ABOVE: The Podcast - I answer some of my least favorite questions.
BELOW: The Newsletter (may contain adult language) - GMF, The Recommend, Stoobie Awards Preview
GOOD MORNING FRIENDS
I hope the new year is treating you right so far. I absolutely LOVE that we finally got a little bit of snow, and as I write this, the weather prognosticators are predicting a little more snow in a day or two. YES! I’m a fan of Winter. I still do food tours all Winter long, and I love it! I’d much rather do them in the cold weather than the heat, that’s for dang sure! I just added a Sunday tour to my roster, speaking of tours. As usual, you can sign-up for one of my 3 weekly food tours at Asheville Food Tours. I personally think they’re especially fun for locals!
THE RECOMMEND
This is not the best picture, but it is one of the best flans I’ve ever had! Eh. Ver. No joke. No lie. Not kidding. Not exaggerating. It’s from Little Chango, the brand new, super-cute, “Casual Hispanic” restaurant on Coxe Ave on the South Slope, right across the street from the Funkatorium.
True to its name, Little Chango is TINY, with just a few seats at the bar inside, and some picnic tables on the patio outside, so they seem to be encouraging take-out orders, which is what I did. I got two of their “mounted arepas” which are like an open-faced sandwich on an arepa, and on a whim, I got their flan.
The arepas were BANGIN’ and I recommend those very much, but this flan… this flan was to die for. It’s light, creamy, sweet but not too sweet, and has the most pleasant, subtle flavor of coconut, cardamom, citrus, and caramel. Good lord. I loved it. It’s a 5 star dessert. Recommend.
STOOBIE AWARDS PREVIEW
Here’s a sneaky peeky at the first installment of my annual Asheville Food Fan Awards, aka The Stoobies for Newsletter subscribers ONLY!
I’ve been doing these awards for 8 years now! If you want to see who’s won my awards in past years, you can look HERE.
Below is a just basic, no frills list of the first 21 NOMINEES in the first six categories of my yearly superlatives! I prefer the term “of the Year” to “Best of.” The winners will be announced in the last week of January.
Food Event of The Year
Grindfest AVL / Black Wall Street AVL
Goombay
Food Competition of the Year
Cue for a Cause BBQ Throwdown
Bring Your Heat, Asheville
Dinner Impossible Food Truck Throw Down
Punk Rock Hot Dogs
Duke’s vs Blue Plate
Breakfast of the Year
Abeja’s House Cafe
Sunny Point Cafe
Sawhorse
Doc Brown’s BBQ
Lunch of the Year
Nani's Piri Piri Chicken née Nani’s Rotisserie Chicken
Ziggy’s Bakery & Deli
Waku Waku
Fancy Dinner of the Year
OaxaCalifornia Dinner
Swine’d Sustainably
Food Stories / Chow Chow
Meal of the Year
Odditorium
Griff's Kitchen & Bar
Ukiah Japanese Smokehouse
Zambra
There could be up to 24 categories with dozens of nominees in the end, which I’ll be announcing – with proper write-ups and pictures – over the next three weeks in my newsletter, and on Ashvegas!
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