I’ve returned from the Sunshine State with two oddly-shaped splotches of sunburn on my back and plenty of calories under my belt. It’s a good thing we did a lot of swimming and walking while we were away; I needed the exercise to burn off all the fish and Key lime pie I consumed while I was away.

Before I left, I consulted the chat boards at Chowhound.com, and I was extremely happy with the recommendations. One of the restaurants that was mentioned several times on Chow was Guppy’s, where we enjoyed a spectacular meal on our last night.

If you’ve never tried posting a question on Chow, you might want to consider it the next time you plan to visit a city for the first time. Most of the responses you’ll get are from locals who know the food scene pretty well.

Before we got to Guppy’s, I enjoyed one of the Clearwater Beach area’s signature dishes: a grouper sandwich (pictured above).

Just about every restaurant in the Clearwater-St. Pete area has some version of this treat on the menu. I ordered mine at Sea Sea Riders Restaurant, a casual little place just off the bay. For a market price of $11.95, the fat, juicy grouper filet came blackened on a bun with a thick slice of ruby red tomato, lettuce and creole tartar sauce.

I made a big mess eating the thing, but it was totally worth it.

Read more »

Okay, sorry for the rather graphic title today, but the truth is that I’m having a little trouble typing this blog entry due to a kitchen injury I sustained this weekend.
Have you ever had one of those nights when it seems that everything is going wrong in the kitchen? Last night was one of those for me. I think fate was flipping me the bird for picking on my friend Stacy about her ugly bundt cake.
First, while slicing onions for my black bean soup experiment, I sliced the tip off my finger instead. Not all the way, mind you. But it’s bad enough. How embarassing! My knife skills have gotten much fancier over the past year and I’ve never cut myself before in my life. There’s a first for everything.
Next, while explicitly following the recipe directions for my soup, I removed several cups and placed them in my blender to puree and return to the soup. Well, I don’t know if it’s because the soup was boiling hot or what, but it immediately blew the top off my blender and I had tiny black bean skins all over the counter. Clean-up on aisle 5!
(I’d love to know if anyone else has had problems pureeing hot soups. Maybe I should have let it cool for a bit, but that’s not what the recipe suggested.)
Finally, my rooster sauce seemed to have a bit of a clog in the nozzle, so it came shooting out exactly perpendicular to the bottle itself and sprayed across my kitchen floor. Much cursing occurred at that time.

Read more »