Food From Fiction 7: Sunshine’s Cinnamon Rolls

“Tell me, what were your first cinnamon rolls like? And didn’t the recipe look simple and pure and beautiful on the page? And the instructions your teacher gave you, before he left you to get on with it, were perfectly clear and covered everything?” – from Sunshine by Robin McKinley (Berkeley, 2003)

One of my very favorite books is called “Sunshine” by Robin McKinley. It’s about a coffeehouse baker who finds that she has more power than she thinks, and would rather not have found out as the discovery is made under the most stressful of circumstances. She’d rather be making muffins and pies and bread and her signature cinnamon rolls, but instead finds herself in the uncomfortable position of being able to do unlikely things that make a huge difference in the world. However, baking is her passion, so food and cooking are used as metaphors throughout. Continue reading “Food From Fiction 7: Sunshine’s Cinnamon Rolls” →

Food From Fiction 6: Jane Austen’s Haricot Lamb

This is Marie, contributing an article about one of Jane Austen’s favorite dishes – or rather, the modern adulteration of it that I enjoyed but she’d likely not find exactly to her taste. Continue reading “Food From Fiction 6: Jane Austen’s Haricot Lamb” →

Food From Fiction 5: Sirine’s Saffron Chicken

“The recipes…are little more than lists, no cooking instructions or temperatures, but scattered among the pages are brief reflections on the nature of animals, flowers, people, and God. Sirine browses through the book, lingering equally over the reflections and the lists of ingredients, which seem to have the rhythms and balance of poetry. There is one for a roast chicken that she decides she may try preparing for a daily special: chicken, saffron, garlic, lemons, oil, vinegar, rosemary.” – from Crescent by Diana Abu-Jaber (W.W. Norton & Company, 2003)

This is Marie, contributing a story about a roast chicken inspired by the book Crescent. I must confess, I actually ran across a description of the chicken before I’d read the book, but I had saffron and it sounded so good I had to give it a try. Then I checked out the book to see where the recipe came from, once we found it was good. Continue reading “Food From Fiction 5: Sirine’s Saffron Chicken” →

Thibodeaux’s Low Country Boil and Wings, Columbus GA

Last month, we took a road trip to middle Georgia with our friends from Spatialdrift, and as we were batting around ideas, Emily suggested that we visit Andersonville National Historic Site, which was the location of the Camp Sumter military prison during the Civil War, and the present-day home of the National POW Museum. Since a friend of my family had spent the entirety of the Korean War in a military prison after his plane was shot down, I was especially interested to visit. For even amateur historians like myself, the experience is a fascinating and somber one, and I certainly recommend that our readers consider making a trip here. Continue reading “Thibodeaux’s Low Country Boil and Wings, Columbus GA” →

Macon Road Bar-B-Que, Columbus GA

I wouldn’t be a good tour guide to Columbus if I didn’t make certain that anybody traveling with me had the chance to try a scrambled dog. (Note: I’m probably not a good tour guide to Columbus, period, but that’s neither here nor there.) So while we were at Chicken Comer, I noticed that they offered scrambled dogs on the menu. I asked Adam and Emily whether they’d ever had one, or even knew what they were. Since they didn’t, we took a quick detour to Dinglewood Pharmacy so that they could enjoy one. Of course, doing that meant that I had to indulge a little bit as well, and also have a hand-mixed cherry lemon Sprite, so by the time we made it to Macon Road Bar-B-Que, bellies were a little bit full. Marie passed on trying anything here. Continue reading “Macon Road Bar-B-Que, Columbus GA” →

Chicken Comer, Columbus GA

We were very much overdue for a trip to Columbus, and when our friends from Spatialdrift suggested that we take a road trip somewhere or other, Columbus, the state’s second-largest city, was the idea we eventually settled on. So one day last month, with the temperature in the low nineties and humidity at what felt like 200%, we motored on down and arrived at one of the barbecue joints that I’ve been wanting to visit for years. Chicken Comer – I will spell it as the sign does, although “Comers” and “Comer’s” are also seen – has had a number of ownership changes, but traces its lineage back in a zig-zagged line to the late 1920s. Continue reading “Chicken Comer, Columbus GA” →

Bludso’s BBQ, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)

Is it possible that Atlanta’s actually transitioning from a pork town to a brisket town?

Yeah, I know, and the next barbecue joint to open will be serving unicorn meat on solid gold plates. But we are certainly seeing at least a little evidence of this. Honestly, and I say this as somebody who’s been championing the quality of Georgia barbecue as loudly as I can for years, I’ve had a surprising amount of downright average pulled pork in the Atlanta area in the last twelve months. Some of these meals were at newer restaurants which got a little bit of a grade on a curve for being new. Blue Sky in Woodstock and Anna’s in Kirkwood come to mind. I’ve also stopped by old standards like Pappy Red’s and Bub-Ba-Q to see that the quality had dipped a lot, and some joints, like Pigs-N-Heat in Kennesaw, were so disappointing that they weren’t worth the time to write about them. Continue reading “Bludso’s BBQ, Atlanta GA (CLOSED)” →