Buona Beef and Tensuke Market

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Joe, Stephen and I took our first flight to Chicago as a family. Stephen did really well... though he did guzzle about five sippy cups of diluted apple juice in a little over an hour. While we were there, Joe was stationed at a table representing Kuei Shan School for an international Christian school expo held at several Christiain colleges in the Chicago area. Steve and I were free to eat, play and chill out with my mom. We had sandwiches from Buona Beef one night... mine was a chicken artichoke pesto panini, crunchy and compact like a panini ought to be (in my opinion.)
Mom had the egg and pepper sandwich, only offered on Fridays (for meat-avoiding Catholics, I guess.)
We also all went out for dinner at Tensuke Market, a little Korean/Japanese grocery that has a casual restaurant in the back. I got the soba set, which came with soba soup, shrimp and vegetable tempura, california roll, fried tofu squares and salmon chirashi. Yum! This photo combines some leftover udon with one tofu square. Sorry, no photos from the original meal.

Silke's German Bakery

Joe had the day off on Wednesday, which happens to be our anniversary... We started dating 11 years ago and were engaged 9 years ago on Nov. 11. Those were frigid, gray days in Cleveland, Ohio. But our day was sunny and filled with fall color and good eats, such as this authentic German SPAM :-) with eggs and briochen from Silke's German Bakery in Clarksville, Tenn.
The decor of the bakery was kind of like a garden with plenty of nature art for sale on the walls and little mosaic patio tables. There was even a picket fenced area for children. We sat right next to it so Munchi could play.
I had a melted brie and apple sandwich with honey. We also split an almond croissant and later, a pan au chocolat.

Da Vinci Little Italian Restaurant

Let me just say that I ate Da Vinci food three times in one week. The first time was for the story, the second two were just because I couldn't get enough of the calamari. :-) Stephen liked his baby pizza.




Italian chef opens North Drive eatery

By Emily Parrino, Special to the New Era
Published: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 12:53 PM CDT
Pavel Skorpil’s signature Italian salad dressing, marinara sauce and pizza dough are all freshly made. Alexa Becker rattled off the list as though she was preparing for a quiz.

“Pavel, you make your meatballs from scratch?” she directed the question toward the kitchen where her husband was rolling out pizza dough.

“Yes I do,” Pavel fired back.

“He makes them from scratch,” Alexa repeated.

“You didn’t know this?” Pavel shouted from the kitchen, feigning indignation. “You’re fired!”

“Yeah, he makes everything from scratch,” Alexa said. “I am so glad I don’t work in the kitchen.”

The feisty couple are chef and head server of Da Vinci Little Italian Restaurant, an eatery in the former Pizza Roma storefront on North Drive. Pavel is keen on treating the town to authentic Italian, but is also learning what locals like.

Since opening on Oct. 13, they’ve been selling mounds of meaty entrées.

“The first day, everyone wanted meat lover’s pizza,” Alexa explained. “The second day it was all Italian Sausage sandwiches. It was like everyone was calling their friends and telling them to order the same thing.”

Spaghetti and meatballs and lasagna with meat sauce have also been big sellers. Pavel also offers an Italian-style pulled pork sandwich with mushrooms and creamy gravy on foccia. In a town where meat-and-three is a menu staple, Alexa urged her husband to offer traditional barbecue sauce as a substitute to the Italian gravy.

“A lady ordered it the other day,” Alexa said, “and she was surprised.”

“She thought the flavors went well together,” Pavel said.

Pavel, originally from Italy, and Alexa, a German native, met and fell in love at a restaurant in Clarksville, Tenn., where they both worked. Pavel had initially come to the U.S. to be chef of a restaurant in Destin, Fla., before moving to Atlanta and eventually Clarksville. Each time, Pavel cooked a menu according to the owner’s set recipes and specifications.

After the Clarksville venue closed, Alexa urged her husband to be a chef once more, but this time using his own recipes.

“I told Pavel, ‘You should quit working for other people and open your own restaurant,’” Alexa said.

The couple agreed on opening Da Vinci in Hopkinsville, lured by the lower cost of rent and hoping to bring authentic Italy to the locals.

The bustle of business their opening week seemed to heat husband and wife up with the intensity of the Blodgett stone pizza oven that fills Pavel’s kitchen.

“We yell so much,” Alexa said. “But we don’t take it home with us.”

These days they don’t go home very often. The restaurant is open Tuesday through Sunday for lunch and dinner, with Pavel staying up, sometimes until 2 a.m. to make his dough from scratch.

“I am always busy,” he said. “I was born busy!”

“He makes dough by hand, using fresh ingredients,” Alexa explained. “One time he put a towel over the bowl and said, ‘Shh! Everybody be quiet because if you’re loud it will sink.’”

Pavel trained at a cooking school in Bolzano, northern Italy, but he learned his favorite dish, lasagna, from cooking under his grandmother in Milan. He still calls his popular recipe “Nona Lasagne,” using the Italian word for grandma.

In addition to the long hours, bringing Italian food culture to Hopkinsville has proved challenging. In Italy, lunch breaks are typically two hours, Pavel said.

“So if you go in a restaurant, the cook will make the pasta and bring it to you fresh, which takes between 10 and 15 minutes to prepare,” Pavel said. “You can’t do this because people here have only 30 or 40 minutes for lunch.”

He also decided to offer some decidedly American items like buffalo wings, deep pan pizza and cheese sticks alongside authentic Italian items like Mussels Alla Diavola and Calamari Fritti.

Still, Pavel is proud to make the majority of his menu from fresh ingredients. He tells Alexa to tell customers he uses specially ordered unbleached flour to make his dough.

“Unbleached flour is much better for your stomach,” Pavel said.

Pavel’s original recipes include Da Vinci Salad with mixed greens, grilled chicken, sauteed mushrooms, tomatoes and feta; and his White Pizza, topped with crème, mozzarella, roma tomatoes, proscuitto and mushrooms.

The restaurateurs say their menu and long hours have won them many compliments.

Several of Da Vinci’s diners early Saturday evening were repeat customers.

“It was delicious again,” a woman said to the server as she left.

“Bye y’all,” Alexa said with a convincing twang. “Have a great day!”

Emily Parrino can be reached at 270-887-3237 or eparrino@kentuckynewera.com.

Vegan Vittles

That was the hammer on my food story a week ago. Today's New Era will feature Da Vinci Little Italian Restaurant, but I'll wait until it's published before I blog, so as not to scoop myself. :-) So for today, let's talk about The Little Teapot Cafe in Bradford Square:
I had the "Chick" Tetrazzini with a side of peas, fresh all-grain bread and some kind of soy butter.

Here's the story I wrote for the New Era:
Vegan vittles

The Little Teapot Cafe serves up veggie versions of homestyle classics
By Emily Parrino, Special to the New Era
Published: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 1:35 PM CDT
Barbara Neher opened the oven and pulled out pale loaves of all-grain bread. The 72-year-old great-grandma flicked the crusty tops, hoping to hear a hollow sound. Dissatisfied with the response, she shoved them back into the oven.

The galley kitchen where Neher and her husband, Jack, prepared the day’s blue plate special was full of the yeasty aroma that greets customers at The Little Teapot Café, which opened last month at Bradford Square.

The quilt-festooned décor, the spindly furniture, calico cloth napkins and the heady smells from the kitchen conjure up feelings of comfort and coziness. Teapot’s menu includes a daily blue plate special and homey items like potato salad, muffins and chili.

“We get more people coming in who say, ‘I just feel like I’ve gone to my grandmother’s house,’” Neher said of the Teapot’s charm.

But this isn’t your grandma’s cooking.

Every dish the Nehers serve is vegan; free of meat, eggs, and dairy ingredients. Breads are cooked from scratch with an emphasis on whole grains. Baked goods use raw, organic sugar and flaxseed gel in place of eggs.

“They’re all dishes you’re familiar with, but vegan,” Neher explained.

Dishes like “Chick” Salad Sandwiches and Garden Patch Burgers, modeled after familiar comfort foods, are designed to be low-fat and low-cal. To add protein and meatiness, Teapot dishes rely on soy and wheat protein.

And Neher’s spice rack spans one wall of the kitchen.

“I’ve had vegan dishes before that were just blah,” she said with a frown.

“Like sticks and twigs,” her husband chimed in.

“But I like color,” Neher said. “I’m big on flavor.”

At the height of the lunch hour Monday, only a few customers wandered in.

“Two taco salads,” said the Nerher’s daughter, Teresa Ingle, who works as a waitress at the Teapot.

Barbara Neher arranged corn chips, vegetarian chili, fresh vegetables and vegetarian “cheeze” shreds on mis-matched China.

In a town where many restaurant are shuttered before reaching one year in business, the Nehers were prepared to labor long. They see their café as a mission to improve the health of the city rather than a money-making venture.

“We knew there wasn’t any vegetarian restaurants in town and we figured it’d be slow for people to come in,” Nerher explained. “Business has been slow, but we’re not real disappointed on that.This is a self-supporting ministry. The Lord is our partner. Everybody that works here is a volunteer.”

The Nehers are devout in their faith, but say they use the restaurant to spread a message of healthy eating, not religious beliefs.

“We’re concerned about the health of our area,” Neher said. “A lot of people would like to be healthy, but they don’t know how.”

Adjacent to the dining room, the Nehers have set up rows of student desks and a book display with healthy cookbooks.

“We have free health classes, but you have to buy the textbook,” Jack Neher said.

Classes take place at 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and the next session begins Oct. 20, he added.

“We want to teach them what power you have on your plate!”

For Ingle, that power allowed her to drop 100 pounds and control her diabetes.

“We also give out recipes,” she said. “We’re wanting people to eat healthier so we share.”

Her mother said the changes her family has made have had great rewards, and that she hopes the café could help people ease into a new lifestyle.

“There’s fanatics everywhere you go,” Barbara. “We try not to be that way. We believe any step toward a plant-based diet is great.”

Neher is no stranger to championing causes. In 2004, she, her husband and Ingle founded the It’s My Very Own: Bags of Love program to provide blankets and toiletries for children who have recently been move to foster care.

With The Little Teapot Café, the Nehers hope to continue their family tradition of ministering to people in a way that conforts them.

“My philosphy is that I don’t want to make people uncomfortable…You don’t have to worry when you come in here,” Barbara said. “It’s all healthy and it’s all low-cal.”

Emily Parrino can be reached at 270-887-3237 or eparrino@kentuckynewera.com.

John's visit

My cousin, John Tilsch, came for a visit as he was traveling across the country from Chicago to his new home in Colorado. He studied at Vandy, so southern barbecue (meat-n-threes) are familar to him. We got Woodshed pulled pork and plenty of pie.

Salmon Pattie Salad

My mom was nice enough to give me a bunch of canned salmon... another good way to get some affordable omega-3s in our diet. I made my patties with Italian style bread crumbs, and some salmon seasoning mix, chopped onion and 1 egg. I pan fried them in olive oil and served them over fresh spinach drizzled with honey mustard.

This is just a random picture of what I think is some really beautiful sushi from Tokyo Sushi in Paducah. I loved the generous sprinkling of green caviar...it looks like fat colored sugar crystals. There were also some fat orange fish roe inside... tobiko?

Peanut pumpkins

I've been back at the New Era part time since the middle of September. Being out of the house more puts me in contact with more blog-worthy food topics, but it also eliminates my time for blogging.
I was checking out the area's fresh markets for a story and came across this stand at the Dew's place on Pembroke Road. I had interviewed them back when I was features editor about some 80s McDonald's Playland equipment they were refurbishing for their grandkids. It caught my attention to see the Hamburger jail and Grimace in their yard. Well, the equipment is gone, but there's this wonderfully stocked farmstand instead. Eldridge had quite a few unsual pumpkins... Peanut Pumpkin, Fairytale and Long Island Cheese among them

Cashew Chicken with Bean Threads

My mom gave me a bag of Trader Joe's unsalted, roasted cashews recently and I'd been thinking about the cashew stir-fries I enjoyed in Bangkok a few years ago when my friend, Priscilla, and I met there for a mini-vacation.

So this was my best approximation. I served it over bean threads simmered in the leftover juices.

Start with 1/2 cup cashews, heated in a little oil on medium heat until toasted. Add 8 ounces of white mushrooms, halved or quartered depending on how big they are. Chopped red and green bell pepper, sweet onion, and chopped garlic come next. Add a tablespoon of oyster sauce, a splash of soy sauce and rice vinegar, and maybe a tablesoon of sugar along with garlic powder to taste. Last, add 1/2 a chicken breast, cubed and cook until done.

Reserve the juices to add to a little water to simmer two bundles of mung bean thread noodles until translucent and soft.

Joe's birthday

On Oct. 7, we went out as a family for Joe's 34th birthday to Outback Steakhouse in Clarksville. We don't go there very often...but Joe had a coupon and it was his day :-)

Joe ordered rack of lamb and I shared my salmon with steamed vegetables with Stephen. They were nice enough to cook my vegetables extra-mushy (as in mushy enough to eat with 2 1/2 teeth) on request. The portions weren't huge, but everything was so well salted that I felt very full. The salmon was perfectly cooked and crispy on the edges. Joe like his lamb so much he even at the fat. If you know my husband's aversion to grissle, you'll understand what a big compliment to the chef that was!

Lil' Punkins

Joe and I started a family tradition when we bought the anthropomorphic cushaw squash a couple years ago. We decided every autumn we should buy an unusual gourd. We also felt we had to get Stephen his first pumpkin. A little pie pumpkin for baby, turban squash for mom and dad.
I'm looking forward to making these into something... I just haven't settled on the right recipe yet.

Whiting po'boy

Since Joe's been student teaching, I've been looking for ways to feed us as cheaply as possible without giving up the four food groups. I found Aldi's bag of frozen whiting filets, at $3.49 for 24 ounces, are probably the cheapest non-fishstick seafood available in Hoptown. But that's excluding whatever lurks in Little River.

So, since The Po'Boy closed, I've been craving a grilled fish sandwich. The whiting cooks nicely in the oven or skillet, either breaded or plain. It wears lemon juice, garlic powder and herbs well. And the unpleasantly fishy odor disappears once it's been cooked. Joe has to peel off the skin before he can eat it, but other than that, these fillets are ready to go. I served mine sauteed over garlic baguette, with garden tomato, a sprinkling of sweet corn and lemon juice.

Phyllo dough meaty samosa

I just found this photo of something I concocted way back in August when Tatiana was still living with us. My phyllo had been hiding in the back of the freezer from some time, so it had that sharp past-its-prime flavor. Also, I think this would have been much better with some thick greek yogurt for dipping.

I don't remember what I put in it... just that it was ground chicken, cauliflower, curry powder, garam masala, cayenne and probably some garlic and onion. Then I wrapped it in three sheets phyllo, rubbed with oil, then baked until crispy.

September cooking

I do still cook. Not as much as I'd like, but even the busyness of two jobs and motherhood doesn't keep me out of the kitchen for long. I've been holding on to these photos for a while now...
Spinach quiche with homemade oil crust. I followed a recipe that called for milk in the crust. I don't think I've got the touch to make a flaky oil crust, but it did taste good. Stephen was crazy about this stuff. I made two pies, and he pretty much ate half of one by himself.
A simple chickpea salad with cucumber, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, onion and tomato. I love chickpeas in most forms, so I liked this dish as well.
Coconut veggie curry. I took a can of coconut milk, some chinese curry powder, garlic powder, splash of fish sauce, juice of a lime, salt, a little sugar, canned carrots, broccoli and cabbage and simmered it all until tender. I served it over some Vietnamese noodles. A few weeks later I tried the same thing but used sweet potato, white potato, cauliflower and broccoli and served it over rice.

A couple of bones to pick

Oh, Hopkinsville. I always try to give you the benefit of the doubt, but here you go annoying me again.

OSAKA JAPANESE RESTAURANT
Many of us were ecstatic when we saw the old Skinny's Diner/Chicago Style Grill building on the boulevard morph into Osaka Japanese restaurant. Hopkinsville, I'm told, used to have an excellent sushi restaurant until their chef returned to his homeland and the place shuttered it's sprawling plantation-style building. The classy building eventually reopened as a smokey sportsbar that felt (and tasted, in my opinion) more like someone's ugly basement than a restaurant. I digress.

Knowing that the owners were Chinese, and the restaurant was no where near bodies of water that contain fish commonly used in sushi, I wasn't expecting it to offer the cuisine of it's namesake city (where Joe and I were unable to even afford the sushi when we visited.) However, I would expect the staff to be a little bit familiar with their menu offerings. And how to pronounce the word "tofu." And for the chef to prepare dishes according to the menu description.

Suffice it to say, my mom and I were dually unimpressed. And our comiserating probably ruined it for the rest of our party... sorry, guys. We moody foodies can't help ourselves. I was really wanting to like the restaurant, too. I've been longing for a sushi place to succeed here, especially since half of the clientele at Yamato's just across the state line have Kentucky plates. But I have little hope for this newest eatery.



Stephen did enjoy the corner booth... at least until he threw up tofu and a cup of pool water all over daddy's lap.

INCREDIBLE SHRINKING BARGAINS
My next "bone" isn't exactly Hopkinsville's fault. From reading this blog and my old New Era columns, you might have picked up that I'm a Kroger grocery store fan. I do force myself into Aldi from time to time because it's supposed to be cheaper, but I think I find the best deals in the little orange "manager's special" stickers at Kroger. Plus, it's gotten to where I know their sale cycle... namely the beloved "10 for 10" sales. They come around every 5 or 6 weeks-- and I can get boxes of pasta, frozen vegetables, brownie mixes, good hand soap and other kitchen staples for what I consider reasonable prices. I'm the girl in the self-check out with 15 bags of frozen Brussels sprouts, lima beans and chopped spinach. And at 16 ounces each, the bags supply 15 dinner's worth of veggies to cram into my freezer. But as I eagerly awaited 10 for 10 week this past month, I noticed some snazzy new changes in my freezer aisle: lights that dimmed until a customer activated a motion sensor, doors that were completely fogged up and more stylish packaging on the store's generic frozen vegetables.

That's when it hit me. Prettier packaging... but smaller bags. No longer can my George Washington get me 16 beautiful ounces of cauliflower... rather just 12 skimpy ounces. I squinted at the price label. Sure enough, it read 10/$10.00, 12 oz. Cauliflower. My eyes raced along the shelves holding an expanse of swanklily packaged produce. 12 oz. 12 oz. 12 oz. Surely, this makes it so there's no savings at all.

In an effort to cheat the system one last time, I dug behind the puny bags and unearthed the remaining 16 ounce packages in their dowdy white wrappers, and pitched them into my cart. To my temporary satisfaction, they rang up at a dollar each. But my days of feeling like I got a good deal are coming to a close. I suppose stores and producers across the country have been sneeking in ways to give the consumer less for more. But it burns me that while burger and soda sizes have increased exponentially over the years, my humble but wholesome sack of veggies is dwindling.

Date Night in Paris

OK, I didn't really go to Paris. But Joe and I did get to have a date night on our 8th anniversary in Franklin, Tenn., at the Viking Cooking School. On the menu with Chef Jamie: Coc au vin, salad with chevre, tomato tartlet and crepes suzzette.
As is often the case in these Viking classes (Joe and I have Thai cooking, Morroccan and Superfoods under our apron strings) I was completely lost for most of it. The recipes in the packets barely coincided with what the instructor was doing. The droplets of oil leaping from the pans stung my hands. And it was sometimes hard to tell the little ramekins of salt from the sugar or the walnut oil from the honey... a mistep that could have be disasterous, or at least a little disgusting!

But when it came to crepe making, I was a pro. :-)

Getting my fill of ethnic eats

For those of you that keep up with the Daily Munchie, this post is going to be old hat. But I had some photos from our trip (beginning of the month) to Chicago and some opinions as well.
Sushi Ya- a newer Japanese restaurant close to the Schaumburg Township District Library, where my mom works.
Chicken bowl for Stephen
He was being a bit of a pill trying to escape his high chair and stuffing too big of pieces of chicken in his mouth when no one was watching, but I think he enjoyed it too.
And we ordered the "Schaumburg Roll" just because I think it's cool to order sushi rolls named after towns. It was good- no cream cheese or anything gross. Just softshell crab, eel, avocado etc.

Saffron - An Indian restaurant in Schaumburg off Wise Road.
Despite the exotic sounding name, Saffron's decor was kind of like a hotdog place or a sub shop. It also seemed to be run by one person (maybe there was someone else hiding in the back) and our food took a long time to arrive. Or maybe it wasn't really that long, but Stephen was again up to his worst restaurant behavior so it seemed like an eternity. Thankfully, there's a great fresh market with an extensive Indian food section a couple doors down from Saffron, and it served as a good diversion for fussy baby and frazzled parents.
The food was a mix of what I can only assume is authentic- like the peppery hot birani rice dish- and east meets west like "Tandoori pizza" which was actually one of my favorite dishes. The samosas were great... but had more black pepper than my tongue could handle. I've got a pretty decent tolerance for chili pepper hot and wasabi hot, but black pepper really does me in. Munchie also turned bright red when we tried to let him sample some chicken from the pizza. Poor kid!

Pork chops and rice

Our friend and house guest, Tatiana, treated us to Southern-style fried pork chops and rice Sunday night.


I have to say, I've never known pork chops to be especially tender or tasty, but this girl's chops turned all my pork misconceptions on their heads. The key, she says,is in double-dipping them into a mix of flour, cayenne and season salt, then frying both sides in oil about an inch deep. What doesn't taste good fried in oil?
She also served cheesecake and chocolate chip cookies for dessert. The veggies in the photo were my doing, of course.