Some art collectors aren’t afraid to shell out big bucks for a magnificent piece that catches their eye. Others need some time to think about their purchase. That’s one reason there’s a quaint little bistro located in the back of Glass House 383, the new art-glass gallery on South Main.

“In visiting other galleries, I’ve noticed that people would come in and look at a piece and say they want to think about it. I want to give those people a place to think about it,” says general manager Michael Lubiani. “I’ll bring the piece [into the cafe] and put it on the coffee table. That way they can talk about it and look at it with no pressure.”

Not all gallery vistors plan on making a purchase. Some are just there to look, and Lubiani says the cafe also serves as a place for those customers to relax after viewing the artwork.

“When I walk into a gallery, like many people, I feel intimidated. Studio glass is so new and it’s very attractive, but you walk in and it’s like, What do I do now?” Lubiani says. “It’s like walking into an expensive clothing store. You might feel uncomfortable and want to do something you’re more comfortable with. People are familiar with sitting down in a cafe and having a cup of coffee or a glass of wine.”

Glass House has the only espresso bar on South Main, offering specialty coffees as well as teas and frozen drinks. The coffee menu is flexible, catering to customer requests.

“We’ve had some local residents come in and say, ‘It’d be really nice if you had this type of coffee.’ We’ll try it for a while to see if people like it,” he says.

There are 17 wines on the list, and Lubiani says they worked with a wine-distribution company to ensure a good representation. Glass House also offers eight cheeses to complement the wines.

Since the gallery has no kitchen, the bistro serves food that can be prepared behind the counter. Four grilled Italian panini sandwiches make up the bulk of the menu. One contains roast beef and Swiss, while another has turkey and provolone. Vegetarians can choose between a mozzarella, Swiss, and veggie sandwich or a Greek-inspired sandwich with feta and spinach.

The bistro also has a Caesar salad, a Greek salad, and a soup of the day. Desserts include tiramisu, Key lime pie, and triple-chocolate cheesecake from specialty vendors.

Hannah Miller, the bistro manager, and Lubiani worked together on developing the menu through trial and error.

“We had the panini grill at Hannah’s house for a while, and then it was at my house. We did a lot of experimenting,” says Lubiani. “I’d give her some ideas, and she’d give me some until we came up with what seemed to work.”

The cafe also features live entertainment on the weekends. Local singer-songwriters and jazz ensembles perform on Friday and Saturday nights, and the Memphis Songwriters Association will soon start open-mic nights on Thursdays. Lubiani says they’re trying to create a low-key atmosphere in the gallery, and in keeping with that mission, the acoustics in the cafe were specially designed so that customers can talk over the music.

“We want to provide a nice quiet environment for people to come to after Beale Street or after dinner. We want people to be able to come in and have a conversation and not have to compete with the music,” Lubiani says.

In the front of the gallery, hand-blown vases, bowls, and sculptures are on display. Most were designed by out-of-town artists, which Lubiani says is partly due to the fact that there’s only a handful of glass artists in Memphis. That may change within a couple years, though, since Glass House plans on offering glass-blowing classes in an adjoining studio next year. Gallery visitors will be able to watch students blow glass through live feed on plasma-screen televisions in the cafe.

“We’re really trying to touch several senses here,” says Lubiani. “We’ve got the artwork in the front, which is visually very nice. We’re got the food and entertainment in the back. We really want to provide an experience while promoting the art form.” •

Glass House 383 is located at 383 S. Main. Hours: Monday-Tuesday 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Wednesday-Thursday 10 a.m.-10 p.m.; Friday-Saturday 10 a.m.-midnight; closed Sunday.

Gina Mallet was in the middle of eating a restaurant’s veal chop when she realized she was bored not only with the chop but with food in general — bored with food overpraised by critics, bored with food trying too hard to make a “splash,” bored with food that was “imaginative,” and bored with food that was a matter of opinion polls and menu consultants. This was in the late 1990s and Mallet was a restaurant reviewer for a Toronto newspaper, but the bloom was off the rose: Even the idea of eating at someone else’s expense was a bore.

Then she entered a no-frills Toronto restaurant, and her faith was restored. The chef was a “tight-lipped Breton” who served her fish soup, pan-fried snapper, and an apple tart. Nothing fancy, but it tasted good. The restaurant felt good. The tables weren’t the scene of shouting matches between customers and acoustics. Her fellow diners were taking their time, having conversations.

In Last Chance To Eat: The Fate of Taste in a Fast Food World (W.W. Norton), Mallet’s having a conversation too — with you the reader (and eater), and you needn’t be a foodie to enjoy her wit and wisdom. Only don’t look here for a diatribe against the fast food of her subtitle. Mallet has a lot on her mind; the drive-through/drive-by meal is not one of them: “Industrial fast food is never disappointing: it is reassuringly the same,” she writes. “It is the food of the pessimist. Nothing can improve it. But then, nothing can make it worse.” Case closed.

Case reopened in Mallet’s chapter on the “imperiled” egg, the same egg vilified for its cholesterol content by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration beginning in the 1970s and rescued by the Harvard School of Public Health, which gave it a clean bill of health in the 1990s. But Mallet reminds us that it’s the imperial egg too: eaten by the Romans, transformed by Carême as a basis for haute cuisine, and elevated to new heights in Escoffier’s Le Guide Culinaire (1903). It’s also the egg once farmed (sort of successfully) by Mallet’s clueless parents on their Edwardian estate overlooking the Thames when she was a child.

Mallet’s mother was a no-nonsense American who didn’t argue with the idea of owning a great house, but she never imagined having to live in one during the winter. Mallet’s father was an English aristo who went on to become the director of a chain of luxury hotels throughout Europe. During World War II, the Mallet family knew what it was to ration food, but when they moved after the war into a hotel on the French Riviera, Mallet finally learned just how good an egg can be. For starters, it wasn’t powdered. It was gently scrambled in butter (real butter!) for maybe a couple minutes (no lumps!) after mixing in some cream (real cream!) and that was it. Simple. Good. And why the hell don’t we eat this way today?

One, two minutes is too much trouble. Two, the FDA, mega-farming industrialists, and misminded extremists have scared the joy out of cooking with their dietary declarations based on faulty or absent scientific studies. Or maybe it’s the fault of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, because, according to Mallet’s French friend Guy, “WASPs don’t know anything about food.”

But Mallet isn’t here to beat up on whole groups or nationalities. She’s here to happily admit the English know beef better than anybody, though she’s not far removed from food writer Elizabeth David’s opinion of postwar English cooking. (“A kind of bleak triumph which amounted almost to a hatred of humanity and humanity’s needs.”) Mallet even praises the all-American grilled-cheese sandwich. She salutes Julia Child, Alice Waters, and Martha Stewart.

It’s more than Mallet’s praise, however, that makes Last Chance To Eat a source of pleasure and surprise. It’s her breeziness and knowledge of eating habits on both sides of the Atlantic, her willingness to open-mindedly consider all things edible.

You say, “Bacteria.” Europeans (and Mallet) say, “Yummy.”

You say horsemeat. The French say Bucephalus marrow (and like it).

You say low-fat whipping cream. Mallet says you might as well buy the spray variety (and have an orgy while you’re at it).

You say porpoise. Nineteenth-century naturalist Frank Buckland (via Mallet) says it tastes like “broiled lamp wick.” (But mice: “delicious.” Earwigs: “horribly bitter.”)

You say sodium-tri-polyphosphate (STP), an active ingredient in carpet-cleaning solutions and paint strippers. Mallet says scallops are packaged in it. (The FDA says STPs are GRAS, “generally recognized as safe.”)

You say you don’t know how long to cook fish. A Canadian measure recommends 10 minutes per inch of thickness, then asks that you figure the square inches. For a four-inch cut, that means a total cooking time of 160 minutes — to be on the safe side. Forget taste.

But you say you don’t know good taste from bad. Mallet is the voice of reason: “The great thing about good food is you don’t have to know what you’re eating or be an expert to know that it’s delicious. The same is true of any art: it is second-rate cooking … that is incomprehensible.”

If weeks of Olympics coverage didn’t satisfy your hunger for all things

Greek, come to Bartlett to celebrate Greekfest 2004. St.

George Greek Orthodox Church, 6984 Highway 70, will

host this 43rd annual event September 18th.

“Watching the Olympics you see all the beauty

of Greece,” says Kathy Zambelis, publicity

chairperson. “Now, Greece is coming to the Mid-South. It is a

great way to share our heritage.”

There will be crafts, games, dance troupes, and

music from the Lazarus Band from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Admission is free. A traditional Greek dinner will be

served from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. The complete meal,

which includes an entrée, sides, salad, and dessert, is $12

for adults and $6 for children 12 and under. Advance

tickets can be purchased for $10 and $5, respectively,

by calling the church at 388-5910.

Stay all day or just drive through and carry

dinner home. And don’t forget: The Greek Pastry Shop

will offer a variety of homemade treats, and stands will

sell gyros and souvlaki.

Cafe Society, 212 N. Evergreen, has a new look. Since closing its gourmet market Epicure in

June, the restaurant opened up that space by enlarging

the bar, adding a dining room, and updating the appearance, all while preserving the

upscale French café atmosphere.

“The new bar is beautiful,” says bartender Leanna Tedford. “It’s

made of Brazilian redwood, and it follows the same curve that outlined the

old Epicure. It’s double the size of the old bar.”

Enlarging the bar also allows room for smoking tables. The

renovations include a banquet room that can be reserved for private functions.

Artwork by husband and wife Anton Weiss and Lisa Jennings adorn the walls.

“We’ve been in business 17 years, and it was time for

an update,” says Telford. “We’ve added a few new items to

the menu, but there will be more changes. We wanted to

wait until we got comfortable with the renovations.”

For now, new menu items include osso buco, a veal

shank braised for 12 hours; pan-seared flat-iron steak

with andouille, succotash, and a Gran Marnier-scented

lobster glaze; and the chef’s daily selection of fresh fish.

Senses, 2866 Poplar, may be best known for its pulsing music and cold drinks, but the club also

features a full kitchen. The best time to sample the more

unusual menu items, like the endame (salted soy beans), is

Monday through Friday from 4 to 7 p.m. when free appetizers

are served in the Martini Bar.

Chef Robby Alexander, who formerly worked at

Automatic Slim’s, helped owners George and Dennis

Mironovich create an assortment of light and tasty finger foods.

“We didn’t want to offer a big cheeseburger, so

we created four mini-cheeseburgers,” says

George Mironovich.

The Asian-influenced menu mostly features

appetizers to be shared among friends and a couple of

entrées for bigger appetites.

Now that the club has found its niche in the

nightclub industry, it is carving out a spot in the

catering business as well. It offers themed buffets, such as

“Caribbean Carnival” or “Tea Time,” as well as nearly

50 finger food or plate dinners.

“Whether it’s a business meeting for 40 or a

wedding reception for 700, we can provide everything

— food, drinks, servers, sound, lighting, and even

decoration,” says George Mironovich.

Cookbook compliments of the Woman’s

Exchange will be published in the fall of 2005 to

share recipes and raise funds for an organization that has

been in Memphis since 1933.

“We’ve done cookbooks in the past, but this

will be the biggest and the best,” says Libby Aaron, a

member of the organization. “The book will be

hardcover and include about 250 recipes.”

The Woman’s Exchange is a national

nonprofit organization that sells products and crafts made

by people who work from home because of disabilities

or other reasons.

“The Woman’s Exchange is helping people

help themselves,” says Aaron. “Changes in the economy

have been hard, and consignors are a dying breed.

Women just don’t sew like they used to and the operating

costs are increasing, so we just need a good fund-raiser.”

The Memphis chapter’s store at 88 Racine also

features a tearoom. Three-course meals with a selection

of three entrées are served for lunch Monday through

Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

In his offbeat classic Jitterbug

Perfume, author Tom Robbins heaps lavish praise upon the beet. It is, he says, “the most intense of vegetables deadly serious the murderer returned to the scene of the crime.

The beet is the ancient ancestor of the autumn moon,

bearded, buried, all but fossilized.”

The novel goes on to describe a recipe for

immortality that includes, among other things, lots of sex and beets.

Beets are as earthy as a mouthful of dirt. Perhaps

that’s why, here in America, few contenders come close to

challenging the beet for the title of Least Favorite

Vegetable. Not broccoli, not spinach, not even yellow

summer squash inspires such vitriolic passion among its

detractors. Perhaps the offense is in the paradoxical earthy

sweetness of the beet, while the scarlet aftermath in our toilet

bowl sings of our marriage to the food chain in ways we’d

prefer to forget.

Meanwhile, if you ask people about their

favorite taste in the whole world, many will name

chocolate. Like the beet, chocolate is a food of passion. In the

movie Chocolat, for example, the heroine opens a

chocolate shop in a conservative, old-world Catholic village during Lent. The town’s leaders

begin a witch-hunt, denouncing her as a temptress. Near

the end of the story she succeeds in awakening the

long-suppressed passions of the town folk. Indeed, chocolate is

known in many circles as not only an aphrodisiac but as an

outright substitute for sex.

So here we are, discussing two passionate,

earth-toned foods, both of which demand to be taken seriously.

Perhaps you suspect where I’m going with this and are bracing for

a combination that seems even less likely than the union

of heaven and earth.

But how heavenly is the taste of pure chocolate?

Not very, unless heaven is a bitter place. Chocolate — the

roasted seed coat of the cacao plant — is made palatable

only when combined with sugar. Oftentimes that sugar

comes from beets, the world’s second source of the sweet

stuff, behind sugarcane.

I was on the phone with a farmer friend one

day while he was making dinner for his wife and their

crew of hungry women. While we spoke, he made a vat of

pesto and some French filet beans in a soy-garlic-ginger

sauce. All of a sudden he said, “Oh, I gotta go stir my

beet thing.” Next thing I knew, I was talking to a dial tone.

That night, one of the farmer’s hungry women brought me a sample of

said beet thing. It was gooey and moist, like fudge. It was sweet

and full of chocolate, like fudge. It tasted like fudge, even though

it was mostly grated beets. (It also contained chocolate

chips, cocoa powder, and butter. He cooked it on the stovetop.)

His wife was inspired by the possibility of chocolate

and beets. Over the weekend, she did some research of her

own, arriving at a dense oven-bar recipe, wherein a cup of flour

is mixed with a cup of cocoa powder. To this is added a

mixture of one cup grated beets, two eggs, fresh raspberries,

a little water, and a melted mixture of two tablespoons

butter and a cup of chocolate chips. This substantial wad is

mixed and baked in a greased pan at 325 degrees for about half

an hour. The product is a color that would make Tom

Robbins blush: a combination of red and brown that is dark as

night and shiny as ebony.

Not wanting to be outdone and aware that Robbins

was also a huge mayonnaise fan, I devised, tested, tweaked,

and perfected the following recipe for chocolate beet

mayonnaise cake.

You think I’m crazy but wait! My tasters were

thoroughly blown away by this perfectly moist and dense

chocolate experience and reluctant to believe it contained

beets and mayo. You, my friend, will like this cake.

Combine the following ingredients in the following order: two cups flour; one teaspoon

baking soda; one teaspoon baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon salt;

1/2 cup cocoa powder; one cup sugar; 1/2 cup chocolate

chips. Stir the dry ingredients before adding one teaspoon

vanilla; 3/4 cup half & half, one cup mayo, and two cups

shredded beets (boiled 10 minutes in one cup water, until

tender, and drained). Bake it in a greased pan at 350 until a

plunged fork comes out clean (about 30 minutes). Cool.

For the frosting, combine 1/2 cup each of sour

cream, cream cheese, and confectioner’s sugar in a bowl. Beat it

all together until smooth. Beat two egg whites until stiff,

fold them into the frosting, chill 30 minutes, and frost.

Tom Robbins, eat your heart out.

The duo responsible for the North End (and the hot fudge pie) is back in business. Jake Shore and David Harsh opened the restaurant, a staple of the Pinch District, in 1983 and ran it together until Shore sold his interest in 2002 and Harsh closed the doors for good in February.

Now the two, friends since 1976, have opened Westy’s, at 346 N. Main.

“This restaurant will have a lot of things the North End had: 30 varieties of wild rice, Creole cooking, and, of course, hot fudge pie,” says Shore. “But the North End was one of a kind, and Westy’s will again be one of a kind.”

Solid-mahogany booths, tables, and bar offer the same casual setting as the North End. Plus, Shore says you can expect the same attentive service even in the wee hours.

“If you order at 3 a.m., we’re not going to run you out at 3:30,” says Shore. “I don’t believe in rushing anyone out.”

Westy’s menu features pastas and melts, like tomato and cream cheese. Many of the new dishes are tailored to the health-conscious and to vegetarians. The drink list features nearly 80 beers, inexpensive wines, and a full bar in a few weeks.

The Cordova Ridge Italian CafE at 1204 N. Houston-Levee offers dishes from pizza and sandwiches to gourmet Italian dinners and a variety of wines.

Husband-and-wife team Zack and Autumn Abdallat designed the space to mimic an Italian outdoor café. While there is sidewalk seating, the real transformation is indoors. With wooden shutters, candlelight lanterns, and soft Italian music playing, it’s possible to imagine the café overlooking a piazza in Florence.

Zack gained experience as a general manager for Memphis restaurants, such as Applebee’s, the Olive Garden, and the Macaroni Grill, but he acquired his talent for cooking from his mother who was born in Milan.

“I learned a lot from my mother,” says Zack, who opened the restaurant in May. “We are quality-driven. People definitely get their money’s worth and more. People tell us, ‘This is too much food,’ and we say, ‘Take it home and share it with a friend.'”

The cost of lunch is $6 to $8, while dinner ranges from $10 to $13 a person. The dinner special always includes two glasses of the featured wine of the week. The restaurant is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and until 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Explosions of Chinese fireworks kicked off the grand opening of China Inn II, 2829 Covington Pike, on August 3rd. The first China Inn is known for its mix of Chinese food and American home-cooking and has served South Memphis since 1971. After nearly 20 years in business, owners Lynn and By Fong passed the restaurant down to Lynn Fong’s niece, Jasmine Chow. Jasmine and her husband, King Chow, relocated the restaurant once because of an expired lease but remained in Whitehaven.

“We have customers from Mississippi, Arkansas, and East Memphis who would always ask when we planned to open another location,” says Jasmine Chow. “Then we found an opportunity on Covington Pike. It is much bigger and nicer.”

What can be said about deviled eggs? Apparently a lot. Entire books have been devoted to the subject. Now the Southern Foodways Alliance, an organization under the auspices of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at Ole Miss, will chronicle recipes and recollections in “an online deviled-egg diary.”

The Foodways folks are seeking stories about (100 words or so) and recipes for these creamy picnic favorites. Send yours to DeviledEggs@olemiss.edu. Three finalists will be selected on September 15th, and the winner will be crowned king or queen of deviled eggs during the Southern Foodways Symposium held in Oxford, Mississippi, October 7th-10th. The winner will also receive a free pass to this annual four-day event.

NOW there’s no reason to stand in line for a table at Jim’s Place, 5560 Shelby Oaks Drive. For years, Jim’s Place — known for its Greek specials — accepted reservations on Fridays and Saturdays for large parties only. You can now call ahead for a table for two or 20. The number is 388-7200.

For the past year and a half, Memphis has been a bit of a Hollywood hot spot, hosting the cast and crew of such films as Walk the Line with Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, Elizabethtown with Orlando Bloom, Forty Shades of Blue with Rip Torn, 21 Grams with Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro, and the John Singleton-backed film Hustle & Flow. Go back a few more years and add Cast Away, A Family Thing, The People vs. Larry Flynt, The Client, The Firm, The Rainmaker, Great Balls of Fire, and Mystery Train to the list.

Needless to say, more than one Hollywood location scout has come to town to find restaurants that look as good on film as any A-list star. As a result, owners like Robert Anderton of Anderton’s and Harry Zepatos of the Arcade have become old hands at show business.

“I wasn’t really surprised when [the Johnny Cash biopic] Walk the Line called and said they wanted to film here,” says Anderton. “21 Grams had filmed at the bar when they were in town, so it’s not like it was something new. But [Walk the Line] wanted me to close for lunch, and I wasn’t sure I could do that.”

Anderton already had closed Anderton’s during lunch for more than a month while he was undergoing radiation and chemotherapy treatments for colon cancer. He’d just reopened the restaurant when Hollywood came calling.

“I really thought I should turn them down because you don’t want your customers to come one day and you’re closed, then you’re open, then you’re closed again,” he says. “But they asked if they could come in one day after lunch and shoot into the evening. I said, ‘Okay, let’s do it.'”

The first Anderton’s opened in 1945 at 115 Madison downtown. In 1954, the restaurant was designed to be the very picture of 1950s cocktail cool. The same mid-century style was used for Anderton’s East, which opened in Midtown in 1956.

“People come in who haven’t been in Memphis for 25 years and tell me [the restaurant] hasn’t changed at all. That’s why Walk the Line wanted to shoot here. It’s for my decor. That period is a big part of Johnny Cash’s life.”

Anderton grew up working for his father but can’t recall any notable encounters with Cash. He remembers other Sun luminaries quite well.

“Sam and Knox Phillips have been regular customers for as long as I can remember,” he says. “And when Colonel Tom Parker was friends with my father back when he was still managing Eddie Arnold, [Parker] asked my father if he’d ever heard of Elvis Presley. My dad said he hadn’t, so he asked me if I’d ever heard of him. I told him that Elvis was a local singer and that everybody was crazy for his music. And that’s what my father told Colonel Parker.”

Would Anderton let a movie shoot at his restaurant again? “Absolutely,” he says. “Some of the nicest people I’ve ever worked with. I can’t sing their praises enough. And one of the best parts is when people come into the restaurant and say, ‘Hey, this looks like the bar in 21 Grams.’ I tell them it is the bar in 21 Grams, and that’s when they start looking at it differently. It’s like they’ve just seen a movie star.”

Like Anderton, Zepatos grew up in the business. Likewise, he never dreamed that the family restaurant would someday become the set of even one Hollywood movie. But there can be little doubt that the Arcade is the most frequently filmed restaurant in Memphis. Consequently, when something in the 86-year-old Arcade needs replacing, Zepatos makes sure the new addition doesn’t compromise the Arcade’s vintage feel.

“It’s a good thing, but I’m starting to wonder if it’s all too much,” Zepatos says of the attention. For instance, a Disney project had just completed filming in the restaurant the night before. “Not every film that comes to Memphis can film in the Arcade, can they?” he asks. And of course, not every film does. Walk the Line, for example, isn’t filming inside the Arcade, but they have filmed on South Main Street in front of the Arcade.

“I can’t imagine that we’re not going to make it into the picture,” Zepatos says.

Like Anderton, Zepatos’s greatest concern is the length of time his business will be closed for filming, especially for lunchtime diners who are creatures of habit.

Renting a restaurant for filming isn’t a big money maker, according to Zepatos. “You essentially make what you would have made if you’d been open,” he says. The reason he continues to do it is for the exposure and the stories.

“I remember when they were shooting Mystery Train,” he says. “Nobody knew who any of those guys were back then. The [back dining room] wasn’t open then, and [director Jim] Jarmusch turned the whole place into a lounge with rocking chairs and everything.”

When the Cameron Crowe-directed Elizabethtown shot a chili-eating sequence with Bloom at the Arcade earlier this month, one member of the crew bought a stack of Arcade T-shirts.

“They said they might film on the plane where everybody is wearing these T-shirts,” Zepatos says. “Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. But it would be great if they did. They hope the film will develop a cult following and people will want to do all of the things that Orlando Bloom does in the movie, like have a bowl of chili at the Arcade. Now that would be great.”

Drinking beer and grilling meat is one of those quintessential, all-American pairings. Almost everyone has sucked back a beer while grilling some nicely marbled steaks, slabs of salmon, lamb, chicken, or whatnot. Everyone also has heard the somewhat overrated health risks involved with grilling meat too, right? If not, let’s refresh your memory.

Several studies have concluded that grilling and charring muscle meats such as beef, chicken, and fish creates little cancer-causing guys called heterocyclic amines (HCAs). There’s also that damn benzopyrene, which is the nasty buildup of fat that drips onto hot coals and then evaporates and sticks to the meat. In fact, some reports say that when a pound of meat is grilled over charcoal, it can contain as much carcinogenic benzopyrene as 300 cigarettes! And most recently, some tests performed by scientists in Hong Kong found that levels of carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in charcoal-grilled meat can be much higher than in non-charcoal-grilled meats. What are PAHs? They are organic chemicals that are “probably” carcinogenic to humans. (Probably? C’mon yes or no, you lousy nerds!)

While nothing conclusive has yet linked grilling meat over a flame with cancer in humans (we have been eating grilled meats ever since our caveman ancestors employed fire for cooking), the reports are still a little spooky

But don’t be spooked. Let beer be your savior! It seems that a German food chemist by the name of Udo Pollmer discovered that using beer while grilling inhibits HCAs. Other studies suggested that soaking meat in beer for several hours before grilling also reduces the chance of these carcinogenic compounds forming. Any beer works so long as it’s alcoholic.

Don’t forget that beer also helps to tenderize meats, so we’re in business for some marinating action and some “healthy” grilling.

If you’ve never cooked with beer before, it’s easy and extremely versatile. Just use caution when cooking with extremely hoppy beers (they can overwhelm the meat), and you’ll be fine. Here’s an easy recipe:

Alström’s Doppelbock Steak with Parmesan Garlic Broccoli and Tomato Salad

What you need:

1) A perfectly portioned steak of choice. Make sure it’s nice and marbled with fat.

2) At least one bottle of Doppelbock beer: Aying’s Celebrator, Paulaner Salvator, Spaten Optimator, Tucher Bajuvator Doppelbock, or even Sam Adams Triple Bock if you can find it. These beers are malty sweet, less hoppy, and high in alcohol — perfect for grilling with steak. Check with your local brewpub too; they might have a fresh growler of Doppelbock that you can take home (use only 12-16 oz).

3) Broccoli, one average-sized head per person

4) Parmesan cheese, half a cup

5) Chopped garlic, to your liking

6) Salt and pepper

7) Olive oil, a few tablespoons

8) Yellow and orange tomatoes, one of each per person

9) Balsamic dressing

What you need to do:

1) Get an airtight container, drop in the steak, and cover with the entire bottle of bock. Seal the container and give it a good shake, then stick it in the fridge at least overnight or up to 24 hours. Re-shake occasionally. 2) When it’s time to grill, simply slap that Doppelbock-soaked piece of meat on the grill and get cooking. Personally, we don’t like our steak cooked more than medium rare. Anything more is a waste of meat and its inherent goodness. And besides, you just killed any bacteria by soaking the meat in alcohol. 3) While the steak is grilling, steam the broccoli, then toss it gently with olive oil. Shake in the Parmesan cheese and chopped garlic, then add salt and pepper to taste. 4) Chop the tomatoes lengthwise into meaty slices, arrange on a small plate, and splash on just a bit of balsamic dressing.

Recommended: You can always reduce the leftover beer marinade by cooking it down on low heat, then drizzling it over the finished steak. Feel no need to add anything to it. The beer is tasty by itself and even more so when blended with the juice from the steak. Pair with more Doppelbock beer or contrast with something light, such as a pale ale or lager. n

by Jason & Todd Alstrom

Taking the Heat

Cool wines for this hot summer.

by Taylor Eason

It’s time to get serious about summer wines. This frickin’ 100 percent humidity makes me want to flee as far away as possible from red wine, no matter what the occasion. Give me something white and cold and give it to me now, baby.

To conquer your sweat, slide out to the deck/pool/patio, roll the chilled, wet bottle across your forehead, and pop open the cork or unscrew the top. It’ll provide relief for a little while, at least.

Highfield 2002 Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough — Meatier than most Sauvignon Blancs, with energizing grapefruit, passionfruit, and a slight buttery aftertaste. $17.

Nora 2003 Albarino Rias Baixas Spain — The albarino grape thrives in the wet, green earth of northwest Spain. Its bright, tangy acidity makes it a perfect accompaniment to seafood, and it’s also a pretty kickin’ just-relax wine. There’s a taste of peach and green apple, with a hit of lemon-lime. Good price for an albarino. $13.

Caymus 2002 Conundrum California — This label reads “White Table Wine” because the winemaker blends several different grapes to create this gorgeous, lush beverage. The Conundrum formula changes each year, and this one smells so good, I want to climb into the bottle and live. Seductive and rich with spicy-floral, honeysuckle, and vanilla. A slight hint of sweetness yet tart at the same time. Magnificent. $25.

Baileyana 2002 Sauvignon Blanc Edna Valley Paragon Vineyard — A refreshing blend of grapes picked at different times during harvest to form a cornucopia of flavors, from grass and lemon to white peach and almonds. $13.

Carmel 2003 Private Selection Chardonnay/Sauvignon Blanc Israel — Something a little different from Israel: a delicious wine for anytime, not just kosher occasions. It shows off the best of both grapes in this blend: delicious grapefruit with a hefty dose of rich butter on the tongue and finish. $17.

Kings Ridge 2001 Pinot Gris Oregon — I’ve seen a lot of overpriced Oregon wines lately, but this ain’t one of them. Pinot gris is a fantastic grape for the cool climate in this state. This version yields a clean, melon-y, honeyed, and citrus wine that’s great for lounging around the pool. $13.

Faiveley 2002 Chablis — A solid Chardonnay from the Burgundy region of France, this is a hard-to-find, inexpensive Chablis. (Except for the jug-wine imposters from California. By the way, that isn’t Chablis, or Chardonnay for that matter. It’s cheap grapes, made into cheap wine, to sell cheap. Needless to say, the French hate that Almaden et al. sullied the name.) Faiveley is the Real Thing: minerally, slightly earthy with a tinge of tangy citrus. $16.

Whitehall Lane 2002 Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley — A Sauvignon Blanc with strong oak influences and citrus and exotic fruits like mango and lychee. Fascinating. $13.

Montecillo 2003 White Rioja — Sportin’ some lively lime, crisp green apple, and a clean, soft texture in the mouth. It’s made from a relatively obscure white grape called Viura. $10.

Alta Vista 2003 Torrontes Premium Mendoza — A white grape that thrives in Argentina, Torrontes is unlike most wines out there. It reminds me of a gutsy, well-made viognier: very fragrant, full of exotic fruit and flowers in both aroma and taste, yet it’s dry. Great for drinking with anything spicy or just for drinking. Easy entry point on the price too. $10.

“When I am doing a show, I tell people that I have two names,” says Harold, the senior hibachi chef at Nagasaki Inn, the 23-year-old Japanese steakhouse and sushi bar on Summer Avenue.

“When I am here cooking, they call me Harold,” he crows, looking like a culinary Ninja with his razor-sharp knife slung low in a black leather holster at his hip. “At my other job,” he adds with a sly grin, “they call me John Holmes Jr.” This little joke is a winner with the customers, he says. And when it comes to the hibachi experience, the jokes, the goofy sight gags, and the acrobatic knifework are almost as important as the butter and the spices.

“All the best jokes have something a little dirty about them,” Harold says conspiratorially, like he was giving away his secret recipe. “But you have to know your customer. You can’t tell the dirty jokes to the church women. They don’t like it.”

To watch a hibachi chef at work slicing shrimp, beef, chicken, and vegetables in mid-air while keeping up a running dialogue with the diners is to assume that they have trained for years in some secret dojo run by a Jedi master. Each piece is perfectly chopped for fast cooking and easy chopstick handling. The sengiri (shreds), wagiri (rounds), arare (dice), and hangetsu (half moons) fly like edible confetti and come down sizzling on the hibachi.

“I learned how to do it in maybe three weeks,” Harold brags. “I would come early and practice. I never thought I couldn’t do it.”

Twenty-three years ago, Harold, then a diminutive ex-agriculture student from Vietnam, had just arrived in America. He spoke no English and had 10 brothers and sisters to support. He worked doing anything he could: landscaping, bussing tables, stocking groceries. Though he had no background in food service, he started working for Nagasaki Inn two months before it opened. It was a bottom-rung position, but he approached it with curiosity, absorbing everything that was going on around him. Eventually, he started cooking, and when a chef’s slot opened at Nagasaki he was asked to fill it.

“You just have to practice,” Harold says. “And you have to keep changing how you do your show so that you have something new. Today I feel bad for the rookie chefs because sometimes they will be doing their show, and nobody will be watching them because they are watching me.”

The name hibachi, taken from the words “hi” and “bitsu,” literally translates as “fire pot.” In China, the hibachi was an ornate brazier, usually made of bronze and perched on carved wooden legs. In the beginning, they were used primarily for heating and for light, but just as Chinese Buddhism transformed itself into the idiosyncratic practice of Zen after reaching the islands, so too the hibachi, which was remade into something distinctly Japanese.

The first Japanese hibachis were roughly hewn tree trunks — often cypress — hollowed out and lined with clay. Over time, they evolved into artfully crafted cabinets of carved, lacquered wood, porcelain, and metal. Water was kept warm on the hibachi for tea. Incense was thrown into the embers. In the wintertime, the hibachi became the centerpiece of Japanese family life, with the most important guests and family members seated closest to the fire. It was, from its earliest incarnation, something like Japanese television, and it’s easy to see how hibachi cuisine has come to be as much about good theater as it is about fresh food.

“The whole time I have been here I have never asked for a raise,” Harold says, explaining that he has been duly rewarded for his years of service. But it’s not the financial rewards that keep him so satisfied. It’s the fans. It’s the fact that his product combines food and laughter, two of the most satisfying commodities imaginable.

“There aren’t many people who can go home from work and really relax because they know they have done something good,” Harold says. “I can relax because I know that I’ve made people happy.”

And just how far is Harold willing to go to make his customers happy? A long, long way.

“I have two names,” he says, explaining that his birth name is a little difficult for the average Westerner. “When I started working here, I had long hair, and in the [chef’s hat] it looked like a crown. [A customer] said, ‘Hey, you look like King Henry,’ and another one said, ‘No, Henry’s not right. He looks more like a Harold.’ So I said, ‘Okay. I am Harold.” n

Food NEWS

by Sonia Alexander Hill

Sausage biscuits and breakfast burritos at Back Yard Burger? Sound strange? Not for customers in the Little Rock area, and now the newest location at 7780 Hwy. 64 East will test the breakfast menu in the Memphis market.

“All of our Little Rock locations offer breakfast,” says Michael Myers, president of BYB. “It’s easier when you go into a new town. You start from the beginning. We’ve been in Memphis for almost 18 years, and a lot of people don’t think of us for breakfast, so we have to look at it from a marketing standpoint. Just because you offer breakfast doesn’t mean you’ll make a profit.”

One reason the company is testing its breakfast menu in this area is because some new venues require it. The company plans to add two locations to the soon-to-be-expanded food court at Memphis International Airport. Also, the company opened a location at a 24-hour family travel center in Arlington.

Breakfast is not the only thing that makes the Hwy. 64 restaurant that opened July 9th stand out from other locations. This BYB is not in its usual stand-alone building but in a strip mall.

“Back Yard Burger’s headquarters is in Memphis, so you’ll see innovation in this area,” says Myers. “Our franchisees offer questions. We try to test in our corporate locations. If you look at other parts of the U.S., real estate can be a challenge, especially if you want to go into a mature, existing area. Land and building costs aren’t going down, so we continue to look at other venues.”

Ben & Jerry’s Germantown Scoop Shop opened at the Village Shops of Forest Hill in May.

After 28 years with FedEx, Marc Tate traded in his suit for jeans and a tie-dyed T-shirt. Tate joined his father, also retired from FedEx, to open the first Ben & Jerry’s in the Memphis area.

“I don’t think anyone can make ice cream better than Ben & Jerry’s,” says Tate. “My responsibility is to come up with the best environment. We want a place where friends and family can come in and sit down without feeling rushed.”

Tate plans to make Saturday karaoke night and hopes to add an open-mic night. But on any evening of the week novices from 2-year-olds to musical maestros can have a go at the piano in the vibrant purple and yellow dining room.

The 2,000-square-foot store features seating for 40, making it one of the largest Ben & Jerry’s locations, says Tate. It is one of the only ones to feature an open-dip display counter that offers a look at nearly 30 flavors, like Cherry Garcia and Chunky Monkey.

The menu also features the usual assortment of sundaes and fresh-baked waffle cones, as well as Ben & Jerry’s newest flavor, Half Baked Carb Karma, with two to five net grams of carbs, and many Splenda-sweetened alternatives.

The corporation that operates Abuelo’s Mexican Food Embassy restaurants opens a location at 8274 Hwy 64. on August 9th. Food Concepts International has 20 locations and plans to open 50 by 2007.

“For us, quality control, the complexity of the menu, and the type of service standards that we require make it necessary to retain control over operations,” says Bob Lin, president of Food Concepts.

The servers undergo rigorous training for three weeks prior to the opening. On the weekend preceding the opening, training continues with lunches and dinners served free to family, friends, and others. While the mock meals are invitation-only, 100 percent of bar sales are donated to a local charity.

“Through the course of the last three openings we raised $15,000 for each of the charities,” says Lin.

Although the concept was first developed in Amarillo, Texas, in 1989, the founders of Abuelo’s, James Young and Chuck Anderson, steered away from Tex-Mex to re-create the style and ambience of upscale Mexican seaside restaurants.

“People often don’t realize the cuisine served in the interior and seaside restaurants of Mexico is actually continental cuisine with Spanish, French, and European influences,” says Lin. “We are very different from Don Pablo’s or On the Border in that our food is not the typical tacos, burritos, and enchiladas. One portion of the menu has Tex-Mex fare, but one portion has grilled mahi mahi served with a creamy sherry sauce. Our signature dish, Los Mejores de la Casa, features filet medallions and grilled bacon-wrapped shrimp.”

The décor also works to emulate the fine restaurants of Mexico with stone statues, fountains, subtle colors, and a painted dome ceiling.

After 22 years, Formosa closed the Summer Avenue location but will continue to operate the restaurant at 6685 Quince. The restaurant, which serves an array of Asian dishes, including Hunan, Szechuan, and Mandarin, has been named “The Best Chinese Restaurant” by readers of Memphis magazine since 1990. The former location has been sold to new owners and reopened as Panda Garden.

Stop 345, at 345 Madison, spices up the menu with a bit of Italian. Owners Mike and Becky Todd have introduced Pete & Sam’s toasted ravioli and Mama Cecelia’s spaghetti to complement the regular bar fare. Mama Cecelia is Mike’s Sicilian-born mother. She taught her daughter-in-law the secrets to making her special sauce, or “gravy” as she calls it.

“She would never give me the recipe,” Becky says. “She would say, ‘I don’t have a recipe. You just have to watch me make it.'”

Try out the signature sauce at 345’s “Birds, Beer, and Bowl” during the next Redbirds game. The special includes free parking for the game, a draft beer, and a big bowl of Mama Cecelia’s spaghetti for $5.

The bar currently opens Tuesday through Saturday at 4 p.m. However, the couple plans to extend the hours to offer a basic Italian menu during lunch.

Since opening a year ago, the restaurant/bar has gone through many changes and challenges. It began as a comedy club with Sandra Bernhardt as the debut performer, but the club was hidden beneath the dust and debris from construction on the Madison Avenue trolley line. Now, Stop 345 uses its large event room for wine tastings, special events, and musical guests such as the band Styx, which will perform July 23rd.

“We probably made a mistake coming in with such big acts before Madison was finished,” Mike says. “The biggest killer was that Madison was impassable. I think as the area develops and the trolley continues to run and people are more aware of it, it will become one of those out-of-the-way places that people love.”

The monthly wine tastings at the Corkscrew, 511 South Front Street, have been suspended and will resume in the fall, but owner Andy Grooms has partnered with local caterer Elizabeth Boyd to create Alice’s Dish, a deli-style lunch spot in Fratelli’s former location next door. While it will be a few months before the restaurant opens, Boyd will begin catering from the location August 1st.

“We will start marketing corporate lunches although I’ve done weddings, cocktail parties, and other events,” Boyd says. “Then, as soon as we get everything ready, we’ll open for lunch, with sandwiches, soups, and salads. We will also prepare gourmet products to take home.”

“Catfish Ain’t Ugly” is the motto of the Cajun Catfish Co., located at 1616 Sycamore View Road in Bartlett. After moving Willie Moffatt’s to Whitten Road, owner Steve Prentiss, with general manager and chef Ron Bates and other investors, opened the family-style restaurant.

The restaurant has been remodeled using raw cypress to capture the feel of a fisherman’s wharf and even features a gift shop. The menu includes Cajun dishes, such as étouffée and gumbo, and, of course, catfish.

“We use only fresh catfish. The catfish you eat today was killed yesterday,” says Bates. “And we hand-cut our fries every day.”

The fries are coated with Bates’ own creation: Cajun garlic butter seasoning. Bates also worked with Memphis-based Ingredients Corporation of America to create five dry seasonings and two hot sauces, which will be available in the restaurant’s gift shop, the Hot Shop, in a few weeks. The gift shop also features Tabasco products and Elvis memorabilia.

“Moffatt’s is more like a neighborhood bar and restaurant,” says Bates. “We wanted to create a family-style sit-down restaurant near the interstate where people can get good fresh food and browse for souvenirs.”

Show some chutzpah, y’all, and submit your best Southernized kosher recipe to the Margolin Hebrew Academy/Feinstone Yeshiva of the South, which is compiling a cookbook to raise money.

The school’s parent-teacher association and ladies’ auxiliary are accepting recipes from contributors in Memphis and around the country. Members plan to test the recipes during PTA/LA events. Once the recipes have been selected, the book will be published in December 2005 and marketed nationwide by Memphis-based Wimmer Cookbooks.

Southern dishes are encouraged but not required. The book will include 10 sections: appetizers; soups; salads; fish; poultry; meat; side dishes; pasta; brunch and dairy; and desserts. It will also feature kitchen tips and table-setting and entertaining ideas.

To submit a recipe, send it to MHA/FYS, 390 S. White Station Road, Memphis 38117, or by e-mail to pta@mhafyos.org. Indicate in which section the recipe belongs. n

Imagine: long, crispy crepes stuffed with a fragrant combination of vegetables; spongy white rice cakes made from lentil flour; chutneys and flavorful dipping sauces. This is the essence of Southern Indian cooking. This is Mayuri.

Mayuri Indian Cuisine opened in the Villager Lodge on Union a few years back. The restaurant moved to its current location at the corner of Kirby and Quince when the motel was demolished. Typical of many strip-mall eateries, décor and ambience are sacrificed for affordability and friendliness. Hand-painted mayuri (peacock) feathers make for subtle decoration and traditional Indian music plays in the background.

Most Indian restaurants in Memphis offer Northern Indian cuisine. Mayuri’s menu emphasizes food from the owner’s home state in Southern India, though it also offers traditional dishes from the North, such as curried, skewered, and spicy entrées. “North” means breads and the generous use of spices, while “South” uses rice as its starch, is largely vegetarian, and tends to be hotter.

We started with a crispy flat rice bread called paratha and a fiery, green-mango chutney. The paratha had a slightly bitter, nutty flavor. The mango was diced and still firm. It added texture but did little to balance the heat of the chili in the chutney. Spinach pakoras, a fried dumpling made with chickpeas, arrived with a variety of cilantro, coconut, and tomato chutneys, which ranged from sweet to herbal. The pakoras were a little on the dry side, however. The rice cake is called vada. We were encouraged to break this cake up and soak it in sambar, a lentil soup best ordered in its spicier version so that the full flavors of fennel and chili can be appreciated. (Sambar was also delicious as a separate appetizer.) Idli, a lentil patty with the consistency of baked polenta, also went well with the sambar and chutneys. We also tried a boneless chicken appetizer in a spicy chili and yogurt sauce. The chicken was rather plain, but the sauce was a favorite.

Most of the Southern Indian entrées were based on the dosa, an enormous Indian crepe made from rice, wheat, or moong-bean flour. The fillings were exclusively vegetarian and can be curried or spicy. The large shell can be cracked and used as a scoop to eat the filling. The masala dosa had a potato and onion filling which tasted like an Indian hash brown. Other fillings included a potato curry, onions and chilies, and a vegetable curry.

We also sampled the more familiar Northern Indian dishes. Mayuri has an authentic tandoori oven to prepare kabobs and tandoori courses. The mixed tandoori sampler came sizzling on an iron plate and was served on a bed of onions and peppers. The chicken and shrimp were lobster-red on the outside and tasted wonderful. Biryani is a rice dish, fragrant with cardamon, nuts, and raisins, and the lamb biryani made a great side dish. Raita, a thin yogurt and cucumber sauce, cooled the tongue when the spices overwhelmed. We also had naan, a light and chewy bread that was served hot from the oven. Flavored and stuffed naans are also available.

Mayuri is next to Kirby Liquors, and we brought a Gewürztraminer, thinking the wine’s sweetness might balance the inherent spiciness of Indian cuisine. We found that the Taj Mahal beer on the menu went better with dinner as did a mango lassi, a thick smoothie-like drink.

Many of the dishes served at Mayuri would appeal to vegetarians as well as those looking for an exotic dining experience. Those familiar with the variety of Northern Indian restaurants in Memphis will find all your favorites on the menu as well as new delicacies. n

Mayuri, 6524 Quince Road (753-8755), is open seven days a week and has a lunch buffet from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.