Boo

What's your favorite candy?
What are you giving out tonight to trick-or-treaters?
Are you dressing up? (For Halloween, I mean.)
Does anyone have a recipe for using up leftover candy corn?

Speaking of candy corn, I swiped this image from HowStuffWorks.com, where you can learn a whole lot about candy corn.

Table Manners

Kay West will sign copies of her new book, Around the Opry Table: A Feast of Recipes and Stories from the Grand Ole Opry, tonight at 6 p.m. at Davis-Kidd Booksellers. Kay promises to have snacks on hand from the book's many star-studded recipes. If you're lucky, maybe you'll get some of Alan Jackson's pimiento cheese.

For a fun diversion, turn to page 101 of Around the Opry Table and try to figure out what Scripture Cake is. Here are the ingredients for Johnny Cash's mother's version of the cryptic recipe:

Judges 5:25 last clause, ݠcup
I Samuel 14:25, 2 teaspoons
Jeremiah 17:11, 6 separated
I Kings 4:22, 1 ݠcups
Amos 4:5, 2 teaspoons
II Chronicles 9:9 to taste
Leviticus 2:13, pinch
Nahum 3:12, 2 cups
I Samuel 30:12, 2 cups
Numbers 17:8, 2 cups

Hint: This site might help. (It's not every day you get a guide to scripture on Bites.)

Whole Goods

Two more days until Whole Foods Market in Green Hills opens to the hungry hordes, and after last week's sneak preview, I'm beginning to see what all the fuss is about. Maybe it was the pendant lighting, or the metal sculpture of a trout leaping over the seafood department, or the samples of melt-in-your-mouth espresso-bean-and-chocolate-chip cookies, or the mosaic of hand-painted tiles made by kids from the local YMCA, or the Viking appliances in the demonstration kitchen. Or maybe it was the siren song of locally grown and organic foods, which Whole Foods works to showcase. But as I roamed among the hundreds of olive oils and gazed at the tasteful earth-tone-tiled walls, I could suddenly see why my friends in Atlanta refer to their Whole Foods as "Whole Paycheck."

A few highlights of the Green Hills store, which opens Thursday in the new Hill Center (after the jump):

Suggestion Box

In this week's dining review of The Pfunky Griddle, I applaud Penelope Pfunter's pfun and pfriendly concept of all-you-can-eat/cook-your-own-pancakes, especially her efforts to provide wholesome, unrefined flours for her pancake batters.

But since my job is to evaluate a restaurant's food and not its cash flows, I also make a few expensive suggestions that would raise the quality of other items to the level of the pancakes—and the custom-built griddle tables. Specifically, I recommend that Pfuntner shore up the coffee, bread and bacon, and that someday she aim to offer real maple syrup, even if she has to charge a premium for it.

Mmmm...coffee, bread, bacon and maple syrup. For me, I'm all about Smithfield brown-sugar-cured bacon, challah French toast, thick coffee made with a French press, and whatever grade-A maple happens to be sticking around. But I bet that you Biters have some better ideas. I can think of at least a few of you who are probably braiding your own bread and mail-ordering from a mounted maple patrol. Care to share your favorite breakfast staples?

A Satisfied Mind

Like everyone else this morning, we were thinking about the late Opry legend Porter Wagoner, who died last night at age 80 after one of the defining careers in country music. By chance, we found this recipe Wagoner submitted in Kay West's new book, Around the Opry Table: A Feast of Recipes and Stories from the Grand Ole Opry. It made us smile, and it made us picture the man in all his star-spangled, good-humored glory. Here, without ado, is Porter's Chocolate Fudge.

2 c. sugar
2 tbsp. cocoa
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. Log Cabin syrup
Milk
2 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tbsp. peanut butter
1/2 c. English walnuts, chopped

Mix sugar, cocoa, salt and syrup together in a saucepan, then add enough milk to make it soupy, but very thick. Bring to a boil, and boil until sugar is dissolved (4 to 5 minutes). Test by dropping small spoonfuls into water until it forms a ball. Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla. Stir until it begins to cool. Add peanut butter and walnuts. Pour into large platter, and hold a gun on yourself so you'll wait until it cools!

Bread of the Dead

With the Central American holiday Dia de los Muertos coming up Nov. 1 and 2, Aurora Bakery is preparing the traditional pan de muerto, or Bread of the Dead. Resembling something like a giant, inflated sand dollar, the round loaf represents a skull and bones, explains Aurora owner Patricia Paiva. She bakes a version of the sweet, eggy bread flavored with fresh orange zest.

For the next week, the counter at Paiva's cheery Nolensville Road shop will be piled with colorful loaves topped with bright pastel-tinged crystal sugar—pink for joy, white for purity, purple for sadness.

It's hard to be sad inside Paiva's shop, where the display cases brim with traditional Mexican pastries named for their shapes. Sweet breads and cookies with names that translate to "ribs," "kisses," "tongues," and "bakers" line the shelves. Paiva also serves a menu of sandwiches, including a chicken salad with apples on homemade French loaf. It's just plain old beige bread, but it will make you so happy, it may as well be colored pink.

Aurora Bakery and Cafe Papillon, located at 3725 Nolensville Rd., offers three sizes of pan de muerto for $3.65, $7.50 and $12.50. Aurora's pan de muerto will be available at Cheekwood's Dia de los Muertos celebration on Saturday.

Spudz Owner Eric Brown Murdered

Eric Brown, owner of Spudz potato restaurant, was found fatally shot in the alley behind his Charlotte Pike store today, according to a report on WKRN. Brown later died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Brown, 36, studied hotel and restaurant management at TSU before launching into a series of restaurant jobs. Eager to start a business with a product that was affordable and unorthodox, he borrowed money from his aunt and launched Spudz, the one-stop potato shop, in June 2006.

When I interviewed Brown this summer for a review of Spudz, it was about 100 degrees inside his un-air-conditioned store. Brown popped his head out the window and rattled off some dozen stuffed potato combinations—everything from barbecue to Philly cheese steak. He couldn't pick a favorite, he said. If it was there, he assured me, it was good.

Brown was extremely proud of the success he was having—he had quickly repaid his aunt—and he enjoyed talking about taste-testing recipes with his kids. He was kind enough to share his recipe for a perfect baked potato: wash the potato twice, then wrap it in aluminum foil and cook for an hour-and-a-half at 450 degrees.

Bottle of Red, Bottle of Green

Hoyt Hill, the wine wonk over at Village Wines, already bills his business as "the world's second ugliest wine shop." Now he wants it be the most eco-friendly wine merchant in town. Not that the distinction is hotly contested, but Hill's off to a good start with his bottle recycling program. For every empty wine bottle that you bring in, Hill will give you $1 off on a bottle that costs $10 or more.

Since its beginning this summer, the program has taken off, Hill says. Customers are bringing back cases of empty bottles, which he totes to the recycling center behind Hillsboro High School. Some folks even bring in old apple juice bottles and—gasp!—bottles from other wine merchants. Hill says he doesn't mind. It all helps offset the estimated 150,000 bottles that make their way from Village Wines to the landfill each year. He just asks that you rinse the bottles first.

Village Wines, located at 2006-B Belcourt Ave., carries several dozen organic and biodynamic wines.

Grand Tour

You'd think Nashville was getting its first indoor plumbing, with all the excitement surrounding the opening of the Whole Foods in Green Hills. But you don't have to wait until Nov. 1 to get a peek. Whole Foods, located at the corner of Hillsboro Pike and Hill Center Drive, is offering tours to the public on Sunday, Oct. 28 and Monday, Oct. 29. The 45-minute introduction will include samples and gift bags. A suggested donation of $10 will go toward the Green Hills Family YMCA and Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee, along with a $5,000 matching gift from Whole Foods. Space is limited and you must register here.

The Corn Is Keen

It doesn't take much to make me pull off the road in a downpour and stand in a gravel parking lot off Nolensville Road. Just a homemade sandwich board with a painting of an ear of corn and the word "Elotes."

Elotes is a popular Mexican snack, a roasted, boiled or grilled ear of corn on a stick. Elotes stands dot street corners in Chicago and Milwaukee these days. It can be doused with salt and lime juice—the lime actually enhances the corn's nutritional value, breaking down the indigestible hull of the kernel—or sprinkled with cotija cheese (powdery like Parmesan, only soft, fresher and more flavorful) and a chile de arbol sauce.

The latter is what I got at Taqueria Dona Tere, the awesome lunch trailer next to El Fandango on Nolensville just off I-440 near the fairgrounds. (Nashville GPS code: it's across from the Circle K.) For $2, the man at the counter (who even offered to help put air in my front tire) handed over a plump ear so dusted with cheese it looked almost breaded, circled with fiery streaks of sauce. The corn itself was the best I've had this awful year, sweet, full and juicy. But the combination of the light, salty cheese and the biting sauce offset the sweetness of the corn without drowning its flavor.

I almost ordered another on the spot. Instead, I saw a brimming metal pot on a back burner. A few minutes later, I held a steaming Styrofoam cup of champurrado, a boiling-hot Mexican atole drink that's essentially a cross between hot chocolate and porridge. It's made with masa flour, vanilla bean, barely sweetened chocolate, cinnamon and the cane-sugar cones known as piloncillo, but it's not very sweet: it's something like the child of coffee and soup.

Champurrado also retains heat longer than any insulation I've ever seen, something to keep in mind when seeking a future cold remedy. For $1.50, I got a cup larger than a Starbucks venti—a small!—and when I finished the bottom was filled with long fragrant strips of cinnamon bark. I'm not sure I'd get it again, but it felt great on a drizzly fall day.

On a whim, I asked the folks in the trailer if they ever had huitlacoche, the corn fungus prized for its truffle-like flavor and served in quesadillas and other dishes. They indicated it was probably impossible to get around here. Next time I go, though, I'll see if they have elote en vaso (corn in a glass), a layered cup of corn, queso fresco, crema and chili powder often sold at stands, or the sweet mayonnaise that accompanies elotes at some carts.

Image above cribbed from eGullet.

I'll Halva What She's Having

Maybe it's the za'atar, maybe it's the green thina, but something gives Adi and Taylor Biscoe, proprietors of Cafe Sababa, an unusual amount of positive energy. In the tiny cafe inside the Gordon Jewish Community Center, the newlywed Biscoes—along with business partner Dave Brown—deliver an intriguing roster of kosher and vegetarian snacks, largely inspired by the cuisine of Adi's native Israel.

After a series of concessions passed through the GJCC, the Biscoes and Brown opened Cafe Sababa about a month ago, and so far have been met with tremendous enthusiasm from the crowds passing through the center. At one recent lunch hour, a class of flamenco dancers lined up for a light lunch from Sababa's menu of salads, wraps and sandwiches with exotic ingredients such as za'atar (a blend of Middle Eastern spices), green thina (tahini and fresh herbs) and Adi's homemade hummus. All the foods are prepared in the center's kosher kitchen, making Sababa one of Nashville's only such kosher and vegetarian places, in addition to Grins on the Vanderbilt campus.

Taylor, a former employee of City Limits, Bread & Co. and Provence bakeries, makes the challah, olive bread and other fresh confections, but he leaves the Israeli specialities to his bubbly wife, who overflows with enthusiasm and a commitment to healthy eating.

Other snacks include ice cream cones filled with chocolate, Rice Krispies and halva (tahini and honey mix), low-fat muffins, bagels, brioche and cakes. Smoothies and soups are on the way. Don't miss out on the Bamba snacks. Adi's mother ships the packets of peanut puffs (something like peanut-butter Cheetos) from Israel, along with the Elite brand chocolate used in all the pastries and the Elite Turkish-style coffee, with and without cardamon.

Cafe Sababa is open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Bridge Group

We stopped by Bridges Cafe this afternoon to check out the newest incarnation of the space that formerly housed Molly P. More about Bridges after the jump....

Wild, Wild World of Restaurants

In the same week that we printed this love letter of a dining review, chef John David Crow left Wildwood Oak-Fired Kitchen to start up his own restaurant.

Crow, who recently moved from Seattle to launch Wildwood with veteran restaurateur Dave Wachtel III and Justin Tatum, earned early rave reviews for his menu of creative and locally focused items, such as miso-honey tuna, beef carpaccio and duck spring rolls. A month after Wildwood's Sept. 18 launch, chef Crow parted ways with Tatum and Wachtel, who are developing a chain of neighborhood restaurants with the Bellevue location of Wildwood as the prototype.

Chef Darrell Manhold—formerly of MacK & Kate's in Kingston Springs and, most recently, the Pineapple Room at Cheekwood—has joined the kitchen team as interim chef. Wachtel says he will wait a week or so to make a final decision about replacing Crow, but the recipes and menu items will stay the same for now.

The early success of Wildwood has inspired Crow and his wife Sarah, a sommelier, to stick around Nashville and try something on their own. They're already shopping for locations to open a gourmet pizzeria specializing in Neapolitan-crust pies, fresh pastas and salads. If Crow's grilled Caesar is any indication of what he can do with a salad, we'll be eagerly awaiting his next venture.

Wildwood Oak-Fired Kitchen is located at 8128 Highway 100 (phone: 730-7873).

When We Come to It

Bridges Cafe will open Monday, Oct. 22, in the former location of Molly P at 85 White Bridge Rd. (phone: 353-5707). Ever since Martha Stamps turned off the lights on her lunch spot earlier this year, pharmacist Tom Zazzi has been looking for a restaurant tenant to fill the space that adjoins his Belle Meade Drugs. Finally, Zazzi and his wife Brenda have decided to take matters into their own entrepreneurial hands, and they've hired Sherry Drake and Deborah Alford to man the kitchen and dining room, respectively.

Bridges Cafe will offer table service and will serve breakfast from 7 to 10:30 a.m., with a menu of quiche, eggs Benedict, Belgian waffles and biscuits. Lunch will be available until 2 p.m., with a selection of salads and sandwiches, including a Reuben, a French Dip, chicken salad and, of course, pimiento cheese. ("You gotta do that," Zazzi says.) From 2 to 5 p.m., Bridges will offer a takeout menu of soups, salads and casseroles. And Zazzi promises an array of homemade desserts including several sugar-free options. "Being a pharmacist, I know that diabetics can have a hard time finding homemade desserts that they can eat," he says.

Grin and Beer It

This Monday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m., The Flying Saucer is hosting a beer tasting featuring Adam Avery, president and brewmaster at Avery Brewing Co. in Boulder, Colo. The event will feature 15 of Avery's beers, distributed in 3-ounce servings.

Bottoms up!

Parlor Game #2: Latrobe's Other Drink

I just ate dinner at Bricktop's ($5 kids menu can't be beat), where my husband ordered an Arnold Palmer. I had never heard this name for a mixture of iced tea and lemonade, which is apparently a favorite of Bricktop's founder Joe Ledbetter. It reminds me of when we used to run to-go cups under all the fountain drinks at Mapco to make a Suicide. But it sounds a lot clubbier.

If you were to have a mixed drink named for you, what would it be?

Duck Duck Good

For over four years now—ever since I read Kay West's review—I've been meaning to try China Chef, mainly for the Peking duck. Last Sunday, I was struck by an irresistible craving for Chinese food, particularly the aforementioned waterfowl. (Maybe it was that, when I was a kid, my family always went out for Chinese food on Sunday nights. Apparently it's some weird cross-cultural quirk—search the terms "Jewish," "Chinese food" and "Sunday" and you'll get 95,000 hits on Google, many of them discussing how American Jewish families have had a Sunday-night Chinese food tradition for decades.)

Anyway, after a bit of trouble finding the place (look for the TGI Friday's in a strip mall on Bell Road by Hickory Hollow Mall and turn in there), my friend and I arrived. The duck was terrific—not greasy (as Peking duck can sometimes be), with perfectly crisped skin. If you've never had it before, it's a delightfully subtle treat, far more simple (and divine) than most Chinese dishes. (See Kay's review for more on the delicacy.) We also had fried dumplings, which were good by Nashville standards, and steamed grouper in a light ginger sauce, which was fairly good though a tad toward the bland side.

Next time, we'll definitely try the five-flavored eggplant, which Kay praised, and which a BITES commenter named Pogo cited as one of Nashville's best dishes in a blog post a couple of weeks ago.

Brewhaha

From 4 to 6 p.m. tomorrow at Bongo Java Roasting Co. in East Nashville, you too can learn the secrets of the trade. Bongo is hosting another of its Coffee 101 classes, promising "the lowdown on coffee from bean to cup." Included are discussions of Fair Trade coffee practices, an introduction to the roasting process, and the basics of the espresso bar.

The big attraction, according to BJRC production manager Tio Pistilli, is a demonstration of proper coffee cupping. This is how the big boys sample coffee to make sure it measures up, somewhat akin to using a mini French press: an 8-oz. glass, grounds and scalding water, followed by an elaborate slurping process that, as Pistilli says, "really exaggerates the flavors and the individual characteristics of each coffee." Either that, or it's just a clever way to make a roomful of dignified people regress to infancy.

The afternoon is free, but you must reserve a spot by emailing Pistilli at tio@bongojava.com. (While you're there, she highly recommends a new Colombian coffee "that's just spectacular.") In the meantime, to get your interest percolating, here's perhaps the greatest coffee-making scene in all of movies, from the Steve Martin noir rip Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid.

Hot Topic

Pop Quiz #1

Define the following terms:

Middlins
Farro
Pot Likker

Correct answers after the jump...

Lime in Time

The guys at Lime, the Latin fusion restaurant under construction at 1904 Broadway, just sent over a teaser menu. I don't know if that was such a good idea, in terms of managing expectations—my expectations are sky-high right now. And I'm salivating a little bit.

Chef Clay Greenberg, with the help of consultant Scott Alderson and owner Chris Hyndman, is fine-tuning a menu of Central and South American-inspired recipes, including Oyster Fire Ice ceviche with a tequila-tangerine mignonette and habanero-prickly pear Icee; Oaxacan tamales; fried plantains with habanero remoulade; chile relleno with roasted chicken, Manchego and watermelon slices; and banana churros.

The bars in the chic, multi-tiered restaurant will pour a lengthy list of rums, tequilas and cacha袳, with a menu of cocktails mixed with exotic fruits and nectars, house-made mixers and infused liquors.

Lime is slated to open this fall. Until then, we'll see you at Taco Bell.

Ombivorous

Anyone who's recently been reading the comments on Bites knows that, between steak au poivre and Femur Friday (a.k.a. the marrowbone special a couple of weeks ago), the site has read like an electronic love letter to Ombi chefs Laura Wilson and Kim Totzke.

Now's your chance to learn from the culinary masters of Elliston Place. Totzke and Wilson will host a cooking class to benefit Gilda's Club at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24.

The class, held at Gilda's (1707 Division), will feature appetizers, braised pork shank, gnocchi, a plum-and-goat-cheese tart and wine pairings. Cost is $100 per person. Contact Elizabeth Kraft at 329-1760 for reservations.

The Happiest Man on Thompson Lane

...is Troy Smith, back behind the counter of the lunchtime juggernaut he founded, Baja Burrito. You may recall that Smith sold the perpetually crowded burrito joint less than two years ago, and friends say he'd regretted it ever since. As of yesterday, though, Smith once again owns the place.

This afternoon, he looked five years younger slinging fish tacos, steak burritos and queso dip. "I love it!" Smith said, giving a longtime customer a bear hug before dashing back to the kitchen. It's nice to have him back.

Tequila Sunrise

My suggestion: Check out Agave Tequila Lounge, the new tequilerria that had its soft opening last night at 12th and Demonbreun, before its madhouse grand opening next week. That'll give the bartenders a chance to learn your name without your having to shout it through a bullhorn.

That'll also give you a chance to sample some extremely tasty "light Mexican" bar food, heavy on salsas, slivered brisket and tortadas, all distinguished (like the super-smooth margaritas) by fresh ingredients. The caliente queso dip, for example, didn't have that melted-plastic nacho-cheese flavor: it was dense with soft, spicy chunks of chorizo and somehow didn't develop that crusty film most queso dips get (perhaps because this one didn't get a chance to stick around). Subjects for future study: tableside-prepared guacamole, a "Black Bean Jack" dip.

Of the tostadas, the best I tried were the California (with ancho grilled chicken, jack cheese, onion and green chile) and the Tex-Mex (with smoked brisket, jack and cheddar, jalapeno rings and tequila BBQ sauce), both a refreshing mix of hot and cool that went well with margaritas. I didn't get to sample many more of the "tapas"—mostly because the guy next to me was smart enough to move his plate of brisket sliders. These were roughly Krystal-sized rolls toothpicked with brisket strips, yellow tomato, red onion and chipotle mayo, accompanied by prickly-pear French fries that I initially thought were tempura-battered green beans.

But the smoked BBQ chicken quesadilla was crisp and hearty, and I'll return to try the Corona-battered steak fingers and jalapeno potato fritters. The dishes are not cheap—salsas and tapas start at $8, and the 10-inch tostadas are $10—but they're filling without leaving you uncomfortably stuffed.

Agave boasts more than 100 tequilas, ranging from a $5 30/30 to a $50 Don Julio Real. I had the $10 Cadillac margarita, and while the effort required to fetch the Herradura Silver tequila off a high shelf was impressive—the bartender has to literally climb to ascend the wall-high pyramid of liquors—I was more impressed by the bite of honest-to-God fresh-squeezed lime juice.

Co-owner Scott Sherrill and contractor Bronson Lankford were among those in last night's small but fervent crowd. They had the right idea—get there early. The bar that opens onto a sunset-flooded patio gives off a vibe somewhere between an upscale Texas cantina and Florida at spring break; that should make the place party central once word gets out—especially given its chain-link location between the Demonbreun dining belt and Radius10. (Interesting news also about the restaurant that's planning to join them across the street next year.)

Mr. Pink predicts: this place is going to get lots of people laid.

Southern Festival of Books

There's plenty of food and food-related literature at this year's Southern Festival of Books. (Can we call it Griterature?)

Check out the Cooking Stage for presentations by food blogger and cookbook editor Nicki Pendleton Wood and restaurateur/cookbook-authors Martha Stamps and Miss Daisy King, among others.

At 2 p.m. on Sunday, John T. Edge, John Egerton, Charles Reagan Wilson, Roy Blount, Jr., and Martha Stamps will discuss New Encyclopedia for Southern Culture: Foodways Edition.

Bolton's Spicy Chicken and Fish, Neely's BBQ, Mafiaoza's Pizza and Provence will be on hand dishing up their Southern and not-so-Southern fare.

The Festival kicks off at noon Friday at Legislative Plaza and runs through Sunday. Here's the full schedule.