With the recent news that restaurant chains Bennigans and Steak and Ale are declaring bankruptcy, a possible silver lining is starting to emerge from the dark clouds of the American casual dining scene; the rise of the local restaurant.

One surprising indicator of this potential trend is that local neighborhood restaurants overshadowed their often flashier, more famous counterparts at this year’s James Beard Awards.

Of course, Steak and Ale and Bennigans aren’t the only restaurant chains feeling the economic pinch.

The Cheesecake Factory recently posted disappointing quarterly earnings. Old Country Buffet, Baker’s Square, and Village Inn are other chain casualties of the downturn.

One of the main reasons cited for the Bennigans bankruptcy was that many customers perceived the chain as being generic with outdated menu offerings.

Bill Marvin, author of Restaurant Basics which looks at restaurants from the diners’ point of view described the chain as being, “…just one more place to eat.” according to this Newsweek article.

As Marvin says, “The thing that’s been missing in the hospitality business is hospitality.” His prescriptive for restaurants in this economy is to “provide a heartfelt experience…it’s about being a real honest place for hospitality, where people really care and you feel well served.”

Luckily, with an emphasis on personal service and their non-cookie cutter menu items, many good local restaurants are uniquely poised to take advantage of this post-Bennigans opportunity.

Often, smaller restaurants are much more open to using fresh, local ingredients that showcase regionally inspired flavors than their big chain counterparts. As a result, they are more likely to attract the kind of skilled chefs who have the talent to make the most of the advantages that come with being small but flexible.

Also, since they’re usually owned and managed by people from the areas they serve, local restaurants can more accurately gauge and predict their diners’ evolving tastes.

Local restaurants also increase the demand for area jobs and services that keep revenue circulating within the communities they serve, unlike revenues from many national restaurant chains, where much of the money often ends up going out of state to their distant corporate headquarters and bulk suppliers.

Best of all, every time diners eat such regional dishes as Charleston, SC’s shrimp and grits, Pennsylvania Dutch shoofly pie, and New Orleans crawfish etouffee they are in effect both celebrating and casting a vote for the vibrancy of regional American cuisine and the local restaurants that serve it.

As we move further into the dog days of summer, our thoughts return to the all too obvious pleasures of ice cream, which we first wrote about here. Surprisingly, the history of ice cream itself is fraught with debate and controversy.

In many quarters during the late 1800’s, the ingestion of the then highly popular, (though apparently sinfully delicious) ice cream soda, was considered to be immoral and improper on the Sabbath. Some communities even passed resolutions to outlaw its consumption on Sundays.

It is said that the phrase ice cream sundae was first coined in Evanston, Illinois; a phrase that may have paved the way for the beleaguered ice cream soda parlors to remain open on Sundays.

According to What’s Cooking America…

“Evanston, Illinois (then know as Chicago’s Heaven or Heavenston) was one of the first towns to outlaw the ‘Sunday Soda Menace’. Evanston was a very strict religious town where the Sabbath was strictly observed. The town even passed an ordinance prohibiting the retailing of ice cream sodas on Sunday. According to sources published in Evanston, the word sundae originated at Garwoods’ Drugstore…They did not serve ice cream sodas. They served sodas without soda on Sunday. The Evanston Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) championed it as a pleasant alternative to alcoholic drinks.”

To continue the controversy, both Two Rivers, Wisconsin and Ithaca, New York (our former stomping ground) claim to have invented the concept of the ice cream sundae itself. Wisconsin’s claim dates the invention to 1881 while New York’s claim of 1892 is later, but with more extensive documentation. Both cities have been fighting amiably on the topic since the 1970’s.

The lascivious ice cream soda itself was invented by Robert Green in 1874 at the Franklin Institute’s exhibit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

According to Michael Witzel:

“After sneaking a tentative sip, Green was wowed: the resulting blend of soda, syrup, and frozen cream was delightful! Without hesitation, the innocent libation was added to the menu, and by the end of the exhibition, customers showed approval by cracking their money purse. Green was taking in over $600 dollars a day in ice cream soda sales alone!…The phenomenon spread quickly and soon, ice cream sodas were slurped in fountains from New York to California.”

(Of course, when it comes to the history of ice cream, there’s always a little controversy. Fred Sanders of Detroit, Michigan also claimed to be the inventor of the ice cream soda at his confectionary shop which was named The Pavilion of Sweets.)

You can read more about the invention and popularity of ice cream here, from President James Madison’s wife, Dolly who started a craze for ice cream when she served it at his second inaugural ball in 1812, to the invention of the hand crank ice cream maker in 1943 by housewife Nancy Johnson.

Even today, controversy and ice cream go hand in hand. In 2006, the town of Wadowice, Poland temporarily banned the sale of ice cream during Pope Benedict XVI’s papal visit.

In Hudson County, New Jersey, it is now illegal for Mister Softee ice cream trucks to play their music after 9:30PM (growing up there I have fond memories of their velvety swirls of soft serve ice cream). Similar noise ordinance bans have been discussed across the country and enacted in parts of Pennsylvania, Illinois, and California.

Please join us tomorrow for the last part of our two part series on the joys of ice cream: More Exotic Ice Creams for the Sun-Ravaged Soul, which will feature a roundup of recipes for delicious flavored ice creams you won’t find at your local supermarket.

(Photo Credits: the first ice cream photo is courtesy of Thomas Hawk, while the second is by Emilie Hardman.)

Charles Zeran, Executive Chef of Four Moons Restaurant in Orangeburg, SC, is the winner of 9 DiRoNA (Distinguished Restaurants of North America) Awards and 9 Wine Spectator Awards in his previous kitchens (Stone Manor, Middletown, Maryland; Stars Waterfront Cafe, Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina; and The Lodge at Glendorn, a AAA Four Diamond and Relais & Chateaux property in Bradford, Pennsylvania.)

Not bad for a former attorney and self-taught chef who started his professional cooking career at the age of 32. His delicious and visually arresting dishes are the result of his interest in molecular gastronomy coupled with his own broad experience and unique vision.

He talked with us about the winding road that brought him to where he is today, his favorite restaurants, his Western Tennessee childhood food memories of peach ice cream on Independence Day and traditional New Year’s meals, as well as his guilty food pleasures…

When did first you start getting interested in food and cooking? Please share some early cooking memories…

I have cooked all my life for fun. Even as a child. Some early food memories: making caramel fudge and taffy with my grandmother in western Tennessee where I grew up. My father making Steak Diane in the seventies when I was about 10 and waiting for it to catch fire when the brandy was added. Traveling with my dad as a child to New Orleans and having beignets and cafe au lait at Cafe Du Monde, and to Grand Bahama Island and having cracked conch right off the boat and Johnny cakes prepared by the native Bahamians.

It must have been difficult for you to make the leap from your original career to food and beverage. What happened that gave you the impetus to make that leap?

I became a lawyer I think more because it was expected and for the money more than because it was something I really wanted to do. Not because there had ever been a lawyer in my family, but because I had excelled in school and was expected to do something like a doctor, lawyer, or Indian chief.

After 7 years of divorce law in Northern Florida and Western North Carolina, I decided that life was too short to do something that I really didn’t love and began to think what would be better. I always loved to cook. The first food I ever sold was homemade lasagna to Italian restaurants while I was still an attorney in North Carolina. Made the pasta and dried it on a clothes rack.

One day I decided that I had had enough and spent the next six months winding up my practice, took a 3 month adventure around the Western United States looking for somewhere I wanted to be more than the Appalachian region of North Carolina. I ended up in the Cascade Mountains of Washington state and took a job in a roadside diner cooking breakfast. After about 4 months of this, I met the owner of a bistro in one of the tourist towns in the Cascades who offered me a line cook job, which I declined. But we hit it off being the same age and both growing up outside Memphis, so we had a lot of common history.

A few days later the manager of her kitchen was fired and she called me and asked me if I wanted to run their kitchen my first chef position with 4 months of restaurant experience and not a clue. Trial by fire.

What kind of cooking do you most admire?

Avant garde. When I want to feed I like it simple, but when I want to dine, I want to be entertained and I want something to think about, not just chew on.

What ingredients do you especially like to work with?

Seafood is probably my favorite medium. Especially tuna, scallops, and any really fresh fish that I can either use raw or cook. I also really like raw or practically raw meats lamb, venison, and good beef made into wonderful tatakis, carpaccios, and tartares. I love Asian ingredients and flavors, especially Japanese the flavors are so complex, but seem so pure.

Who are your food inspirations and why…Also, who are your favorite chefs and cookbook/food authors?

Ferran Adria, Grant Achatz, Homaro Cantu, etc for their creativity in molecular gastronomy. Thomas Keller for the purity and intensity of taste of his food, and the subtle layers of flavor. Michel Richard of Citronelle for his playfulness, and the mixing of pastry techniques into savory dishes. Rick Tramonto for the same reasons as both Keller and Richard. Masaharu Morimoto for his use of western techniques with Asian ingredients and vice versa without ending up with fusion for fusion sake, which I hate.

What part does travel play in your food inspirations?

Only incidentally. Haven’t done much traveling for food’s sake.

Where do you like to go and what cuisines inspire you?

The Keys for the fresh seafood. DC for some of the restaurants I used to go to when I lived in that area Citronelle, Jose Andres’ Cafe Atlantico, The Inn at Little Washington, Persimmon, Kinkaid’s.

Any favorite meals you’d like to share?

The Inn at Little Washington for the best service I have ever experienced. Michelle Richard’s Citronelle for the whimsical food, like the silver penguin statuette carrying an egg filled with scrambled eggs topped with caviar.

What do you like to do to blow off the stresses of the kitchen?

When the day is done I am relaxed. I found that the difference between being a lawyer and being a chef is the type of stress being an attorney involves chronic stress the same client with the same issues continues for months. Being a chef involves acute stress when the day is done, the day is done. Chronic stress is draining. Acute stress is a rush.

What tips would you offer to someone considering a career as a chef?

Don’t — unless you really have the passion. If it’s not something you have to do because there is something inside you that makes you, it will be a miserable career and you won’t do it well. But if that thing is inside you, it’s like Confucius said “If you find a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

What advantages do you bring to the table as a self educated chef?

Not knowing what the rules are, I don’t know better than to break them.

Would you like to publish a cookbook someday? If so, what would its focus be?

Maybe the crossover between sweet and savory.

Favorite comfort foods?

Biscuits and gravy. Steak. Mashed potatoes with white truffle oil. Bacon. Bacon. Bacon.

Favorite barbecue memory?

We always barbecued a baby goat on the Fourth of July when I was growing up. It cooked most of the day. While it was cooking, we made a stew in a big cauldron in the back yard using all the game we had in the freezer from the previous hunting season we stirred it with a boat paddle. And we finished the meal with peach ice cream we churned with a hand cranked ice cream freezer.

Favorite Southern meal?

When I was a child in West Tennessee on New Year’s Day, it was a tradition to have pork roast, turnip greens, black eyed peas cooked with fat back, and corn bread. You always poured the “pot liquor” from the peas over the corn bread. And you always had to leave one pea on the plate for good luck in the coming year.

Favorite guilty food pleasures (sweet or salty)?

Foie Gras pan seared with sauted blackberries on brioche. White truffles shaved onto almost anything.

Favorite wines to relax with?

Syrahs from the Northern Rhone. New Zealand Pinots and Chards. Steely dry Rieslings from Alsace. Douros from Portugal. Good reds from Chile. Chateau Margaux Pavilon Blanc. Oh, and Krug if you’re buying.

As a working chef, your time is at a premium. What restaurants would you like to find time to visit someday? (ie. El Bulli, The French Laundry, etc.)

El Bulli. Alinea, Tru, Morimoto, Per Se.

What’s your favorite dish to make at home?

Plumbers don’t find the time to fix their own pipes, mechanics don’t find the time to fix their own cars. Me too. If I have to, something on the grill.

Can you share a recipe for the readers of HuggingtheCoast.Com?

Here one from the Raw Bites menu at Four Moons: Day Boat Scallops with Sweet
Spicy Chili Vinaigrette, Hot and Sour Pickled Mango, and Tobikko Ice.

Ingredients:

1 lb (approx) fresh scallops (You will want extremely fresh dry [not processed] scallops,
the larger the better, preferably day boat harvested. If you have U-10 size (under 10
per lb) scallops, allow two scallops per person for an appetizer portion. If using 10-20
size allow three or four.)

For the Hot and Sour Pickled Mango:

1 c. water
1/2 c. rice wine vinegar
1/2 c. sugar
2 T salt
1/2 t. whole cloves
1 t. mustard seeds
1 t. peppercorns
1 T. chopped fresh ginger
1/2 t. crushed red pepper flakes

1 large mango, peeled and cut into thin slices

Bring first 9 ingredients (thru red pepper flakes) to a boil in a medium, non-reactive
saucepan and allow to cool to lukewarm. Strain well, pour over thinly sliced mango, and
marinate for several hours.

For the Tobikko Ice:

2 1/2 c. cucumber juice (using a vegetable juicer), strained
1/2 c. simple syrup (see Cook’s Note)
3 oz wasabi tobikko caviar (available at some Asian markets or try your local sushi
restaurant)
Salt to taste
Sriracha pepper sauce to taste

Mix well and freeze according to your ice cream maker’s directions.

For the Vinaigrette:

Mae Ploy Sweet Chili Sauce (available at Asian markets and many supermarkets)
Rice Wine Vinegar
Soy sauce
Lime Juice
(Proportions of the above are to taste, but you are looking for a sweet and sour spicy citrus flavor.)
Olive Oil

Slowly drizzle in oil while whisking to reach vinaigrette consistency.

To Serve:

Slice each scallop very thinly into 6 - 8 coin shaped slices and arrange on serving plates.
Drizzle the chili vinaigrette over the scallops and let marinate for a couple of minutes.
Arrange drained mango slices on scallops. Garnish the plates with a scoop of the
tobikko ice and whole cilantro leaves.

Serves 4 as an appetizer.

COOK’S NOTE: To make Simple Syrup, use equal measures (by volume) of water and
sugar. Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan, add the sugar and stir until dissolved.
Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Click here to read yesterday’s Four Moon’s Restaurant Review.

When you ask for an ‘order’ of onion rings at Bessingers or Melvins (and many other barbecue restaurants here in Charleston), you only get one onion ring.

But that’s okay, because these are not your run-of-the-mill onion rings: they’re thick, meaty cuts from colossal yellow onions, generously battered and deep-fried to a rich golden brown. More often than not, the onion ring is larger than the hearty sandwich it comes with!

Before I moved here, I’d only ever had the small, skinny type of ring where the onion was more implied than actual. I’ve really come to love these crispy, Brobdingnagian delights that give the onion a starring role, so when I found some truly enormous yellow onions recently, I got the urge to experiment with some onion ring-related “What if…?” ideas I’d been having lately.

The results? Some of the most beautiful and sinfully delicious onion rings I’ve ever tasted. Best of all, they’re a snap to make! But take note: these aren’t for the faint of heart or the clogged of artery. These onion rings are decidedly not diet or health conscious. They will, however, fill and enrich you in ways that have nothing whatsoever to do with their calories, for they are a joy to behold and a delight to eat. Their fragrance is like the lost, sacred incense of the gleaming roadside diner and the drive-in (not ‘thru’) burger joint. Breathe deeply and let memory speak . . .

Is Moderation, as Hesiod advised, best in all things, or does the Road of Excess, as William Blake proposed, lead to the Palace of Wisdom? That is for each of us to decide, but I do know this: the sweetest onions are the ones that are biggest around the middle. If we, too, must be big around the middle to be sweet than so be it!

A Few Tips for Making the Onion Rings

I used yellow onions and Vidalias in these recipes and they both produced fine results. Use the biggest onions you can find (there’s no such thing as too big!) and cut them 3/4 of an inch thick. Don’t worry about the onion being ‘raw’ or too strong: by the time the coating cooks, the onion will be mellow and tender (while still holding its shape.) Also, if you want to fit more in your skillet or fryer, you can break the onion slices into large chunks and make jumbo-sized Onion Chips (a favorite in Eastern PA); batter, dredge, and fry them the same as rings.

Some of the proportions will be approximate depending on the size of the onions you use, how much you choose to coat them, how spicy or sweet, etc. Let your own tastes be your guide and feel free to improvise and experiment.

Regarding the batter, I wanted to start with something basic that I could work variations on. Some of the ideas I had been thinking about could begin with a beer batter, but others would need something more subtle, like milk. The following Basic Batter Recipe works perfectly with either.

Basic Batter:

1 cup self-rising flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup of milk or beer

Mix the dry ingredients well. Add the wet ingredients and whisk gently until smooth. Makes 2 cups.

The Basic Batter Recipe creates a thinnish, crispy coating which is very nice on its own, but it’s really just a jumping off point for imagination. The first idea I wanted to try was a corn-chip encrusted onion ring, and while I didn’t get what I was after on the first attempt, the solution was a revelation that opened up a world of exciting (and tasty!) possibilities.

Frito Encrusted Onion Rings:

I ground up some Fritos corn chips in the food processor and heated about 3/4 inch of oil in a large, heavy, high-sided skillet (better than a home deep-fryer in this case because of the size of the rings). Then I dipped a ring in the batter, dredged it in the Frito crumbs and slid it into the oil. The resulting ring was good, but it didn’t have the flavor and texture I was after. I decided to give the old ’some in, some on’ theory a try. I stirred about 1/2 cup of Frito crumbs into the batter, let it sit for 5 minutes, and tried again.

The second time was the charm: a thick, intensely corn-flavored coating with a crunchy exterior and perfectly cooked onion inside. Heaven on a June day!

Ingredients:

2 cups corn chip crumbs, divided
2 cups Basic Batter (made with beer or milk; either one works well)
Oil for frying
1 very large yellow or Vidalia onion, cut and separated into 3/4 inch rings

Preparation:

Mix 1/2 cup of the crumbs into the batter. Spread the remaining crumbs in a shallow bowl. Heat 1/2 to 3/4 inches oil in a heavy skillet to 375 degrees. Dip an onion ring into the batter, coating thickly, and dredge in the corn chip crumbs. Lay it gently into the oil and cook until golden, turning once. Remove and drain on paper towels. Repeat with remaining rings. You can do 2-3 at a time depending on the size of your skillet, but take care not to crowd the pan or let the temperature drop too much, or the rings will turn out greasy.

Variations & Serving Suggestions:

• 1/2 tablespoon chipotle powder or chipotle sauce added to the batter definitely raises the ‘zing’ level quite nicely.

• A Salsa con Queso dipping sauce would be delicious with these.

• For a smoother, less crunchy surface, you can skip the crumb-dredging step.

Join us tomorrow to read Doug’s new recipe for Hawaiian Sesame Coconut Onion Rings as part of his Week of Onion Rings Series which celebrates the official start of Summer.

You Can Read More of Doug’s Recipe Corner Here.

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