Eat First

Savor the foliage -- and Bob's Barbecue

It's last-chance season here in Central New York. Last chance for drinks and dinner on the veranda (it's getting dark sooooo early!), last chance for bicycle outings, last chance to wear capris and sandals.

Autumn has arrived and the leaves are changing color. It's a good time to take a drive in the country -- and enjoy a last-chance country barbecue at Bob's Barbecue, in Homer, before it closes for the season.

Bob's, on State Route 281, is well known to barbecue fans and bikers. If you've attended a church barbecue or firemen's field days in these parts, you might have enjoyed Bob's Barbecue without even knowing it.

  

I don't know this for an absolute fact, but it seems the presence of the New York Jets training camp at SUNY Cortland has been good to Bob's, sending new and repeat business its way. The owners added a grand new pavilion this year, which doubles as space for private parties. 

Bob's claim to fame is meat -- chicken, ribs, brisket, pork -- cooked "low and slow" over wood and charcoal. It's not your sticky, sweet red sauce kind of barbecue. The chicken, for example, looks to be dry-rubbed and basted with a Cornell-style (oil and vinegar) sauce. Bob's homemade sauces (mild to hot) are served on the side.

The menu includes a la carte items like pulled pork, pulled chicken and brisket sandwiches and a selection of dinners (quarter-chicken, half-chicken and others, most under $10) that come with your choice of two sides (cornbread, coleslaw, macaroni salad, salt potatoes and the like).

I've had the half-chicken dinner on several occasions and always come home with leftovers. The last time we were down Bob's way, we got a pile of ribs to go ($9 a pound) and reheated them at home. They survived the 35-minute trip, no problem, and tasted great a couple hours later.

Bob's is owned and operated by George Haskell and his wife, Phyllis. George's mother gets credit for the long list of homemade pies available for dessert, like Key lime, apple, peach and coconut cream ($3.50).

It's strictly a seasonal place, with picnic tables on the lawn and no indoor seating, so dress warmly if there's an autumn chill in the air. The restaurant does not serve alcohol, and alcohol is not permitted on the grounds. 

Bob's Barbecue is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday to Sunday through mid-October, and will reopen in May. Look for a cloud of smoke billowing across Route 281 and you're there.

Robert's ratatouille: Ooh-la-la!

Photos courtesy of Robert Poormon

My other is an excellent cook with a wide-ranging repertoire.

He's probably best known for his Cuban black beans, Pad Thai (haven't had that in a while, come to think of it!), loaded meatloaf (as in loaded with vegetables), California pot roast (with zucchini and prunes, of all things), pasta e fagiole, six-ingredient pasta ... I could go on and on.

Sometimes, when I'm not monopolizing the oven, he even bakes. I'm talking banana bread packed with nuts, pecan butterball cookies and blonde brownies with pecans and raspberries. Did I not say wide-ranging repertoire?

At summer's end, it has become a tradition for him to can both a long-simmering, meat-infused tomato sauce and a quick marinara sauce.

He also goes to the trouble of grilling a melange of vegetables over a charcoal fire, letting them stew and steep and then canning them in quart jars.

The end result is Robert's Ratatouille.

Ratatouille is not something you see on grocery store shelves, and Robert (and his sister, Roxanne) are the only people I know who goes to the time, trouble and labor of canning it. But I'm glad that he does! It's wonderful to reach for a jar of it when it's cold and snow is swirling outside. It makes you think of summer.

Never had ratatouille (ra-tuh-TOO-ee)? It's a dish from sunny (I'm told) Provence that combines eggplant, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, zucchini, garlic and herbs, like basil, bay leaf and oregano, all simmered in olive oil. Robert added a few carrots to the mix this year, as well as some capers and oil-cured olives for added flavor.

Some people make ratatouille in a big Dutch oven on the stove or roast it in the oven. Grilling the vegetables, as Robert does, makes them all the more delicious.

Ratatouille can be served as a side dish, but we usually enjoy it as a main course, ladled over angel hair or penne pasta and topped with grated Parmesan cheese. It's also delicious with a link of spicy Italian sausage on the side.

Robert gathered all the ingredients for ratatouille at the Regional Market in Syracuse (open Saturdays, year-round), spending about $40 for a yield of 12 jars.

I wanted to share his photos of late-summer produce with you and will share some ratatouille with one lucky LOCAL reader, selected at random, who leaves a comment below (click on the word "comments" at the bottom of this post).

The winner can come over for dinner. Afterwards, maybe we'll have a screening of the movie "Ratatouille.''

In the Finger Lakes: All fired up for pizza

Would you travel 60 miles for pizza?

I would, I did and I will again. Especially if the pizza is from The Copper Oven, at Cayuga Ridge Estate Winery in Ovid.

The Copper Oven is a new addition to sipping and noshing choices on the Cayuga Wine Trail. Each weekend, owners Mary Jane Challen and Seth Kircher (above) fire up their custom-designed Le Panyol copper oven, made for them in Maine.

MJ preps artisan pizzas inside the winery (her dough takes two days to make) and Seth tends the wood-fired oven, keeping it at 750 to 800 degrees -- and keeping a close watch on pizzas. At those temperatures, your meal is ready in about two minutes.

It's fast food with slow-food sensibilities.

Just two kinds of pizza ($10 to $12) are on the menu each weekend -- one meatless and one with meat. Almost all of the ingredients are from the Finger Lakes, and you can enjoy your pizza with a glass of Cayuga Ridge Estate wine. If it's nice out, grab a table on the deck and savor the view of the lake and surrounding countryside.

A customer favorite this summer has been the 26-Mile Pizza, so named because all its ingredients come from within 26-miles of the winery -- toppings like caramelized onions, mushrooms from Blue Oyster Cultivation in Ithaca, chevre from Lively Run Goat Dairy in Interlaken and a finishing touch of  butternut squash seed oil from Stony Brook WholeHearted Foods in Geneva.

The weekend I visited, the choices were the Straight from the Garden Pizza, with fresh tomatoes, yellow and green squash and Emmantal cheese and the Dakar, with white sauce, dry cured smoked New York State ham, mushrooms and Emmental cheese. The name Dakar is a reference to MJ's past life as a student and teacher in Dakar, Senegal, where she enjoyed thin-and-crispy, French-style pizza. If you've ever traveled to France, MJ's hand-crafted pizza will remind you of the rustic pies served there.

The Copper Oven is at Cayuga Ridge Estate Winery, 6800 Route 89, Ovid (about 15 miles south of Routes 5 and 20). The winery, owned by Tom and Susie Challen (MJ's parents), is open daily through Nov. 15. The Copper Oven is open Saturdays and Sundays only, 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. For more information, call 607-220-8794.

 

 

FarmshedCNY: Down(load) on the farm

How many times have you sat down at your computer to plan a Central New York foodie excursion? Using Google and GoogleMaps, you chart your course to farmstands, specialty food shops, wineries and restaurants in the region, push "print" and hop in the car with a pile of papers and maps.

Say good-bye to all that. A new application for iPhones and other smart phones, developed by Central New York resident Neil Brody Miller (a food and wine blogger at Stressing the Vine), puts seasonal and local food information at your fingertips. It's called FarmshedCNY, and this month, it's being updated to include wineries and apple orchards.                                                                                                                      

 The free (make that FREE!) app is a comprehensive listing of more than 800 delicious destinations in Central New York, the Finger Lakes and beyond. Categories include organic/sustainable farms, farmers markets, natural food stores, CSA (community supported agriculture) farms/shares and locavore restaurants.

I met Neil for lunch at Circa in Cazenovia (appropriately enough!) to talk Farmshed and get a quick demonstration of its features. I don't have a smart phone (yet), but I was impressed to see the detailed information, map views and geo-located directions.

No more getting lost on the way to a farmstand or U-pick place in the CNY countryside, unless, of course, you want to.  

But don't just take my word for it.

Erica Strong, a resident of Syracuse and newcomer to the area, has been using the Farmshed application to help her better discover the region's agricultural and culinary bounty.

"The app encompasses many Google searches I have done in the past to find the food I want,'' Strong says.  "I'm really glad I downloaded it."

You will be, too. For more information on FarmshedCNY and to download the app, click here.

Fair-ly healthy State Fair fare: a vlog

It has been a big week for food-loving Central New Yorkers.

"Man vs. Food'' host Adam Richman packed Chevy Court at the New York State Fair Aug. 28, and his highly anticipated, three-stop Syracuse episode, featuring Mother's Cupboard, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que and Heid's, aired Wednesday on the Travel Channel.

In the 90-degree heat on Wednesday, celebrity chef Mario Batali set up a makeshift kitchen on the Chevy Court stage and prepared simple Italian food using grown-in-New York ingredients.

On Tuesday, meanwhile, I went back to the fair with my videographer-friend Joyce Gramza, and together we made the video you see here. It never would have occurred to me to do a "vlog," but Joyce wanted to make a video and try out her new Final Cut editing software -- and her enthusiasm is contagious.

So there you have it. Sit back and enjoy the show!