Say Cheez(-It)

Overheard last night at a vegetarian wine dinner at Marche Artisan Foods in East Nashville...an adorably vivacious woman with white hair speaking to her dinner companion...

Woman: J was playing football with his pee-wee team and he was the smallest guy out there. But after the game, he went home with his mom and said, "At least I can eat Cheez-Its and practice my yoga in peace!"

Bless his little heart. 

As for the food, I figure I have two choices: Write about Cheez-Its or write about the dinner at Marche where I heard this little nugget of life. 

...hmmm...

I suppose I'll leave the Cheez-Its to your memories (because I KNOW you've got 'em) and just offer a taste of dinner - Delicata Squash Cannelloni with Pecan Brown Butter and Fried Sage. 

"That brown butter is rrrriiiich," said the white-haired woman next to me. And then her shoulders shuddered like an Aretha Franklin backup singer. 

Freak show

Fresh off the Titans' big win against the Colts last night, Jevon "The Freak" Kearse perhaps craved a nasty bite when he rolled into The Cheesecake Factory tonight. At the bar with his dinner companion, he settled in for a mojito-looking cocktail in a tall glass with lots of sprigy mint along with a mound of pasta with an unidentified meat-like substance on top. When the server dropped by to offer him some fresh-grated Parmesan, he didn't stop her after a couple cranks.

"I thought I'd break out in a sweat on that one," she said, when she finally stepped away from his plate. 

The interesting part -- for me, anyway -- is that I wrote a story recently comparing the diet of a pro football player (Kyle Vanden Bosch, Kearse's defensive companion) with a pro cheerleader. The difference in calories for a day? About 1,600. But still, as I note in the story among the egg whites and grilled chicken, Vanden Bosch is no Michael Phelps. 

I learned from one of the Titans coaches that many pro players show up for the big leagues with virtually no knowledge of how to cook and eat for themselves after being catered for during the first 20 or so years of their lives. Kearse, the coach told me, had a personal chef at his home (hired by the Titans) during his early years to help him learn how to eat properly. When the chef reported back with the sole contents of Kearse's kitchen, he said he found nothing more than Kool-Aid and powdered doughnuts.

No doughtnuts for Kearse tonight though! He finished dinner and drove away in a Mercedes S600 with fat shiny rims doing a little seat-dancing behind the wheel. But hey. The hometown team is 7-0. Knock yourself out, dude. 

Go Titans. 

Listening to: Le Freak by Chic. 

Peace, love and chicken cones

Erykah Badu feeling the Keep Austin Weird vibe while onstage at the Austin City Limits festival...

Erykah: Peace and Love! How y'all doin'?...

(Crowd cheers.)

Erykah: Y'all wanna go to hell?

(Crowd cheers...again...sorta...)

Erykah: You supposed to say "Hell No!"...Just thought I'd throw that in...a little hell check. 

Austin is so funky. And the food at the ACL festival was seriously superb. The organizers work with local restaurants -- some of them pretty swank -- to make meals that are easy to eat in one hand while holding a Lone Star tall boy in the other. Rock on, dude. And all this happens with nary a funnel cake in sight. 

Lindsay and I waited in line for about 30 minutes (the longest of food lines, btw) for one of these chicken cones from Hudson's on the Bend, a white tablecloth restaurant in town where the average check per person ticks up to $75. 

Intrigued that the restaurant would slum it with a booth at a sweaty music festival, I called chef/owner Jeff Blank to talk about the origins of the $8 cone. 

Turns out the festival producers came to Jeff after the first year and asked him to be a culinary consultant. He suggested vendors and created this cone breaded with almonds, sesame seeds and red pepper, then "deep sauteed" (um, deep fried). Swaddled with a slice of avocado and drizzled with Ancho chile aioli, it's spicy, for sure, but the surprise that you *can't* see at the bottom of this cone is a bite of coleslaw with mango that cools the tastebuds like a garden hose in summertime. 

Jeff said Hudson's has been selling these cones exclusively at the festival for six years, and they've attracted quite a following. He even plans to sell them in a rolling street cart called Hudson's on the Road beginning in spring of '09. "Hopefully it will diffuse some of the rabid-ness at the festival," he said. 

The lineup at the ACL turned out to be as eclectic as the city and its food. Along with Erykah, we heard Patty Griffin, Hot Chip, N.E.R.D. and Alison Krauss/Robert Plant among others. While eating our cones, however, it was good 'ol American rock 'n' roll with John Fogerty howling out Fortunate Son.

"Some folks inherit star spangled eyes,

They send you down to war, 

And when you ask them, how much should we give?

They only answer more! more! more!"

Peace.

Love.

And more love.

Fancy drinks and fantasies

After coming across some 80s reruns, my friend Brooke recapped an episode of Fantasy Island. 

Brooke: This woman goes to the island and her fantasy was to find success in her business by sponsoring the Fantasy Island Triathlon...(pause)...That's the worst fantasy I've ever heard. 

Although most of the show was filmed in Burbank, California, the opening lagoon scene comes from Kauai, Hawaii. Sounds like a good reason for a Mai Tai to me! Find a recipe here. And while sipping, you might want to check out this video. I don't think it has a thing to do with the TV series except that it shares the same name and possibly the same costume designer? Aloha.

Sweet dreams, Texas-style.

So I just got back from Austin where my friend Lindsay took me on a mini culinary tour between shows at the Austin City Limits festival...More on that later...But for now, I wanted to profess total love for the Hotel San Jose, one of my favorites on earth (so far). I stayed there a while back, but this time we just went for a bite, drink and good conversation by the pool. Still so lovely.

Hank Williams III once said Hotel San Jose is like Mexico meets Japan.

While there you can borrow an old-fashioned typewriter from the front desk and pretend to be William S. Burroughs. 

And even the pencils by the bed are printed with a message:

"Do you know the way?"

Poolside music: Maybe Sparrow by Neko Case.