Frankly, it’s not that hard to be a vegetarian cook. Armed with all the world’s fruits and vegetables and a bounty of dairy products, it’s easy to produce a vegetarian dish so rich and succulent that your diners won’t miss meat.
But the vegan chef – like Chef Kristina Addington and the black-clad geniuses who toil in her open kitchen at the new V-Grits – faces a far steeper challenge. Continue reading We feast without meat at V-Grits
The Eagle landed in Louisville two years ago this month, fourth shop in a Cincinnati-based mini-chain. I have to confess that I didn’t pay much attention at first. But then I found out that The Eagle isn’t just another Highlands bar. Its fried chicken is also a big thing. It’s not your industrially fried chicken, either. It is, according to the firm’s website, “cage free, free roaming, all natural chicken.”
This is a big deal to me. I’d much rather enjoy cage-free birds if I can. Continue reading Free-range chicken adds value at The Eagle
“I say it’s spinach, and I say the hell with it.” This iconic New Yorker cartoon established a simple truth that was as valid when it was published in 1928 as it remains in 2018: For most of us, food that is good for us doesn’t appeal to our taste buds.
“Hold my beer,” responds CoreLife Eatery, a two-year-old, small but growing national restaurant chain that just landed in the metro amid the sprawl of Clarksville’s Veterans Parkway two months ago. Continue reading We eat healthy fare and the hell with it at CoreLife Eatery
Le Moo just celebrated its third anniversary – its grand opening happened on Sept. 19, 2015 – and if it’s not your favorite steakhouse by now, it surely makes that grade with a lot of people. Ask for the best steak in town, and Le Moo will certainly be in the conversation along with a handful of other popular local and high-end corporate eateries.
What’s more, within six months of its opening, Food Network declared this Lexington Road landmark not merely Louisville’s best, but one of the 28 best spots for steak all across the nation. You could look it up.
But we’re not here to talk about steak dinners today. Continue reading Brunch at Le Moo starts our day right
Some of you young’uns may not believe this, but there was a time, not all that long ago, when there was not a single Thai restaurant in the Louisville area. We might have read about the stuff, or even, if we were lucky, tasted it in trips to more sophisticated cities or to the Far East. Continue reading Mai’s Thai still delivers the flavor
Today let us consider the noble biscuit. An all-American delicacy with its roots in the South, this flaky, layered treat may be made with milk, buttermilk, or even cream. Some are made with lard, some with butter, but it’s always elevated with some form of fat worked gently into flour and leavened with baking powder.
Biscuits may be flaky or crumbly, feathery or light, but softness always defines a good biscuit. Tough, gummy texture does not. A biscuit is almost always delicious.
Want a delicious biscuit? Welcome to Boujie Biscuit, where the massive, butter-streaked, square buttermilk biscuits meet all the criteria of excellent traditional Southern biscuits. Continue reading A biscuit makes a meal at lovable Boujie Biscuit
Every now and then a new local place to eat and drink makes me exceptionally happy. Sure, I’m always glad to see any new eatery come to town. But now and then a fresh arrival delivers such pleasure in its food, drink, and mood that it makes me jump up and down in delight.
Consider, if you will, Pints & Union in downtown New Albany, the utterly lovable restaurant … er, no, beer bar? … um, no, not that, nor a brewpub either. It’s a public house, a European-style pub, then, built into the beautifully renovated shell of an 1880s-era general store that later served as a neighborhood saloon. Continue reading Good beer, good food boost Pints & Union’s cozy pub vibe
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards,” the great 19th century philosopher Søren Kierkegaard once said, and Kierkegaard should have known: The founder of existentialism, he coined the word “angst.” He called out for us to live passionately, worrying more about the problem of living life than trying to fit the social order.
What’s more, Kierkegaard came from Denmark, which also gave us the great film Babette’s Feast, that deep dive into human nature that is also perhaps the greatest foodie flick ever.
There has to be a message for us here. I think it’s calling on me to take a late-summer pause in the neverending flow of reports on eateries old and new, just for this week following the philosopher’s counsel to look backward as a way to guide our journey forward. Continue reading Looking backward: A retrospective progressive dinner
When Portage House Chef Paul Skulas jumped across the river to open Couvillion in Germantown, Chef Dallas McGarity of Fat Lamb added Portage House to his portfolio so quickly that the ovens didn’t even have time to cool down. Continue reading Fine dining with a view at Portage House
The dragon king’s daughter, ancient Buddhist tradition tells us, was an eight-year-old female dragon who became the first woman ever to reach enlightenment. Female, young, in the form of an animal? It seemed impossible for such a creature to attain Buddhahood – and yet she did it.
There could be no more appropriate spirit animal for Toki Masabuchi, proprietor of the popular Dragon King’s Daughter restaurants on Bardstown Road and in Southern Indiana. We crossed the river recently to check out its new, larger location on New Albany’s Market Street. Continue reading Dragon King’s Daughter achieves enlightenment
