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Symposium Weekend Begins

Posted on October 21, 2013 by eatsoneate

Its fall, so says the calendar – that season of the year when almost all my senses are awakened in ways I look forward to for the rest of the year. Despite what seems to be our third or fourth Indian summer in Mississippi, there have been some refreshing moments outdoors when my skin felt cool once again. Visually, those summer rewinds may be slowing down the autumn colors on the trees in my neighborhood, but I can imagine how the reds and golds must be transforming the Blue Ridge Parkway near our second home (in spirit, not in bricks) in Asheville, North Carolina. You know I love hearing roaring crowds and ensuing fight songs under Friday night lights and north to Vaught-Hemingway. The crisp, cool air is somehow a purer carrier of the perfumed clouds wafting from grills and smokers which are slowly transforming the other white meat to tender perfection. And every fall brings the Symposium of the Southern Foodways Alliance, a sensation of taste like no other that cleverly teases the other four senses as well. It will take me weeks to tell about it, so sit back, loosen up the top button on your pants, and enjoy the meal.

Though the Symposium officially kicked off on Friday morning, there were several Thursday evening activities available for early-arrivers. Once again, we began with a special food-themed edition of the Thacker Mountain Radio show, taped at the historic Lyric Theater. In keeping with the theme of this year’s symposium, “Women at Work”, author Charlotte Druckman read excerpts from her book, Skirt Steak, about the experiences of women chefs. Film-maker Joe York interviewed fashion designer Natalie Chanin from Florence, Alabama, who told about her experiences making Southern-style biscuits for the inhabitants of an island off the coast of South America. Chef John Currence celebrated the release of his new cookbook, Pickles, Pigs, and Whiskey by telling the tale of “Punishment Soup”, which involved his mother (who was sitting on the front row). The Yalobushwhackers, the house band, sang about cornbread and butterbeans, jambalaya and crawfish pie, featuring Starkville native Jeff Callaway on trombone. It’s always fun to know somebody in the band. And let’s not forget the Gee’s Bend Singers. As the show closed, volunteers brought around little cups of yakamein, a noodle soup (this one with smoked pork) topped with bits of boiled egg, commonly found in New Orleans. Simple but tasty, it was a nice start to the eating part of the weekend.

After the show, several local restaurants offered unique menus especially for symposium attendees. We joined J.J. and John Carney of Eat Drink Mississippi magazine for dinner at Ravine Restaurant. Several miles south of the square in Oxford, Ravine is in a log chalet and just far enough off the beaten path to offer something of a secluded experience. Chef Joel Miller called the menu “Hand Me Downs” and aimed to celebrate the women (including his mother and wife) who had inspired him in the kitchen.

As we studied our course selections, we enjoyed what he called “Breads from my Youth” – little biscuits with sweetened butter and something akin to Parker House rolls. The amuse bouche was a spoonful of beets with goat cheese. I have yet to be converted to beet-lover, but it was a worthy attempt. The Wife’s appetizer was a riff on Oysters Rockefeller. I’m about as much an oyster guy as I am a beet guy, but I had never tried one of these and was terribly curious. These were not on the half-shell as I am told they are normally served, but nevertheless ranked pretty high on my “oyster dishes I might actually order” list, which is a pretty short one. My dish was a carefully layered arrangement of Jamaican jerk chicken, tostones and arepa. I had to look that last one up. Tostones I have had before and have ordered elsewhere – plantain slices, twice fried. Arepas are essentially corn pancakes common to Venezuela or Colombia – these were new to me, but more in name than concept.

For the entrée, The Wife took a trip back to our Middle Eastern days with a mezze plate, which included a unique version of falafel (deep fried fritter of chick peas or fava beans) that I really liked. Since the Caribbean Voodoo shellfish stew was cooked in tomato coconut broth, I was left with the slow braised lamb shank, stewed white beans and gremolata. Lamb is not usually my favorite meat, but that may be because I have never had lamb this good. And I had to get the dictionary out again for gremolata, a chopped herb garnish made of lemon zest, parsley and garlic.

The Wife’s dessert was pineapple cake with coconut sorbet. I abstained from trying a bite due to the proximity of the coconut, but it looked great and she came close to licking the plate. I was quite happy with my Chocolate Almond Napoleon, thank you very much. Napoleons come in all shapes and sizes – they are not all short but confident French leaders. Not to be confused with Neapolitan, the tri-flavored ice cream I favored as a youngster, this is a layered dessert made from puff pastry and cream. Ours had a little scoop of vanilla bean ice cream as a bonus.

The Symposium is over for this year (insert sad face here), but Thacker Mountain radio is still broadcasting and Ravine will keep serving great food – you can even spend the night in the guest cabin. Not a bad way to spend a Thursday evening in Oxford, and it was a great way to start the weekend.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Oxford MS, Oysters Rockefeller, Ravine, Southern Foodways Alliance, Symposium, Thacker Mountain Radio | Leave a comment

Oreo Obsession

Posted on October 16, 2013 by eatsoneate

It will come as no surprise to regular readers (I do like to dream) that I am something of a junkie. But lest you think I use the term junkie in reference to my pharmaceutical day job, let me quickly clarify: I am an Oreo junkie.
If you will allow me to be even more specific, I’m not talking about the kind of junkie that always has to have Oreos around the house, and inhales them one bag after another. Rather, my obsession is more about the drive-by’s through the Oreo section of the grocery store cookie department on practically every visit, looking for new varieties – even if I’ve just run in for a jug of milk. (Especially if it’s just for a jug of milk, come to think of it.) To be fair, I also find myself in the freezer section to see what new, wild consortium of chunks and swirls Ben and Jerry have dreamed up since my last visit. And I will often swing the shopping-cart through the yogurt section because I prefer unusual yogurt flavors. The difference, however, between Oreos and…well…everything else, is that I almost always buy the new Oreo.
There is a certain percentage of purist in me that needs to state that no wild Oreo variation beats the original chocolate cookie with the white filling. That is indeed the standard by which all others are measured. And I will go further and say that the chocolate cookies are a notch higher than the golden versions, but let’s not get too crazy and throw the baby out with the bath water. The golden cookie may not have the eternal qualities of the original, but it’s still a doggone good cookie. So I check them, too.
It doesn’t matter if I’m on a diet. I will save them in a secret place until I fall off the wagon. (A fall which can be predicated by hiding them poorly from myself.) It doesn’t matter if I’m short on cash. The milk can wait. These are limited editions, for goodness sake, and if I put it off I might very well miss my shot. The diet can start again tomorrow, and if I have checks I have money, right?
Let’s narrow down this obsession a bit further. Unlike the holiday shapes of Reese’s cups, I don’t spend money on an Oreo shaped like a football. Pretty much the same cookie to crème ratio, so there’s no point. And the colors? Second verse, same as the first. Winter red, Halloween orange, and Spring yellow might be pretty at parties but that’s about all the advantage they have, and it’s not much. Ditto for the cute patterns and designs on the cookie proper – aesthetic value only. What I’m looking for are completely new taste experiences, which usually manifest in the form of creative crèmes.
One of my favorites is the Peppermint Holiday – chocolate cookie with bits of crushed peppermint in the crème. If I weighed a lot less, I could eat my weight in those. I dearly love the white-fudge-covered ones that also come out around Christmas. (And if I don’t see them, I make them at home.) The only downside is that every season there seem to be fewer and fewer cookies in the box. (Does this mean the Girl Scouts are involved? Hmmm.) Aside from those, I’ll try just about any flavor at least once (except coconut – don’t be silly).
As I am wont to do when I go on one of these rants, I do have one beef that must be aired. I was in a local store a few weeks ago and saw a pack of Oreos for sale at the cash register. Upon more careful scrutiny, I discovered it was not just a plain Oreo, it was “cookies and crème” flavored. Take a breath here, because I’m serious. The quintessential combination of cookie and creme, essentially unchanged since its inception over one hundred years ago, and both the inspiration for and crucial ingredient of “cookies and crème” ice cream, now comes flavored as itself. Can you imagine cake-flavored cake? I almost went against my nature and refused to buy it on principle. But the urge was too strong. I just had to know what an Oreo-flavored Oreo was all about. Guess what? (Don’t get ahead of me here…) It tasted like an Oreo. Shocker.

Full Circle: The Oreo-Flavored Oreo

While I’m complaining, I’d like to know why we don’t get all the flavors at our local stores. I thought it would be great to have an orange-flavored cream, since chocolate and orange are a classic flavor combination. I looked it up and sure enough, somewhere in the world there is a Creamsicle-flavored Oreo. Ditto for Dulce de Leche, Dairy Queen Blizzard crème, and Golden candy corn. There are even organic Oreos. Just not within 20 miles of 39759, if the search function on the Oreo website is to be trusted.
If the Oreo people are reading this, I have another suggestion or two. How about a Mocha Oreo? Coffee-flavored crème with chocolate cookies would be a very nice combo. I am also a fan of raspberry and chocolate together. Strawberry has been done – let’s move on. Or maybe a ground-breaking crossover: hazelnut crème in partnership with Nutella. But if this is too much to ask, I would be happy enough to find the flavors that have already been created. If Starkville has a shot at Gigabit Internet, surely we can get a Creamsicle Oreo to celebrate.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Nutella, Oreo | 2 Comments

The Dilemma of the Menu

Posted on October 8, 2013 by eatsoneate

I am what you might call an avid reader. I always have at least one book going and I try to divide my reading time between different genres of literature. Some genres are easier to read than others – for example, a John Grisham novel in progress will be picked up during any free moment (and I use that term loosely) until it’s done. On the other hand, the books on drug interactions or business leadership, as important as they may be, take much longer to plow through. It may be, however, that the printed media which presents me the most difficulty is the restaurant menu.

Allow me to provide a little context. Suppose you are seated at your favorite Mexican restaurant. You are handed a menu which in weight and square footage is second only to the oversized coffee table book on the art of the Louvre that you picked up in France, the same one for which you had to pay an extra baggage fee just to get it back home. In order to open it fully, the person next to you has to scoot over or duck. Why? Because menus at Mexican restaurants are long. Mucho long. This is why, in my opinion, the menu items are generally given numbers. It’s just easier for our amigos in the back. Ditto for many Chinese restaurants: long and carefully enumerated menus and the buffet to boot.

When these extra-large menus are handed to me, they sometimes create a moment of anxiety. Though I am a big proponent of variety, having two-hundred choices is a bit overwhelming. I may make fun of The Wife for automatically ordering chicken fajitas at any restaurant where chips and salsa are put on the table before the server arrives, but I have my limits, too. I want enough choices to be able to have a different dining experience each time I go to that restaurant if I so choose, but I don’t want to have to spend fifteen minutes reading the menu.

The other extreme is the miniscule menu. Last week we were in Tupelo and ate at a little place called The Neon Pig. Believe it or not, it is not a barbecue joint. I found it via yelp.com and saw a lot of great reviews on something called a Smash Burger. My attention has been turned to burgers of late and it sounded like a good opportunity to broaden my burger horizons. Plus, someone mentioned they’d eaten a fish taco of some sort, so that was enough. Had me at hello, so to speak. My plan for the three of us (Daughter was not on the journey and Son is generally willing to accept my assistance in ordering) was to get a Smash Burger, fish tacos, and something-else-to-be-named later. Named by me, of course.

Neon Pig’s Smash Burger

We arrived and the menu was tiny. (So was the restaurant.) There are essentially ten items to choose from. Ten. One salad. Two burgers. Three sandwiches (three different meats.) Then three more sandwiches under another heading. One dessert: cake. And that was it, save one daily special and two options for the “piglets”. It took about a minute to read. I also discovered in that minute of reading that the fish tacos were not to be found, thus must have been a daily special at some point. We got our own drinks from the cooler (Abita root beer for me) and picked our own chips off the rack (a half dozen flavors of Zapp’s.) And we all ended up ordering burgers. Simple. The downside is the answer to this question: how many times could I go there before I ran out of things to order? Not many. The upside? The burgers (we got a Smash and a Bash) were fantastic – definitely worth having again.

Bash Burger

Another menu-related challenge has to do with those items not on the menu at all, sometimes known as the daily special. I always want to hear the specials. And more often than not, I give them a try. Who knows? It might be some fantabulous combination of flavors and textures that may never again be repeated – and what if I missed it because I ordered something off the menu that will still be there the next time I go? It’s not a foolproof plan – specials can be risky, and I have made choices that made me covet The Wife’s chicken fajitas – but it works enough to keep trying.

There is another category of off-the-menu items as well. They’re not necessarily daily specials, but they are back there in the kitchen, waiting to be requested. Like the time a couple of years ago when I was at the Starkville Café for breakfast and said, “Hey, do you think I could have an omelet with barbecue in it?” The answer was yes, and I have requested it a time or two since. Still not on the menu, but still available for the asking. And still my favorite breakfast at the Café.

Starkville Cafe BBQ Omelet

If I have discovered any relief to this menu dilemma, it is this – my motto, my mantra, my modus operandi…

ASK.

I have said it a bazillion times. You have not because you ask not. Menu has more pages than the Affordable Healthcare Act? Already carefully chose from the online menu then they tempt you with a one-time seasonal special? The rhyming of Smash Burger and Bash Burger throwing off your decision-making?

ASK.

Ask your favorite restaurant guide site to show you the reviews. Ask the server to share his or her favorite item. Ask The Spouse and Kids to order the other things you want and pass them around. Just ask. And enjoy it all.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Bash Burger, Neon Pig, Smash Burger | 1 Comment

Eat Drink Meridian, The Final Tables

Posted on October 1, 2013 by eatsoneate

This week a buddy asked me where I liked to eat in New Orleans. I had to think for a minute because my last visit was pre-Katrina. It’s not because I don’t love to eat there, I just haven’t been able to arrange a trip in a while. What’s even worse? Since I really began paying attention to the food world a few years ago, I have come to learn so much about so many iconic New Orleans restaurants that I feel like I know them – I’ve just never tasted the food. That’s a little bit like how I felt about Meridian until I went to the Eat Drink Meridian event a few weeks ago.

Before I set foot in the Northeast Conference Center and began salivating at the sights and smells before me, I had already heard of several of the vendors from the metro area. Spoonfudge!, which was included in my first report of the event, had been featured in one of my favorite culinary magazines. Weidmann’s, from part two in this series, is a place almost always mentioned when Meridian’s culture is discussed. Now I had everybody in the same room. Cha-ching!

The other Meridian establishment I had been trying to get to for a long time was Squealer’s Bar-B-Que. Not so many months ago I was still traveling to work a good bit and passed the time listening to podcasts. The Southern Foodways Alliance has a vast library of oral histories that can be downloaded, and the owner of Squealer’s Bar-B-Que had been featured in one of them. In the interview, she expounded on her philosophy of barbecue which in a nutshell is: it’s about the meat. Sauce is served on the side to enhance the smoky flavor of the meat, not to cover it up. They also had my heart (in more ways than one) on the dessert selections offered at the restaurant: fried Twinkies with all kinds of toppings and a fried banana pudding.

Of course, when I got to that table I had to know: are you going to have the fried banana pudding? Even I knew that would be a tough thing to manage in a conference room, but remember my motto: you have not because you ask not. They did, however, have their regular un-fried-but-still-tasty-in-its-natural-state banana pudding, and it wasn’t difficult to settle. Remember, though, that it’s ultimately about the meat, and they did have some un-sauced pulled pork which I enjoyed very much. They also did a barbecue quesadilla. You may be thinking, “The barbecue purist in Jay surely scoffed at that.” And you’d have good reason to think so. The truth is, I actually encourage variations such as quesadillas simply because they provide opportunities (or excuses) to eat more barbecue. (By the way, I did go by the restaurant – even in my inflated state – on the way out of town and tried the fried banana pudding, but I’ll save that story for another day.)

Squealer’s Barbecue Three Ways

O’Charley’s was there pushing pie. Peach, apple and pecan were our options. The peach was pretty good, but the most popular (per my query of Mr. O’Charley’s representatives) – Ooey Gooey Caramel – was left at home that night due to lack of refrigeration. I might need to find one of those later. Also representing the chain restaurants was Olive Garden, with a sausage and peppers sandwich. I confess I wasn’t expecting much out of this sandwich, but the worst thing about it was the size: too big to finish. It was like a pizza sandwich with power – all the flavor and elements of a sausage supreme pizza on good bread. A bit messy, but worth it.

Olive Garden should call this the Sausage Supreme Sandwich

In the appetizer category the ladies from Sarabella’s Southern Sauces came to show off their “sinfully delicious, sassy, and divinely Southern” concoctions. They offer Wicked Sweet Chutney (a pineapple based recipe with mustard and horseradish), Sassy Raspberry and Magnolia Basil-Mint. My favorite was the Wicked Sweet, which they suggest serving with ham and biscuits, as a dipping sauce for all kinds of meats, or just poured over a block of cream cheese. Versatile in use and an interesting variety of flavors. Fun stuff.

Sarabella’s Sassy Sauces

Last but not least was the Hilton Garden Inn of Meridian (which happened to share the same parking lot as the conference center) with pulled pork sliders and hot wings. What I found particularly interesting about these dishes was the presentation. The sliders had a baby whole pickle speared to the top bun and the hot wing appeared to be sitting precariously (save its own spear) on top of a divided cup with ranch dressing in one side, celery and carrots in the other. On the plus side, the hot wing was flavorful, but not too hot – just the way I like them.

There are a lot of perks to attending events like this. The food is a gimme’. When there are bragging rights on the line, everybody puts their best food forward. Having it all in one contained space practically within reaching distance just makes life better.

Along those same lines is the opportunity to experience a new normal of sorts. I love the fact that my hometown is evermore booming with a continually expanding variety of eat-out options. I also appreciate that I can drive just a ways down the highway (or stop there on the way to somewhere else) and open up my world to a completely different set of culinary surprises.

The best part, however, may be the people I meet along the way. Before I went to Eat Drink Meridian I could say with certainty that I knew one family living there. Now I know lots of folks from Meridian on down I-20 to Forest, up Highway 21 to Sebastopol, and back. They were fascinating to visit with and by golly, they can cook.

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Eat Drink Meridian, Part the Second

Posted on September 24, 2013 by eatsoneate

There was a roomful of food at the Eat Drink Meridian event. And as a judge, I was expected to eat some of everything. Well, twist my arm right off. I’ll have to admit, it was kind of fun to go up to a table and hear all the choices, then respond, “I’ll have a little of everything.” I wish I could do that more often in real life at restaurants other than Pap’s.

Last week I told the tale of only one side of the room, though I could have easily made a meal there. Alas, it was a square room with food lining each wall – some moderation was required. I did my best.

A legend in Meridian – Mississippi’s oldest restaurant, in fact – is Weidmann’s. Since they opened in 1870 I guess they have had time to develop a new dish or ninety-nine: that’s about the number of different options I counted on the menu they were passing out. For that reason I appreciate the fact that they just brought one thing, their gumbo. I confess that I was a bit skeptical at first. There was no indication that Weidmann’s was known as a Cajun restaurant, and though that is not necessarily a requirement for good gumbo, it usually helps. In this case, however, my expectations were exceeded. It was thick, dark, and chunky with shrimp and sausage, with enough kick to let you know it had some, but not enough to ruin your tongue for later. If I hadn’t had nine more tables to get to, I would have gone back for seconds.

Oldest Restaurant in Mississippi (1870)

Cane’s was there to represent the chicken tender community, but to this event all they brought was their house made drink specialties, iced tea and lemonade. Not one to discriminate, I got a big cup of a fifty-fifty mix and used it as an Arnold Palmer-esque palate cleanser between all the remaining dishes.

Down the row was Ward’s Seasonings and Rubs, who brought pulled pork sandwiches and an array of dips made from their dry mixes. In this case I didn’t try every dip on the table (they were legion) but I got a couple of favorites. And by favorites I mean Harriet’s Favorite and Mama’s Favorite. Those were the names. And apparently the nice lady doing the serving was neither Harriet nor Mama, and she would like to know why there wasn’t a dip named after her – after all, she was there doing the work! To be quite honest, I think Mama and Harriet might be sisters, given the similarities in dip flavor, but I would be very happy to find either one in a big bowl at the next party I attend.

The big winner of the night was at the next table. Best of the Best of Eat Drink Meridian went to Oak: A Southern Experience. Oak is located in Forest, Miss., because where else would you find an oak? As best I can tell from their literature and social media, they don’t just have a restaurant; they also do catering, wedding planning, interior design, and gifts. Sounds like a one-stop Oak. The appetizer that night was marinated cheese – three layers of thinly sliced cheese, marinated in something delicious (I forgot to ask), topped with a little sliver of red pepper, and served with crackers. I know it just sounds like cheese and crackers, but it may be the only time in my life I wanted to go back for more cheese and crackers. The soup (this table was a four-course meal of sorts) was a smooth crawfish bisque which had great flavor on its own – the bits of crawfish were just a bonus. The main course (also a winner, along with best presentation) was a honey-glazed Caribbean jerk chicken. The jerk seasonings gave it spice and the honey gave it a sweet balance. Alongside the chicken was perhaps my favorite side dish of the night, grits and greens. It could not have been simpler: grits cooked with bits of greens (turnip, I think, but doggone it I forgot to ask that, too). The secret ingredient that made them so creamy? Buttermilk. I would never have guessed that, but you can bet I’ll be trying it when greens start showing up for sale on the side of the road again.

If an Oak makes grits in the Forest, you should eat them.

Anchoring the last corner before I turned to find the final row of tables was Kelli’s Specialty Cakes. I’d seen a preview of the cupcakes she was bringing on the Eat Drink Meridian Facebook page the day before. Expectations were high. There were several good-looking creations, but the one I had my eye on was called Gourmet Caramel Apple. I was almost afraid to bite into it. Did you ever see a cupcake (especially in these last few years as their popularity has soared) piled high with buttercream icing and adorned with nuts or candy, only to bite into it and wonder why you just paid so much for a pretty design? This one had a caramel cake base, caramel buttercream icing, drizzles of dark chocolate, white chocolate, and caramel, chopped pecans, and a little slice of green apple for garnish: loaded with potential. Expectations were surpassed! The instant it hit my tongue I was smitten. No way was I going to leave a crumb of it on the table, no matter how full it might make me. And Kelli won the award for best dessert, which was well-deserved.

Gourmet Caramel Apple Cupcake from Kelli’s

By this time I was reaching capacity. Apparently no matter how small the bites are, if you eat a lot of them, you still fill up. (Mental note.) But there was one wall of tables yet to visit. Hot wings, sassy sauces, barbecue and banana pudding were still waiting on me – time to loosen the old belt and answer the call. Stay tuned.

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Eat Drink Meridian, Part the First

Posted on September 17, 2013 by eatsoneate

As a youngster Meridian, Mississippi was very much on my radar. My father, a professor of mathematics at The School Across Town (aka Vallagret University), taught a weekly night class down there for many, many years. I never went with him, but the name at least was very familiar. We must have passed through there on the way to Dauphin Island, but I don’t remember stopping much – Daddy liked to forge ahead. For a couple of years in high school the band competed against Meridian (the football team came with us, too, for support), which meant we were bussed to the stadium and right back home after the battle of the bands. Still not seeing much of the town.

Culinarily speaking, I had heard of the historic Weidmann’s restaurant, most likely from my father. A few years ago I heard an interview of the owner of Squealer’s Barbecue, and I was intrigued. Not only does she espouse the same philosophy of barbecue as I do (it’s about the meat, not the sauce), she is also not afraid to deep fry a Twinkie. Still, though, it was only head knowledge until this week.

A few months ago I received an invitation to be a judge at the very first Eat, Drink, Meridian. The event was the brainchild of Becky Childress, the events manager at the Northeast Conference Center and Hilton Garden Inn. Her idea was to bring together food purveyors from the Meridian area, then let attendees try everything and vote for the best. All of a sudden Meridian became a destination, and I ate well – very well – to boot.

There was no real rhyme or reason to how I chose my first taste. I just wandered until I hit the Spoonfudge table. Their store is in Sebastopol, another place I have heard of but never seemed to get to. But I have over a hundred reasons to go now. The Spoonfudge ladies, Tarah Boykin and Aleisa Johnson told me it was not the place for what you need – it’s the place for what you want. I like.

Made me happy, too…

Spoonfudge is essentially like it sounds: spoonable fudge in a jar. There is actually a spoon attached to the jar for easy spreading on something like, say, your tongue. (And the jars are small enough to keep to yourself – freedom to double dip!) That night they were featuring Fudgey Fudge and Salted Caramel flavors, and had smaller tasting jars of The King’s P-B Nana, Yo Mama’s Blueberry Pancakes, and Spunky Pretzel. Oh, yes – I tried them all. On the website there are about 60 flavors available now and I’m pretty sure the nice fudge ladies told me there were upwards of 120 total flavors that they rotate through their inventory. That’s a different flavor every three days year- round if I’ve done my math right.

On my first trip to the Spoonfudge table I limited myself to reasonable portion sizes, just enough to taste. When I returned at the end of the night, I hit their s’mores bar. A sterno flame set up in a clay pot full of charcoal briquettes (for effect – this was an indoor event) provided the toasting apparatus for a variety of marshmallow flavors. I spooned Fudgey Fudge (a traditional chocolate flavor) on a graham cracker and toasted a plain marshmallow to establish a s’mores baseline. Then I toasted a pumpkin spice-flavored marshmallow and spread Salted Caramel onto the cracker. Yummy. And thankfully I did not set off the smoke alarm.

Since I ate dessert first, a savory table was appropriate for my next tastes. Christy’s Fine Food Catering and Olde Time Sweet Shop from Stonewall, Miss., sponsored the next table. For appetizers they had a trio of hot dips: spinach artichoke, crab, and salmon dill, served with little bitty buttery toasts that were pretty good by themselves. I didn’t expect the salmon dill to be my favorite, but it had a mouth-warming element (from horseradish, maybe?) that really made it stand out from the pack. Christy’s stood out, too, by winning the award for Best Appetizers. After the dips they skewered up a chunk of brown sugar chicken and a couple of tiny just-cooked cherry tomatoes. Sounds simple, but this was one of my favorite bites of the evening. The sweetness of the brown sugar sauce on the chicken contrasted perfectly up against the acidity and tartness of the tomatoes.

Did I call Christy’s a savory table? I spoke too soon. On the other end of the table I succumbed to a vanilla-on-vanilla cupcake and a petit four. They say a way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. True dat. You give me a little plate of petits fours and I’m done. This one was round instead of the usual square, and the cake was cloud-tender. But there was much more to try, so I stuck with petit one.

The table next door, Cater’s Market, had sweet and savory also. Brownies, Oreo bars, lemon bars and pecan bars were all cut up into bite-sized portions and arranged in checkerboard fashion. That was all fine and good, but I had my eyes on a big pot of shrimp and grits. Their interpretation was a little different than I’d seen lately, which is why I keep going for this combo – nobody does it the same. Instead of using the grits as a base and layering shrimp and whatnot on top, this was all tossed in a big soup pot together. The grits themselves were cheesy and were studded with bits of sausage and baby shrimp – maybe a bit of green onion here and there. I have come to realize that shrimp and grits has become comfort food for me. I was comforted.

Doggone. I’m not even halfway around the room yet and I’m already out of words for this week. There is much more good eating in metro Meridian to come. But if you are heading that way this week, I’ve given you lunch, dinner and over a hundred flavors of dessert to choose from. You won’t go hungry.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Meridian Mississippi | 2 Comments

Dog Days on the Prairie

Posted on September 9, 2013 by eatsoneate

If ever there were “Dog Days of Summer”, I think they came last weekend. It was almost as if August was taunting us: “You haven’t heard the last of me – I’m going to make you sweat just a little more before Labor Day kicks in. Ha!” Temperatures bumped up to 100 degrees, with a heat index of Hades, and the humidity…oh, the humidity. While word association with the word “summer” might bring responses like “picnic” or “grilling out”, the truth is this: unless you have some shade and a breeze, eating outside on a Mississippi summer day can be unpleasant. But this weekend brought a couple of events where outside dining was practically unavoidable, and I managed to muddle through them without melting entirely.

Friday night was the first Starkville High home football game of the season. I enjoy going to the old alma mater to see the games, especially now that my own kids are roaming the stands and keeping the beat just as I did a year or thirty ago. For convenience more than anything else, we often have dinner there in the stands. This week The Wife and I both had the hot dog combo. It’s not too fancy – just a hot dog, chips and a drink – but the hot dogs there are nice and plump. No little skinny dogs with an inverted bun to wiener ratio, these dogs have some girth. The drink lost its cool pretty quickly in the heat, but it was still wet and we were thankful.

On Saturday morning, the weather hadn’t changed much. For the last two years on this particular weekend I’ve risen early and run the Prairie Arts Festival 5k, which then justifies my consumption of whatever street food I desire at the festival. This year I didn’t quite have my fat together and skipped the run. But it’s still a festival, and West Point really isn’t that far, and you never know what fun food you might miss if you don’t show up. I couldn’t convince any of my immediate family to endure the heat-and-eat session, so I hopped in the car with my own parental units and we made the short drive to the prairie.

Once we got there, it was clear that we wouldn’t be staying long. Thankfully, most of the food vendors at the PAF are concentrated in one or two places and it didn’t take a lot of effort to survey the scene. I had done some investigating before we left, to see if one of my favorites – The Swine’s Behind – was going to make a repeat visit. This is the fellow I discovered last year at PAF with what he calls Smoke Bombs and I call Nature’s Perfect Food: battered and fried balls of pulled pork. The Bombs look something like a giant hush puppy, but inside the crunchy exterior is a wad of smoky pig goodness. They were there, and it was worth the trip over just for that.

Fried. Smoked. Perfect.

If it had been cooler, I think I would have been a little more ambitious. Funnel cakes, corn dogs and ribbon fries coming straight out of the hot oil just don’t have the same appeal when it feels like you just walked through hot oil to get there. So our goal was to find something unique and something to cool us down. All things considered, we accomplished our goal.

We weren’t really in the market for crafty things, which meant we didn’t walk around and work up much of an appetite for multiple dishes. One meal would have to suffice, but I did have the Parental Units with me to help and they are usually pretty agreeable to munch on whatever I order. A couple of years ago I’d had a good experience at one of the Greek Food booths, so I took a pretty close look there and saw something called Greek Fries. I don’t normally order things like chili cheese fries and the like because of the tendency for the toppings to create a soggy, starchy mess, but this was one of the more unique offerings I could find, and it won my attention. The fries were hand-cut (or at least appeared to be) and topped with fresh tomatoes, black olives, feta cheese and tzatziki sauce. The potatoes were hot and the tzatziki sauce was room temperature (remembering that the “room” was downtown West Point in the middle of the day in late August), but the tomatoes, olives and feta came straight out of the cooler. That little bit of coolness actually nudged this combo slightly towards refreshing. If I were doing the same thing at home I would only add a good shaking of Cavender’s Greek Seasoning to give it just a bit more kick. It was a tasty combination – something I would definitely order even if I had to eat it fast to protect my fries.

Who knew fries were Greek?

On the cool side, there was lots of lemonade to choose from, and the flavors seem to expand every year. The PU’s got original flavor (which I’m told is “lemon”) and I got the mango. I dare to be different. For dessert there was a homemade ice cream booth, and we got a sample (a cupful is not really a full serving in our house) of both peach and strawberry – both good, both cold.

John Deere makes pretty good ice cream

The true test of dog-day misery in the form of heat and humidity is going out at night. Dark should equal cooler, right? After the ballgame involving the local university that makes great cheese I went Krogering. (For those of you who are old enough to remember, let’s pause a minute to allow the “Let’s Go Krogering” jingle to get firmly stuck on your brain radio dial for the day ahead.) It was daylight when I went in, dark when I came out, and there was a shimmering haze of heat around the streetlights. Come on, fall!

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Greek cuisine, Labor Day | Leave a comment

Birthday Season

Posted on September 1, 2013 by eatsoneate

Some birthdays require a party. The Wife turned 40 in May: that’s a party-worthy year. My birthday was last week. 46 just doesn’t have the same pizzazz as 40. It did not require a party. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t eat. Usually birthdays in our household generate a dinner out. I finagled two this year. But I also view birthdays like Wal-Mart views Christmas – it’s not just a one-day event, it’s a season.

The terrible truth is that I woke up on birthday morn feeling a little less than 100%. Talk about disappointing. This is a day when I want to be able to eat with abandon. That doesn’t mean I will – doesn’t mean I ought to– but I should have the freedom to make that choice. So I started off the day with only a cup of coffee. But it was a really good cup of coffee. I had secured a bag of King Cotton Coffee Roasters Ethiopian Sidama coffee beans at the Community Market a few weeks ago, and like so many other good ideas that have fallen prey to procrastination, they were still sitting in my cupboard unopened and un-ground. It was a good day to break them out. I added a little brown sugar and some caramel creamer, and it was truly one of the best cups of coffee I have had in a while. What makes it even more fun is that the beans were roasted right here in Starkville. Off to a good start.

By lunchtime I was on the upswing but still not ready to tackle anything a big meal. Back at home I wandered out to the back corner of the yard (dotted with Lowe’s 5-gallon buckets) that The Wife lets me call a garden. I remembered seeing a couple of orange jubilee tomatoes that had pushed their way out of the blooms despite my neglect. Much to my surprise, they were perfectly ripe – small, but enough to make a sandwich. Oddly, these specimens were a bit tart compared to their sweet sisters that appeared earlier in the season. But they made a great BLT birthday sandwich, hold the L.

That evening we had a lot going on at the hacienda, Son was in Noxubee County at the ballgame, and The Folks were on their way to a family reunion in Tishomingo County. No big family dinner was in store. But Daughter had requested waffles earlier in the week, and it seemed like a good time for breakfast for dinner. I made normal waffles for my ladies, but for myself I added some pre-cooked Beaverdam Farms pork sausage to the batter. I knew I liked sausage with my waffles – why not put sausage inside my waffles and skip the middle-man? It worked.

Saturday morning I was up early and at the Community market – the last of the season. What a bummer. But I made the most of it. Ms. Orene, the neighbor and secret weapon of Lancaster Farms, had posted on Facebook the night before that she’d made a chocolate cobbler. I suggested to her that she bring some to the market the next morning. And she did! You have not because you ask not, people: words to live by. Next on my agenda was a glazed chocolate chip scone from B’s Sweets and Treats, who later provided me with my last glass of mint lemonade for the summer and a loaf of cream cheese blueberry bread we nibbled on all weekend. The culinary demo was put on by Chef Carnelle and his crew from Harvey’s: cheddar grits topped with grilled vegetables, tasso ham, bacon and a tomato cream sauce. It was only 9 am, and I had made my own birthday breakfast buffet.

Chef Carnelle getting my breakfast together

The fam had lots of home projects to accomplish on Saturday and I’m quite certain I worked off all the calories I had consumed in the last 36 hours. A fresh start was in order. Daughter had another great idea – Stromboli’s for birthday dinner. At heart I am a pizza and ice cream guy, so I didn’t need much arm-twisting. And since it was the heart of birthday season I was allowed to order for the table. We started with toasted ravioli (an all-time favorite) then moved on to barbecue pork pizza, Brooklyn Stromboli, and chicken ranchero calzone. Daughter’s meal was an order of pepperoni-and-cheese bites, but she let me have one. And the famous cookie-dough bites closed it all out. Still livin’ large and I fear the scale will show it because the night wasn’t over. Bops helped us fulfill the ice cream portion of the dream dinner. (I know, I know, it’s custard). Bop’s Favorite (a concrete with chocolate flakes and strawberries) is my go-to order there, but I had seen a Tweet earlier in the week about lemon icebox. It was a very tasty diversion.

The Folks were back on Sunday, which meant it was time for the second dinner out. I had satisfied my pizza cravings the night before, but now I had steak on the brain. We went to Harvey’s and I think we had every steak on the menu. Half our party got the special, the gourmet hamburger steak, Son got the prime rib, and I got my long-time favorite, the marinated ribeye. Daughter got the filet mignon. Yes, “Picky Chick” has moved from the kids menu to the fancy steak in a single bound. Of course I had some of everybody’s. I’m the birthday boy, see?? Dessert was provided by the one who birthed me – a giant decorated cookie, which we shared with the server.

Someone asked me Saturday why I was not one thousand pounds (which is twice the usual five hundred that accompanies that question, by the way). I guess it’s because it’s not birthday season every week.

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Dauphin Island, Part the Second

Posted on August 23, 2013 by eatsoneate

My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this past weekend, on the 17th. I think that’s a pretty big deal. And I’m particularly excited that they got married, because otherwise we would not have been able to celebrate that milestone on Dauphin Island a couple of weekends ago. Nor would I have been born, which was pretty important, too – at least to me.

If there is any activity that makes me hungry, it is swimming. I’m not sure that floating around in the ocean or excavating the moat around my sand castle counts as real exercise, but somehow I got pretty hungry anyway. Our lunches in the condo were tame but plentiful – sandwiches, chips and dips followed by two limited edition flavors of Golden Oreos– lemon crème and birthday cake. (Nothing really beats an original Oreo, but I try not to let a new flavor come along without trying it at least once.) As a side, I had a few bites of West Indies Crab Salad I’d picked up at Bayley’s restaurant on the way to the island. It’s basically just crab meat and onions marinated in cider vinegar, oil and cold water, invented by Mr. Bayley back in 1947. Simple but tasty, and also a check mark off one of my eat-it-before-you-die lists.

Our second evening there was family photo night. We all donned our white tops and khaki bottoms and took as many shots as possible before dark-thirty, then caravanned to dinner. Despite the legion of culinary options in Mobile, we chose to forgo the long drive and went across the street to Islanders.

The Family Reed, in official beach photo attire

We started with a big plate of fried crab claws, another family Dauphin Island tradition. I should have been wary when it said “market price”. But hey, we were celebrating. For the main meal I found myself in a menu dilemma. They had shrimp and grits, a dish that always grabs my attention. Even when there are other enticing selections, I always wonder “what amazing rendition of shrimp and grits might I miss if I don’t order it here?” The other option I was considering was a pork ribeye, which I had never seen on a menu before. I figured I was at the beach so the seafood choice was the logical one. The shrimp and grits were decent – they had little bits of Conecuh sausage mixed in, too, which added to the Alabama-ness of the whole thing.

The next morning was play-time in the kitchen. Younger brother made pancake bites – little mini-muffins made from pancake batter, served with syrup. I brought along my deep fryer and made donuts from canned biscuits – buttermilk Grands with a hole cut out of the center. I’m not usually a big fan of canned biscuits, but when you deep-fry them and pour on the glaze, they take on a new personality, one I would like to spend more time with. So we had pancakes that were muffins and donuts that were biscuits. Twisted but fun.

At dinner we went back to the ocean, so to speak. Skinner’s Seafood, just down from the hotel, provided us with local grouper filets – some we fried and some we blackened for fish tacos. We also brought home steamed shrimp, which Younger Brother combined with an oven roast of corn cobettes and the tiniest little potatoes I’ve ever seen, for a spin on a low country tradition. Needless to say, we ate long and well. Again. Thank goodness I got up at dawn to run ten miles on the beach every morning. Right. Dessert was chocolate cobbler and homemade vanilla ice cream which didn’t really want to freeze. It was more like vanilla milkshake poured over chocolate cobbler. But does that sound bad? Nope. It was just fine.

After a quick snack breakfast the next morning we checked out and headed for the end of the island to catch the ferry over to Gulfshores. While we waited, we all got ice cream at the little monopoly shop at the ferry departure point, because it’s never too early in the day for ice cream. Besides, it was hot, and that Coke float was just what Dr. Jay ordered. Literally, that’s what I ordered. They didn’t get it wrong.

Younger Brother and fam headed to points east, while we cut north to Foley. We had some last-minute school shopping to do at the outlets, and had our sights set on Lambert’s Café for lunch. Since we’d just had ice cream, we waited till mid-afternoon to go and the parking lot was still packed to the gills. Once we were seated, they began bringing the “pass-arounds” – fried okra that they spoon out on the middle of the table on a paper towel, and the famous “throwed rolls”. If you haven’t been to Lambert’s before, you need to be a little wary. They throw the rolls. Across the room. They are amazingly accurate throwers, but one toss to Son ended up smacking me directly on the right ear. Another hit Doc on the head, split in two, sending one half spinning directly into Daughter’s hands. The Wife took one for the team directly on the chest. And the food just kept coming. I considered sustaining myself solely on the pass-arounds – macaroni with tomatoes, black-eyed peas, cabbage, fried potatoes with onions. That would have more than filled me up. But I noticed they had deep-fried hog jowls. How could I not order that? The server described them as similar to thick-sliced bacon, and that’s essentially what appeared – a plate full of curled pieces of thick fried bacon. Wow.

Lambert’s Deep-Fried Hog Jowls, with a little sorghum for dippin’

I’d love you to believe that I came home and ate low-fat yogurt and salads with no appreciable dressing for the next week, or that I actually ran those early-morning miles on the beach. But some of you have seen me since that weekend and you know better. It was worth the sacrifice to celebrate such a big day. Happy 50th, Mama and Daddy!

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Dauphin Island Alabama, Oreo | Leave a comment

Dauphin Island Eats – Part the First

Posted on August 18, 2013 by eatsoneate

Everyone should have milestone memories of childhood summer vacations. We had some great ones, but my earliest revolve around family trips to Dauphin Island, Alabama. I don’t remember the first time we went – I was but a wee lad, after all – and without studying hurricane history I can’t pinpoint the year we started going elsewhere (though I think it had something to do with the Holiday Inn blowing into the Gulf). But I do know that it was our standard vacation for several years running. Some of the details are fuzzy, but I remember little bits about playing on the beach, visiting Fort Gaines and the USS Alabama, and hearing on television that Elvis had died – Mama didn’t believe me.

Some of my more vivid memories, not surprisingly, have to do with what and how we ate on those early trips. We always took a cooler and an electric skillet, so Mama could cook in the room. Other regular passengers were Vienna sausages and saltines, since they travelled pretty well. A special treat was the deviled ham – it wasn’t something we ate at home very often. We did eat out at a restaurant in Bayou le Batre called Mary’s Place, where I learned to love fried crab claws. My folks remember chickens and other barnyard animals hanging around the parking lot. Farm to table, indeed.

All this reminiscing is not just random. The memories have been revived because we finally went back. It took us around thirty-five years to do it, but we made it, just in time for an early celebration of The Folks’ 50^th wedding anniversary. Younger Brother and his family, The Folks, and my crew crammed ourselves into a condo which just happened to be on the same property where the Holiday Inn once stood. How cool is that? Pretty cool, if you ask me.

As you have come to expect, we took care to fill up the celebratory weekend with good eating. But we had to get there first. We weren’t able to check into the condo until mid-afternoon, so we decided to stop for lunch in Mobile. At this point on the trip there were eight of us in the caravan: The Folks, The Wife and I, Son and Daughter, and Younger Brother’s dual offspring-ettes, Thing 1 and Thing 2. That meant we had to find a place that would please a multitude of appetites. I found the Dew Drop Inn on my handy-dandy list of must-eat dishes in Alabama and asked Mama (since she wasn’t driving) to locate it. It turned out to be only a few blocks off the beaten path, and was known for hot dogs and hamburgers – convenient and simple, the perfect combination for our travel party.

The Dew Drop Inn has been around in some form or fashion since 1924, and bills itself as Mobile’s Oldest Restaurant. Even more interesting to a food enthusiast like me, it may well have been the restaurant that introduced the hot dog to south Alabama. And though the menu was extensive, I stuck with tradition. The World Famous Dew Drop Inn Hot Dog is a bright red frank (that concerned Thing 2 just a little, but she was able to get past it in the end) on a toasted bun, dressed with chili, sauerkraut, ketchup, mustard and a pickle slice. They’ll fix it however you like, but when I order someone’s signature dish, I like to get it the suggested way. There were a lot of flavors popping in the mouth with this dog, as you can imagine just by reading the toppings – and I thought they all worked well together. Thing 1 got some onion rings (also highly rated) so I enjoyed a few of hers in addition to my fried dill pickle spears. The Wife got a Dew Drop cheeseburger, which supposedly is the one that inspired Jimmy Buffet’s love for burgers during his boyhood years in Mobile. History can be fun, especially when you get to eat it.

World Famous Dew Drop Dog

Younger Brother is a food enthusiast much like me. Whenever we get together, we end up swapping ideas and stories about places we have been and what we’ve eaten there. Together we have discovered some memorable places, but on this trip we chose to maximize the family time by preparing most of our meals in the condo. What did that mean? It meant that together we brought enough food to last the ten of us about a week. We stayed three nights. But we had lots of variety, and we didn’t go hungry. It worked for us.

Night one was Mexican night, primarily sponsored by Younger Brother and fam. He brought chicken and ground beef and all the fixings for tacos; I contributed some green onion sausage from Jerry Lee’s Cajun grocery in Baton Rouge – it was as close as I could come to chorizo on short notice. For dessert I had a grand idea: all three families would bring an ice cream freezer, we’d make three different kinds of homemade ice cream on the first night, and eat it all through the weekend. Alas, that didn’t happen, but we did whip up a freezer of strawberry to cool off our palates after the spicy dinner. It lasted, oh, about one night.

The next morning we had one of our two meals out. We had done our research, and found that the place with the best reviews on the island was breakfast at the Lighthouse Bakery. We kinda’ went crazy. The signature pastry was the cinnamon roll, so we got a few of those (plain and pecan). On the savory side, we snagged a drove of little pigs-in-blankets and some bacon-wrapped twisted rolls. (Breakfast equals pork, right?) A few cheese and raspberry-filled danishes, lathered in decadent icing, brought us back to the sweet side along with a couple of fruit turnovers. That gave us enough energy to pack our snacks for the beach and start thinking about lunch.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Dauphin Island Alabama | 1 Comment