When the great barbecue restaurant Cozy Corner of Memphis suffered a fire in January, it appeared that it would be many months before Memphians would again enjoy the products of their pit. Not so, Cozy Corner fans! Starting Tuesday, Cozy Corner’s pits will be across the street in the newly opened Encore Cafe, which specializes in things like smoothies and veggie wraps. Said Encore owner Monroe Ballard, “We’re helping a neighbor in need.” There’s some good karma. Stop by Encore for some great Memphis barbecue and be sure to thank Mr. Ballard with, say, a smoothie purchase. Goes great with Q!
Month: March 2015 (Page 6 of 8)
A more than decent Key lime pie can be made with regular supermarket limes, but if you want to experience the pie at its transcendent best, try one made with the very rare Key limes. The best place to do that is, naturally, in the Florida Keys. Here are six of the best Key lime pies to be found in the Keys, in all sorts of styles. Some are topped with meringue, some with whipped cream. At some of these places you can get a frozen wedge on a stick dipped in a chocolate shell and, at one, you can have your pie deep-fried. Us, we’ll stick to the straight wedge, unfried and unfrozen.
“I was so nervous about the name that I emailed my rabbi.” That’s Ira Freehof, owner of the newly opened Comfort Diner on New York’s Lower East Side, speaking about his Jewish/Cuban mashup. Said the rabbi, “It’s in good humor — it’s OK.” The Jewbano starts with a roll from nearby Kossar’s Bialys. The roll is stuffed with pastrami from Katz’s around the corner, pickles from The Pickle Guys up the street, roast turkey, Swiss cheese, and deli mustard. Then it’s grilled in a press like a regular Cubano. Now that sounds like good eating! Read more about Comfort Diner in this Jewish Daily Forward story.
For which of New Orleans’ many great restaurants would you wait in line? The New Orleans Times Picayune asked its readers that question, and ten places passed the 50% threshold. Most waitable? 70% of respondents said they’d be willing to wait for a table at Galatoire’s, which is pretty much the only way you’ll eat there unless you want to reserve an upstairs table. Jacques-Imo’s came in second at 68%, and Hansen’s Sno-Bliz, where the wait is expected but relatively brief, came in third, as 67% said they’d get in line for a syrup-soaked Sno-Bliz.
45 maple stops. Two weekends. It’s the Ohio March Maple Madness Driving Tour, as sugaring operations across the state have joined together to present Ohio maple at its finest. Each of the 45 stops will participate in their own way. Here are some of the maple activities you’ll experience depending on which sugar houses you visit: taste sap fresh from the trees and syrup fresh from the evaporator, enjoy an AYCE pancake breakfast, take a sugaring tour, enjoy a hayride or horse-drawn wagon ride, purchase maple products, listen to live music, or enjoy maple products by a fireplace. Sample maple candy, try maple biscotti, a maple latte, or maple wine. See how maple candy and maple cream are made. Continue reading
A Morning Menu of LAF-Style Food News and Stories to Begin Your Day
HAPPY NATIONAL COCONUT TORTE DAY!
Top Pot Opening at Seattle’s Alki Beach
Do You Want to Prepare Your Own Food at a Restaurant?
Best Stoner Cuisine in D.C.
Dining Across Door County WI
Door County, that little pinkie of Wisconsin that juts out to separate Green Bay from Lake Michigan, is known as the Cape Cod of the Midwest. It’s a popular tourist destination with a distinct Scandinavian bent, and some unique dining opportunities. You can find fresh cherries growing throughout the region, dine on Swedish pancakes with lingonberries at a restaurant with goats grazing on the sodded roof, or have dinner at one of the many Wisconsin supper clubs. One meal you should not miss is one of the area fish boils! Read more about dining in Door County here.
Now that marijuana is (sort of) legal in Washington, D.C., the blog DCist presents a timely story on the best stoner cuisine in the District. For instance, as seen in the video above, try a U Street Taco. You start with a chili-topped half-smoke from Ben’s Chili Bowl, then take it down the street to a pizzeria that sells giant slices. Wrap half-smoke, bun and all, in pizza, and voilà! U Street Taco. Or try one of the homemade Pop Tarts from Ted’s Bulletin. Or fried chicken and bacon sandwiched between halves of a maple brioche donut bun topped with buttered pecans at GBD!
The newest Top Pot doughnut shop will open tomorrow morning at 6 a.m., Friday, March 13th, at Seattle’s Alki Beach. The address is 2758 Alki Avenue SW. The store will offer ice cream, sandwiches, and pastries in addition to doughnuts and coffee.
REVIEW
We’ve been posting here at LeftAtTheFork.net lately about the disappearing kosher deli, but let us not forget that many of the same forces that are hitting old-fashioned Jewish cuisine hard — assimilation of the customer base, dying off of the generation that embraced these restaurants, modern health-consciousness, the younger generation’s rejection of the previous generation’s ways — are having a similar effect on the old-style African-American cuisine known as soul food. The situation isn’t as dire but, as the Chicago Sun-Times documented in a 2011 story, soul food restaurants have been closing rapidly in Chicago. Continue reading
Presumably, one of the reasons you go out to a restaurant for a meal is to get out of the kitchen. So it seems a little strange to cook your own food once you get there, yet that seems to be a growing trend. The Old Spanish Sugar Mill and Griddle House in De Leon Springs, Florida has been putting their customers to work for some time, pouring, garnishing, and flipping their pancakes on a grill in the center of the table. You’ll also find eateries where you’ll grill your own steak and even fix your own cocktail. At least someone else does the dishes and grocery shopping! Read more about the trend here.
The Kalamazoo Nature Center celebrates their 50th annual Maple Sugar Festival this coming weekend, March 14th and 15th. Start your visit with a pile of pancakes drenched with Michigan maple. Follow that up with a maple sugar tour through the woods with a naturalist, which departs every 15 minutes. At the DeLano Homestead you can see how sugaring was done in the 19th century, take a horse-drawn wagon ride, and observe blacksmithing, spinning, and fiber art demonstrations. When you catch your second wind, enjoy some ice cream topped with more of that sweet elixir. Continue reading
A Morning Menu of LAF-Style Food News and Stories to Begin Your Day
HAPPY NATIONAL BAKED SCALLOPS DAY!
An Interview with Owners of Portland’s Standard Baking
Sweet Water Cafe Part of Marquette Restaurant Week
VA’s Orlean Market Owner Takes On Partners, Plans Changes
NOLA’s Boucherie Moved Around Corner; Plans for Old Space
Triumph’s beer is pretty good but the food is best left untouched. Add to that the fact that one of us does not enjoy the culinary wasteland of Princeton, NJ and the result is we don’t visit Triumph Brewing very often. But we found ourselves in town, at the art museum, with visitors from NYC, so here we were, sitting at the bar, beers in hand, plate of sloppy, so-so nachos in front of us. Continue reading
Coral and black stone crab claws with mustard sauce… fresh lobster tails… fried fillets of mahi mahi… steamed and spiced Key West pink shrimp… ceviche and fritters of conch… all these prized sea creatures, and many more, are caught locally in the waters around Marathon in the Florida Keys, and they’ll all be available (along with lots of ice-cold beer) at the 39th annual Original Marathon Seafood Festival on March 14th and 15th. If you love fresh, local seafood this is one festival you want to get to eventually. Continue reading
A Morning Menu of LAF-Style Food News and Stories to Begin Your Day
HAPPY OATMEAL-NUT WAFFLES DAY!
Food Giants of Buffalo Program
Q&A with GM of New Dedham MA Shake Shack
Photo Tour of George’s Coney Island Lunch of Worcester MA
Oxford OH Graeter’s Opening in May
“Everybody is going to tell you they taste like chicken. That’s a lie.” So says a local at the Bucket of Blood Saloon in Virginia City, NV, while waiting for the Rocky Mountain Oyster Fry (formerly known as the International Comstock Mountain Oyster Fry) to begin. Traditionalists like ‘em deep-fried but they might also be served with bordelaise sauce or as, gulp, sushi. We don’t recall Hoss or Little Joe riding into Virginia City for a mess of testicle sushi, but times have changed… Continue reading
REVIEW
Do you really love catfish? Do you enjoy working for your dinner? If so, Whitey’s Fish Camp is the place to try fried catfish that have not been farm-raised. These beauties are caught wild, then fried up whole (but headless and skinless), and brought to you until you tell your waitress to stop. Continue reading
A Morning Menu of LAF-Style Food News and Stories to Begin Your Day
HAPPY NATIONAL BLUEBERRY POPOVER DAY!
Coeur d’Alene ID Conducting Food Truck Test Run
15 Great Breakfasts in Ontario County NY
More Info On Giordano’s Evanston Closing
Moomers of Traverse City MI Opens for Season
As soon as late winter days see above-freezing temperatures (and as long as overnight temps drop below freezing) sugar maple sap is flowing and trees are tapped in maple sugaring country. That’s also when the regional maple festivals begin to pop up. This year’s 25th annual Hebron Maple Festival in Connecticut has been postponed from this coming weekend to March 21st and 22nd, because of heavy snow in the area. When that weekend arrives you’ll get the opportunity to immerse yourself in all things maple. Continue reading