Sharing a virtual piece of avocado toast and chatting about all things music and food for this feature was so much fun! Rico Steinhart has always had a keen sense of music. Raised in the Motown era, he constantly had the radio playing and spent numerous hours exploring and sampling music in record stores. He once witnessed a young Stevie Wonder perform at a Motown review. Although Rico was heavily involved in sports, preventing him from learning a musical instrument, his move in 1967 to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor marked a turning point. There, he purchased a harmonica, playing it while walking to classes and jamming with any available musicians. The stairwells of his classroom building provided an excellent acoustic setting for his harmonica tunes. Soon, he also acquired a guitar and devoted many hours to mastering chords and developing his strumming technique. Over the years, Rico joined various bands and even played rhythm guitar for Detroit blues icon Bobo Jenkins. In 2006, he launched a CD featuring eight original tracks, including the lead single “Elvis Has Left the Building”, which received airplay on over 200 radio stations worldwide. During the COVID lockdown, Rico’s creative spark reignited, leading him to compose 15 new songs, five of which have been recorded. Additionally, more of his videos are available on his Bunkerboyrico YouTube channel.  

 

 

Rico has recently recorded five new tracks and is planning more music videos. Rico’s style seamlessly blends rock, blues, and Americana, though he resists being confined to any single genre. So what’s next for Rico and The Bunker Boys? Rico aims to feature his music in films and commercials. Definitely looking forward to more music from this artist and be sure to check out Rico and the Bunker Boys on Spotify as well! 

 

When it comes to food, Rico prioritizes an organic diet, focusing on fresh, non-GMO produce and an array of fish sourced from a local Michigan market where the selection is outstanding. He loves cooking fish, ranging from trout to char, orange roughy, salmon, and cod. Rico enhances the dish with fresh basil and rosemary and spices them up with cayenne pepper, ginger, and garlic. He also enjoys sushi paired with warm sake, and he has a fondness for pasta. A cherished nostalgic dish from his childhood is his grandmother’s matzo ball soup, a holiday staple perfected by his grandmother’s outstanding cooking skills. Rico’s grandmother, who was a caterer and the matriarch of the family, also made memorable hamburgers. Living with his grandparents in a two-family house during his early years, he often enjoyed her cooking. 

Rico’s favorite dessert is New York-style cheesecake topped with cherry compote, and he loves fresh, juicy fruits like honeydew, cantaloupe, and watermelon. Internationally, he savors falafels accompanied by hummus and fresh olives he would find when visiting Israel. For snacks, Rico opts for peanut butter and honey. While he doesn’t drink coffee, he is an enthusiast of tea, particularly enjoying kombucha while working in the studio or playing golf. For this feature, I decided to take the nostalgic approach and make matzo ball soup. I reached out to my dear friend, The Lunch Belle, for her amazing recipe and it turned out wonderfully. Savory and comforting with plenty of dill. This is a great dish to make in cold weather or simply to soothe the soul. Check out the recipe below! 

 

 

Matzo Ball Soup

Ingredients

  • 1 box of Manischewitz Matzo Ball & Soup Mix

  • 2.5 quarts of chicken broth

  •  1 cup chopped carrots

  •  1 cup chopped celery

  • 1.5 tablespoons dried dill weed, separated

  • 2 eggs

  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

  • 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

  1. In a 3-quart pot, add packet containing Manischewitz soup mix, broth, carrots, *celery, and 1 tablespoon of dill weed.  Stir to combine.  Bring to a boil.

  2. In a small bowl, mix the eggs and oil.  Add 1/2 tablespoon of dill weed and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper.  Add packet containing matzo ball mix, and stir with a fork until evenly mixed.  Cover and place in refrigerator for 15-minutes

  3. With clean hands, form matzo batter in to balls (about 1″ in diameter) and carefully drop the balls in to the boiling soup.

  4. Reduce flame to a simmer, and cover tightly for 20-minutes.

  5. Serve and Enjoy!