Music Monday, Cafe Palladio, and Sunday Funday!

So the new song for today is Mumford and Sons- Little Lion Man.  Needs to be censored for the radio, but a good song anyway.  I had heard their song, White Blank Page, on satellite radio a lot, and The Cave a few times.  Both really good songs.  Brian went to Nashville and brought this one home via JJ.  It's really good!



So we discovered a new restaurant this weekend that was so delicious.  It is on Central a couple doors down from Central BBQ in an antique store called Palladio Antiques.  The restaurant is appropriately called Cafe Palladio.  Cute and tucked in the back of the antique store, the food was delicious!! Probably not fast enough for a work lunch but definitely worth a try.  I had the BLT (the T was a fried green tomato) with remoulade sauce, and chicken salad.  Both were so good and there was enough chicken salad for two people (and this was a half!).  I got it as a half salad, half sandwich deal for $9. 

Brian had the half sald, half sandwich with the BLT and the Greek salad. 

So I give this two thumbs up!  Not fast enough for a quick lunch but definitely worth trying.  And you can bring wine with a $5 corkage fee.  Only open for lunch.  Brian thought it was a little girly, but the food was good so he approved:

Saturday night Brian, Jenn, and I had dinner at The Reef, formerly Blue Fish on Cooper in Cooper Young.  It was good.  The wine was pretty reasonable and the food was good!  Didn't take pics, but pretty decent.  

On to Sunday Funday....Jenn stayed at our house Saturday night and we woke up and decided we'd go to Brother Juniper's since EVERYONE has said it is delicious!  We drove over there and they said it would be an hour wait, so we decided to head back down the street to our house and have some Sunday Funday cocktails!  We had been dying to make a Pimm's Cup since leaving New Orleans.  It is the cocktail to drink at Wimbledon, but we know and love it from having it at Napoleon House in the French Quarter in New Orleans.  Napoleon House is a historic bar in the French Quarter in a building that has been around for 200 years.  Their signature drink is the Pimm's Cup, and its a great cocktail to sip while wandering around the French Quarter.  So so delicious and refreshing.  Anyways, I'm off on a tangent.  We made ourselves a Pimm's Cup!  Or we put Jenn to work, and she made us a Pimm's cup. 

Excellent presentation I must say!  How to make a Pimm's Cup, you ask?  Easy!  You need Pimm's No. 1 liqueur, 7Up, Lemonade (we used that Simply Lemonade that comes in the clear container and it was good!), and cucumber slices.  You put in a shot of Pimm's, shot and a half of lemonade, then add 7Up and cucumbers to taste.  Serve it over ice and garnish with a slice of cucumber.  If you haven't had one, probably hard to add to taste, but just mix the 7Up in until it tastes delicious to you.  Some recipes add mint, or use a squeeze of lemon juice instead of lemonade, but these were great.  Thanks to Tara Kelley for coming home from her visit to New Orleans and perfecting the recipe after she had one at Napoleon House and loved it!  On another note, if you can see them in the picture, check out the metal straws.  These are one of my favorite little things I own.  Had lemonade with a metal straw when I was little, and I had been on a search to find them ever since.  Finally found them at the Williams Sonoma outlet in Memphis during dental school.  They are so great because they get all cold when you drink through them. 

So we made it to Brother Juniper's and it was so so good.  Brian had the breakfast bean burrito:

I had the Gyro omelet.  Can't really tell from the picture, but inside was gyro meat, feta, and mozarella cheese.  Yummmmm!  And the home fries were AMAZING.

Jenn had the San Diegan, which was really good.  It was featured in Rachel Ray's Best Eats in Town in the Memphis section and definitely lived up to the expectations.  Everything was amazingly delicious.  Best breakfast I've had in a while, and probably dangerous that its right down the street. 

I finished up my Sunday Funday at the Orpheum watching Cats with Emily Fourmy, one of my new pedo fellow residents.  It was great!  I hadn't ever seen the show, but the dancing, singing, and costumes were so neat.  Didn't feel like we were in Memphis.  The Orpheum is so pretty.  I had been there in dental school for the Death Cab for Cutie concert, but hadn't been to a show there.  It was really neat.  Thanks to Emily for hooking us up with the $20 last minute student ticket deal!  All in all a great weekend!

The Help

I am really not doing a good job with my blogging, but I'm working on it.  On to another random blog subject- books!  I love, love, love to read.  I only read for fun and enjoy books from pretty much any category.  I just read this book and it really is so good I had to put it on here.  It is an easy read and just really fantastic.  Its set in Jackson, MS in 1962 and written with the black women who worked as maids and nannies in the homes of well-off white families in the south.  Its just a really good read and one that you feel yourself identifying with parts of every character somehow.  It is one of those books when you finish it you know its going to be around for a long time.  Its just good.  Clearly I'm not so great at book reviews, but just read it and tell me what you think!  Its the best book I've read in a while.

Music Monday (on Tuesday because my internet wasn't working last night, thanks AT&T)

I like music.  But I get do get stuck on the same ten or so classic songs and every playlist I make always includes the song Sittin on the Dock of the Bay.  I love that song and it is good for any situation.  At least in my opinion, but probably not anyone else's.  It just feels nostalgic, and I love that scene in Top Gun where they're sitting on the porch listening to it.


Anyways I also try to find some new music every once in a while.  So, I have to give credit to Brian for this one.  He found it on some website top videos thing, but its pretty cool.  Its a cover of the Insane Clown Posse song, Miracles.  Sounds nothing like Insane Clown Posse and it just makes you feel good to listen to it.  This is the video:



And this is a website that you can download the mp3 for free:
 
Look at the Fields- Miracles

Look at the Fields is the name of the band that did the cover.  Another bonus song because we went to their show week before last is Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes- Desert Song.  If you haven't heard Home, it is great too but its been on the radio a lot so hopefully you've heard it.  Jenn and I went to see them at Minglewood Hall in Memphis.  Another great spot in Memphis that wasn't there when I was in dental school!

So there you have it.  More to come...

Memphis Eats: Trolley Stop...Yummy!

This is another repost of an old post, but the Trolley Stop has become a usually weekly favorite, so it is worth sharing.  If it had been here when I was in dental school we would have been there all the time.  So nice to have a spot with locally grown, fresh food.  They are usually fast enough to make it in and out with a full belly in less than an hour. They are good about splitting checks so great for the business lunch crowd.  One of my favorites for lunch.  On to the old post....

So on Friday we had a two hour lunch break and finally got a chance to eat out with the other first year residents.  Sarah suggested The Trolley Stop and it was so good!  And so close to the dental school.  If it had been there in dental school I would have been there every day.  It was opened by Jill and Keith Forrester of Whitton Farms.  It is so cute.  It has a farmer's market in the bag with fresh locally grown fruits and veggies as well as meats.  It is awesome.  Their menu is filled with a variety of choices and everything we had was great.  I had the grilled ham and cheese sandwich with grilled zucchini:

This is the pimento cheese with bacon which was also delicious:

This is the farmers market in the back.  Sorry not a very good picture:

The restaurant is filled with picnic tables with plastic tablecloths and was packed when we were there for lunch.  Here we are at our table!

Walking in Memphis...

So for anyone who knew me in dental school, I was not the biggest fan of Memphis.  When we found out we would be coming back to Memphis for my pediatric dentistry residency, Brian and I were so so excited about me starting the program but a little worried about Memphis.  We haven't had a ton of nice things to say about the people you deal with day to day in Memphis and when we moved back here a couple of weeks ago we were expecting the worst.  It is like the Memphis Tourism Bureau had tapped into our house and every situation we've been in since we've moved back has been rigged to prove us wrong.  Everyone has been overly nice at grocery stores, gas stations, on the phone setting up utilities, restaurants...to the point that its getting scary.  Soooo maybe I need to retract everything I said about Memphis.  We'll see. 

Anyway we came here a few months ago looking for a house and were having a hard time finding something to rent.  We looked all weekend and had no luck, so we started just driving around looking for homes for sale with the idea that we might just cold call someone and try to talk them into renting to us for two years instead of buy.  We happened to pass this cute yellow house with a For Sale sign in High Point on Oakley Avenue just as the owners were driving in the driveway.  We hit the brakes, rolled down the window, and said :you guys wouldn't be interested in renting for two years?"  They said, "Maybe, you want to take a look?".  We looked, fell in love with the house and the neighborhood, and the rest is history.  We love love love the house and I'll have pictures up soon.  We moved from a 12 foot wide shotgun double in New Orleans (that's a duplex anywhere else in the country) to a 3 bedroom house with a den and living room and dining room, sooooo we have some furniture buying left to do. 

Since I wrote about New Orleans food, I'll have to mention the top few places that I HAD to visit after returning to Memphis.  Number one on our list is Central BBQ Memphis.  Brian and I both agree that this is hands down the best BBQ in Memphis.  I love the half bbq nachos:

The other spot I had to go to was the Little Tea Shop.  It is another one of my Memphis favorites.  Don't let the name fool you- it is not tea and crumpets- it is amazing home cooked meat and vegetable with a different daily special each week day.  It is a spot where Memphis lawyers and businessman are known on a first name basis and where the regulars have their usual table.  The owner knows everyone, and if you go there enough she will put your picture on the wall (when I left Memphis we finally made the wall!).  Corn sticks are served with every meal and they are delicious!

Another spot that I can't believe I haven't been to since we have been back is Kooky Canuck (formerly Big Foot).  I will go there soon and will have to take pictures of their GIANT burgers and most amazing chocolate chip cookie ice cream dessert.  The owner, Shawn Danko, was so great to all of us in dental school, and it was the spot we would always head any time we finished a big test or a year of school or really any other excuse.  Ok that's enough rambling for tonight....

Goodbye New Orleans!

So Brian just finished up his two year residency in orthodontics at LSU in New Orleans in June, and we packed up our things and left the great friends we made in New Orleans to head back to Memphis where I will be starting a pediatric dentistry residency at UT.  I am going to make my first blog about New Orleans while I can still claim to have just lived there.  This picture is us on Bourbon Street right after the Saints won the Super Bowl.  New Orleans is such a fantastic city and I like to think we lived there for the perfect two years.  Many people from home ask "How's New Orleans?" like its an injured war vet not back to one hundred percent yet.  It is worth visiting just to see how special the city is and also realize that the French Quarter, the delicious restaurants, and great entertainment are all still there and still so much fun. 

Anyway whenever people are going to New Orleans, they ask for restaurant suggestions, and it is so hard to narrow it down to anything you could possibly cover in a weekend.  There's the best place to get a roast beef po boy or shrimp po boy or oyster po boy, the best place to get bbq shrimp (which isn't bbq at all), the best fancy New Orleans restaurants, and the list goes on.  But if you do ask anyone from New Orleans where to get the best Po Boy, they will follow it by "What kind?" because they really are all that good and you do have to specify.  My overall favorite po boy would have to be the Fried Green Tomato and Shrimp Remoulade Po Boy at Crabby Jack's.  If you're in the French Quarter and want to go to cool, nicer (off of Bourbon Street) bars, the Swizzle Stick Bar in the Loews Hotel is really cool (the Adelaide Swizzle is my favorite drink), the bar at the Roosevelt Hotel is neat, and the Carousel Bar at Hotel Monteleone are all great spots.  The Delachaise is a hole in the wall looking bar on St. Charles that has amazing bar food (although its really too delicious to call it bar food) and great selection of different liquors and wine. 

We have too many favorite restaurants to even mention, but one of our latest favorites is La Boucherie.  It is tiny and you need reservations but its so so good.  Try the Krispy Kreme Donut Bread Pudding (AMAZING).  We also like Clancy's because it was down the street and has a cool local but fancy atmosphere.  We also like: Dante's Kitchen, Jacques-Imos, Bennachin (its a tiny African restaurant in the French Quarter), Cochon, Luke, just to name a few.  All of the other restaurants you have heard of or people tell you are delicious too.   A great website to look at if you're heading to New Orleans or want to get some great recipes is http://www.nomenu.com/.  It is tom Fitzsimmons' website and its great.  He has a ton of restaurant reviews and rankings and he's usually pretty accurate.  Alright I could go on about New Orleans forever and I'm missing it already!