Katie Meadow

I ate at Tupelo Honey a few years ago when I was last in Asheville. Liked it, will try again. I do have a hankering for fried green tomatoes, but sadly my experience is they are usually too thickly breaded and the crust overwhelms the vegetable. Maybe the fried green tomatoes of my dreams is really fried green tomato tempura. In the north Georgia hills there seems to be a thing for a fried green tomato BLT, but in Asheville and Decatur I don't see it on menus. They prefer chicken and/or avocado in their BLTs, neither of which I care for. There is an Indian Street Food place that gets good reviews called Chai Pain including a shout out from the NYT recently. We will def try that. They opened a branch in Decatur, too, and my daughter said it was good. The tapas place you are thinking about may be Curate. Well reviewed and it seems to be the most expensive place in downtown Asheville. It's among my options for a splurge dinner, but not sure. We haven't decided to celebrate our anniversary here or in Atlanta with the kids. The babies do awfully well at beer gardens, but taking them to Miller Union in Atlanta might tax their patience. They eat everything, including moderately spicy red beans and rice but after an hour they're falling face first into their gumbo. My husband just came to tell me he sees snow flurries from the living room window here in Asheville. Two days ago it was 80 degrees. East coast weather, go figure.

I'm back in Asheville as our home base. We are toggling back and forth from Asheville to Atlanta/Decatur to visit my daughter and husband"s gorgeous hilarious ten month old twin girls. We are staying in a very nice Airbnb in the center of downtown Asheville, so every other storefront is a restaurant, walkable from our third story loft. My idea of a vacation is to not cook, so we are checking out the scene here. I'm doing some cooking for my daughter when we stay in Decatur/Avondale Estates, because they are, well, desperate, as you might imagine with two jobs and two babies. So far in the Decatur area we've only found two really good delivery options: Community Q (great St L style ribs and extraordinary decadent mac n cheese) and a Chinese joint called Hai, which is very good, and mostly very spicy. Frankly it is better than the Chinese places near us in Oakland. In Asheville there are at least two walkable Chinese restaurants, and both are good. One is a big more corporate enterprise called Red Ginger, and the other is a small more funky place called Shanghai Dumpling House. They both serve soup dumplings, which are rare in Oakland as far as I can tell. We plan on working through the menus of both. The soup dumplings at Shanghai Dumpling were better: better tasting broth and way better wrappers. And they were big and looked hand made. The pork inside was maybe a bit more tender and tasty at Red Ginger but two out of three ain't bad. Red Ginger also served a fried calamari which had a sort of tempura batter which was great. Other places we have tried: *Early Girl for breakfast. I thought it was terrible. Maybe it's gone downhill. Burnt coffee from a thermos, never a good sign. *Old Europe Pastries: So so macarons. There was one called "surprise" which was surprisingly good. We decided it was birthday cake flavor. The croissants were not exactly traditional, but they were big, and came to life when crisped up in the toaster oven. They were sort of a cross between a croissant and a Mexican Cuerno, and somehow satisfied for breakfast. *Sonora Cucino. Bad Mexican food * South Slope Cheese. Lots of local cheeses and some not local, but a great selection overall, plus exotic jams and crackers, and really nice people, packed to the rafters with local artisan foodstuffs. South Slope is beer town. Uncountable number of breweries, among them Green Man, which makes an English amber ale called ESB which I adored. Too bad pub food doesn't aspire to the level of the fried calamari at Red Ginger. But Red Ginger has the ESB on tap, along with other local beers. There must be a lot of pressure to serve local draft beers at most restaurants in Asheville and that's a good thing. One nice thing about the brew pubs in the Decatur area: Most all have generous outdoor seating and HIGH CHAIRS. The twins are fascinated by beer and beer bottles and have nothing against pub grub. I'm not a huge beer drinker but I do like brown ales and beers that taste of coffee. Not into IPA's or sours. So far we've just cracked the surface, but we will be staying in the area for the month of April, and options seem endless. Asheville is an interesting town. Not a hip university town and not a tech town. Lots of the restaurants in the downtown area have been operating for many years. Legislation re the sale of weed products is lagging behind some other states, but there is a hippy vibe that's sweet; lots of artisan shops, funky antique stores, CBD products, hemp stores, and hookah bars, with a zillion flavors of smoke. No idea what that's about, but many of those bars warn you that smoking happens inside, so I'm not likely to patronize them, especially if it smells like all those dopey vape flavors that were the rage: melon, candy apple, cereal milk, etc. The only reason I'm posting at such length is because I believe I caught a cold from my son-in-law. I've actually had a second booster, so I'm crossing my fingers it isn't covid; rapid tests to be employed soon. I'm lounging about in bed in Asheville, waiting for a Thursday NYT and crossover croissants from my kind husband out running errands. Tomorrow's forecast in Asheville is for rain and a high of 51. About like January in the Bay Area pre-drought.

I've now tried both the Taiwanese and the Korean green onion / scallion pancakes. The Korean were pretty bad. Gummy and too thick to get crispy. The Taiwanese were better: simpler, flatter, and cooked up with a little crunchiness. I can tolerate them for late night emergency snacks. But neither is great in my opinion. In fact I rarely get great ones in restaurants either. Not related to scallion pancakes at all, but has anyone been able to find the Valrhona Noir 71 % dark chocolate bar at TJ's? Must be a supply problem of the covid variety. My two TJ's in Oakland haven't had them for several weeks. I'm in Asheville NC right now and they are out as well. That's really my favorite bittersweet bar for the price, anywhere.

Me too! The pink with green stems are lovely.

Well that sounds awful. Are you okay? Maybe you should try a balaclava when cooking hot soups or sauces and rawhide gloves when separating cloves of garlic. Also I hope you are not one of those people who cook barefooted.

Two pounds of pork shoulder, cut in large cubes were brined, put in a zip lock bag and turned once a day. I have no idea if this was equalibrium at work, but I trust you! I took out about a third of it. I did not wipe anything off the meat, cut away a little more of the fat and dropped the pieces into the bean pot shortly after the aromatics were added and the beans were simmering gently. Because I was out of ham stock I also added one smoked neck bone for additional flavor. The only liquid added was water (these particular smoked neck bones are pretty intense and the modest amount of meat that can be be taken off the bone after cooking is very smoky and succulent, and, surprising, not overly salty; I usually give smoked hocks, shanks or neck bones a brief rinse to eliminate excess salt.) The meat and beans cooked for a little more than two hours, until the beans were well cooked. The 7-day meat infused the whole pot with a modest brininess. So the beans were smoky and briny and the brined meat was tender and tasty; something I don't think I have ever encountered before. It was really delicious. I suppose if you like a very briny tasting dish a little of the brining liquid could be added to the pot, or simply more of the meat, but I favor more beans and less meat. It also occurred to me that some amount of the brining liquid that's left over could be added to a mess of greens during cooking, although I don't boil greens. The rest of the meat is still sitting in the brine in the fridge. I plan to freeze the meat in two separate portions after removing the chunks from the brine. Next time I make red beans and rice I will defrost a packet and see how that goes. FYI I have taken to using RG's Domingo Rojo beans exclusively for red beans and rice. I have also used Purcell Mountain's organic dark red kidney beans, which are good but not as good in my mind. When last in Atlanta I made red beans for my daughter and her husband and all I could find were Camellia. I wasn't wowed, but I suppose they are easily available and traditional in the south. At the end of this month I am headed back east and plan to have Domingo Rojo beans in my husband's suitcase. They're heavy!

The recipe I have for pickled pork is from Red Beans and Eric, and is adapted from the recipe on the Camellia beans website. Before brining he suggests cutting pork shoulder into 1-2 inch cubes. After 7 days it is ready to use or freeze. He suggests that you freeze it in whatever size in convenient. I read somewhere else that when you take the meat out of the brine you wipe off excess marinade, and that applies to frozen pickled pork as well. I haven't tried freezing it yet, so I can't claim how well this works.

When I first heard Sarah L was cast as Julia it seemed very strange. And even listening to the preview was a bit jarring. But I have faith in Sarah-- she's captivating in just about everything. This is one of those shows I probably can't NOT watch. Any one who drops a chicken on the floor and recovers in seconds has my attention.

I've discovered two products I prefer to smoked ham hocks. One is smoked ham shanks, which have a lot more meat on them if you want some meat as well as flavor. They may not be as easy to find as hocks. For instance in Decatur/Atlanta I could not find smoked shanks. Recently we found a butcher who sells smoked pork neck bones. The flavor is intense, the minimal amount of meat is delicious and rich. I often add non-smoked pork neck bones to chicken stock that I use for Chinese soups. For Red Beans and Rice and for Southwestern style bean I like to cook my beans in a ham stock, for which I use smoked shanks. It is easy to de-fat the stock before use, and having frozen stock on hand is very useful. Now that I have this source for smoked neck bones I find that just one of them cooked with an RG pack of beans is enough for rich flavor if I'm out of plain ham stock and need a quick bean fix (well, relatively quick if you don't make a separate broth).

@Chimayo JoeI've not seen the Alexia Yukon Select Puffs but I'm going to look for them. I agree that the Alexia Crispy Seasoned have more flavor than is needed. I have no nostalgia about tater tots. I never tasted one until I was 73 years old! And it will have to be a cold day in hell for me to ever make them from scratch. Hot tots and a glass of rye makes an excellent snack for a chilly evening in front of the TV.. Not a ketchup person myself, but I could see a smoked paprika aioli for dipping. That's my condiment of choice with fries. But I'm happy without any dip.

I finally made the Cascadian Farms spud puppies for a late night snack. They are perhaps a bit smaller than the Alexia tots, and therefore have more crunchy exterior to the amount of soft potato. For some that might be a plus. When very hot they are okay, but when they cool down, which they do quickly, they don't have a lot of flavor. They are very plain, and not salty, which would be fine with me if they had a really nice potato flavor, but somehow I wasn't wowed. I think I prefer the Alexia, which are peppery. I've never seen a tater tot cart, but I would certainly have bought them on the street when navigating a New York winter.

I always have one ceramic knife on hand. They do get duller, if you are lucky, before the blade breaks. Although I don't see the usual reasons for not putting this knife in the dishwasher (the usual reason for me would be wooden handles) I just don't put any sharp knives in the dishwasher. I don't believe the dishwasher would be the culprit for you; daily use just dulls these ceramic tools. They are certainly not knives meant to last like good steel that can be sharpened. The one chore that I routinely use it for is mincing garlic because the blade is so thin.

On his first night in Nantucket Ishmael goes out for dinner. The server asks him "Clam or cod?" He's afraid he will end up with just one clam, so he orders the cod. He doesn't realize she's talking chowder.

My comal also lives on the stove, but it only takes up one burner and rarely needs to be moved. I don't roast my poblano or other green chiles on it either. For that I have always used the broiler, which is how we did it when living in NM, but my broiler is underperforming currently so I've been using the outdoor gas grill for blistering peppers which is even better. It is a mystery why I didn't think of that before.

My workhorse griddle is a basic cast iron comal. No ridges, just a large flat surface and it works well to distribute the heat on one burner. We use it for pancakes, tortillas and quick searing dried chiles. It's cheap and indestructible.

That's because they used it all up in the food; at least the salt, and just a pepper shaker would look stupid.

Yay to mattress ticking. Never looks anything but cool and you can take it to the grave.

Kitchen mishaps no apron would prevent: Now that Seville oranges are in season in my neck of the woods we made our first batch of 2022 marmalade. It is beyond me how I ended up with ribbons of it in my hair. Truly icky. Filled up the jars, and got in the shower in a hurry. If I have any clothing I wish to protect will wear my one apron, that I've had for as long as I can remember. It is heavy cotton mattress ticking railroad or whatever you might call it. Works fine, looks very jaunty. But more often I cook in old flannel shirts and don't bother with the apron. After a few minutes I inevitably have a dish towel slung over my shoulder. Sometimes two of them if I forgot I was already wearing the first one.

My guide for crab cakes is this: use almost nothing but crab. Bind with the least possible amount of stuff you can get away with, the plainer the better. Crab, a touch of mayo, scallions and minimal amount of bread crumbs. Not a fan of Old Bay. Also not that it matters, I grew up on Manhattan clam chowder. Recipes for chowder are heavily stacked in favor of New England style, but Jasper White has a great recipe for Manhattan.

If anything seemed off Kerry could palpate the liver to make sure it's okay to eat.

I'm confused. How do you know what to call vertical rotisserie unless you know its origin? If it is Greece I would call it a Gyro. I would have expected it to be lamb, but my daughter, who spent a year in Athens, said it was often beef. If I was in Turkey or the Arab world or Israel I would call it Shawarma. In that case I would expect it to NOT be pork. If I was in Mexico or Los Angeles I would not call it either, but I would ask what THEY called it. If it had a pineapple ring on top I would assume it was pork, most often destined for al pastor tacos. The onion picture makes me think it comes from somewhere that has onion dome architecture, so I might call it shawarma. From just looking at a picture it would hard to know what to call it unless you had some idea of the spices/flavorings involved. The truth is here in Northern CA I don't get a chance to look at stacked vertical rotating meat very often, so my knowledge is pretty theoretical.

If you trip and fall into the conversation pit you probably needed more dilution or more vermouth.

When I was young we went out to my mother's brother's house in NJ for once a year seder. My uncle prided himself on making a great martini, and everyone but the kids was sozzled by dinner time. But what would you expect from a man who called his wife "battle axe?" Us cousins had to make do with Manischewitz wine. That yearly celebration was the only time I heard my mother really belt out some tunes!

Yes I've heard that old saw about dairy calming the heat, but who wants to drink a glass of milk after eating delicious spicy Chinese food?

@Kim Shook, your toast and cereal breakfast is what my husband eats every day: several pieces of toast, then a large bowl of boxed cereal + added home made granola + banana slices and berries. The only time he doesn't eat cereal is when he makes pancakes. We are not typically variety eaters at breakfast, although now he is baking biscuits once a week. Otherwise, Have Bread Will Toast.