BBQ time is here

Catching up with .....

So as I sit in a hotel in Little Rock Arkansas I find a little spare time to add a few comments that I have really need to post. First of all I never did go back and talk about the great meal I had a while back at Table Mesa in Bentonville.it was quite refreshing to get something different in my new adopted home town. It gives me hope that other forward thinking restaurateurs will see the opportunity and look to Bentonville as a great allocation for a new restaurant. Most of the surrounding areas are either so saturated with food options or they are buried up with chains there is now hope for new businesses. Come to Bentonville and bring your new ideas. If you go to Table Mesa be sure to try the “cheap dates” while not very cheap at $7.00 for four stuffed dates the flavor makes up for the cost. We liked them so much we asked for two orders.
The big news is that we finally got around to eating at Bordinos in Fayetteville. All I can say is that chef Chrissy is a goddess of food. We had a goat cheese gnocchi dish with smoked duck, dried cranberries, asparagus and a white cream sauce. It was amazing. I threw myself down on the floor confessing mny unworthiness to be her chefs presence. No joke this dish is one of the top five meals I have ever eaten. I’m proud to say we drove back down three days later under the pretense of a second official birthday meal so we could justify it to our food budget. Add in Crabbies in Rogers and we are starting to build up quite the little “worth eating” food community.
Tonight we went to a place called the faded Rose in Little Rock. I have only been here a few times and have not found much food I actually liked. Tonight’s fare was pretty much along the same path but I do have to say my dish of whole shrimp in a tangy Cajun bbq sauce was quite unique and I continue to catch the faint aroma from my shrimp shell prying fingers that I am just not ready to completely wash off. Basically it’s a dish of whole shrimp from head to tail cooked in a broth of herbs, garlic, butter, olive oil and Worcestershire sauce.
You know it late when the infomercial for the SlapChop food chopper start to make sense as a Christmas gift. And if you call now you get the Graty cheese grater absolutely free. I miss Ron Popil at times like this.
Coming soon… I have recently gotten a copy of the nutritional analysis for the menu of a way too famous national faux Italian chain that is unbelievable. If you want an entire days worth of fat, carbs and sodium in one fresh from the freezer meal then stay tuned.

And now for somethng completely different

I keep getting chastised for not writing more. It seems odd that when I had to write for the paper for all of those years it seemed sort of fun. Now that I write for more for pleasure than money I cant seem to get on the stick.

I have had a great week. I just finished a week of workforce development training for NWACC with a group of employees from a new concept assisted living community. I have to say it was one of the best teaching weeks of my life. I actually had a small tear in my eye as one of the students was happily explaining how she made one of the desserts for a special graduation luncheon. She had tried to make homemade brownies but technical difficulties rendered them less than edible. But a little ice cream, coconut and chocolate sauce and viola you have vanilla brownie snowballs. She could not have been prouder. God I love to teach. On top of that the group and their trustees bought 18 cookbooks which cash was promptly turned into an all out dinner at Table Mesa on the square in Bentonville. More on that next week.

Tomorrow I take over as president of the local American Culinary Federation chapter. Its not a job I originally wanted but good things can come of this. Hard to believe that I was nearly run out of the old town but the antiquated, small minded, talent impaired group that called themselves chefs and made up the local chapter. Honestly there were a few good ones in the group later on but the early guys like the idiot Frenchman whose name will not be mumbled here needed to get a life.

I have made two belated new years promises that I can mention here. The first is to eat what I want when I want. I think it’s good to have do-able goals.

Second I will work very hard in between lots of work, the dogs, Stacy and the beloved xbox to find the time to write weekly. I need to find my old Ernest Hemingway florida writing hat to put me in the mood.

A steak by any other name is just a steak

I’ve often said I could be a vegetarian if it wasn’t for BBQ pork. Pork has always been my meat weakness. However since moving to NWA, I have fallen and fallen hard into the delicious, inviting wedge of beef that can only be purchased at Does Eat Place in Bentonville. What do I like best about Does? For starts it lacks the pretentiousness of the average high class steak joint. I can go in shorts and flip flop without having guests jaws drop to the floor and management removing me from the dining area. Does is a laid back bar to many which just happens to put out a great steak. Next, Doe’s has a very small menu. We do this and this and nothing else and we do what we do pretty damn well. If you don’t like tamales you are just about out of luck when it comes to appetizers. Same thing if you’re a chicken fan, you might as well keep driving past. Doe’s is a steak place with a miniscule number of things on the side so, Beef it truly is what’s for dinner. Next the steak, oh that glorious hunk of beef so expertly seasoned and cooked to perfection. By the way I hate the phrase “cooked to perfection” but in this case it actually applies. Once again the selection is limited but then the choices that are offered are all that is needed. Choose from the T Bone by the pound, the Porterhouse the same way, the 2 lb sirloin for sharing, a fillet in three different sizes, and finally my steak the two pound ribeye. I’m told the steaks are aged for several weeks which would explain their fork ready tenderness and great flavor. Also they are cooked over a drip pan that allows for the continual basting of the steaks as they char broil away. Once again to keep matters simple you can have fries or boiled potatoes. I like both but the fries make a great dipper for the meat juices left on the plate. Other points of interest include the very different and very wet house salad that come out before the meal. While I can’t explain why I like this overdressed slightly wilted bowl of greens I have to admit I do. Maybe it’s a dressing thing. You also get a basket of fried dinner rolls and honey. I do believe these golden brown lumps of dough to be canned biscuits that are tossed into the deep fryer until brown and crispy. While I would never make these at home, here it just seems so natural.
Doe’s is just not fancy or pretty, it has a limited menu, probably is more likely to be used as a won the World Series of Poker celebratory restaurant rather than a wedding anniversary meal and of course it isn’t cheap in the least. The ribeye is $45. And if you want one on the weekend you better get their early because they do run out. This causes other tables to stare at you with an angry glint in their eye when it is determined that your table got the last two ribeyes on a Saturday night.
Ahhh steak thy name is Doe’s

I have found the promised land

After years of searching, I have finally found a real honest to goodness traditional mexican restaurant that is not located in Mexico. The place is Taqueria Vega in Bentonville on Highway 102 what some call 14th street. Now when I say Mexican I mean real Mexican fare not tex mex not southwestern and really not Taco Bell. How can you tell the difference? First of all the food is not covered with cheddar cheese and sour cream. Second if you like you can get such items as tongue or goat. For the traditional eater you can have everything made with beef, pork or chicken if the odd items scrae you a little. Be advised that when you order a taco it will not come out like a crispy Taco Bell taco. Expect a flat white corn disc with some meat and nothing else. I suggets the BBQ beef or the tongue. This place also makes their own tamales which were wonderfully tender and moist as well as the best tomatilla salsa I have ever eaten. In fact the salsa was so good I bought a pint to take home.

Dont expect anything fancy about this place. It is just simply great food done really well by a lovely mexican gal with some family help.

Best of all you can get the whole meal without cilantro because the whole meal is made fresh. It boggles the mind that someone can make fresh tasty authentic mexican food in this day and age. It is even more perplexing that it took me all these years to stumble across one.

NEVER again!

So we had a gift card to use at one of the national Italian themed restaurants. I wont say the name but will refer to it as the Garden of Olives restaurant. This one happens to be located in NW Arkansas along a prominent highway. Now let me say except for a few fast food chains like White Castle (yum), I never visit chain restaurants. Chilies, Applebees, Fridays and such are not my style of food. However a gift card is usually a terrible thing to waste so we went.

To the point of the matter; how can food be made so bad? I have to say it was undoubtedly the worst food of my life. It was really not edible. I had the Chianti braised short ribs with risotto. Okay so maybe I should not have been swayed by the seductive "Specialties inspired by the Culinary Institute of Tuscany, our cooking school in Italy" tag line but I am a sucker for good marketing. The dish ssounded great and would have been if the meat wasn't black and overcooked, the risotto a pile of much and then having the whole mess topped with an overly strong sauce and way too al dente matchstick carrots and green beans piled on top of everything. They were so crunchy and bland I had to scrape them off to the side, and I do like vegetables Not only did it look like crap but it tasted terrible. I liked our server who was having a bad night but if I was a server I would have never brought that meal to the table. My wife had some form of stuffed chicken that also had an off taste that made us leave most of it on the plate. daughter had seafood Alfredo which she just picked out the seafood because she said the sauce tasted funny. daughter friend had the spaghettios or what the restaurant calls their four cheese pasta blah blah blah. I do admit the Italian sodas in lemon and cream sods versions were tasty but the food was an embarrassment. Close the place down and make it something useful like a White Castle or a parking lot.
For the record we did tip the server the full ticket price and not the ticket minus the gift card. Fair is fair and even if she should not have served it, she didnt make it.

But he was such a fungi

Wow have things change recently. Just when life is cruising you get a bee in the pants and decide you want to disrupt everything in your life and head in a new direction. After six long, hard, sometimes bitter, sometimes wonderful years at OTC I decided I couldnt take the attitudes of some anymore and felt it was time to leave for greener more educational pastures.

So I packed up the truck and became the new culinary arts and hospitality director for NorthWest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville Ar. Yes Bentonville, the Home of Wall Mart, Tyson foods, J B Hunt and a horad of other businesses. We also have the makers of Little Debbie cakes(mmmm peanut butter nutty bars), Pel Freeze rabbit products and those Ginsu knife people. In contrast to what you might think this area is actually very nice. Lots to do, new basball team ( sorry Cardinals but we are a Sprindale Naturals fan now), great shopping ( way too many shoes stores for Stacy and my budget), super restaurants and a wonderful state park system ( yes I love the outdoors).

Speaking of restaurants we have all of the super chains like PF Changs and Ruth Chris's as well as some nationally recognized independants like James at the Mill. Lets not forget Jim's Razorback Pizza which I have heard is pretty good. More on the food later.

Since my pals at the news leader felt I couldnt contibute to their paper anymore due to my change of operations, I plan on writing what I can here for now. i have already been told that their is writing to be done if I want but I would love to get unpacked first.