I posted about fresh wasabi some time last year, and found out yesterday that you can buy it at Blue Fin (which made the list of the Top 10 Downtown restaurants in tomorrow’s Playbook; thank you all for your suggestions).

Anyway, I’m headed down there next week to give it a try. If you go before I do, tell me about it.

In the past 15 minutes I just came across a wire story about the woman who won the $1 million Pillsbury prize for a cookie recipe that starts with refrigerated peanut butter cookie dough, and ran across the article about Baltimore’s Berger cookies in the May issue of Saveur.

I’ve never been tempted by a peanut butter cookie, although I surely wish I’d created this one. But the Berger cookie is another matter. It’s a vanilla cookie topped with a fudgy icing and looks dee-vine. What I miss the most about Seessel’s is the turtle cookies. I loved them from when I was a kid until they served the last one–and I would love them still if I could get my hands on one. What’s your idea of the quentessential Memphis cookie? We get many requests for the Memphis City Schools butter cookies, and Makeda’s makes one that’s nearly a deadringer.

I found a recipe online for what might be the turtle cookies from McKenzie’s Bakeries in New Orleans, which were nearly as good as Seessel’s. Here’s the link, if you want to take a look: http://herbsaint.wordpress.com/2006/01/13/turtle-cookies/ (here’s the picture, above). I’ll let you know if I try the recipe.

Playboy.com has named its 10 Best Burgers in the country and Memphis makes the list with Dyer’s. Here’s what they have to say (and did you know about the bread in the grease??? Gotta give that one a big yuck!) 

When people call a burger “greasy” they usually mean it as an insult. Not at Dyer’s, where cooks dunk the thin patties into a cast-iron skillet of boiling grease. If that’s not enough, you can have them dip the whole burger — bun and all — in the grease for a second go-round. (Only in the South.) The interesting thing is how well it works: All that oil seals in forbidden flavor while producing a crunchy exterior. And the burgers, served on a Wonder bread bun only with mustard, onion and pickle, are small enough that you won’t feel like too much of a glutton ordering a double. (Oh, hell, while you’re there, you might as well get a triple with cheese.) The famous shtick, that Dyer’s has used the same oil for 96 years — even transporting it via a police escort when the place moved to its current location — only adds to the legend. Everyone knows the old grease burns off, but really, who cares? Certainly no one does at Dyer’s, which is packed with neon, red Naughahyde, and deep-fried Tennessee charm.

Go to www.playboy.com/burgers for the full list.

I’m always fussing about not being able to find a good cake, so I’ve got to let you know about the one that’s in the office today. A&E editor Peggy Burch and fashion writer Barbara Bradley are celebrating birthdays and I went to Lucchesi’s to pick up a cake from the department.

Oh my. At the suggestion of one of the guys there, I selected this one: It’s a dark chocolate cake with a center layer of vanilla mousse, iced with chocolate buttercream. Unbelievably decadent. It’s rich, wonderful, and so big that I’m surprised it didn’t cost more. (It was about $35.)

The man at Lucchesi’s said they don’t make the cake, that it either came from La Baguette or from a bakery in Misssissippi (he wasn’t sure if it was Sugaree’s or another supplier).

Here are a couple of pictures from our haul at the farmers market downtown this Saturday: carrots, bell peppers, squash, various sorts of tomatoes, green and purple cabbage sprouts, onions and garlic, fingerling potatoes, rosemary and basil. Not pictured: different kinds of lettuces, tiny radishes, baby bok choy, peaches, blackberries. A colorful bouquet of flowers. It’s fun to make a meal or a part of a meal from local ingredients. I had made panna cotta last weekend — we normally don’t have dessert at home but we had some people over for dinner — and there was one ramekin left; the blackberries were divine with it. Last night I made a salad with the lettuces, the basil and some very thinly sliced carrots and radishes. Some tomatoes, blanched and peeled but not cooked, went into an incredibly fresh summer pasta.
 
The dynamic at the farmers market is interesting. Some of the sellers obviously cater to the foodie subset. Their produce is artistically arranged and packaged; they provide recipes and offer advice; their tables are decorated with flowers and herbs. Other vendors are just as obviously farmers. They put out their produce in piles and pyamids or arrange them in little baskets. No recipes, no advice, no flowers: just vegetables. And where the “foodies” may charge $3.50 to $5 for their products — pretty darned cheap anyway — the farmers change one and two dollars. 

I can’t believe how many emails and phone calls I’ve gotten over the past week about chicken salad and doughnuts! Probably 200 or more people have told me about their favorite chicken salad, and just since this morning I’ve had about 150 responses for the city’s best doughnuts! So this gets me thinking–what else should we survey? I can’t go out every week and taste test, but I can report reader responses. Best hot and sour soup? Best pimiento cheese? Best cookie? Best margarita? Help me out here…

Seems like there are doughnut shops all over the place–there’s a new-ish one on Poplar, the one on Union changed its name a while back, and I swear I think there are two right around the corner from each other somwhere around Summer Ave. Do you have a favorite? National Doughnut Day is coming up–I want to find the best doughnut in town!

Boy, has my email box been getting slammed today! This morning I asked readers to tell me the best places to buy chicken salad, and folks are keeping the cards and letters coming. Tell me your favorite place, and tell me also, have any of you tried Penny’s Pantry in Senatobia? I’ve gotten a dozen or more emails about it but I’ve never been there…