Browsing: Food & Dining

Not a lot of people may share this opinion, but I think that a good hot dog is hard to beat. You know, wieners, franks, tube steaks, or just plain hot dogs, the German creation that has become such an American tradition, just isn‘t  for everyone it seems. Do you love them or hate them?

If you regularly read my musings, or you might to prefer to a call them ramblings, you know I have an affinity for fried pork chops (fried anything really). What could be better than a battered and fried pork chop with pan gravy?

Tough times call for being very frugal in the kitchen, stone soup comes immediately to mind, but I do not think I would go quite that far. Not to worry, though, there are lots of other good recipes that you can turn to, recipes that stretch ingredients and aren’t overly expensive. It’s a style of cooking most often referred to as country cooking. 

Football season has returned to Mississippi! This season brings watch parties, tailgating, and cooler weather (eventually). A great pot of chili is a welcome addition to all three. Chili is quick to toss together, requires little active cooking time (thanks to a slow cooker) and feeds a crowd. Setting up a toppings bar is a fun way to customize for guests.  

n of my favorite things to do in an expensive restaurant, is to order a selection of appetizers. It dramatically reduces the cost of the meal, but you get a good feel for what the chef is capable of. The Italians, who have as many as eight courses, call the first one antipasto, or “before the meal,” and the Spanish call it tapas.

Typically, breakfast is not just my thing. A decent cup of coffee and I am good to go. The German’s mid-morning meal of fresh baked brotchen (still hot from the oven of course), a little tab of butter and jam, with coffee, is pretty good, but good brotchen is just so hard to find. Americans are getting better at it, but most folks just don’t seem to appreciate fresh bread in the morning. 

If you have followed my ramblings for any length of time, you know I have talked endlessly about the quality of ingredients being a very important key to your cooking success.

For those who have never had the opportunity to feast at Loco Taco, the first thing you should know is that this is not your average taco restaurant. The menu offers a variety of truly authentic Mexican foods, but tacos truly take centerstage at this upbeat, colorfully decorated restaurant, owned by Fidel Cubillo.

The city of Bologna in northern Italy is famous for many things, but perhaps mortadella is its most well-known hallmark. It, or a similar version of it, has been made in Italy since the first century and the Romans called it “farcimen myrtatum,” or ground meat in a mortar

Perhaps the three sisters to Southern tables are corn, beans and tomatoes.

One of my favorite things to make is red sauce, and there are a small handful of recipes I like to use. Most often I pair it with pasta (bucatini is my favorite), but there are other good possibilities, like grits that have been poured into a mold (so they are not just a plop on the a plate) and topped with a simple red sauce.

There are a variety of reason for American’s love of wings. Perhaps foremost, is our love of hand portable foods (it’s the reason tamales became popular to the farm workers in the Mississippi Delta as a food they could take to the fields with them). But there can be no denying that wings are just plan delicious.

Beau Rivage’s BR Prime, Stalla, and Jia have all been honored in Wine Spectator’s 2024 Restaurant Awards, which celebrate the world’s best restaurants for wine. The resort’s three fine dining restaurants are among only six in the state of Mississippi to receive this distinction.

Did you know that grits and coffee share something in common? Both are much better if they have been freshly ground. The coffee revolution in this country brought that point home in a big way.

Summer is half gone and the Fourth of July is here! Let’s hang our flags, remember our nation’s heritage and share food with family and friends.

Nothing beats the bounty of fresh produce we can get in the Magnolia State, but shopping at a grocery store just isn’t the same as shaking the hand of a local farmer and hearing all about the most recent veggie haul.