Summertime Is Seafood-Time

If you like seafood, there is nothing better than fresh fish. If you live anywhere near where fish are caught, the chances are that during the summer there is going to be a good reason to build your supper club menu around seafood.

The truth is that seafood is polarizing. Either you like it, or you don’t . People that don’t like it claim it is the taste, texture or smell that they don’t like. Quite often the haters will relate a story of eating bad fish and the unpleasant consequences.

For those of us that love seafood it is just the opposite. We relate seafood to good times, great tastes and wonderful texture. For me, while I now love seafood, it wasn’t always that way. Growing up as a Catholic, we had to eat fish on Fridays. We had a local fish-man that came around in his truck on Friday morning, so our fish was fresh. But, my father loved mackerel and mackerel is a very oily, fishy tasting fish, that wasn’t appealing to kids.

I started to love fish when I got to eat what I caught. As a young boy, I would spend a few weeks every summer in Lake Placid NY with a family friend. Al Venatier was a Frenchman that taught with my parents. Al and I would climb up the backside of Whiteface Mountain and then fish the streams for trout. We would bring home a creel full of brook trout that Al would dust with flour and sauté in butter. I became a fish loving convert that has developed a love for everything seafood.

There is nothing more fun than having a Supper Club party built around a fresh catch. Striped Bass is a prized catch in the ocean around New York. If you are lucky enough to catch a keeper you have a great excuse for an Impromptu Friday Night dinner party. You can grill Striper with olive oil and herbs, or my favorite is to sauté filets with a lemon butter sauce. No matter how you cook it, there is something about really fresh fish that is just special. If you are lucky, you might even be able to convert a hater.

(My nephew Robbie Pezzolo caught this monster Striped Bass off of Staten Island NY. His dad Robert was always the best fisher person in the family. Looks like Robbie is taking over that title.)

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

Vacation Supper Club

All you need for a great Vacation Supper Club dinner party are some good steaks and a Limo Squeezo

As we head into the summer vacation/travel season it is great to have a plan to pull together an impromptu dinner party for family and friends. In today’s world of Airbnb and VRBO it has become a lot easier to rent a vacation property that includes kitchen basics.

The key to developing a menu for your Vacation Supper Club dinner party is to keep it simple. The last thing you want to do is spend your vacation time in the kitchen. My traditional “go to” menu revolves around grilled steaks and assorted sides from the local supermarket deli section. I have pulled this menu off during trips in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, it just works.

The steaks are your centerpiece and the key is access to a grill. Most rentals will provide a gas or charcoal grill. If you don’t have a grill, a quick trip to Wal-Mart for a cheap grill and some charcoal might be called for. I am a big fan of Costco’s New York Strip Steaks. Grill them up and then let them rest with a little compound butter and you and your guests are in for a treat.

Here is a menu we enjoyed in Cabo a few years ago:

Mojito’s
First Course
- Guacamole
- Hummus
- Chips
- Crudité
Main Course
- Grilled NY Strip Steaks with Compound Butter
- Potato Salad
- Broccoli Salad
- Cole Slaw
Dessert
- Ice Cream Sundays

Deli Side Salads

Cabo was great. We rented a fantastic place in the Pedrigal neighborhood. And while it is Mexico, it is very friendly to Americans with limited Spanish language skills.

Reminded me of my college roommate who spent six months after college living in Mexico. Upon his return I asked him how he got by with his limited Spanish skills. He said: “It was easy, all you have to know is Una Cervesa por favor. After that all you need to know is “Una mas”.

Cabo Crew

( Lauren Kenny, Brian Kenny, Ethan Begun, Jenn Kenny, Chef, Susan Kenny, Mike Schuler. Not pictured Jessica W. Schuler and our hero Max Begun (See cover photo – Age 1 year))

I was able to find a Costco to buy my steaks and a local market that had a deli section with plenty of sides/salad options. The one thing that got me in trouble was the Limo Squeezo.

We bought everything we needed for dinner between the Costco and Wal-Mart except for the Limo Squeezo to juice limes for the mojitos. A clerk at Wal-Mart directed me to a store on the Mexican side of town. No one spoke English there, but between my sign language and Limo Squeezo descriptor we were able to get what we needed.

Vacation Supper Club dinner parties can be the highlight of your summer vacation. Just make sure you keep it simple and can find a Limo Squeezo.

How Much To Tip On Wine?

When the question of tipping on wine comes up, I think of the late/great baseball player and announcer Tim McCarver.

My workout buddy Jackie Aarons, once asked me how much to tip on a $1,200 bottle of wine. Jackie owns a wine and liquor distribution business in Memphis. He grew up with Tim McCarver, the great baseball player and announcer. Jackie has a group of buddies that would fly up to NY every year to go to a game and then out to dinner with Tim.

One year they went to a very nice Italian restaurant in New York City. When it came time to order the wine the Tim McCarver deferred to Jackie saying: “You are the wine guy, you order the wine”. Jackie ordered a bottle of wine not knowing what it would cost. He said: “I knew I was in trouble when there was no price on the menu and they decanted the wine without even asking”.

Jackie returned to Memphis and was retelling the story to his workout buddies and then turns to me asking: “You are the New Yorker, a food and wine guy, how much do you tip on a $1,200 bottle of wine. I responded with: You have to go with the flow, in that company, you gotta act like you belong. Go with 20%, besides, you can afford it.

Some would say that I over tip. Having grown upping caddying at a country club, I know what it is to work for tips. As Bill Murray character Carl in Caddyshack says “You expect a little something for the effort”. You may not get “total consciousness” on your death-bed as Carl the did, but you might get 20%, which is nice. Check out the clip.https://youtu.be/RnHaTlI1p7o

There is a great article from the New York Times on how much to tip on an expensive bottle of wine. https://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/the-answer-man-tipping-on-wine/Ironically, the article author takes the same tack as I did in saying he never would order that expensive a wine. The author did real research (unlike me) and the consensus he came up with is also to tip 20%. It is just safer.