February 2012
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02/27/12Monsanto: Just Say NoIf you shop at the Cooper Young Farmer's Market, you probably know Brandon Pugh of Delta Sol Farms, pictured below. Brandon is an organic farmer. He lost today. So did you. A federal judge in New York ruled that genetically modified crops don't threaten organic farmers. Okay, that's a simplied explanation. Click here for more complete details. For me, this is the bottom line: Monsanto Seed Co. is a bully, and this ruling is disappointing and wrong. |
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02/27/12Chef Jennifer Chandler Makes Salads At Easy Way Look Easy and Taste DeliciousIs there any more exuberant cheerleader for fresh home-made meals than Jennifer Chandler? Certainly not Saturday, when the Memphis chef and author held a salad-making demonstration at Easy Way on Mt. Moriah, wooing customers with her infectious enthusiasm and samples of her popular recipes. Shoppers of all ages couldn’t resist the trio of salads Chandler prepared, including Panzanella, an adaptation of an Italian favorite that uses day-old bread, and my favorite, Crunchy Asian Slaw with peanut dressing. Click her for Chandler's recipes, available on her blog. One of the things I like about Chandler’s cooking style is her flexibility. At Easy Way, she veered off her recipes a little because she spotted new ingredients at the store, such... |
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02/24/12Stuffed Avocado Salad at Rizzos DinerThese days most of the salads I eat are ho-hum retreads with dried cranberries and blue cheese crumbles. That’s probably why I can’t stop thinking about my lunch at Rizzos Diner: avocado salad stuffed with quinoa and chow-chow and plated with a gorgeous backdrop of purple radicchio. For you doubters out there, don’t smirk at quinoa’s reputation as a nutritional powerhouse with more protein than any other grain. Yes, quinoa is the darling of vegetarian cooking, but it also tastes good. (And it’s pronounced keen-wah, btw, if you don’t want to sound like a fool (like me) and ask for kwuh-NO-uh at Whole Foods.) I topped my salad with a perfectly grilled piece of salmon, which pretty much sealed the deal between me and... |
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02/22/12Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman: James Beard Foundation Award Semi-FinalistsIf you've eaten at Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen in East Memphis, this announcement won't be a surprise: The James Beard Foundation has named Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman semi-finalists for “Best Chef in the Southeast.” These annual awards are the Oscars of the food world, so the chefs deserve a huge shout-out. Other chefs in Tennessee also on this year's list: Tandy Wilson of City House in Nashville and Tyler Brown of the Capitol Grille at the Hermitage Hotel, also in Nashville. The James Beard Foundation Awards recognize all aspects of the food industry, including food journalists and restaurant designers. The list of semi-finalists for best chefs will be narrowed in March, and the winners will be announced May 7th at the... |
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02/20/12Evelyn & Olive: Jamaican Food Comes to MadisonOn our way to Evelyn & Olive, the new Jamaican restaurant on Madison Avenue, we cranked up the reggae to get us in the mood. It was fun, but hardly necessary. From our first taste of salt and pepper shrimp, we were smitten with our food, our charming server Amanda and the restaurant’s infectious sociability. If you aren’t familiar with Jamaican food, it’s not killer spicy like cranked up Thai. The restaurant's shrimp is a good example. Lightly breaded but still crispy (the shrimp’s pink color shows through), the basket is served with garlic pepper Boom Boom sauce, so you control the dip and the kick. We paired the shrimp with an excellent side of Kingston cabbage, a mix of shredded cabbage, corn and sweet peppers sautéed in... |
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02/17/12Revival Southern Food Company, Acre, and Elegant Farmer: Congratulations!On the way home from work last night, I realized I wasn't hungry. Quite a change for me at dinner time. Then I remembered what I ate for lunch: Andouille sausage sliders with Creole mustard slaw, a side of Southern greens and an appetizer of dirty fries: perfect skinny French fries with gravy, cheese, mushrooms, green onions, and tiny bits of sausage. Plus Krispy Kreme bread pudding. I only ate a spoonful, I swear. Yes, I finally had lunch at Revival: Southern Food Company, parked Thursday on Jefferson near the UT Medical Center. Fortunately, my foodie pal Joe helped me with out with those fries. We were so enticed by their decadent menu description that we sat in Joe's truck and wolfed down half the carton. Then we swooned about the delicious mess during the ride back to... |
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02/15/12Urban Joe: The New Roast at Urban Farms MarketNeed a decadent jump start for your morning? If so, stop by Urban Farms Market and pick up this winning duo: the market's new private label java called “Urban Joe” and a loaf of chocolate chip banana nut bread from the young chefs at the Boys and Girls Club of Memphis. The coffee is the market's blend from J.Brooks Premium Roasters, a specialty artisan line carried by the market since it opened last spring. Customers taste-tested blends before settling on Urban Joe's medium to bold flavor. The coffee is available ground or whole bean in 12-ounce ($8.99), 2-pound ($18.99) and 5-pound ($44) bags. “Everyone who tasted it, loved it,” said Catherine Neal, market manager. “We wanted a blend that fell somewhere in between The Spirit of... |
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02/12/12Calamari at Majestic Grille: Love It!Confession time: My favorite appetizer is crispy calamari. When I eat those little octopus legs, I’m convinced the critters swam directly from the sea to my plate. Skewed reasoning, I know, but the fantasy lets me forget that the tasty morsels are deep-fried. At Majestic Grille, chunks of warm foccacio bread with a smear of soft butter add injury to insult. Well, not really. Both bread and butter are perfect. Tony and I stopped by Majestic last week and I was reminded, yet again, why I really like the place: comfy booths, draft Fat Tire, and a movie screen where I can watch all the mid-century film beauties without listening to the silly dialogue. But back to the Majestic's calamari: cornmeal crusted and plated with sautéed cherry... |
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02/10/12Cooper-Young Chili Cook-Off SaturdayShameless chili chef Wendy Sumner-Winter has a singular focus this week: to win the Cooper-Young/Peabody PTA Chili Cook-Off Saturday at Peabody Elementary School. She has spent three days cooking beef stock for her “Black and Blue” chili, which includes, among other things, charred pork belly, ground pork, chipotle peppers, black beans and a blue cheese sour cream garnish. The alumni coordinator at the University of Memphis, Sumner-Winter is also a trained chef who apprenticed with Rick Farmer when he opened his restaurant Jarrett’s in East Memphis. “I’ve been entering these things for years,” she said, laughing. “You’d think I’d finally win one.” So what make’s Sumner-Winter a shameless... |
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02/06/12Cochon 555: I Judged and Loved It!Certainly, the cooking teams from Memphis, Birmingham, and Little Rock who turned five heritage pigs into sublime presentations of taste, texture, and good looks deserve our applause. And congratulations to Kelly English for winning the Cochon 555 competition held Saturday night in downtown Memphis. But hey, I'd like to give a shout-out to the 20 judges who tasted all that food, including me. It was tough work, people! Here's how the judging went. Before the event opened to the public, judges moved every 15 minutes or so from one chef's station to the next. Each station was prepped with plated food, table settings, and an adult beverage to complement the meal. Drink example: bacon-infused bourbon with a crispy pork skin and olive garnish. Each chef was... Posted at 07:21 AM | Permalink | Comments: 1 |
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02/03/12BGR Burgers: Pricey and Not that GreatOMG BGR! I spent $40 on burger meals for two at the new BGR The Burger Joint. Was it worth the sticker shock? I kind of don't think so. The restaurant opened Monday in the Ridgeway Trace Center on Popular. It's located between a Super Cuts and Mountain Yogurt (MoYo, YoLo, these acronyms are making me crazy) in the strip of retail stores across from Best Buy. It's organized with a walk up counter for ordering, and the menu on the wall is oversized, well-lit and promises a lot. Take the Wellington burger, for example, pictured above. Here's the description: deep-roasted mushrooms (sounds promising, yes?), caramelized onions, garlic and black truffles with a touch of mustard and blue cheese. Even at $8.99, we were psyched. Sadly, the burger didn't live... Posted at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments: 1 |
