One time about 20 years ago, Phil came home from dinner at Francos raving about a special, the “Island Bean Soup.” He went on and on with a very detailed description of what he thought was in it. For days, he raved about this magical soup. Finally, I knew I had no option but to try to recreate a soup I had never tasted or seen, based solely on Phil’s description. It was a little like cooking in the dark.
When Phil tasted my version he proclaimed it was delicious, but not quite what he remembered. Fair enough. Given that I had never actually tasted the original, I was hard pressed to recreate it. We’ll never know what was in Franco’s epic soup, but that won’t stop us from attempting to recreate restaurant meals at home!
This week, I had a little bit more to go on. Inspired by a meal that Phil had at John Ryan Brewery, Ben and I made grits and scallops with a nduja sauce. I had no idea how to pronounce the sauce or even what it was, having only a tiny taste to go on, but with some help from the internet, I think we pulled off a great meal.
