GOOD MORNING, FRIENDS

Today’s Podcast is episode 221106, which originally aired on WPVM 103.7fm, on November 4 & 5, 2022, and features Food Trivia for MANNA Foodbank with my buddies Rick Crelia & Alex Knighten. Rick is an eater, and together we also review Griff’s Kitchen (see pictures below). Alex is formerly of Bear’s BBQ, but now working at the famous AFG warehouse, and we talked about her transition out of the food industry, which is a topic that I hear about and talk about in real life pretty often these days. There’s also a short segment about F-bombs and catfish at the end. If you have time to listen, I hope you will enjoy!

Today’s Newsletter (below) features fresh hot delicious fancy food delivery, a tasty brunch item, a nearly forgotten favorite, and dessert of course!

FANCY FOOD FROM FAR AFIELD

I ordered up some super fancy grub from Griff's Kitchen & Bar, for delivery by Kickbackavl, and it was super delicious! It arrived piping hot, and still very well composed, even though it had taken a trip across town to get to me. I ordered chicken nuggets, shrimp and grits, and bread pudding for dessert.

The chicken nuggets were super tender, and just some of the best I’ve ever had. And yes, I eat a lot of chicken nuggets, and strips, and tenders, and sandwiches, and dinners. I love chicken. The shrimp and grits are likewise some of the best I’ve ever had. The sauce was very savory, there were large chunks of pork involved, the grits were coarse ground, and creamy, so they had some nice texture to them, and the shrimps were grilled, and very tasty! The bread pudding had small chunks of fresh apples in it, and a caramel sauce on top. Because everything, including the bread pudding, arrived nice and hot, I tucked into the bread pudding first so that I could enjoy it at its optimal best, and I’m really glad I did! It stayed warm while I ate my other food, so I polished it off afterwards.

It’s not cheap to get high-end food delivered from the other side of town, but every once in a while I gotta treat myself to some Griff’s, and it is too far away for me to get to on my own! Plus, this was a lot of food, so I still had some chicken nuggets and shrimp n grits to eat the next day.

Big thanks to all the folks involved with getting this delicious meal to me on a random Thursday night!

BETTER JUMP ON BRUNCH!

I went to Ukiah Japanese Smokehouse for brunch the other day, specifically to get the scallion potato pancake, with kimchi reduction, because I wanted to add two eggs to it, which I did! I’ve been thinking about doing this for weeks, and finally got in to the restaurant again, did it, and I was not disappointed! The eggs on top of the pancake, broken open with the yolks spilling out all over the place, was the perfect combo with the potato and kimchi flavors. It was excellent!!!

May be an image of food — You can see more pictures on Facebook…

I heard a rumor that this potato scallion pancake is not gonna stay on the menu for much longer — which is typical for brunch — so go get this combo while you can! And as always, tell them Stu sent you.

DON’T FORGET ABOUT SALSA’S

I went on an Asheville Food Tours lunch junket to Salsa's with my boss Paddy, and had an excellent meal! Salsa’s is the oldest restaurant in Asheville that has had the same ownership the entire time, Chef Hector & Aimee Diaz. It’s super popular with people visiting Asheville, but it’s been around so long that I think the locals, including myself, sometimes forget just how great it is! The food is very tasty, and you get a ton of it! Salsa’s is one of the very first places I that Dawn & I ate when we moved here 17 years ago, and it’s nice to see that it’s still full of happy patrons, and still doing a fantastic job!

From Facebook…

Sophie K: “What did you order?”
Stu Helm: “Okay, thanks for asking, because this is a little weird, but what you're looking at in these pictures is listed as "Chicken enchiladas" on the menu, but you can plainly see that it looks like a quesadilla. I just shrugged my shoulders, and tucked in. It was frickin' delish, no matter what the heck it was! LOL!”

ANNUAL FUNDRAISER FOR MANNA FOODBANK

Folks, we’re more than halfway there! That’s right, thanks to your generous donations, we have now raised $2,520 for MANNA Foodbank, which is just over the halfway mark towards our ultimate goal of $5,000 by December 31st! We made it halfway there in just one month, can we get the rest of the way in the next two months? I think so! If you can give, please do! Every dollar you donate guarantees 4 meals for people in need!

DONATE TO MANNA HERE

Thank you for contributing! Here’s dessert…

DESSERT

I few weeks ago I had a great cappuccino & a very yummy vegan sweet tater pie by Back Porch Baking Co. at Session Cafe in Citizen Vinyl. I love this place. I don’t look for vegan foods, I love butter a lot, but I know Chef Hayette Bouras from Back Porch makes some awesome vegan stuff, so I’m always up to try her creations, and I’m glad I did!

This thing was perfect, I wasn’t missing the animal products, and I would order it again any time! I recommend it to both vegans and omnivores alike. If you didn’t know it was vegan, you wouldn’t know it was vegan. Knowmsayin’? And that cappuccino was perfect as well, and always is at Session Cafe.

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Stu Helm: Food Fan

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