Cemetary Restaurant

(above) Diner's enjoy a snack and a cappuccino seated next to five green graves. Don't ya feel sorry for that guy farthest to the left that has to spend all eternity next to a coke machine?

I came across this article recently from one of my favorite weird news sites about a restaurant that was actually built over a cemetary.

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=79371&in_page_id=2

Trip Advisor and Roadfood.com, You're Fired!

Cozy Corner (bottom) versus Dot's Soul Food (top).

Having long relied on Trip Advisor for user travel reviews, and (well, only recently) Roadfood to tell me about hidden dive treasures, I regret to inform you that I have fired both websites from my bookmarks. Why? Consider the following case study:

Dot's Soul Food Cafe, Hillsboro Alabama

versus

Cozy Corner Cafe, Memphis Tennessee

Both were rated high on Roadfood, with Cozy Corner's rating a little higher. Dot's food was rated an 85% with voters willing to drive 40 miles to eat there. Cozy Corner's food was rated at 97% with the reviewer willing to drive 80 miles to eat there. Trip Advisor, lists Cozy Corner as its number 9 restaurant out of 864 restaurants in Memphis. Dot's isn't even on the radar at Trip Advisor (probably because it's in the middle of rural Alabama--not exactly a vacation hot spot).

Wow. A restaurant that is number 9 out of 864, that people would drive 80 miles to eat at, and that scored a 97% based on the Roadfood editor's review? I had to go there. So I did as a Trip Advisor reviewer suggested and I got "thee to Cozy Corner." And regretted it. So much good food in Memphis and I was eating at a place that served chewy ribs, watery coleslaw, and spaghetti in barbecue sauce. That last one tastes as good as it sounds, which is, not very. Meals come with fresh from the bag discount white bread. Several slices.

By comparison, Dot served me homemade macaroni and cheese with that extra layer of cheese baked on top, actual fresh corn--not canned, and tender ribs. She baked the corn bread muffins fresh that morning and served several different homemade desserts, including chess pie.

Ambience at both restaurants was basically no frills. Dot's was cafeteria style, on a not very busy highway, in a small Alabama farming town. Cozy Corner was near the famed St. Jude's Children's Hosptial, in a bars-on-the-windows kind of urban area.

As for driving 80 miles to go there, I would say that with gas prices (and earth issues) the way they are, you must be kidding when you suggest that for any restaurant, let alone Cozy Corner.

Dineometer rating: Dot's Soul Food Cafe 90%
Dineometer rating: Cozy Corner 40%

Other People's Blogs

http://www.ramendays.com/

With recipes like Office Ramen 101 and Jack in the Box Marinade, slickly edited videos, a quote from Julia Child, racist and offensive language, and, of all things, a Crate and Barrel Ad at the top, RamenDays.com I predict will be wildly popular as well as being the only food blog flagged as offensive.

"Chefs" Tory-T and Caleb supposedly started the site after not finding any visual tutorials on the net for amature cooks ( *cough* ifood.tv and about a thousand other places *cough* ).

I think they just wanted to show off their comedy culinary stylings.

Works for me, I added them to my bookmarks.

Your 3 Minute Culinary Vacation: Cypress

This video shows what you would get to see and eat if you were part of the .02 percent of the population that will one day visit Cypress.

Czech-Mex

I am an Adventure Dining hypocrite. There. I said it. Unusual, unique, and innovative cuisine is all well and good except when it messes with my childhood memories. I came across this article from the Chicago Tribune about one of my recently reviewed restaurants, Klas Bohemian in Cicero Illinois. Still reeling from the fact that something so common place in my childhood (bohemian restaurants) is now museum worthy, I find that my favorite comfort food may morph into something completely unacceptable:

"But (the owner) isn't averse to tapping into the tastes of all nationalities. He said Cicero's cultural mix has inspired him to develop a new food fusion he calls "Czech-Mex." He hopes to incorporate it on his menu soon, but for now, only friends get to try the goulash tacos and duck enchiladas. "

He's just kidding, right?

I don't begrudge a person the opportunity to increase revenue, and I am aware that my single, annual visit to the place will not keep them in business, but Czech-Mex?!? This is a bastardization of bohemian cuisine that I don't think I can accept.

Cicero has already lost several other once common features of its psyche such as radical, extreme, segregating racism, and prevalent mafia ties. Gone are the days when no one of color dared cross the street dividing Cicero from Chicago, and when Chicago's WLS TV had it's own mafia reporter (a rather nervous and squeamish looking guy) regularly reporting on people that had been exploded in and across Chicagoland. Oh, I'm sure that racism and gang related activity are still common, they are just no longer the identifying features associated with Cicero.

The final stage of the grieving process is acceptance. With acceptance comes the realization that Bohemian food is everywhere and not confined solely to one Chicago suburb. Texas' Kolache Factory is rapidly expanding beyond the state boundaries and soon everyone may have access to this traditional Czech pastry. I have discovered listings for Czech restaurants in Atlanta and other large cities, and a huge encleave of Czech culture in Texas.

So for Cicero: Mafia and liver dumpling soup, out. Spanish speaking population and goulash tacos, apparently in.


For more on:
Cicero's colorful and openly sordid past

Food Court Musical

This may be straying from the Adventure Dining theme, but Improv Everywhere is worth the detour. Improv Everywhere is spontaneous theater that invokes an examination of social rules and customs. It is provocatively entertaining. Click here to watch other theatrical pranks such as Frozen Grand Central and the annual No Pants subway ride.

Adventure Dining Books: The Hungry Planet

German family (top) displays one weeks food.

Ecuadorian family's weekly food supply (bottom).

For those of us who are nosey, Peter Menzel's books allow us to take our nosiness to global extremes. His book Material World permits us to view the possessions of "average" families around the world. It was the subject of a documentary shown on PBS many years ago and continues to sell on Amazon.com over 13 years after its release.

His newest book Hungry Planet, allows us to see what the world eats. Families from countries such as Cuba, India, Britain, Mongolia, and Chad, display one weeks worth of food for the family. Included are country statistics on population, caloric intake, life expectancy, number of McDonald's restaurants, and the cost of a Big Mac. Another interesting feature is the inclusion of family recipes. We have Bhutanese Mushroom, Cheese, and Pork; Dried Goat Meat Soup from Chad; Cuban rice and beans; Potato Soup from Ecuador; Roulades of Beef from Germany; and Seal Stew from Greenland. Recipe notes such as in this recipe from Mali: Broth made from Sumbala (spice made from nere tree pods), indicate that I won't be cooking Malinese for dinner any time soon.

The beautifully photographed (as are all of his books) Hungry Planet is highly recommended, not just for the cultural information that it provides but also because it is an opportunity for personal re-evaluation of one's own eating habits from a global perspective.

Bacon and Egg Ice Cream

www.dineometer.com

The eMenu and the Smart Tray

I may be married to my laptop, but that doesn't mean I don't worry about the ever increasing use of computers as an alternative to human interaction in some form.

Least appetizing restaurant concept award

Winner of the (just made up) Dineometer least appetizing restaurant concept. Congrats.




www.dineometer.com

Adventure Dining: Uzbek Cuisine

Video showing cooking methods and food types from Uzbekistan.