Valtool's Box: May 2009

Wow! It has been a long time since I have had anything to say (or at least write). Food is the topic of the day. Amy and I have started watching some of the non-cooking programming on the Food Network like Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, and Unwrapped. Last night it was a show on hamburgers that included a Fuddruckers offering for about $250 that comes out as about 30 pounds of a single sandwich. You have to slice it like a cake, disgusting in an awesome way!

Today it was Guy Fiore doing a pair of shows on Barbecue. This is a very touchy subject because it is a very regional item. The regional nature is a major part of why Darden restaurants did not really succeed with a chain of BBQ Sports bars called Smokey Bones. The first show was specifically on Memphis BBQ. Memphis is pretty much accepted to be the home of BBQ, yet we were surprised that they featured 4 or 5 restaurants and did not mention Rendezvous or Interstate. We have heard of Rendezvous more than any other in Memphis. For the benefit of Jeff, who lives there, I will mention the restaurants they featured and see if he has any input on them... Leonard's (where they serve the sandwich with coleslaw ON the sandwich), Tom's (where they work fast and you order by picking a particular bag from a pile, and they serve a bologna-BBQ sandwich with dry rub the kicker here is the original owner was Greek and the dry rub is a Greek/Mediterranean spice blend), Marlowe's (which is near Graceland and started as an Italian restaurant and then became more BBQ, but they serve pasta as a side with their BBQ), and Cozy Corner (which features BBQ Cornish Hens).

Lunch today.

We returned to a local restaurant today that we've visited in the past, but we did not know that the ownership changed about 2 years ago. It is a family-run Italian joint called Bergamo (www.bergamopizza.com) . This was a FANTASTIC lunch. We went in and ordered a kid's meal for LynnMarie while we looked over the menu. LM got a chicken finger and fries meal, but they altered the meat to a nugget form as all the food is prepped to order the chicken was cut , breaded and fried specifically for our baby.

I went simple, ordering a calzone, the Bergamo, which came with pepperoni, ham, mushrooms, sausage and green pepper. I subbed out onions for the green pepper and it came with a home made marinara. All the sauces are made from scratch here. Amy ordered tortellini but on the waitress' recommendation they subbed the marinara sauce for a Gorgonzola cream sauce. It rocked! We got a Greek salad to share and discovered our baby does NOT like feta cheese, and they served the meal with their fresh-baked foccacia bread, which they topped with olive oil and Parmesan cheese, yummy!

We will definitely be returning to Bergamo and will take any out of town guests there to sample what we enjoyed.

Last Night

We joined some friends for a new experience last night, Korean BBQ. The wife in this couple is half Korean and they like this kind of food a lot. It is a different experience as all the meats are cooked at/in your table. They bring over a fire/heat source which fits into the center of the table, lay a grill over top of it and entree by entree they cook the meats. We had chicken, pork, beef, and squid. A large assortment of side dishes filled the table along with a rice cake soup. The extras included white rice, leaf lettuce, sheets of rice cake, two kinds of kim shi and a variety of greens, sprouts and similar add-ons. The eating is one by making wraps of the meat and extras on the lettuce or on the sliced sheets of rice cake. It was tasty, but expensive. We had a good time and certainly enjoyed the company, but it is not likely to be something to eat again, dinner for 4 adults and three kids under 3 was right at $100. Ouch. For that much we'll go to a Brazilian BBQ and fill our guts with yummy meats.