TIAGASIAB

There IS a god and She is a BUCKEYE!

Today: The Ohio State Buckeyes 14, that lowly team from Michigan 3

OSU is now 11-1, outright winners of the Big Ten conference two years in a row, and almost certainly headed to the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day. If you're a Buckeye, it just doesn't get much better than this....

My recommended celebration: A cold bottle of Anchor Steam, from San Francisco's Anchor Brewing Company. Every time I have one of these, I immediately get transported back to Fisherman's Wharf in San Fran and the smell of fresh crab and shrimp and fried calamari. This beer has history, taste, and character, and worth every penny.

Da BIGGEST Game

That's right, this Saturday is not the Big Game but the BIGGEST GAME: The Ohio State University vs. that funky old Michigan team. Being a born-in-Ohio Buckeye, this means a lot to me, along with, oh, the other however-many-more-million of us Buckeye Staters. Here are a few fast facts about this legendary series:

* First game: 1897

* Played every year since 1918

* Last regular season game for both teams since 1935

* Voted by ESPN in 2000 as the greatest North American sports rivalry

This year's game: at Michigan Stadium (107,501) with Ohio State ranked 7th nationally at 10-1 and Michigan ranked 23rd, at 8-3. At stake (besides, of course, PRIDE) is the Big 10 championship and a spot in the Rose Bowl/national playoff picture. (Check out this countdown-to-game-time clock as needed. And see the cool pic of former OSU coach Woody Hayes below, too.)

No predictions; just know that I'll be tailgating in my living room, ready to cheer on the Buckeyes, and ready to call my dear friend Dave W (even though he lives in MI) once the Buckeyes win.

Now, what does the OSU-Michigan game have to do with food and wine, you ask? It's a chance to poke fun at Michiganders! So here goes. You know you're from Michigan when:

* You only own three spices: salt, pepper, and ketchup

* You go trick-or-treating for Halloween candy with your costume over your snowsuit

* You have 10 favorite recipes for venison

* You know which leaves make good toilet paper

* Your car trunk doubles as a freezer

* You actually understand what "hoagie", "chipped ham" and "pop" mean

* You learned how to read from Campbell's Alphabet soup

* You think Kraft Macaroni and Cheese is one of the best foods ever (because of a box of it only costs $.79)

Go Buckeyes!

Sweet (Potato) Memories

Food and wine to me have a huge time element to them. I love the anticipation of a soon-to-be-had meal or restaurant excursion. Enjoying something wonderful, especially a great wine, has an immediate here-and-now, in-the-moment aspect. And of course there's the past, the memories of pleasurable meals, wonderful food and wine experiences, even favorite childhood foods. And when I think about childhood foods, I think too of the people involved with those. Two immediately pop into my mind: with my Dad at a Cleveland Indians game at old Municipal Stadium, eating foot-long hot dogs with their stadium mustard; and my Mom, and the special dishes she prepared around the holidays.

I say all that to say this: today is the anniversary of my mother's death, so she's particularly on my mind today. It's symbolic too that November 2 has been since the early 1000's (or so) a day to remember the deceased, and now Nov. 2 is both El Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and All Souls' Day. My mother was never a huge cook. As a working housewife, she fixed pretty basic fare, now that I know more about cooking. We had lots of pasta and potatoes and hamburgers and pizza made from bread dough. She did make a mean chocolate chip cookie (dunked in milk, of course). Again, great but nothing fancy. But she did have her special dishes, and one that I want to share now we had every Thanksgiving as a kid...and which I make every Thanksgiving at my house. So here's Grandma Polk's Sweet Potato Casserole. Enjoy.

Mix:
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. Cinnamon
3/4 cup honey
1 scant t. salt

Add this to:
2.5 lbs sweet potatoes (mashed)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter
2 cups milk

Bake:
350 degrees for 45-60 minutes

Note: Actual sweet potatoes can look brown; yams are just as tasty and have more of the traditional sweet potato "orange" color.

Sandra Lee Evans Polk

1937 - November 2, 1993

Tony Brings A Tear

How appropriate that on the night Tony Bourdain tackled my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, on his Travel Channel show No Reservations, my beloved--and first place (yes, you read that right!)--Cleveland Indians turned a triple play while soundly defeating the Minnesota Twins, 8-3.

Overall, I thought the show was excellent, though the first part was heavy on eccentric Cleveland, and we really didn't didn't get into the food until the second part. I loved the tour of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (did you know you can rent that for a party or dinner?) and of the ethnic restaurants.



What did bring a tear to my eye was the mention of "stadium mustard." Here's the scoop: Cleveland's old Municipal Stadium used to be the home for the Browns and the Indians. It was a huge (70,000-seat), old, drafty place yet filled with memories. Some of my strongest childhood memories are of going, either alone with my dad or with my dad and friends, to Indians games, one of the highlights which would be having several (hey, I was a growing boy!) foot-long hot dogs slavered in Municipal Stadium's brown mustard. This was a delicious concoction, heartier than that French's yellow stuff yet without the strong bite of a good Dijon. When Municipal Stadium was torn down, lost too, was the stadium mustard....


...until recently. I had heard rumors and quickly confirmed them last night during a late-night Google fest: stadium mustard lives! The stadium mustard Web site looks as funky as old Municipal Stadium used to, and to me, that's part of the charm. My check is going in the mail this week for a case of this all-natural, delicious, and memory-inducing condiment.


So thank you, Tony, for showing us new places to see and try...and for taking us back to old places and old times and old foods that shouldn't be forgotten.

Tony Alert: NEW SEASON

This coming Monday, July 30, marks the kick-off of the ALL NEW season of Tony Bourdain's television show No Reservations. FROTB (Frequent Readers of This Blog) know that Tony's show is my favorite television food/travel show. Tony, to me, blends: a former chef's knowledge of food...with an insatiable appetite to see new places...and a Hunter S. Thompson-ish ability to write. In short, it's good stuff. Don't miss the first new episode on Monday, 10:00 p.m., the Travel Channel.

Plus, there's MORE: For the August 27 show, Tony travels to CLEVELAND. That's right: CLEVELAND. Home of LeBron James, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Cleveland Indians, and, well...I said LeBron James, right?

Anyway, in honor of Tony going to Cleveland, here's a recipe for Deep Fried Breaded Lake Erie Perch from charter fishing captain Tricky Dick (http://www.trickydick.com/). Enjoy.

~ 3 lbs filleted Yellow Lake Erie perch
~ 2 eggs

~ 10-12 soda crackers (or "pop" crackers, if you're from Ohio)

~ Frying oil to cover the cooking fillets completely

Beat the eggs until well mixed. Coat each fillet completely with the egg mixture, then roll in the cracker crumbs. Drop the fillet into the hot oil, and cook until golden brown. (Be careful not to overcook.)

Down on the Farm

DATELINE OHIO: Faithful readers of this blog have surely (I hope!) noticed my lack of postings this past week. I have traveled to Ohio for a family reunion/vacation and discovered, to my horror, the lack of not only high-speed Internet access, but the lack of ANY Internet. I am writing this entry in the hotel lobby of a Comfort Inn, where my sister and her husband are staying.

Ohio remains, to me, very beautiful and, at least in July, idyllic. A day or two ago I was actually sitting outside on a lawnchair watching chipmunks skitter by and enjoying the American flag flapping in the gentle breeze, when from a nearby church I heard a tune I couldn't quite place at first...and then it came to me: "Amazing Grace." Ah, the charms of small-town Ohio....

But Ohio also has its flaws. My biggest pet-peeve with Ohio is with the food. Ohio has more 18-hole golf courses than any other state. It also has, much to my disgust, per-capita more fast-food restaurants than any other state. They are EVERYWHERE. For every one homestyle-type restaurant with charm and character such as Pickle Bill's, there are at least 20 fast-food places. The list goes on and on. McDonalds, Arby's, Burger King. Pizza Hut, Panda Express, Subway. Togo's, Applebee's, Ruby Tuesdays. Etc., etc., etc. So I succumbed. But doing so, I went way old-school: Bob Evans Restaurants, founded in 1948 by Bob Evans himself.

Here's the story: Bob Evans was a hog farmer. In 1948 in Gallipolis, Ohio, he opened up a 12-stool diner. He didn't like any of the sausage he could buy, so he ended up making his own. Not only did he use the "nasty bits", as Tony Bourdain would say, he also used the hams and tenderloins. The sausage took on a life of its own. Truck drivers said it was the best they'd ever had. They began to buy big packs to take with them. Pretty soon, Evans expanded. Today, there are 579 Bob Evans Restaurants in 18 states. The local legend has it (which I think has some truth to it) that restaurants could never be located further than a day's drive from the sausage plant in southwest Ohio, to ensure the freshest sausage. Anyway, growing up as a kid, Bob Evans Farms, The Home of Homestyle, was an occasional brunch splurge.

The food: Decidedly old-school, with a specialty of biscuits and "a fresh cup of creamy sausage gravy." It tastes decadently artery-clogging good. The blandness of the fluffy biscuits goes perfectly with the bite of the sausage. I ate my fill with several cups of black coffee, two eggs over easy, and a stack of home fries slathered in grease. Yes, it was fast-food. But at least it had two things I seek out in restaurants/food/wines: character, and a good story behind it.

Oh, yeah: Bob Evans died less than a month ago, on June 21, 2007, at the age of 89.