Gabby Gabby Hey!

Gabby's Burger and Fries
493 Humphreys St
Nashville, TN
615-733-3119

BBQ Burger with Cheddar, extra Bacon and fries = $6

I found the burger made the way I want it! Hooray!!! My specific specifications for the perfect burger is locally grown (within 100 miles of my house) grass fed beef, cheddar cheese, slightly sweet and spicy bbq sauce, smoky bacon, onions and pickles on a good bun, preferably toasted. I really like the way this combination of flavors tastes, and Gabby's has it. The gig is that every made to order burger comes with a side of potato fries, sweet potato fries, chili or slaw, and all that is less than $6. All the fried potatoes and sweet potato fries are made to order, so they are nice and fresh and delicious. Really really good. I mean, Really Really good! And, here is something else that I really like about Gabby's, Doug, owner and chef, makes wasabi mayo, which I like to dip my fries into. Doug put in a lot of wasabi, so there is a nice tingly flavor to the mayo. He also has regular mayo, ketchup, mustard and Shirachi hot sauce if you want those to put on your burgers or dip your fries.

Gabby's is located at the corner of Chestnut and Humphreys, right across the way from the Nashville Sounds Greer Stadium. While Chestnut St is under construction through this area, it is not so easy to find Gabby's. Here is how to get to Gabby's during the road construction from 8th Ave.
From 8th Ave turn onto Chestnut St.
Follow the Chestnut St detour signs until you get to the intersection of Humphreys.
Turn Left onto Humphreys (ignore the road closure signs!)
Drive down Humphreys until you cannot go anymore due to the Chestnut St construction
Turn left into Gabby's parking lot.

Here's how to get to Gabby's from 4th Ave.
From 4th turn Right onto Humphreys.
Drive past road closure signs.
When you can't go anymore due to Chestnut St construction
Turn left into Gabby's parking lot.

Now for the news about hours of operation: M-F 10:30 am - 2:30 pm, and this is a lunch business only during the work week. If you are working in a different county, and only have 1 hr for lunch, you may be pushing it to commute and eat here, so you maybe SOL. But, recently, Doug has added additional hours onto Friday, so you may have more luck than SOL. Doug is keeping Gabby's open until 7 pm for a dinner crowd only of Fridays. For me, it is almost worth taking a vacation hour off from work to catch lunch at Gabby's because the burgers and fries are so good. The other thing is that Gabby's will make take-out orders, but the fries don't keep their lushous crispy outside for long, and they get a little soggy.

This is what I know about Gabby's . I am still thinking about the time I can get another Gabby's burger, it is just that good.

It's Hot Hot Hot!

400 Degrees
2012 Clarksville Pike
Nashville, TN
615-244-4467

400 Degrees hot chicken wings, baked beans,
coleslaw and potato salad

Seriously, there is no trickery or added red color to the photo above of my hot chicken. All I did was shrink the photo, add my blog address and post the photo on this blog. 400 Degrees hot chicken is red red red red read hot. I really like chicken wings, and I really like 400 Degrees 200 Degrees chicken wings. How it works at this hot chicken joint is that you can get 4 types of spicy hot chicken. You can get 0, 100, 200 or 400 degrees. I am not a fire eater, so 400 is out. I tried a lick of the 400 once, and it burned like a SOB, and I just could not drink enough milk and water to make it go away. Then, there was the action of touching my tearing up eyes with the fingers I touched the 400 degree chicken with... and my eyes started to water and burn for many many minutes. No need for me to experience pepper spray to the eyes, I have tried 400 Degrees hot chicken. 200 is as hot as I can go, and the photo shows what 200 degrees looks like. There is an underlying spice flavor to the hot chicken, not just spicy hot. I like the light crunchy fried chicken batter 400 Degrees uses. The hot chicken is not at all like saucy Buffalo wings, it is completely different with the spice and chili pepper flavors permeating through the chicken. Hot chicken is its own thing. I really like the flavor, color, texture and burn I can get at 400 Degrees.

Here is the deal about this place, it is small with a couple tables and a counter with a couple chairs, so one is best to order over the phone and take out. Don't worry, the chicken will travel well to where you need to go. If you don't like spicy hot food, there are plenty of sides without spicy hotness, and hamburgers. I have never gotten a burger, I don't know how they are, but 400 Degrees was smart enough to put non-hot burgers on the the menu for the friends and family who just cannot take the heat. There is 0 degree chicken, which I have not tried either, but I am guessing it is just plain fried chicken.

How to find this place, it is a little tough because it may be hard to see the sign from the road and the slightly confusing intersection. This is how I would go from West End Ave.:
Take 18th Ave North, it turns into D.B. Todd Blvd
When you are about to take fork onto Clarksville Pike which is a slight left,
there is a small brick building in front of you,
and there it is on the left hand side of the building,
and there is a tiny sign above the door.
I drove back and forth on Clarksville Pike for mile or 2 back and forth, back and forth until I realized 400 Degrees is in that little brick building off on its own

If you want 400 Degrees hot chicken, you gotta get there early, they are only open until 7 pm Tuesday through Saturday. You are SOL Sunday and Monday.

Sandusky Siam

Siam Orchid
2045 Cleveland Rd
Sandusky, OH
419-621-5955

4 pm - 11 pm
open seasonally (May - October)
closed when Cedar Point is closed for the winter.

Thai crispy duck with red curry

I have been spending about 1/10 of my time up in Northern Ohio because I work up in Sandusky, OH periodically, and I have some very sick relatives in Cleveland, OH. Just because I have to work, or attend to relative, doesn't mean eating decent food goes out the window. I have become a regular at Zinc Brasserie because it is one of the best restaurants in Sandusky, and I am going to become a regular at Siam Orchid because it is one of the best Thai places in Sandusky.

I heard about Siam Orchid from a waiter at Zinc Brasserie. I was sitting there asking if there were any good Asian food in Sandusky. Because Sandusky is a summer vacation destination, there are the trapping of bad chain restaurants and a few mediocre Chinese buffets. The chains and buffets seem to appeal to vacationing families because it is economical to feed a family when kids eat at a discount and sometimes free. Since I am not vacationing while in Northern Ohio, I am not interested in the chains or buffets. The waiter suggested I try Siam Orchid and raved about the crispy duck with curry sauce, he said it was his favorite. His relatives own a Chinese sit-down restaurant in the old part of Sandusky (not on the Rt 250 strip) and he did not necessarily recommend that place to me because it is an Americanized Chinese restaurant. He said there is no good Chinese food in Sandusky, and I would have to go to Cleveland for that. He rattled off a couple places to go in Cleveland, how to get there from I-90, and one Thai place in Sandusky.

He suggested I try Siam Orchid restaurant in Sandusky, and try try the crispy duck with curry sauce. He told me that this Siam Orchid is owned by people who came from Thailand, and relocated to Strongville, a suburb of Cleveland. In Strongville they have a Thai restaurant called Sweet Mango, and they work throughout the year. The family likes to be in the Sandusky area for the summer, so they wanted to open a restaurant in Sandusky during the summer. They opened Siam Orchid. They found this seeming strange restaurant location in the South Shore Inn, a seasonal motel near Cedar Point. The Thai family also wanted to capture some of the Cedar Point vacationing money, so they are open from 4 pm - 11 pm for dinner in hopes to feed hungry vacationers as they go to their motel rooms after a full day at the amusement park.

carrot decorative cups

This restaurant being open so late is great for me. There are days that I work late, and just can't make it out for dinner until 9 pm. There are late night dining options with fresh veggies in Sandusky. There are bars and bar food, there are drive-throughs, and that is about it. It is a slice of heaven to have Saim Orchid available for dinner after 9 pm.

So, I have been to Siam Orchid twice, and there seems to be a lot of only locals eating here, and not really the vacationing crowd. I got chicken satay (chicken on a stick) served with two dipping sauces: sweet and sour and peanut. There were four skewers to the plate, and we all really enjoyed the chicken with the sauces. I got crispy duck with red curry over fresh veggies (as recommended) and that was another big hit at the table. The dish is 1/2 duck that was deboned over a bed of fresh sauteed veggies and curry of choice. I personally like red curry, so that is what I got, and it is not very spicy hot, so I can taste the flavors of the curry spices, not just face burning heat. The duck here was slightly over cooked, but I forgive that because it was better than anything I can make, and better than what I can get here in Nashville. The duck was made to have crispy skin with a thin layer of duck fat. The one thing that Thai and Chinese food have in common is understanding the quality of texture and the taste of fat in food, as well as sweet, salt, bitter, sour and umami. The right amount of duck fat is revered in Chinese cooking, and this Thai duck curry dish I had seemed to capitalize on the right amount of duck fat too. Like in Chinese Peking duck, or Cantonese roasted duck, this duck had a nice crispy textured skin which I like. I have attempted to make crispy Cantonese roasted duck a few times, fanning, hanging, pin sticking, and roasting duck, and I have only once made it correctly with buttery meat, a nice thin layer of fat remaining, and crispy orangy brown skin. I stopped attempting after thant because I wanted to end on a high note. Also, it is a multi-day process to do it right, and I just think that it is better just to buy it out and save myself some time.

Anyway, back to dinner, another got pad thai, and the other got a seafood basil stir fry. All dishes came with a side of rice. We were all happy with this meal. The Thai iced tea was strong and refreshing. I only took a sip of it because I just can't have too much caffiene at night (it keeps me up), but my pal who drinks caffiene all night and day enjoyed his tasty iced tea. There is a small list of beer and wine, nothing to right home about, but it isn't necessarily common to have alcoholic beverages at East Asian restaurants. On a late summer evening, a light beer was refreshing, and helped cool some of the fiery spice of Thai hot food.

Go give Siam Orchid a chance. It is the best Thai food you will get in Sandusky. Yes, there is at least one other "Thai" place in Sandusky, and it is not that good. Siam Orchid is a comfortable restaurant, the owners are nice, and they have crispy duck. What more would I want?

Allium

Allium

501 Main St
Nashville, TN
615-242-3522

the sunset

Allium is the onion genus. This restaurant is named after the onion. On every dinner plate comes a stalk of scallion as a garnish. I appreciate the kitch of it, but next time, I will try to remember to tell them to leave off the decoration, and not waste the scallion on me. I just don't know what to do with the stalk of scallion, do I put it on the what table cloth, do leave it on the edge of the plate, do I put it on the small bread plate to take up valuable bread plate real estate, do I eat it? I am certainly not taking bites of a stalk of onion because I do not enjoy that blast sensation. The table cloth seems like a bad idea, and I would not like someone to do that to my table cloth. The bread plate is already taken up by bread and a knife. I guess the edge of the plate, but I would end up fussing with the stalk of scallion. The scallion cannot go on the forward edge because my fork hand and arm and my knife hand and arm need to have that area clear. Half of the back edge of the plate is needed to rest my knife when I am not using it. There is only one small part of the plate edge up on and to the left that this garnish can reside. As I said, I fuss with the scallion, pushing it close to the edge as possible without sending it off onto the table cloth, but I keep pulling it further onto the plate because I get nervous that it is going to fall of the plate, but the scalliion then becomes too close to my food I want to eat, and I don't want to eat the scallion. I just need to remember to ask the waiter to not garnish my plate because it makes me focus on the scallion rather than the food and wine.

the bar

We went to Allium for Matt's birthday. We like Germantown Cafe, the big sibling of Allium, and we thought we try Allium. I made the reservation on OpenTable, commented that it was Matt's birthday, so the manager gave us a perfect seat for two next to the window that overlooks downtown. We watched the sunset over our fair city. As we watched the sunset, our fabulous red head waiter told us the sunset looked great out the front door of Allium, and suggested we take a photo. I did take his suggestion and took a photo, and you can see how beautiful it was. The price point at Allium, like at Germantown, isn't that expensive for what you get. Most entrees are less than $20, and they come with a starter salad, which is less than most entrees at Red Lobster, and Red Lobster charges an extra $1 or more for a sad iceburg lettuce side salad.

For the birthday dinner, Matt got a newish menu item, it was steak marinated in soy sauce, and I started with a basket of house made chips with a mustard dip, and I got scallops in a parm cream sauce. The chips were good. I would like to have a thinner shave of the potato chip, but I am guessing they have thick chips to stand up to the cream sauce, as chips are served with the scallops in cream sauces as a side. Just preference, I did not care for the honey mustard dip that came with the chips, I would have rather had an aoli or Belgian herb tartare sauce. The steak was mistakenly soaked in La Choy soy sauce (aka liquid salt), a soy with no depth except salt. If it were me, I would have used a real Chinese soy sauce that has hints of earthiness, caramelized sweetness, pungency, and some salt. The salt was distracting and took away from a good steak. The scallops were in cream, the cream was good, I love cream and milk fat, so I was pretty happy with that. We finished off with a pot de creme which was deceptively light and chocolatey.

duck breast (different visit)

After we were done with Matt's birthday dinner, extra chips boxed up to take home, Chris Lowry stops by the table and asked us how everything was. We told him about the salty steak, and we liked the space a lot, and even better than Germantown. Chris took time to figure out what was wrong with steak and he told us about the La Choy soy sauce mistake. We told Chris that the view is just really nice from Allium, and I like the space better than Germantown. Then Chris looked at me and said, "I know you!" and then something about the blog post I did about Germantown during the 2008 Nashville Originals Restaurant Week. I made some remark about the slacker who was working our table at Germantown and how unusual that is. Ever other time, we had different people working there, and they were spot on. This time around, I forgot to tell Chris that, on top of what I listed in the blog post, the kid never refilled our water, never came back to ask up if we wanted more wine, which of course cuts into the bottom line at any restaurant. Two more glasses of wine at $10/glass is $20 and that could have been another $4 in tip. The kid did not do it, he lost 2 drink profits for Germantonwn and he lost out on a bigger tip. Move the drinks and make more profit, and the slacker didn't do it. Chris was a bit defensive because of my Germantown blog post, but he really shouldn't be. Germantown is really a well oiled machine for the most part, except for that one exception of one person who wasn't working for the best interest of Germatown Cafe. At anyrate, at Allium, we had the red head dude who was the complete opposite of a slacker. Red was so knowledgeable about the Allium all French wine list, recommended pairings for us, and was sure to make sure we had all the wine we wanted with our meal.

All in all Allium is a beautiful restaurant, and I voted for it to be the Best New Restaurant 2009 in the Nashville Scene Best of Nashville Reader's Poll. The price point is equal to and sometimes less than all those chains. There are quite a few reasonable wine by the glass as well. The red head really provided some of the best service in this town, and he seemed to really enjoy telling us about the menu and wine available to us at Allium. Red really seemed to have a zest and understanding of an overall great dining experience. I would go back again, and maybe sit at the beautiful bar, and take in another lovely sunset.

Want to be Watenabe

Watenabe
Watanabe Sushi & Asian Cuisine
1400 McGavock Pike
Nashville, TN 37216
615.226.1112

yellowtail sashimi on shiso and diakon

We are definitely learning our way around Nashville better. Like, Haywood Lane is the same one on Nolensville Rd as is the one that crosses I24. Trinity Lane is the same one from Clarksville Pike on the west side of town as it is the one crossing Gallatin Pike in East Nashville. And, Murfreesboro Rd starts nearly in downtown Nashville, goes right by the Nashville Airport and the Smyrna Airport and then straight into Murfreesboro. So, to my surprise, McGavock Pike over by Opryland Hotel is the one of the same that crosses Gallatin Pike in East Nashville. Opryland, the Nashville Airport, Haywood Lane in Antioch all always seemed so far away, but I know better now by driving the surface roads and understanding how the streets and road of Nashville are not so mysterious, and these places are not so far away, as long stay off the highways. So it goes, we have gone to Inglewood, from west to east on Trinity Lane, to try Watenabe's Restaurant in the trendy Riverside Village strip mall. Really, East Nashville and downtown are not that far apart.

As the story goes, there is a "Boston seafood" restaurant in East Nashville that started a sushi bar. The "Boston seafood" part was really bad, and anyone from coastal New England all have said how bad the seafood is there. We all felt a bit burned by this place. Early on, this place was valet parking in my friend's private parking lot, and we showed up at my friend's place asking them what they were doing. They valet was telling us to leave if weren't eating at this joint, and it was fun to tell them to leave the private property that did not belong to the bad restaurant. The parking all got straightened out with an agreement, and the bad seafood cooking restaurant opened a sushi bar.

The sushi bar chef is a young guy named Watenabe from Japan and he made his way to Nashville as a banjo player. Watenabe loves that s**t-kicking country music (as he said to M, and Watenabe was pointing to one of his shoes), and he really wanted to be a s**t-kicking country music banjo player in the heart of Nashville, the land of s**t-kicking country music. As for most people that come to Nashville thinking they are going to be s**t-kicking country music stars, it did not work out for Watenabe in that way. Instead, he became a permanent resident and became a kick-ass sushi at the sushi bar associate with the bad "Boston seafood" restaurant. When M went to visit our friends with the private parking lot across the way, and wanted sushi, they would see if Watenabe was working, and then got some kick-ass sushi. But, if Watenabe was not working, never mind, it was anything else but that place.

Now, that "Boston Seafood" restaurant bankrolled and opened Watenabe, the kick-ass sushi bar where Watenabe can run the sushi show.

the Watenabe bar

We have gone to Watenabe's for sushi and sashimi only. It reminds me of the sushi I had in Boston 30 years ago, when and where sushi was an art form, and the ingredients mattered. The ubiquitous California roll is not generic at Watenabe's. The California roll is made with real lump crab meat, not that particle-board fake crab stick. The salmon roe is from Alaskan salmon, not from the world market. Salmon fishing in Alaska is highly regulated to protect the salmon supply. It is becoming harder and harder to find salmon roe in the market because of the demand for salmon eggs. There was a piece on NPR last month about Russian fisherman over salmon to satisfy a Russian and world market demand for the salty orange salmon eggs, and how it is possible that the Russians over fishing may cause the extinction of wild salmon. For some recreational fisherman who used to use salmon eggs as bait are probably wondering why people would pay $10/oz of salmon eggs in a restaurant. At anyrate, Watenabe's salmon roe comes from the USA regulated salmon industry. I really like that shiso that the sashimi is served on. I have not had any shiso in Nashville before, so it is really refeshing, and I love that flavor. I remember shiso from my favorite sushi bar in Boston, where they used shiso leaves to decorate and separate the various nigiri on the plank. We also have tried the fried rice, and it was tasty. It is a bit pricey in relative terms to any other Asian restaurant in Nashville, but it seemed to be just a bit better than anywhere else, and way better than the horrible Chinese takeout places.

I will say that Watenabe's is priced right in my opinion, but that also means some of the sushi may cost more than what Nashville is used to. But, the ingredients are so much better and real at Watenabe's as opposed to other sushi bars in Nashville. I am not surprised at the cost of some of the fish he sells, and it is rightfully so.

I like the decor of Watenabe too. One side has circular high back red leather booths like an old fancy steak house would have, like the original Brown Derby had in the big band and the original I Love Lucy days. These booths are contrasted with really stark regular tables painted black with an urban hip bar and sushi bar. It is a cool place to go. I also like the wide range of patrons. There are people who look like my grandmom, young hipsters, bow-tie wearing professor types, my farmer friends, and me. Watenabe seems to be able to appeal to a wide range of people.

Last thing, a bit of really smart advice from our friendly waitress about online shopping. Her tip is to get a pre-paid credit card and fill it with an amount you need to make an online purchase. The pre-paid card is not attached to anything bank account. If the online purchase or the pre-paid card gets hacked, there isn't anything to hack because there is no money on the card, and no credit limit on the card to hack. She is a smart one!

Scooby Doo and the Happy Valley 5 Colleges in MA

Is it true? I just heard that the Scooby Doo main characters were created by the inspiration of the 5 colleges and universities in the Happy Valley of Massachusetts. I thought it was a good match, but is it just a coincidence like the Dark Side of the Moon and the Wizard of Oz? Was it about the 1960s Happy Valley with a puff of smoke rising out of the Mystery Machine Van every time they opened the door? Well, Snopes, and other urban legend websites says coincidence, and the characters were not inspired by the 5 colleges, but I like the coincidence. Here is how it goes:

Scooby Doo - the party animal of UMass
Shaggy - the Hampshire College guy who always has the munchies
Freddie - the Amherst College smart and preppy pretty boy
Velma - the braniac turtle neck wearing Smith College woman
Daphne - the rich, sweet, pristine Mt. Holyoke College girl

Those of you who went to school in the MA Happy Valley have to admit there is a coincidence here for the stereotypes of these schools. I admit it, and I kind of like it.

Vigilance Vitality Virtue to a Tea

Photo from V3Tea.com


V3Tea Vigilance Vitality Virtue in Tea

Are you in Nashville? Need any tea? Need to know how tea is so good for you body and mind? This is the tea for you. Contact V3Tea and let Jonathan know what tea is needed for you life. He can be contacted at V3Tea@aol.com. Check out his V3Tea website for more information.

Papusa for my tummy

Pupuseria Salvadorena
340 Welch Road
Nashville, TN
615-293-0437

the sign

How you find this place is go to the street just north of the Walmart on the corner of Harding and Nolensville Rd, and turn onto Welch Street, and there it is. There is not much back there besides the pupusaria and the back side of the Walmart, so you should not have a problem spotting this restaurant.

papusa queso con loroco

Again, Fire Eater brought me to pupusa heaven! Fire Eater calls me up and said that I needed to meet her, her family and friends at an evening social, then we had to go to this pupusaria afterwards. Dumb me, I ate the pizza at the social event, and wasn't completely hungry going to the pupusaria, next time I know better. Fire Eater got another friend who is fluent in Spanish and to come with us. Good thing because this place is not dumbed down for the gringos, the menu is completely written in Spanish, and I believe the food served here is of old world family recipes. Fluent knew almost everything on the menu, and she was very helpful with ordering.

papusa yam and sugar dessert

I got a pupusa queso con loroco, some sort of aqua fresca of a fruit I do not know, and some sort of yam dessert with a carmelized sugar sauce. A loroco is a large flower bud, like a squash blossom, that is grown in El Salvador, and it is illegal to import these flowers into the USA. There is a lot of food like mangos (all but one stringy lack luster mango until mid-2007) that are illegal to import or bring into the USA, and the loroco is one of those foods. Loroco can come into the USA frozen or jarred. I believe the jarred lorocos may be pickled and salted. I did not taste sour or salt, so I am guessing the Pupusaria used frozen loroco in my pupusa. The loroco was minced into green pieces and mixed with cheese, then stuffed in the masa pupusa, then skillet or griddle fried to crispy goodness. The loroco tastes similarly to an artichoke, a flavor I like a lot. Our fluent friend, she ordered some sort of agua fresca of some fruit that does not grow around here either, and I do not recall the name of it, but I got the same as she was having. It was sweetened with cane sugar. The other upswing about the meal is that this pupusaria sells Mexican Coca Cola made with real cane sugar, not the domestic HFCS stuff. And lastly, Fluent ordered a pupusa dessert for the table that may or may not have been on the menu. I believe she said it was pounded yam that is smashed flat, fried, and then drizzled with carmelized sugar syrup.

Oh, these pupausas are so dang good! They are smaller than the other joint I have been to in town, so I wasn't overly stuffed, but just right eating one. They are only $2, so a pupusa, a drink and a tip is only $5 total. Amazing huh! That is right, lunch with tip is less than $5.

What other thing I noticed is that Pupuseria has mostly patrons who look like they are of South or Central American decent. I noticed that some of them ordered pupusas, and some of them ordered soup that came in huge bowls. The spied the soup to have a lovely orange broth and there were pieces of corn on the cob in the soup. Piping hot torillas were also served with the soup. I will have to go back and try the soup. I don't read or speak Spanish, so I don't know what menu item the soup was on the menu.

Last thing about my favorite new Pupuseria, is that this is a family owned business. It it possible that 3 generations work here. I believe the elder generation was working in the kitchen. The younger generation working the front of house speaks English as well as anyone, and she is willing to help describe the menu items I did not understand. I love restaurants like this, with a 2 or 3 generations working at the family restaurant. This is the same heart warming story that has played out for last century in the USA. Many immigrant families have come to the USA trying to make a living, and they decide to do what they do best, cook their family recipes. Italians, Greeks, Chinese, Koreans, Vietnames, and El Salvadorans are examples of this. I love it, and it makes for a delicious landscape.

Fun Fun at Fonfon

Chez Fonfon
2007 11th Ave South
Birmingham, AL
205-939-3221

mussels

Frank Stitt III, James Beard Award Winner, and restaurant chef and and owner is my Alabama food hero. I was working with a few people in Birmingham, AL. We had a little break between work and dinner time everyday, so I went out jogging from my hotel everyday I was there. I jogged for about 10 blocks in 3 directions (the 4th, the security guards said it was a bad idea) and found nothing more than a chain sandwich shop, a chain burger shop, a hospital, a lot of abandoned buildings, and then the hotel complex restaurants (which were not that good). I was also with 2 vegetarians and one omnivore, so I didn't know what we were going to do to find food for them. Then a small area in downtown Birmingham, AL called 5-points showed up about 15 blocks south of my hotel. There they were Frank Stitt's restaurants. They seemed to have sunbeams focused right on them, while other areas where I had jogged were a little more gray. Frank Stitt's restaurants are a haven in the food desert of Alabama.

I have had the pleasure of working in Alabama a lot, from Huntsville all they way down to the Gulf Coast in Gulf Shores, and everywhere in between. To name a few places where I have been repeatedly are Huntsville, Selma, Montgomery, Florence, Anniston, Guntersville, Oxford, Gadsden, Mobile, Gulf Shores, Orange Beach and Birmingham. The unfortunate part about much of Alabama is that it is a food desert. It is hard to eat right, and find nutritious healthy foods in restaurants. It is hard to find a salad made with salad greens that are not iceberg lettuce. On some occasions it is hard to find a fresh vegetable. It seems that Alabama is inundated with chains that serve manufactured food. That is what sets Stitt apart from all others.

So, we looked at our Stitt options and walked into Chez Fonfon. Chez Fonfon is Stitt's casual bistro option, with his other 2 being Highlands Grill and Bottega. The price point at Chez Fonfon is no different than any sitdown chain (like those with Apple, Tuesday or Friday as part of the name), so the cost fits into my travel budget easily. Highlands and Bottega classically need reservations because they are so popular, but Chez Fonfon is designed so you can just walk in off the street, and have a nice meal. The menu at Chez Fonfon was definitely French Burgundy inspired. Offerings include mussels, country pate, cheese, charcuterie, fresh vegetables, soup, salads, steak frites, and other entrees. I was so excited. Since I like smaller tasting plates, dim sum, I ordered off the leftside of the menu from the starters and salads. I ordered a salad, steamed mussels and a charcuterie plate. Fresh green salad! Ah fiber from a non-canned source of vegetable! Wheeee! The steamed mussels were (do I dare say) better than any mussels I had in Brussels, Belgium - a city known for mussels. The steaming broth made up of herbs, garlic wine were delicious. I wanted to eat up the steaming liquid like a soup, but I did not. We did get a couple baskets of bread, and I did take liberties with bread to dip and eat, dip and eat the broth. The charcuterie plate included homemade pork sausage links, dried salami, pickled beets, pickled baby pickles, olives, sliced egg and potatoes with a side of coarse grain mustard. I just let bites of the housemade salami sit on my tongue to take in the flavor. Also, for my vegan co-worker, and almost vegan co-worker, they were not disappointed either. There wasn't a vegan or vegetarian option available, but we told our waiter the situation. The vegan co-worker, for health reasons, could not eat meat, and the waiter said that the chef would be happy to create a special vegetable dinner plate for them. Their plate included a lovely green, tomato and fennel salad, grilled asparagus, beets, fresh Frenched green beans and shoe string french fries. It was just lovely. My vegetarian co-workers were happy with their meals because it wasn't just another iceberg lettuce, mealy tomato, mustard sandwich on white bread.

Just note, if you are ever in Birmingham without a car, there is an inexpensive bus (that looks like a street car), I believe we paid $0.50 per ride from our hotel to 5-points. This bus runs expressly to take hotel guests to 5-points and back. It was a 15 block walk from my particular hotel in summer in the deep south, so that was not going to work out for us (too hot) so the bus was a great option. There few taxis this city, so getting around this way is not always an option. Ask the front desk for the route map for this bus, or get a business card of a cabbie and call the cabbie to take you back and forth the cost of the ride and a big tip.

This is the ultimate

image from http://ruhlman.com/books.html

The ultimate book, Ratio by Michael Ruhlman. If you cook, go get one.

Now, on to perecting the 5 mother sauces.

I can't believe it is butter!

When we at at F. Scotts, our waitress said that the butter they serve is made in-house. I asked how Chef Uhlhorn makes it, and she said it was super easy. They just put cream in the food processor, and it makes itself. Then she continued on to say that industrial butter has added MSG to it. Because the added synthesized industrial MSG is a relatively small amount to the butter it is in, the MSG does not have to be put on the label. I was grossed out, so I set out to learn how to make my own butter from cream from a local organic free range, grass eating cows.

my finished product - naturally yellow butter

When cows are free range, eat lots of green grass, their fat is yellow and dense, not white and fluffy. White fat is from corn, grain and cow chow fed cows in feed lots. So a lot of industrial butters are light in color because those cows don't ever see grass. My butter, however, is very yellow because my original cream source is from free range, grass fed, antibiotic free, yellow fat cows.

65F heavy cream with temperature gauge in it

So here is how I made the butter in 5 minutes. 1st, start with 65F heavy cream. I put my thermometer in it, and wait until it turned 65F. 2nd, I pour the cream into my food processor with the blade insert.

less than 2 minutes in the food processor using the chopping blade

3rd, I turned on the food processor. I watched as dense whipped cream was made. Then I watch as the butter fat separated from the buttermilk, and then I hit stop. That took about 2 minutes. 4th, I poured off the buttermilk, which looked and tasted like skim milk. 5th, I transferred, the butter solids into a big bowl, and washed the butter with ice water. That is, I poured about a cup of ice water into the big bowl of butter, and then I mashed the water and butter together and poured of the cloudy water, and then repeated until the water ran clean. I used a heavy wooden spoon to mash the butter with the water because a flexible spatula was not strong enough to cut through the butter. 6th, when the water rinse runs clear, and all the water is mashed out of the butter, I sprinkled some Kosher salt on the butter and mashed it in.

boiling corn to use the butter

7th, I found things that would need butter to eat them. I boiled up corn I got from the Nashville Farmers Market, sent the man out to buy some bread and fish. I sauteed the fish in butter at the bottom of the pan, and used the butter on the bread and the corn.

dinner - bread and corn - the carriers for the butter

I did a taste test of my homemade butter made from local organic, free range grass fed cows cream, and some Costco butter my friend had. Oh, my butter was so flavorful, and the Costco butter was oily, waxy, lighter in color, and not as flavorful.

To make your own butter, follow the directions of the following video like I did. It takes only 5 minutes. Mmm mmm mmm real butter tastes so good!


The video from legourmet.tv where I learned to make butter

Simply the Best

Tom's Ice Cream Bowl
532 McIntire Ave
Zanesville, OH
740-452-5267

what Tom's looks like from the street

Years ago, my foodie friends in Pittsburgh decided to try ice cream at the top 10 ice cream joints in the USA. What a great idea, I thought! I too wanted to try the top ice cream in USA. Back about 11 years ago, July 24, 1998, th USAToday newspaper printed and listed the top 10 ice cream joints in the USA, and it is still confirmed by americasbestonline.net website today. I have not had all 10, but I have accomplished ice cream eating at the top 5. The top 5 are as follows:

1. Tom's Ice Cream Bowl, Zanesville, OH
2. Herrell's, Northampton, MA
3. Bassett's Ice Cream, Philadelphia, PA
4. University Creamery, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA
5. Dave and Andy's, Pittsburgh, PA

I have had the pleasure of being in school near, or live near the fabulous #2-5. I went to college near Herrell's and what ever money I had left over at the end of the week, I would treat myself to some Herrell's chocolate ice cream. It was rich, creamy and dense. Oh, those were the days. I worked near Bassett's, the longest continuously running ice cream counter in the USA. On occassion, I walked over to Reading Terminal Market and straight to Bassett's for a little chocolate ice cream treat during the summertime heat in Philadelphia. Oh, and the University Creamery, when I was at Penn State, the old Creamery location was in the center of campus. Twice a week, I had to walk from one corner to the other, and walk straight by the Creamery. On Thursday, on my way back down from my 2nd class, I would stop into the Creamery for an ice cream cone, or the fresh yogurt. Oh the yogurt mixed with strawberries was the original smoothy, before the smoothyking chain ever happened. The PennState Creamery has taught a lot of the world famous ice cream makers to make ice cream, as an example Ben and Jerry learned their craft from PennState. I love PennState, love the Nittany Lions, and I love thinking about the PennState Creamery tasty goods. And for #5, I have had chocolate ice cream at Dave and Andy's near the University of Pittsburgh. When I go on my food tours of Pittsburgh, Dave and Andy's is a must for my tastebuds. Again, the chocolate ice cream is dense, dark and rich. Mmm mmm yum!

hamburger and onion rings

So, for years now, I have been wanting to go Tom's Ice Cream Bowl in Zanesville, OH to cap off the Top 5 Best Ice Cream joints in the USA, but I never happened to be in Zanesville. I mean, Zanesville isn't really on the way to anywhere, and I had no real reason to ever go to that part of Ohio before. So, a couple weeks ago, I found myself needing to go to Zanesville. Yup, Zanesville, OH. If you are not from OH, you probably don't know this small town, there isn't much there beside a strip of chain restaurants and big box stores, and this little gem of a diner and ice cream parlor.

The menu is simple, burgers, fries, Campbell soups, and a few other items. To drink, they offer Phosphates, and then other dairy and soda items. Phosphates are carbonated water with flavored syrup and a little phosphoric acid to make the drink more fizzy and give the finish a nice acid bite. The lime Phosphate I had was delicious! I got a hamburger and onion rings, and I was happy with both. The hamburger is about the size of a regular (small) McD's burger. Tom's does not serve anything with tomatoes, so the burger toppings are lettuce, onion, pickles and special "homemade mayo". Tom's probably does not make mayo, but rather I believe a little horseradish is blended into the mayo to give it a little kick. The onion ring portion was not overly excessive either, so I think the meal was well proportioned. Not too much and not too little, and it left me with enough room for a scoop of ice cream. I, of course, got chocolate. It was not overly chocolate-y or sweet (just the way I like it), but it was a very dense chocolate ice cream with a high fat content. The next time I was at Tom's I got a chocolate milkshake. I really like it too because it was made to the correct consistency, so I can either drink it with a straw or use a spoon. Because the ice cream is not too sweet, just perfectly sweetened, the milkshake was perfectly chocolate-y and the right amount of sweet. To make my time at Tom's even sweeter, I ended my stay by taking away a dozen pieces of Heggy's Candy. I got 12 handmade haystacks that I am still eating today. Heggy's is a local chocolate maker, and you can just tell that these taste better with fresher ingredients than anything you get in the big box store.

lime phosphate

Yeah, now that I had the top 5 ice creams, I was thinking that vacations may have to be focused on the best food in the USA. I will have to browse the americasbestonline.net for ideas of where I should go for my best food vacations. I am thinking burgers, hot dogs, or maybe pizza. Which list should I try next?

All that Jazz

F. Scotts
2210 Crestmoor Rd
Nashville, TN
615-269-5861

Grilled Bonnie Blue Goat's Cheese in Benton's Country Ham,
Crispy Squash Blossoms, Fava Beans and
Cherry Tomato-Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette

We have been trying to eat earlier, so we don't go to bed on a full stomach. Somewhere along the journey, I heard if you eat late, you convert that food into fat stores rather than use it as fuel. Also, we have been spending a lot of time in the Eastern Time Zone, so if we eat dinner at 8 pm Eastern, it is really only 7 pm Central. That is why we don't generally eat at F. Scotts because if we eat at F. Scotts, we want to do the Nine Dine. After 9 pm, the food menu becomes 1/2 price (except for an occasional special dish will be full price). What a deal. In visits past, I got lobster ravioli with lump lobster meat and saffron sauce for less than $15 with the full price being twice as much. At Nine Dine, we still got the same great service as 1/2 the price.

Benton's Country Ham, crawfish hollandaise with
asparagus and and a fried poulette egg

When we went in this time for Nine Dine, we saw most of the menu was local and local organic from some of the farms I source my food at home. If you recall, I did an "Eat Local" challenge for a week, when I ate only locally grown foods from 100 miles of my house. When I do cook at home, for a 3rd year in row, I am still using at least one ingredient or more that is local, within 100 miles. What I discovered is the local meats, veggies, fruits, bacon (OMG! so dang good!), eggs, milk, and corn meal all taste so much better than any industrially made foods. So, when I saw that F. Scotts' Chef Will Uhlhorn has made the same turn to local purveyors as I did, I was thrilled and knew I had to blog about this meal.

Here is a little tidbit of info that may stun you for a second, as it did me. Industrial butter pats, and industrial butter that is in bricks from restaurant food distributors have MSG and yellow dye in it. The MSG is a small amount, but none the less, MSG created in a lab as an additive (not naturally occurring MSG)! So, when you go out and want to slather the butter onto you bread at industrialized chain restaurants, it is because of the irresistible flavor enhancer MSG. So, Chef Uhlhorn makes his own butter from heavy cream he gets from one of the local organic milk providers. I couldn't tell how much better the real butter tastes at F Scotts. Thanks Chef for making real butter for me!

Side of Truffle Parmesan Pommes Frites

Anyway, this night, looking at the list of farms, Bonnie Blue, Doe Run, Emerald, Glen, Farmer Dave, Hap Heilman, Howell, Hungry Gnome, Timbertop, Benton's Smokey Mountain, Delvin and Eaton's Creek, I was impressed. I know about 1/2 of these farms and farmers, even been to see the farms, and I feel very comfortable eating these foods from these farms. I like to eat tasting plates rather than one large meal, so I got a bunch of appetizers instead of a large plate. In addition to the above photos, I got a salad made with grilled shrimp, avocado, Boston Bibb lettuce and a lemon sherry vinaigrette and crispy feuille de brek. The lighter than tempura squash blossoms were delicious. The local country ham wrapped goat cheese was a local organic take on Italian cheese wrapped in Parma Ham. I like them both, but I really like the local take on it because it tasted so authentic, real, and heart felt. The local country ham and local poulette egg was just a fantastic dish too, and it was such a great local organic take on eggs benedict. The dish I really liked was the pomme frite served in a Belgian kind of way. The frites this night was made with white truffle oil and Parma cheese, served in a paper cone. They are rich, and definitely are enough for 2 - 4 people to share. We brought some home, and the suggestion to heat them up was to grease the pan with some homemade, local or Amish butter, spread the frites on the pan evenly, and then heat in the oven until hot and crispy again. We did just that, and it was so dang good!

Yeah know, I really like F Scotts and Chef Uhlhorn's food. I still am thinking about that lobster ravioli (over a year or 2 ago), and I am still thinking about the frites as some of the best food I have had ever. I also want to say, every single time I have been to F Scotts for Nine Dine, I have had excellent service, excellent wine suggestions, and excellent food. I have had only delicious dishes here (not to be confused with SNL's Delicious Dish).

Food fit for a King

King Market
and
Laos Thai Cafe
1801 Antioch Pike
Nashville, TN
615-333-3103

(next to Walgreens and Dollar General)
Closes at 7:30 pm

for the answer to the mystery food,
scroll down to the bottom of this post.

the sign

The sign says so -KING. This is food fit for a king. The situation here is that the Asian market has a dining space in the back with a kitchen. There is a separate cafe pay station from the the regular market. There is also another funny thing, this market and cafe venue also has a jewelry store too. If you were looking for some squid, soy sauce, yams, noodles and quail eggs, you can get them here, and stop into the cafe for a little snack, the go get yourself some 18k gold. It is your one stop shopping! I am actually impressed with the visual cleanliness of this Asian market. The rows of dry goods are neat and tidy. There is a very neat and tidy produce section. There is a neat and tidy refrigerated and frozen section. There is a very neat and tidy jewelery shop. The cafe is also neater than some other East Asian restaurants I have been to in other parts of this country.

chicken larb

So the story goes, I get this energized phone call from my fire eating friend and her family on a Monday after they ate at King Market and Laos Thai Cafe. They insisted on me meeting them at King the next evening after work to dine there. They called a bunch of their other friends to join them on Tuesday. So, we all show up, and walked into the market an followed the signs for cafe hanging from the ceiling. The cafe was filled with a lot of East Asian customers, us and a cop. This is a family owned business, and the table staff are the the 20 something aged kids of the cook and dish washer. The kids are so friendly, and are so happy to see people enjoying their food. The kids took a lot of time with us to describe the dishes we had questions about. They were so nice! I should know they were nice because I actually went back 3 times this past week! LOL!

pad mee kao

We ordered fresh coconut juice, fresh squeezed cane juice, spring rolls, tom ka gai, chicken larb, pad mee kao, green curry, papaya salad, and pad sen lon. When we were done with the coconut juice, they broke open the coconut for us to eat the white juicy flesh. What fun we had with coconut. The cane juice was sweet, but not so over the top sugary. It was refreshing. The spring rolls are like fresh Thai or Vietnamese rolls, but the dipping sauce is just a bit different, it is Laos style dipping sauce. The tom ka gai was made fresh for us, and was enough to serve 6 people. Don't worry, if you don't finish it, they have to-go containers for soup. Or better yet, bring your own quart jar and take your left overs home with you. The soup was really smooth, not a lot of salt was used, not a lot if fish sauce was used, so I enjoyed it. As the young lady dropped of the larb to our table, she mentioned that the chopped chicken meat also includes chicken livers. The dish was spicy and yummy. The pad mee kao is made with dried rice noodles, and is the most popular dish they serve. This one was spicy spicy spicy too! Pad sen lon is made with clear bean thread noodles and some Thai basil, spicy spicy spicy too! But, the dish of resistence was the papaya salad. It was julienned green papaya mixed with red and green hot peppers. One taste for me, I started to sweat. Fire eater is the only one who could eat this dish. She turned a little rosy in color, but she ate it like a regular green salad. I have come to understand that Laotian food is even more firery than Thai food! If you go and order Laos style hot, you are asking for a burn more than any other burn you have ever experienced. It is hot!

the mystery food - Longan Fruit

Here is a little secret. It is true, and you may have heard of this before. If you go to an East Asian restaurant, like a Chinese restaurant in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles (I know by experience) there is a hidden menu that only people in the know. There is at least Asian restaurant in Nashville that I know of that has a secret menu. So, for the ones who don't know about the menu, they are relegated to the nasty sweet and sour Americanized food, and none of the real deal. The upswing about King is that all the English menu items are authentic Laos and Thai food. But, King also has a secret menu. They have noodle soups with a broad homemade rice noodle that looks like udon, and the broth and toppings are like tom yum and vegetables. King will also cater to the "old world" clients who gather up some items from the grocery store, and mom in the kitchen will cook up whatever Laos or Thai dish the want. On Friday and Saturday, they have some East Asian delicacies that you cannot find anywhere else in Nashville. They offer balut, Laos style chitlins, pig feet and eggs in black vinegar sauce, house made roasted duck and an East Asian style roasted pork that I have not had in over a year. They also offer a variety of mangos, now that the stupid USA import ban has been lifted on all great mango varieties except for that one reddish green one.

I really enjoyed the hospitality on all 3 visits last week. I enjoyed the menu items I opted for, and eventhough they are menu items, they were not "dumbed down" nor Americanized. They were straight forward Laos family home cooking. Next time, I am going to order from the secret menu and get a spicy noodle soup made with house made noodles. I am also going to try and get a roasted duck too. The ducks go fast, so I better get there early!

Guess the food game

Name this food!

The food pictured above are almost round. The diameter of the typical round thing is slightly larger than a quarter coin. The round things are tan with darker tan speckles. I would say the coloring is a bit like a russet potato. That is another hint, this food picture above has nothing to do with russet potatoes. The leaves and stems are not eaten. What is this food?

Wait for the next post in the next couple of weeks for the answer.