Author: Michelle Lewis

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Cafe Eclectic’s Diablo Wrap

I normally go to Café Eclectic for their amazing coffee menu and desserts, but their food menu is extremely diverse. I wanted to be bold and try their Diablo Wrap ($9).

The Diablo Wrap is filled with cream cheese, chicken, fresh spinach, caramelized onions, and garlic with extra spicy sauce. Let me just say this, WHEW! I grabbed my water right away. This wrap isn’t for the faint of heart. There’s a lot of extra spicy sauce in there, which is a mix of sriracha sauce, garlic, and light olive oil.

The chicken is chunky and tender and the fresh spinach adds a different, smooth texture. You can’t taste the caramelized onions or garlic and the cream cheese only appears at the bottom of the wrap. I wanted it to be mixed in throughout the entire thing. The extra spicy sauce definitely takes over and lingers on your tongue after you’re done eating.

If you like it hot, the Diablo Wrap is definitely for you.

Also, the Diablo Wrap comes with your choice of one side, so I picked the macaroni and cheese. It was thick, creamy, cheesey and had a light sprinkle of pepper. The noodles were soft. Everything melted in my mouth. A delicious bonus.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Famous Folk’s Folly Freeze

The second you walk into Folk’s Folly Prime Steak House, your mouth starts to water from the smells of the delicious meats. Well, trust me when I say that your eyes will open wide with delight if you make it to dessert!

My server recommended their Famous Folk’s Folly Freeze ($9). You can customize the dessert to your preference of liqueur: Amaretto, Chambord, Frangelico, Godiva, you name it! The Folk’s Folly Freeze I had consisted of Brandy Alexander with crème de cacao blended with soft vanilla ice cream.

This dessert drink is a sneak attack! On the first sip all you taste is ice cream. The liqueur creeps in after you get the feel of a vanilla milkshake. After the vanilla, there are hints of the crème de cacao. The Folk’s Folly Freeze is thick, not very sweet, and you can feel the ice particles freeze on your tongue on the last part of the sip. It’s an alcoholic milkshake where the alcohol is present, but an afterthought. I went out to dinner with a group of people and there were other deserts on the table. My dessert was the one that was passed around. Everyone wanted more sips!

Drink this bad boy and then go home and take a well-deserved nap!

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

SkiMo’s Grilled Cheese Marshmallow Sandwich

SkiMo’s grilled cheese marshmallow sandwich is on the kid’s menu. Don’t worry if you’re an adult. You can still order the sandwich, and it’s actually going to be added to the regular menu soon!

For $4.50 you get a yummy and gooey grilled cheese sandwich. It’s a large size for a child. The portion was perfect for me. Not complaining here! When I first heard about this sandwich, I didn’t think I’d like it. I prepared for a heavy taste and to experience flavor overload. That wasn’t the case at all!

The bread is crunchy and buttery. With each bite you get sticky, buttery sweetness. There’s a lot of melted marshmallow and you taste a hint of the cheese at the end after the sweetness fades away. As for the fries, they were a nice bonus on the plate. They weren’t salty but fried just right and focused on the heartiness of the potatoes. Eating the grilled cheese marshmallow sandwich is messy but in a fun way, like eating smores after you’ve melted them over a fire pit. This is a grilled cheese with a treat in the middle! 

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Tsunami’s Bacon Wrapped Dates

Dates… good. Bacon… good. Wrap bacon around dates? Yummy! That’s exactly what Tsunami has done with their bacon wrapped dates with sweet chile sauce ($6).

You get five bacon-wrapped dates with the dish on a small bed of cabbage. The dates taste sweet and the bacon is crispy, not crunchy. You can actually pop an entire bacon wrapped date into your mouth and just savor away, enjoying the sweetness of the dates mixed with the chewy texture of the bacon. It’s not in the least bit greasy! The sweet chile sauce describes itself. It’s light and kicks the sweetness level of the dish right up to where you want it to be.

Sometimes simple is best, and that’s the case here.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Amerigo’s Cheese Fritters

Who doesn’t love cheese? Better yet, who doesn’t love fried cheese? As a child, mozzarella sticks were one of my favorite things to eat. Now, let me happily introduce to you an adult version of one of your childhood favorites, the cheese fritters at Amerigo Italian Restaurant. You can do a small order of four ($7) or a full order of six fritters ($9).

There’s a reason why this appetizer was featured in Bon Appétit. The cheese fritters are fried to perfection. With the first bite, you get the crunch of the crispy exterior and a bunch of cheesy flavors. That’s because there’s four different types of cheese inside: Cheddar, Swiss, Parmesan, and Mozzarella. The fritters are also gooey and the cheese stretches just the way you want a cheese stick to. They’re nicely melted! This is a heavy dish that’s rich in taste. Split them with a friend!

The cheese fritters come with marinara sauce and honey mustard. The marinara sauce makes for great dipping, but the honey mustard is the star — so sweet and smoky. I made sure that not one bit of it was left on the plate!

These cheese fritters are cheese sticks on drugs. Good drugs!

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Sweet Noshings’ Memphis Mix Popcorn

Sweet Noshings has all kinds of chocolates, candies, jellybeans, ice cream and fudge imaginable, but the hidden gem is their gourmet popcorn. All of the popcorn is popped and flavored in the store. There’s everything from Cinnamon, Honey Butter and Green Apple to their very popular Sea Salt Caramel. You can’t get more local than that.

Or can you? Another gourmet popcorn flavor that’s available is called the “Memphis Mix.” I was all in! The “Memphis Mix” is two different flavors of popcorn, caramel and BBQ. The caramel is sweet and melts in your mouth. The BBQ pieces are mild. Together, it creates a savory taste with a hint of cheesiness to it. The “Memphis Mix” definitely tastes different than what you expect. I thought it was going to be a combination of sweet and spicy flavors. Nope! I was pleasantly surprised.

The popcorn comes in a one-size bag for $5 and fits about nine cups of popcorn. Trust me, it’s a lot. Oh and if you’re like me and want to make sure you’ll like it… you can try before you buy. Just ask for a sample. They aim to please.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Capriccio’s BBQ Salad in a Jar

Capriccio Grill at The Peabody has a new concept for their lunch menu, “Modern Southern Comfort.” There are daily specials (beef brisket on Mondays, fried chicken on Wednesdays), as well as Southern staples such as shrimp & grits, fried green tomatoes, and deviled eggs.

One of the new items on the menu, BBQ Salad in a Mason Jar ($10). Hey, we’re in the South, so why not put our salads in a mason jar? I love it and the mason jar gives the dish charm.

The mason jar is filled with braised turkey shank, kidney beans, coleslaw, BBQ dressing, and comes with two large pieces of hearts of romaine lettuce.

Everything is layered, so I mixed it all together. The first thing that stands out is how creamy the coleslaw is. The braised turkey shank is nice and sweet. You really don’t taste the BBQ sauce, and there’s more coleslaw than meat. However the size of the dish is deceptive. It looks small but there’s a lot of food in the jar. I was full when I was done.

This is pretty much a yummy BBQ sandwich without the bread. I actually forked a little bit of everything out of the Mason Jar and put it right on top of the pieces of lettuce. It’s a creative, mini lettuce BBQ sandwich. Don’t let the fact that this menu item is under the salad section fool you. It’s far from a salad!

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Oshi’s Danger Dog

Danger, danger! Watch out for this dog! Normally a hotdog is just a hotdog, but that’s not the case with the Danger Dog at Oshi Burger Bar ($10). The Danger Dog is a Wagyu American Kobe Beef hotdog that’s completely wrapped in bacon and topped with crushed avocado, cotija cheese, chili aioli, and pico.

I immediately noticed how fresh everything tasted. The tomatoes, onions ,and cilantro from the pico were finely chopped and the avocado was smooth and creamy. The bacon is lightly wrapped around the hotdog and has a sweet and savory taste to it. The chili aioli reminded me of spicy mayo that you would get at a sushi restaurant… it’s to die for! The cotija cheese was the perfect choice to be sprinkled on top of everything because it was a bit salty and brought all the flavors together well. It’s similar to feta cheese. Even the bread was a nice surprise because it was toasted just right, yet still soft and delicious.

I can’t find one negative thing to say about this hotdog. I could have eaten three more. Maybe that’s why it’s so dangerous?

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

La Michoacana’s Pineapple Chili Fruit Bar

I was told there was one paleta I absolutely had to try at La Michoacana, and that’s their pineapple chili fruit bar ($2.13).

I expected to see chunks of pineapple and chili. I was wrong. You can see the chunks of pineapple. What’s hidden inside the fruit bar are pieces of lime and what appears to be hints of chili powder. It looks like red pepper chili flakes and has the texture of a BBQ rub.

It didn’t taste at all like I expected. When you lick or even bite into the fruit bar, it’s nice and sweet. Then, there it is: The chili flakes add a kick of spice mixed in with the sweetness of the fruit. Is it a fruit bar that I’m eating at a dessert place or am I eating a spicy dish at a Mexican restaurant? My mouth is so confused, but in the most amazing way. Mind, blown!

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Strano’s Fried Cheese-Stuffed Olives

When you think of deep-fried food, your thoughts probably go to fried pickles, tomatoes, okra, hush puppies … What about fried olives? I didn’t think so.

Strano! Sicilian Kitchen & Bar‘s fried house-brined olives are stuffed with garlic Italian cheese and are served with mushrooms ($8). The plate is small, you get about six fried olives. They’re crunchy green olives, which made the taste salty and slightly bitter. The cheese was nice and gooey but the olives overpowered its flavor. The mushrooms were cooked just right and had an earthy taste.

This dish would be top-notch if there was a mix of black and green olives and more than one kind of cheese.