BEST URBAN UTOPIA
Babe Zaharias Golf Course
I grew up in South Tampa and considered it a world sufficient unto itself for many years. Until I crossed the northern border of civilization, Kennedy Boulevard, and visited a friend who lived on the Babe Zaharias Golf Course in Forest Hills. I was smitten with the neighborhood, and found a reasonably priced mid-century house with terrazzo floors and a tranquilizing view of the greens. I learned the hard way about ducking golf balls but that´s only during the day. At night, the greens turn magical — dark, deserted, silent, pine-scented and cool even after the muggiest day.
BEST PLACE TO BUY MACADAMIA NUT OIL
AP Quality Produce
Another outstanding feature of Forest Hills is AP Produce, nestled in the elbow where Armenia and Linebaugh avenues meet. The hand-painted sign and ´maters piled in cartons out front promise the usual farm-fresh fruits and veggies of any self-respecting produce stand; and behind the counter crockpots simmer with hot boiled peanuts. However, the homespun store packs a little more than the usual in its compact space: plantains in all stages of ripeness and four varieties of avocados, among other tropical produce, and a decent little selection of Latino groceries. The owners recently put in a Boar´s Head deli and started stocking some South African products, including dried fruits and macadamia nut oil, which you can´t find anywhere else in Tampa on a regular basis. Its nutty, light taste elevates greens to salad nirvana and lends a touch of mystery to simple soups; these qualities paired with a high level of monounsaturates and high smoke point make macadamia nut oil this cook´s Official Oil of the Urban Utopia.
A P Quality Produce, 2323 W. Linebaugh Ave., Tampa, 813-933-6677.
BEST SINFUL BAR MEAL
Mussels fra diavolo and fried calamari at Gino´s
I do occasionally leave Forest Hills, but why get in the car when you can walk to Gino´s Bar & Restaurant? The Italian-flavored menu at this welcoming neighborhood bistro is based on venerable family recipes. My favorite indulgence is mussels fra diavolo and fried calamari. Perched with a pal at the wooden bar where the friendly bartender Vince presides, we scoop the fat orange mussels from their purple iridescent shells, sopping up rich, spicy, red marinara sauce with hot buttery bread. Alternate that with big crunchy bites of golden calamari. Wash it all down with a couple of glasses of Rodney Strong Cabernet. Roll out happy and sated into the evening to stroll home over the golf course.
Gino´s Bar & Restaurant, 10006 N. Armenia Ave., Tampa, 813-933-1089.
BEST ASSORTMENT OF OLIVES
Oasis Bakery
The best olives in town are not, alas, found in Forest Hills but a little farther north. The satellite TV was tuned to Al Jazeera and the bombing of Baghdad the first time I visited Oasis Bakery, a Lebanese outpost at the corner of Bearss Avenue and Skipper Road. I could have come away with pomegranate molasses (a new must-have ingredient in trendy recipes), freshly baked pita bread, enough sweetmeats to silence even Scheherazade, olive oil from the groves of Beirut, or my choice of giant hookahs. I settled for an assortment of olives reflecting the diversity of this ancient cultivar along the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean: from Morocco, small richly oiled black fruits; from Lebanon, largish split yellow-greens with a peppery accent and plump red skinned olives tasting of lemons; and surprisingly fresh medium size kalamatas from Greece. I keep going back, doing my small part for peace and international culinary relations.
Oasis Bakery, 1450 Skipper Road, Tampa, 813-972-7482.
BEST PLACE TO BUY PLANTS AND GEE GAWS
Keep It Green and Elsberry´s Nursery Center
At the Junction of U.S. 41 and Big Bend Road in South Hillsborough County are two great places for satisfying my always-urgent need for plants and tchotckes for garden and house. Elsberry´s Nursery Center, on the northwest corner, is the last small piece of what was once a big tomato farm owned by the Elsberry family since the 1930s. The former family home serves as the office for the open-air nursery that stocks inexpensive and healthy specimens of roses, vines, shrubs, small trees, ornamentals, herbs and vegetables. Eva Elsberry operates the business with her father and uncles (Bruce, Terry and Ross), and can tell you tales about the family´s historic involvement in Florida agriculture. On the southeast corner is Keep It Green. A shed houses a menagerie of hand-painted metal creatures: brightly colored reef fish, marlin, crab and more, all crafted by traditional artisans in Haiti. There´s also an assortment of darling pots and ceramic reptiles from Mexico. Inside the greenhouse are orchids of all types and ages, from dendrobian babies in tiny cradles to vanda grandfathers with beardlike root systems and copious blooms. Taking one of these oldsters home seems a little like adoption, and costs almost as much. The junction of 41 and Big Bend Road is fast attracting development, as urbanization and industry overcome agriculture in the south county. Visit soon, before these charming garden spots are uprooted by progress.
Elsberry´s Nursery Center, 101 Big Bend Road, Apollo Beach, 813-677-6154; Keep It Green, 13124 U.S. 41 S., Gibsonton, 813-741-3974.
This article appears in Sep 22-28, 2004.