I’m convinced there are two types of people in the world: leftover people and non-leftover people. Some people (myself included) have no problem eating food days after it was initially prepared. And others will refuse to touch anything more than 10 minutes removed from a pan.
Driving down South Main Street, you can’t miss the dusty construction going on at South of Beale, a new almost-opened pub.
Owners Brittany Whisenant and Ed Cabigao plan to open the “gastropub” in early August. And what, exactly, is a gastropub?
“It’s a pub atmosphere with better quality food,” Cabigao says. Originally created in European countries like France and Britain, gastropubs are gaining in popularity in the U.S.
The first time I ever tried to cook with tofu, I sliced it up, plopped it on a cookie sheet, and baked it with salt and garlic powder. It ended up gelatinous and and not quite the right flavor.
My experience left me with a bad taste in my mouth (literally) and it was a long time before I tried tofu again.
When Matt Wilson opened Swanky’s Taco Shop four years ago in Germantown, Mexican food got a little bit classier.
“People have come to like Swanky’s because of the fresh Tex-Mex food and the slightly upscale atmosphere,” Wilson said. (The tasty margaritas and more than 60 types of tequila available help, too.)
Because of the success of the Germantown location, Wilson is opening a second restaurant.
When the temperature hits triple digits, I, like most Memphians, seriously consider moving to Antarctica for the summer and/or taking up residence inside a deep freezer. However, since neither of those options is viable, I turn to other cool activities, like taking cold showers and drinking smoothies.
When I was a kid, Mason jars comprised a large part of my family’s kitchen. My mom used them to pickle cucumbers, dill, and garlic from our garden. She followed a special family recipe that had been passed down to her by my great-grandmother. The pickles turned out perfectly… just the right amount of salt, vinegar and crunch.
When Gail Tencer first decided to eat a completely raw diet, her husband was skeptical.
“He was like, ‘What are you into now?'” she remembers.
What Tencer was getting into was a raw diet — a diet composed completely of uncooked food. Some raw foodists will eat raw meat, eggs, milk, and fish, but most people on a raw diet are vegetarian and eat fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and sprouted grains. What a raw diet doesn’t include is anything heated above 100 degrees: steamed vegetables, soup, most processed foods, bread, etc.
Raw-food enthusiasts believe that cooking food destroys the enzymes that are naturally present in fruit and vegetables, and most will say that eating raw gives them more energy and better health.
Tonya Zavasta is one such person. She was born with a hip deformity that required several surgeries to correct. When she realized that the medical procedures were taking a toll on her body, she started to look for ways to offset the effects of the surgeries. She was vegetarian for 13 years before switching to a vegan diet and then finally to raw food the next year.
“The biggest revelation for me was when people started telling me how good I looked,” Zavasta says. “I’m 50 years old, and I get compliments that I’m beautiful almost every day.”
Zavasta started a local raw-food group in 2004 and has written three books on the subject. Since Zavasta travels most of the year, lecturing and promoting her work, Tencer runs the group, which meets on the second Thursday of the month at Whole Foods. Participants — usually around 35 — can either bring a raw dish to share or $5 to come and eat.
“It’s a great way for people new to raw food to try it out,” Tencer says. She and her husband, Steve, found out about raw food after seeing Zavasta at Whole Foods during one of the meetings.
“I became interested in it for better energy and digestion,” Tencer says. She and her husband eat 90 percent to 95 percent raw.
Eating out can be challenging, according to Tencer. “Socializing can be very difficult, especially here in Memphis, where there aren’t a lot of options for raw food when dining out,” she says. “In Los Angeles and New York City, there are lots of raw-food restaurants.”
Tencer often finds herself answering questions from people confused about what a raw diet means. Another big challenge is the amount of time it takes to prepare raw food and shop for fresh ingredients. There are lots of tasty and interesting recipes out there, but they require preparation from scratch.
“You really have to relearn how to prepare food,” Tencer admits. “It’s an adjustment, but slowly, you make the transition.”
Judith Dierkes, another local raw foodist, eats out occasionally and orders things like the raw slaw at P.F. Chang’s.
“Most restaurants have salads, and you can order a double portion,” she says. For groceries, she shops at Whole Foods and the Farmers Market over the summer. She also has her own garden and will freeze home-grown fruits and vegetables to eat during the winter.
“I also support Kroger, because they do a great job offering organic food,” Dierkes says.
Tencer orders some food online, and both she and Dierkes agree that the most important thing when buying food to be eaten raw is its freshness.
For people used to the warmth and comfort of hot, cooked food, going raw can seem strange and overwhelming.
Tencer says that an important first step is to ask, “What can I add to my diet at every meal that will make that meal more nutritious?”
“Maybe eat a salad instead of a burger at lunch,” she suggests. “Even 50 percent raw is better than nothing. My advice is to bring in more green, leafy vegetables and fresh fruit into your diet.” Giving up one cooked thing at a time helps the transition be smoother.
Sometimes, it’s not a matter of giving something up but simply finding a substitute. Matthew Kenney has some creative ideas in his raw-food “uncookbook” Everyday Raw ($13.57, available on amazon.com), including red-chile pineapple dipping sauce, sesame cashew dumplings, portobello fajitas, and even recipes for raw bread. Kenney’s book is one of several available.
Aside from adjusting to obvious differences in raw food, such as taste and texture, Tencer says that people should expect to feel different after eating a meal.
“People are used to feeling full, maybe some indigestion after they eat,” she says. “Once you start eating raw, you have to get used to feeling different: not lethargic, more energized.”
Tencer’s only regret about raw food is that she wishes she had discovered it sooner.
“When you are in your 20s, you aren’t thinking so much about what you are putting in your body,” she says. “Unfortunately for a lot of people, they don’t think about that until your doctor says you have high blood pressure or some other problem.”
The Memphis raw-food group will meet on Thursday, December 11th, at 7 p.m. at Whole Foods. For more information, visit Tonya Zavasta’s website, beautifulonraw.com.
When I was growing up in the mountains of Montana, my family did a lot of hiking — up one mountain, down another, over creeks, and through forests and meadows.
During these family hikes, my dad often pointed out edible plants and berries, such as wild strawberries hidden underneath dark green leaves, a purple elder tree drooping with fruit, and fresh apples ripened by the warm summer sun.
Paul Knipple, who writes a Memphis blog called Squirrel Squad Squeeks, had similar experiences. “When I was a kid, there was a mulberry tree across the road from my grandmother’s house,” he says. “I learned to climb a tree specifically to get at those berries.”
Until recently, I thought I would have to wait until I returned to the mountains to discover wild edibles. But that was before I knew about urban or wild foraging.
Urban foraging is the practice of searching for edible plants, vegetables, and fruit that are growing on private and public lands. It’s really big in Portland, Oregon, and similar movements have cropped up in other U.S. cities such as Seattle, Santa Fe, and Los Angeles.
Here in Memphis, there isn’t an organized movement for foraging, but there are people who do it. Glinda Watts is one. She searches mainly for medicinal plants, such as goldenseal and ginger, and leads a solstice plant walk in Shelby Forest to teach participants about native edible and medicinal plants that originally were used by indigenous people and early settlers.
Watts got started with foraging through a botanist friend. “It’s helpful if you know a bit of botany or go foraging with someone who knows botany,” she says. “You need that knowledge to be able to identify what you are eating.”
Aside from the facts that foraged food doesn’t cost anything and can be free of chemicals, there are other benefits to foraging in the wild.
“So much of the food you buy in the grocery store has been genetically altered or is some hybrid version of the original plant,” Watts says. “The nutrients in wild food are amazing. The acai berry, which is all the rage right now, is actually a wild fruit.”
Warren Oster is a local archaeologist who often forages for morels and mushrooms. Some of the mushrooms he’s found include oyster, bearded hedgehog, chanterelle, and ruffle. He started foraging in his home state of California, where he worked for the forest service in public campgrounds. He became interested in the native flora and studied field guides to be able to identify edible plants.
“I’ll try to identify stuff in the wild,” Oster says. “Because I am an archaeologist, I’m out in the field a lot.” He recommends that beginning foragers consult a field guide. “The Peterson field guides are good,” he says.
A few last words of advice: There is a general etiquette and hard-and-fast laws to be observed when foraging. Make sure you have thoroughly studied a plant before you eat it. Some plants are edible only when they are young and become toxic after a certain point. Also, specific parts of plants could be edible (like the leaves) while other parts of the same plant could be toxic (like the roots). If you are in doubt, DON’T eat it!
Considerations
Urban Edibles, a community database of wild-food sources in Portland, has a list on their website of considerations. The list below is adapted from their site:
• Ask permission.
Always ask permission before you pick, regardless of where the trees or bushes are located.
• Don’t take more than you can use.
It might seem exciting to discover wild plants and fruit (and it is!), but consider how much you actually will use before you pick.
• Think about your impact.
It’s vital to pick in a balanced and selective manner. You don’t want to pick a source dry.
• Consider chemical contamination.
Besides pesticides and herbicides, watch out for other pollutants such as paint chips, motor-oil spills, and car-wash runoff.
• Learn the laws.
According to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, gathering or collecting reasonable quantities of renewable, natural products for personal use is allowed in state parks. However, you cannot use the products for commercial sale. In order to forage in national forests, you must have a permit. For more information, visit the website tennessee.gov.
• And the number-one most important consideration to keep in mind when foraging? Always, always be safe.
Where and What to Forage
In Wooded Areas:
Elderberries
Mulberries
Mushrooms/fungi
Hickory, acorn, and pecan nuts
Crab apples
Near Water:
Blackberries
In Open Areas:
Dandelion
Poke
Chickory
Muscadine
Pawpaw
Resources to Check out
• Glinda Watts conducts a solstice plant walk. She prefers to limit the group to 20, so if you are interested in signing up, call her at 647-4097.
• Paul Knipple blogs at squirrel-squad.blogspot.com and has great suggestions about what to forage here in Memphis.
• Urban Edibles: at urbanedibles.org
• Suggested reading:
Plant Life of Kentucky: An Illustrated Guide to the
Vascular Flora by Ronald L. Jones
Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants
in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places by Steve Brill
A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and Central
North America by Lee Allen Peterson and Roger Tory
Peterson
The history of iced coffee varies depending on what source you are consulting. One story is that iced coffee was first concocted in Vienna in the 17th century. When the Turkish army retreated from the city after an unsuccessful siege, they left the Viennese with a surplus of coffee beans.
Other sources credit 19th-century France as the birthplace of iced coffee. Called granizado or mazagran, it was made from cold coffee and seltzer water and was considered a risqué drink at the time.
Today in the U.S., we can thank Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Dunkin’ Donuts for bringing iced coffee to the masses. While some might say iced coffee is iced coffee, in reality how it’s made greatly affects the final taste.
Most local coffee shops serve iced coffee. Some make it from hot espresso cooled with ice and water or milk, and some make it by cold-brewing the grounds. It’s a matter of preference, though many purists swear by the cold-brew method, because it contains up to 70 percent fewer bitter acids than hot-brewed coffee.
Regardless of how they make their iced coffee, all the coffee shops we profiled agree on two things: Lots of people switch from hot to iced coffee when it gets warm outside, and anything with vanilla is definitely a top-selling item.
Bluff City Coffee
At Bluff City Coffee, choosing which iced coffee you want is only a bit harder than choosing which tasty pastry you want to go along with it. Manager Suchin Wen poured me a cup of iced coffee, which he makes with hot shots of espresso over ice or mixed with water. “Our most popular drink is probably the vanilla latte,” Wen says. Bluff City gets its coffee from Eagle Roasters and uses a special four-bean espresso blend. I tried an iced latte with soy milk, and it was quite good. The soy milk did a nice job of toning down the bold coffee taste.
Bluff City Coffee, 505 S. Main (405-4399)
Java Cabana
About a block from the Cooper-Young intersection, Java Cabana is the ultimate eclectic coffee shop. Intimate, funky, and friendly, the coffee shop was the very first to open in the Cooper-Young area. Mary Burns, who has owned Java Cabana since 1998, let me in on her day off to test her iced coffee. While she wouldn’t divulge the secret of how she makes it (“It’s made with love!” she told me slyly), she did say that the silky smooth iced coffee is made from a dark roast and is not espresso-based. She also said it’s cold from the beginning. Even though I had already had more than enough coffee for the day, I brought the rest of my iced coffee with me — it was too good to go to waste.
Java Cabana
2170 Young (272-7210)
High Point Coffee
This local chain of coffee houses roasts its own beans in nearby Oxford, Mississippi. Owner Thomas Blanche, who lives in Oxford but drives up to Memphis to check on the three stores here, sat down with me at the shop on Union Avenue to talk about iced coffee. He swears by High Point’s tried-and-true method of cold-brewing. “Our cold-brew method gives you a smooth, full-bodied coffee,” Blanche says.
He poured me a cup of the cold brew and then made iced coffee with hot espresso, so I could taste the difference. The cold brew was amazingly full-bodied and smooth, without the leftover acid taste from the espresso version. I was convinced.
The best news Blanche gave me? Soon, getting High Point iced coffee will be even easier, when they start selling it already bottled out of their cooler case. Now that I’m a convert, I’ll have to indulge, just to keep up my faith.
High Point Coffee
4610 Poplar (761-6800)
1610 Union (726-6322)
9077 Poplar, Suite #1, in Germantown (590-0917)
Otherlands Coffee Bar & Exotic Gifts
Aside from the fact that Otherlands has live music every Friday and Saturday night and happy hour every weekday from 4 to 6 p.m., this Midtown coffee shop also serves a great-tasting cup of iced coffee. I spoke with owner Karen Lebovitz to find out just how they do it.
She says they start with Ugly Mug coffee. Then, they either use espresso (for iced lattes and americanos) or hot-brewed coffee that has been chilled. They also serve blended iced coffee drinks. “Not as rich as some blended coffees,” Lebovitz says, “because we don’t start with a powdered mix.”
Otherlands Coffee Bar & Exotic Gifts
641 S. Cooper (278-4994)
Ah, the holiday season: gifts and parties, decorations, those helpful retail clerks … and often that extra poundage that comes from the cookies, cheese, and eggnog.
“People gain, on average, a pound over the holidays,” says Alissa Villarrubia, a registered dietitian and exercise physiologist. “It can be up to five pounds in those who significantly overeat. It may not seem like a lot of weight, but research shows that people aren’t losing it throughout the year. Over the course of many years, that one pound can add up.”
The main culprit of weight gain? Your friends. The old “everyone else is doing it” rings especially true during the holidays. That fabulous buffet spread everyone is gathered around? It would be rude not to partake. And everybody is going for one more round at the bar, so you might as well too.
While no one wants to be a Grinch, you definitely don’t want to be an oversized Cindy Loo Who.
Read on for some practical ways to beat the holiday-binge bulge.
Downsize: Use a smaller plate. “The bigger your plate and the more food that’s on it, the more you’re likely to eat in the end,” Villarrubia says. You might feel like you aren’t finished until your plate is empty rather than when your stomach is full.
Work It: Maintain your exercise routine or start a new one. Time is limited during the holidays, but one of the best ways to combat stress is exercise. So, make time to get outside, take a walk, or run around with your kids.
In Your Cups: Watch out for extra calories in your favorite holiday drinks. You might think eggnog is the drink of champions, because of all those raw eggs you are chugging. Unfortunately, it’s not made with raw eggs anymore, and the sugar and cream aren’t body-building-friendly, unless you want the marshmallow look.
Live a Little: The important thing is to splurge sparingly. Don’t make a vow to not eat one single dessert all holiday season. You will fail. Instead, make a goal of eating dessert only two or three times a week.
Take Some Creative Liberty: Just because your grandmother’s recipe for gravy calls for enough salt and fat to make Ronald McDonald cringe doesn’t mean you can’t make a few changes. Consider cutting all the butter and fat measurements in half. You won’t notice. Experiment with spices and herbs and cut out excess salt. Cut down the sugar in your recipes by only using three-fourths of a cup for every cup called for in the recipe or use a sugar replacement.
Portion Control: Keep your portions under control. Don’t eat until you are stuffed; eat until you are full. (Yes, there is a difference!) Villarrubia recommends eating a healthy snack before going to a holiday party.
Visit the Food Pyramid: Many holiday dinners are designed around meat and starch, but consider adding in a few colorful vegetable dishes. Choose foods high in fiber but low in calories. For example, go for the veggies and lean meats rather than the heavy dips and desserts.
RECIPES:
Asparagus with Roasted Shallots and Cranberry Vinaigrette
Toss 10 shallots and 2 pounds asparagus (tough ends trimmed) in:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Pour vegetables into a baking dish. Roast at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Drizzle with cranberry vinaigrette:
1/4 cup cranberry juice
3 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 shallot, minced
1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp chopped fresh chives or parsley
1/2 cup dried cranberries
Salt and pepper, to taste
Acorn Squash Stuffed with Carrots, Red Peppers, Rice, and Capers
2 small acorn squash
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups long grain rice
4 1/2 cups chicken broth, divided
2 cups baby carrots
1 large red pepper, sliced
1 small red onion, roughly chopped
3 cloves of garlic
2 Tbsp capers, drained
Salt and pepper to taste
Cut squash in half; remove seeds and pulp. Place into baking dish filled halfway with water. Sprinkle squash with salt, pepper, and drizzle with olive oil. Bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour or until squash flesh is soft.
Meanwhile, place rice and 4 cups chicken broth into saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Let rice simmer, uncovered, for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Place baby carrots, red pepper, red onion, garlic, and 1/2 cup chicken broth into food processor. Blend until puréed. Add puréed vegetables and capers to cooked rice; mix.
Remove squash from oven; drain water from pan. Spoon vegetable and rice mixture evenly into each squash half. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for another 10-15 minutes.