Ladies Night

A few weekends ago, some friends and I were headed out of town for a weekend of shopping and shenanigans, but unfortunately, the trip had to be postponed.  Although thoroughly enjoying sleeping in, I called one of the ladies to see if she still wanted to get out of the house.  Knowing there aren't many opportunities for her to strut her stuff on the town, being the strong, hardworking woman that she is, we scheduled a date which involved the traditional dinner and a movie. 

Finally settling on a movie and location, we went to the Paradiso Theater and saw the movie Bridesmaids.  Someone mentioned that it's like the estrogen-laced (my words) version of The Hangover, and I might agree a bit.  If anyone was in the theater that day and heard the loud, sincerely obnoxious laughter coming from the lower left corner of the room, I apologize.  But if you were there, you also know why there was high peals of laughter from the entire audience...pure hilarity!  So definitely check it out...and The Hangover 2 when it's released in a few weeks.

After composing ourselves and surving the showing with dry pants, we headed over to Napa Cafe in the Sanderlin Shopping Center.  I'd called earlier in the day to make a reservation, and they were ready when we arrived, even though we were a little early.  For dinner, the lighting is low, the candles are up, and the atmosphere is ripe for romance.  Perhaps a bit much for two ladies out on the town, but sweet all the same...we made sure to note that we'd be bringing our significant others back for a real date night.  We burned up a lot of calories in our laugh fest, so we were primed to get our eat on!

To start the meal, my friend ordered soup and I ordered salad.  My salad was Romaine and Gorgonzola, which consisted of hand cut Romaine lettuce, spiced pecans, gorgonzola cheese, and was topped with a honey roasted garlic dressing.  Despite the fact that I'm definitely a "meat girl," I do love a good salad.  This one has my favorite items...pecans and garlic...and I ate it like it was the main course.  I believe the only thing that stopped me from literally inhaling without chewing was the fact that I was there with someone with whom I was engaging in conversation.  Otherwise, that could have been ugly.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that it was really good.  I think society should be grateful that it's not proper dining etiquette to lick the plate, because I did clean the plate.  I could have just been hungry, but that's neither here or there...



They really are colossal...

 The other thing I have to mention is that my friend is awesome.  Aside from her sparkling personality and engaging conversation, she is absolutely willing to offer up part of her meal for me to savor and bring additional legitimacy to the blog.  Which is extra awesome because for the main entree, she ordered Shrimp and Grits.  The menu offers this dish as grilled colossal shrimp with pancetta and mushroom demi-glace, and is served atop delta grind grits.  There is another spot in Memphis that serves the shrimp and grits entree, and I'm going to try them out for comparison's sake, but this entree was just as good as it looked.  I think we were drooling over each other's plates, and yes I shared my meal as well...

I ordered the Roasted Chicken, served au jus over sauteed spinach, and a side order of Sweet Corn Saute.  The chicken was cooked...perfectly.  The chicken was roasted so that the skin was crispy and the meat was cooked to the appropriate level of juicy.  The corn saute was served with crisp Benton's bacon.  I'm not really sure who Benton is but his bacon is super fantastic!  I didn't eat the main course nearly as fast as I did the salad; I actually took the time to savor each bite of this meal.  The spinach was not heavily seasoned and balanced the spices in the chicken.  About 3 bites into the main course and side item, I realized that I was being Greedy Smurf and was going to inevitably hurt myself trying to eat everything.  But in true champion fashion, I finished my meal and found a pocket in my tummy for dessert...



Roasted Chicken au YUMMY!



Sweet Corn Saute with Benton's Bacon

Not cheesecake, but just as awesome!

So dessert...against the better judgment of our digestive capabilities, we ordered off the dessert menu.  Sweet Buttermilk Pie for m'lady and Praline Pecan Ice Cream for myself.  I was so full of food, that when they brought mine out, I was confused as to what I'd ordered.  As much as I love cheesecake, I didn't actually remember ordering it and I didn't know why my cheesecake was frozen.  Please see the picture in regards to my confusion and don't judge me.  All that eating makes you tired and a bit delirious.  I also sampled the buttermilk pie and let my friend taste my ice cream, which by the way, was prepared on a coconut pecan crust, with butterscotch sauce and whipped cream.  And I  finished every single morsel.  I had to drive home with the windows down and wind in my face, but we promised that we would get together soon and eat ourselves silly once again. 

The staff was pretty awesome as well and definitely earn their pay.  So head over to Sanderlin Shopping Center and stop by Napa Cafe (reservations recommended) for a great experience, great service, and a positively earned belly ache.

Trust Me...

So I heard a rumor about this place that doesn’t let you make your own order if you’ve never been there before…and apparently they don’t…

So after much finagling, my chica and I managed to find time in our schedules for a lunch date and we decided to hit up the Pita Café.  Upon entering, sure enough the chef asked us if we’d been there before, and when we told him that we had not, he informed us that we’d be having the #4, which is the Chicken Shawarma Wrap.  My friend stood her ground and ordered the Chicken Fajita Wrap, but I was intrigued.  First timers are allowed to pick their vegetables to go into the pita, but as far as the meat and the seasoning, house rules are “Trust me.  Trust me completely.  If you don’t like it after two bites, you don’t have to pay for it…” and I’m usually not the one to turn down an opportunity for a free meal. 

The Pita Café is located at 3950 Park Avenue, right next door to the Burger King at the intersection of Getwell and Park.  While sitting and waiting for our food to cook, we saw multiple ethnicities coming in and out of the restaurant.  I’m not used to seeing a lot of people trying new things in the city and I was very excited to see the people in the neighborhood enjoying a culinary experience outside of the “norm.”  My pita consisted of a garlic sauce, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and chicken.  On the side was a bag of cool ranch Doritos and sweet tea.  The man was right…that was one good pita.  And if I say so myself, the cool ranch was the right touch to go with the main course.  I guess it doesn’t hurt that I love Doritos anyway.  To be completely honest, there was so much food that it was a bit of a struggle just to finish it.  By the end, we were both just picking the meat out of so that we could say we made our meal count.

I've passed this restaurant several times and had never seen it, but thanks to the recommendation from another friend, I made time to try it out.  I think that you should give it a shot, especially if you're looking to venture into Mediterranean cuisine.  If you don’t like it after two bites, it’ll cost you nothing.  With that said, you should be prepared to pay for your meal…

3950 Park Avenue, Memphis, TN

Graduating in GA

Ahh, life has been quite hectic the last few weeks!  I've missed eating and talking to you about it... 

The mister graduated this semester, as did I, but unlike for my festivities, we were lucky enough to travel to Atlanta, GA for his celebrations.  Beginning the weekend with arguably the worst decision we've ever made, we made it to the heart of the Peach State only an hour late to the graduates' meeting.  No seriously, try going to a wine and oyster tasting and summarily attempting to drive 6 hours after literally not sleeping for 26 hours straight...worst.decision.ever.  But despite our randomly exhausting spontaneity, and after many mini naps along the way, we made it safe and sound and participated in a wonderful celebration.

Post graduation inevitably involved a lengthy nap and when we awoke from our siesta at approximately 1030 PM, we decided we were hungry.  We called around to a few places and most establishments were closed or would be by the time we prepared to depart the hotel.  A phone call to our chosen location let us know that we could eat to our stomach’s content until 4 AM, so we gussied up and headed out to…

We’ve made quite a few trips to Atlanta and has always discussed going to Gladys Knight’s establishment, without being able to bring a visit to fruition.  But alas!  In the middle of the night, Ms. Knight’s restaurant welcomed us and our empty, disgruntled bellies with open arms.  True to Southern charm, the wait staff was very kind and accommodating.  There were even Arnold Palmers to drink (sweet tea and lemonade.)  We started our meal off with Jerk Chicken eggrolls, served with a cool ranch dressing.  Something that I’ve never seen, even in travels abroad, I absolutely had to try this and I can say that I was not disappointed in the least.  They were the perfect balance of spicy and light, and the cool ranch dressing served to bring out the jerk seasoning. 

This establishment is well known for its Chicken and Waffles meal, but I wanted to stray a bit from that path.  He did order that dish because the special waffle of the evening was a cinnamon maple waffle and it was difficult to pass up.  I try to make sure that I taste everything that I write about, so I can honestly say that I have experienced the dish; I've found this strategy also gives me an excuse to eat off my honey’s plate.  I chose the Smothered Chicken with yams, fried potatoes, white rice, and sweet cornbread.  Yes, at this point it’s about 1 AM and I’m ordering a platter bigger than my head.  I don’t pretend to be oblivious as to why my clothes are shrinking; I just choose to look the other way most of the time.  And after tasting something this delectable, I’m sure you’d look the other way as well.  It was just what the palate of a Southerner demands…large portions of meat covered in gravy, served with stuff covered in stuff.  I couldn’t finish the meal, but every seam in my stomach cheered me on to try.  The fried potatoes were my favorite part of the dish.  Served in the style of hashbrowns, this dish also contained red and green peppers and diced onions…just incredible... 

For good measure and to round out the experience, we ordered sweet potato cheesecake to go.  My two favorite desserts on this planet are cheesecake and my mother’s sweet potato pies and they’ve managed to combine them into a single dessert.  Whomever said that Heaven is on earth had to have sampled this cheesecake.

So if you ever find yourself in the ATL looking for a late night “snack,” please stop by and give them a try.  The only thing you’ll regret is not wearing pants with an elastic waistline.