The state's cuisine is featured,
from seafood to Italian and Portuguese specialties.
Journal Food Editor
Rhode Island's iconic foods and
its history of ethnic specialties will be celebrated on television Tuesday
night when Andrew Zimmern hosts "Bizarre Foods: Delicious
Destinations" on the Travel Channel at 9 p.m.
Producers for the badly named
show came calling back in September to film hot wieners, coffee milk, quahogs,
jonnycakes, snail salad, chowder, stuffies and salt cod. Though the show's
"Delicious Destination" is billed as Providence, food was featured
from around the state. The show was available for screening by critics.
It's a wonderfully produced
melange of the delicious and the quirky. It begins with a burger at the Haven
Brothers food truck. It includes that famous pizza at Al Forno being made by
chef David Reynoso, the thick ice cream drinks Awful Awfuls from Newport
Creamery, and wieners all the way at Olneyville New York System.
There's a big focus on seafood,
clams on the half shell and other preparations that bring with them flavors
that reflect a sea-to-table cuisine. Hemenway's Seafood Grill & Oyster Bar
plates some lovely clams early on in the hourlong show. Perry Raso makes
stuffies at his Matunuck Oyster Bar in South Kingstown.
Don't watch this show on an empty
stomach, by the way.
Portuguese soul food, salt cod or
bacalhau, is given plenty of screen time, both at O Dinis in East Providence
and at North American Salt and Fresh Fish Corp. in Pawtucket, where fish is
turned into dry, salted cod.
In his commentary, which was
filmed after production in Rhode Island wrapped up, Zimmern talks about how the
state attracted seafaring people from Europe, and with them came many
traditions.
To show one of those traditions,
a production team arrived at O Dinis to film second-generation restaurateur
Natalia Paiva-Neves, who works with her father, Dinis Paiva. Producers had seen
YouTube videos of her cooking and called. Since she's dreamed of stepping up to
the granite counter in a TV kitchen, she was on board.
They filmed her talking about how
cod is soul food here in New England and of the importance of sharing her
Portuguese traditions with her children. Those two passions intersect when she
heads into the kitchen to cook Bacalhau ne Brasa, a taste of Portugal on a
plate, with accompanying boiled potatoes and onion and garlic sautéed in olive
oil.
The visit to the salt cod
production facility is fascinating. It reveals how whole cods caught in cold
sea waters are butterflied before salt is shoveled over them to remove all
liquid and moisture. That's why they have to be de-salted to make cod dishes.
Italian traditions are shared
from Champlin's in Galilee, where they make a scungilli, or snail, salad.
Native Americans are credited
with their role in local foods, not just with johnnycakes, which are featured
from Jigger's Diner in East Greenwich, but also for their role in creating
Rhode Island's clear broth chowder. If you didn't know or remember that local
quahogs have purple in the shell, you will now because you'll learn they were
used for wampum due to their color.
Throughout the hour, regular
Rhode Islanders star in "Bizarre Foods: Delicious Destinations" as
they are interviewed while they sip, slurp and savor all the treasured foods of
their home.
— gciampa@providencejournal.com