Subject: Foods

• Add The Picnic's Cupcake to the List of Favorites

  As if we needed another killer cupcake, The Picnic in Belle Meade serves a stealth dessert that just might take the cake. There would be a photo of it here if I hadn't sucked down the whole thing in a blaze of sugar-fed ecstasy before I regained the presence of mind to reach for my camera. But you know what it looked like: round, about two inches high, cakey looking, with a swirl of buttercream on top. What most stood out about the vanilla cupcake--which was superior to the chocolate--was i

  June 12, 2009

• Whose Ceviche Rules the Waves?

  Ceviche from Tapatio 2 taco wagon, far out Nolensville Road. Tucked in among the extensive offerings on Cantina Laredo's menu is a ceviche unlike others: it adds capers and olives to the mixture of fish, shrimp and scallops. Their flavor adds some pucker power and turns it into a fresh-tasting, uncooked extension of the Snapper Veracruz dish so beloved in our house. I adored it. Former Bites blogger Lee Stabert and Bites Mistress Carrington Fox prefer their ceviche simple: fish, lime juice,

  June 25, 2009

• New Jefferson Street eatery offers a healthy (for once) dose of soul food

  June 18, 2009

• Belcourt's Food on Film Continues with 'The End of the Line'

  The Belcourt Theatre's Food on Film week continues with The End of the Line, opening Sunday, June 28. For a full schedule of films, visit The Belcourt's website. THE END OF THE LINE (June 28-29) If Monsanto emerges from Food, Inc. as the cat-stroking Bond villain of agriculture, it turns out the fishing industry has its own Dr. Evil: Mitsubishi, which controls some 40 percent of the world's market in bluefin tuna--and which Rupert Murray's documentary accuses of hoarding frozen reserves tha

  June 27, 2009

• Urban Farming, Chapter 12: How's It Growing?

  Talk about watched pots never boiling, there should be a corollary for watched gardens never growing. So little was happening on my shady urban domain that I had given up my morning stroll along the vegetable bed and I was just about to throw in the trowel when, behold, the arugula sneaked up on me this weekend with a third growth. Between the arugula, the mixed lettuces and the cilantro persevering under the shade of a hackberry, I harvested enough greens for four small servings of salad, w

  June 16, 2009

• When the Moon Hits Your Eye: Pizza Places Slug It Out for National List

  We're the US of A Slice of Pizza, if the magazine GQ is right. The June issue, leaving newstands soon, features the 25 best pizzas in the country, a topic guaranteed to start a national argument. Some fine, well-known pizzas aren't on the list, some newcomers burst onto the scene. The most famous pizza I ever ate was at Di Fara, in Brooklyn. My friend Kath, a Brooklynite, got the the recommendation from Chowhound, found on the Innertubez in about 1999. It was probably the best pizza I've ever e

  June 30, 2009

• Zumi gives Hillsboro Village the SATCO of sushi

  July 2, 2009

• Food Fight: Fish Sandwich Smackdown

  Miro District's Market Fish Sandwich In one corner, Miro District Food & Drink's market fish sandwich ($12). In the other, 1808 Grille's Flaked Char Panino ($10.50). In a metaphor that's about to relocate from the boxing ring to the high seas faster than Mike Tyson can KO a killer whale, which fish sandwich is the Big Kahuna? First, a look at the details. 1808: A selection from 1808's so-called Panini Parlor, the flaked char comes with nearly unlimited flexibility, including a choice of bread,

  July 14, 2009

• Pied Piper Creamery Makes Food & Wine's List of Faves

  East Nashville 'scream joint Pied Piper Creamery has made it to the big time, landing on Food & Wine's list of Best New Ice Cream Shops, in the August issue. Meanwhile, ice cream maven Jenny Piper has also caught the eye of a company that sells ice cream ingredients and asked her to develop a recipe showcasing their black walnuts. Through July 31, you can get 50 cents off Pied Piper's new Apple Pie ice cream, featuring caramelized black walnuts, if you download the coupon here. Through the

  July 14, 2009

• Beet Beat: Terra Chips Sweets & Beets

  Once you train your eyes to seek out beets, you can't stop seeing them. They're everywhere, even in the potato chip aisle. I have always championed Terra Chips, the innovative and colorful blend of root vegetables--including my beloved beets--so I was near-ecstatic to find this best-of-the-best pairing of beets and sweet potatoes given the potato-chip treatment. The mission of the Bites Beet Beat has been to showcase summer's ruby-red diversity of beets, which I believe to be an undervalued

  July 16, 2009

• From homemade ice cream to gelato and froyo, it's the Time of the Great Freeze in Nashville

  July 23, 2009

• Sip Café: Where Coffee Fell in Love with Ice Cream

    A cornerstone of the budding Riverside Village community, Sip Café started out as a coffee shop. But it got a sidecar of ice cream added last year, when Mike Duguay, owner of Mike's Ice Cream on Broadway, took over the twee café and added a freezer to the spare accessories of old-school desks. A Michigander who migrated south six years ago to open the Broadway store, Duguay recently relocated his ice-cream manufacturing operations to a warehouse behind Sip, where long-awaited chocolati

  July 27, 2009

• Savarino's Spumoni..So Money

    Don't get Brooklyn transplant Corrado Savarino started on people who make fake gelato. His is the real deal--made with a labor-intensive egg custard--and there's just no substitute. Which means it's been a long wait for the folks who love Savarino's traditional recipe. After the move from Nolensville Road to Hillsboro Village, Savarino's gelato machine was on the fritz for a while, but he finally got things in working order this spring. Now Al Bunetta, Ed Pontieri, Mike Figlio--and all t

  July 28, 2009

• Ockerman's Famous Scallops: Former Councilman Wins Food Network Contest

  ​ Former Metro councilman Jeff Ockerman hit the big time when his recipe for scallop ceviche won the Chairman's Challenge recipe contest hosted by Food Network magazine. According to Food Network editors, "We were swimming in seafood recipes after we announced that the secret ingredient for our February/March 2009 contest was citrus. We got 20 entries for orange salmon alone! But only one dish had judges talking Iron Chef: Jeff Ockerman's scallop ceviche." Director of Health Planning fo

  July 29, 2009

• A Sportsman's Grille alumnus has a line out the door at longtime meat-and-three City Café East

  July 30, 2009

• Mike's Churns up Custom Ice Cream

  ​ Scene intern Caroline Hallemann contributed this post. Do you yearn for eggnog ice cream long after yuletide? Reminisce about Ben & Jerry's long-gone Tennessee Mud? Want to celebrate the harvest with ice cream loaded with fruit from your own orchard? Mike Duguay of Mike's Ice Cream (the creamery that supplies the decadent frozen wares at Sip Cafe in East Nashville and Mike's Ice Cream Fountain downtown) can make these and other dairy dreams come true with his customizable ice cream c

  August 3, 2009

• Ask a metro cop about late-night eats

  August 13, 2009

• Southern Living to Feature Dulce Desserts

  Niche investors, here's a tip: go long on fondant. Fondant is what gives Dulce Dessert's signature dogwood cake its smooth palette for those delicae, elegant blossoms, which are also made of fondant. Fondant is the cake decorators' medium the way spray paint is the graffiti artist's medium. Southern Living magazine paid a second visit to Dulce Desserts on Thursday to shoot the cake after a late winter visit when photographers shot cupcakes and cookies. The story was originally slated for the Apr

  August 14, 2009

• Trent Willmon: "Beer Man" Becomes Sauce Boss

  ​ Country singer/songwriter Trent Willmon has decided to diversify his portfolio. Already collecting mailbox money from several Top 40 radio hits he has either recorded himself or written for other country stars such as Brad Paisley, Eric Church and Montgomery Gentry, Willmon has returned to his Texas roots to create and market his own brand of barbecue sauce. No celebrity dilettante slapping his face on a label of generic product, Willmon is serious about this endeavor. An ex-cattle ro

  August 17, 2009

• The Garden's charm-filled brunch may be just the hook-up Jefferson Street and Germantown need

  August 20, 2009

• Schoolhouse Gardens Rock, a.k.a. How to Make Kids Love Eggplant

  ​ The Wall Street Journal recently posted a story entitled "Vegetable Gardens Help Morale Grow," detailing the benefits of employee agricultural projects at several companies. If you don't believe the author's thesis--i.e. that growing stuff makes people happy--ask my 4-year-old, who recently brought home two Japanese eggplants from his pre-school garden. "WE BROUGHT YOU EGGPLANTS!" He screamed, brandishing two shiny bulbs--one white and one purple--along with his empty lunchbox and a re

  August 25, 2009

• Chef Quick Joins Flyte Crew

  ​ Chef Ashley Quick has joined the team at Flyte World Dining & Wine, where he has been polishing the menu with chef Jen Franzen and pastry chef Erica Waksmunski for the past month. Quick brings a global résumé to the Eighth Avenue eatery, including stints at The Fat Duck in England, Clio in Boston and Bouchon in Napa. Most recently, Quick was executive chef at Bistro 360. He has also worked with chef Tyler Brown at the Hermitage Hotel's Capitol Grille and at the exquisite but short-

  August 31, 2009

• Firefly Produce Stand Makes for a Bright Idea

  ​ After a predictably fresh lunch at Firefly Grille (crab cakes with goat cheese and roasted peppers on mixed greens), I made an unexpected purchase of fresh vegetables out by the hostess stand. Firefly owner Curt Cole treks out to the Amish markets around Middle Tennessee and often brings back more produce than the kitchen can handle. I've left Firefly on more than one occasion with a complimentary watermelon or basket of surplus strawberries. These days, the bushels are overflowing in

  September 3, 2009

• On a crowded corridor of Mexican cuisine, El Mirador offers a few outstanding details

  September 3, 2009

• One enchanted evening in September, chefs Martha Stamps and Margot McCormack will celebrate Nashville's growing appetite for local food

  September 10, 2009

• Bacon Takedown at Aerial

  September 10, 2009

• Udderly Vegetarian: The Wild Cow Mooving into East Nashville

  East Nashville residents John Cochran and Melanie Bhagat Cochran will launch The Wild Cow vegetarian restaurant in November, according to a message on a Google message board posted by manager Anne Gregory. Located at 1896 Eastland Ave.--in the Waldren building, across the street from Rosepepper Cantina--Wild Cow will offer a menu of vegetarian and vegan fare, including cheeses and dairy products from humane and organic dairy farms. The menu is still under development but is likely to include t

  September 10, 2009

• A Real Sweet Tooth

  ​ My late, sainted mother-in-law liked only one sweet food: cheesecake. She only drank one kind of alcohol and that was Bailey's Irish Creme. She preferred rich desserts, and I used to say that she had a fat tooth, not a sweet tooth. Recently the commenter Alwayshungry and I had lunch at Jimmy Carl's Lunch Box. Dessert of the day was cheesecake, which we both turned down. When is the last time that happened at your table? Probably never -- there's always someone swooning over cheesecake.

  September 15, 2009

• Fall Guide: Dinner on the Farm

  September 17, 2009

• It's Prime Time!

  There are lots of ways to measure your own sense of achievement. On a monthly basis, I turn to the class notes section of my alumni magazine and read of my classmates' accomplishments in government, medicine, science, athletics, finance etc. I have yet to send them in any notification of my newly-recognized abilities to eat, type and use a thesaurus. However one thing that slammed home the message of my inadequacy was the day that The Palm Restaurant opened downtown almost a decade ago, one of

  September 21, 2009

• Chef Brian Hainley wins the culinary beauty pageant to run Belle Meade Plantation's restaurant

  October 1, 2009

• Not To Scare You Or Anything...

  ​A team of scientists, engineers, policy experts, lawyers and computer programmers calling themselves the Environmental Working Group has released their Shoppers' Guide to Pesticides. Forty-seven popular fruits and vegetables were ranked based on the EWG's analysis of 87,000 tests of the pesticide content of these products over a seven year period by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the FDA. According to the EWG's website, the worst offenders were: The seven were peaches leading the

  October 13, 2009

• Best of Nashville 2009: Food and Drink

  October 15, 2009

• Arnold Myint merges his culinary whimsy with the vibe of Church Street at Suzy Wong’s House of Yum

  October 15, 2009

• Olive & Sinclair finds a sweet spot for artisan chocolate in East Nashville

  October 29, 2009

• Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Find plenty of delicious stocking stuffers within walking distance

  November 19, 2009

• With a new chef joining a longtime crew, Flyte is quickly becoming a favorite destination

  November 19, 2009

• Holiday Guide 2009: Find plenty of delicious stocking stuffers within walking distance

  November 19, 2009

• Hyndman’s Latin nameplate Lime celebrates two years by launching lunch and slashing prices

  December 3, 2009

• At East Nashville's tiny new eatery Silly Goose, chef Roderick Bailey makes simple food look easy

  December 17, 2009

• Ditch the Dip: Cha Chah-rcuterie

  ​A recent visit to Cha Chah on Belmont revealed a slight course correction on their small plate offerings. In place of several of the various dips that used to populate the menu is a new Charcuterie and Queso Board. As much as I'll miss that white bean and fennel dip, I was impressed with the new additions. The Cha Chah team of Arnold Myint, Sebastian Silbereis and their secret weapon in all things porcine, Larry Carlisle, the Sausage Guy, have created a mix-and-match platter of house-cur

  December 22, 2009

• Nashville Femme Vegan Cupcake Calendar Fundraiser

  December 31, 2009

• Everything's peachy about Green Hills hot spot YOLOS, with one exception: the food

  January 14, 2010

• Reader in Search of Exotic Lipid

  For the third time since I started writing about food, a reader is asking where to find caul fat, the uniquely textured lipid from around animal kidneys. Imagine from worldwide gourmet.com​The lacy texture is ideal for holding together lean ground meat mixtures like meatballs or meat and rice fillings. A Persian meatball was exactly what the first requester was making when she called in the early 1990s. A local Southern girl, she was newly married to a Middle Easterner, and wanted to pr

  January 18, 2010

• Smiling Elephant's Handcrafted food and decor bring warmth—and heat!—to Eighth Avenue

  January 28, 2010

• Don't expect too much of new barbecue joint Drifters, and you might be pleasantly surprised.

  February 4, 2010

• East Nashville vegetarian restaurant shouldn't hide its light under a bushel

  February 11, 2010

• Neighborhood joint, sassy sports bar or culinary enclave? Acorn should pick a personality and polish it.

  February 18, 2010

• Winter Garden Dreaming -- It's Not Too Early

  Daffodil alert! Well, daffodil foliage anyway, has managed to pry open the frozen soil and point up a green middle finger at the last of the winter. And not a day too soon -- has there been as unrelenting a winter as the long freeze of '10? Only garden catalogs made February bearable. Time to plan the urban vegetable Square Foot Garden. Johnny's Selected Seeds has fascinating heirloom varieties that are so tempting. Costata Romano zucchini -- the catalog says it has a nutty taste and is good f

  March 2, 2010

• Gibson Guitar’s new eatery Diana’s Sweet Shoppe serves sweets and sandwiches, with a heaping side of nostalgia

  March 11, 2010