Welcome to Home Skillet, a food and dining blog that will never, ever go on Adkins. Lots happening this week:
Through Thursday, March 26: Since everyone became a little Irish last week (insert leprechaun joke here), we can expect plenty of folks to become Italian, for a few days, anyway. The annual Taste of Little Italy, a restaurant-fueled fundraiser, concludes Thursday.
Each of the 10 participating restaurants—Blue Parrot Bar and Grille, Dead Presidents, Kozy Korner, Luigi Vitrone’s Pastabilities Restaurant, Madeline’s Italian Restaurant, Mona Lisa Restaurant, Mrs. Robino’s, Pomodoro Ristorante Italiano, Union City Grille and Walter’s Steakhouse and Saloon—will feature food and drink specials, with a portion of their dinner sales donated to West End Neighborhood House, a Little Italy-based nonprofit organization that helps at-risk youth in the city.
For more info, click here.
Saturday, March 28: What’s better than one Newark restaurant? How about 17 Newark restaurants? Seventeen of the town’s best dining desniations are joining forces Saturday for the Fifth Annual Wine & Dine Downtown, a giddy celebration of food and wine.
To wit: Restaurants will fashion their night’s tapas-style specials around a selection of featured wines. Each restaurant will host a couple wineries, which will send representatives to answer questions. So for example, Caffe Gelato will host Sterling and Orogeny Vineyards, Stag’s Leap Winery, Bouchaine and St. Clement Vineyards and Wineries. Deer Park Tavern will host Navarro Correas, Casa LaPostolle and Domaine Chandon Wineries. Iron Hill Brewery will feature Matau Valley and Taz Vineyards, Greg Norman Estates and Mirrasou Wineries. For a complete rundown, visit www.eatdowntownnewark.com.
Free parking is available around Newark, and UD’s experimental zero-emissions hybrid fuel cell bus will provide shuttle services for free.
It all happens from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday. No ticket necessary, you’ll pay as you go. Each restaurant will offer $2 per 2-ounce tastes of at least three different wines. Premium tastings may also be available at varying prices.
Saturday, March 28: Christiana Pub (10 W. Main Street, Christiana, 266-6192) is the site of the latest beef and beer fundraiser hosted by those young movers and shakers, the Wilmington Jaycees. A $25 ticket gains you entrance, access to a buffet, plus domestic draft beer, wines, and rockin’ live music and DJs.
Purchase tickets for the fundraiser (which runs from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.) at www.wilmingtonjaycees.com or at the Christiana Pub. Proceeds Benefit Variety the Children’s Charity of Delaware.
ORLY?: I was down in coastal Sussex Monday doing some research for an upcoming food feature, when I stopped in at El Dorado Restaurant for some lunch.
A little backstory: In preparation for our upcoming Ultimate Guide to Delaware, I’ve been calling around to a few Sussex County “celebrity” chefs, and asking them for their favorite restaurants. More than a few, including Leo Meddisch from Back Porch Café, and Kevin Reading from Nage, recommended El Dorado.
That was enough for me. And I can now add my name to the clamoring choir: El Dorado is darn tasty. We sampled a few of El Dorado’s Baha-style fish tacos—lightly battered mahi mahi fried on warm corn tortillas and embellished with crunchy cabbage and a light mayo. We added on the homemade salsa fresco and a smoky roasted tomatillo salsa.
Chef-owner Aquiles Demerutis Jr., like so many Rehoboth restaurateurs, was incredibly nice and incredibly passionate about his food. After our tacos, he brought us a humungous piece of homemade tres leches cake. Fantastico!
Crispy fish taco + free cake = muy bueno.
