Shanai, Ian, Dad and I had lunch today at Ortanique.  Ortanique is located at 278 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables, FL 33134.  I have been to Ortanique many times over the years and wanted to give you all an update.  The food is still GREAT.  I had their famous pork chop with sticky rice and a great tangy fruity sauce.  We also shared the salmon, Mahi Mahi, eggplant lasagna and the daily ceviche.  All was very good.

It is remarkable that Ortanique has continued to serve such great food all these years!

Friday night, November 15th, 2013, Steven Pinkert, his wife and two friends had dinner at Chu’s Restautant.  Chu’s has great Chinese food.  It is Taiwanese style Chinese food.  You might be wondering why I can judge Chinese food (aside from the fact that I have been to Beijing over fifty times)!  My friend, the Beijing Jazz Singer, Autumn Q, was visiting Miami a few weeks ago, and we went to Chu’s.  She said it was fantastic…so there you go.  If you happen to go to Chu’s, I recommend the soup dumplings (Xiaolongbao) and the tofu which is a cold dish served cut into thin tofu noodles.  Enjoy!

Steven Pinkert has been working on perfecting fried calamari and after a number of attempts it turns out to be very simple to prepare and a delicious appetizer.

Steven Pinkert buys most of his fish from Whole Foods as they are reliable and the quality is usually very good.  Whole foods has fresh frozen calamari both tubes and tentacles, and it is usually available by the pound defrosted on ice at the fresh fish counter.  The price is about $10 per pound these days and a pound is enough more than enough for an appetizer for 5-6 people.

Ingredients:

1 pound Calamari mixture of tubes and tentacles
2 cups buttermilk
2 cups flour
4 T onion powder
4 T garlic powder
4 T ground black pepper
3 T Seasoning Salt
3 T Cayenne Pepper Powder
2 T chili powder
2 lemons quartered
Tabasco or other hot sauce

Steven Pinkert cooks using a Deep Frier with fresh vegetable oil but if you are careful you can probably fry the calamari in a frying pan. Although Steven Pinkert recommends the ingredients listed above the spices should be varied according to taste.

First cut up the calamari tubes into about 1/2 inch wide rings.

Then place the Cut up Calamari into the buttermilk and allow to soak for about 20 minutes.

After soaking drain the calamari.

Now mix all the dry ingredients together and bread the wet but drained calamari with the dry mixture. Allow the breading mixture to sit for about 10 minutes.

Fry the Calamari in oil for about 3-4 minutes at 325 degrees.

Now plate, drizzle with fresh lemon juice and serve.