popular are ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ which has even made it into the primetime lineup on a decent network Fox and The Next Food Network Star which is Food Networks effort to get into the American Idol business of validating your talent’s popularity before engineering their stardom.
On the surface you’d think a blog called Kitchen Warfare would just love a show called Hell’s Kitchen.
Hell’s Kitchen - From Our Garbage Can To Your Table
If you’re expecting to watch a cooking competition or learn something about food I’ll save you an hour of your life. Much to my surprise popular chef Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen isn’t really about the food. In the few shows I’ve watched I’ve seen more footage of contestants rooting through the garbage than doing any meaningful cooking. Sure they cook, its just that the food really has nothing to do with the show. They may as well be assembling IPods. We very rarely understand why something went wrong, just that it did and horribly so. We are rarely aware of what they were preparing but we can be sure Ramsay won’t like it and will curse out the contestants, close the doors of his fake restaurant and send all of his fake customers home.
If you’ve never seen this show it’s a little hard to describe. The contestants compete in a ‘made for TV’ version of the worlds most dysfunctional workplace. The boss is crazy, your peers are out to get you, everyone blames everyone else for the stuff that went wrong and if you get caught screwing up you’re given the worst job in the office (at Kitchen Warfare its writing these articles). The winner has to be able to cook in a way that pleases Ramsay and be immune to his ranting and raving about how crappy everything is. Presumably this because the winner gets/has to work in one of Ramsay’s restaurants and will have to listen to him for the rest of his life.
