Feed our heads: Looking for book clubbers and tailgaters

We're looking for people for a couple of upcoming stories:

1. We all know that a lot of book clubs serve good food. We're looking for a couple of book clubs that tie the theme of the food to the theme of the book. If you know someone in a book club that has done that, let me know.

2. Tailgate season is coming. We're looking for a couple of great tailgaters who can give advice on the tricks they know for putting on a great sports tailgate party.

Got someone in mind? Send me your contact information (or a way to contact the person you have in mind) at kpurvis@charlotteobserver.com. Thanks!

Egg recall still spreading

Eggs laid in Iowa may have cut a wide path through the U.S. food supply. A voluntary recall by Wright County Egg of Galt, Iowa, of certain shell eggs that might have been contaminated with salmonella is up to 380 million. While the eggs weren't distributed in the Carolinas, they were distributed to food wholesalers, distribution centers and food service companies in 16 states that do business nationwide.

The recall started as part of an investigation into an increase in cases of salmonella contamination nationwide that was reported earlier this summer.

A spokesperson with the N.C. Department of Health said that there was a confirmed salmonella outbreak related to the same strain of salmonella in April. It stemmed from an egg product used in meringue at a Durham restaurant. However, that is the only N.C. connection so far, and state officials have not issued a warning about eggs or egg products in North Carolina.

Exposure to the salmonella bacteria can cause serious infections with symptoms that include fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain, and can be particularly dangerous to young children, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems.

While the investigation continues, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration recommends avoiding restaurant dishes made with raw or undercooked, unpasteurized eggs. Restaurants should use pasteurized eggs in any recipe (such as Hollandaise sauce or Caesar salad dressing) that calls for raw eggs.

You also should be aware of the symptoms of salmonella contamination. If you think you've gotten ill from eating recalled eggs, call your health care provider.

Pimento Cheese: Ready for more?

After our recent tasting of three pimento cheeses, Palmetto, Augusta's and Ruth's, readers demanded another tasting. This time, you wanted us to include Stan's, Something Classic and Fresh Market.

Did we listen? Of course we did. Did you think we'd miss a chance to eat 'minnow cheese and talk about it?

This time, we lined up Palmetto, based on a recipe from the Sea View Inn on Pawley's Island, with Stan's, Something Classic and Fresh Market.

Which one came out on top? Tune in tomorrow to The Observer, available in handy printed and online versions (www.charlotteobserver.com/food for online, at the end of your driveway for print) to find out which pimento cheese was the champion.

And yes, we'll have a recipe for making your own. No, it probably isn't the one your mom made. But we like it.

What did I eat on my summer vacation?

I already knew Cleveland has a reputation as a fun town. It's got the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (just called "the Rock Hall" by most everybody) and it's the home of Big Fun, which has to be the greatest toy store anywhere in the country. Where else can you see an Austin Powers action figure next to an action figure of D-Day from "Animal House" -- both in their original packages?

What I didn't realize was that Cleveland may be one of the great food destinations in the United States. Yeah, I said it: New York has pretensions, San Francisco has ambitions. But baby, only Cleveland has Slyman's, Home of Cleveland's Biggest Corned Beef Sandwich.

Only Cleveland has an Irish restaurant called The Harp, where you can sit out on a patio with a view of the skyline, Lake Erie and a salt mine while eating a corned beef boxty -- all the makings of a Reuben, corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Thousand Island dressing, between two potato pancakes. (I'd post a picture but trust me -- it doesn't look nearly as good as it tastes.)

Cleveland isn't the only city with a Little Italy, but this one is strung along a hill going up to Cleveland Heights and it smells like garlic even when we drove through at 9 a.m. one morning.

I was touring this cornucopia of delights on a college tour with my high school senior son, who wanted to visit Kenyon and Oberlin. And since his godmother is a writer in Cleveland, we grabbed the chance to follow in the footsteps of the late and still very lamented Harvey Pekar, also a denizen of Cleveland Heights.

On Saturday morning, our friend took us to the West Side Market, one of the last great surviving city markets. It was packed with people stocking up on everything from perogies to carnitas. I haunt city markets wherever I go, but this one had more life than even San Francisco's Ferry Market Plaza. There was a jazz band playing on a walkway upstairs, overlooking the whole boiling mass of food shoppers down below.

Over that lunch of boxties, my friend, a dedicated vegetarian who lives vicariously by making other people eat meat, offered my son a lineup of Saturday night choices: He could choose between Polish, Hungarian, Slovenian or Russian. Then she gave him a lesson on which is which, based mainly on use of paprika vs. mushrooms. We picked Hungarian and ended up at Balaton in Shaker Square, tucking into big plates of their famous weiner schnitzel and veal paprikash.

On the way to the airport, our friend gave us two sets of directions: One, to get to the Rock Hall. The other, how to pass right by Slyman's on the way to the airport to pick up something that would get us through two airports before we would get back home to Charlotte. At the airport, we unwrapped our sandwiches and I measured mine: 4 inches thick, not counting the three slices of rye bread.

Take that, San Francisco.

See you in a week

It's vacation time for me. I'll be away until Monday, Aug. 16, exploring the great state of Ohio and enjoying some at-home time right here in Charlotte, N.C. Maybe I'll finally get that stack of recipes organized.

Until then, go cook something you love.

Who wins the Ball canning kit?

Gretchen, it looks like you won't need that coupon. You're the winner of the canning kit. Send your address to me at kpurvis@charlotteobserver.com and I'll get the kit in the mail to you.

Thanks, everyone, for playing. And for all of you who expressed in interest in learning how to can, you're on the right track. It's really not difficult.

Giveaway: Not your grandmother's canning kit

As my colleague Andrea Weigl reports Wednesday, canning has taken off with a whole new generation of home preservationists.

To keep up with the popularity, Ball has a new Home Canning Discovery Kit: 3 jars with lids, a nifty heat-safe canning rack/lifter basket for lifting jars from boiling water, and a recipe book with instructions for pickles, relishes, salsas and a few more specialties you can make easily in a boiling-water canner.

To celebrate the smart cooks who are canners, I'm giving away one kit, which retails for about $10. Respond here with a name I can recognize you with, and we'll have a random drawing at the end of the day Wednesday.

Don't forget to check back here -- if I can't reach you, I can't send it to you.