The Great Taste

I had the pleasure of attending an event over this past weekend in Hartford, Connecticut called: The Great Taste. Of the many food and wine shows, this one was comparably smaller than most at 120 exhibits for food, wine, beer, travel and lifestyle - but offered a true sense of community among the greater Hartford area.

A major selling point for my attendance was The Great Taste's charitable affiliation. A portion of all proceeds benefited the Greater Hartford Jaycees - an organization known for empowering young people to make positive change. Pretty cool.

On the work side, I had the chance to meet some of the great Chef's in the Hartford community and get a sense of their passion for what they do and of course some of their favorite dishes. I could see Hartford as being a great stop along the dishKarma tour in the not so distant future. We're already watering at the mouth!

Have It Your Way

Last night I realized just how much I order tuna. Not for the health benefits, but because I never get bored with the variety of ways it can be prepared.

Take this week for example:

On Monday I called up my favorite local sushi spot, Thousand Crane (or 1K Crane as my friend Sully likes to call it), and ordered the spicy tuna hand roll.

Tuesday I had the tuna from Angela’s Pasta & Cheese Shop for lunch and it was prepared like the traditional mashed tuna fish. Except everything at Angela’s is done with a twist so they added olives and a few other things to spice it up.

For dinner on Thursday it was back to sushi at 1K Crane, but this time I had the tuna sashimi rather than the roll.

Friday night I went to an engagement party at The Up River Café in Westerly, Rhode Island. The food was great, mostly app/hors d'oeuvres, and this time my favorite fish was prepared as tuna tartar. The brilliant move was individually serving this in porcelain spoons. Major points for presentation and convenience.

Running a close second for presentation (and number one for the fullness factor) was my dinner on Saturday night at Firefly American Bistro & Bar. Here I had the mirin glazed tuna, flash-seared with a spicy ginger/sweet soy sauce over jasmine rice and bok choy. If I’m really hungry and making tuna the focus of my meal, this is a go-to dish. I may even give this a shot in my takeout rotation considering the taste and close proximity to my apartment.

Now I don't eat this much tuna every week (and I should probably try grocery shopping once in a while), but amazingly after all that I’m still not sick of it. Variety, the spice of life.

What’s your favorite way to prepare tuna and who serves it up the best?

Fall eats...with a view.

dK fans everywhere can enjoy a great dish (or meal if you've taken the time to make the trek) with an unbelievable view of the foliage this fall. Vermont experiences over a million visitors per year to take a peek at the foliage the State has to offer and the Cliff House Restaurant at the top of Mount Mansfield in Stowe is the perfect way to dine and take it all in. A personal favorite of mine is the classic Vermont Cheese Plate or perhaps if you're feeling adventurous, go for the Winding Brook Farm Lamb Stew.

Part of the Vermont Fresh Network, the Cliff House takes dining to a new level...an elevation of 3625' to be exact. It's a cheap gondola ride away, or an even cheaper hike... Check out the links and enjoy one of Vermont's hidden gems.

I feel like the fall has so many great options for restaurants to take advantage of. What are your favorites?

Meals on Wheels

Technology and social media are increasingly important to the restaurant business. In NYC, my friend Adam is particularly fond of the food delivery service SeamlessWeb. Apparently you place your order through one convenient Web site and they deliver food from a huge selection of restaurants. Orders are charged directly to your credit card, etc. It looks like this is catching on because it's now available in Boston, DC, LA and a few other cities.

Similarly, my friend Travis uses the chineese food delivery service 1888 Bamboos. The intersting thing about this is you don't know the specific restaurant it comes from. Bamboos contracts with different restaurants depending on where you're ordering from.

Another form of food service that is gaining popularity is the taco truck. There's one in my hometown but it's always parked in the same place. That's not the case with the Kogi Korean BBQ taco trucks. These trucks make their way around LA and use Twitter to alert customers of their location. With almost 30,000 followers, Kogi creates buzz every time they Tweet a new location and inevitably a line quickly forms. It will be intersting to see if ice cream trucks and other mobile food services will take their lead. I can only imagine if I had a 10 minutes head start when the ice cream truck was going to come down my street.....hmmmm Chaco Taco

Still Dishin'

Although there haven't been any recent posts here on our blog, the dishKarma project is alive and well. Our team has been meeting on a regular basis and working through the next evolution of the project. Over the coming weeks we will share some of our new ideas and then hopefully the launch phase 2, the Ultimate Meal Facebook application.

We have also attended a number of food events since our last post. Recently we had a chance to support Share Our Strength and the NH Food Bank by attending Taste of the Nation. This is a national event that is replicated in various local markets each year. It offers a sampling of food and wine from a number of regional restaurants as well as national and international wineries.

My personal favorite dish at the event this year was a cheeseburger slider. Has anyone else noticed that sliders also are turning up on more menus these days? No complaints here, it just seems to be a growing trend.

For those of you who didn't get a chance to attend the NH Taste of the Nation event, it might not be too late. Check out the full event schedule here and see if it's coming to a city near you.

Houston...we don't have a problem.

Travel is about new experiences and giving yourself the opportunity to escape from the familiar and discover new things, right? At least our good friend Leah Smith over at Tafari preaches that mantra. I feel that dining and travel go hand in hand with new experiences and certainly discovery as well.

On a recent trip to Houston, our good friend Canadian Rob took me to the original "Ragin Cajun." Rob told me it was "dishKarma worthy" and he nailed it. The cool thing about dishKarma is we don't care where your favorite dishes are born. They can be from Masa in New York City, straight from mom's kitchen, or as our friend Leah would say, a hot dog from Costco. We all have different preferences which is why we can't wait to get our database up and running with our search for the ultimate meal.

Back to the Ragin Cajun -- we sat on the bar side of the joint because it was just about closing time and the chairs were being raised in the full dining area (cafeteria style mind you). I was hoping for a little crawfish which is something I've yet to discover. We were told the weather this year is causing a crawfish shortage and since this was Monday night, they were all out from the weekend rush. They get them by the sack - talk about fresh - and went through 18 sacks of crawfish over the weekend. I have no idea how many that amounts to, but something tells me a sack holds quite a few. We were steared towards the oysters. As we sipped our Bud's and ordered the main course, the bartender told us the kitchen would have the oysters right up. Sure enough, out walks a man with a tray of ice, sauce and lemon. He reaches down to a bucket underneath the bar pulls out an oyster and begins shucking on a platform directly on the bar in front of us. This went on for all 12 of these fresh, delicious oysters. This is a 35 year old original Houston cajun restaurant that I recommend checking out!

I was excited to share this dining experience from a recent travel adventure with everyone. This we call "spreading the dishKarma." We all look forward to seeing where your travels and dining will take you! We all can contribute to the search of the ultimate meal by spreading a little dishKarma.

The Ultimate TV Diner

Today we’re proud to feature a true New England restaurant expert and media mogul, Billy Costa. For more than 10 years he hosted the award winning TV show Phantom Gourmet. From dinning guides to festivals, the Phantom franchise has become one of the most trusted resources for finding great food in New England.

A few years ago Billy handed over the Phantom hosting duties and launched another show on NECN called TV Diner. On this show he continues to share his favorite dishes, cocktails, venues and more.

Let’s not forget his daily gig as the news and entertainment director for the popular Boston radio show Matty In The Morning. If that weren’t enough, you can also find him spinning the most popular songs of the week each Saturday on the Kiss 108 Top 30 Countdown. With all of these hosting duties, Billy is really giving Ryan Seacrest a run for his money.

When Billy finds time in his busy schedule to hit the town, he's looking for nothing but the best. Check out his ultimate meal crawl around Boston and see for yourself: