The best giardinara comes from Brooklyn?
I meant to post this a long time ago when we were talking giardinara, but I forgot and then go too busy. ..
New York City? Maybe it does not work for jarred salsa, but I wonder about giardinara. At Costco, they sell these big industrial sized jars of "Chicago Style" giardinara manufactured by a company called Victoria. Always appreciating the value of Costco, I examined it on one shopping spree.
My eye was initially intrigued by the words on the label, "in olive oil". One of my long standing complaints about giardinara is that it is almost always packed in cheap vegetable oil. The use of olive oil made me want to buy. Then, I looked at additional label details. Guess where the Chicago style giardinara comes from? Brooklyn.
Was this like south-side Philly cheesesteaks, AP Deli, Beefee, nearly any suburban Chinese restuarant? Another out of place item I was too scared to try. Well, cost won out, and I purchased the big jug.
And you know what. It is a very good giardinara. The olive oil, not totally olive oil, there is canola oil too, mellows all the flavors. And they use serrano peppers instead of sport peppers (although I have no idea what kind of pepper a "sport" pepper really is). Celery and red pepper add a bit of visual and textural contrast. This is not a Zim/Gwiv strength giardinara. I suppose for that, you have to stick to the local brews, but as a fully balanced and accentuated brew, it cannot be beat.
Think of it as an old-world, Bordeaux style giardinara compared to our more forward, new-world Chicago versions.
VI
Vital Information
Nov 27, 2002 02:52PM
Your Vitalness (or is it Your Vitalosity?):
Upon reading your extraordinary epistle, I was moved--nay, I ran--to the refrigerator to see just what oil lurked within the chunky voids (or, more properly, the voids amid the chunks) of the giardiniera in my place. I am the proud owner of a bottle of Scala's, native to Chicago. The hot is gone but the mild remains and you will be intrigued, if not chastened, to learn that they also use olive oil (albeit with soybean oil as well). And that the number one item listed, even for the mild (!), is "hot peppers." So there!
Now, truth be told, I find it a teeny bit salty for my taste, but still...there it is, as (Peter Shaffer would have us believe) Joseph II was wont to say. I have not, I confess, spent much time examining the oleaginous varieties present within locally produced giardiniera; however, my suspicion is that a closer investigation will reveal a preponderance of oil of Olea europaea. At least I devoutly hope so.
Are others able to identify the unique properties of other local "brews"?
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I have ruined clothing in a suitcase carrying Scala's from Chicago. The clothing was replaced. The giardinara so good that it justified the cost. Having said this, the absolute best hot peppers in the world, and yes, I have actually hand carried them to Johnny's on West North Avenue to confirm this, are Mama Lil's Hungarian Goat Horn ("Kick Butt Peppers") peppers in oil from Seattle. I've enclosed the link below.
For those that have followed my posts on this and other boards over the past two years I cannot say enough about these hot peppers. The story behind them is GREAT! A cab driver in Seattle started making them from a recipe that his mother inherited from her grandmother in Hungary. He bought the fresh peppers from Washington's wine country and marinated and bottled them himself. At some point he started giving them as gifts at Christmas time to friends and passengers and, eventually, someone bankrolled him to go into business himself selling them. The result is a very expensive hot pepper but worth every penny of it. I honestly believe these have the absolute best FLAVOR of any pepper I have ever had. When spooned with their oil on top of an Italian Beef like Johnny's this is one of life's greatest pleasures.
If Chicago discovers this pepper giardinara will be history. And a cab driver in Seattle will be rich and happy.
Remember this is from someone who valued Scala's more than clothing!
Link: http://mamalils.com
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Note: on this website it says that Whole Foods Markets carry their peppers. They do. But not the Kick Butt, only piccalilli and the sweet/hots. For the Kick Butt you must order them direct from Howard, the owner, who drives a cab full time and runs the company in his off hours. No lie. But these peppers are unbelievably good as is the oil they are packed in. Most important Howard deserves to become an American success story. His peppers and his effort justify this.
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