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The Nibbler: America's melting pot has never tasted better
By CHRIS SHERMAN, Times Staff Writer
Whether fusion cuisine has come or gone, it was never a new thing in America. We've been mixing recipes in our kitchens and families for years. In the Tampa Bay area, mix-and-match cuisine goes back a century in Ybor City bakeries, delis and sandwich joints that served new Americans from Cuba and Sicily medianoches and scacciata, which may have been America's first pizza. Even small Southern towns have places across from the courthouse or on the bypass that serve Greek and Italian. And in Florida, maybe pressed Cubans, mojo pork and tres leches can be found at Mykonos II in Brooksville, which became a triple threat after a Greek family acquired Ramon's, famous for pizza and Cubans. The newest trifecta locally is cooked up by Kandiah and Nalini Thavabalasingam. They are from Sri Lanka, lived in Germany for 17 years cooking German and Italian food, and recently took over a veteran Italian spot, once Julio's of the Pereiro family and then Carino's Too (with its Moroccan-born Italian cooks; more about them later). Consequently, signs say "Pasta -- Curry Dishes -- Schnitzel" outside Bello (6218 66th St. N, Pinellas Park; (727) 546-9599). Silk flowers hanging on the latticework look shopping-mall Italian, rock music and free 2-liter Coke with $25 deliveries seem very American, and the aroma of the subcontinent is obvious. Yet all three cuisines co-exist.
Sales show that Bello's Indian and German are the big appeal, because, the owner says, "there's so much Italian here." On my visits, Indian food stood out, with fresh naan and roti breads, vegetable curry popping with cardamom, and fish bright with curry leaves. But the German food covers the right bases (pork, beef, brats, kraut and Rosti Potatoes) and is enough to draw fans. Fusion such as this in family restaurants doesn't come from books or vacation travel but the intersecting paths of lives. Still, some people don't quite understand such mixes or how a place like Cafe Kolao can serve hummus with empanadas. "They ask, 'Why do you mix them?' I tell them we are a mixed culture, a mixed family," says Zynap Mohammed, whose mother is Puerto Rican and father is Palestinian. Consider the following combinations and you'll realize the mixing and matching can be endless. Around the Tampa Bay area, one cuisine is usually Italian or Cuban (or other Latin heritage, and with the number of Mexican cooks in kitchens of all cuisines, it won't be long before we see menus with tamales and tiramisu). Whatever their ethnic heritage, most of these cross-cultural entrepreneurs have restauranting in their blood. Cuban/Thai: At Asado Cafe (1800 8th Ave., Pass-a-Grille; (727) 368-0246), recipes from two cultures come together in John Delaney. He laughs that he grew up in Hialeah nicknamed the "Irish Cuban" and then acquired a taste for Asian cooking from his wife, Oui, born in Thailand. At home they like to eat Thai soups and noodle stir-fries, but the restaurant menu is largely Cuban sandwiches, mojo steaks and such, and the specials have a Thai accent of cilantro, ginger and coconut. Puerto Rican/Palestinian: At Cafe Kolao (8618 49th St. N, Pinellas Park; (727) 546-1751), Zynap Mohammed has dropped some of her Middle Eastern dishes but still uses Arabic seasonings for her rotisserie chicken and makes lamb kalaya and shish kebab. The rest of the menu is Spanish, and the coffee is Cuban espresso. Italian/Brazilian: At Rio Roma (1911 E Bearss Ave., Tampa; (813) 971-6877), Ary Tranquilini put together a menu of 107 items that starts with a plain American breakfast and blossoms into his real loves, the Italian food of his father and the Brazilian cooking of his mother, his wife and all those years in Sao Paolo. At lunch, there is a buffet with one entree from each culture; at night, there are 50 Italian items, including five lasagnes and 12 Brazilian dishes, including feijoada, coconut shrimp and picanha steak with yucca. For Sunday lunch, he barbecues Brazilian churrasco with 15 meats. Cajun/Chinese: Who else but Emeril Lagasse and where else but Orlando. This hybrid is not personal (the Bamster's French heritage comes by way of Fall River, Mass.); it's business. The grand chef of New Orleans, who has a restaurant in Universal Studio's CityWalk, has a deal to build one at the park's new Asian-themed Royal Pacific Resort. Tchoup Chop opens in December. It's sure to have lots of rice, but it'll taste a lot different from any Chinese restaurant within a stone's throw of Tchoupitoulas Street. Latin/Lebanese: At Olive Grove Cafe (3424 S Dale Mabry Ave., Tampa; (813) 831-9766), Ickanel Toledo is Guatemalan and Omar El-Moghrabi is Lebanese, so the menu runs from beans and rice and fried yucca to shish kebab and hummus. Italian/Moroccan: Several local chefs came from Morocco, although they have yet to field a full menu of their native cuisine. Carino's Italian Caffe on St. Pete Beach (9524 Blind Pass Road; (727) 360-8502) occasionally holds Middle Eastern dinners. Karim's Bistro on Treasure Island (10700 Gulf Blvd.; (727) 367-1961) serves one Moroccan dish nightly among its Mediterranean fare and a full Moroccan dinner once a month. And Ali Seghrouchni at Il Gabbiano in Tampa serves Moroccan specialties on Tuesdays. Fusion affairs abroadThe United States doesn't have the only melting pot -- or appetite for takeout -- in a world of city folks too busy to cook. Consider the French and consider them in France, where the menu today includes dishes from Indochina, West Africa, the Caribbean and the Middle East. All share a bit of French influence; even kebabs are served in loaves of French bread with mayonnaise -- and french fries. Sadly, the French also have a growing taste for plats a emporter, or takeout. But on a recent trip to the south of France, I discovered a remarkably diverse selection at one chain-slick takeout spot: pizza, couscous and paella! Mais oui, paella-to-go (often with couscous) is spreading across France, in restaurants and supermarkets. Huge flat pans cook up chicken, clams, mussels, shrimp and saffron rice (with and without pork) to be sold in quantity and sometimes delivered. One paella store sold 500mg portions for 6 euros, or 5.50 euros when ordering for 10 or more; that's about $5.50 to $6 a pound. That's an idea I bet we taste on this side of the Atlantic soon. - Food critic Chris Sherman writes about dining and restaurant news in the Nibbler. He can be reached at (727) 893-8585 or by e-mail at sherman@sptimes.com.
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From the Times Taste section From the features wire |
You can try a modest selection at lunch (and in sandwiches and on a buffet), but the menu is longer at dinner. It has to be to cover eight schnitzels, a dozen curries, five scallopinis, pasta and pizza.
