Unusual Japanese waiter

I promise this is not a comment on the restaurant industry. It's just a cute video of an unusual waiter in a restaurant in Japan. The reason the story caught my eye is that the restaurant is located in Utsunomiya (in east central Japan), which is where my son spent a summer as the leader of a group of YMCA campers. I wonder if he ever went to this restaurant....

(If you watch closely, you'll notice that the waiter snacks on edamame during his break.)

Love Affair with Southern Cooking

Jean Anderson, a well-known food writer and cookbook author, recently won a James Beard award for her cookbook A Love Affair with Southern Cooking. (Congratulations, Jean!) The love affair in the book's title comes not only from Jean's considerable talents and expertise as a food historian and cookbook author, but also from her birthright. Jean is a natural-born Southerner and currently lives in North Carolina.

The book is filled with great recipes, of course, but also lots of sidebars and timelines and interesting nuggets of Southern food lore. In collecting the recipes for the book, Jean drew heavily on her own upbringing as well as that of friends; and many of the recipes are Southern classics, like Jefferson Davis Pie, Robert E. Lee Cake, Country Captain or Hoppin' John.

When I was thinking what recipe I would like to share with you from Jean's book, I decided it had to be something typically North Carolina, so to me that meant something barbecued. As Jean puts it: "Of course, every southern state believes its barbecue to be 'the best in the world' and as a Tar Heel, I devoutly make that claim for North Carolina." [Scroll down for Jean's list of favorite North Carolina barbecue joints.]

The following recipe is not for a North Carolina-style barbecue (since I believe that involves a giant smoke pit and a whole hog), but for a really interesting sounding grilled pork tenderloin.

Spicy Grilled Pork Tenderloin
(adapted from A Love Affair with Southern Cooking by Jean Anderson. William Morrow, 2007)
Makes 4 to 6 servings
I hesitate to call this "barbecue" although some people might. It's unlike any barbecue I've eaten; still it's a popular way to prepare pork tenderloin down south.

— 2 large whole garlic cloves
— 4 large scallions, trimmed and chunked (white part only)
— 3/4 cup pineapple juice
— 1/2 cup cider vinegar
— One 8-ounce can tomato sauce
— 2 tablespoons tomato ketchup
— 2 tablespoons molasses (not too dark)
— 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
— 1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar
— 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
— 1/2 to 1 teaspoon hot red pepper sauce
— Two 1-pound pork tenderloins
— 2 tablespoons cold butter, dice

1. Whiz the garlic, scallions, pineapple juice, and vinegar in an electric blender at high speed until smooth. Pour into a jumbo-size plastic zipper bag, add all remaining ingredients except the pork and butter, seal, and shake well to combine.
2. Add the pork tenderloins to the bag and reseal. Refrigerate overnight, turning the bag from time to time so the pork marinates evenly.
3. When ready to proceed, pour about 1/3 cup of the marinade into a measuring cup and reserve. Pour the balance into a heavy, nonreactive saucepan and set aside. Preheat the grill to moderate heat (375°F).
4. Grill the tenderloins with the lid up, turning and brushing now and then with the reserved 1/3 cup marinade, for 25 to 30 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer, thrust into the center of a tenderloin, reads 150°F.
5. Meanwhile, bring the pan of marinade to a boil over moderately high heat, reduce the heat to its lowest point, set the lid on the pan askew, and keep the sauce warm while the tenderloins grill.
6. Transfer the tenderloins to a carving board, tent with foil, and let stand for 5 minutes. Add any leftover basting marinade to that in the saucepan and simmer uncovered while the tenderloins rest. Just before serving, add the diced butter to the hot marinade bit by bit and whisk until smooth.
7. To serve, slice the tenderloins 1/2 inch thick, slightly on the bias. Fan out on heated dinner plates and top each portion with some of the hot marinade.

Here's a list of 'cue joints from Jean's book:
• Lexington Number One, Lexington, NC
• Stamey's, Greensboro, NC
• Short Sugar's, Reidsville, NC
• Melton's, Rocky Mount, NC
• Parker's, Wilson, NC
• Flip's, Wilmington, NC
• Wilber's, Goldsboro, NC
• Scott's, Goldsboro, NC
• Skylight, Ayden, NC
• A&M, Mebane, NC
• Scott Howell's Q Shack, Durham, NC

To find out more about Jean Anderson--she's written tons of other cookbooks and also won other James Beard awards--check out her website JeanAndersonCooks.

uWink

What would you get if you crossed an Atari video game with a restaurant? Well, first you would get Chuck E. Cheese for kids, and then uWink for adults.

The former CEO of both Atari and Chuck E. Cheese now has a Los Angeles-based digital entertainment company that develops interactive software for restaurants (and bars). At a uWink restaurant, touch screens sit at every diner's place. The screens are used to order food (with the orders going straight to the kitchen) and also offer interactive games.

The two existing branches of uWink are both in L.A. The rest of us will have to wait and see if a video-game-oriented restaurant has mass appeal. My personal guess is that if the game features are that appealing, the customers may never go home.

Dining in the dark

I was reading the other day about a restaurant in Montreal called O.Noir where the wait staff are all legally blind. When you enter the restaurant there are no lights, and you order and eat in the dark (the name of the restaurant is a verbal play on the French words au noir, which mean in the dark).

The mission of the restaurant is to promote an understanding of what it is to live life as a blind person as well as provide employment for the blind. The side effect is that without the sense of sight, your senses of smell and taste are heightened.*

The idea of dining in the dark got me to thinking and I eventually found myself looking for cutlery that lights up. I found a number of sites--Who knew there was such a need?--including We Glow Ware at the Virginia Toy Company. The We Glow Ware is actually fork, knife and spoon tops that fit onto glow sticks, so the glow is temporary, but you can change it up for each party you throw. Like red and green for Christmas, or blue and white for Chanukah.

I also found flashing beer mugs, but I'll bet that's more interesting to a college kid who has had just enough beer that the flashing is amusing instead of intensely irritating.

*If you're a C.S.I. (Las Vegas) fan, you will have seen a recent episode all about the dining in the dark trend. (For any fanatics out there, it was Episode 2, Season 8 and was called "A La Cart.")

The original ice cream mix-in

There are several national chains of ice cream stores that specialize in ice cream with mix-ins. The way the stores work is the customer first chooses an ice cream flavor and then some number of mix-ins (crushed candy, crumbled cookies, nuts, etc.). The guy behind the counter puts everything on a marble counter, takes two flat scoops and mixes the whole thing together.

It's great news for ice cream lovers that the mix-in idea is so widespread, but I feel bound to mention that I went to college with a guy who I'm pretty sure invented this whole idea of marble slabs and mix-ins. His name is Steve Herrell and he's still in the ice cream business. He has a couple of stores in Massachusetts, including two in the Boston area. So if you're ever in the neighborhood, you should visit the inventor of the mix-in (or Smoosh-in®, as he calls it). Here's the link to his stores and their locations.

Deep South Parties

Here is my nomination for the cookbook with the longest and funniest title: Deep South Parties or How to Survive the Southern Cocktail Hour Without a Box of French Onion Soup Mix, a Block of Processed Cheese, or a Cocktail Weenie. The book is by Robert St. John who, in addition to being a comedian, is the chef/owner of several restaurants in Hattiesburg, Mississippi: the Purple Parrot Cafe, Mahogany Bar and Crescent City Grill (which has a branch in Meridian, Mississippi).

St. John's sense of humor permeates the book (how about a chapter called "Methodists and the Art of Cat-Flossing?), but the recipes themselves are serious. They are inspired by the foods and traditions of the Old South, but they are given a very modern spin. For example: Crawfish-Andouille Hush Puppies, Cornmeal Biscuits with Fig Butter, Tasso and Smoked-Cheddar Savory Cheesecake (anyone who has been following my blog knows that I have a bit of a cheesecake addition) and Peach-Pecan Ice Cream Sandwiches.

If you want to find out a little more about Robert St. John you can check his website or to read more about his restaurants check this link out. And if you like Deep South Parties, then there is also his earlier cookbook called Deep South Staples Or How to Survive in a Southern Kitchen Without a Can of Cream of Mushroom Soup.