Over the course of writing almost 200 restaurant reviews, I have sampled just about every kind of food imaginable, and I’ve faced the challenge with varying degrees of enthusiasm. There is a world of difference between a bowl of butternut squash ravioli in a sage brown butter sauce and a bowl of menudo, the Mexican stew made from tripe (which is, in case you’ve forgotten, the first and second stomachs of ruminants). Personally, I find a plate of bruschetta infinitely more appealing than a platter of injera, the Ethiopian bread that—in appearance, texture, and taste—resembles a brown kitchen sponge. Nevertheless, I’ll try anything.
But even I got nervous at the sight of dozens of taco hot dogs with blistered, sweating pink skin on a rolling grill at the H.G. Hill Food Fair, held Saturday at the Nashville Convention Center. At the Food Fair, regional vendors exhibit their products, some of which are as familiar as Hostess cupcakes and some of which are as peculiar as, well, taco hot dogs. The public is invited to come and sample these products, pick up coupons and recipes, view cooking demonstrations, and register to win grocery shopping sprees or trips to Cancun.
Taco Franks are the new product being introduced by our friends at Elm Hill Meats. They contain the usual hot dog essentials—chicken, pork, dried whey, beef, and plenty of preservatives—but cheddar cheese and taco flavoring have been added. Each contains 130 calories and 10 grams of fat, pretty normal quantities, as far as hot dogs go. The Elm Hill rep on duty revealed that, on Saturday, kids were really liking them but that they were meeting with mixed reviews from the grown-ups. While I was watching, two women, neither of whom had missed many meals in her life, popped a bite-sized sample of Taco Frank in their mouths. “Mmmmm, that’s really good,” said one. Taco Franks are already in area grocery stores.
One of the other more interesting products I sampled at the H.G. Hill Food Fair was 3-D Doritos, which will not be on the shelves until December, just in time for the holiday office party season. They are three-sided, puffy, and hollow inside, with that distinctive Doritos flavor, and they come in two flavors, Nacho Cheddar and Cool Ranch. When I asked the Doritos rep why they were making 3-D chips, he replied that they consider them to be “fun chips.”
If you’re the sort of person who has fun with 3-D chips, you’ll have a blast with Tennessee Twirl, the new ice cream flavor introduced recently by Purity. It doesn’t take much imagination to guess that this is vanilla ice cream swirled through with a sticky, excruciatingly sweet orange syrup. Go Vols.
There were a few products I really did like. Brummel & Brown Spread is a butter/margarine-like product that is the first spread blended with yogurt. According to the materials I read, it is 35 percent vegetable oil and 25 percent yogurt; I’m not sure what the remaining 40 percent is. I tried it spread on a cracker and found that the yogurt lent a pleasant taste and a creamy texture. One tablespoon contains 50 calories (comparable to margarine) and 5 grams of fat (it beats margarine in that regard). Brummel & Brown will be in your dairy departments in about three weeks.
I also liked the new Newman’s Own offerings, produced by the blue-eyed eternal hunk Paul Newman. (I also liked the Newman rep, who loaded up my bag with regulation-size samples to take home.) There are three new salsas—garlic, pineapple, and peach. She suggested using the latter two on meat or chicken. Also look for Fig Newmans and a delicious new balsamic vinaigrette. All these products, of course, are politically correct.
And, if you’re a displaced New Yorker, you’ll be thrilled to know that Chock Full O’ Nuts, The Heavenly Coffee, is coming to town. The immensely popular coffee in the familiar red, yellow, and black cans will soon be on grocery shelves everywhere. No word on whether the Chock Full O’ Nuts coffee shops will eventually trail along.
Out of Africa
Other than some cases of soft drinks stacked against one wall, you won’t find groceries stocked at Salama International Market on Nolensville Road. Neither will you find, if my three visits are any indication, any women there. While photographer Susan Adcock and I were politely greeted by the staff when we came in, some of the men eating there stared at us as if each of us had suddenly sprouted another head.
What you will find at Salama is an intoxicating smell coming from the stove, three booths, a couple of tables, and a counter where you can study the only available menu. Decor is minimal, and the ambiance is provided solely by the interplay between the other patrons and the staff.
Owner Abdirizak M. Hassan, a native of Somalia, opened Salama about seven months ago. The food is basic, with fewer than 10 choices, most of which involve beef or goat. The one chicken platter was not available on our visits. Because of Muslim dietary restrictions, you will find neither pork nor alcohol.
You can start, as most of the patrons apparently do, with a bowl of soup, a dark broth flavored with goat meat. We were provided with spoons, but everyone else drank from their bowls. Get a plate of sambusa, little deep-fried triangles of pastry filled with ground meat, onion, and spices (just 75 cents each). They are fabulous.
Platters of goat meat, beef steak, or beef tips (sugaar) are served with spaghetti, basmati rice that has been steamed and then sautéed in the pan where the goat and beef are cooked, or with angero, a flat bread made with wheat flour and cooked in a skillet.
Traditionally, Africans eat with their fingers or with a piece of bread for a utensil. Meat is cooked until it is very tender, so there’s no need for a knife. Both the beef tips and the goat were well-seasoned and delicious. We tore off pieces of angero (you can also use the pita) and wrapped it around the meat, then added some chopped lettuce and hot jalapeño sauce. We used our forks to eat the rice but did observe one diner eating spaghetti with his fingers. Platters are priced at about $7; we ordered a half-platter for $3.50 each, and it was plenty of food.
Salama International Market is located at 2521B Nolensville Rd. Open 8 a.m.-9 p.m. seven days a week.
Pie eyed
DaVinci’s, the gourmet pizza restaurant that opened on Hayes Street eight years ago, is changing hands. Owner Tom Pelosi is moving back to California and has sold his popular pizzeria to Frank Garrison, Tom Nebel, and Reed Trickett. Nebel, along with his brother John, owns Jonathan’s in Hillsboro Village; Garrison and Trickett have no restaurant experience, although their wives—Amy and Rosie, respectively—used to manage the original O’Charley’s on 21st Avenue.
The trio has no plans to change the product, which features lard-free and cholesterol-free dough, fresh ingredients, and eclectic toppings. They do plan on doing some cosmetic work and hope to get a wine license; beer is already available.
