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Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Straight up trippin'
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 1:14 PM
Ever heard of the "miracle fruit" that tricks your taste buds?
The crazy miracle fruit is a berry that changes the flavor of food. Cheap tequila can supposedly taste like Patron and Tabasco sauce can taste like doughnut glaze. Just suck on the berry and wait for the magic to happen.
From the New York Times:
The berry rewires the way the palate perceives sour flavors for an hour or so, rendering lemons as sweet as candy.
(Read the entire article here.)
Try it for yourself at Crepe Cellar's Flavor Tripping Party on Sunday, September 27, from 7 - 11 pm. They will have a special spread of food and drink pairings for you to try. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door.
Crepe Cellar Kitchen and Pub
3116 North Davidson St.
Charlotte, NC
Events Beer dinner at Mimosa Grill
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 11:12 AM
Put on your lederhosen and break out your beer stein. Mimosa Grill is kicking off Oktoberfest with a New Belgium Beer Dinner on Friday, October 9.
The $45 dinner feast will feature a five-course dinner cooked by Mimosa's Executive Chef Jon Fortes. A pre-dinner reception will start at 6:30 and will be hosted by brewer Mike Cothran from new Belgium.
The menu for the night will include the following dishes and beers:
Goat Lady Hush Puppies
Goat cheese fondue and crispy Vidalia onions
Fat Tire
"Deconstructed" Split Pea Soup
Southern clams, crispy carrots
Mothership Wit
Surf and Turf
Slow Cooked Pork Cheeks and Scuba Diver Scallops
Celery puree & tangerine gremolata
Hoptober
Country Ham Wrapped Meadow Creek Dairy "Grayson"
Dried fruit confit, house-made crackers
2 Below
Banana Creme Brulee
Gianduja chocolate & hazelnut biscotti
Biere de Mars
Call Mimosa Grill at 704.343.0700 to make your reservation.
327 South Tryon
Charlotte, NC 28202
Events Upcoming: Food Historian in the Kitchen
Posted By Kimberly Lawson on Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 10:34 AM
From the Charlotte Museum of History:
Join us Sept. 21, from 7-9 pm, for an informative lecture by food historian Sandy Oliver.
Food history is full of useful information, including food preservation advice, great and forgotten recipes, and a myriad of alternative, and often green, technologies. From early bread pudding recipes to celebrations of fresh fruits of the garden, Sandy Oliver will discuss how decades of historic research has enriched her daily life and can do the same for yours as well.
Fee: $7 for museum members; $10 for non-members. Pre-registration is required. Please call the museum at (704) 568-1774.
This event is presented in partnership the Historical Cooking Guild of Catawba Valley, and is sponsored by Cooking Uptown.
3500 Shamrock Drive
704-568-1774
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Food News / Smorgasbord Guess what these little balls are
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 11:32 AM
The State Fair of Texas has a new item on their menu. Take a gander at these little beauties of artery-clogging goodness.
Fair officials gave the dish top honors in the Most Creative category in the Big Tex Choice Awards.
Can you guess what these are? Here's a not-so-helpful tip: The item comes comes in four flavors: original, garlic, cherry and grape... and will probably give you diarrhea. Scroll down to see the answer...
Photo courtesy of State Fair of Texas
They are balls of Deep-Fried Butter.
Check out the other deep-fried food finalists of the 2009 Big Tex Choice Awards here. Can you say YUM?
Monday, September 14, 2009
Smorgasbord / Priscilla Tsai Only in Japan...
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 10:14 AM
Eat rabbit-shaped foods and cuddle with bunnies at this bunny cafe in Japan! Or if you would like, you can BYOB (Bring Your Own Bunny). Customers can pay per minute to play with the restaurant's pet rabbits (for cuddling purposes only –not for eating). Apparently this place is a hit in Japan. Anyone want to open a franchise in Charlotte?
Friday, September 11, 2009
Food News Food news: Brixx Pizza's run, BLT opens, more
Posted By Tricia Childress on Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 4:06 PM
• The owner of Tavern on the Green, one of the Manhattan’s oldest restaurants and a landmark in Central Park, announced filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, four months before its license was to go to another operator.
• Brixx Pizza is sponsoring Hit the Brixx 10K/and 5K Run/Walk on Sept. 26 to benefit Kids Path, a program of Hospice & Palliative Care. The race starts and finishes at Brixx-Uptown, and the after party includes Brixx pizza and microbrews.
• Sandy Oliver, Food Historian and author of The Food of Colonial and Federal America and Saltwater Foodways and co-author of Giving Thanks: Thanksgiving History and Recipes from Pilgrims to Pumpkin Pie, will lecture on Monday, Sept. 21, from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. at the Charlotte Museum of History. Tickets are $10 ($7 for museum members) and pre-registration required. 704-568-1774.
• BLT (Bistro Laurent Tourondel) Steak, will open Oct. 1 in the Ritz-Carlton (201 East Trade St.), the tenth location of this Manhattan-based restaurant chain. The restaurant will be accessible through the hotel and on College Street. The menu will feature prime cuts of beef and seafood. Breakfast hours are Monday through Friday 7 a.m. until 10:30 a.m.; Saturday and Sunday 7 a.m. until noon. Lunch Monday through Friday 11:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. Dinner Monday through Thursday 5:30 to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 5:30 p.m. until 11 p.m. Other restaurants in this group include BLT Burger, BLT Fish, BLT Prime, BLT Market, and the Fish Shack.
Events / Priscilla Tsai Photos from Greek Festival
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 10:53 AM
The annual Yiasou Greek Festival kicked off yesterday at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral. As I walked through the festival last night, I was transported back to Greece, surrounded by the intoxicating smells of sweet loukoumades and savory gyros.
Within an hour, I had eaten my way through the festival like Templeton the rat ate his way through the town carnival in Charlotte's Web. Among the foods I ate were:
Lamb and beef gyro - Tender, thin slices of seasoned meat topped with a slice of tomato and tzatziki sauce.
Spanakopita - Flaky phyllo pastry sandwiches a filling of spinach and feta cheese. Served up hot, it was a buttery delight.
Mythos beer - The ice cold Greek brew washed down the gyro nicely.
Amygthalota - A crescent-shaped almond cookie made of flour, almonds, sugar, eggs and butter. The slight chew and almond flavors of the cookie were delicious.
and my favorite ... Loukoumades - Greek honey balls that look like munchkins donuts, but better! Hot little balls of dough are fried up fresh, dunked in a bath of honey and then sprinkled with a healthy dose of powdered sugar. A. MAY. ZING.
The festival runs through Sunday so get over there. They also offer a drive through for your convenience. Read more about the festival here.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Events Go Greek
Posted By Anita Overcash on Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 10:13 AM
It’s time — Sept. 10-13 — for the 32nd annual Yiasou Greek Festival, and I’m excited. When I visited the fest for the first time last year, I realized that I have really been missing out. The festival offers a variety of Greek cultural exhibits, tours and lectures of the impressive cathedral, a variety of entertainment and costumes, an outdoor market, a bookstore, and last but not least, food. Choose from food selections like Greek salads, gyros, souvlaki sandwiches and more, to delicious pastries like baklava. You can even get the baklava with ice cream, which is a pure sundae delight. You do not want to miss out on this festival. Admission is $2 (School groups or senior citizen groups contact Helen Karras at 704-334-4771 for free admission). Sept. 10, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sept. 11-12, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sept. 13, 12 p.m.-8 p.m. Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral is located at 600 East Blvd.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Food News Lance, Inc. to purchase Stella D'oro brand
Posted By Priscilla Tsai on Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 9:22 AM
Snack and cracker company Lance, Inc., headquartered in Charlotte, announced that it will purchase Stella D'oro brand as well as certain manufacturing equipment and inventory. Stella D'oro is a leading brand in the specialty cookie segment.
"We are excited about the opportunity to add the Stella D'oro brand to our growing portfolio of niche snack food brands. We believe that the additional resources that can be provided under the Lance umbrella will help this iconic brand achieve renewed growth," said David V. Singer, President and Chief Executive Officer. "The Stella D'oro brand will make us a more valuable partner with our customers and leverage our existing capabilities to support our trend of profitable growth."
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Food News / Events Blues, Brews & BBQ, Great American Dine Out, and more
Posted By Tricia Childress on Tue, Sep 8, 2009 at 11:59 AM
• Blues, Brews & BBQ, Friday, September 11, and Saturday, September 12, will feature 68 local teams and 24 National BBQ teams. The latter will compete for a $7,500 Grand Prize, a Governor’s Cup trophy and represent Charlotte and Blues, Brews & BBQ at the Memphis in May Championship in 2010. Local teams, aka Backyard Grillers, will be smoking and grilling throughout the weekend. On Friday from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m., Billy Bob Billy, two-time Memphis in May world champion, retired competitor from the “Holy Smokes” team, and BBQ Cooking Class instructor for the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, will host a cooking class on the basics of meat selection and preparation, rubs, marinades and the cooking process. Cost is $65. Billy is a certified MIM/MBN judge and is one of the judges of the event.
• Charlotte-based Harper's Restaurant Group will participate in Share Our Strength's Great American Dine Out, a week-long national restaurant event in cities across the United States from September 20 to 26, 2009. Share Our Strength is the leading organization working to end childhood hunger in America. Tom Sasser, president of Harper's Restaurant Group, said each of his restaurants, including all four Harper's Restaurants, Harper's Grill, Harper's To Go Go, Upstream, M5 Modern Mediterranean, Mimosa Grill and Zink. American Kitchen, will donate a portion of their proceeds during the week in support of ending childhood hunger.
• Tricia Childress will speak about Charlotte’s ethnic foods in the New South for the New Southerner program of the Levine Museum of the New South on Thursday, September 17 at Davidson College in the Lilly Family Gallery in Chambers Building. Dr. Tom Hanchett, Staff Historian at the Levine Museum, will discuss the Levine Museum’s “Changing Places” exhibit about new cultures in the area. Cost is $5 (free for Friends of the Arts and Levine members) and includes program, wine, and Hors d'œuvres. The event is presented by the Levine Museum of the New South and Davidson College Friends of the Arts, supported by Marsh Properties. 704.333.1887 ext.=2 0501.
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Dorie Greenspan's Tiramisu Cake
This layered cake is definitely a "pick-me-up" with a little booze and caffeine.
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Braised Chicken with Shallots 2
I don't think I'll be making this again, but hey, if you like shallots more than a fat kid likes cake, then go for it.
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Bernardin's celebrates 1/2 year anniversary
A glimpse into this upscale Uptown location, complete with photos.
