Posts Tagged ‘cardiology’

Friggin Awesome Burgers in Toledo!

// June 14th, 2011 // No Comments » // Blog, Restaurant Reviews

Tin Chef Chuck

I recently had the opportunity to try out two new burger joints in Toledo.  What is really newsworthy here is not how great they were, nor how awesome the service was or even how good the food was.  What really has excited me is that we now have two new restaurants that are pushing the culinary envelope.  Places that really have something unique to eat.  These are not another cookie cutter place that reheats generic burgers bought in bulk from a large restaurant supply house.  Rather each uses really high quality meat, makes handmade patties and then creates truly unique flavors by using really fresh ingredients.  Before I really dive into these new places, I need to mention one of my all time favorites.  Not quite as hip as Bar145, and not quite the gourmet experience you get at BurgerBar419, but if you are looking for an honest to God, greasy spoon awesome burger- you need to go to the Green Lantern on Broadway.  Don’t let the appearance fool you.  The Green Lantern has been around since the 1930’s for a reason.  It’s not heart healthy, but it is a great greasy cheeseburger place.  Stop in for breakfast and lunch.  Try a double Goopy, and tell Mo I sent you.  You go there once and I promised you will be hooked!

The first new place I want to talk about is Burger Bar 419.   Burger Bar 419 is located in South Toledo on 4400 Heatherdowns Blvd. or across from the Distillery in the old Matthews.  The first time we went there, we had almost every appetizer!  Start with the basic, good old fashioned French Fries.  The battered fried onion petals were good but nothing special, but then cam e the roasted marrow bones with sweet onion marmalade.  The first time we had this- it wasn’t perfect.  In fact it was almost raw.  But for crying out load- bone marrow in Toledo, minutes from my house.  Yes there were several errors in technique- but the concepts are there.  We were there a day or two after the place just opened.  The execution has gotten better and this really has become my favorite hangout in Toledo.  The pickled vegetables are awesome.  The chipotle pickled pineapple and goat cheese is great, I personally love the crispy pork belly with homemade kim chee!  This was another dish that was undercooked on our first go around, but the flavors and potential was there.  It was spectacular the next time we went.  Make sure you try the sriracha-soy deviled eggs with bacon and arugula.

The Burger Bar 419 has 15 or so burgers and they are all $9.00.  The offer a wide selection of home made mayonnaise and aolis, as well as several unique ketchup’s and mustard’s.  The Heater, Italian, Pate Melt, and Vintage Bleu are all awesome.  You can’t go wrong when you use all fresh ingredients and combine great flavors.  I can’t wait to try all of them.

We had the milkshakes for desert.  So far, this has been the biggest shortcoming of Burger Bar 419.  They were small, over priced and nothing memorable.  Personally, I would save your money and go to Handel’s!  Don’t let the deserts stop you from checking this place out though; I am sure it will become one of your favorite Toledo hangouts.

The other place we recently went to was Bar145° on Monroe Street.  Bar 145 is very different from Burger Bar 419.  First, it has a totally different atmosphere.  It seems more like a club than a burger place.  They have live music, a dance floor and a large bar.  There appetizers include fried pickled green beans, fries, artichoke gratin, a baked potato waffle, bourbon onion straws, mac and gouda, pretzel chips, and smoked salmon with garlic flat bread. By the way- any idea how Bar 145 got it’s name?  Overall the appetizers were pretty good, but nothing spectacular.  Most were served with generic salted/peppered flat crackers, which I think detracted from the flavor of several of the dips.  They have a few burgers on the menu, but they do a build your own menu.  What is nice here is that they use really high quality ingredients and do a pretty good job of creating your custom burger.  I may be splitting hairs, but I wish they would create a few more signature flavors by combining the awesome ingredients that they offer.  Surprise me, don’t make me think- create that special, signature burger for me!

We didn’t really try out the bourbon, but did have several of their gelato’s.  They had some nice flavors- but I am really partial to my salty caramel, so make sure you read TC Josh’s reviews as well.

In the end these are 2, no make that 3 great places.  If you are looking for breakfast during the week or on Saturday, the make sure you try the Green Lantern.  The Green Lantern is also a great place to grab lunch during the work week.  Once you meet Mo (Maurice), you will fall in love with the Lantern!  I look at Burger Bar 419 more as my local neighborhood hangout, where I can sit at the bar and talk to the chef as he cooks my next burger.  Bone marrow, pickled vegetables and cold Heineken and an awesome burger- can it get any better? To me Bar145 is that place you go to on a Friday or Saturday night, have a great burger and take in some great music.  All 3 places offer unique atmospheres- each may be more appropriate depending on your mood or day of the week.   But all 3 of these places need to be experienced.  If I hear one more person complain that there is nowhere to go, nothing to do, no where to eat in Toledo- I swear I am going to slap the #@%& out of you!  Places like these 3 restaurants would have waiting list in any other city- if they struggle, it’s your fault!  Take a walk on the wild side and try one of these places this week, in fact, try all 3 and leave a comment on which one you think is best.

 

Tin Chef Chuck

 

Why I ask.

// December 16th, 2010 // No Comments » // Blog

Tin Chef Chuck

Is sea salt healthier than regular salt?  Why does “Italian” watermelon taste better?  Why do tomatoes taste like crap?   Is “salt” really bad for you?   Is “fat” bad for you?  Why do we spend billions on nutritional supplements and why hasn’t any study shown them to work?  What is a phytonutrient?  Why is it that the French eat real butter, rich foods, fried foods, animal fats,  drink wine every day and smoke incessantly, yet the we (The  United States) have one of the highest mortality rates in the world from cardiovascular diseases?

Do you know that since 1950 that the humble  potato has lost 100% of its vitamin A, 57% of its vitamin C and iron, 28% of it’s calcium, 50% of it’s riboflavin, 18% of it’s thiamine and of 7 key nutrients, only niacin has increased.   The story is the same in most fruits and vegetables.  Why?

Think about it.  In the mean time, I am really thinking about a road trip to Cleveland to eat at Sterle’s Country House.  It’s been a few years since I have been there, but it was amazing.  I am also planning my menu for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  I am thinking something traditional for Christmas Eve- classic Italian 7 fish menu.  May have to add a carrot for my vegetarian daughter, some red meat for my oldest daughter that hates seafood, and a few cheeseburgers (plain, ketchup only) for kids 4 and 5.  Looks like only one of 5 kids (oldest son) will eat the “traditional” Italian food- back to asking why again!

Tin Chef Chuck

I am so confused

// July 29th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Blog

Tin Chef Chuck

So what should we eat???  Really?

I just finished eating a tomato sandwich with arugula, mozzarella cheese, mayonnaise (made with olive oil), kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper on fresh Italian bread.  It was spectacular.  I bought the tomatoes at a little road side stand.  No matter how much I try, I can almost never find tomatoes that really taste good anymore.  Not like the ones I remember as a kid.  Not like the ones my dad and I grew in the backyard.  Why?

I bought some water melon today from the grocery store.  My wife Carolyn is a little peculiar when it comes to water melon.  She hates water melon.  Well, she hates American water melon, which in reality is probably from Mexico or some other far corner of the world.  But she loves Italian water melon.    Come to think of it, I am not sure I like “American” water melon either.   The stuff I bought wasn’t all that great.   A long time ago, I was in Naples, Italy working at the Naval Hospital there.  Carolyn came to visit and we bought slices of water melon from a street vendor.  His truck was parked between the US Naval Support Activity and the NATO base.  It was a big sweet water melon sitting on a huge block of ice.  He cut each of us a slice and collected sixty zillion Lira, which if I remember was about 30 cents American at the time.  It was incredible.  Although I would never admit this to Carolyn, she is right.  (I would hate to have to turn in my man card.)  Never the less, Italian watermelon is way better than anything I have had here recently.  So where has all the good food gone?

This also made me think about what we eat and what we should be eating.  As a cardiologist, people always ask what they should eat and how to improve their diets.  I have never really had a good answer.  It seems that everything that I have been told about food since medical school has been wrong.  Salt is bad for you, don’t eat red meat, eat this, don’t eat that, eggs will kill you.  The good news is all of the stuff that I refused to give up, because I was young and invincible, may have been the right stuff after all.

Back to the tomatoes.  Did you know that most tomatoes that you buy at the local grocery store are picked green.  They are then stuck in a room with ethylene oxide, which turns them red, but never really ripens them.  This way that will last longer to allow them to be transported and stored for months.  There is never time for nature to concentrate the natural sugars and flavors.  In essence you are eating a green tomato that looks red, but it’s not ripe.  I am not sure, but I bet that has something to do with watermelons as well.

Thinking about this further, I wonder what else they do to our food.  I have looked into this recently.  I am no means an expert, but I do know what good food taste like.  I go to our local grocery store every day and buy “fresh” produce.  They have an amazing selection of the usual stuff, as well as all kinds of exotic things I never saw when I was a kid.  And they have it year round!  But is it healthy, and does it taste good?

Our country has perfected mass farming.  If you drive around places like southern California, you’ll see miles and miles of fields mass producing produce.  There are huge trucks and tractors adding just enough fertilizer containing nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to give a bumper crop that looks pretty, stands up to disease, and will last for weeks as it finds its way to your table.  Somehow I think we are missing something.  Growing healthy fresh vegetables requires more than water, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.  There are all kinds of micro nutrients that are missing.  It’s just not the same as what I grew in our back yard garden.

Have you ever noticed that the Government will come out and say something like you need more beta carotene or omega 3 fatty acids or some other component or chemical in food to be really healthy.  Then, some health supplement company will come out with a jar of pills that will protect you from cancer, or improve your memory and make billions.  I have patients who come in with a list of 30 supplements that they take, who spend hundreds of dollars a month on these supplements, then croak from a heart attack.  It’s funny, but if they would eat a banana, it would be better for them and a hell of a lot cheaper.  Even vitamin C has become a victim.  I cannot think of one study that has shown that taking a chemical supplement has worked in our favor.  It doesn’t make sense, because we know you need vitamin C and all of the other stuff.  The problem is we can’t make or reproduce what nature has given us.  God put all of this stuff on Earth for a reason…  You need to eat fish, not a pill with omega 3 fatty acids.  You need to eat fruit, not vitamin C tablets.  It’s the micro nutrients or phyto-nutrients that we are missing, just like the mass produced produce we grow in this country.

But you never hear the government saying eat more apples or fish.  They say eat less saturated fats or hydrogenated fats.  Know why?  Why are we so focused on individual chemical substances in food as opposed to the whole thing.  It’s really a big government conspiracy.  Really, it is.  A long time ago scientist noticed that people that ate too much red meat seemed to have more health problems.  So a well intentioned politician from a state with a very large cattle industry came out and said Americans need to eat less beef.  Needless to say, he was voted out of office and his political career was all but over.  Politicians aren’t stupid, so they changed their tune to eat less saturated fat.  Pretty safe, but spineless.  And ever since we talk about chemical components of food rather than the whole thing, lest we offend someone.

With due respect to PITA, we need meat.  We need wholesome, fresh vegetables.  The good news is good food is finally back in fashion.  We are finally in an era when chocolate and wine are considered health foods.  It doesn’t get any better than that.

So what should you eat?  I have a couple of simple rules.  Start with the wine and chocolate.  Just additional proof that there is a God.  A glass or two of wine a day…doctors orders.  Beans- another great food, rich in protein and flavor.  I am not talking about canned green beans either.  Garbanzo beans and countless other varieties to enjoy and eat several times a week.  Olives and olive oil- a little every day.  In reality you can get by with two cooking oils, olive oil and canola oil.  Both are healthy and good for you.  Don’t forget fresh fruits and vegetables, eat lots of them.  These are most of the key ingredients in the Mediterranean diet by the way.  I am not saying anything new- it’s been around for thousands of years.

I am starting to buy more and more organic foods too.  It’s not that I am worried about what’s in the fertilizers that are used, but really what’s not in them.  We need those complex phyto-nutrients that I believe we are missing in the local grocery store.  Same with the massive chicken breast that are pumped full of steroids and antibiotics, just stay away.  I guess I’m a small breast guy after all.  Nuts, again another nature’s super food- a few servings a week.  And then there is meat and seafood.  It’s OK, in moderation, it’s not a problem.  Just make sure that you eat all of the other stuff.  I know the organic stuff is more expensive, but you really get what you pay for.

Equally important is what you shouldn’t eat.  Stay away from processed food.   If you stay on the outside perimeter of your grocery store you will stay out of trouble.  Think about it, that’s where the produce, fish and meats, dairy and other fresh foods are located.  Watch CNN lately? Now the government is out for salt.  Salt taste good and improves the flavor of a lot of food.  It’s been used for millions of years and man can’t live without.  The problem is in our mass produced society, huge amounts of salt are added to processed food.  Just stay away from it.  Use low salt (sodium) products and add salt to taste.  And don’t waste your money on sea salt.  It’s no healthier for you than plain old salt, despite what the Campbell’s Soup guy says.  Salt is salt with one exception- the colored sea salts.  They are very expensive and contain sediments from the region they were recovered.  That sediment gives an added flavor and provides the color.  But the salt part is still just salt, good old sodium chloride.  I like kosher salt- same stuff with bigger crystals, so it’s crunchy and the flavor burst in your mouth.  But it is just salt.

So, visit your local farmers market, try to buy fresh produce, organic when you can.  Grab a glass of wine and cook dinner.  Cook good food, add a pinch of salt and enjoy life.  One final thought.  The French are famous for their cooking and foods.  It’s rich, delicious and filled with all kinds of “unhealthy” things like cream, butter, eggs and salt.  The French also smoke like fiends- yet we Americans have a much higher death rate from cardiovascular diseases.  I am not condoning smoking, but I am condoning eating well, enjoying life, drinking wine, avoiding processed and fast food and living a long healthy life.

DISCLAIMER:  I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to PITA, the mega farms and farmers, fertilizer makers and sellers, the fast food industry, the nutritional  supplement and vitamin makers and sellers, spineless politicians, Campbell’s Soup and the big guy banging on pans,  and anyone else I may of offended on the way.  If you are one of the groups endorsed by this posting, we are looking for sponsors, free food or anything else we can get, call me!  Tin Chef Chuck

Molecular Gastronomy: Part II with Tapioca Maltodextrin

// June 25th, 2010 // No Comments » // Blog, Recipes

Tin Chef Chuck

Tapioca maltodextrin-  My tapioca maltodextrin finally came this week.  I used a few of the basic recipes which you can find on the Khymos site.  I made 3 different powders using Nutello, olive oil and bacon fat.  They all came out well and were really easy to do.  This is one “molecular” cooking technique in which you really don’t need to be all that precise.  I used the food processor for the nutello and a whisk for the liquids.  Add the maltodextrin until you achieve a texture you like.  For those of you who have never heard of this, tapioca maltodextrin is a very fine powder (can be a bit messy) that binds with oils.  The cool thing is when it’s exposed to liquid, it completely dissolves, leaving the original substance.  It has no taste what-so-ever.  You can use it to add a unique flavorful garnish to a lot of dishes.  So when you put it in your mouth, it melts away leaving the olive oil or bacon taste and texture.  It’s not meant to be eaten alone, but Lydia would have eaten all of my bacon fat powder if I would have let her.  As a cardiologist, I really can’t condone that.  So any way, give it a try and let us know what you think.  If you are just starting out, I would suggest buying a starter kit first.  Amazon has on for $32.00 and it has small amount of several things to play with.

I am now waiting for my electronic scale (with 0.1 gram accuracy) and my magnetic stirrer hotplate and glass beakers.  My kitchen is starting to look like me 7th grade science glass.  If Mrs. Miller could see me now…  Enjoy, CJG

A Little More About Our Story

// May 17th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Blog

OK, now for a little background. Toledo Tin Chef’s has evolved from several ideas and interest that the three of us share. My name is Chuck Gbur, I am an interventional cardiologist from Toledo, Ohio. Josh Wagy was my neighbor a few years back. Steve Hockenberger’s wife Lydia was a pharmaceutical rep who called on my wife and I (My wife, Carolyn, is a cardiologist too). Lydia and Carolyn became friends, and it turned out they lived just down the street from Josh and I, eventually Steve and I became friends as well. As it turned out, all three of us enjoyed cooking. Josh’s girlfriend is Emily. Her parents own Caper’s and she runs the show there. More about Caper’s later. One summer night we decided to grill out as a group and voila, the next thing you know I am typing this blog. Of course, something good always happens when you mix 1 part charcoal, a splash of charcoal lighting fluid, 1 part meat and 2-3 parts beer.

I recently have gotten into the weird science stuff… Now I am no Ferran Adria, but I am finally putting all of those years of chemistry class to use. By the way, if you are interested in trying this stuff, the best reference by far is “Texture“. It is a free recipe collection and can be found by click on the link above. It is really pretty cool and there seems to be no limit on what you can do. It does take a little practice though, I have some really good looking caviar that didn’t taste so well, and some globs of goo that tasted wonderful, but was too ugly to take a picture of.   By the way, Josh and I both are also into photography.  Josh also does the majority of graphic design stuff. He is definitely much better at food presentation and all that artsy stuff.

This weekend I made it downtown to The Farmer’s Market. If you haven’t been there, you really need to go. I spoke with Mike Billau from Billau Farms in Ottawa Lake. Mike and his son Shawn are 4th and 5th generation farmers. There family has been selling locally grown produce for 5 generations.

Toledo's Farmers' Market

The market is just getting ramped up for the season, but it really is worth visiting. We will be holding a cooking demonstration sometime later this summer, so look out for us.

We did get together to cook this weekend.

Deconstructed blueberry vodka martini

I am showing my deconstructed martini, but I have a lot more that I will post later. I also plan to publish a review of a few cookbooks that I recently finished reading and I feel are well worth reading. Of course, the free one (Texture) listed above is a great reference source, so make sure you download the file. The molecular stuff is a lot harder than it looks, so don’t get discouraged. I made several batches of vodka flubber way before I came up with anything that was worth a picture. Of course, not wanting to waste good vodka, I ate my mistakes, so that may explain why it took so long to come close to an acceptable result.

Anyway, much more to come, so please pop in often. Make sure you twit us on tweeter or tweet us on twitter, what ever. I still need to tell you how I came up with Toledo Tin Chef’s and what we are trying to do. To be honest, I am not sure any of us know where this is going to take us. For now, we are just 3 regular guys who cook, like to take pictures, and know enough about computers to get this thing up and running. Anyway, more pictures and recipes to come, but for now I need to get back to my day job… CJG