Month: August 2012

This weekend, we were in Memphis and visited the National Ornamental Metal Museum. It was fantastic — more to show soon — but this is the exhibit (now through August 26) of Tributaries: Marlene True‘s gorgeous jewelry:

Below, the ‘Vulcan Roll’ in B’ham:

Gambit writes about a new sushi restaurant in Uptown (on Oak St), Chiba — and they refer to how they are in some instances using fruit rather than a sweet fish, a la the strawberry-satsuma roll.  I enjoy the idea that they are using local ingredients like satsuma.  Looking at their menu, they have a Crescent City Roll with oyster, and a Gulf Coast Roll with snapper.  Very nice.

In Jackson, Little Tokyo serves a Mississippi Roll with catfish.  I think Nagoya has a catfish roll, too, and Two Stik in Oxford — probably several more places, but I think Little Tokyo was first.

In Austin, Roll On does a chicken fried steak roll, called the Cholesta-Roll.  And you know someone somewhere in Memphis has to be doing an Elvis roll, right?

A book called ‘Sushi American Style‘ featured a ‘Dixie Chicken Roll’ with fried chicken and coleslaw.

Every Sunday night — *every* Sunday night — at our home, Av and I get sushi from a really terrific restaurant about five minutes from us; we started this tradition when HBO was doing Sopranos and Six Feet Under on Sunday evenings, and it’s just one of our ‘things’.  While I like bagel roll and super crunch and kaboom maki, I think all these variations above are fun.  They may not be traditional, but as long as there are places doing ultra-traditional sushi, there has to be room for people to be inspired and fun.

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The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a website and an app that shows which sushi is sustainable and which to avoid (fresh water eel, and for certain avoid bluefin tuna).  If you’d like some of the back-story on the political aspect of bluefin tuna extinction, read this, but prepared to be irritated.  More here, too, from ABC News.

As always, unless otherwise noted, all images here copyright Deep Fried Kudzu. Ask me before using in any fashion. Thank you.

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I first knew Gloria Vanderbilt because I thought in middle school that she made the coolest brand of jeans (this was very slightly before I graduated to brands like — and ownership of these mostly thanks to serious sales and the outlet mecca that once-upon-a-time was Boaz, AL — Benetton, Swatch, Esprit, and the near-twins J.Crew and Tweeds (Tweeds, I *still* miss you and your beautiful catalog and your beautiful clothes and your penchant for lovingly naming colors like parsley, buff, candlelight, and mortar.  Maybe you moved on (well, let’s call it that) but I never did. Come back, okay?).  Anyway, Gloria’s made herself into many things, including artist.  Earlier this year, she made a speech at the Huntsville Museum of Art and got such a welcome that back in NYC, she’s going to do fundraisers for the museum in conjunction with a show there on her art — she’ll put on an Gala Opening Party, and a supper.  Very, very nice.

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Christo is coming to USM (Hattiesburg) on September 5 to present a lecture.

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CBS News on drive-in theaters gaining popularity and more of them opening around the country.

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Forbes published the list of highest-grossing restaurants in the country, and at the top is…in Wheeling, Illinois:
What started out as a 250-seat restaurant has grown to 700 seats serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. Bob Chinn’s is the Disneyland of seafood restaurants. Diners are shuffled through several wait stations but rarely loose their cool. Maybe it’s because they’re lubricated by Chinn’s famous Mai Tai cocktail that one reviewer said was “so strong it could strip paint off siding.” Or maybe it’s because the 300-strong staff keeps things moving. On an average day Chinn’s serves 2,500 meals. On a holiday it can serve as many as 4,500.

One of the top-ten is Elizabeth on 37th (with $17.4MM), in Savannah.

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Pic from our visit to Napoleon House…those walls are crazy-beautiful:

Chris Hannah from Arnaud’s French 75 developed this recipe for the ‘Mourning Pie Cocktail‘ in honor/remembrance of Hubig’s, which is going to come back from the fire better and stronger than ever — and kisses to Rouse’s, which offered to hire any Hubig’s employee in the meantime.

In North Birmingham:

A couple of weeks ago when we had lunch at Cafe Vermilionville in Lafayette, we had a pretty terrific lunch.  The gumbo, especially…:

The setting was terrific, too as it’s not just a restaurant — this is how it’s described on their website:
The Vermilionville Living History Museum and Folklife Park is a cultural development within the Bayou Vermilion District, serving to preserve the cultural resources of Lafayette Parish and the surrounding region. The museum contains many unique restored historical items within its collection. There are artisans working daily in the park providing an example of how various tasks and crafts were completed back to the early days of the Acadians and Creoles as they worked to create a successful life in the Attakapas Region of the new Louisiana territory.


The park is a picturesque representation of a village from a time period of 1765 to 1890. Within the park visitors are allowed an up close look at many examples of early building architecture as well as how inhabitants worked in their day to day life.’


And sure enough, when we finished lunch, there was a session starting in this large barn-like building which featured musicians from all over the area.  A really nice surprise was that the Queen of Cajun Music —  the Queen of Cajun Accordian, Sheryl Cormier — was there (in the pic, right across, with the crawfish accordian).  It was fantastic!