Saturday, December 31, 2011

My 5 Top Posts in 2011.

I shouldn't be surprised that food was what y'all wanted to read about in this last year -- after all, it does comprise a lot of what you see on this site as well of all of what I talk about over at Eat Arkansas. What I did figure out was that y'all love fair food, ice cream and cruises... or at least, that's what the stats say.

5. Ice Cold Creamy Treats: An Arkansas Tradition.
The fifth most viewed post on Tie Dye Travels this year was actually penned last May, when I finally convinced the folks at Yarnell's in Searcy that I would be a good girl and not reveal any trade secrets if they'd let me bring my camera into the plant for a tour. Turns out I became the only person to ever do what I did, take photos and videos inside the plant and share them with the world. When the plant closed down this past June, folks came out of the woodwork to read about what went on inside. The good part about it is that a new company will reopen it soon and hire back a lot of those workers to make those original recipes. Awesome.


4. A Texas State Fair Primer.
This job calls from some hard and dirty work from time to time. Never is it more apparent than when I hit the state fair circuit. The biggest is the State Fair of Texas, and my photographer and I went down on opening day and spent eight hours chronicling dozens of foods there. Between my post here and over on Serious Eats, I quickly rose to a little internet fame by becoming the Google Image answer to "the girl who ate fried bubblegum." Well, you never know, right?


3. The Best Thing I Ate.
Not an actual post but a collection of different dining delights I have found, it's the best food item I have discovered each month. I am surprised how interested people are to find this.


2. The 2011 Arkansas State Fair Food Preview.
I received thousands of hits on this page in a single day, the day before the start of this year's fair. Mind you, I did pick a bit of a fight with another publication, seeing as how they printed that several items that didn't actually appear at the fair were gonna. I suppose I have become the go-to gal for things you should eat at our largest fair.


1. Dining Aboard The Carnival Triumph.
I didn't realize just how much of a need there was to cover the food aboard a cruise until I went looking for information for my cruise this past January. I found a few menus here and there, but I certainly didn't see any photos (except for the Lava Cake, which is famous). When I returned, I posted my photos containing shots of just about everything myself and my five dining companions consumed -- and it was an instant hit. It even inspired my photographer to photograph all the food on his two week Holland American cruise this year.

Impressive? Maybe. It's heartening to see there's an interest in what I have to say, but I think all blog authors feel a bit that way.

And as far as the non-food posts go, well... I think about that, too. Most of the posts that appear on Tie Dye Travels that aren't food related are either reprinted from their first run in another publication (this year Arkansas Wild, 2njoy Magazine and Sync Weekly) and they've been looked at and read over already. And other posts are continuing to go.

And considering more than a thousand people have already looked at The 50 Best Arkansas Burgers I Tried in 2011 and how close it is to the end of the year, I suspect it may make next year's list.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

The 50 Best Arkansas Burgers I Tried in 2011.

I eat a LOT of burgers.  I write about them, too.  I feature one each week in my Burger Joint of the Week piece for Eat Arkansas, the Arkansas Times blog for food lovers.  I write about burgers inside and outside of Arkansas for Serious Eats:  A Hamburger Today.  And in general, I just like burgers.  They are the quintessential American sandwich.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Burger Joint of the Week: Cheers in the Heights.

What qualifies as an Old Fashioned Cheeseburger? The name graces the menu at several Arkansas eateries, but there seems to be nothing more in common between them all than ground beef, some sort of bread and some sort of cheese accompanied by lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle — which is about the norm for any burger around here.

Still, Cheers in the Heights has a pretty good Old Fashioned with a choice of cheeses. Trouble is finding a seat inside during the lunch hour so you can enjoy one!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Pieday: Grasshopper at The 178 Club.

Great restaurants make stuff from scratch. 178 Club in Bull Shoals makes its sauces, its dressings, its pastries, its rubs and a whole host of other things from scratch, including an ever-changing array of desserts.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Christmas at Moss Mountain Farm

Christmas has come to Moss Mountain Farm. The first winter gusts are frosty coming off the Arkansas River below, rattling the leaves of Big Sister, the largest of seven pin oak trees on the property.

On one’s first visit to Moss Mountain Farm, one is likely struck with the sense of antiquity, a farm meticulously kept over time. This isn’t actually the case. The house itself is just four years old, built with an emphasis on green efforts and on portraying a sense of place, built in the shadow of the largest of the Seven Sisters, the seven pin oak trees that grace the property. They’re all 300 to 350 years old.

Most of the furnishings in the house date back to the 1830s or earlier. Smith is an avid collector of pre-industrialized furniture. The pieces he showcases from that collection are all handcrafted and unique. They lend a feel to this house, aging it considerably. In the front room there’s a Kentucky sugar chest that dates back to 1810. A Maryland sideboard graces the foyer. There’s an 1800s piece from Mason County,
Kentucky.

The oldest piece in Smith’s collection is a 1794 corner cabinet made in North Carolina. Smith can give you the stories of most of the pieces. He appears to enjoy sharing the details of these very personal pieces; in a way, the craftsmen that created them live on through their works.

Throughout the house you’ll find a combination of artworks, many of which are changed out with the season. Many of these are sketches and paintings done by Smith himself. There’s a gorgeous oil painting on the wall opposite the fireplace in his front room of the family farm in Tennessee where Smith spent much of his boyhood.

For the holidays, it’s all about two things -- natural and red. This year’s holiday decorations were inspired by the colors in the print of Osage chief Black Dog, a Native American whose image overlooks the den.  George Catlin painted the chief's portrait in 1834.

Smith obtained a postcard at the Old Statehouse Museum in Little Rock when he was younger and was fascinated. He had it blown up just for this particular room, large enough to show Black Dog’s seven feet of stature.

The reds, especially in this room and throughout the house, come back to the red of this print. Smith’s tree is decorated simply and lushly with red glass ornaments and soft white lights, with muted globes of color and bits of red and gold ribbon. The red of nandina berries and crabapples from the farm peeks out from the mantle amidst bundles of cinnamon sticks and branches of evergreen. Simple red and white table settings are accented with the tiny crabapples.

There is this pleasant evergreen scent that permeates the house during the Yuletide… tied into the scent of cinnamon and fresh brewed apple cider. It is a comforting scent.

Slipcovers are used on furniture in the house to change the mood of the room with the season. For instance, right now the formal living and dining space features brown couches (their normal non-slip covered appearance) and other chairs and couches in the house bear reds and golds. The sofa in the den appears to be a burlap-ish sort of cover, but it is very soft. The floors are all pine oiled with tung oil, somehow both ancient and new at the same time.

The holidays are celebrated in the kitchen, too. Smith’s white cupboards, gray marble and nickel-plated fixtures are accented with the fruits of the season. Baskets of nuts, kumquats and red peppers picked on the farm bring deep color amongst the evergreen boughs and berries. Fresh made cookies are just out of reach under a fancy glass dome, an edible work of art.

The back porch connects the outdoors with inside, with muted browns and greens for slipcovers, potted evergreens, tablecloths and burnished lamp fixtures. This is the place to capture the last Southern warmth, those final few mornings before winter sets in for good. I suspect it is also a grand place to bring out a hot cup of coffee or cocoa on a frosty morning to feel the brace of the cold and
see one’s breath form into a foggy lace before oneself.

The foyer is decorated whimsically with pheasants in a variety of poses, sitting atop the Maryland sideboard, perched atop the light fixture and balanced on stair railings. Smith loves the natural beauty of birds like this. The pheasants are whimsical and delightful.

They also tie in the first and second floors of the home, where the stairwell connects the foyer with the library. Here the pheasants have taken roost amidst Smith’s books, shells, fossils and knickknacks. It is here he looks the most comfortable, fielding questions about his home and sharing bits of his knowledge about antiques, gardens and life on the farm.

When it comes to the stuffed pheasants, the animal skulls and the shells, Smith says “I know it’s not PC, but I like it.” There’s an early Victorian ethic and feel to this room, a quiet place for reflection.

Smith’s bedroom sprawls forward from the library, a quiet retreat for the busy gardener and entrepreneur. The bed is the star of the room; it once belonged to the last territorial governor of Arkansas, William Fulton, who served our state from 1836 until his death in 1844. It’s an impressive rosewood bed, built by hand in New Orleans, tall and lavish yet startlingly simple. The pheasants and game birds celebrated elsewhere in the house are evidenced on fat accent pillows.

Even here there is a cele-
bration of the season with fresh seasonal boughs of evergreen from the property. The muted golds in the room are mirrored with simple ribbon. Reading chairs and plenty of reading material are on hand.

Smith’s love of a good book is well known. “I like to read when I can, when I go to bed. Sometimes I read downstairs on the couch. I take a stack of books and have a fire in the fireplace. I have thousands of books at my house in the Quarter.”

The winter months ahead might bring for good reading, if one wasn’t as active as Smith. Currently there’s work downhill from the house on a special Google/YouTube production, where Smith and his crews are building a 1600+ square foot house for $150,000 in just 150 days.

Further along, out towards the back end of the property, we found more livestock… the Dorper sheep that serve as organic lawnmowers for the property. These sheep were quite fat with lambs, and a few very young lambs stood amongst their mothers, bleating softly in the crisp air.

Dorpers are succulent sheep, bred for their excellent flavor. They don’t require shearing like most sheep, and as we discovered crossing the land they do an excellent job of shearing down the grass… and providing fertilizer!


Thanks to the warm Arkansas December, the chickens are still out and about, providing pest control and feeding loose on the lands. These beautiful Buff Orpington chickens are excellent egg layers, and each is fat and happy. The heavy breed chickens tend to be in the eight to nine pound range, and there’s no squeamishness about what they’re around for. We heard about an old rooster that had become coq au vin the previous night.

Moss Mountain Farm is a tranquil place, despite all the business that goes on about it. Even with a large crowd of visitors to the farm we were taken by its pastoral nature. With its mile and a half of Arkansas River shoreline, its 600 acres of rural seclusion and its ancient pin oaks, it feels like something out of antiquity, a perfect retreat for a comfortable holiday observance. I’m looking forward to seeing what it looks like in spring, when thousands of daffodil blossoms will bloom and the first blossoms will appear in the rose garden.

Entranced with the idea of a visit? You can! You can schedule a tour by either joining an existing tour or gathering up a bunch of folks to go out and make a day of it, by visiting the P. Allen Smith Garden Home website. Smith makes sure there’s some good old fashioned Southern hospitality to your visit; those visits are arranged either around lunch or dinner and include dishes in his cookbook, Seasonal Recipes from the Garden. Check out Eat Arkansas for a sampling of what we discovered there.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Burger joint of the week: Sushi Cafe.

 
A sushi place that does burgers? Really?

Sounds crazy, but Sushi Cafe in the Heights manages to make a pretty mean burger to go with all those pretty sushi creations. Don't believe me? You should give it a shot.

I'll be the first to admit, I didn't think it was possible at first. I love Sushi Cafe — they do some of the best sushi in the state, no doubt. But a burger is a far sight away from a nice maki roll.

I had to give it a go. So I went. I went and ogled the burger menu and gasped a little at the same time. With the exception of the 1/3 pound Texas Style Burger on the lunch menu ($7.50), all of the burgers at Sushi Cafe start at $10. That's a bit pricey. The most expensive burger on the menu is $28! That's... well, that's just out there, even if it is made with Kobe beef.

The basic burger is the Tokyo Cowboy ($10), and then there's a double with bacon and an Italian version. You know me, I like to go for big. So I decided on the Titanic Burger ($12), a purported pound of cow flesh on a bun served up with sweet potato fries. And just so I didn't sit there and get envious of all the folks eating the restaurant's intended dish, I ordered a Rainbow Roll ($10). Because I lack sanity, that's why.

My Rainbow Roll was ready in less than five minutes. It was simple and pretty — salmon, tuna, yellowtail and snapper along with avocado on top of a California roll — and it would have been just enough for lunch. The plan had been to take half of it home with me. That didn't happen. The yellowtail in particular was rather succulent and perfectly soft and just irresistible.

My waiter, who'd seemed a little surprised when he took my gargantuan order, seemed more surprised to discover I had an empty plate when he brought the Titanic Burger out to me. And I was pretty surprised to see just how tall this thing was. It's a triple patty burger, three big medium-well char-grilled Black Angus patties on a toasted and buttered sesame seeded bun. I was offered mustard but declined. There was the barest hint of mayo on the top bun along with some caramelized onion sweet goodness, Swiss cheese melted between each of the patties, all sitting on top of field greens and a thick slice of red tomato and red onion slivers.

It was served up with tempura battered sweet potato fries — which, after trying them, should be how all sweet potato fries should be served: light, savory and perfect with a little soy sauce. They were fantastic.

The burger, though... I have a complaint. Because Black Angus is so lean, there was little room to squish the burger. It was almost impossible to take a bite, even smooshing down the bun and removing the tomato. For one to consume this creation normally, one would have to figure out how to unhinge their jaw.

But it'd be worth it. The nice char from the grill, the buttered buns, the cheese and those caramelized onions, they make for a rather excellent burger. And it's so big, if you get through more than half of it you're in trouble.

I took about two thirds of my burger and half my fries home with me and still felt rather overfilled. It was worth it, though. And now I know where I can send my sushi AND burger loving friends when they want to go hang together.

You'll find Sushi Cafe on Kavanaugh a block east of University, on the opposite corner from Boulevard Bread Company. (501) 663-9888 or check out the website.

Sushi Cafe Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Cats at the Crescent.

The 1886 Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs is well known for many things. It’s been listed by many authorities as the most haunted hotel in America. I’ve taken you to dinner vicariously at the Crystal Dining Room within the hotel. And we’ll talk more soon about the cabins at the Crescent -- Frank Lloyd Wright style constructions built under the eye of David McKee, the protégé to Wright’s Arkansas protégé Faye Jones. But what most folks who haven’t visited the Crescent yet don’t know about -- are the cats.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Almost Every Po'Boy at the Oak Street Po'Boy Festival.

Ah, the humble po’boy sandwich. The meek little sandwich served up by Benny and Clovis Mavin to workers for free during a streetcar strike in 1929 has become the most regularly consumed item on the New Orleans diet. It comes in oh so many varieties, with just about any filling you can imagine.


We went to the Oak Street Po’Boy Festival on November 20th to see how the Crescent City celebrates this simple dish. While we were there, we photographed just about every different po’boy offered (Pascal’s Manale’s BBQ Shrimp Po’Boys were already long gone before we could shoot one). They ranged from the traditional cochon de lait and fried shrimp versions to turkey and cranberry and to Bananas Foster.

So, how about those po’boys? Here they all are:
Semolina's Italian Meatball and Marinara Po'Boy

Zen Rotisserie & Grill's Thai Rib Po Boy with Slaw and Thai Vinaigrette

Original New Orleans Fried Shrimp Po'Boy
Original New Orleans Meatball Po'Boy

Original New Orleans Po'Boy Chicken & Sausage Jambalaya

Crescent Pig & Sausage Company's Hot Sausage with Collard Greens Po'Boy

Mahoney's Homemade Meatball Po'Boy
Mahoney's Mississippi Rabbit Sandwich with Pecans



Ninja Restaurant's Yakaniku (Beef) Po'Boy, dressed & undressed

Ninja Restaurant's Stir Fry King


Ninja Restaurant's Soft Shell Crab Po'Boy

Ninja Restaurant's Vegetable (Potato Patty) Po'Boy
Ninja Restaurant's Sashimi Po'Boy


Vincent's Godfather Po'Boy with meatballs, Italian sausage, brisket & marinara

Saltwater Grill's Cochon de Lait Po'Boy

Saltwater Grill's Crawfish and Spinach Boat

The Ridge Bistro's Shrimp Remoulade Po'Boy

The Ridge Bistro's Portabella Mushroom Po'Boy

Michael Joyner Catering's Crabmeat Cheesecake (fantastic!)

Michael Joyner Catering's BBQ Pork and Coleslaw Po'Boy

O'Henry's Shrimp and Andouille Sausage Po'Boy

O'Henry's takes great humor with its Crawfish Balls


Squeal BBQ's Pulled Pork and Slaw Po'Boy

Robert Fresh Market's Roast Beef Debris Po'Boy

Robert Fresh Market's Boiled Shrimp

Robert Fresh Market's Cajun Jambalaya

Robert Fresh Market Bread Pudding with Hot Whiskey Sauce

Ya Ka Mein Shrimp and Crabmeat Po'Boy

Beef and Shrimp Ya Ka Mein

Ya Ka Mein Pork Chop Po'Boy

C and J Creole Stuffed Crab Po'Boy, naked

C and J Catering Creole Stuffed Crabmeat Po'Boy

Grand Isle's Roast Beef Po'Boy, fully dressed


Spitale's Dirty Turkey Po'Boy

Another view

WOW Cafe's Shanghai Shrimp Po'Boy

Martin Wine Cellar's Steamboat Po'Boy with corned beef, ham, bacon, Swiss

Coquette's Cochon de Lait with Collard Green Slaw

Lots of Croquette's Po'Boys

Bourbon House's Bourbon BBQ Shrimp Po'Boy

Dickie Brennan's Prime Rib Debris Po'Boy

Jack Dempsey's Stuffed Crab Po'Boy

Jack Dempsey's Shrimp Remoulade Po'Boy

Emeril's Delmonico's Confit Pork Cheek Po'Boy with Tangy Slaw


Sammy's Food Service's Homemade Garlic Stuffed Roast Beef Po'Boy

Sammy's Food Service's RayRay Po'Boys with fried chicken, Chisesi ham & Swiss

Katie's Crab Cake Po'Boys

Red Fish Grill's Oyster Po'Boy

Tracey's Smoked Sausage with Caramelized Kraut assembly

Tracey's Smoked Sausage and Caramelized Kraut Po'Boy with Coleslaw

Palace Cafe's Oysters Rockefeller Po'Boy

Palace Cafe uses a guide to cut its po'boys

Palace Cafe's White Chocolate Bread Pudding

Al's By The River's Roast Beef Po'Boy

Al's By The River's strange Catfish patty po'boy

Parkway Bakery Turkey Po'Boy with Giblet Gravy and Cranberry Sauce
Parkway Bakery Beef with Horseradish Po'Boy

Parkway Bakery Cajun Pork Tenderloin Po'Boy

Saltwater Grill Bananas Foster Po'Boy

GW Fins Lobster Po'Boy

Squeal BBQ's Pulled Pork BBQ sandwich naked and dressed

Le Citron Bistro Grits and Grillades Po'Boy

Jacques-Imo's Fried Green Tomato and Shrimp Remoulade Po'Boy

Jacques-Imo's Fried Chicken and Potato Salad

Jacques-Imo's Slow Roasted Duck Po'Boy

Chiba's Panko Crusted Oyster Po'Boy and Shrimp Tempura Po'Boy

A view of Grav shooting the Chiba sandwiches

Woody's Fish Tacos... er, tacos

Fish for Woody's Fish Tacos tacos

Castellor Pharmacy's Red Beans & Rice Po'Boy

O' Vegasm's BBQ Pulled Jackfruit Po'Boy

O' Vegasm's Vegenaise

One Restaurant's Pate and Pickled Vegetable Po'Boy

Barcelona's Garlic Shrimp Po'Boy

Oak Street Cafe's Muffaletta Po'Boy

Oak Street Cafe's General Lee Po'Boy with egg, cheese, gravy and sausage

Vaucresson's Hot Creole Sausage Po'Boy

Vaucresson's Creole Crawfish Sausage Po'Boy

Vaucresson's sausages

Gattuso's Sloppy Roast Beef Po'Boy

Another view of Gattuso's Sloppy Roast Beef Po'Boy

Gattuso's Fried Shrimp Po'Boy

Boucherie's BBQ Shrimp Po'Boy

Boucherie's Pulled Pork Po'Boy

Seither's Boiled Shrimp Remoulade Po'Boy

Another view of Seither's Boiled Shrimp Remoulade Po'Boy

Seither's Seafood Gumbo

Blue Dot Donuts' Thai Pulled Pork BBQ Po'Boy

Blue Dot Donuts' Vanilla Ice Cream Filled Dougnut Bananas Foster
Other shots taken at the festival:
Yes, there were beads thrown.

Blue Frog Chocolate's Icy Hot Chocolate
Bread for Seither's Po'Boys

This woman is passionate about Parkway Bakery

Brownies!



Shots of the crowd, early on.  By 1pm it was packed for the entire length of the festival.




Some folks are crazier about their po'boys than others.

While there were tables here and there, there were few seats




What would the festival have been without the Bone Tones and a Grand Marshal?

We later discovered dude had eaten the meat out of his sandwich before the photo

Hubig's fabulous fried pies

Takes a lot of bread to pull in the dough

In addition to the three stages of music, smaller groups gathered on sidewalks.

And... we're done here.
Almost, that is.

So, which po'boys were the best?  Check out this listing over at NewOrleans.com and see for yourself.