Heading west🤠

Hey there Florida Foodie friends,

It’s the horse with no name, Thomas Mates.

As the headline implies, I have a little trip coming up in a couple of weeks.

[ADD YOUR BUSINESS TO THE FLORIDA FOODIE DIRECTORY]

The station is sending me to visit one of our sister stations in Texas. I’m going for training and to share some insights from our newsroom. That is the official reason and all that is great.

If I am being really honest though, I am mostly looking forward to the food. Shocking, I know.

I’ve only spent a little time in Texas many years ago, but I remember the food being pretty great. I have been fantasizing about barbecue and Tex-Mex and real authentic Mexican cuisine. I’ve also never had Whataburger but I know some people rhapsodize about that place.

All that is probably pretty obvious for a trip to the Lone Star State. Is there something I’m missing? Is there a regional cuisine that isn’t really known outside of Texas? Hit me up with your recommendations at tmates@wkmg.com.

OK, let’s jump into it with the first new Florida Foodie of the year!

Feeling Mead-y?🍷

Orlando only has one taproom where you can sample mead and it is the heart of the Mills 50 District.

Zymarium Meadery has been a passion project for Joe and Ginger Leigh. It took them more than two years of hard work to bring it to life.

They talked with Candace Campos and Lisa Bell about their 120-hour workweeks and everything it took to get them into their brick-and-mortar space.

>You can check out the episode here<

You can also find every episode of Florida Foodie on YouTube.

Small bites🎂

Family history🌭: Portillo’s just opened a new location in Clermont. As it turns out, our very own Mike DeForest has some family history with the Chicago chain. His parents were among the first employees back when Portillo’s was little more than a trailer. You can read all about it here.

The times, they are charging🍊: The Packing District in Orlando is named after the fruit packaging factories that used to be based there, but soon the last one will be closing up shop. Emerald Packing Company is calling it quits after decades in business. Hear from the owner about his decision here.

Get Hook’d 🎣: A day of fishing tournaments and a seafood festival is in store this weekend in downtown Sanford. Here are all the details.

Something to try at home🍽️

I recently made cornbread for the first time. I was making chili and I was tired of serving it with rice, so I decided to try my hand at it. I did not have any cornmeal, so I found a recipe that uses masa harina (which I keep on hand for homemade tortillas).

In any case, here is that recipe from The Pioneer Woman.

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons of butter
• 1 1/2 cups masa harina
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/3 cups whole milk
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 2 large eggs

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Grease a glass 9x9 baking dish.

Step 2: Whisk together all of your dry ingredients (masa harina, flour, baking powder, salt) in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together all of your wet ingredients.

Step 3: Combine your wet and dry ingredients and stir them together just until all of the masa harina mixture is moistened. Some lumps are OK.

Step 4: Scrape the batter into your prepared baking dish and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the edges are dark brown and the top is golden.

This can be served with more maple syrup and butter or sub in honey. I cut this into chunks and toasted it in a skillet for some crunchy cornbread croutons to add to that chili.

That’s it for today.

Also, please take the time to rate and review the Florida Foodie podcast.

Send me your recipes so I can share them with everyone. My email is tmates@wkmg.com.

Don’t forget to send in your foodie pictures as well through our PinIt! program.

- Thomas