Wow, I Feel Safe Now… April 16, 2009
Posted by Matt in politics.Tags: handguns, restaurant, Tennessee
7 comments
The Tennessee Senate approved a bill today that allows patrons to carry handguns into restaurants that serve alcohol.
There just isn’t much I can say about this…
For the Love of Food June 18, 2008
Posted by Matt in food.Tags: Ethiopian food, ethnic food, restaurant, snobbery
8 comments
I think it is safe to say that we all have things that we love and tend to be rather snobby about because we “know” what constitutes being “good” in this object of our affection and expect others to agree. For me, one of those things with which I tend to be preoccupied is food. There are few things in this world I take more delight in than well-prepared meals. Traditional ethnic foods, in particular, hold a special fascination for me. The food industry in this country is so consumed with making money that they throw together these corrupted shadows of real cuisine, in the hopes that by making them excruciatingly bland, nobody will object. And, thus, America stuck out its proverbial tongue at authenticity and created the chain restaurant – overwhelming the consciousness of the general public to the point that even their barely palatable meals are appetizing.
Yeah, I know I’m a big unapologetic food snob.
So, when our family decides to eat out, I always clamor against the suburban mega-restaurant chains around our home and insist that we find an eatery that is locally owned and operated. Luckily, even in our concrete-choked piece of suburbia there are several places to choose from.
We have a great Indian restaurant, called Taj Mahal, just a few short miles from our home owned by a couple that I would guess to be around my parents’ ages that have been very nice to our family when we have stopped in to eat. On our first visit, the man even took us into the kitchen to show us his tandoor and to explain how some of the dishes were prepared. And their hummus is excellent, even better than mine.
There are two Thai restaurants that have recently opened for business and both of them are excellent. I love their green curry chicken, though I usually go through several glasses of water to help battle the heat.
We also have a few good Japanese places that usually have excellent sushi (yes, you can get sushi in Mississippi), if you like that sort of thing (and I definitely do!).
Memphis offers even more culinary delights that we have been able to enjoy over the past few years. We had some excellent Mediterranean food at an eatery in the Cooper-Young district (and there are few things better than authentic Mediterranean cuisine). We’ve had wonderful Thai and Vietnamese meals at other establishments, as well as other, more familiar types of food.
Yesterday, though, we decided to try a new and different taste. Something that neither of us (the girls are still out of town) had ever partaken of before – African food. After a quick search through various establishments online, I found a spot that caught my attention, an Ethiopian restaurant.
So, after work, Diana and I journeyed to midtown Memphis and found this small diner tucked into a building on the side of Poplar avenue. The room was decorated with various African crafts and the presumably Ethiopian couple spoke to each other in a totally indecipherable language. We both ordered types of stir fry – Diana’s was one of fish and mine of lamb – and the lady taking our order made sure to tell me, in no uncertain terms, that this dish was hot.
The provisions that she set before us, though made from vastly different organisms, looked strangely similar covered in a red sauce. The main dish was accompanied by various green vegetables (what looked like lettuce, cabbage, and greens) and a plate of injera, a traditional Ethiopian flatbread with the consistency of a thin piece of plastic foam. The meal was very enjoyable, though a bit unsettling to our tastebuds – especially for Diana, who understandably tends to have more trouble with spicy foods while pregnant. Altogether, though, it was different and much preferable to the comestibles offered in American eateries.
What about you? Are you a fan of ethnic foods? Am I too much of a snob?
