The Herald-Palladium from Benton Harbor, Michigan • B4

WEDNESDAY, August 24, 2016 The Herald-Palladium B4 FOOD A taste of Montreal A fter stops to sample a diverse range of foods sorbets and glace (the French term for ice cream) made from fresh fruits and local products; a wide range of charcuteries; and pu- pusas at Los Planes Gourmet I was sure I be able to eat another morsel. But you know how that goes. Anne-Marie Palacio of Spade Palacio was leading us on a tour of Beyond the Market. A passionate foodie, Anne-Marie took us to many of places. Montreal is a myriad of cultures and ethnicities.

We started at Los Planes Gourmet, an El Salvadoran restaurant where we ate pupu- sas (circles of baked dough stuffed with meats, beans and cheeses) topped with curtido, pickled shredded cabbage and, if you dare, a spicy sauce made with tomatoes and hot peppers. you eat something hot, important you drink something sweet water says Anne-Marie, as the waiter gave of horchata a rice drink avored with cinnamon, sesame seeds and cardamom. Having unwisely added too many drops of salsa, the cool sweetness of the horchata was indeed soothing. Back out on the street, Anne-Marie showed us one of the many public murals created by artists throughout Montreal, and then it was on to Marche Jean-Talon, a sprawling food market. Montreal has many marches, or markets, which are meccas for a cornucopia of foods.

Last time I visited this historic city, wandered the amazing Marche Maisonneuve, a sleek indoor place full of luscious temptations. But Anne-Marie says Jean-Talon, which is mostly outdoors under large tents, is her favorite. Besides, she lives just a few doors away. Lured by the gleaming display case of maca- rons in bright colors and avors including poppy owers (vivid orange), rose (red) and what they term which is bright magenta I buy a six-pack to take home, but they last that long (diets are for after vacations, We sample an unpasteur- ized cheese (a very European thing and mostly illegal in the U.S.), tasting six months, a year and 18 months, their tastes successively earthier and mustier. starting to smell and taste like dirty says an artist from Oslo, Norway who was taking the tour about the 18-month tasting.

like As the exotic aromas of spices from around the globe ll the air, offered cups of cold-brewed teas de Cru. tea should never be hot says de Vienne, who with her husband, Philippe, own the store and have traveled the world collecting spices. then opens tins of their best-selling spice blends, including Montreal Steak Seasoning, a mix of black peppercorns, mustard, dill and coriander seeds, salt, minced garlic and red pepper akes. Anne-Marie tells us she uses the when cooking. When I look it up later, I nd that Montreal Steak Seasoning is the Jane Ammeson See AMMESON page B5 From the fruit belt to the Fruitbelt I rst heard about Fruitbelt Sparkling Water Tonic in 2013 when Michele Gazzolo emailed me and her friend, Beth Denton, were starting up a small company dedicated to using fruit from Southwest Michigan orchards.

Harkening back to the history of our area, they chose the name refers to a region like ours that has growing fruit. It also, appropriately enough, was the term used in 1910 as a way to draw attention to our lush orchards. At rst, Gazzolo and Denton called their beverage Fruitbelt Soda, but over time that changed. of calling our drink a soda, we opted to call it a says Gazzolo, CEO. this attention to even the smallest of details Fruitbelt Sparkling Water Tonics a long-term project from the germination of an idea to the product now available in Southwest Michigan and Northwest Indiana.

Seduced by all the bountiful orchards, and aspiring to move beyond jams Gazzolo says their goal was to create a way to drink the apples, pears, cherries and other fruits. Their soda, the partners decided, would only use natural avors arti- cial. And it would be unlike the heavily sugared drinks we call soda. low sugar content, percentage of fruit juice and honey distinguish Fruitbelt from other fruit sodas, which are generally made with concentrate, sweetened with sugar and avored with says Gazzolo, who lives in Harbert. But you just smash fruit and stuff it in a bottle.

There are all sorts of boring things to take into account recipe development, shelf life, stabilizing agents, chemicals, bottling and distribution. It all takes money, time, scienti knowledge and an absolute commitment to getting a pure drink to market. Using crowd sourcing from lo- calstake.com, daughter, Ellie, created a short video to help advertise and encourage people to invest money in their start-up. At the beginning, as Denton recalls, they believed turning fruit into healthy and tasty beverages be a big deal. And some things Denton, the who lives in Galien, worked on recipes combining sparkling waters and fruit juices.

Describing herself as a she drew upon her experiences of canning fruits and vegetables with her mother, gardening and experimenting with fermenting. talked to a lot of people who know what doing and learned the key elements to make a drink be inhospitable to microbes when bottled without arti cial she says. Denton shunned the types of sugars like high-fructose corn syrup most sodas instead focused on adding a sweet taste with organic honey and monk fruit juice concentrate. why their tonic contains only 60 calories per 8.5-ounce serving. Referring me to a Harvard study, Denton showed how their soda would fall into the category list of 12-ounce beverages rated according to calories and sugar content.

Though guess drinks Dew would fall into the evil red category of Sparingly and because they contain 12 grams or more of sugar per 12 ounces, it was a surprise to some other beverages, like Capri Sun and Arizona Green Tea with Ginseng and Honey, on the list. Next, Denton worked with Shoots Roots, a Brooklyn, N.Y. company, to develop bitters add another level of complexity tonics. Because Shoots Roots have the capacity to make the quantity they wanted, the bitters were made by Bittercube in Milwaukee. bitters contain heirloom apples from Tree-Mendus Fruit Farm in Eau Denton says, then contain botanics plants that one would nd in the fruit orchards around here and in the northern climes, such as chicory and dandelion roots, aronia and propolis from bees.

The bitters round out the taste, smell and sensory qualities of the drink while also adding to the sense of place the drinks Many taste tests later (I was one of the tasters last winter) the team created a drink strict manufacturing guidelines and also was shelf stable, meaning it do weird things while waiting to be purchased at the store. Though their mantra was local and regional, bottling and even the colors of the bottles became an because their tonics require a speci manufacturing process to avoid fermentation, preserve the authentic avor and add carbonation. It took quite a while, but they found a Pennsylvania bottling company that uses cold-sterilization to preserve their fresh fruit avor. chose a bottle size of 8.5 ounces, or 250 milliliters, a true single portion, and green glass, which provides a degree of protection from UV or orescent Gazzolo says. Fruitbelt Sparkling Water Tonic was launched in February.

an unlikely time to bring a sparkling drink into the world, but nonetheless Gazzolo says. tonic carried in over 100 outlets ranging from small specialty stores and cafes to restaurants, craft breweries, distilleries and farmers markets, in four states Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. We are working with three distributors and look to expand throughout the They currently have two avors. Their Crisp Apple tonic is made from the pressing of 25 heirloom varietals grown at Tree-Mendus Fruit Farm, Cherry is made from the heirloom cherry trees at King Cherry Orchards near Traverse City. Gazzolo and Denton are developing more tonics.

types of juices use will always be tart, and the avor of the juice will never be propped up with avors as most beverage companies Denton says. the juice must be able to hold its own at 25 percent content in the Locally, Fruitbelt Sparkling Fruit Tonic is available at Transient Artisan Ales and The Sandpiper in Bridgman; Phoenix and Benton Harbor; Full Circle in Stevensville; Purely Michigan in St. Joseph, the Terrace Room in New Buffalo; and Sawyer Home By JANE AMMESON HP Correspondent Southwest Michigan women taking Michigan fruits and turning them into bubbly drinks Photos by Don Campbell HP staff Michele Gazzolo and Beth Denton recently introduced Fruitbelt Sparkling Fruit Tonic to area restaurants and businesses. Crisp Apple Fruitbelt Sparkling Fruit Tonic is made with apples from Tree- Mendus Fruit Farm in Eau Claire. See FRUITBELT page B5 KFC recipe challenge: Putting the 11 herbs, spices to the test Countless recipes have been tried out in kitchen, but never one quite like this.

Our mission: nd out if 11 ingredients handwritten on a piece of paper could be the secret blend of 11 herbs and spices that go into Kentucky Fried Original Recipe a closely guarded formula that remains one of the biggest culinary mysteries. The recipe came to us by way of Colonel Harland nephew, Joe Ledington of Kentucky. He says he found it in a scrapbook belonging to his late Aunt Claudia, second wife. Ledington, 67, says he used to blend the spices that went into his world-famous fried chicken, and the recipe in question is the real deal. We wanted to see make that taste for ourselves.

So we put it to the test. Our aim was not to replicate the exact cooking method used by KFC. That method has been explored and written about by decided to soak the raw chicken in a buttermilk-egg bath before frying based on some of those descriptions. Instead, we wanted to test the spice blend detailed in the recipe, which also calls for two cups of white our. Several batches of chicken were prepared in the test kitchen by recipe tester and stylist Lisa Dining reporters and editors tasted each batch, comparing it to a bucket of KFC Original Recipe fried chicken.

We bought all new herbs and spices common grocery store brands for the testing. We used all-purpose our and standard table salt. The spice recipe, as written: 11 Spices Mix With 2 Cups White Fl. 1) Ts Salt 2) Ts Thyme 3) Ts Basil 4) Ts Origino (sic) 5) 1 Ts Celery Salt 6) 1 Ts Black Pepper 7) 1 Ts Dried Mustard 8) 4 Ts Paprika 9) 2 Ts Garlic Salt 10) 1 Ts Ground Ginger 11) 3 Ts White Pepper The rst challenge was to By JOE GRAY Chicago Tribune See KFC page B5.