Food & Wine's top 10 plates in Nashville
Flip through the January issue of Food & Wine and you'll find a piece called "Nashville In 10 Plates," by Catbird Seat's Erik Anderson, as told to F&W's Kate Krader.
There's a lot of good stuff in there — octopus at City House, the chicken salad sandwich at Coffee, Lunch, Sarah Gavigan's ramen pop-ups — but first on the list is the chicken liver pâté at Lockeland Table.
Now I don't know if Anderson gave them in order or was just listing off 10 things (my guess is the latter), but it was numbered 1 through 10, and that pate was first, and HOLY CRAP DO I AGREE WITH THAT AT NO. 1.
The pâté — $9 on the starters menu — comes in a small mason jar under a layer of Benton's bacon fat with smoked peach preserves and toast.
I tried it for the first time last week, having been tipped off by someone to make sure and order it. I'll go ahead and confess that I might not have ordered it otherwise, because my first reaction to chicken livers is not usually, "Wow, that sounds fantastic." It spread so smoothly on the toast, and I lopped a bit of the preserves on top and took a bite. It's just the textbook definition of umami. (Yes, I know. I used the "u" word. I should go to foodie jail. Sue me.) I might have even elbowed someone out of the way to scrape the last bit out. If we hadn't been in polite company, I would have licked the jar.
The entire list, in a slightly altered (and annoying) slideshow version, can be found here.
