Potlikker: eating the choo choo + g&t rambling

Somehow my visit to Chattanooga a few weeks back completely slipped my mind. There was good eating to be found in that city, for sure.

I was there for "business," my state library association met there. When I picked up my registration stuff, I got a great tote bag that has a mesh side pocket perfect for carrying bottled water or any other bottled drink. It was on the outside, so your papers wouldn't get damp.

Mine came with a Moon Pie; other people got Hershey's bars. Though I'm not a Moon Pie fan, I kept the treat inside the bag as an emergency snack. At conferences I don't usually eat while I'm at the conference center. Have you consumed conference center food of late? It's nothing to write home about. At conferences, I go and go and somehow forget about eating and end up at a critical point where I'm desperate for food. That's just inside the center. If I'm at a national conference and walking from hotel to hotel in a major city, I usually stop, sit, and treat myself to a fine meal. I deserve it after all the walking I do.

First night in Chattanooga my colleagues and I ate at our hotel, the Marriott. Earlier we walked down toward the Aquarium and talked about eating at Thai Smile. But neither colleague would commit because we had a late lunch at the Bass Pro Outlet place, what's it called, Islamorada Fish something? At the Sevierville exit. I should have forced the issue. Ian said I should have told them that I was eating at the Thai place and let them go on back to the hotel, or whatever. But I try to get along. You know? When Jerry, another colleague, found us eating at the hotel he told me later that he was surprised to find me there. He knows I'm a foodie and don't normally dine at a hotel restaurant unless it's something outstanding. All that said, I had a great Angus burger.

Breakfast was at same Marriott in the convention center. I attended the Intellectual Freedom breakfast. There was no choice about the meal. It stank. Pancakes covered with cinnamon apples. That cinnamon apple flavor, probably my least favorite of any, would not come away from the pancakes. Two slices of bacon, that were okay, but cold. And greasy. Sometimes that happens with bacon. Then what else? Oh orange juice. My glass of orange juice was the best part of the meal. Yum.

Lunch that day was dicey. I waffled between getting lunch and not. There were several great choices. I'm a Mellow Mushroom fan, but didn't stop there. Also looked at a few places across the river, Mudpie Cafe, North Shore Grille, or near the river in the case of the Back End Cafe.

In the interest of maintaining my momentum and seeing all I could see, I chose instead to get a scoop of ice cream. Clumpies is great. There were at least twenty different flavors. I sampled Pistachio and Coconut Flake? Coconut Chip? Had to go for the coconut, though the pistachio was a contender. There were enough flavors listed on their board to appeal to the most discerning customer. Seems like they had a Chai-flavored ice cream, too.

Is there justification for eating ice cream for lunch? Surely in this case, there was. I had a crappy breakfast, of which I finished less than half. I walked several miles from downtown to UTC and then across the Walnut Street Pedestrian Bridge. It was warm and sunny. I got slightly sweaty. I burned enough calories with my walking tour of the city and thus an ice cream lunch was a perfect treat. Clumpies is a definite stop on my next trip through the Choo Choo. Strolling back across the Walnut Pedestrian Bridge while licking a cone of Clumpies ice cream is an essential Chattanooga experience. The breeze buffeting the river kept my hair out of my ice cream at all the critical moments.

Dinner was excellent. Jerry, my two roomies, and I ate at 212 Market. Four or five years ago when TLA was last in Chattanooga, three colleagues and I set out to find 212 Market because we'd been told it was the best downtown restaurant. We never found it, never knew it's exact name, I guess, just that it had a number in it's name, and ended up at Mellow Mushroom, which suited me fine. We arrived a few minutes early for our reservation and sniffed around the dessert tray adjacent to the hostesses desk. And while in Chattanooga on this trip three or four librarians, independent of one another, sang the praises of 212 Market.

The bar makes excellent gin and tonics; my standard drink of choice, and the first illegally had mixed drink I ordered (and they served underaged me) in public. I was in Baltimore on a school (college) trip and one of my acquaintances told me I should order a G & T because it tasted like a tree, and I was a bit of a tree hugger then, so it sounded like perfection to me. There are so many reasons to love Baltimore, but my first gin and tonic combined with being allowed to walk around a Harbor-side shopping area with your beer in a go-cup endeared me to the city where my mother was born. That and crabcakes to die for.

Probably one of the best ones I've had in a long time. I didn't feel slighted on the amount of gin in my glass. I prefer Beefeater, if you must know. Several years ago in Philadelphia, Marie and I sat in our hotel bar, while other non-librarians watched the Super Bowl, and we taste tested between Beefeater and Tanqueray. I love the Tanqueray bottle and have been a bit of a gin snob, but we both preferred the taste of Beefeater. Maybe the bar didn't have Bombay Sapphire. And Hendricks, my new favorite gin? Doubt it was on the market at that point, or introduced to my region at that time (can't find the est. date on their website).

Appetizers? Yes, please. Jerry, Amy, and I ordered appetizers to share. Jerry got the fried green tomatoes (Bulgarian sheep's cheese, Dueling sauces, and pickled pink onions), I got the three cheese plate (dutch gouda, Tn chevre, Spanish machengo and candied garlic), and Amy got the Mediterranean trio featuring pita, tahini, hummus, artichoke hearts, and an olives. Everything was delicious. Divine. Yummmmmmmmy.

Jerry and I ordered the seafood bisque quite without knowing that 212 Market is famous for it. Our waitress said that the seafood bisque has won some kind of city-wide food contest several years running. It was exquisite. I've never had seafood bisque quite this good. I could eat a bowl everyday. After devouring my cup of bisque, I declared to our waitress that she must reveal the ingredients. I felt sure there was wine in there, but she said sherry and something else. It's terrible how I've forgotten that now. Because I planned to replicate it, not quite exactly, but this could be an ongoing experiment in my kitchen. Several kinds of seafood including salmon, crab, shrimp, etc. Then the typical veggies. Sigh. Thinking about it gets me worked up.

Then dinner. I wanted the New Zealand lambchops, the Bison strip steak, or the Black Skillet Duck breast, but ended up going for the Mushroom ravioli. I was slightly displeased with mine. Just slightly. It was much better than anything I can order at home. The duck was my furst choice, but Jerry ordered that. I'm silly, but I don't like to order the same thing as someone else at my table. This was mostly in the spirit of sharing. For Jerry and Amy let me taste their dishes and I did the same with mine. Amy had the Smoked Cheddar chicken: green pepper mole, golden grits, and greens. I stayed away from the Bison steak and Lamp chops because they were two of the three most expensive entrees on the menu. I didn't want to go hog wild, you see.

Nobody had room for dessert, really, after such bounty. We decided to split two desserts amongst ourselves. I would have chosen the bread pudding because I've become such a bread pudding fan of late. There was creme brule, highly overrated in my estimation. A key lime tart, that looked good, but I'm so over key lime. Surely there was an apple something. That's fairly standard on most dessert menus. And two chocolate things. Naturally they chose the two chocolate things, when I am not a fan of chocolate at all. One was a decadently rich flourless chocolate cake with chocolate icing between it's layers. It was so rich that when I put a bit in my mouth, I had an unusual reaction: My jaws tingled in shock. That doesn't happen everyday. They offered me more, but I declined. The other chocolate was a surprisingly fine German Chocolate cake. I love GCC, but most times it's way overdone and terribly sweet. Not this one. It was perfect. Neither cake nor icing was over the top sweet, so I had several bites of this sleeper of a dessert.

Jerry and I split a taxi back to the hotel, about 10 blocks. Not because we were so full that waddling home was an issue. But Jerry was battling walking pneumonia and I had blistered feet to contend with from all the walking of the past two days.

Breakfast on the day we left Chattnooga was at the Choo Choo. They have a delightful buffet. Lots of variety. Amy and I got the buffet. Their biscuits and gravy are the best I've had from a buffet. I'm not a fan of buffets. But this one, I'd return to again and again. There were several meats, potatoes, eggs, fruits, and pancake/french toast items to choose from.

The drive home was not the best. I was carsick. Somewhere, a few hours out of Chattanooga, we stopped on I-40 at one of those mega convenience-type stores. I got a hot dog, chips, and red velvet cake. I hoped that the cake was edible. You never know, really, until you unwrap the cling-film and dig in. Quite honestly this was the best, most moist, red velvet cake I've ever put in my mouth. The icing was just right, too.

conditions in car unconducive to blur-free photography

A perfect combination. I highly recommend that the next chance you get, stop in a convenience store and check the refrigerated area for products sporting the Ne-Mo's Bakery label. They're out of Escondido, Calif. Who knew they could make such delectable RVC in California? The carrot cake tempted me, too. And somehow I didn't see a banana cake square at my store, but they offered plenty of chocolate.

By national sales volume, the carrot cake square is their best seller, with banana second, and chocolate third. Cannot believe why RVC doesn't make the list. I'd say that folks outside the south don't stock the cake because they're not familiar with it. Poor RVC. When will that cake get a fair shake?