Island Time

Sitting in my lawn chair in the afternoon sun, listening to Bob Marley with a frosty beverage at my side, I find I have all the inspiration I need for this week’s write-up. That’s because on an equally beautiful day earlier this week it had seemed the perfect time for a Jamaican barbeque.

Nothing says Jamaican barbeque like an authentic homemade jerk marinade made with just the right heat by a very personable Jamaican chef. Except maybe an icy pitcher of Jamaican rum punch.

After conferring with said chef, Lennox Grayson of Burtons Grill in South Windsor, I set a nice, lean pork tenderloin to marinade in a secret blend of whole allspice, garlic, vinegar, red pepper and cinnamon. Then I referred to a few other sources for the rest of our Jamaican meal.

First I consulted one of Grayson’s cookbooks, The Real Taste of Jamaica by Enid Donaldson, which he was kind enough to let me borrow. There I found an intriguing recipe for sweet potato in orange skins.

While preparing this wonderfully simple dish, mashed sweet potato mixed with cinnamon, nutmeg and orange juice and baked in hollowed out orange halves, I stepped outside to chat with my neighbor, Sunshine.

A Jamaican native as pleasant as her name, she explained that island sweet potatoes are actually different than those stateside. She ducked back into her kitchen, where I often hear her banging away, creating mouthwatering aromas, through the adjoining wall, and reemerged with a fat, reddish tuber.

According to Sunshine, while Jamaican sweet potatoes are similar in flavor to the variety we are used to, they are also starchier and firmer in texture, like a Russet potato.

As the tenderloin sizzled on the grill and a warm breeze carried the irresistible smell of slowly cooking meat throughout the yard and the neighborhood beyond, Sunshine went over the recipe for rum punch her husband had given us back when they first became our neighbors.

One of sour,
Two of sweet,
Three of strong,
Four of weak.

Back when we originally tried this recipe, we were told it didn’t come out right, but then again there is a fair amount of room for interpretation here. This time, with a mix of fresh lime juice, fresh orange juice, guava nectar, sugar and Appleton rum, even if we didn’t get it right, it was still quite refreshing.

For the last part of our meal we paid a visit to our final authority on Jamaican cuisine, Anthony’s Jamaican Restaurant on West Middle Turnpike in Manchester. Home to deliciously flaky varieties of filled patties and tender curried goat, Anthony’s also serves up some tasty rice and peas (the peas are really red beans) and callaloo.

A dark leafy vegetable comparable to spinach, callaloo is a staple of indigenous Jamaican cuisine. Anthony’s recipe with onions, peppers and spice offers more flavor than you would think a pile of green mush ever could contain.

It was these side dishes we had come for, so showing great restraint in not also throwing in a couple of beef patties or a slice of rum cake, we returned home with heaping helpings of rice and peas and callaloo.

Back at the dinner table, the pork was tender and intensely flavorful with a pronounced heat that awakened every taste bud without actually being painful. The sweet potato was also delicious, a perfect complement that cooled the jerk-fueled fire in our mouths, and, as my roommate put it, is a good way to impress someone with your culinary skills without actually doing a lot of work.

The shadows lengthen across the yard as I continue reflecting on this past meal and I am struck with a sudden urge, I need to get this post under wraps while there’s still time for beef patties!

The Four-Hour Lunch

With fast-food drive-throughs and power luncheons everywhere we turn, we don’t often take the time to settle down and really enjoy the food we eat. Standing up, in the car, inhaling without even tasting, we frequently treat eating as a mere necessity rather than one of life’s daily pleasures.

This is why Adam, who tends to be more Hoover than man, and I, the shameful owner of a vehicle that often smells of frialator, spent a languid afternoon partaking in what turned out to be a four-hour lunch.

While watching the sky fill with slowly rolling clouds, we relaxed with a flow of twelve courses from the progressive PolytechnicON20 kitchen. Not only was each dish a masterpiece of sight and taste, but our epic mid-day meal also afforded us the opportunity to learn about another part of the world where leisurely dinning is a way of life.

The region of Piedmont in northwestern Italy, a stretch of picturesque lakes and rolling hills surrounded on three sides by the Alps, is not only a gourmand mecca famous for austere wines and prized wild truffles, but it is also the origin of the Slow Food movement, a response to the fast food revolution dedicated to preserving the tradition of handmade, artisanal cuisine.

A typical Piedmontese meal spans anywhere from three to six courses and is a time for sharing the company of family and friends as well as for sustenance.

One of the talented chefs and creative minds in the ON20 kitchen, Lucas Maylott, lived and worked for over two years in the area of Alba, Piedmont. Originally visiting the region as a backpacker in 2002, Maylott was introduced to the head chef of the famous Trattoria del Castello Grinzane Cavour and invited to work a five-month stage.

A hilltop castle built in 1012, Castello Cavour is the region’s most well-known restaurant and the host of the annual World Truffle Auction. The auction draws many illustrious chefs and coincides with the yearly truffle fair in Alba, which celebrates the peak season of these indigenous “diamonds of the kitchen.”

Castello Cavour

During his stage, Maylott cooked for the auction where the largest white truffle that year was sold to the Ritz Carlton in Hong Kong for $120,000.

In 2007, Maylott returned to Piedmont to the restaurant Cascina Langa, a historic farmhouse with a 180-degree view of the Alps, where he worked until 2009.

The food prepared and celebrated in Piedmont is not the same as the Italian cuisine that most Americans are familiar with, which is generally from the southern part of the country, says Maylott. The flavors of Piedmont carry influences from neighboring France and the region itself is famous for the country’s most tradition-bound cooking.

During our relaxing luncheon at ON20, we were treated to a typical Piedmont recipe, rabbit angolotti del plin. A favorite pasta of Maylott, angolotti are usually made each Sunday by Piedmontese grandmothers and filled with leftover meat and vegetables from throughout the week.


Served in a sauce of white wine, herbs and carrots, the rich and delicate angolotti was a dish Maylott says he made often while overseas. He also maintains that he uses the “best” method for making farce, or the angolotti filling, in which he uses braised vegetables instead of cheese as a binding agent.

Another distinctive dish of Piedmont is carne cruda, chopped raw Fassone beef drizzled with olive oil, lemon and salt. Fassone beef is native to northern Italy and is prized for being extremely lean, a characteristic that has led to the preference for consuming the meat raw. Carne cruda is often enjoyed twice a day by the Piedmontese, says Maylott.

Tajarin, thin hand-cut pasta similar to tagliatelle, is also popular as well as vitello tonnato, fine-sliced roasted veal topped with a tuna, caper and mayo sauce that Maylott would love to see served as a sandwich.

Such modifications to convention are not always welcomed in Piedmont, however, where Maylott explains that every restaurant has virtually the same menu and traditions are deeply rooted.

Back in the ON20 kitchen, on the other hand, bending the rules in search of innovative creations is a mainstay.

Executive Chef Noel Jones, Chef de Cuisine Jeffery Lizotte and Chef Maylott each day offer guests fresh ingredients, meticulously prepared in new and dazzling ways, such as beet caviar or mushroom “scaled” flounder.

With a blend of styles, methods and influences mixed with a level of professionalism rarely seen, ON20 easily offers best lunch in Connecticut, one you’ll wish will never end.

Continue reading here for more about the techniques utilized in the ON20 kitchen.

And here it is, the Food Porn:

A little snack of cheese and crackers

Uni with yuzu gelee and edible sand

Lubina celery boat

Kumamoto chowder with an oyster chip

Sous vide Colombia River salmon wrapped around house cured salmon with caviar sauce

Tarragon lobster roll

ON20 scalloped potatoes. Thin sliced potatoes layered with scallops

Rabbit angolotti

Tasting of duck with roasted breast, mousse, confit roulade and chaudfois

Hanger steak with cornmeal, tempura onion and barbecue sauce

Coffee and sambuca mousse with yuzu foam

Trio of ice cream sandwiches. Meyer lemon profiterole, eskimo bar with caramel and chocolate ginger.

Pastry Chef James Arena making our flaming dessert

Herbed ice cream filled crepe topped with berries flambé

The "other" flaming dessert

Red Wine, Red Meat

While our Passport dinners always tend to be a learning experience, this week we decided to make it truly academic.

On a special trip to Boston University we attended the seminar Red Wine, Red Meat: The Wine and Cuisine of Uruguay, conducted by Professor Francisco Carrau of the renowned Bodegas Carrau family of winemakers.

Not only did we get to sample some of the wines crafted by Bodegas Carrau, but we also learned all about the gem of Uruguayan viticulture, Tannat.

Originally grown exclusively in the Madiran region of southwest France, the highly tannic Tannat grapes were brought to Uruguay by Basque immigrants in the last 1800s. Although Uruguay’s climate tends to vary from humid to dry from year to year, the robust Tannat vines quickly adapted to the local soil.

Whereas French Tannat is often described as very rustic, acidic and dry and is usually blended with lighter wines, the Tannat of Uruguay, while still robust, is smoother and more approachable.

The first wine we tried was the Bodegas Carrau 2009 Sauvignon Blanc Sur Lie. From the coastal regions of Uruguay, this wine is steel fermented six months sur lie, or without the removal of residual yeast deposits. The result is a very versatile wine, aromatic and juicy with citrus fruits like your typical Sauvignon Blanc, while exhibiting more texture and a subtle creaminess.

Next, paired with an olive, raisin and egg empanada, we tasted Bodegas Carrau’s 2007 Tannat de Reserva.

Uruguayan cuisine is influenced by Spanish, Mediterranean and Basque methods, a savory combination that plays well with a local Tannat.

Each bite of the empanada tempered the dryness of the wine and brought out more of the dark fruit flavors. Barrel aged for 18 months, this Reserva, as with all Tannats, has eased its tannins with age.


Uruguayan food is often characterized by the deliciously smoky aromas of roasted meat and has one of the largest spectrums of beef dishes in the world. Parrilleros, or large wood-fire ovens filled with a variety of sizzling meats are a common sight along the streets and open markets of the capital city, Monteviedo, as well as throughout the country.

For our next pairing, we sampled Vinedo de los Vientos’ 2007 Tannat, and the 2005 vintage of Bodegas Carrau’s flagship wine, Amat Tannat, with a grilled beefsteak topped with chimichurri.

Mature and velvety, the Vinedo de los Vientos Tannat was earthy without being over-powering. The flavors of stone, tobacco, raisin and fig beautifully enhanced the cilantro in the chimichurri, and offered more complexity with every sip.

The Amat, firm and structured with mild tannins and aromas of plum and licorice, also revealed its softer side once paired with the red meat.

Just as the wines opened up when accompanied with the food, the meal itself, while good, was nothing without the wines.

For dessert, a classic South American flan with caramel sauce. Unremarkable on its own, the flan paired with Vinedo de los Vientos’ Alcyone Tannat dessert wine, became quite a treat.

Fortified with grappa, Alcyone happens to be to be one of Adam’s favorites. And for good reason. Inky in color with a honeyed texture and milk chocolate, vanilla cream nose, this dessert wine pairs well with dark, bitter chocolates or creamy desserts.

Throughout the room we heard exclamations of delight as this surprising dessert wine exhibited ripe berry flavors and brought out rich summer peach in the flan.

If you would like to try Tannat for yourself, these wines can be found in Southern New England through Charles River Distributors. According to Professor Carrau, the prime Tannat vintages of Bodegas Carrau are 2000, 2002, and 2005.