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Taste this! Here’s what’s on the menu for Taste of Boca Grande

It’s over. And if you missed it you missed the best party of the year. Check out our video here featuring the Steve Chapin Band.

BY GARY DUTERY – It’s once again time to come to the rescue of all you non-Foodies and decipher the menu for this year’s Taste of Boca Grande slated for Monday, Feb. 1 at the Boca Bay Pass Club.

This year’s edition of Taste features 18 area restaurants, the most ever. And if you want a taste of Taste, tickets are $75 and can be purchased at the Boca Beacon or at the Boca Bay Pass Club.

When you talk Taste of Boca Grande, you aren’t talking cocktail weenies. You aren’t talking Ritz crackers and Cheez Wiz. You’re talking food. Real food. Real good food. And don’t forget the open bar and wine tables.
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And here’s a sample of what to expect this year:

The Boca Bay Pass Club

Caribbean-style smokey chicken flatbread melt with sweet peppers, onions and pineapple white barbecue sauce smoked salmon bruschetta with dill cream cheese on ciabatta croustini.

Bruschetta? Let’s start with an easy one. It’s grilled bread rubbed with garlic and topped with extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. Variations may include toppings of spicy red pepper, tomato, vegetables, beans, cured meat, and cheese. The most popular recipe outside of Italy involves basil, fresh tomato, garlic and onion or mozzarella. Bruschetta is usually served as a snack or appetizer. In Italy, Bruschetta is often prepared using a brustolina grill. (A brustolina grill is a square sheet of metal with holes punched in the base and a square griddle over the top.) In Tuscany, bruschetta is called fettunta, meaning “oiled slice.”

Boca Grande Baking Company

Spicy coconut shrimp, southern fried green tomatoes, Jackson’s crab cakes, apricot and raisin sweet bread pudding, peach and coconut upside down cake, lemon meltaways.

The pudding is a sweet, bread pudding. Not a sweetbread pudding.

Boca Grande Club

Kung Pao chicken.

Coral Creek Club

French onion soup and toasted garlic baguette, escargot en croute, crepes au chocolat and Chantilly flambe cognac.

Chantilly cream or crème Chantilly is a sweetened whipped cream, sometimes vanilla-flavored. It is said to have been invented by François Vatel, maître d’hôtel at the Château de Chantilly in the 17th century. It is used in pastry both for its taste and as a decoration. Ice cream is also frequently served with Chantilly.

Eagle Grille and Miller’s Dockside

Island conch chowder, ahi tuna, watermelon, lime skewer with soy-ginger drizzle, Beaujolais braised short rib slider with bacon, mushroom and onion.

Ahi tuna is yellowfin tuna. Ahi is Hawaiian for tuna.

Farlow’s on the Water

Caribbean oxtail stew, Kentucky hot Brown, Peter island scallops, Kentucky chocolate pecan pie.

Why is the word Brown capitalized in hot Brown? The dish, an open-faced turkey sandwich with bacon and Mornay sauce, gets its name from the Brown Hotel in Louisville, Ky. where it was created in the 1920s.

Gasparilla Inn & Club

Smoked pompano with a frisee and bacon salad, Gasparilla tropical shortcake.

Frisée is a member of the chicory family, and has a mildly bitter flavor. Its feathery leaves range in color from yellow-white to yellow-green. It should not be confused with Frisbee.

The Grapevine

Gourmet mac and cheese, cream of asparagus and crab soup, smoked salmon pate, mango chutney torta, selection of gourmet cheeses, angel food cake with Grand Marnier-soaked strawberries.

Habaneros Southwest Barbecue

Smoked brisket and pulled pork sandwiches.

Loose Caboose

Mini calamondin cakes with Mandarin orange glaze, white bean chili.

In 1899, a man named Lathrop introduced the calamondin to Floridians as “acid orange.” It was also known as “Panama orange,” not to be confused with Panama Red. The fruit had come to Panama from Chile, and to Chile from China where it has long been cultivated as an ornamental plant and as a stock for mandarin oranges. The calamondin fruit has the appearance of a small tangerine. Cross-breeders think there is a possibility that the calamondin is a hybrid of lime and mandarin, or lime and kumquat, or kumquat and mandarin.

Palmetto Grill

Veal meatloaf, cedar plank salmon, crab-corn chowder.

Patrick’s Thai Bistro and Sushi Bar

Variety of sushi Rolls: California roll, Boston roll, tuna and cucumber roll

The Boston roll is similar to the California roll, using shrimp instead of imitation crab.

PJ’s Seagrille

Tempura fried shrimp served over Asian slaw.

Prime Time Steak and Spirits

Crab cake with mango salsa and smoked jalapeno mayonnaise

South Beach Bar and Grille

Blackened swordfish with honeydew melon and cucumber relish

Temptation Restaurant

Lobster corn Chowder, bronzed grouper over Brussels sprouts with proscuito, Parmesan and buerre blank (white butter). Coconut cream tartletts.

Third Street Cafe

Wild boar agrodolce on grilled polenta, pompano ravioli with bouillabaisse buerre blanc (still known as white butter), smoked mullet terrine with watercress sauce and asian pear.

It’s boar in a sweet and pungent sauce. It’s an old recipe, dating back to the Crusades. It was brought to Europe by knights influenced by Middle Eastern traditions, including using sugar as a sweet salt that helped to preserve meat. In Italian, agro means sour and dolce means sweet.

Trattoria 13

Signature lasagna alla Bolognese, eggplant Parmigiana, Sicilian arancini di riso, cream of wild mushroom soup.

Bolognese sauce is a meat-based sauce for pasta originating in Bologna, Italy. Bolognese sauce is sometimes a tomato sauce, but authentic recipes have only a small amount of tomato. Arancini or arancine are fried rice balls coated with breadcrumbs, said to have originated in Sicily in the 10th century. Arancini are usually filled with meat sauce, tomato sauce, mozzarella, and peas.