Drifters Visit Heats Debate on the Geometry of Nachos

This week's dining review features Drifters, the latest installment in restaurateur Matt Charette's east side eating empire. Our experience with Drifters' slow-cooked meats was a little unev...

Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Buttermilk Pound Cake.

Dieter’s beware. This is the real deal knock-you-over-and-steal-your-purse kind of pound cake. (Hi Tam, sorry about your purse) This recipe is definitely not good for your body, but I swear on a pile of unicorn puppies that it is undoubtedly amazing for both your mouth and your soul. UNICORN PUPPIES!!!! I don’t know why I decided to try [...]

BBQ Pitmasters Finale

I think that this is why they have blind judging:

Vegan Drinks Nashville

Vegan Drinks Nashville is happening!  Come to the Bound’ry on Tuesday, February 2nd from 7-9 pm to meet, network and socialize with other Nashville vegans.   The Bound’ry will be working with us on vegan drink specials and appetizers.   If you’re vegan or even veg-curious, I hope you’ll join us! For more information on Vegan Drinks, click [...]

The Soup of the Devil

I response to my chili post, A Man's Gotta Eat fan Rebecca sends us a wonderful article about "the soup of the Devil":

Frank and Jesse James reputedly downed a few bowls before pulling some of their heists -- and supposedly spared one town because of it. O. Henry spun a short story around it, and Will Rogers allegedly judged a town by its quality. It's said Eleanor Roosevelt tried -- without success -- to get the secrets of one recipe, and that Lyndon B. Johnson remarked that the kind concocted outside his home state of Texas was "usually a weak, apologetic imitation of the real thing." Not even Elizabeth Taylor was immune -- she had whole quarts packed in dry ice and shipped to Rome while she was filming "Cleopatra."

Read the rest here.

Snow Cream

There are things that are common in other parts of this country that aren't so much in the south and when we southerners encounter them, it's with bemusement. Really thick yankee accents. Lacrosse. Men wearing Speedos. Snow.

We like snow, though. We celebrate its unusual arrival by buying lots of milk, bread, and eggs; by shutting down schools and daycares. By finding random objects and testing them as sleds...flattened cardboard boxes, errant political signs, pool floats and innertubes, plastic bags. And by testing our ability to drive on ice (spoiler alert: we really suck at it).

But some of us celebrate by staying inside and drinking hot chocolate (and apparently--based on the run at the grocery--having french toast). And by making snow cream! When I was a kid, this was one of my mom's favorite things to do. Though I have to admit that I was hardly enthusiastic back then. Any time my mom made something on her own, I felt cheated out of a storebought version (birthday cakes in particular). I was kind of a rotten kid at times. Now that I've matured, I can appreciate such things and yesterday, I took the opportunity to make snow cream for the first time!

To make snow cream, you need a big ol' bowl of reasonably clean snow, some dairy or dairy-like product, sugar, and vanilla. Fortunately, when I sent Mr. Eats out in the first part of the snowfall to get formula for Baby Eats, I reminded him that he needed half and half. If not for that large container of half and half, we might have been forced to use something I shall not mention. Anyhoo.

Snow Cream
One large bowl of snow (not packed; scrape away any layer of ice on top to get to the powdery stuff)
1/2 to 1 cup milk, cream, soy milk, or whatever milk- or cream-like product you have
1/2 to 1 cup sugar (to taste)
vanilla

Mix the milk, sugar and vanilla (about three drops per half gallon of snow) in a small bowl and then stir the mix into the snow. If you need more sugar or vanilla, pull a small amount of snow cream out of the bowl and melt it slightly to mix it in (do not put vanilla into the snow cream or you will get frozen spots of nothing but vanilla; it won't mix). And then you have snow cream!

Lazziz

Reminds me of Manilow

The name Cabana reminds me of the Barry Manilow song Copacabana, the hottest spot north of Havana. I actually liked that song as a kid, it was fun listening to it and jump around the living room to the beat. I actually just played the song again right before I started typing this. The Copacabana Club in New York has this jaunty tune playing while one views the photo gallery, menus and services available. Again, I could not resist getting up from my chair to do a few turns and disco poses while the song was playing through my computer speakers. Listening to the song just took me back for a moment to my childhood in sunny So. L.A., CA, when I didn't have a care in the world.


So, going to the Cabana restaurant during restaurant week was an all around great surprise! I had not gone to Cabana before because of wrongful notions about the place. I had wrongfully thought Cabana might be cheesy like the Copacabana song, it was mostly about the bar drinks and not the food, that it was all about the singles scene, and the food needed a lot of help. I was wrong, wrong, wrong. Cabana is not cheesy. There are really interesting seating areas for larger parties of 8 - 10, as well as smaller tables out of the hub-bub for 2. There is nothing cheesy about the interior. Cabana does have a good list of mixed drinks to offer, but it is not only about the drinks, there is a nice balance between fun creative bar food, entrees and the bar. I wouldn't say that Cabana is all about the singles scene either. Rather I would say it is a good place for gatherings to get together after work, after a round of golf, or just to get together. The biggest nice surprise is that the food was really tasty!


We went to Cabana during restaurant week because all the other places we wanted to go to were already booked. I did not know what to expect. I was not expecting good service because in years past, servers seemed to exhausted, "over it already" and almost put out by restaurant week. That was not the case at Cabana. Our waiter, although serving many tables, seemed to be on top of his game, got all the food, drinks and water out in a timely manner. There were people around us not doing restaurant week, so they were getting food off of the regular menu and off the regular drink menu. During restaurant week, we ordered the crab cake, puff pastry baked brie, pork tenderloin with sweet potato, and wild mushroom and gnocchi with truffle cream. For dessert was bread pudding. The crab cakes are generous, and made with lots of crab, not filler. The crab cake is quite possibly the best crab cake I have had in Nashville thus far. The baked brie was a nice slice of brie wrapped in pasty dough, and served with mixed berry preserves and really wonderful lavosh crackers. The combination of flavors and textures, again, was a happy surprise to me. The plating was visually pleasing, and the taste and texture were solidly good. When our entrees came, we were again pleasantly surprised! The gnocchi with mushroom and truffle cream was rich and umami. I took 1/2 home with me to enjoy again at lunch the next day. The pork tenderloin, sweet potatoes and asparagus also a winner. The aroma from the pork was so inviting, the pork was tender and went very well with the sweetness of the sweet potato. All in all, this restaurant week experience did its job and made me make arrangements to go back again as quickly as I could with a lot of friends. I had to "share my find"!

So, a couple weeks later after restaurant week, I arranged for an outing with 8 of my gal pals on Wednesday. Wednesday at Cabana from 4:00 - 10:00 pm is Girls Nite Out with all house drinks, house wines, special martinis, and most appetizers being $3. That is right gal pals out there, on Wednesday evenings, mix and match 5 drinks and apps, add tax and tip, and you are only paying $20. Our house wine pours were generous. The apps are very generous plates, all normally $6 - 10. Me and my gal pals got white bean humus, homemade potato chips with blue cheese, french fries with cheese sauce and ketchup, crab cakes, fried green tomatoes, chicken biscuits, country ham biscuits, tomato soup and grilled cheese, and BBQ pork wontons. Each app plate was more than enough to share with 8 gal pals. We all really liked the BBQ pork wontons a lot because the filling was delicious and the sorgham creamed corn sauce it came with was just super delicious. We ordered a 2nd plate for the table. We were so stuffed. My suggestion is to limit the number of apps to 2 per person because each plate has a lot of food on it. We all made this a meal, and we all were stuffed by the time we left. Another benefit to Girls Nite Out is that it easy on the wallet. When we all opened our check, we all were gasping in joy because we all were expecting to pay more than what was on the bill. One gal pal who came late, had only 2 drinks, had a bill of $6. Amazing huh!? We all were happy with the low cost bill and the very fun and tasty food we had. We all left saying we need to do Girls Night Out again.

Bro’s Cajun Cuisine

In 1988, I was on the plane with the family traveling to Tennessee for the first time.  We had just left everything I knew behind and were on our way to this odd place which was going to be my home.  It turns out our Nashville relationship would last more than twenty years, but at [...]

pan seared scallops with saffroned fregola and roasted vegetables

the scallops arrived at my door on a dreary winter’s morning, overnighted from catalina seafood in san diego. they were the huge dry diver scallops – 6 to a lb. and just as beautiful as i’d ever seen. i had decided upon another sardinian recipe by my new bff chef efisio farris (i’m currently on [...]