A Beautiful Day for Seafood

It was a lovely day today, and a perfect time for our much-anticipated cooking demonstration from the Too Hot Tamales, Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, owners and head chefs of our neighbor, Border Grill. Audience members started showing up well over an hour before the demo, and those who made it in time to taste some of the samples these sassy chefs had to offer were very happy they did.






Inspired by The Highest Tide's marine-based themes, Mary Sue and Susan put together a seafood based presentation, spiced with a healthy helping of fun and laughs. The recipes they demonstrated were a yummy shrimp ceviche; a delicious seared calamari entree with white beans, roasted red peppers and Spanish chorizo; and a creamy geoduck clam chowder. Audience members were treated to sample tastings of a refreshing minty lime cooler drink and the shrimp ceviche. Mary Sue and Susan also gave tips on how to run a sustainable kitchen, such as buying only domestic (vs. imported) shrimp. Some of the tips they offered can be found on the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch Program, at http://www.seafoodwatch.org.

Susan Feniger explains how she likes things spicy. And she always insists on fresh ground black pepper. White pepper is a definite no-no in her kitchen.


Mary Sue Milliken eagerly watched the clam chowder, which was taking its time coming to a necessary boil.




Mary Sue holds up what has become the unofficial mascot of this year's Citywide Reads program, a geoduck (pronounced "gooey-duck") clam. To learn more about this enormous and very interesting sea creature, be sure to check out "Three Feet Under: Digging Deep for the Geoduck Clam," a documentary we're showing at the Library on Wednesday, May 7th. For more information on that program, scroll down to our April 15th blog entry. We hope to see you there and at many more of our still upcoming Citywide Reads events and discussions.

Citywide Reads Gets Spicy with the Too Hot Tamales

The Santa Monica Citywide Reads 2008 program is literally cram-packed with special events, and this year we’re adding a zesty new flavor to our menu of fun programs: a seafood cooking demonstration from Food Network TV hosts and local favorites, The Too Hot Tamales.


Inspired by the marine-based themes and the beach community setting of Jim Lynch’s The Highest Tide, Border Grill and Ciudad chefs and proprietors Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger have put together a seafood cooking demo full of their signature authentic Latin flavors. They’ll show you how to create a simple but delicious shrimp ceviche appetizer, a spicy seared calamari entrée, and a rich and robust geoduck clam chowder. Don't know what a geoduck (that's pronounced "gooey-duck") is? Just stay tuned, and we'll have lots more on that in a future blog entry.

The Too Hot Tamales event takes place on Sunday, April 20, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. in the Main Library’s outdoor North Entry Courtyard. The Main Library is located at 601 Santa Monica Bouleavard, and the North Entry Courtyard is off 6th Street, directly across from the YMCA. This event is free to all ages, and seating is first come, first served.