One of the most exciting things happening around the ZCoB right now is Miss Kim’s Suckling Pig Parties. The monthly event has already earned a lot of devotees, selling out each time. The really exciting part is that every party has a theme—so far, chef Ji Hye Kim has presented ssam, tacos, and just last night, she pulled out the big guns with buns! Long time fans of Miss Kim will remember that the restaurant got its start with San Street, a food cart specializing in buns at Mark’s Carts, and for this dinner, Ji Hye and her team let guests get creative with a spectacular spread of steamed buns along with pulled pork and condiments to fill them up. Plus, a bounty of delicious sides!

Here are some photos from last night’s dinner. Keep your eyes open for the theme of our next Suckling Pig Party on October 8. We’ll be announcing it on the Miss Kim website and Facebook page soon!

Don’t miss the next Miss Kim Suckling Pig Dinner! Visit the website for the next party announcement, and check out our list of upcoming dinners in the meantime!

Here at Zingerman’s, we build close relationships with our vendors. If you read Ari’s Top 5 enews or our newsletter, you’ve probably noticed how often he shares stories about the people who provide the products we love and sell throughout the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses. We have so much respect for these artisans who are often going against conventional business wisdom to bring the highest quality foods to an audience that they hope will appreciate them—their work is often truly a labor of love.

We are sad to say that one producer that we’ve been working with since the beginning, Ishai Zeldner, has passed away. The founder and owner of Moon Shine Trading Company (which became part of his company Z Specialty Foods), Ishai started working with a beekeeper as a college student in Israel and eventually began keeping his own bees and producing honey in the late 1970s. His delicious Moon Shine Meadowfoam Honey, which is described as tasting like “toasted marshmallows with a caramelized, burnt sugar flavor tipped with notes of vanilla”, is a longtime favorite at Zingermans.com. His family says they look forward to continuing building relationships with us—and we feel the same.

“He’s been a part of our life here at Zingerman’s almost since the get go,” says Ari, adding that the two saw each other once or twice a year at food shows. “The world is a bit less rich and positive for Ishai’s absence.”

A memorial fund for Ishai has been set up by UC Davis. The fund will support varietal honey research. Find out more about Ishai Zeldner Memorial Varietal Honey Research Fund.

Just because the 4th of July has passed doesn’t mean we can’t continue to celebrate American culture—or, in our case, cooking!  While the formal observance is over, we’re looking forward to a very exciting Roadhouse special event showcasing the diverse and delicious dishes that makes up this country’s evermore interesting cuisine.

Nationally known author Gabrielle Langholtz, who put together America: The Cookbook—a project so successful, wide-ranging and thorough that Food 52 called it “a compelling and delicious picture of the country’s cuisine”—will bring her culinary collection of full-flavored Americana to the Roadhouse on July 25th for Special Dinner #227. Gabrielle’s passion for American cooking will be on display during the dinner as she shares the story of the book, her learnings, favorite recipes, some good laughs and, of course, a lot of good food.

This dinner is for the Roadhouse. When we opened the restaurant (15 years ago this fall), our hope was to bring American food in all its diversity to town. Classic dishes, like great burgers, barbecue, biscuits, macaroni, and cheese, but, also, less well known, though equally wonderful foods from the far corners and back roads of the country. If America: The Cookbook had been out when we opened in 2003, we might have used it as the restaurant’s handbook. At nearly 800 pages, it’s lovely to look at, interesting to read, and very easy to cook from. All the most famous American foods are there, but they’re really just a small slice of the hundreds of recipes. The book does exactly what we wanted to do in starting the Roadhouse—share stories and tastes of all the elements of the country’s cooking.

What’s on the menu for the evening? Obviously, we can’t cook the whole book, but some of the recipes that caught my attention will show up on the menu for the evening’s event: Basque lamb, Nashville hot chicken, Arizona Calabacitas squash casserole and much much more. See the whole menu right here.

Want more background on this lively and lovely project? Here’s a nice interview WEMU’s Lisa Barry did with Gabrielle. I’ve enjoyed working with her on this project—she brings a great blend of serious but still fun-loving study and scholarship set against a good bit of levity and the ability to laugh at herself. And a whole lot of knowledge of great food!

Grab your seats for America: The Cookbook. Seats are limited.  Hope to see you there!

We like to keep it fresh at Zingerman’s Deli. Every year, we update the menu, adding new items and, yes, even saying goodbye to some items—we also like to freshen up the look to reflect the evolution of the work from our fantastic design staff. This year we have a few hellos and goodbyes we want you to know about along with some very exciting changes.

The New Stuff

We’ve added two delicious new sandwiches to the Deli menu, and we’re excited to say that both were created by some long-time Deli fans, including one who just happens to work here. The #79 Sparky’s Get Your Zing On is stacked with our corned beef, provolone, New Mexico green chiles, tomatoes, Ray’s yellow mustard and Russian dressing. We’ve also added one of our popular “Sandwiches of the Month”— #58 Ham Horn, peppered ham, peppered bacon, mayo, pimento cheese and Marcia’s Munchies Spicy Pickles on grilled Rustic Italian bread.

Deli Chef and co-owner Rodger Bowser is also very excited about the latest addition to our Monger’s Platters lineup: the new Fish Monger’s Platter. This seafaring delight features a chunk of smoked white fish and smoked salmon from Tracklements, plus a rotating selection from our tinned fish faves. It comes with lemon, capers and crusty bread.