Food for the Festive

Sorry this invitation is so late getting to you, but we’ve just been so busy lately--you know, with that outhouse incident and the subsequent laser surgery. The time just got away from us.

But we still wanted to invite you to a Fourth of July picnic.

Seriously, what would a Fourth of July picnic be without you? Remember when you pretended to be a human sparkler? And that time you dressed up like John Philip Sousa?

Well, anyway, better late than never. Here’s the invitation. Hope you don’t have anything planned.

DATE: Fourth of July, 1997.

WHAT: A picnic with family and friends--and lots of good food.

How good? Well, we picked the brains of a few San Fernando Valley restaurant folks to find out what they would put in a Fourth of July picnic basket.

Damon Bruner, head chef at Cinnabar in Glendale, said he would build his picnic menu around a quality salad.

“When I would go on picnics with my mom, she would bring a potato salad made with new potatoes, whole grain mustard, fresh grated horseradish and white wine vinaigrette,” Bruner said. “She would toss all these things together with salt and pepper.”

Bruner also suggested a creation of his own--a smoked corn salad that he said is more on the relish end of the scale.

“It’s not as hearty or as big or as chunky as the potato salad,” he said. “You can grill the corn [cob] or take the kernels off the cob first. If you’re at home I would suggest blanching the corn first, then grilling it and taking the corn off the cob and mixing it with fresh ingredients--black beans, avocado, tomato and cayenne pepper.” Bruner said he would use the salad to complement a meat or fish dish.

“I have champagne taste with a beer budget,” he said. “With my champagne taste, I would definitely do a chilled Dungeness crab salad. My beer budget would do grilled hot dogs or any kind of grilled sausage.”

Or maybe spare ribs--a tradition on occasions like this--or Chilean sea bass--not quite a tradition, but a proven success.

“I tried it at a barbecue once--grilled Chilean sea bass,” he said. “I put it on top of a salad with a citrus vinaigrette and corn relish and served it with a chilled bottle of Pinot Noir. I didn’t know if we were allowed to be drinking in the park, but it was wonderful.”

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Leo Liano, corporate chef for the seven J.W.’s Downtown Grille restaurants in Glendale, offered some picnic tips based on his experience preparing outdoor meals for his six children and a sizable assortment of relatives.

His 41 years of professional kitchen experience helped too.

Liano emphasized the importance of being selective when choosing the food, being careful only to prepare dishes that are not likely to go bad under the hot California sun.

“For an outdoor barbecue, the temperatures can reach 90 degrees. Between 90 and 130 it’s very easy for something to happen,” he said. “Seafood, even in 90 degrees I would not recommend, because it could spoil, even shrimp cocktail.”

What Liano did recommend, prepared either at home or on an outdoor grill, is chicken, cole slaw, corn bread, baked beans and corn on the cob. For a salad, he said, a three-bean dish is a good choice.

“Beans keep longer, also pickles, beets, those kinds of things are very, very good for outdoors, especially for picnics,” he said. “Mushrooms, artichokes and tomatoes can also keep well in a marinade of olive oil or balsamic vinegar.”

Marinade, he said, could also prove a lifesaver for the meat eaters at the outing. Preparing the meat in vinegar, olive oil or Kosher salt, Liano said, can help fight off bacteria that can result from leaving the food in the sun.

He suggested ribs, steak or lamb. Pork is OK too, he said, if it is prepared extremely well done.

“These are things the average person can do,” Liano said. “And it is very, very fun.”

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For Gaetano Palmeri, a longtime chef and now co-owner with his wife Rory of Gaetano’s Ristorante in Calabasas, the key to preparing an appealing picnic basket is creativity.

“You can just buy cold cuts, like smoked turkey or smoked chicken and put together some nice sandwiches,” Palmeri said. “You have to use your imagination. If you don’t want to spend much money, take a cold pasta salad with the sandwiches. It’s very, very healthy and very inexpensive.”

If money is no object, or at least not a major object, Palmeri rattled off a somewhat fancier menu.

“I would suggest poached salmon, baby mixed-greens salad, roasted bell pepper, buffalo mozzarella with beefsteak tomatoes, olive oil and basil,” he said. “You can make a grilled eggplant, with a little bit of garlic and bell peppers, like a vegetarian sandwich. It can be all grilled with a little bit of balsamic vinaigrette and olive oil.”

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WHERE: Just about anywhere you can find an unoccupied picnic table or a plot of grass would do the trick. But that’s much more easier said than done on a major holiday.

First-come, first-served could be the rule of thumb for the day, whether the picnic area of choice is at a city park, county park or other recreational site. But even for late risers there are a number of parks that should offer a reasonable selection of available space.

Dody Garcia, a Los Angeles County park recreations manager, suggested community parks for a pleasant, relatively low stress holiday outing.

“If it is in your neighborhood, you don’t have to drive far,” Garcia said. “If you have a family, it’s inexpensive because you don’t have to pay for parking.”

Garcia, who covers the county’s northeast recreational district, suggested Sylmar’s Veterans Memorial Park and El Cariso Regional Park, both of which have numerous picnic tables and barbecues and don’t require an entrance fee.

El Cariso is at 13100 Hubbard St. and Veterans is at 13000 Sayer St.

“El Cariso has a swimming pool [$2 adults, $1 children], a ball diamond, playground, scenic area and lots of trees,” Garcia said. “It probably will be heavily used, but there will be lots of shade.”

Veterans, which doesn’t have the amenities of El Cariso, may provide somewhat more space for picnickers.

“It’s just generally a nice picnic area,” Garcia said. “It is a beautiful, peaceful area where maybe people without families would go. It has fewer playground activities but it does offer Frisbee golf. And it has nice paths to walk on.”

The Los Angeles Parks and Recreation Department also operates many free-admission parks in the San Fernando Valley. A sampling includes Woodley Avenue Park at 6350 Woodley Ave. in Encino, North Hollywood Park at 5301 Tujunga Ave., Valley Plaza Park at 12240 Archwood St. in North Hollywood and Reseda Park at 18411 Victory Blvd.

And of course, local municipalities operate their own park and recreation areas as well.

Gail Stewart, recreation program coordinator for the city of Burbank, said many of the free city parks in her region probably will be crowded. But after sundown, some of the parks, such as Brace Canyon Park at 1800 Haven Place, will provide a good vantage point for the fireworks show at the Starlight Bowl.

George Izay Park at 1111 W. Olive Ave. and Johnny Carson Park at Bob Hope Drive and Parkside Avenue are among the locations Stewart suggested for general daytime picnicking, sans the fireworks viewing.

“Bring a blanket, sit down on the grass, barbecue or bring an old-fashioned picnic,” she said. “Just enjoy the outdoors.”

RSVP: ASAP