Where in the world do you find the globe’s most fiery-spicy cuisine? This seemed like a simple enough question when I dreamed it up amid a sudden craving for culinary fire the other day, but it’s hard to get a definitive answer. Continue reading I want to bring the heat at Thai Cafe, but the chef won’t let me
Category Archives: BY PRICE FOR TWO
Mt. Everest View offers a delicious taste of Nepal
Our friend Ashley just came to town recently, from Alabama by way of 10 years in New York City. A savvy foodie with a love for ethnic eats and a proud adoptive Brooklynite, she came to Louisville expecting great regional fare, but worried that her new home town might be a culinary purgatory when it came to world cuisine.
Continue reading Mt. Everest View offers a delicious taste of Nepal
America. The Diner. Funky, fun and open almost 24 hours
Today let us celebrate the noble hamburger, an iconic confection that’s easier to eat than it is to research.
Aka “hamburg steak,” this ubiquitous ground-meat patty on a bun has been known by that name only since around the 1890s, the usually reliable Online Etymology Dictionary tells us. The hamburger’s historic connection to Hamburg, Germany, is also asserted but unproven, but that’s not important right now.
Continue reading America. The Diner. Funky, fun and open almost 24 hours
Until we can get to Cuba, Yoli’s will do
Here’s the deal: I really, really want to go to Cuba, and I’d like to get over there before it turns back into Vegas South, which – so I’m told – is what it was more than a half-century ago, when my grandparents used to head over there just for fun.
Continue reading Until we can get to Cuba, Yoli’s will do
Seviche remains No. 1 even when the chef’s away
This time it was special. A birthday, an anniversary, and I wanted to treat my bride to the city’s best. So who’s No. 1? It’s gotta be Seviche.
We all know that this city is blessed with a grand buffet of great restaurants, with 20 or more that can dominate on any given day. But Chef Anthony Lamas’ pan-Latino gastronomic temple on Bardstown Road rings my chimes consistently loud and clear.
Continue reading Seviche remains No. 1 even when the chef’s away
We mentor a budding food writer at Toonerville Deli
In this food-loving city full of food-fascinated folks, there must be a thousand food bloggers, freelancers and journalists. My friend Dana is one, and she does it well. So I was truly honored when Dana asked if I’d help mentor her 12-year-old cousin, Amber, visiting from Michigan, who wants to be a food writer, too.
How could I say no? Continue reading We mentor a budding food writer at Toonerville Deli
Epic Sammich Co. is not Rumplings, but it’ll do
For a too-short, brilliant seven months, the glory that was Rumplings blazed like a comet soaring across the sky of Louisville’s dining scene.
Then, just like that, one night in early June, Rumplings went dark, accompanied by a chorus of wails from despairing fans.
Okay. I admit it. That’s kind of dramatic. But dammit, that’s how I felt, and judging from the anguished voices I heard, I don’t think I was alone.
Continue reading Epic Sammich Co. is not Rumplings, but it’ll do
Mangia! Mangia! Family Italian in Prospect
My friend Bob has a vowel on the end of his name, and he proudly hails from New Jersey, so when he told me to check out Bistro 42 in Prospect for its great Italian* food, I figure he knows what he’s talking about.
Um, what’s with that asterisk on “Italian*”?
Continue reading Mangia! Mangia! Family Italian in Prospect
New urbanism, same old Chinese in Norton Commons
There we were, Mary and I, sitting and chatting as we waited for our apps in the comfortably cozy confines of Tea Station Chinese Bistro. We sipped Tsing Tao beers and gazed out at the main drag of Norton Commons, the new subdivision with the old-time look, trying to figure out why this village somehow feels both appealing and a little creepy all at the same time.
Norton Commons was Louisville’s first large venture into the “New Urbanism” (or at least the first since St. James Court was developed in 1887). Hey, New Urbanism is cool! Something new, made to look old, compact and walkable, retro in style, quaint but, um, “safe.”
So what’s not to like?
Continue reading New urbanism, same old Chinese in Norton Commons
On the Mexican road again …
“On the road again” … “En la carretera nuevamente …” Hmm. Willie Nelson’s classic ballad doesn’t translate very well, rhythmically speaking. You just can’t make the syllables fit the notes. But that’s not important right now. What’s important right now is Mexican food, because it’s filling and spicy and delicious.
I like Mexican food, and I like languages, and I’ve still got a lot to learn about both things. But there’s always room for more learning, both in the food department and the linguistic department. Like most Americans — er, Norteamericanos, that is — my language skills are weak.
“Eureka,” I said, an exclamation that works in English, Spanish and Greek. “Why don’t I go eat at some Mexican restaurants? I can practice my Spanish on the servers!”
Continue reading On the Mexican road again …