GOOD MORNING, FRIENDS
Today’s podcast and newsletter are both all about a special food tour I did with two travel bloggers from London, England. I hope that you will enjoy!
LONDON TRAVEL BLOGGERS TOUR
I was recently tasked by the TDA to bring a couple travel bloggers named Ashlee & Helena on a food tour of our fair city, and boy howdy, did I ever! We got an insane amount of amazing food at 10 different stops (a typical food tour has between 6 and 8 stops!) and our town just impressed the livin’ bejimmnies out of these two sophisticated world travelers from London, Y’all!
We had breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks, and dessert in about 3 1/2 hours from Baba Nahm, Nani’s Piri Piri Chicken, Huli Sue’s BBQ, The Rhu, Manicomio, White Duck Taco Shop, Sovereign Remedies, Zambra, Rhubarb, and Cultivated Cocktails. I ate along with them, and it was phenomenal, believe me.
ABOVE: Sitting at the Chefs’ Bar in Rhubarb is one of the greatest culinary experiences available in Asheville, and our British guests loved it! The food was BANGIN’ of course, and the chefs were happy to tell us about it and answer their questions. We were served pork belly, shrimp ’n’ rice, and a whole quail with Alabama white sauce. It was all fancy AF, with many more ingredients than I’ve listed above, and it was all sooooooo delicious!
ABOVE: This is my favorite picture that I took on the tour, and if you know Chef David Van Tassel from Sovereign Remedies, you know why. :) He served them some fried green tomatoes, with maple onion jam, and pimento cheese foam, all of which was a brand new experience for our two visitors from abroad! And the bartender made us all lovely drinks, mine w/o alcohol. It was a great stop, thanks, Sov Rems!
ABOVE: Ashlee (L) & Helena (R) took a “cheers” picture with the food at every stop of the tour! We started our journey at the Grove Arcade building with a wide variety of bites from Nani’s Piri Piri Chicken, Baba Nahm, and Huli Sue’s Hawaiian BBQ.
ABOVE: They are laughing after several failed attempts to “cheers” with slices of pizza at Manicomio.
We ate a metric shit-ton of food on this tour, and walked all over downtown Asheville. They seemed to be enjoying themselves very much in our funny little city, which they continuously referred to as a “like playing SIM.”
I didn’t get the SIM thing until we walked past a woman with blue hair, done up in two little buns, like mouse ears, who was dressed like a doll. Not in doll-like clothing, but straight up like a child’s doll. That’s when I looked at Helena, and she said, “See what I mean? SIM.” in her awesome British accent.
They had fun. I had fun. I hope the restaurants had some fun too! These two super-friendly folks graced our mountains with their laughter and enthusiasm for life last week, and it was nice to see grubby ol’ Asheville through their eyes. It’s a pretty great little city after all. If you haven’t gone downtown and done “cheers” with random food at at least 10 restaurants, I highly recommend that you do!
THIS JUST IN
From our good friends at Food Waste Solutions WNC…
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April is Food Waste Reduction Month in Asheville and Buncombe County
Food Waste Solutions WNC and Wicked Weed Brewing to host in-person chefs cook-off event, social media challenges
Asheville, April 5, 2022: Each year, an estimated 57,500 tons of food is wasted in Buncombe County — that’s about one-quarter of the county’s commercial and residential landfill waste.
To draw attention to the dire need for reducing food waste in Western North Carolina, April was officially designated Food Waste Reduction Month in Asheville last year, and now this year in Buncombe County.
Asheville Home Food Waste Challenge: All month long, follow @wncfoodwaste and #savethefoodavl on Instagram and Facebook to learn food waste reduction tips, hear about local Food Waste Heroes, and take part in the Asheville Home Food Waste Challenge to qualify for awesome prize packages from East Fork Pottery, Ware, Greenhill Worm Farm, and other local businesses.
Taste It, Don’t Waste It! Asheville Chefs Challenge!
New this year, Food Waste Solutions WNC is partnering with Wicked Weed Brewing to host the signature Food Waste Reduction Month event, Taste It, Don’t Waste It! Asheville Chefs Challenge. This fun twist on a cooking competition invites local chefs to prepare a dish from foods that might otherwise be thrown away. Guests can join the fun by sampling the offerings then voting to choose the Taste It, Don’t Waste It! champion.
2-4 p.m. Sunday, May 1, at Wicked Weed West, 145 Jacob Holm Way, Candler
Chef participants include Eric Morris (Cultura), Clarence Robinson (Cooking with Comedy and soon-to-open Areta’s Soul Food), Steven Goff (Tastee Diner), and John Rice (Wicked Weed Brewpub)
Free and open to the public!
Live music and tabling from local food waste reduction partner organizations
The City of Asheville and Buncombe County are supporting Food Waste Reduction Month campaign activities through their participation in the Natural Resource Defense Council’s Food Matters initiatives alongside other Southeast Cohort cities.
Food Waste Solutions WNC is a community of volunteers working together to reduce food waste in Western North Carolina. For more details about Food Waste Solutions WNC and Food Waste Reduction Month activities, visit wncfoodwaste.org.
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