November 2012
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11/23/12Food Lovers' Guide To Memphis: Get a Signed Copy at Cooper-Young Farmers MarketLet me be up front: This post is shameless self promotion for a book I'm very proud of writing called The Food Lovers' Guide to Memphis: The Best Restaurants, Markets & Local Culinary Offerings. I'll be signing the book Saturday at the community table of the Cooper-Young Farmers Market from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The market is located at Cooper Street and Walker Avenue. The book was released last week, following a springtime writing blitz that produced some 60,000 words on the Memphis food scene, an emerging foodie destination for locals and visitors alike. The book should appeal to both, because it mixes Memphis history into a travel guide of restaurants (high end, barbecue, and blue plate), farmers markets, food events, artisan purveyors, and recipes from... |
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11/21/12SNL Skit on Guy Fieri: A Hilarious Introduction to Times Square's Flavor TownI first heard of Guy Fieri's new restaurant in Times Square when my daughter's friend organized her birthday party at Guy's American Kitchen & Bar. Plenty of Brooklyn hipster types are crazy about Fieri kitsch, including the now notorious blue cocktails that "glow like nuclear waste." After the party, their summations ran something like this: "It's a tourist trap in Times Square, and the drinks are too expensive. We had a blast." It seems critic Pete Wells was expecting a little more, according to his scathing and hilarious review published about a week ago in The New York Times. The review is written in a crescendo of questions that include these kinds of humdingers: “Why is one of the few things on... |
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11/18/12Here's a Sneak Peak at Thanksgiving Recipes from the Chubby Vegetarian's Upcoming CookbookStumped about what to make for Thanksgiving that will please both the turkey eaters and the vegetarians at your table? If so, follow the lead of New York Times writer Tara Parker-Pope, who tapped the collective know-how of our very own Chubby Vegetarians — Justin Fox Burks and Amy Lawrence — for her blog called Well. Burks and Lawrence aren’t quite sure how Parker-Pope tracked them down in Memphis for her post “Southern Flavors on a Vegetarian Table,” but they assume it was through their own popular blog Chubby Vegetarian and the interest surrounding their upcoming cookbook, The Southern Vegetarian Cookbook: 100 Down-Home Recipes for the Modern Table. The couple’s book, due for publication this spring, recently... |
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11/14/12One & Only BBQ: Brunswick Stew, Pulled Pork and Strawberry Fields ForeverThe first two dishes I mastered on my own were Beef Bourguignon (thank you Julia Child) and Brunswick Stew (thank you Mom). I haven't eaten either one for at least a decade, so imagine my thrill when I spotted Brunswick stew on the menu at the new One & Only BBQ, located in the former CK's Coffee Shop on Perkins Ext. near Southern. I ordered a bowl to share with Tony, and our server brought the stew in two small bowls with two spoons, which was sophisticated service for a barbecue joint. The attentive service carried on through our entire meal, which included salads, generously portioned entrees and ice tea for about $20 each. But back to the Brunswick stew, a delicious bowl of steaming hot limas, corn, tomatoes and three kinds of... |
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11/08/12Sorrel Pesto: Delicious With Pasta and FishSorrel is always a bit of a problem veggie for me. Although I love its nutritional profile and flavor, I hate the brown color it turns when cooked. So I decided to try making sorrel pesto. I worked off the recipe below I found at recipesource.com, but I made a few changes. I used basil because I didn't have parsley and added the juice from a small lemon. The pesto tastes more tart than my typical basil version, but it's a nice change. Plus the color is beautiful, duplicating the green of the fresh leaves. I've tossed it with pasta and used it as a sauce for white fish. Delicious! Typically, sorrel shows up in the spring, but I had the green in the last few weeks of my CSA. Hopefully, it will stick around until cold weather. Sorrel Pesto 2 cups... |
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11/07/12You Still Have Time to Vote! The Memphis Magazine Restaurant Poll Runs Through NovemberBecause I write about food and review restaurants, I'm constantly asked this question: “So what's your favorite restaurant?” (If you want my answer, you might as well stop reading now.) I'm less accustomed to the questions I got at the Booksellers at Laurelwood when I stopped by recently to check on orders for my new book, “The Food Lovers' Guide to Memphis.” When the sales associates figured out my connection to food, they kept hammering me with this: “What's the worst restaurant in Memphis? What's the worst service?” I side-stepped the question. Do I look like Andy Wise? But I'm hoping those folks find their way to the Memphis magazine Readers' Restaurant Poll where readers select... Posted at 09:35 PM | Permalink | Comments: 1 |
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11/03/12Anthony Bourdain Charms Memphis Crowd with Stories and Funny One-Liners (And He Curses A Lot Too)Bad boy Anthony Bourdain bought his rock star celebrity to the Orpheum Friday evening with an expletive-studded stand-up on his feelings about Paula Deen, his worldwide travels and his upcoming move to CNN early next year. Since 2005, the celebrity chef and bestselling author of “Kitchen Confidential” has hosted “No Reservations” on the Travel Channel, earning accolades for his brave embrace of worldwide cuisines. No matter how weird, Bourdain will eat it. “We eat and drink what’s offered wherever we go,” he told the Orpheum crowd. Every once in a while Bourdain gets sick, like the time he shared warhog rectum with tribesmen in Namibia. “I knew as soon as I bit into it, I’d be taking... |
