Month: April 2007

Since we were staying overnight in Tunica, we decided to have supper at John Besh’s restaurant there, N’awlins. John won the 2006 James Beard Award in the Southeastern chefs category. His other restaurant, Restaurant August, in New Orleans, is considered one of the city’s very best so we were looking forward to trying this one.

There are *serious* differences between dining here and in New Orleans, though. For one thing, getting a reservation was no problem at all. The decor wasn’t as nice as I had figured it would be, and the patrons were dressed waaaay down – even shorts and blue jeans. We could occasionally hear the slot machines going off outside the door (which was kept open), and our server was really-really bad.

We started with the barbecue shrimp, which had almost an Indian-type flavor. They were really good:

Av had the trio of soups – gumbo, crab bisque, and turtle. The bisque was best but they were all good. Sherry was offered with the turtle soup, and rather than the server offering it to Av to add as needed after he tasted it, the server just dumped the whole portion of sherry in…:

Av had the tournedo of beef which was nice:

…and I had the sugar cane-lacquered chicken. The chicken itself was really delicious but I think because there was a sweet sauce all over the plate, it made everything almost sickly-sweet. Not to be all Iron Chef judge-y, but there wasn’t anything else savory on the plate so it was all almost like candy.

I think we must have gone on an off-night because nothing was really “wow” – but really the thing that turned us off the most was the waiter, who besides being very ‘short’ with us, got into an argument with the host…and the argument went on most of the time we were there.

There are plenty of wonderful places in Memphis to try, though, and since it’s only about 30 minutes away that’s probably what we’ll do the next time we want to have something nicer – like Folk’s Folly or Erling Jensen or…

We’ve stayed at this Sheraton hotel once or twice before – it’s actually part of a casino, but the rooms are nice and the very best part is that if you stay here during the week, the room cost is half or less than half than on weekends.

I’ve never heard of a Sheraton being part of a casino like it is here (it’s owned by Harrah’s), but we like it because we’re still in the Delta and only about 30 minutes from downtown Memphis.

Some time soon, I’d love to stay at the Shack Up Inn, close to Clarksdale. It’s at the Hopson Plantation, and they have sharecropper shacks all fixed up for people to stay in! How much fun would that be, to stay in a little (air conditioned & indoor plumbing installed!) shack? Well…it would at least be different. I’ve got a couple of pictures from there here. There’s also a B&B called Uncle Henry’s Place that *used* to be a casino, until the ’30s when it was found out that the money was going to the mob in Chicago (there’s a nice article in the NY Times that mentions it here). I don’t remember where I read about it first, but it sounded *so* interesting…

We had lunch at Walnut Hills (1214 Adams St, 601/638-4910) in Vicksburg – it’s one of our favorite places, especially because it’s a revolving table restaurant and we always get to talk and make friends with whoever else is at our table.

This time we got there early and they didn’t have the hot food ready to bring out quite yet, so I started with a couple of bites of pineapple and cheese salad, some tomato aspic, and coleslaw…

Then everything else came out – there was fried chicken, plantation chicken, corn pudding, squash, blackeyed peas, sweet potato, green beans, butter beans, creamed potatoes, cornbread and biscuits, and about ten other things (literally) that I can’t even remember!

One other revolving table restaurant in MS is The Dinner Bell in McComb, which is really good. I don’t know of any revolving table restaurants anywhere in Alabama, but food is served family-style at Mrs. Wilkes’ in Savannah and Miss Mary Bobo’s in Lynchburg – neither of which we have been to yet but I would *love* to try!

I had wanted to stay at Dunleith for this trip to Natchez, but all the rooms I was interested in, in the main house, were all booked. That was okay, though, because we decided that since we had plans to go up into the Delta the next day that we would just drive up to Vicksburg after the Historic Natchez Pageant that evening and save ourselves about an hour of driving time.

Dunleith has a really nice restaurant, and Av made us reservations there for supper before the show.

This is The Castle – it’s the restaurant we had supper at, and it’s right behind the main house. Inside the menu, they had a note that this is one of the Gothic structures built in the 1790s as part of the original plantation. The first floor of this building housed the horse stables and the second level (the level we had supper in) stored carriages for the property. They still have three of the original carriages at Dunleith.

Next post: Natchez Historic Pageant!

Av made supper reservations for us at Walker’s Drive-In at 3016 N. State Street in the Fondren District of Jackson. It was *excellent*!

Walker’s is actually in two buildings – one is the original drive-in (they kept the wonderful neon sign and the black & white & chrome interior) and the other building, right next door, has a more upscale, very dark interior.

The kitchen is actually in the drive-in building, so the servers walk across the driveway to bring the food to the other building. The one and only bad thing about the building we had supper in is that it can get incredibly loud. That’s something that never really gets to me, but the night we were there, Av and I were practically yelling at each other across the table (as was everyone else…not very romantic!). For our entrees, Av had the Redfish Anna – it was *perfect*:

…and I had a filet with asparagus and mashed potatoes. Both of them were great, but Av’s was better!

The first two days of Passover are over, so I thought I would post a couple of pics of our family seder – below is the table at Av’s parents’ house getting set – we had 20 people for first night and 20 people for second night.

Usually Av and I have everyone over to our home for 2nd night seder, but since I’m pregnant, his parents decided to save me the stress and they had both seders at their home this year…so nice! Even though we will have an eight-month-old by the time next Passover comes around, I’m hoping that we’ll do second night at our house next year (G-d willing). Av likes to come up with games and jokes and all kinds of things to make second night more…interactive and playful…since first night is always done in a traditional style.

Passover is about telling, remembering, and learning lessons about our oppression and then freedom from slavery in Egypt. This year, Av and I made an intention to *act* on the lesson. We decided to go through an organization called Heifer International, whose approach is to “bring an end to world hunger through unimaginable blessings” – that is, people like me and you purchase animals – anything from a pig to a flock of chicks to a water buffalo – that Heifer provides to a family somewhere in the world that helps them survive and thrive.

This year, we chose to purchase a goat. I didn’t know this, but the information that Heifer gives says that goat milk provides more protein for children around the world than any other source. The family that receives our goat will be able to drink the milk produced, plus they will be able to make products like butter, yogurt, or cheese which they can sell.

Part of Heifer’s agreement with the people that they help includes the provision that “recipients pass one one or more of their animal’s offspring, training and skills to another family in need. The new recipients agree to pass on the gift as well, creating a chain of giving that can touch thousands of lives.” It’s kind-of like the story of Passover…in that the lessons continue for generations.