Lannae's Food and Travel

I hope you like my food and travel blog.

May 1, 2011

Local Organic Travel


grass fed short ribs, mashed potatoes and gravy

I had to go to Maryville, TN the other day and I was not expecting much from this small town. This town is a suburb to Knoxville, and Oak Ridge, TN, and Maryville, TN as of 5 years ago, had the highest average standardized test scores of all school systems in TN. I suppose that means Maryville, TN is raising some smart people. Maryville, TN is a small 15 sq mile town at edge of the Great Smoky Mountains. There is a motel complex on the edge of town, and I assume it gets pretty packed during the spring, summer and fall when there are the visitors to the Great Smoky Mountains, because the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited national park in the nation with nearly 10 million visitors every year. I had never been to Maryville before, and I really enjoyed seeing this town. The library is wonderful, and the downtown area has some locally owned shops and restaurants that gives this small town an Ashville feel. I was hopeful when I went to look for places to eat.

As many know, everything I cook in my house has a local or local organic component to everything I cook in my house. I don't normally eat locally or local organically when I eat out because it is nearly impossible to do that at most restaurants, especially at big box chains. When we rolled into Maryville, TN late in the afternoon, we spied a shop called the The Market, and we decided that we were going to go to The Market for lunch the next day. I am glad we did. Wow! The Market has a substantial lunch counter with meat dishes created from Laurel Creek Farm, a local organic, grass fed farm. When I went in for lunch, I had to get the braised short ribs with mashed potatoes and gravy. The short ribs were braised with a mirepoix, possible some red wine and the result was a buttery soft piece of beef with a deep umami flavor. It has been a long time since I ate mashed potatoes, and I remember that I love mashed potatoes! There are plenty of other items to choose from for lunch, like salads, sandwiches and other hot items. There are also options to takeout these foods for dinner at home. What a great thing, the food here is delicious.

Indeed, the next time I am in Maryville, I am bringing a cooler to bring back wonderful aged beef from from The Market meat counter which sells Laurel Creek meat. I am bringing bags to bring back other delightful canned and jarred goods like specialty sauces, preserves and other wonderful ingredients to cook with. Delicious. The whole place is just delicious. I can't wait to go back to Maryville, and visit The Market.

The Market on Urbanspoon

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2 Comments:

At 5/1/11, 8:37 AM, Anonymous Alicia@ eco friendly homemaking said...

Lannae I am so glad that you wrote this post. We love the town of Maryville and I am so excited for us to check out this place since we are heading to Gatlinburg soon! It sounds really great.

 
At 5/2/11, 11:40 PM, Anonymous Anxiety Cures said...

I might try heading to Maryville next time and try that Market.

 

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