Category: Food & Drink

For something different, stop by the White Gardenia antique and gift store, where tea parties are held Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 2 to 4 p.m.

You can come alone or with your friends or your little girl for an afternoon (re)treat. Some of the loose-leaf teas offered are organic peach nectar white tea, English breakfast tea, and chamomile lavender tea. Guests are served their own teapot and enjoy little treats — scones with Devonshire cream, cheese and crackers, mixed nuts, seasonal fruit, and dessert — on mismatched but theme-specific china. (Spring flowers tops the list pattern themes.)

Reservations are required two days in advance. Cost per person, including tax, is $14.95.

White Gardenia, 820 S. Cooper

(722-9199)

Bratwurst is to Germans what barbecue is to Memphians. You can get a taste of that traditionally German sausage during the bratwurst cooking contest being held at the Grand Krewe of Luxor’s Second Annual Oktoberfest, which is not in October at all but this Saturday, April 22nd, from noon to 6 p.m. at the Agricenter.

The word “Bratwurst” is derived from the type of meat used to make it — Brät (and not from the way it is commonly prepared, which is braten, to roast or to grill). Wurst means “sausage.” Bratwurst can be made out of different types of minced meat, but the original German bratwurst is made out of minced pork and a marjoram spice mix.

The very popular Nurnberger Rrostbratwurst is relatively small — just over half an inch in diameter. Legend has it that the sausages were made small because the only chance prison inmates had at a bite of the meaty delicacy was to get it smuggled through a keyhole. Another story is that innkeepers preferred the bratwurst to be small so they could pass it through the keyhole to hungry peddlers who traveled through town after curfew.

You probably won’t have to worry about fitting the bratwurst through a keyhole at the Oktoberfest cooking contest, and if you don’t feel like cooking you can watch the celebrity bratwurst-eating contest or compete for best German costume and best German booth.

Na dann mal ran an die Wurst!, as they say in Germany.

Proceeds from the event will benefit Shelby Residential and Vocational Services (SRVS). For more information, call 751-1505 or visit www.luxor4kids.org.

If you’re in the mood for Italian there’s the Festa Italian Wine Dinner, this month’s Tuesdays on the Terrace wine tasting and dinner at the Memphis Botanic Garden. The event will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and is $65 for members and $75 for nonmembers. Space is limited. For reservations, call 685-1566 ext. 130.

Memphis Botanic Garden,

750 Cherry Road (685-1566)

Have a sweet tooth? Try Mrs. Mamie‘s Bakery. It’s not an actual bakery/pastry shop, however. Mamie Beck has been baking sweet things for school events, bake sales, and family and friends from her home kitchen for more than 25 years. Last November, her daughter, Danita, joined her, and now the two are baking up a storm and offering the results by special order.

The menu features items such as cheesecakes made from secret family recipes. “Legend” is the original recipe — a chilled, creamy delight covered with sprinkles of graham cracker crumbs and sugar. According to the Becks, some cheesecake connoisseurs prefer to freeze the cake and eat it slightly thawed. Cheesecake flavors also include available as key lime, honey almond, chocolate, and a savory variation.

Mamie’s offers much more, including German chocolate, coconut, and caramel cakes. Desserts cost between $20 and $35. For a copy of Mamie’s menu, e-mail mamiesbakery@yahoo.com or call 725-7187.

If you’d like to be more DIY, Williams-Sonoma in Germantown is offering cooking classes. A class on side dishes will be held on April 25th and 27th. In three hours, you’ll learn how to prepare braised mushrooms and cream, ginger-glazed vegetables, au gratin dishes, and more. The cost for the class is $25. Call to register.

Williams-Sonoma, 7615 Farmington (737-9990)

Memphis isn’t the most fertile ground for vegetarian and vegan dining. So many attempts — La Montagne, Midtown Food Co-op, One Love Soulful Vegetarian Café and Juice Bar, Square Foods — have failed or morphed into something else.

Bastet Ankh Re is holding down the fort with her small culinary enterprise Lion’s Bread Vegetarian Cuisine. Re, founder of the currently dormant Vegan Sisters of Memphis, used to serve Lion’s Bread’s 100-percent vegan food out of a storefront on Airways. Recently, she’s set up shop at Precious Cargo.

“After Raminyah, my partner with the Vegan Sisters, moved to Chicago, the Sisters went into hibernation, and I started doing Healthy Meals on Wheels,” Re says. “I’m planning on continuing with that in the fall, but at the same time I was looking for a home base where people could enjoy my food in a coffee shop or restaurant.”

Re’s Lion’s Bread menu is in addition to Precious Cargo’s regular fare of meat and vegetable dishes and sandwiches. Re doesn’t try to convert Precious Cargo’s meatloaf-and-gravy eaters into vegans, but every now and then she does gets one of the regulars to try her barbecue tofu with sweet potatoes and kale or her vegan lasagna.

Precious Cargo is open Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to midnight. and Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. until?

Lion’s Bread Vegetarian Cuisine @ Precious Cargo, 381 N. Main (406-0598)

If you were sad to see Square Foods in Overton Square go out of business earlier this month, cheer up. Although Square Foods as you knew it is gone, Jeanice Blancett, the store’s owner, has been working feverishly to secure the lease for a new location and to hammer out the details for the store’s somewhat different concept.

Square Foods will move to Cooper-Young into the former site of Pie in the Sky on Cooper adjacent to Blue Fish. For the new store, Blancett and her crew will focus less on the market side of the business and more on Square Foods’ popular in-house dining, including sandwiches, smoothies, and vegetarian entrées, and its grab-and-go section. The store will also carry bulk foods, cheeses, and essential grocery items such as milk and bread. Blancett hopes for a May 18th opening, which was the day that Square Foods first opened its doors on Madison Avenue four years ago.

Square Foods will be open Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Square Foods, 937 S. Cooper (728-4371)

According to legend, Sid Fanarof was dating a French girl when he opened the first zpizza restaurant in Laguna Beach California, in 1987. The way it is with those Europeans, they have trouble pronouncing the English th, making it sound like ze. And there you have it: zpizza was born as a single pizza parlor in an artsy, free-spirited community in California, where a few dedicated pizza lovers and a French girlfriend wanted to reinvent the pie.

Quality ingredients were very important in the endeavor, and that’s why zpizza is now a national franchise offering hand-tossed pizzas with gourmet ingredients such as organic tomato sauce, Wisconsin skim Mozzarella, Cremini and Shitake mushrooms, and crusts made from premium Montana winter wheat (whole wheat or regular) that are fire-baked to just the right crispness. Additional menu items include as the ZBQ Salad, the Yuppie Veggie Sandwich, calzones, and Apple Pie Pizza for dessert.

In June, zpizza will open its first area store on Germantown Parkway in Cordova. Won’t guarantee that you’ll find a French girl there, though.

zpizza, 1250 N. Germantown Parkway

South Philly, the downtown Philly cheese steak shop is now serving its fully loaded sandwiches at the Poplar Lounge. Although South Philly owners Corey Miller and Mike Dinwiddie had plans to expand their business, the Poplar Lounge opportunity came by chance. “They’ve always had a kitchen at the Poplar Lounge with one guy doing all the food,” Miller says. “He passed away, and we got offered the spot.”

The menu at South Philly “east” is the same as at its downtown location. Right now, Miller and Dinwiddie are focusing on dinner from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, but they want to open for lunch soon.

For the cheese-steak lover on the go, the new location comes with a take-out window, and home-delivery is in the works too.

South Philly in the Poplar Lounge, 2586 Poplar (324-5081)

The wine lovers among you might want to mark your calendar for two downtown events. On April 30th, it’s time again for the annual Beale Street Wine Race, a day of debauchery-filled fun for local restaurant employees who compete in a number of contests. For more information, call 529-0999.

On May 9th at 6:30 p.m., Miss Cordelia’s will host a “picnic on the river” wine tasting, during which featured wines from France and Australia will be pared with picnic food.

Miss Cordelia’s, 737 Harbor Bend (526-4772), misscordelias.com

Sample spicy African food. Buy yourself a headwrap. Listen to some reggae. Or just pretend you’re Brad or Angelina. Submerge yourself in culture at the 20th annual Africa in April festival.

This year’s fest honors Sierra Leone, the rice-rich country on the Western coast of Africa, and will be held downtown in Robert R. Church Park on Beale through Sunday.

Easter time is here. Why not spend it at the Children’s Museum of Memphis’ Breakfast with Benny the Bunny on Saturday, April 15th, from 10 a.m. to noon? Children, ages 2 to 8, will be able to pet live rabbits, decorate Easter hats and bags, and make “surprise eggs.” Admission is $7 for members and $12 for nonmembers. Space is limited. To make reservations, call 458-2678.

Children’s Museum of Memphis,

2525 Central Avenue

Looking for something more grown-up? How about Easter Sunday brunch? The Inn at Hunt Phelan is now open for Sunday brunch, and its patio will make a nice spot for that Easter-morning mimosa, followed by lobster crepe with mushrooms, poached eggs with paneed veal and Creole sauce, and strawberries and cream.

The Inn at Hunt Phelan, 533 Beale (525-8225)

Easter also kicks off Sunday brunch as a permanent feature at Wally Joe restaurant. The Easter brunch will feature a three-course menu for $29. A regular Joe-style menu — duck confit hash, Gulf shrimp and grits, the “wj” burger, vanilla crepes — will be offered every Sunday thereafter. The trade-off? Starting the week after Easter, the restaurant will no longer serve lunch.

Wally Joe, 5040 Sanderlin (818-0821)

For a traditional Greek Easter meal, Jim’s Place is your place. The restaurant will be open for lunch on Easter, serving roast leg of lamb and souflima (a savory pork entrée) as well as your favorite Southern dishes, such as pecan-crusted catfish.

Jim’s Place, 5560 Shelby Oaks (388-7200)

If you’re craving Asian, check out some of the new Asian restaurants that have opened around town. Lobster King (Nha Hang) offers Cantonese-style food, with an emphasis on seafood and dim sum. The menu includes sesame jellyfish, fried intestines, Peking duck, lobster, and conch in a variety of preparations. You can also get dim sum with afternoon tea or for dinner seven days a week. Taro almond roll, steamed barbecue pork buns, chicken feet, and turnip cakes are just a few of the dim sum choices.

If you are in a hurry, you can get your fix at the Lobster King Buffet, which is housed in the adjacent Viet Hoa Food Market. You can also get carryout items such as Vietnamese sandwiches for $2, a cup of fried rice for 99 cents, and a box of three buffet items for $3.99.

Lobster King, 32 N. Cleveland

(725-5990); Viet Hoa Food Market,

40 N. Cleveland (726-9388)

A little farther north from Lobster King is another hidden treasure: My-Thanh Oriental Food Market & Restaurant. The Tran family has owned and operated the business since 1992. Just recently, they expanded the restaurant to add a lunch buffet, which is open from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and costs $5.95.

Or, if you’re really hungry, you can get the whole thing: Van and My Tran are ready to retire and are looking for someone to take over the business.

My-Thanh, 306 N. Cleveland (725-5079)

On Union, Pei Wei Asian Diner is scheduled to open in May. Pei Wei, a chain restaurant based in Scottsdale, Arizona, offers a mix of influences from Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, and China. That translates into Pei Wei spicy chicken salad, Dan Dan noodle bowl, and signature dishes such as Asian coconut curry and Mandarin Kung Pao.

Pei Wei Asian Diner, 1680 Union (725-5142)

Because my mother harbored an intense and irrational dislike of lamb, we kids never had an opportunity to taste it for ourselves. Not until adulthood did I first gnaw on a lamb chop and understand what I had been missing all those years.

In spite of my late-blossoming love for lamb, I was skittish about preparing it, even after cooking school. Some folks are intimidated by preparing fish, but the little ol’ lamb was my culinary Achilles’ heel. It was stupid and, worse, hypocritical. How could I continue dispensing culinary advice when I was a fraidy cat myself?

I slowly began the initiation with bite-sized grilled lamb during summer, eventually making my way toward the braised shank during colder months. But leg of lamb — you gotta be kidding. Isn’t that for show-offs? Isn’t it complicated and fancy party fare that takes ridiculous amounts of time?

The only thing ridiculous was my attitude, and I knew the madness had to stop. With Easter, Passover, and spring-like festivities on the horizon, I had an opportunity to get over my sheepish self and get on with the roasting.

Now that the lamb has been boned, butterflied (opened up like a book), stuffed, and roasted, I can’t believe I waited so long. It’s as relatively one-step and gratifying as roasting a chicken, but the leg of lamb goes beyond the bird’s homey comfort to simple elegance. What a grand dame she is, resplendent in roasted, redolent glory, and yet she’s fairly fuss-free to prepare.

The guidelines below include a tapenade stuffing, but if you hate the thought of olives, don’t sweat it. Rosemary, garlic, lemon zest, and olive oil rubbed inside and out would do her justice on the dinner-party table.

Butterflied Leg of Lamb Stuffed With Tapenade

From Simple Soirées by Peggy Knickerbocker

TAPENADE

1/2 pound pitted Greek olives

4-6 anchovies, rinsed and chopped

4 tablespoons capers, soaked, rinsed, and chopped

1 clove garlic, roughly chopped

Pinch of cayenne

1 tablespoon leaves of fresh thyme (or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried)

1/4 cup olive oil

• Place olives, anchovies, capers, garlic, cayenne and thyme into the bowl of a food processor (or use a mortar and pestle and pound ingredients) and pulse into a coarse puree. Add olive oil and pulse to combine. Makes about 1 cup tapenade; leftovers are likely.

LAMB

1 3- to 6-pound leg of lamb, boned and butterflied (Ask butcher to do this. Estimate about one pound per person before bone is removed.)

Kitchen twine

1 bunch fresh thyme

Salt and pepper to taste

A few tablespoons olive oil

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

• Open butterflied lamb on flat work surface and salt the inside. Spread tapenade down the center, smoothing out so that middle portion of the meat is completely covered. Don’t overstuff; leftover tapenade can be spread on baguette slices for a tasty snack at another time.

• Roll meat lengthwise into a neat package with the ends tucked in. Wrap twine around the width and tie, repeating every few inches. Then wrap lengthwise at least twice. Spread thyme on bottom of roasting pan and place roast on top, cut side down.

• Salt and pepper the outside and lather with olive oil. Cook lamb for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 375 and roast for about an hour, or until meat thermometer reads between 125 and 135 degrees in the middle (where it’s thick) — this is medium rare. If you want medium, let it cook until 140 degrees. For a smaller roast, check doneness after 30 minutes, then continue checking every 15 minutes.

• Let rest for 15 minutes. Carve crosswise into 1-inch slices.

What’s so funny about peace, love, and barbecue? Nothing. A book by that very title just won an award of excellence from the National Barbecue Association, and that award went to? Co-authors Mike Mills and his daughter, Amy. Mills is known as “The Legend.” Legend for being a pitmaster and the only three-time Grand World Champion of the Memphis in May International Barbecue Festival. The book follows the circuit — the “shrines, shacks, joints, and right-respectable restaurants.” And for “right-respectable,” that includes Memphis’ own Cozy Corner. For more info, go here.

It smells like skanky, stale vodka when you sniff your first one. Then it singes your throat with its flaming jet-fuel flavor, making you beg for mercy. Sake. This is why I avoided it for so many years. But recently a sake enthusiast transformed me, and I learned that this drink, the quality stuff, is worth exploring — at least once.

Sake is not a spirit, although the lower-quality ones certainly taste like a $1 shot in a college bar. It’s often described as “rice wine,” even though sake is actually a grain-fermented beverage like beer. But it tastes closer to wine and isn’t carbonated.

Sake production begins by “polishing” the outer layer of specially selected short-grain rice to expose its inner starch. After the rice is cleaned, soaked, and steamed, sake brewers use a Japanese mold called koji to break down the starch into sugar for fermentation. Adding yeast and water starts the process of converting the sugar into alcohol; then it’s filtered, pasteurized — except for some specialty sakes — and bottled.

After a six-month aging period, it’s ready to drink. Unlike wine, sake doesn’t improve with age and should be consumed within six months after bottling. The fresh ones should be transparent, so shy away from those taking on a darker hue.

Several different types of “premium” sake exist on our markets. To be labeled “premium,” at least 40 percent of the rice grain must be polished away, and sometimes as much as 70 percent is polished away after this arduous process. This is one reason for the higher prices.

The best sakes I tried were the junmai, ginjo, and daiginjo varieties. Junmai sake is full-bodied, earthy, and smacks of wild mushrooms. Ginjo tastes pretty light-bodied and has a slightly fruity aroma. Daiginjo is one quality-step above the ginjo and is the cleanest and nuttiest. There’s also unfiltered, cloudy sake with a milky appearance — the lack of filtration leaves particles of rice floating in it.

In style, sakes range from sweet to dry. The sweetness profile in all of these “wines” varies, so it’s best to ask your server before ordering. I found the best sake selections in sushi restaurants to be the ones hailing from Japan, California, and Oregon.

Premium sakes should be served chilled or at room temperature. The hot sakes you’ll find in many places are heated to cover up their cheap, harsh flavors. Heating sake also gives it that kamikaze taste, leading many to believe sake is high in alcohol. In reality, sake is about 15 percent alcohol — only slightly more than wine. Incidentally, sake contains no sulfites and is free from hangover-inducing congeners found in many wines and dark-colored spirits. A bonus.

I tend to think that sake is best before dinner, as an appetizer, rather than with food, although many disagree. Try a lighter, cleaner sake with spicy Asian foods or sushi. It’s an acquired taste, but don’t rule it out.

Recommended sakes

Masumi Okuden Kantsukuri Junmai “Mirror of Truth” Sake — $23. A little like the Pinot Noir of sakes — earthy, mushroomy but without cherry and raspberry. Hearty, bracing licorice.

Dewazakura Oka Ginjo “Cherry Bouquet” Sake — $28. This sake smells like ripe red cherries, toasted almonds, and honeydew melon. Tastes like them too but very dry with only a slight sweetness.

Hoyo Kura No Hana Daiginjo Sake — $35. Almonds and a very distinct flavor of steamed rice. (Imagine that?) Herby like ginseng or chamomile tea but refined and smooth — no biting, harsh flavors.

Momokawa Pearl Nigori Genshu Sake — $11. A fascinating unfiltered sake with coconut, banana, and almond aromas and taste. Creamy, with a tiny bit of sweetness in it.

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When Raymond Williams and Tiger Bryant were planning Soul Fish, their new restaurant in Cooper-Young, they noticed a conspicuous absence among the otherwise diverse offerings from the neighborhood’s establishments: Southern-style catfish.

“We’re not in here wearing straw hats and overalls, but we’re big fans of Southern food,” Bryant says. “We both grew up in the South, and when you find yourself driving somewhere like Olive Branch Catfish Company to find something that should be pervasive in this area … that’s what steered us that way.”

Williams and Bryant opened Soul Fish’s doors on March 11th, but the idea was a long time coming. Both have been in the restaurant business for a while: Williams has corporate experience and Bryant has owned the Young Avenue Deli for eight years. They knew they would eventually go into business together.

Soul Fish serves traditional meat-and-vegetables dishes. The most expensive dishes top out at $9, with most of them in the $5 to $6 range. That’s by design.

“There are enough high-end places in this area, with the Tsunamis and Dishes and all that,” Williams says. “We wanted to fill a different niche.”

While Soul Fish does have a variety of sandwiches, Bryant is quick to point out that it is different from the fare at the Young Avenue Deli. Soul Fish has more of a Southern flavor, with smoked chicken, catfish, and fresh vegetables.

Most of the food is hand-prepared. The vegetables are fresh-cut, with the potatoes hand-mashed and salads tossed every day.

“The cooks get here in the morning, and the vegetables are started,” Bryant says. “Whatever is decided, we set up and cook that day. We don’t cook stuff up tonight, put it in the refrigerator, and then reheat it.”

They also limit the number of vegetables they offer each day, but they always have cole slaw and mashed potatoes on the menu, plus a handful of mostly seasonal vegetables.

“There is no way you can have 10 or 20 vegetables and do it right,” Williams says. “So we do three a day, maybe four, but that’s it.”

When it comes to the meats, Bryant likes Soul Fish’s chicken, which is roasted and hickory-smoked on the bone. Of course, he’s also partial to the catfish.

“As many brands and types of catfish that we’ve tried over the past several months, I’m still not tired of it,” Bryant says.

Williams recommends the Memphis po’boy: smoked pork tenderloin, barbecue sauce, bacon, and cole slaw served on bread made in New Orleans.

“I guess it’s our version of a barbecue sandwich but with pork tenderloin, which makes a big difference,” he says.

Soul Fish’s menu is about five or six items short of what Williams and Bryant initially came up with.

“We purposely narrowed it for the opening,” Williams explains. “We wanted to do it right.”

“If you have 40 items on the menu, that’s fantastic,” Bryant says. “But if you can’t do those 40 items impeccably and someone tries an item on an off day, you may not have a second chance to try to please them again.”

Soul Fish has a 1950s diner look with a few modern twists. The owners say they were going for a clean, uncluttered look for the 2,000-square-foot space. There is a mixture of tables, booths, and bar seats in the 60-seat restaurant. There are fishing lures beneath the lunch counter’s laminate.

The most eye-catching feature of Soul Fish is the sculpture on the front of the restaurant, which is backlit with light-blue neon. It’s a collaboration between Memphis metalworker Jerry Carter and Bryant’s wife, Glennys, who is a designer.

“It looks fantastic at night,” Bryant says. “When they first put it up there, we were sitting out front with a six-pack just looking at it. We thought it was the neatest thing in the world.”

Early business has been strong, with to-go orders accounting for more business than Williams and Bryant anticipated. They look to do deliveries down the line. And if things go well in the first year, Soul Fish could expand to other locations.

“It’s a concept we can package,” Bryant says. “Restaurants with multiple locations around town have an idea that transfers well. Over the next couple years, we hope to have another one or two stores.”

While Soul Fish brings something different to the Cooper-Young neighborhood, it shouldn’t be hard for it to fit in.

“It seems like 90 percent of the people we know on this earth have come to eat here so far,” Williams says. “We both live and work in this area. Our kids go to school in this area. So it’s important that, for the long haul, this is someplace we can be proud of.”

Soul Fish is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.