Paradise Coast Official Visitors Guide 2009 - (Page 17) NAPLES, MARCO ISLAND & THE EVERGLADES Dining at sunset than our restaurant can be successful. I want to strengthen the community, too.” To do this, Roland buys from area tomato growers, even though it means he won’t have that product year ’round. And he purchases micro-greens from another nearby farmer, who helped him establish his own herb garden on the restaurant’s terrace. One of his favorite uses of local product on his cutting-edge global menu is a red and yellow watermelon salad with shaved fennel, goat cheese and micro basils. Escargot 41’s authentic French cuisine may be imported, but most of the ingredients that go into Chef-Owner Patrick Fevrier’s exquisite dishes come directly from local waters and gardens, including his own two-acre plot. Among his seasonal crops, he grows 40 varieties each of eggplant and basil, plus okra, fennel, cinnamon, beans from China and Malabar spinach from India. “They’re not always native to Florida, but I can grow them here from imported seeds,” says Fevrier.“I’m against having to import everything — it’s cheaper, fresher and better quality to get it locally.” One way he turns Florida food into French cuisine is his pompano meuniere. “In France, we don’t have any pompano. I’m basically using French cooking roots to prepare it.” Sandy Franchino, owner of Café de Marco, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary on Marco Island, also favors Florida pompano, as well as grouper, snapper, mahi mahi and lobster. “Our signature dish utilizes local fish. The snapper or grouper de Marco is broiled fresh fish with shallots, mushrooms and garlic, topped with toasted breadcrumbs and broiled,” she says. The trademark local seafood of the Paradise Coast, she says, is stone crab claws that Café de Marco serves in season, Oct. 15 through May 15. Crab is literally the middle name at Old Marco Lodge Crab House in Goodland. Along with coveted stone crab claws, it specializes in locally trapped blue crab — sold soft-shell style, in crab cakes, as crab imperial and in a hearty vegetable crab soup. The stone crabs come from the markets of Everglades City, whose annual Seafood Festival in February celebrates the town’s unique cuisine, starring novelties such as alligator tail and frogs’ legs from local waters. LEARN MORE:www.paradisecoast.com/dining 17 http://www.ParadiseCoast.com/dining
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