Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Events Bloggers, Diners and Restaurants Give Back: Flood Relief Update
Posted by Chris Chamberlain on Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 12:17 PM
- Chocolate-cherry-cake and cream-cheesecake balls by blogger Lani Crump
Organized by Lindsay Landis at her blog "Love and Olive Oil," the event was primarily publicized on the blogs of other local volunteer food writers, and it was a big hit.
A partial list of participating bakers included:
Drinks Tallying the Tea Total
Posted by Carrington Fox on Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 10:29 AM
While it is always a treat to drink an assertive glass of iced tea — rather than the wimpy leaf-water served at so many eateries — that pleasure compounds in the hot, sunny months, when the sweat beading on a tall glass cools the palm of your hand and the frigid brew washes away the tight thirst of a Tennessee summer. And yet, so many places skimp on the tea, delivering a weak steeping of vaguely beige-tinted water.
Are such insipid sippers the result of pound-foolish penny-pinching, sub-par raw materials or simply bad kitchen math? Who knows, but when the offending beverage arrives in a red plastic tumbler, I can only assume there is an element of subterfuge aimed at concealing the color — or lack thereof.
ChaChah's sweet iced chai sets a high bar for bold-flavored tea that satisfies with caffeine, coldness and color. We've also noticed robust brews at Belle restaurant at Belle Meade Plantation and At the Table on 12th Avenue South. And remember that gorgeous tea in Mason jars at Sharon Johnson's Southern Bred restaurant on East Trinity Lane?
Where else have you found the simple pleasure of exceptional iced tea?
Barbecue Memorial Day Smoke Session
Posted by Nicki Wood on Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 10:23 AM
I smoked something new on Memorial Day, something I'd never eaten or heard of anyone smoking. I could almost hear Ted Nugent's wicked laugh at the beginning of singing Terminus Eldorado as I planned on smoking the two big beef chucks sitting in the fridge. It would be a surprising success, a veritable carnivoro-nirvana, or a Terminus Serratus Ventralis. Or somewhere in between.
Using Peg Leg Porker's "Smoke Like a Pro" kit, I mixed up brine from the brine packet, injected it with the syringe (a little extravasation problem, but no harm), then rubbed it with the Porker rub.
The serratus ventralis, aka chucks, smoked two and a half hours to about 190 degrees, and it was a long, nerve-wracking smoke. Because clearly, the kit was made for pork, which is more tender than beef. Especially chuck, which borders on chewy at the best of times.
And I used two chucks, so if it was tough, there was going to be a lot of tough, smoke-flavored meat in my fridge. And I can't really think of anything to do with six pounds of tough, smoke-flavored meat, right off the top of my head.
- Sliced smoked beef chuck
The kitchen gods were smiling Monday, and the chucks came out of the smoker tender and smoky — just look at that smoke ring. More like the Hallelujah chorus than Terminus. The company's motto — Smoke Like a Pro — turns out to be true, even when you're just making it up as you go.
