'Kitchen incubator' on Delaware's culinary coast? A humorous look at what it could cook up
No one has ever accused our region of being a restaurant desert. There may be a dessert missing here and there, but when one speaks of restaurants. there is no dearth. In fact, the area is so rich in eateries that it is known by some, including those unbiased folks at Southern Delaware Tourism, as the Culinary Coast.
Nonetheless, over the past few years, the state and the county have contributed a combined $350,000 — not exactly chicken feed — toward the cost of creating something called the Sussex County Kitchen Incubator Program.
While not precisely flying under the radar, or hiding under the broiler pan for that matter, this project is not as well-known as it should be. Located at the Del Tech Community College campus in Georgetown, the kitchen incubator opened last month. It is equipped with everything, including the proverbial sink.
Just what is the 'kitchen incubator' in Delaware?
In the words of former State Representative Ruth Briggs King, a strong supporter of the incubator idea (which is not the reason why she suddenly became “former”), it is designed “to offer a shared-use, commissary kitchen to local start-ups in the food industry.”
Already signed up as program participants are makers of jams, key lime pie and ice cream. Noticeably missing, so far at least, is any producer of pickles.
Why are pickles so important? Well, judging from the recent increase in the county’s school-age population, the demand for pickles and ice cream must have increased appreciably in the past decade.
However, it probably is by no means satiated; witness the houses sprouting up like mushrooms in fields that previously featured corn and soybeans that, of course, had no progeny.
Coastal couples considering an addition to their family do not savor the omission of pickles from the kitchen incubator. So, let’s find a start-up that can envision gherkins as its bread and butter.
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A pizza incubator? Nah, we already have plenty of that
I was relieved, however, to learn that no pizza innovator had signed up for the incubator program yet. After all, there already seem to be purveyors of pizza pies within walking distance of every local parking lot.
Contrary to reports on social media, the Sussex County Planning & Zoning Commission does not insist on the inclusion of a pizza parlor as a condition of its approval of a given strip mall.
In a related development, it’s not surprising that we have seen the introduction of crab topping options on pizza in the coastal area.
For instance, Dogfish Head Brewing & Eats in Rehoboth has a cleverly named pie called “The Old Man and the Sea.” It features a house-made crab dip and Old Bay seasoning. The Old Man could refer to Dogfish Head founder Sam Caligione whose favorite brew is his SeaQuench Ale, although that’s probably an old wives’ tale.
In addition, Half Full in Lewes has a crab and corn pizza. It blends one of the region’s chief agricultural crops with meat from a blue crustacean for which a certain unnamed neighboring state is famous.
That’s crabmeat on top, not whole crabs, although one could envision a pie topped with one or more soft-shell crabs. Perhaps that’s a project for a “foodpreneur” searching for something to incubate or, since it’s a pizza, incu-bake.
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Muskrat Love: Could that be on the rise, too?
The kitchen incubator may also provide an opportunity for a start-up to refresh a county delicacy currently on the wane — fried muskrat.
One may not need the Muskrat Love of which pop duo Captain and Tennille sang in 1976 to enjoy the Muskrat Dinner available only at the Southern Grille in Ellendale. And you can get it served plain or smothered in gravy or BBQ sauce!
If ‘scrat doesn’t appeal to you, perhaps I could interest you in a little marsh rabbit, which, of course, is the same thing under a more palatable name, in more ways than one.
As worthy as the re-emergence of muskrat as a dining staple may be, any Sussex coastal kitchen incubator worthy of its name must have some seafood representation. The fact that muskrats are often described as “semi-aquatic” really doesn’t hold water in this context.
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Rocky Mountain oysters? Bring 'em on!
We need someone to step, or swim, forward with an innovative idea that sounds more like seafood. With that in mind, perhaps the time has come for the introduction of Rocky Mountain oysters into our coastal region.
Lest you question the designation of such oysters as seafood, they have appeared on the menu of the Long John Silver’s restaurant in Lansdale, PA and undoubtedly at other franchise locations.
Rocky Mountain oysters are, of course, farm-raised, like an increasing number of oysters from the Mid-Atlantic region. A delicacy frequently served as an appetizer, they are often deep-fried like any self-respecting Chesapeake Bay oyster.
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So, bring them on! But keep in mind that as oysters go, the mountain variety are, as they say at a certain Milton brewery, a bit “off-centered.”
Mike Berger is a freelance writer and retired university administrator with a home in Lewes. Contact him at edadvice@comcast.net.
This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: Culinary Coast now has 'kitchen incubator': What could it cook up?
