I’m researching a story on locals who have fun, quirky blogs about practically anything – food, fun, local hotspots, music, dating, the secret messages being sent to you by the Geico Gekko…whatever it is. If it’s something you’re into that you’re blogging about, and that people are reading about, we wanna know about it! Please email me at leslie_streeter@pbpost.com.

Thank you!

With much of the nation going through an ice-age freeze, I thought it was time to answer some of the freezing questions that have been accumulating out there for a few weeks. I doubt it will help chase your chill any, but the association was tempting.

Question: I have leftovers of goat cheese and Brie cheese. Can I freeze them? — Jennie P., West Palm Beach

Answer: No, Jennie, neither of the cheeses you mentioned is a good candidate for a term in the freezer. Both are soft cheeses and contains too much moisture. Freezing will turn the moisture particles into ice and make these comparatively fresh and smooth cheeses into rather unpleasant toughies.
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Just a few years ago, downtown West Palm Beach was on the verge of becoming a culinary wasteland.

Prominent eateries in the Clematis Street district and CityPlace were closing. And few restaurateurs appeared willing to fill the vacancies, perhaps discouraged by ongoing construction projects that turned city streets into traffic nightmares. The real action was to the north and south — in the suburban hotbed of Palm Beach Gardens and the vibrant cityscape of downtown Delray Beach.

But in the past 12 months, all that has changed.
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Ron Del Signore, general manager of Il Bellagio at CityPlace, added breakfast to the menu, including (from left) Eggs in Purgatory, a variety of crepes and Eggs in the Basket. (Damon Higgins / The Post)

By DEBORAH S. HARTZ-SEELEY

Ron Del Signore got tired of going out to breakfast and having to wait in line for a table. So he decided to serve breakfast at the restaurant where he’s general manager, Il Bellagio in West Palm Beach’s CityPlace.

It’s a pretty spot with outdoor tables under green umbrellas overlooking the center’s dancing fountain and central piazza.

And here, he’s not offering just another bacon-and-eggs menu. To create the food, Del Signore sat down with his wife, Rosalie, and his chef, Pauli Johnston, and drew on a lot of family memories.

Del Signore thought about what he ate at his Italian grandmothers’ houses growing up in Pittsburgh.
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'Spice Capades' blackened tilapia topped with a caramelized red onion relish is a great way to jump-start the dinner hour. (Photo by Pam Brandon)

Jump-start the dinner hour with a lip-searing rub of Cajun spices. Paired with mild-mannered tilapia, then heaped with an ooey-gooey mound of caramelized onion relish, this unlikely duo brings down the house with each magnificent mouthful.

Make the relish ahead of time, then reheat as you sauté the tilapia for a luscious quickie dinner. Serve with thick sliced, perfectly ripened tomatoes drizzled with your best-quality olive oil, or smashed potatoes for a more robust pairing.
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By ELAINE WALKER
Miami Herald

Dewey LoSasso can no longer make the numbers work.

The chef and owner of North One 10 has seen business at his 5-year-old North Miami restaurant drop 30 percent in the last two years. Long-standing construction on Biscayne Boulevard in front of his restaurant left him with “substantial” debt.

LoSasso’s solution: Cut back operations to Friday and Saturday, eliminate about 40 percent of the staff and put the restaurant up for sale. The asking price of $50,000, includes the name, contents and lease rights. Read the full story

Hey beer and animal lovers. Below is info on a benefit for the Palm Beach Zoo, which is in my neighborhood and perhaps the best small zoo I’ve ever been to. Very worthy of our support to say the least. Hope to see you there.

A benefit for our friends at the Palm Beach Zoo

What: Calling all animal lovers! Join us and relax under the starlit sky for a wonderful evening of food, beer & fine music with local musician, DJ Bert for a great organization. 100% of your donation will benefit Palm Beach Zoo, supporting their conservation mission through programs in field research, endangered species propagation, education, health & wellness, and conservation medicine.

Who: The Palm Beach Zoo is a non profit zoological organization located at Dreher Park in West Palm Beach. The Zoo houses over 1,700 animals within 23 acres of lush tropical habitat. Its mission is to provide an open-air classroom of living creatures to foster awareness, appreciation and respect for the natural world.

When: Friday, June 26
6pm to 9pm

Where: The Outdoor Café
Whole Foods Market, Palm Beach Gardens
11701 Lake Victoria Gardens Drive
Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410

Cost: $10 donation to the Palm Beach Zoo

For more information please visit our event listing.

Dogfish Head Black & Blue Belgian Ale

I attended a beer and food pairing dinner at Tryst in Delray Beach last night, and boy is my palate tired!

It was, in a word, ffffabulous.

The beers, four of them, were from Dogfish Head Brewery in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The food was prepared by Chef Julian Greaves, who chose to go with Dogfish Head beers because the brewery “pushes the envelope in so many different directions”. Very true.

We started with a little aperitif of Festina Peche, a BerlinerWeisse style beer which is characterized by intense tartness. It’s not for everybody and even this Beer Guy can only take it in small doses. While I would have liked to have seen a small bar bite paired with this, it nonetheless prepared our palates for the adventure to come.

The first course matched a blend of Dogfish Head 60 and 90 Minute IPA’s, dubbed “75″ IPA. The beer is aggressivley hopped, but has a slightly sweet malt body which gives it beautiful balance. It was paired with a spicey beef carpaccio, tarragon crostini, shaved parmesan, crumbled egg, red onion and micro greens with extra virgin olive oil. It was a first pitch home run. The spiciness of the carpaccio and beer blended beautifully. John Hatadis, general manager of BX Beer Depot in Lake Worth couldn’t see how Chef Julian was going to top this…but he did.

Oh, I should mention the other diners at our table, Julissa Caballero, Phuoi Trinh and her husband, Andrew Christie. Hailing from England, Andrew knows and loves his beer. And while Julissa and Phuoi are wine gals, both ended up being very surprised how much they liked the beers in this pairing.

Our second course had the Midas Touch. Dogfish’s Midas Touch ale is a recipe gleaned from 2700 year old drinking vessels from the actual tomb of the famous King. If the Dogfish rendition tastes anything like the original, believe me, it was “good to be the King”. A cross between mead (honey wine), wine and a light ale, this isn’t exactly beer, but is definitely delicious. Paired with local orange blossom honey roasted duck breast, almond wild rice & pomegranate syrup, the combination sings, literally. Yes, a chorus of angels actually belts out a tune with each bite and sip.

The third course left us all Black and Blue. Dogfish Black & Blue is a Belgian Golden Ale fermented with blackberries and blueberries. Chef Julian used some in preparing his house made “pop tart” w/mascarpone quenelle and blackberry port sauce. This time, the flavors contrasted, but in a good way. The beer was tart and refreshing, the pop tart was tart but also sweet and rich.

This is as good as it gets my fellow beer fans, and there will be more. To find out infor on upcoming beer dinners, check out the events page on www.trystdelray.com. You don’t have to wait for the next beer dinner though. Tryst has a great selection of draft and bottled beers and great food to go with them.

Cheers,

The Beer Guy

There are signs everywhere pointing to the fact that you can still drink decent wine and not have to lose your shirt financially. Here’s a round-up of bits ‘n’ pieces:

The wine nobody talks about

I’ll bet you won’t know the answer to this question:

Who just sold his 400 millionth bottle of a certain kind of wine, owns 40,000 acres of vineyards, has an annual wine sales revenue of more than $500 million a year and crushes 350,000 tons of grapes a year?

And yet you won’t find his wines on the same table with escargot forks.
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Wild Ginger Asian Bistro, a new, fast-casual restaurant in CityPlace, will have a family-friendly grand opening event on Saturday (5/16), featuring face painting, a clown and hourly drawings for free giveaways.

Come down and visit, noon to 3 p.m.

The celebration will also include karate demonstrations and a traditional Asian Dragon Dance at 2 p.m.

Wild Ginger offers a traditional Asian menu with specialties inspired by Bangkok and Hong Kong cuisine, such as Pad Thai, Red Curry, General Tso Chicken and Szechuan Shrimp.

The bistro is owned by Dixon Li, owner of Oriental Express in Lake Worth, and Lirim Jacobi, owner of Taverna Opa and City Pizza at CityPlace. The restaurant has lunch, dinner, and delivery.