Mary Brown Malouf

They’re neither animal nor vegetable, they can be hard to find yet they sprout everywhere, they can be poisonous or curative. Their spores can even survive in outer space. But the meat of the matter is that mushrooms are unique, delicious and good for you.

In the recent film Fantastic Fungi, Paul Stamets, Michael Pollan and other experts say that mushrooms can save the world, or at least parts of it. According to the mycologists quoted in the film, mushrooms hold answers to disease, pollution, anxiety, depression and global warming. There they are, right underfoot.

Mycologists point out to the intricate network mycelia (that’s mushrooms and other fungus) form between the roots of trees, allowing them to communicate. They attribute all kinds of healing properties to various mushrooms—cancer, infection, viruses can all be helped with the right kind of mushroom.

And before you raise your eyebrows through the roof, remember that penicillin comes from a kind of fungus. The first statins—cholesterol-lowering medications— were derived from mushrooms, and antibiotics like cyclosporin have been found via mushrooms.

We’re only going as far as eyebrow-raising—we’ll leave consciousness-raising properties for other articles. The fact is that mushrooms are an incredibly interesting life form, probably under used by humans, with under-recognized health value.

And, our main point: mushrooms are incredibly tasty.

PORCINI: Popular in Italian cooking, porcini are used fresh or dried and add a deep, nutty flavor to a dish.

OYSTER: Yes, they look like oysters growing horizontally from a tree. Some say they have a vaguely oyster-like taste. They’re generally eaten cooked and are popular in Korean, Japanese and Chinese cooking.

ENOKI: Lovely, long and white, cultivated enoki are used in Japanese cuisine, notably in soups. Generally eaten raw or barely cooked.

SHIITAKE: Native to East Asia and used beyond the kitchen, Shiitake are widely believed to have medicinal uses as well.

MORELS: With their distinctive tall honeycombed caps, morels are easy to identify, even though they come in a range of colors, from pale beige to gray. Morels are still harvested wild.

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You might not care that the deviled egg can be traced back to ancient Rome. Or that deviling refers to using seasonings to make foods spicy. Or that deviled eggs are very on-trend and are starring on the menus of many of today’s top restaurants. All this knowledge is secondary to your simple need for hard-boiled egg recipes. Well, dare we say, it’s time to get cracking.

How to (Really): Boil an Egg

Place eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring water to a rolling boil, then remove pan from heat and cover. Let eggs remain in the water for 15 minutes. Drain eggs and put them in a bowl filled with ice water. Wait half an hour, then carefully peel.

Classic

Step 1: Mash yolks from 6 hard-boiled eggs. Add 1/4 tablespoon mayonnaise (or yogurt), 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard, pinch of salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

Step 2: Fill the halved egg whites with the yolk mixture. Sprinkle with paprika.

Bacon & Paprika

Begin with Classic recipe’s step 1. Stir in 2 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled. Fill the halved egg whites with the yolk mixture. Sprinkle with paprika and garnish with a bacon bit.

Wasabi & Unagi

Begin with Classic recipe’s step 1. Stir in 1 1/2 teaspoons Chinese mustard, 1 teaspoon wasabi paste. Fill the halved egg whites with the yolk mixture. Top with unagi.

Sriracha & Cilantro

Begin with Classic recipe’s step 1. Stir in 2 Tablespoons chopped green onions. Fill the halved egg whites with the yolk mixture. Top with 2-3 stripes of Sriracha sauce; sprinkle with paprika and top with a cilantro leaf.

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Good sparkling wine is called for at any celebration and serving a glass of bubbly makes a celebration out of any occasion, especially Valentine’s Day. But we’ve all become accustomed to champagne (lower case “c”) in a can, a phenom which lowered the cachet of the wine considerably. In a COVID economy, few of us can afford the really, really good stuff. (There are good mid-range options—Proseccos, cavas, etc.) There are lots of things you can do to make an inexpensive sparkling wine more special. But my favorite Champagne cocktail is the French 75, the Soixante-Quinze, as the French call it. The drink, a decadent mix of Champagne and gin is said to have a kick like the gun it’s named after, considered the first modern artillery piece. Like so many cocktails, it can be traced back to Harry’s Bar, the Stork Club in New York City. Want more provenance? It’s mentioned in Casablanca. Here’s how to make it.

Let’s be honest: If it’s late in the evening, just put a slug of cold gin into your champagne. Excellent for heartache, heartbreak or lovemaking.

And consider Ernest Hemingway’s perfectly disastrous Death in the Afternoon, again, depending on the occasion.

“Pour one jigger absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly.”

You can expect the anise flavor of the absinthe to overpower the bubbles and, if you follow Hemingway’s instructions, you can expect the drink to overpower you.

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Small, immaculate and intimate—that was my first impression of Granary Bakehouse. I love the first two qualities because smaller, hands-on bakeries produce the finest baked goods, and the second quality is imperative in a bakeshop as it is in any kitchen, but the third is a forecast of the future. I picture Granary filled with easy-morning people, reading papers as they sip coffee and enjoy fresh buttery croissants, but that is a scene yet to come because of COVID.

Meanwhile, owner Selma Palad fills the cases with some of the best laminated pastry in town. If you don’t know, laminated means layered, as in croissants. Butter and dough are layered over and over and over again to make those golden flakes that get all over your car because you can’t wait until you get home to take a bite.

The butter, of course, is French. “But I try to use as many local ingredients as possible,” says Palad. That even goes for the Central Milling flour and the Beehive cheese in her cheese croissants. Palad graduated from San Francisco Baking Institute in 2012, worked “for a minute” at Eva’s Boulangerie, then went back to California, before finally returning to Utah. Her twin babies put her bakery dreams on hold for a while but after some successful years at farmers markets Sugarhouse and Daybreak, she was ready to open her own place with plans to open near Laziz.

Then COVID hit. Palad decided to wait. Again.

Now you may have to wait. Because even without newspaper-reading morning lingerers in the place, “we sell out most days,” says Palad. Most of her customers are neighborhood walkarounds, which she loves. “I’d rather have one location for 100 years than expand to a bunch of locations.”

The selection is limited—about 30 products, but as Palad says, “There’s beauty in the classics.”

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Gary Lindstrom and Linda Hilton are fascinated by Salt Lake City Cemetery—so fascinated that they’re writing a book about it. (Did you know it’s the largest city-run graveyard in the country?) Researching the book, they not only explore the history of the graveyard (it was formally founded in 1851, though the first burial there was in 1847) but delve into the stories behind the stones—introducing us to the denizens six feet under.

Here’s my favorite tale they’ve told so far: The Mystery of the Oreo Cookie Design

We first consider one of the earliest practitioners of the modern-day food mantra, “presentation is everything.” William Adelbert Turnier. Born in 1908, Turnier dropped out of school at 16, largely because of being bullied incessantly. The other boys ridiculed him for his limp, the result of a bout with polio. Turnier went to work as a mail boy at the National Biscuit Company where his father worked. That’s right: Nabisco.

Dedication, hard work and a pleasant disposition finally earned Turnier a place in the company’s engineering department, despite his limited education. Here, it is said, he added grass to the bottom of the animal crackers box and was instrumental in the design of the Milkbone Dog Biscuit, both iconic 1950s products. But in 1952, he was given the task of redesigning the chocolate cookie part of the Oreo cookie. Oreos weren’t new—they’d been introduced in 1912 with a simple, some have said crude, flowery design on the cookie. Turnier’s design features a shallow outside ring with 90 radial lines encircling 12 four-leaf clovers topped with a mysterious antenna. Many school lunchroom arguments and design experts have offered theories as to the inspiration and origin of the design. Masonic influences? Numerology? Turnier was not a Mason and discounted the conjectures. Turnier left the East Coast and moved to Salt Lake City where he died in 2004. His grave marker, at plot E17-1-4 in the adjacent Mount Calvary Cemetery, is decorated with an engraved Oreo cookie.

By his son Bill’s account, Turnier also stayed out of the never-ending debate about the preferred way to eat an Oreo. (Do you twist it apart, do you painstakingly separate one chocolate wafer and lick off the questionable white icing, do you dip it in milk?) “He just bit it,” said his son, according to one article. He ate one cookie at night before bedtime.”

Ed. Note: Yes, with a glass of milk.

Linda Hilton is retired from a career in community advocacy and the author of an annotated map of the Cemetery.

Gary Lindstrom is an emeritus professor with loves of food, local history and good writing.

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Let’s be clear: America runs on fast food. Food that was never meant to be served outside a styrofoam clamshell or paper bag, food that is made on a highly organized assembly line more efficient than the ones making Ford trucks, food that is based on ingredients prepped off-premise, consumed quickly and usually unthinkingly, food that has helped our population balloon to the sad status of fattest in the world. Undeniably easy, and often delicious, fast food may be contributing to the “COVID 19”—the extra pounds many are inadvertently adding during shutdown.

But you know that.

During COVID, mid- to high-end restaurants that can’t by law fill their restaurants to capacity are having to learn some lessons from fast-food restaurants—how to expedite online ordering, food pick-up and delivery, for example—and still keep customers coming back for creative, chef-conceived, carefully sourced food.

Some excellent restaurants built the to-go option into their concept—Spitz, Pretty Bird, Ginger Street, for example, opened with takeout in mind. So-called “ethnic” cuisines are good bets. Their food doesn’t suffer from a quick nuke. Skewered Thai offers curbside pickup. So does Himalayan Kitchen. All the Saffron Valley restaurants are well-suited to take-out.

But even places that don’t normally offer takeout are offering curbside service now—always call or go to a restaurant’s website to check what kind of conveniences are offered. Restaurants are experimenting and expanding their options all the time. Be aware that most pickup/takeout menus are limited versions of the full menu. 

The Hive is Stronger than the Bee.

Hence, Hive Eats, a subscription meal delivery service featuring 10 of Salt Lake City’s favorite restaurants. Locally produced, locally sourced meals prepared by small local independent restaurants are delivered each week. Hive Eats helps the restaurants by giving them a consistent revenue source and keeping employees working, meaning some of our favorite restaurants will survive. Meals will be delivered on Sundays and Thursdays, pre-prepared and ready to eat after a few minutes in the oven. Participating restaurants include Arlo, The Copper Onion, Cucina, Finca, Mazza, Osteria Amore, Pago, Proper, Publik and Trio. 

Traditions

The homey, southern-tinged fare here is perfect to pick up and reheat—meatloaf, funeral potatoes, fried chicken, braised beef short ribs and their fabulous pies, whole or by the slice. 501 E. 900 South, 385-202-7167

Takashi

I’ve never been a fan of grocery store sushi, or any sushi that had to wait around for more than a bare minimum of minutes. But Takashi does an outstanding job with takeaway sushi, whether you pick it up inside or curbside. Call ahead to reserve your time and phone consultants are available to help you choose your traveling sushi wisely. 18 W. Market St., 801-519-9595

Osteria Amore

Salads here are hearty and filled with enough vegetables to travel well—you could make a meal from one of these and a bowl of ribbolita, the wintry soup of cannellini beans, cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes. Lasagna and filled pastas reheat in a flash but for something different, try the Osteria Amore pasta with bacon, pistachio and burrata cheese. 224 S. 1300 East, 385-270- 5606

Nomad East

Everything here is cooked in a pizza oven but our advice is to look past the pizza on the menu because the pork chop and half Mary’s roasted chicken with burnt lemon is plenty for two once you add a couple of sides—maybe roasted fingerlings, charred squash, a wedge salad? 1675 E. 1300 South, 801-883-9791

Provisions

How about ravioli with ciderbrowned butter, duck confit, sage, pickled red onions and the tiny crunch of pepitas? Or wood-roasted bone marrow with apple butter, gremolata, pickled vegetables and brioche? If this doesn’t sound like fare that would normally come out of your kitchen, treat yourself and order dinner to-go from Provisions. We can only cook at home so much. 3364 S. 2300 East, 801-410-4046

Tosh’s Ramen

The broth has been simmering since long before you even thought about ordering a hearty bowl of ramen. Take it home hot, give it a quick simmer or zap to bring it back up to temp and you’ll forget it’s cold outside. Pick up some edamame for your Netflix and chill and check out all the options. They keep expanding. 1465 S. State Street, 801- 456-7000

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After working in some of the best restaurants in town (The Copper Onion, HSL, Pago) Andrew and Angelena Fuller opened their dream restaurant, Oquirrh, in downtown Salt Lake City, in February 2019.

Salt Lake diners were thrilled—the small menu included dishes that immediately became local legends: the milk-braised potatoes, the chicken confit pot pie, the whole leg of lamb with Indian spices. The steak came with fermented cabbage, the gnocchi was made from sourdough breadcrumbs. Everything was familiar but original, served with grace and gusto and even humor—the asparagus spears were standing at attention on the plate, little soldiers with their feet stuck in a sheep’s milk fondue. Local art could be purchased right off the wall. This is the kind of restaurant Salt Lake was slowly becoming famous for—chef-dreamed, chef-run, definitively local, deserving of awards and stars. Oquirrh intended from the start to be an artisanal community experience, an expression of love, not a quest for cash.

But even a labor of love has to have some cash. And when COVID-19 hit Salt Lake City, the Fullers’ dream was seriously damaged.

“When we opened, we swore to each other we’d never serve a burger,” Angie told me several months ago. “Now we serve a burger.”

The Fullers downsized, according to government mandates, first closing except for curbside pickups, then cutting the capacity of the restaurant. And downsized again.

“The rules keep changing,” says Angie.

But the Fullers keep trying to follow the rules. The restaurant staff is down to Angie and Drew, a dishwasher and a cook. There are no days off and haven’t been for months. Any slight downtime is spent planning things like takeaway Thanksgiving dinners or filling orders for food they never planned to serve, like a recently requested charcuterie platter.

“Basically, we’ll do anything,” says Angie. Worked to exhaustion, Drew woke up one day feeling so bad he went to the hospital. But he went back to work the next day. The few government aid programs weren’t usable for Oquirrh; they’re relying on wits, work and a small group of die-hard regulars to keep the restaurant’s doors open.

Oquirrh is an excellent, awardworthy restaurant that deserves to be packed all the time. But it’s not.

And Oquirrh is not the only one.

“They’re dying,” says Michele Corigliano. Corigliano is president of Salt Lake Area Restaurant Association, an industry organization that lobbies, informs and provides support for independently owned restaurants in and around Salt Lake City. “No one is being shut down like restaurants and bars. The government mandates tend to focus more specifically on these businesses.”

Right now, in bars and restaurants, at least six feet of physical distance is required between parties. Guests must wear masks unless actively eating or drinking. All employees must wear masks. Most restaurants do much, much more. Some have put in air filtration systems that remove bacteria from the air. Everywhere, every item used is sanitized and surfaces wiped down with a killer spray. “It’s probably safer to eat in well-rated restaurants these days than it is to eat in your own home,” says Melva Sine, president of the Utah Restaurant Association. “There’s no data to show that restaurants are a major spreader.”

Outdoor patios helped keep some restaurants limping along, but now that it’s winter, restaurants are effectively reduced in size by 40 to 70% of capacity. We can expect many closures—a significant blow to the culture of the city and to its economic outlook. Tourism is a $9.7 billion industry in Utah, bringing up to $26 million per day into Utah’s economy, and hospitality, food and dining is the core of tourism. Hospitality workers account for 10% of Utah jobs. (For comparison, mining accounts for 0.6% of the economy, manufacturing and construction make up 8.8 and 7%, respectively.)

But honestly, the rise of fine independent restaurants (like Oquirrh) is fairly recent in Utah. Food was merely functional here long after it became fashionable elsewhere. Like all Americans, Utahns eat out often, but fast food and franchises filled the need for decades. And those places have the support of their parent businesses, in many cases. Entrepreneur-owned restaurants have a harder time succeeding and few options, besides take-out and delivered dining, to make up for revenue lost to downsizing. Lawmakers seem wary of solutions used in other places, like Plexiglass barriers between tables.

“SLC food and beverage is a tale of two worlds,” says Derek Kitchen, co-owner of Laziz.

And the people in power seem nervous to do anything about the survival of the hospitality business. There’s a fear of a culture that they don’t really know or use. “Independent restaurants and bars have more on the line than anyone else,” says Kitchen. “And there’s very little flexibility.”

dSome states, Texas and California for example, allow customers to pick up mixed beverages, wine or beer with their curbside food order. “Here, I can’t even open a canned pre-mixed cocktail,” says Kitchen. “You’d think that would be safer than anything. Milk, eggs and prescriptions can be ordered online. Why not alcohol?”

According to both Kitchen and Corigliano, the hospitality business needs help in the form of cash to see them through the pandemic. “PPP was only temporary. Programs like Shop in Utah are fantastic, but nothing is being done specifically for restaurants and bars right now,” says Corigliano. “Yet there are lots of mandates about limiting their business and the government has changed rules with only 12 hours notice.” Sine adds, “Aid needs to be prioritized based on impact. We’ve lost 450 restaurants in this state.”

Consumers and chefs are confused. “We need the Feds to step in with a CARES package,” says Kitchen. “There’s a recession going on in the food and beverage sector.”

And, says Corigliano, the fear factor is overcoming us.

Want to do a good deed? One that, if everyone did it, would help thousands of people and help preserve the culture of the city we love most of the time? Eat in or order to-go from a local restaurant three times a week. That’s all.

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