I have many favorite culinary creations from the Midwestern region of the USA, but there is one in particular I’d like to share on Homer’s behalf, and in honor of its original creator: my Grandma Betty. This delicious dish is the baked potato.

Tomorrow is Grandma Betty’s 76th birthday, and after many, many years of cooking for eight (4 boys, 4 girls) children, and now their own children, she is still going strong in the kitchen. Among many delights, she makes the best baked potato. This potato satisfies the most hearty of Minnesotan appetites: my Grandpa Phil, who has never met a carbohydrate he didn’t like, and consequently eat.

Homer and I re-created this trademark spud tonight with great success; here is the result:

Yum. When baking a potato, Homer says it must be known that during baking “if you don’t fork it, it might explode.” So spear it with a fork before popping it in the oven, for Pete’s sake.

It also must be said that what makes a baked potato different from a french fry (besides the baking and frying) is the garnish (garnishes, garnishi?) I think I can speak for Betty and Homer when I say they make up about 50-75% of the delectibility. Of course you can improvise, but these are our top choices:

1. Butter (as much as you want, and it provides the base flavor)

2. Cheddar cheese (again, as much as you want, but I would use caution, as the more distinct flavor might overpower the potato itself)

3. One dollop of sour cream

4. Chopped chives (these are crucial: they provide both a contrast in color and flavor to the aforementioned dairy products)

That’s it. More to come on the Midwestern interpretation of the salad.

Australians don’t seem to be too serious about their food. They serve it up with no pretense and they consume without worry. But don’t let this fool you, their food is damn good—it’s always fresh and carefully prepared.  I have just spent three weeks traveling around Australia with Sharon and the Daps. We had to stop our van in the road to allow a Koala to cross, we learned to surf, and, of course, we ate.  What follows is a sampler of some of the foods that have been consumed over the past three weeks.

If there is one item that Australians (properly pronounced ‘strialians) do take seriously, its their coffee. Any shop that serves coffee has a proper espresso machine. The coffee is consistently stellar, whether  in an airport or a fancy café.  Almost as satisfying as the coffee itself are the names of the drinks. At the top of the list is a “flat white”, which is a shot of espresso with milk but no foam. I question why we don’t have a proper name for this drink back in the states. Other items include: “short black”= espresso, “long black” = espresso w/hot water,  “short mac”= espresso with a splash of milk and foam, “long mac”= watery  espresso w/ a splash of milk and foam. “One flat white please…”

A welcome  surprise out here is their usage of corn. Corn, which happens to be my favorite food, is quite common out here. At the Little Creatures brewery in Perth (pronounced puth as in pudding), they brew some mean pale ale but they also make some corn on the cob with butter that will make you homesick (if you get good corn on the cob at home). In Sydney, I happened upon a fancy little restaurant called Bill’s where they serve up corn fritters with bacon for breakfast (pictured below). You get two fritters with bacon, spinach and roast tomatoes in the middle. These are bona fide fritters (the chef’s name is Bill Granger and I picked up one of his cooked books. Email me if you want the recipe).  

The slow foods movement seems to be pretty popular down under. I happened upon a slow foods street fair where I bought a lamb sausage on a slice of bread and I have been craving another one ever since. For those of you who don’t know, ‘slow food’ is a movement to counteract fast food. It is based on the idea that we should take time and put care into eating, growing, and cooking food. 

A super common street food item is a meat pie. Pictured below is a chicken pie from some fancy organic café in Melbourne. They are similar to chicken pot pies, but they usually come as individual little pies and there are a variety of filling options. These things are damn good and you can get them nearly anywhere. When you get the beef one, you must douse it in ketchup, which is known as tomato sauce out here.

One of the best desserts I have ever experienced is what they call a “pavlova”. Supposedly named after the Russian dancer Anna Pavlova after she did a tour of Australia (I am waiting for the “Homer”), this dessert is a piece of heaven. It is a chunk of meringue that is filled with cream. Thus, it’s hard like meringue on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside. It is topped with some whipped cream and strawberries and is basically the best thing ever. Thank you Ian Mcinnis and your lovely wife for making us these lovely pavlovas and a full on barbeque out in Albany.

The Dap-Kings cannot pass through the south without our fare share of barbeque. Today the spot of choice is Mama & Papa B’s in Waco Texas. This is a real deal bbq shack. No frills here — just pork, beef and a few sides. They don’t even have chicken. Our GPS machine led us to this place, and it’s really unbelievable that this place is on the map at all. We have some ribs and sliced beef. The ribs are the winner with a delicious wet bbq sauce poured over them. The hot sauce has freshly ground pepper and spices floating in it, making it quite unique. It takes the ribs to the next level. Pictured here is Ivan Milev, the incredible Bulgarian accordion player (who has been opening for Sharon Jones), enjoying some ribs. Driving from Austin to Dallas? Don’t miss Mama Papa B’s at 525 S. 8ths St. Waco, TX 76705.

My sister, Joplin, invites me to start the new year with a delicious ancient Jewish feast–cholent. Cholent is a slow cooked stew of meat, vegetables and grains. The whole meal is cooked in one pot which should sit in the oven at a low heat for at least 8 hours. Joplin explains to me how back in the day, people would bring their pots with uncooked cholent to their local baker (who kept the oven running all the time) on Friday night and pick it up the next day for eating. The recipes for cholent vary; Joplin’s cholent contains beef, potatoes, carrots, kasha, wheat berries, chickpeas, kidney beans and whole eggs in their shell. This is an extremely delicious feast. The meat is falling off the bone and vegetables and grains are perfect. More cholent please!

Hello old friends, I want to apologize for the lack of blogging — I have been on vacation. Today’s subject is Toby’s pasta sauce. Toby, who is slightly famous around these parts, makes a killer tomato sauce. He has been perfecting this for about a decade now and it just keeps getting better. He starts with a mirepoix, which is a french name for a combination of minced onions, celery and carrots (he doesn’t it call it this, but this seems to be what it is). He sautes this in olive oil, and then adds canned tomatoes. While letting the tomatoes reduce into a perfect sauce, he gets creative. One of his signature tricks is adding a large piece of the rind of parmesan cheese. I happen to have some marinated artichoke hearts that have been ground up in my fridge, so he adds that. And at the end, he adds some prosciuotto and fresh basil. He may add some other things to this sauce as well, I am not quite sure. Whatever he adds, his sauce is consistently some of the best damn sauce around. 

When Hanukah time comes around, my mom makes latkes — also known as potato pancakes. This year, the latkes are accompanied by a fresh green salad and a delicious brisket. The latkes, however, are the main event. They are super crispy on the outside and perfectly moist on the inside. I brave to say that these are some of the best latkes ever. We eat them with home-made apple sauce and sour cream, both of which compliment the pancake very nicely. My mom, Marjory, says the trick is to add a little seltzer to the recipe in order to lighten them up. Here is the recipe:

2 cups shredded potatoes

1 egg

1 and 1/2 tablespoon flour

1 and 1/2 tablespoon grated onion

1 and 1/2 teaspoon salt

A bit of seltzer

First you must put the shredded potatoes in paper towels and roll them up and squeeze them to get all the juice that you can out of the potatoes. Then mix all the ingredients and save the seltzer for the end. It should fizz up a bit when you a the seltzer. Next, form little pancakes and fry them in about 1/4 inch of canola oil until golden brown on each side. My move usually expands this recipe to about 10 cups of shredded potatoes to serve 7 hungry people.