Memphis Eats Part Two

The Arcade is Memphis' oldest cafe -- it was around when the neighborhood around it was booming in the 30s, 40s, and 50s, it survived when downtown fell into a slump in the 60s and 70s, and now it's still there with the re-gentrification happening around it. The sure sign the hipsters have arrived is the American Apparel store across the street. Luckily the food doesn't seem to have changed.

Thwarted in our quest for beignets on Beale Street the night before, we ordered them as "starters" for breakfast. Then the real breakfast: I had eggs, grits, and sweet potato pancakes; redneckhunter had eggs, hash browns, and his beloved biscuits and gravy. A real down-home country breakfast. I also got a thrill from the fact that the cafe was in Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train -- I think it was the scene where Nicoletta Braschi gets harrassed by the Elvis freak and then meets Joe Strummer's girlfriend.











The Arcade Restaurant
540 S Main St
Memphis, TN 38103
(901) 526-5757







Addendum:
I think this is the scene - 1000yregg

Memphis Eats Part One

Took a little road trip to Tennessee over Xmas break - first stop Memphis. We went to the famous Corky's for BBQ. I had the Memphis dry rub, redneckhunter had wet ribs with sauce. Pretty tasty - I couldn't finish my whole rack, but the spice rub was so good I ended up just peeling off the top layer of meat. Really good steaming hot buttery rolls and good non-mayonaissey slaw too!




Then I can't remember where I saw this place, maybe on a blog -- James and Jack's Catfish Shack. Way off the beaten path amidst a stretch of pawnshops and check cashing joints, we never would have found this place on our own, but I'm so glad we did! I loved my whole catfish, crispy but not greasy, flaky yet moist. Fries were good too. Redneckhunter ordered a 5 hot-wing appetizer - instead of the 1/2 wings we were expecting, they gave him 5 full wings and threw in hush puppies and fries too.



Corky's BBQ
5259 Poplar Avenue
Memphis, TN
(901) 685-9744

James' & Jack's Catfish Shack
3706 S Mendenhall Road
Memphis, TN
(901) 366-6967

Tony Luke's, Philadelphia

We'd all heard of Tony Luke's -- saw it on Bobby Flay Smackdown, friend raved about the NYC branch -- but with it's location way South of Center City, we'd never been. So we made a point of driving down I-95 to make the trek. Above is 1000yregg's Cheesesteak Italian, Tony's signature sandwich with bread baked fresh at the restaurant, 100% ribeye steak, sauteed broccoli rabe and sharp provolone. Redneckhunter got the same but with Roast Beef.

I got my standard cheesesteak order for a baseline comparison -- Steak whiz wit' -- cheese whiz and grilled onions. What makes Tony Luke's steaks stand out from Pat's, Geno's, et al. is the quality of his meat and bread. Those fresh-baked rolls were amazing -- crusty, light and airy, yet substantial enough to hold all the juices.


The fries there rock too -- crispily double-fried and topped with your choice of toppings. We got bacon and ranch -- so good.... So I think our consensus was TL's is worth the drive and the extra couple bucks.

Tony Luke's Old Philly Style Sandwiches
39 East Oregon Avenue
Philadelphia, PA. 19148
(215) 551-5725

Beet Pasta

This is one of my favorite easy and tasty things to make. Start by shredding a couple medium-sized beets (remember to wear gloves or you're gonna have red hands!) Chop some onion and saute in olive oil and a little butter in a large pan. Add the beets, season with salt, pepper and herbs. Add some chicken stock and wine and cook down until the beets are softened.

Now comes the good part... I typically just use what I have on hand -- could be heavy cream, cream of mushroom soup, half and half, whatever, just something nice and creamy -- they all give different flavor. Sometimes I've only had lowfat milk and had to fatten things up with shredded mozzarella cheese -- it's all good. Tonight it was whole-milk Total greek yogurt, a bit of heavy cream, and shredded fontina. Let the sauce simmer on low and thicken up while you cook the pasta. Mix the al dente pasta in and let it get all ruby-red and wonderful, salt, pepper to taste -- that's it, easy as pie!

Return to The Fatty Crab, NYC

Fougoo went to The Fatty Crab in July, and this weekend we went back so I could give it a try.
Of course, we started with the Watermelon Pickle and Crispy Pork salad (above) that Fougoo raved about last time. The pork was pretty fantastic- a few mm of meat with 2 cm of fat and then skin. It really went well with the pickled watermelon with onions.
We then had the Nasi Lemak, coconut rice, chicken curry, and slow poached egg. The curry was nice and sweet, and tasted great with the egg yolk as well as the sides of cucumber and dried fish.
This was followed by Short Rib Rendang. The sauce was sweeter than I prefer, and I would have liked more ginger, but the meat was nice.
We ended the meal with the house specialty, Chili Crab (below). It was a Dungeoness Crab served in chili sauce with what seemed like Texas Toast. The sauce was pretty awesome, and Fougoo and I dipped our toast into the crab's "mustard". As a Baltimoron, I would have preferred blue crab, but it was a pretty damn savory dish.

Dos Tres Leches

Tres Leches means "Three Milks". It's a popular cake originating from Latin America with 3 differenct "milks": usually condense milk, evaporated milk, and cream.
As if we didn't have enough Doughnut Plant posts already, here is the Tres Leches doughnut from there.
It also happened to be my birthday, and one of the ladies at work baked for me a "Tres Leches" cake as well. It's dairy overdose!

More NYC Street Food

Sorry for the obsession with Doughnut Plant, but I think I've discovered the best donut ever: the Blackout donut is chocolate cake with chocolate crumb topping and chocolate pudding filling. The whole thing just falls apart in your mouth when you bite it, and dark chocolate the way I like it - not too sweet -- yum!!

Also while walking back to the West Village along Grand Street, we grabbed a bag of the hot mini-cakes by the Chinatown vendor that the NY Times has written about. 20 bite-size cakes for $1. The little steaming vanilla-ey, orange-y, nuggets were so easy to just pop in your mouth while walking.

Roll and Dough, NYC

Yesterday, we got so much food at Roll & Dough for $20, it was amazing! The place is known for its bing, classic Chinese street food -- dense doughy pockets stuffed with a variety of fillings. We tried three flavors: mustard greens with dried shrimp (pictured left), pork with chives, and spicy beef (below). The greens were crisp, the pork was juicy, everything was flavorful.




But wait, there's more -- we also got a sticky rice roll with spicy chicken, a large plate of mai fun (stir-fried rice noodles), 2 spring rolls, and 2 orders of hot dou jiang (soy bean milk). Oh yeah, and a Coke -- all for less than $20 in NYC -- unbelievable!



Roll and Dough
135 W 3rd St (near 6th Avenue)
New York, NY 10012
(212) 253-2890