Kat Robinson at Tie Dye Travels has now made an on-the-scene visit to this year's Arkansas State Fair. Sizzling foot-long corndogs aren't bad, but I'm kind of taken by the all-pigmeat stand shown below.

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Maggie Smith writes (and provides photo):

While I'm a little forlorn about the waning supply of berries and tomatoes, I love the fall produce. For the next couple of months my house will be awash in sweet potatoes, apples, and winter squash thanks to the Arkansas Sustainability Network. I'm trying to come up with new ways to use all this good food so that I don't get bored. I made these chunky pancakes this morning by taking my regular pancake recipe and adding in a small, mostly smashed up baked sweet potato. I also added a little cinnamon, but I think they'd be equally good with other sweet spices like clove, nutmeg, or garam masala. I'd love to see what other readers have come up with to diversify the autumn menu.

Maggie filed an evening note, too, about some spring rolls.

I made spring rolls for dinner tonight in an effort to further the diversity of the fall bounty. It's roasted butternut squash, tempura portobello mushrooms, deep fried tofu, spinach, fresh basil, and rice noodles rolled into a rice paper wrapper. The basil, squash, and mushrooms were all locally grown. If you've never worked with rice paper wrappers before, it's a great way to make a quick dinner. You can buy a big package at Sam's Oriental for about a dollar, soak them individually in a shallow bowl of water until there are no more rough parts, let them dry until they're a little sticky, then wrap up whatever tickles your fancy. We dipped these in a sauce made from vinegar, sugar, tamari, oil, homemade peanut butter, and sriracha.

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Kat Robinson at Tie Dye Travels visits one of my old haunts, the New Green Mill out on Markham Street in WLR. This was once, if memory serves, Pete Longinotti's place. My wife and I knew it as "Chili Spaghetti," because those words were included on one of those old-fashioned restaurant signs provided by Coca-Cola. They, of course, served chili spaghetti and also carved off a bodacious ham every day. Owners have changed, but not the formula of cheap, filling and tasty plate lunches, such as the meat loaf, mashed spuds and beans pictured above. (Is there still a tamale day each week, Kat?)

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^{-- Brian Chilson photo}

Juanita’s Mexican Cafe and Bar, the venerable Tex-Mex fixture on South Main, has been sold.

Johnny Weaver and his wife Alicia closed a deal to buy the place Wednesday. The seller was the widow of long-time owner Frank McGehee.

Existing management will stay in place said Weaver, 37, an auction company owner and occasional singer with the band 13 X, which plays Juanita’s from time to time.

“My passion is the same as yours,” Weaver said. “It’s with the restaurant and its location. It’s been a special place for me. … We’re just going to pick up the ball and keep things rolling. We hope to do what Frank would have done to complete his vision of things.”

Changes on the entertainment side: Future live music shows will be 21 and up. There’ll be no more 18 and older nights. “I also can see doing more radio station promotions and more theme nights,” he said.

Also, he said, he hopes to fill a few “holes” in the menu with some dishes he’s seen in Texas and Southern California, plus additional salsas made to his wife’s family recipes.

One menu addition: a fish taco made not in the Little Rock fashion with battered and fried fish, but with grilled fish, in the Mexican style.

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So this is interesting. Razorback Wine Works “Hog Red” Cabernet Sauvignon has hit the shelves just in time football season. (And from what I understand from friends who pay attention to sports, just in time to drown your sorrows in a glass.)

It is a 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon made in Santa Rosa, California. It’s a typical Cab from California: Oak and vanilla on the nose with earthy black fruit on the palate. But we all know, no one is buying this wine for its delicate nuances and the way it pairs with a filet mignon. I’m trying not to think of this one too far beyond the bottle. It’s obviously something that’s cute and fun and best of all, 5% of all of the revenue from the sale of this wine goes to Arkansas educational institutions. Super. It’s retailing for around $16.00.

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Joel DiPippa files a second report on the pleasure of being able to dash home for lunch and put a little verve in the cooking at the same time.

I continue to try to make lunch more than just food, but something memorable.  Building on my ability to quickly get home for lunch, and the fact that there was a good half pound of flat-iron steak left I went for more with gusto.

As soon as I got home, a pot of water with some Worcestershire sauce and garlic cloves went onto the stove with the green beans in a colander above to steam. Then I sliced "pocket steaks," my name for flat-iron medallions, to a nice thickness and got them on the cast-iron skillet.  It took a little bit of patience, but I was rewarded.

The green beans were done and the steak was on top of them to rest.  I did not waste the time.  Instead, I deglazed the skillet with some vermouth (bought by the fifth for cooking purposes) and added some butter and lemon juice.  Freshly minced garlic and a handful of chopped parsley went in to absorb the last bit of heat.

Plated and enjoyed for lunch. 

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A reader mentioned Rolando's in Kat Robinson's earlier tribute to McClard's BBQ. She's been and loves the "South American treasure" on Central Avenue in Hot Springs. Pictured are Rolando's goat cheese quesadillas.

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Cooking Joel DiPippa writes about a pleasure of life in LR that's not easily matched in most big cities -- dashing home for a home-cooked lunch.

Lunches seem to be underappreciated these days. I am fortunate enough to live a few minutes from work so I can run home for lunch.  Earlier this week, I thought a nice sliced steak sandwich would be really tasty.

I set the bread to toast while I carmelized some onions.  While this was working, I sliced thing strips from the flat iron steak purchased for lunch duties this week.  The steak got a quick sear in a sautee pan and a dab of vermouth was added to the onions.  I layered this onto the toasted bread, spread with some stone ground mustard and colby jack cheese.

Prepped and cooked in about 20 minutes, and eaten even faster!

Even with a busy life, tasty food should never be out of reach.

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This will not stand.

I visited the Buffalo Grill in Riverdale last night to pick up the family's standing to-go order, a grilled tuna platter and the tortilla flat.

I first got a warning.

The tortilla flat has been changed. No longer do they heap cheddar cheese atop the mound of chips, chili, onions, tomato, olives, jalapenos and lettuce, then run it under a broiler for a melted cheese cap.

No. Instead, they give you a cup of cheese dip to pour over the top as you choose.

This is NOT a tortilla flats, perhaps the defining dish at Buffalo Grill, the thing that set it apart from every other restaurant in town. It is just a taco salad, or cheese dip on top of salad.

Nacho lovers will be sorry to learn the same routine applies. No more cheese-topped chips melted under a broiler. It gets the cup-of-dip treatment, too. (Nothing wrong with the Grill's dip, but it's not the same in this application.)

Explanation: The salamander, or the wall-mounted broiler in which the dishes were finished, is on its way out to make room for some new equipment. They're apparently thinking of adding fried catfish.

You can get catfish hundreds of places. Until recently, you could get the tortilla flats only at Buffalo Grill. No more. (This change is coming at the Bowman Road location, too.)

The end of family life as we knew it.

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McClard's doesn't rank quite so supremo with some bbq-heads in Arkansas anymore. The competition is tougher, for one thing.

I still say, for attention to quality across the board, it's hard to beat McClard's, even if you might like this rib joint or that sauce concoction a bit more than what's been served at McClard's forever.

Kat Robinson at Tie Dye Travels is solidly in the loves-McClard's camp.

I'm happy to report that they haven't changed the gourmand's favorite gluttony -- the spread, with tamales, beans, onions and cheese (always side this with cole slaw as a cholesterol blocker).

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I got this note today from a reader:

We just ate at a new Indian restaurant.  It is in the location of an old restaurant at Rodney Parham Rd. next to Lily's Dim Sum.  It is very good and much better than the predecessor.  It is called Amruth.  It is definitely worth checking out - excellent food.

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After a power outage set it back last week, Whole Foods will celebrate its grand opening Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 7:45 a.m. through Sunday. There'll be live music, cooking demonstrations and lots of specials.

But as you might've read in Jennifer Reed's last shopping column, just as soon as the new Whole Foods sign is up up, it may have to come down again. A U.S. appeals court recently reopened the monopoly claim the Federal Trade Commission pursued soon after the merger was announced last year. Anti-trust experts have said that while undoing the deal would be difficult, it wouldn't be impossible. There's no immediate timetable for the federal district court to rule on the case.

Press release on the opening below.

Continue reading "Whole Foods opens, finally" »

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Good enough for books.

The Waldenburg restaurant recently landed in David Gelin's "BBQ Joints: Stories and Secret Recipes from the Barbecue Belt," along, presumably with some other Arkie favorites.

I don't have the book, only the lovely picture above.

Before I got this in the mail, I'd never heard of Waldenburg or Woody's.

Probably hadn't been living right.

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Kat Robinson at Tie Dye Travels has the scoop on a new snack item to be sold at the State Fair next month -- pig lickers, or chocolate dipped bacon. It was a hit in Minnesota, she reports.

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News flash from Hillcrest, Monday, Sept. 8:

I just encountered some young fellows rolling a cart full of pizza makings at Kavanaugh and Beechwood. I was driving on, but it would appear that they were making the move that signals they really are about to cook pizza in the new U.S. Pizza location in the long, long, long under-renovation former Masonic Lodge just a block east of the original Hillcrest location in a former service station. The old location is supposedly to become a much expanded version of the liquor store now tucked away in a portion of the old building.

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