I know you all understand that Italians eat a lot. I also know you realize that we dial things up during the holidays, particularly Christmas Eve. What I am willing to bet most of you have fell short on is truly understanding the amount of food that gets cooked, served and consumed in the course of one long, over indulgent, hot pan may lay, melted butter tornado of a meal. Some call it the feast of the seven fishes we just call it “the start” because it kicks off a four day eating event that includes Christmas Day, “The Day After” (December 26th) and “The Hangover” (December 27th).

The day is always filled with lots of loud conversation (which can be mistaken for arguing to most outsiders) grabbing at food, over stuffing plates, sugar highs, impromptu menu items and a random nap break. For this post I’ll focus on the food. For those of you wishing to better understand the behavioral dynamics of a dysfunctional, food obsessed family of Italians, leave a comment and we can see if we can help you out Donnie Brasco style.

The seven fish thing started because Italians, and many other catholics, don’t eat meat on Christmas eve. We are not religious enough to truly understand the reasoning behind this but we are traditional enough to hold it as a rule. A loose one at that. Hence the first of the seven courses.

1. Bacon Wrapped Scallops with a blackberry jam glaze. Dipped in a horseradish jam sauce.

2. Cast Iron mussels with clarified butter, salt, pepper. Super simple and delicious.

3. Raw clams with homemade cocktail sauce.

4. Grilled shrimp scampi with fennel, lemoncello glaze.

5. Linguine and clam sauce.I brought the fresh pasta down straight from brooklyn.

6. Seafood chowder

7a. 14 Steamed lobster with clarified butter.
7b. Broiled lobster tails stuffed with crab meat and a bechemel reisling reduction sauce

So that was seven. There were a few additional dishes thrown in throughout the day so we actually wound up with nine dishes. That doesn’t count dessert. So let’s keep going.

8. Roasted zucchini and lobster risotto

9. Whole red snapper baked in parchment with thyme, lemon and kalamata olives.

That run down has made me hungry and tired. The nap this year fell in between the linguine and the lobsters. The kitchen didn’t stop for all seven hours. Comparing it to last year I think we stepped it up. But you can decide for yourself.What is your favorite course from above? Tell me what you would love to see on the next Reel Tasty menu, I’d love to hear.

I can barely move. I am not kidding. For the last 168 hours I have done very little but eat. My goal to eat smart and healthy between Thanksgiving and Christmas succeeded but I find myself asking to what end. Since the 24th I have put an ungodly amount of food down my throat. The best recap would be here. But let’s see if we can do a quick run down below.

12 dozen homemade cookies
11 piping hot side dishes
10 Tiger Shrimps a leaping
9 lobsters dancing
8 made of milk and cream sauces
7 fishes on Christmas eve (look for the post)
6 bone ribeye roast (another post)
5 linguine and clam sauce rings
4 plus 21lbs of turkey bird
3 french garlic breads
2 plates of lobster/crab risotto
1 Cold Stone creamery run

My cousin Mario is good for excitement. Ant and I don’t get to see him and Nikki (Mario’s wife, my blood cousin, that’s the connection) all that often. I love their kids, Meggie and Molly to death, they maybe the cutest on earth. I am sure that will go highly contested but lets not get off topic. On our last day in Florida Mario was hell bent on taking us to his favorite Boca Raton pizza joint. Mario was born in Brooklyn and comes from, I am sure you guessed this already, a huge Italian family. So, the Gentile’s (jen-teal-ehhy-z) know their Italian food. The but is…Mario has lived in Florida for the last 20 years and I actually live in Brooklyn right now. As in any Italian family, this became a friendly argument and bone of contention. All we heard all day was “When we are going to La Pizza”, “What we are getting at La Pizza” and “Who is coming with us to La Pizza”.

A few hours later, 12 of us piled into the small pizza shop in a non-descript strip mall just off of Boca Raton Blvd. As soon as we walked in, Mario in front, Pinot and his wife greeted us with big smiles. Meggie and Molly were instantly picked up and paraded into the kitchen, which is open to most of the restaurant. After a few laps they were put down at the table in their favorite seat and given special drinks straight from the kitchen. Pinot is a big “specials” kind of guy. The rest of us settled in at the 5-four tops that made up our table for 12+. They were just pushed together by Pinot as we walked from the cars across the parking lot in an effort to show that the restaurant was ours. There was only one other table for four left in the whole place after he did that. You get a sense of size now, don’t you?

Once settled in, Mario retrieved a wine corkscrew from the kitchen. I forgot to mention earlier that La Pizza is BYOW(wine). A nice treat for any restaurant in my opinion but an especially good treat for keeping this meal economical as well as, what was promised, delicious. With in 5 minutes of sitting Pinot came out with our first dish. An experimental spinach flat role.

After that Mario took charge and ordered the list of dishes he had been dreaming a bout all day. Among his choices was an unbelievable, napolitano pizza with basil and ricotta. (pictured at top). Below is the grandma slice. This Sicilian shaped slice contains thin sliced tomatoes in place of the sauce with a healthy dose of mozzerella and parmesean cheese over that.

Pinot’s real stand out was this meatball and pepperoni roll. We watched him craft if from beginning to end from our perfect observation seat just off the side of the kitchen. Fist he rolled out a huge piece of dough making sure it was even and thin through out. Then he started building. A layer of sauce, cheese, meatballs and pepperoni was followed by some parsley and parmasean cheese. This was repeated a second time and was then slowly rolled into a 3 and a half foot long monster roll. Pinot then grabbed a pizza cutter, raised it above his head and began violently stabbing the roll as if it had wronged him and his family in a way that warrented this abuse. The sauce began to bleed from the wounds as Pinot introduced the roll to its fiery , 600 degree, fate. Below is shot taken seconds after the bludgeoning.

15 minutes later the roll was removed from the caldren of crustisity and laeyd out for final cutting. It had formed a crispy brown cust and now had cheese oozing from its wounds along with teh sauce we mentioned earlier.

Pinot made quick work with the final lacerations and served it to the table in two heapping trays of Meatball and cheese tastyness.

(Above) Pinot and his creation. Ant and I on BYOW.

It is safe to say that Ant and I were totally satiated after this meal. Mario was as happy as a man could be and the rest of the family I think had their fill as well. We waddled out of there about an hour later ready for much needed horizontal resting.

If you are interested in the full Florida set, check it out here.

La Pizza

134 NE 2nd St
Boca Raton, FL 33432
(561) 353-1182

Mortadela, sopressata, provolone, lettuce, tomato, oil and vinegar. That is the V&S Special. There may not be a better sandwich in all of South Florida or, dare I say, Brooklyn. I know, I know very bold words. Well, let me explain. These guys are Italians from up north. They get it. They lived it. But, maybe smarter than me, they moved down to sunny Boca Raton 30 years ago and now are the number one game in town to satiate all the snowbird and transplants desire for a “real” Italian sandwich.

I found myself hear because I came to visit my cousin Nikki her husband Mario and my two nieces (thats how we call them in my fam) Meggie and Molly. As a budding tradition we always hit V&S while we are here. This time Ant was with me for the trip. Here is how everyone made out. Ohh, and let me just add. My V&S special was the best sandwich on the table.

Mario walked straight into this meal from work. Lucky.

Nik is the most fond of pics while eating.

Meggie and her Turkey Sandwich. BTW, Molly was taking a nap.

Ant and his roast beef sandwich. If you are interested in the full Florida set, check it out here.

V & S Italian Deli & Sub
(561) 395-5206
2621 N Federal Hwy
Boca Raton, FL 33431

On the way home from the beach today I stopped by this market/restaurant for a late lunch. A few years back my grandma and uncle had taken me here. The great part about this joint is that they have the freshest fish around because their main business is supplying all the local restaurants. When you walk in there are always fresh catch specials and deals of the day.

I decided on a bucket of peel and eat shrimp

And this jerked dolphin sandwich. Both hit the spot after a long day on the beach. If you are interested in the full Florida set, check it out here.

New England Fish Market
1419 NE Jensen Beach Blvd.
Jensen Beach, Florida
772-334-7324

I know I told you guys that the eating goes on all week. Today is when it all gets a little more relaxing. Everything is cooked already the work is only in deciding what you are going to craft from the myriad of options. Here we have a fresh turkey sandwich with lettuce, tomato and mustard. On the side some cauliflower and eggplant caponata. If you are interested in the full Florida set, check it out here.

Christmas day starts off with a bang, and I am not talking about a frenzy induced, wrapping paper ripping, gift mania. I am talking about food. For better or for worse, my family does not do much if there is not food involved. I woke up in my grandmothers house which is covered in Santa Claus’. My parents were already stirring. My father had on coffee and my mom was making eggs. It was only about 9:30am. The tree, gift ceremony and “real” food would be back at my Uncle Doug’s. Kickoff? 10:30am.

Ant woke up, grandma came out of her room in her favorite new Christmas outfit. I have one of those awesome grandmas that has several outfits for each holiday. Love her! By this time the coffee and eggs were ready and the family had a quick Christmas breakfast before loading into the car and heading over to my uncles.

On the left is out breakfast and on the right is meat pie. Meat pie is a specialty made by my Uncle Brian’s favorite deli in Tampa Florida. He has the same feelings about this pie that my Aunt Joy has about an Apple Crisp, but we will get to that a little later. As we enter my Uncle Doug’s house before you see any people you see meat pie. The warm and delicious scents set off olfactory alarms as you get bombarded with Merry Christmas hugs, kisses and the occasional hi-five. As the hellos subside I wandered into the dining room to find a table already filled with antipasti.

Homemade eggplant caponota and fresh made hot soppressata. We noshed for a while but then some of the prep for dinner could not be put off any longer. The trick was to get all of the big dishes going and then start the 4 and a half hour present ceremony. The idea is, once we are done with gifts dinner would be ready. Tonight we had a turkey and a prime rib as the main event. As sides, there was probably 4 or 5 of them. But before all that we had to rig up the Prime rib on the, now standard tradition, Ron Popeil Showtime Rotisserie.

The roast and the turkey go into their respective warming vessels and the gift giving, getting, ripping, playing begins. Highlights from this year include a special golf club, a Yankee Shakespeare mask, an awesome truck for little Nate and a convertible for my grandma. Just as planned about 30 minutes after we finished with the gifts, dinner was piping hot and ready to go.

23lbs Turkey and 8lbs Prime Rib

My now famous cauliflower dish(recipe at bottom). Roasted Asparagus with toasted breadcrumbs. Moms Italian stuffing (some goes in the turkey but we always do a separate dish too because it is a crowd favorite). And of course we can not forget the fettuccine alfredo (pictured at top). Shortly after that we slide into, yep you guessed it, dessert.

This is a homemade, giant peanut butter cup made by Amy. I have never seen anything like this before. It was outstanding.

Of course it was accompanied by several familiar friends from last night and the apple crisp I mentioned earlier. Forgive me for not having a picture of it. In my meat and sugar induced coma I must have forgot to snap a pic of the deconstructed, crustless, apple pie. My aunt made quick work of it anyway, so the chances of getting an appropriate picture would have been low.

As the evening came to a close I think my grandma expressed it best with her simple, wordless expression in this picture.

If you are interested in the full Florida set, check it out here.

Cauliflower and Chick Peas
ingredients:
1 head Cauliflower-cut into small florets
2 Lemons juiced
zest of 2 lemons
1 can garbanzo beans
capers-just a little
caper brine if so desired
Parsley-chopped
olive oil

directions:
Coat cauliflower lightly with olive oil. Roast cauliflower in Baking dish for an hour at 400 degrees. Let cool. Mix with all other ingredients. Serve warm or at room temperature

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house ever creature was stirring except a mouse. We just finished a feast made up of copious amounts of seafood, cheese, olive oil and vino. Not that I am surprised. This happens every year. Italian families have this Christmas Eve tradition called the Feast of the Seven Fishes. Now, started in southern Italy back in teh day the meal consisted of, well, seven fishes. Over the years, the country skipping and the desire to mix up the menu have sort of modified the traditional seven fishes to be more of a it-has-something-from-the-sea-in-it menu. Before I get into examples lets set the stage a little more. My brother and I pulled up to my Uncle Doug’s house a few hours ago with my parents in the car. That is 4 people. Start counting. Already at the house was Debbie, Sunshine, Lisa, Sonny, Paco, Paco’s mom, Paco’s grandparents, Stu, Nate, Stephanie, Billy, Aunt Joy, Uncle Brian, Jonathan, Amy, Josh, Stu’s wife, my grandma and, of course, my Uncle Doug. That would equal, say it with me, 24 people.

Because my uncle believes in one lobster per person, and I am one of the relied on cooks in the family, I parked the car went in the front door, kissed everyone hello, walked out the back door and went straight into steaming 25 lobsters. (the 25th one was for good measure) As that was going on, I was prepping the mussel dish, Uncle Bri was heating up two Quiches, Uncle Doug was shucking clams, Ant was chopping herbs, mom and Debbie were setting the table and everyone else was running around doing various tasks in between glasses of wine. Part of the fun of this night is seeing how much vino you can get in your system before you actually sit down and start eating. About an hour and a half later we were ready to plate and sit down at the table. One of the big tricks, and a personal pet peeve, is timing everything so it hits the table at the same time and is hot. Tough to do with all the food and the limited heating elements available.

Uncle Bri’s mussels in Wine and Basil. Stephanie’s crab cakes. delicious.

Raw and against the law clams on the half shell. Uncle Brian’s Lobster quiche. Man, does that man like his lobster.

What happens next might be quit alarming. Shortly after the last mussel is slurped up and the final bit of meat is squeezed from the last lobster leg, the scent of coffee brewing fills the air signaling it is time for dessert. Try and keep in mind that these desserts last the entire week of eating from Christmas Eve to New years day. I don’t really think that will help you understand this any better so I am just going to jump into this.

Chocolate stuffed walnut cookies (Uncle Doug)
Cream cheese cookies with jelly fill (joy)
Chocolate dipped cookie balls (doug)

Butterhorns(camille)
Rainbow cookies (joy)
Tortalina (camille)
American cheese cake (doug)
Peanut butter kiss cookies
Butterflies (doug)
Assorted goodness
Pignoli cookies (joy)
Italian cheesecake

That about wraps up the evening. I need to go lie horizontally for a while. After all, it is a only 6 hours until Christmas and the whole feeding frenzy starts again. You are not going to want to miss tomorrows update. If you are interested in the full Florida set, check it out here.

Yesterday, I met Ant in Miami. We had less than 24 hours there so we had to use our time very wisely. Still slightly weary from my 3 and a half drive north from Key West, Ant greeted me with a Captain and diet coke to perk me up. As soon as the ice was dry of rum and carbonated sugar water we were out the door and headed down the block to recreate a meal I had nearly 6 years prior. The Blue Door has been on my top 5 restaurant list for as many years and last night I was determined to see if it still made the list.

The lobby of the Delano is where the entire Blue Door experience starts. The 40 foot ceilings, the long, narrow corridor and the towering, white, sheer drapes whose bottoms dance around as the wind blows in off the ocean make you feel literally like a million bucks. Ian Schrager would probably love it if he had coined that phrase.

We started off with the crab and guacamole salad and some duck confit.

For entrees I had the roasted maine lobster with raisins, onions, lime, and cilantro, with caramelized banana and bokchoy(pictured at top) and Ant had the beef tenderloin with gorgonzola cream sauce, beaujolais poached asian pear, crispy potato galette, raisins and green peppercorns. Both were outstanding and held up to the previous taste, texture and presentation.

Feeling satiated and satisfied that the restaurant was still top notch we skipped dessert and walked off the meal. We walked it off straight into an Argentinian style gelato cafe. After overloading on sugar we headed back to the hotel for a quick break. Soon after our arrival back at our hotel our night continued with a call from Manuella, my friend Marcella’s niece. She was down stairs with her boyfriend ready to take us over to Love and Hate for a few drinks and maybe some dancing.

Manuella, Alfonso, Ant and Pablo

This morning our time was really running thin. We had only a few hours to get up to West Palm Beach and pick up my parents from the airport. Ant, being the burger fiend that he is, forced a double burger stop breakfast on us. First stop was Cheesebuger Baby. It totally sucked. The burger was overcooked. The bun was stale the service blew. I will not even insult you with a picture instead I present you this image that I think explain a lot.

Stop number 2, and the great redeemer, was Fatburger. Yes it is fast food, but they do make a mean burger.

We scarfed that down, Ant and I both grabbed a bathroom token, used it (easy people don’t stray) then jumped in the car and hit 95 North. The plan was to grab our parents and head straight into the giant, Italian, Christmas Eve fish dinner that has been tradition in our fam for as long as I can remember. As we sped off down the interstate we reflected on the completely contrasting types of meals we had only 3 blocks from each other. Talk about one of two or more conflicting ideas that cannot be brought into harmony. If you are interested in the full Florida set, check it out here.

Blue Door At Delano
1685 Collins Ave
Miami Beach, FL 33139
(305) 674-6400

Fatburger
947 Washington Ave
Miami Beach, FL 33139
(305) 534-9696

After being stranded in San Francisco because of snow in NYC, I finally made it to my next destination, Key West. I am at the bottom tip of the Florida keys to visit one of my favorite families, Bennett, Bruce and Baby Fallon Porter (And of course Butters too!). Shortly after my arrival Bruce and Bennett took me out to literally a fish shack on the side of the road. There is no health inspection certificate and they serve what was caught that day. MMMMMM. I tried the fried soft shell crab sandwich with key lime sauce (pic above). It was delicious in all of its health-code-violating glory.

Over the next few days we explored the uniquely, island feeling town and I was treated to a variety of delicious meals. I visited the Hemingway house, the beach from the Navy base perspective and a few bars with ….well….let’s just call it some quite unusual patrons.

Food wise, Bennett made a killer chicken curry one night.

And then, for breakfast she made Bruce and I delicious chorizo, egg burritos. I loved every bite and second seeing Bennett cook. When you are used to hanging out with someone in NYC there usually is not a lot of kitchen cooking going on. You know, small kitchens….blah, blah, blah. Well, the south Florida domestic Bennett was a fun and impressive treat.

Today I am off to Miami to meet up with my bro. Thanks Porters for an awesome time and great hospitality. If you are interested in the full Florida set, check it out here.