I just love The Little Tea Shop. Suhair Lauck is such a great cook. Never had a bad meal there.

Today, I ordered pot roast and it was a revelation. No gunky gravy, just the tender boneless chuck floating in a heavenly sauce… more of a broth than a gravy really. Simple, but perfectly cooked boiled potatoes on the side.

My friend had red beans and rice and that was awfully good, too. This comfortable dining room is always jam-packed at lunch. I see some of the same faces every time I wander in, always sitting at the same table.

Do you have a favorite table at a favorite restaurant? If the answer is yes, do you give someone the stinkeye if they’re sitting in your favorite seat?

Blue Fin is opening Dec. 17 at the old Prime Minister’s on Main Street in downtown Memphis. I got a copy of the menu at Jimmy Isihi’s upscale Asian-fusion place and puzzled over the description of a lobster and soba noodle salad… it includes “seabeans”…

A quick search of google and I found this interesting site called cheftalk…
that described sea beans as nautical green beans. Cool.

Can’t wait to try that dish, the truffle-scented french fries, the barbecued duck pizza, the monkfish osso bucco (??), the seared yellowtail with crabmeat and the sea urchin risotto. (Which I sincerely doubt will need salt like Meg Ryan needs a hit movie… see item below.)

In yesterday’s New York Times, restaurant critic Frank Bruni said the risotto at some Italian restaurant “needed salt like Meg Ryan needed a hit movie.”

Anyone who glanced at the item below is going to chuckle at my choice of lunch spot following my trip to the gym… Abbay’s in Olive Branch, Miss., serves terrific plate lunches in a fast food setting.

I tried the fried chicken breast, mashed potatoes and gravy, cabbage, and a peach cobbler (brought that back to Mr. Slim/Trim…) That whole mess of good eating was under $7!

My lunch date, CA social butterfly Michael Donahue, made quick work of a plate of meatloaf, sweet potato casserole, cinnamon apples (which he sprinkled with salt and pepper!!) and banana pudding. The rolls were good, the cornbread was good.

Get in there and check it out… it’s just off Goodman Road near Highway 78.

Dragged my ever-expanding waistline into the gym today… for the first time in a year!! I have a love/hate relationship with the gym, mostly hate. I love how it makes me feel, but hate the military-like routine of it.

Now, I’ve been down this road before. I know what I need to do, especially doing what I do for a living. I can find all sorts of clever excuses: no time, no cute workout gear, I need new sneakers, etc. But after watching last night’s Frontline on obesity, I was inspired anew… maybe a little scared, too. They kept beating the drum of all the diseases that are caused by being overweight… it’s not pretty.

Does that mean I’m going to give up eating? NOOOOOO! I don’t believe in diets. I do believe in Julia Child’s credo: all things in moderation. I eat a little bit of a lot of things. I take my lunch leftovers to my slim-trim hubby (who does work out every day, the bum!). I have learned to be satisfied with two bites of dessert.

After the gym, I went to Cafe Francisco for coffee and ordered a bowl of oatmeal. Dang, I feel virtuous. But I didn’t want to get carried away, so I added some syrup and cream.

You know what really burns me? Men lose weight so much easier than women, right? Let’s hear it from the ladies… what’s your strategy for keeping those extra pounds at bay during this sweet season? OK, I guess the guys can play, too.

At Coy’s in Hot Springs, Ark., as soon as you sit down, a waitress brings by a little amuse bouche (that’s the fancypants French name for a little gift from the chef… more than a bite, less than an appetizer). For the past 20-plus years, the restaurant has served hot crackers and a teeny carafe of its house dressing that’s a cross between the classic secret sauce and spicy Thousand Island.

Sounds strange, no? But it worked. Those dressing-smeared crackers were downright addictive. It made me nostalgic for the days when restaurants served relish trays… a little assortment of veggies and olives and pickles. Any place in/around Memphis still do that?

Here are some excerpts from a recent interview with Food TV fixture Alton Brown:

“I flunked chemistry. I flunked biology. It didn’t start to make sense to me until I started using it in the kitchen.”

One of his favorite cookbooks? “The 1962 Joy of Cooking. That’s the year I was born and it still had instructions on how to skin a squirrel.”

“Most French food is crap.”

Though he’s a Martha Stewart fan, he thinks that she did a disservice to the tradition of entertaining: “Everything had to be perfect… there’s so much more than food when it comes to hospitality. People got intimidated about cooking.”

One of his “touchstone” recipes is the buttermilk biscuits that’s a variation on the biscuit his late grandmother Mae made.

His daughter Zoe is picky: “She doesn’t like her food touching. Or anything spicy. We don’t make her special food, though. We don’t negotiate with terrorists.”

Favorite gadget: “An RPM blender that can go as low as a bare stir. Zevro dispensers for coffee, rice, beans, Lucky Charms. Knives. I have a weakness for knives. I probably have 37 to 40 different knives on my counter. I’ve designed a line of high-endJapanese knives that have my picture on them.”

His other soft spots? Alton Brown owns four I-Pods and rides a BMW motorcycle.

Went to check out the new Clinton library… very impressive. Especially the enthusiastic, engaged crowd patiently waiting to get in the front door. It was an incredibly diverse group: old, young, every kind of ethnic background.

Once inside, I kept looking for that food connection. You know Bill liked to eat! Of course, there was so much to absorb…

Loads of references to Socks the cat, but nothing on Bubba eating burgers. Had to wait until the next morning to come up with that food angle. The family and I drove on and stayed in Hot Springs, the President’s boyhood home, and the cook who made me an omelet the next morning at the Arlington Hotel said he used to see Clinton all the time. “He was just here not too long ago,” said the man who flipped the eggs with a flick of his wrist. “His mother used to come in all the time. She knew me by name.”

Aside from that breakfast, the gastronomic highlight of the trip had to be stopping at Craig’s Bar-B-Que in Duvalls Bluff on the way back to Memphis. It was outstanding!! Smoky meat, slaw spiked with shredded apples, funky, funky place that was packed on a late Saturday afternoon. It’s not much of a detour if you’re on the road to Little Rock.

Everyone’s probably feeling pretty lazy today after all that turkey. I went to some friends’ home and had a fabulous meal, so I didn’t have to cook. But I wanted my kitchen to smell good, so I made my grandmother’s baked beans in the squat brown bean pot I inherited. I couldn’t find the recipe, so I had to call my Auntie Eileen.

It’s a simple list of ingredients, but somehow I have never been able to recreate the taste. The slightly sweet fragrance is a little easier to accomplish. And the kitchen smelled like Nana. Somehow, this simple connection to the past inspired me to get busy fixing other edibles. My 13-year-old daughter, who most of the time could care less about food, asked if we could make Chex mix, a tradition she associates with holidays past.

What’s the holiday dish that makes you most nostalgic? Feel free to include a recipe.

Had lunch at India Palace, and found out it’s open on turkey day! I like that buffet because they change it up. Today, I tried lamb meatballs, and a vegetable dish with cabbage, potatoes and onions. It was all so good.

I’m going to a friend’s house, and bringing my cranberry chutney, which has red onions, apples and celery with all sorts of seasonings. I’ve managed to lose the cookbook with that recipe, so I’m going to wing it.

Hope you all (y’all) have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Let’s huddle up on Friday and talk about leftovers.