Memphis Meals – Third Night

Third Night – Cozy Corner
This special little place was recommended by two work colleagues who spent a lot of time in Memphis and who also know a thing or two about food.  Some might call this place a hole in the wall.  I call the wood paneling, blue vinyl booths and 70s soul playing on the old stereo speakers, ambiance. The rib tip meal I got was a little luke warm but that could be because it was almost closing time which could also explain the massive serving I got.  The meaty tips came wet – that is, in a pool of tangy and peppery sauce that sent shock waves to my brain.  I could not help but periodically grunt to my self. “Oh, it’s so good!”

Made it just before closing time.

This is where all the magic happens. Too bad he was cleaning up already.

This is my still life: red cup, blue seat, brown wood paneling.

This mountain of meat came soaked in a peppery sauce of deliciousness. Don't worry. It's the photo that's out of focus, not your vision - though seeing this fatty meat kind of blurred vision for a minute. I ate the whole thing.

Final verdict: Really good (could have been great had my meat been more than room temperature).

Next post: fourth and fifth night.

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Memphis Meals – Second Night

Second Night – Gus’s (World Famous) Fried Chicken
I only included the parenthesis because even though it’s on the sign above the door, there’s another Gus’s World Famous Fried chicken whose website has a different logo and a different location.  So, Gus might be a pretty common name, as is the claim of  “world famous fried chicken”  In any case this Gus’s was located downtown, within walking distance of where I was staying and came highly recommended by my friends Sanj and Alana, friends who don’t know each other and made their recommendations separately.  Trust is a good thing, because world famous or not, this was some damn fine fried chicken!  Freshly fried in a light and flavorful batter whose bright crispiness gave way to the juicy meat beneath, this was truly great fried chicken.

As seen from the outside. It was actually snowing that night, so I was looking forward to gettin in there and filling up on fried food.

Danger Men Cooking: looking into the kitchen where all the magic happens.

How to make pickles better? Deep fry them of course. And then serve them with ranch dressing. I think if I was a pregnant woman, I would crave these.

Three pieces of fried chicken (they gave an extra piece!) - all dark meat, of course, cole slaw and dirty rice. You can kind of see that the chicken was still bubbling having just come out of the fryer.

I don't like to waste food.

the cooks: (l-r) Tony, Courtney and Miron

Final verdict:  Awesome! Worthy of world fame.

Next post: third night…

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Memphis Meals – First Night

Last week, I had the opportunity to spend several days in Memphis, TN, home to Stax Records, Graceland and of course, Memphis style BBQ.  Needless to say, I was stoked.  I ate bbq three out of the five nights I was in town.  On the other nights I went on pork hiatus, opting for fried chicken on one night and then sushi the other night because at that point, I was seriously craving something Asian that hadn’t been cooked for hours on a smoky grill.  But, there are way worse things to OD on than bbq and if you’re into slow cooked meat and delicious Southern soul food, then Memphis is the place for you. Just make sure you wear your eating pants.

First Night – Central BBQ
When I asked the agent at the Hertz Car rental desk which bbq joint she recommended, she gave me a pained look and said, “Well, it’s hard for me to answer that question because I’m not eating meat right now.”  Okay…

“But,” she added, “my favorite place is Central BBQ.”  Nice. So, that first night I took that rental car and drove it straight to Central BBQ.

Memphis BBQ is big on the pig

Notice the smoke coming out of the chimney. I figured that was a good sign.

Interesting. You see Memphis was named after the ancient city in Egypt but I'm not sure how many people in the Arab world today would dig on pig. But, it was also a shout out to Tunisia which was kind of timely.

Three meat combo meal (before): pulled pork, ribs (served dry) and sausage. The two sides were green beans and mac and cheese.

Three meat combo meal (after). Pulled pork - too dry and I had to gussy it up with sauce. Ribs - fatty, delicious and flavorful. Sausage - you can't really message up this kind of sausage. It was like smoky Hillshire Farms kielbasa. The green beans - reminded me of school cafeteria food. Mac and cheese - velveeta comes to mind.

Final verdict: Pretty good.

Next post: second night…

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Paris and Amsterdam – A Preliminary Taste

Preliminary taste?  Yes, because unfortunately this was a whirl wind tour (see photos).  We had only two and a half days in each of these wonderful cities which is totally inadequate to really suss out the delicious food and develop an overall sense of the culinary ethos.  For that you need at least five days.  I mean, obviously I nailed it when I summed up my  five days in Tokyo, right? But seriously, you do need more than a few days to get a proper taste of a place and it does help to have a local guide to steer you in the right direction.  For a city like Paris which has such a rich history and tradition of delicious food, I think you could spend weeks, if not months or even years exploring and discovering the great eats that the City of Lights has to offer.

Click on the photo for the full story…

A view of the Eiffel Tower from Sacre Coeur

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Churrasco!!!

Almir’s self rotating meat roaster

A few weeks ago Shef and I embarked on our summer holiday which consisted of a road trip to the Southwest (view photos here) bookended by two weekends in LA.  The first weekend we went to my college friend Ben’s wedding (congrats again to Ben and Maria on a beautiful wedding and amazing food – mmmm hand made tortillas!). The second weekend in LA was for the expressed purpose of attending our friends Jacob and Sari’s eighth annual Brazilian churrasco. Again, Almir Santre brought his expertise and culinary talents to bare and served up delicious grilled meats of all varieties to a lovely and appreciative group of Sari and Jacob’s family and friends (in whose number we thank our lucky stars to be included). For those long time you-food readers (probably numbering in the single digits – sad but true) you might remember the description and back story of Jacob and Sari’s BBQ as written about in Food Weekend in LA.  With the exception that everyone has gotten two years older, not much has changed except that the video you see below you is now in HD which means the juiciness of the meat comes through a little bit clearer.  Sorry, no smellovision or tastovision… yet.

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