Loveless Cafe

The great thing about going to medical school, besides obtaining an M.D. and becoming an infinitely desirable marriage prospect, is that you learn tons of random and obscure trivia. Like this: if you’re missing a certain enzyme in your liver, then you can’t eliminate the nitrogenous breakdown products of meat consumption. Sure, it would be easy to become a vegetarian or a vegan, but when you live in the South, that’s not an option. Really. When the vegetables and beans are flavored with meat products, what’s the only edible item that won’t cause massive abdominal pain and elevated blood nitrogen levels? Biscuits. Yes, you become what is called a “biscuit eater.”  Possibly one of the only vegetarian-friendly staples in the Southern diet, it’s also one of the most delicious non-fried items in the Southern diet. And at Loveless Cafe, they make hundreds of fluffy, golden-brown, handheld pieces of goodness every day.

If there were one place that you must visit in Nashville, it would be Loveless Cafe, located 30 minutes outside the actual city. It’s one of the only places you’ll see Asian tourists visit; I don’t think Opryland has that kind of clout with Asian tourists.

The wait was long on a Thursday evening, and by the time we got seated (40 minutes after we arrived), I was famished. That’s when I fell into the trap: complementary all-you-can-eat biscuits.  It took lots of will power and 4 biscuits before I could control myself. I had to get my head (and stomach) in the game–I just ordered the Southern Sampler, consisting of meatloaf, fried chicken, fried catfish, green beans, and hashbrowns. The opportunity to eat at Loveless doesn’t come very often, so I try to capitalize on every change I get, and the best way to do that is to get as close as possible to ordering one of everything. Or maybe I’m just a fatty and order way too much food every time I come here.

The fried chicken has set the standard in terms of quality: it’s a fried chicken breast that’s actually not dry on the inside, and the juice inside is actually chicken juice (it sounds disgusting though) instead of grease. The taste was a little bland. I didn’t taste eleven herbs and spices. But I think the quality of the crunch and the meat are enough to satisfy anyone seeking fried chicken.

The fried catfish had a mealy texture (it wasn’t batter-fried) and a little salty. The tarter sauce and lemon worked well enough to balance out that saltiness, so I can’t complain too much. The hush puppies, though, were awesome with their balance of fried exterior and doughy interior. It’s like a dessert, almost, except it’s served for dinner.

The meatloaf was juicy as well, and equally tasty. It’s density is quite befitting of the name meatloaf. And the sauce added a nice tomato and vinegar kick to the meat (it wasn’t ketchup), even though I could’ve eatin this without any sauce.

The green beans were too salty, but the hashbrowns were crunchy and cheesy. I should’ve replaced the green beans with their fried okra, which are made to have a slightly crunchy exterior and a moist interior, as opposed to versions with moist exterior and slimy interior that I’ve had at other places. And being the fatty that I am, I also tried other dishes that my friends ordered, like their barbecued pork and creamed corn, all of which were good. I would especally recommend the creamed corn, which tasted like a chunky and less soupy version of creamed corn soup, unless you hate cream of corn, then you would hate it.

I guess it’s good that Loveless Cafe is so far away. If it were any closer to Nashville I would quickly become another statistic for obesity rates in the South. But that shouldn’t deter you from coming here at least once!

It’s Tough Sometimes

The New York Times posted an article this past week “Love Food? Think Twice Before Jumping In” that struck me. It’s about the ups and downs of breaking into the restaurant business (mostly downs), especially for those who are chasing their dreams and passions. Owning a restaurant is hard; making it successful seems like it’s out of your hands sometimes. It’s difficult for me to hear about how our teashop, EMW Tea Co., isn’t doing too well–how it hasn’t been doing too well all summer, when we expected everyone to come out and get cold drinks. I wonder what went wrong. How is it that my family’s second foray into the food industry hasn’t had success, especially after all the acclaim we got for our first restaurant, China Bistro? Maybe what the article said is true: you get lots of encouragement from your friends, but you can’t count on them for business.

I wish I could read their minds. What are our customers thinking? Why do they say it’s really good and then never come back again? Did they violate their sacred bond with Starbucks by visiting us? Maybe that’s why they can’t come back: because they remain loyal to an international chain.

It’s hard when you’re across the country and can’t do anything to help.

Alpha Bakery

It was a gut feeling. Or it was hunger. But I knew that I was getting closer to something tasty. As I drove west from Nashville, Music City USA, the skyscrapers of downtown disappeared and were replaced by lush, green hills. The weather was humid. And, what do you know, there were vendors selling fruit from their trucks on the side of the road! It was a scene straight out of Taiwan, also known as the land of deliciousness.

Far from the country music, the barbecue, the fried chicken, Alpha Bakery resides in the middle of a vast expense of strip malls. Underneath its off-white and slightly worn exterior is a bakery that serves some of the finest baked goodies I’ve had in Nashville (besides biscuits from Loveless). While many of the items are European in origin, there is a considerable Japanese influence. It’s apparent when you first open the door and a sweet odor fills your airways, when you see the Japanese magazines by the door, and when you see the Japanese candies and drinks by the register, but it’s not so apparent when you look at the goodies they offer. This only becomes apparent after taking the first soft and chewy bite of any of their buns; it’s sweet, but not too sweet–a hallmark of Asian-European pastries. I don’t really know why there’s an Asian bakery in the middle of Tennessee, but I’d rather eat now and ask questions later.

It takes a bit of driving to get to Alpha Bakery, so it’s best to stock up when you go. I came away with enough bread for a week or two, given that it doesn’t mold too fast: a loaf of glazed alpha fan, two curry pans, a melon pan, a cream pan, and a slice of cheesecake.

The alpha fan I bought was glazed with a light apricot sauce. I couldn’t really taste it, but it’s probably because I loaded up each toasted slice with honey-sweet peach preserves from Loveless. The outside has the flaky texture of a croissant, and its insides are equally croissant-y and airy, but are also dense enough to support spreads. Not quite the Asian-style toast I’m used to, but it’s a solid purchase that won’t disappoint. 

The melon pan is aptly named because it looks like a melon, not because it tastes like one. The outside crust is a bit crispy–from both the baking process and some sugar granules–but the inside is doughy and a little sweet. Microwaving it for 10 seconds to make it soft and warm may make my belly even happier. 

The cream bun is soft and has the same soft and doughy texture, but is filled with a thick egg-tasting cream. It reminds me of Chinese or Portuguese egg tart filling in a bun. Also quite good if microwaved. 

The curry pan is covered in what I think is panko flakes and filled with a curried beef mixture. The filling doesn’t quite taste like Japanese curry, which usually has some touches of sweetness from honey or fruit; it actually tastes like curry-spiced meat. The outside is also extremely greasy for something that looked baked. It’s good, but the prospect of eating something that looks more oily than fried chicken, but not as tasty, is just a tad disturbing. 

The cheesecake was overpriced for such a small price. I think it was supposed to be New York cheesecake, but I don’t like the stiffness in New York style cheesecakes. It also wasn’t as sweet as I expected to be but that can be good or bad, depending on your preference. This left me with a “Meh.” 

It’s getting to that time in the school year when I gotta move back into the library so I won’t be able to visit Alpha Bakery as often, but that just means that I’ll have to stock up even more when I do get the opportunity to visit.

Alpha Bakery

7120 Highway 70 S

Nashville, TN 

(615) 673-8168

Samurai Sushi, Sushi Scandal

The New York Times recently published a couple articles about restaurants and supermarkets selling mislabeled fish, and the reaction is has created amongst high-profile New York restauranters. While Nashville is thousands of miles from the New York culinary scene, it would seem that Nashville isn’t without its own sushi switcheroo. With the popularity and prevalence of sushi these days, it would seem that there would be a high standard to satisfy for sushi palates. People are eating more sushi, so they would logically demand better quality sushi. It seems, however, that Samurai Sushi is trying to work around the demand for high quality sushi.

Sometimes the best thing to get when trying someplace else is a little bit of everything. That’s why there are appetizer samplers and combination dinners. I ordered the special combo at Samurai, which was supposed to come with 7 pieces of “fish sushi” and a crunchy shrimp roll ( shrimp tempura, roe, panko flakes, and mayo (?!)). When the dish came out, it came with four pieces of fish nigiri, a tamago nigiri, a shrimp nigiri, and a krab nigiri.

Krab. Not crab. Placed on top of rice, no wasabi underneath, and wrapped in nori (seaweed). I’m no sushi expert, but like Eric Ripert said, “It is impossible to mislead people who have knowledge.” Anyone who’s eaten crab will know krab is a terrible crab substitute; it’s the hot dog of seafood–made with all the parts that people don’t eat. How does someone try to pass off krab as 1. real seafood and 2. a topping for nigiri? I would’ve preferred to have another piece of tamago (egg) nigiri instead of trying to swallow krab. If a place is going to pass this off as a sushi ingredient, they would do better to fry it up, cover it in rice, top it with spicy mayo, and call it a crab roll. But it doesn’t matter to me. I won’t be coming back here.

Additional notes: it took them about 40 minutes to come out with my krab sushi. Their service was lacking as much as their sushi.

Samurai Sushi

2209 Elliston Pl # A

Nashville, TN

(615) 320-5438‎

Nashville Brunch Extravaganza

I’ve had quite a bit of brunch (aka greatest meal ever) in the past week.

Jackson’s

It takes a certain amount of skill to become a chef. One of those skills is probably the ability to not undercook and overcook food. Anyone can serve something raw or something overcooked. It’s that fine line in between, that state of “just right,” that is the domain of real chefs. It’s something that Jackson’s lacks.

I ordered an omelette with garlic, potatoes, and cheese. As you can probably tell from the photo, the egg is grossly overcooked. Omelettes are usually paper thin and light; this one was thick, which I don’t really mind, but it was also burnt, as indicated by the numerous brown crusts on the egg. I could’ve burnt my own eggs and paid myself 9 dollars.

The same thing happened to the “hash browns” I ordered. The dish was a disaster: the description said “hash browns covered in cheese and onions”–a clear winner in the realm of breakfast foods–but the hash browns were giant pieces of potatoes and were covered by burnt and crusty cheese and onions. Everything that could’ve gone wrong had gone wrong. No crunchy potato pieces, no melty cheese, and no sweet grilled onions. I still regret paying three dollars for the dish even now. Add in the fact that the patio was a smoking area, and this place becomes the last place I would ever go for brunch. And lunch. And dinner.

Le Peep

The skillet dish here was pretty standard, probably the same as the skillets I could get at Denny’s, except that Denny’s is cheaper and comes with more stuff i.e. pancakes, hash browns, etc. It’s good, but not good enough to warrant a trip out there.

Amerigo

Although I’ve heard that dinner here isn’t worth it, I think the brunch here has arguably the best brunch in Nashville. The food is super tasty and pretty cheap. It’s a much better choice than going to Jackson’s; whereas you get a single burnt omelette for $9 at Jackson’s, you can get a nice pork chop meal with julienned veggies and cheesy mashed potatoes for the same price.

The pork chop was a thick cut, but wasn’t dry as I thought it would be. The pineapple glaze wasn’t overly sweet, but I prefer the pork by itself. The potatoes were nice and toasty on the outside, but cheesy, leeky, and soft on the inside. All I can say is that if I were to recommend a place in Nashville, and it’s rare that I do, it would be Amerigo for brunch. Dinner and lunch are another story, but I prefer to not taint my opinion of the place with a (rumor has it) subpar and/or overpriced dinner.

So in conclusion:

Amerigo’s >> Le Peep > >Jackson’s

Jackson’s Bar and Bistro

1800 21st Ave S

Nashville, TN

(615) 385-9968‎

Le Peep

5133 Harding Pike # B6

Nashville, TN

(615) 353-0030

Amerigo

1920 W End Ave

Nashville, TN

(615) 320-1740‎

Seoul Garden – Huh?

Sometimes you come across something that makes you say “WTF?!”–like the first time I went to Seoul Garden in Nashville. It’s the South, where meat and threes and barbecue dominate the foodscape. There aren’t too many ethnic restaurants here. Usually, to get really good ethnic food, you need a demand for really authentic dishes. The stuff that only immigrants and ex-pats crave. So I have to ask myself, “Why is the food here of the same caliber with food I ate in Koreatown when I lived a few miles away from K-town during college?” Why, of all the cuisines in Nashville, is Korean the most delicious I’ve found so far? I guess the answer to my question was given by a Korean classmate: there are lots of Koreans living around Nashville.

Oh.

WTF? How’d that happen?

I’m not an an expert on immigration movements or social studies, but I am an expert on what I think is delicious. During the last year, I’ve visited a couple times and tried both their barbecue and regular entrees. One thing that I noticed is that the menu is more accessible to people who aren’t Korean. Back in K-town, a lot of places I went to only had Korean menus; I was limited to ordering from just a couple pictures. Here, pretty much every item has a corresponding picture, and each item has a little explanation that includes its ingredients. Thanks to that, I’ve been able to find dishes that I wanted to try in LA, but didn’t know how to order, like yookgaejang and sullungtang.

On this visit we started off with an order of haemul paejun, which is basically a pancake-like dish with seafood and onions. It can be pretty hard to find a well-made paejun; it has to have enough thickness to encase its ingredients, which included octopus, squid, etc., yet it has too be moist on the outside and crispy on the outside, which is often a feat that is quite difficult to accomplish. For $15, you get something the size of a medium/large pizza. It’s a pretty good deal in my opinion, and I don’t even like octopus.

The rest of the time we were busy cooking and eating meat. We ordered kalbi (short ribs), chicken, and pork (the most delicious of all!). Each person got a bowl of rice and an array of Korean barbecue accompaniments, which include green leaf lettuce to wrap up meat, rice, and other toppings like kimchi. I didn’t really think about taking a picture because we were too busy overstuffing our faces, but I guess if you imagine everything in the top picture wrapped in green leaf lettuce, then you can pretty much picture what the finished product looks like. It’s nice to know that I can get a taste of home (by home, I mean college and K-town, and not really home because I’m not Korean, but people think I’m Korean or want me to be Korean, but that’s another story for another sentence not consumed by commas) here in Nashville. It makes living 2000 miles away from home a little more bearable.

Seoul Garden

4928 Edmondson Pike
Nashville, TN 37211

Get Directions

(615) 445-3613