Saltwater Willy's Bayou Cafe
121 Jack White Drive
Kingsport, TN 37664
phone 423-765-1665
http://www.saltwaterwillysbayoucafe.com
Tonight my wife and I decided to get something out for dinner outside of the usual burger or pizza as she had worked quite late at her medical office. After picking her up, knowing that the usual wouldn't be very well received, I suggested we try Salt Water Willy's Bayou Cafe. It's located in the old Amato's building at the end of Jack White drive, which is directly behind Grand Furniture's building on E. Stone Drive.
This restaurant is owned by Wayne Michelli, who also owns Riverfront Seafood and is known to his fans as well as detractors as, "The Fish Nazi". He's a picky guy when it comes to seafood and you will pay for that quality.
When we arrived at the restaurant this evening at about 7:30PM, we had to search the parking lot over for a parking place, which we did find pretty fast. I thought this was a good sign as a busy place is normally doing something right as we're not in a tourist area. It also can mean that meat and seafood get a rapid turnover so you're less likely to get something less than reasonably fresh.
We entered the restaurant with some pleasant Zydeco music playing both outside near the door and inside the restaurant. The variety of Lousiana-flavored music at a reasonable volume level played throughout our meal was very pleasant and enjoyable. Our friendly hostess seated us quickly and didn't give me any crap for requesting a table. As some of you may know, I have mobility issues that causes me to avoid booths if possible. Unlike a previous trip to another nearby restaurant that was recently reviewed, she was quite accommodating. Surprisingly, there was almost no one in the restaurant that we could see. We found out that a local business was having a party in a private room and that explained most of the cars outside. We only
noticed one other couple in the main dining room with another that came in not long before we finished our meal.
Our cordial server, Brandy, quickly arrived at the table with our menus, took our drink order and asked us if we'd seen the appetizer listing posted on the board in the lobby. We had noticed one of them: fish tacos on special for $1. Being a fish taco lover, I asked her about them. She explained that they were pieces of fried tilapia with lettuce and pico de gallo on a soft taco and of a reasonable size. That sounded good to me and considering what some of the local Mexican places around here pass off as fish tacos, I was interested and later ordered one. I had a question about how the prices were listed on the menu. In the entrees, it would show something like: 9/13. She explained that the lower number was for a smaller portion and the larger price was for a serving that was twice the size. Fair enough.
http://www.saltwaterwillysbayoucafe.com/Menu.html
They've lately had an advertised special in the Thursday dining section of the Kingsport Times-News of "Two Can Dine For $20", and she explained it to us and gave us the special menu for it separate from the main one. Basically, you get an appetizer off the list, two house salads with choice of dressings and two entrees for $20. The selections of appetizers and entrees were reasonable compared to the regular menu offering. She neglected to tell us that the appetizer and entree portion size were on the modest size compared to the full price version.
They also had posted on the entry door another special running Monday-Thursday 5-8PM where if you bought two non-alcoholic drinks and an entree off the menu, the second entree would be free if equal or lesser in price to the first entree. A difficult choice between these two. After studying all this for a bit, we decided on the "2/$20" deal. We'd already ordered ice tea for drinks and selected the Calamari with Cajun Sauce for the appetizer. I went with bleu cheese for my salad and my wife chose the ranch dressing. I selected the Shrimp, Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya for my entree, which was supposed to come with a baguette. Sherri selected the Grilled Tilapia on Wild Rice with Broccoli. She chose the Cajun seasoning for the fish from a selection of plain, lemon & herb, cajun or you could have it blackened for $1 more.
The appetizer of calamari came out in a few minutes and I was quite impressed with the quality and taste of it, although not the portion size. It was barely enough for even what one person would normally expect for an appetizer and when I quizzed our server, she said the specials reduced the portion size. I told her I would've been quite upset to have been served such a small portion for $8, which was the price quoted on the menu. I wish I'd known about the reduced portion sizes of everything in advance of ordering. Still, the squid was cooked just right, not too done nor rubber band-like as most places manage to ruin it. Nicely breaded and quite tasty by itself, although a slice of lemon to go over it would've been a nice complement. The Cajun sauce served with it was a small ramekin of what looked and tasted like diced tomatoes with diced bell pepper that had been simmered together. Not what I was expecting at all for Cajun. It was okay in taste but not something I'd consider serving with a squid dish, mackerel maybe. Plain old cocktail sauce would probably have been a better choice, at least in my opinion.
The salads came in smaller salad bowls heaped up with the dressing on the side in little cups. The mixture of ingredients in the salads was nice but because of the small bowl sizes, it was difficult to mix the dressing in without flipping out salad onto the table. They would've been better to serve the same amount but in somewhat larger bowls. The bleu cheese dressing was very "bleu", which was a good thing as so many places bleu cheese dressing tastes mostly of ranch with a few crumbles of bleu cheese thrown in. The ranch dressing was deemed acceptable to my wife.
The entrees came out in a few minutes. My wife's Grilled Tilapia consisted of a good-sized and thick fillet of seasoned tilapia on a bed of mixed mostly white and a bit of wild rice barely bigger than the fillet. There was a number of good-sized florets of steamed broccoli accompanying it. My Shrimp, Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya came out on a plate layered only to the depth of the few small shrimp that were on it. I never did really notice the pieces of chicken that were supposed to be in it and can only assume they were there. The few pieces of Andouille sausage were thin slices that had been quartered. Possibly six small shrimp, neglible chicken and maybe three thin slices of andouille with rice, tomatoes and bell peppers. I guessed the actual serving size to be about two cups, maybe. It was pretty tasty though. The so-called baguette didn't arrive with the entree and I was almost finished with it before catching the server's attention to request it along with some butter. It wasn't a baguette at all that was brought out but a split-top hard roll with a chewy interior along with a small cup of margarine. Hmm.
Our server did come by with tea refills a couple of times without having to be asked which was nice. After finishing our entrees, she did tell us about the desserts and we chose the "Jimmy Lee Pie with Ice Cream", which was something one of the owners of the original Salt Water Willy's on New Beason Well Road of many years ago came up with. It was something like a chess bar in a 4" pie shell, drizzled with chocolate sauce and with a side dish of quality vanilla ice cream. While it was obvious that the pie had been microwaved (it was very hot inside), it was a nice dessert and the perfect size for us to split.
There was an abundance of staff on hand, along with the owner who did stop by to ask us about our meal and wishing to avoid a possible confrontation, I just said it was tasty. Considering the amount of customers, I'm sure most of the staff were on hand to deal with the private party. Our server was most congenial and among the best we've encountered lately. I guess I shouldn't have expected too much for our meal considering iced tea was like $2.29 per glass and if we'd ordered off the menu, we'd have spent close to $50 but had larger servings. As it was, our bill was $33.49 before adding a $6 tip. I would give this restaurant a 7/10 rating based upon my experience this evening.
I know that the owner has made it pretty clear to several I've spoken to over the years concerning Riverfront Seafood, that he doesn't really want, nor is looking to bring in the more budget-conscious customers that places like the new Fisherman's Dock in Colonial Heights, readily serves. I assume the same mindset also goes for Salt Water Willy's. However, I do know that every time I've been in Fisherman's Dock lately, the place has been full almost to capacity with customers lined up out the door for Sunday lunch. Several nearby restaurants employees, including a family member have told me that they've really taken a lot of their business since they've opened. I guess time will tell who has the better business concept.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
O'Charley's, Oh My
O'Charley's
1920 North Eastman Road
Kingsport, TN 37664
(423) 246-8868
I got a $10 discount card in the mail today for O'Charley's restaurants. The way it worked was $10 discount on any dine in or take out bill over $25 not including their "2 can dine for $15.99" special. I hadn't eaten there in probably two years as none of us cared for the food or the attitude of the staff the last time. Unfortunately, not a lot has changed after our visit this evening.
We were met inside by the hostess who seemed to get pretty upset when we asked for a table instead of a booth. It was about 5:30PM and the place wasn't 1/4 full outside of a private birthday party in one of the side rooms. She took us to the tables section of which none were occupied and proceeded to look around for a bit to decide where to seat us, which seemed strange. She finally chose a table, plunked down our menus and walked away to get a dish cloth to clean the table off which already looked okay. She wiped the table and just walked off. No, "your server will be so and so", no, "have a good meal", nothing. In a few minutes our server arrived and seemed pleasant enough but all through the meal continued to address me as "Buddy". I was plenty old enough to be his dad and I wouldn't have been offended with "sir" or anything slightly more respectful than "Buddy". To me that's almost as bad as some of these younger servers calling everyone at the table "you guys", especially if there are older females in the party.
We looked the menu over and after placing our order, we had to ask him for silverware while we waited after he brought out a basket of some large puffy rolls and sweet butter. We all ordered water with lemon as our beverage and he brought out the glasses of water and a small bowl of lemon wedges. That was the last time he mentioned our drinks and never once offered refills even when we were all empty by the end of the meal. Hmm.
We ordered a spinach and artichoke dip appetizer, which came out in a few minutes. Compared to Cheddar's, it was a lot smaller serving at the same price and my wife got a surprise in the second bite: a long, very wavy brown hair was hanging from her tortilla chip with dip! The server was alerted and he called the manager and they offered to give us another serving, which we accepted. At the time, the older lady manager was hardly cordial or apologetic until after the replacement arrived. After our entrees arrived, she did come back and said they would remove it from the bill, which was okay by me as it wasn't that appetizing anyway.
Our daughter had her wisdom teeth out a couple of days ago, so she ordered a chicken noodle soup and a side order of "smashed" potatoes. I ordered a "Grande Sirloin", which was a smaller than expected seasoned steak which came on a bed of the smashed potatoes with some tiny fried onion rings. The plate, which wasn't large, looked pretty empty. I had inquired about getting a side order of cole slaw with it and to my amazement, they don't offer coleslaw as a side even though they have fish and chips and burgers. My wife ordered a chicken bleu cheese and bacon sandwich. My steak was pretty good although I and my daughter couldn't help but notice that the smashed potatoes had chunks of potato in it that weren't quite done. My daughter did like the chicken noodle soup but wasn't feeling well and had it packaged to go. I tried a bite of my wife's chicken sandwich and while it tasted okay, the chicken was noticeably dry and overcooked. The manager came back out and said we could have a dessert on the house and we decided to try a mini order of their apple cobbler ($1.99), which was quite tasty. Still with empty glasses and no offer of a refill the server brought out the check and after laying the discount card along with my credit card on the bill, it took over ten minutes for him to come back with the ticket. He did come by once during that time and said they were still trying to figure out the bill. Hmm, I wonder what they'll do when they get buried with these discount cards over the weekend.
All and all, I'll have give them a 'C' grade on this visit. If I'd had to pay full price for everything and they hadn't comped the spinach dip, I'd be more than a little unhappy with the general service, quality and quantity of their food. They need to have Gordon Ramsay come through or something as they intentionally or not violate many of the things a good restaurant, chain or otherwise, should be about. I guess I'll be going to Cheddar's next time I feel the urge to eat at a casual dining establishment. They've rarely disappointed me over the years.
1920 North Eastman Road
Kingsport, TN 37664
(423) 246-8868
I got a $10 discount card in the mail today for O'Charley's restaurants. The way it worked was $10 discount on any dine in or take out bill over $25 not including their "2 can dine for $15.99" special. I hadn't eaten there in probably two years as none of us cared for the food or the attitude of the staff the last time. Unfortunately, not a lot has changed after our visit this evening.
We were met inside by the hostess who seemed to get pretty upset when we asked for a table instead of a booth. It was about 5:30PM and the place wasn't 1/4 full outside of a private birthday party in one of the side rooms. She took us to the tables section of which none were occupied and proceeded to look around for a bit to decide where to seat us, which seemed strange. She finally chose a table, plunked down our menus and walked away to get a dish cloth to clean the table off which already looked okay. She wiped the table and just walked off. No, "your server will be so and so", no, "have a good meal", nothing. In a few minutes our server arrived and seemed pleasant enough but all through the meal continued to address me as "Buddy". I was plenty old enough to be his dad and I wouldn't have been offended with "sir" or anything slightly more respectful than "Buddy". To me that's almost as bad as some of these younger servers calling everyone at the table "you guys", especially if there are older females in the party.
We looked the menu over and after placing our order, we had to ask him for silverware while we waited after he brought out a basket of some large puffy rolls and sweet butter. We all ordered water with lemon as our beverage and he brought out the glasses of water and a small bowl of lemon wedges. That was the last time he mentioned our drinks and never once offered refills even when we were all empty by the end of the meal. Hmm.
We ordered a spinach and artichoke dip appetizer, which came out in a few minutes. Compared to Cheddar's, it was a lot smaller serving at the same price and my wife got a surprise in the second bite: a long, very wavy brown hair was hanging from her tortilla chip with dip! The server was alerted and he called the manager and they offered to give us another serving, which we accepted. At the time, the older lady manager was hardly cordial or apologetic until after the replacement arrived. After our entrees arrived, she did come back and said they would remove it from the bill, which was okay by me as it wasn't that appetizing anyway.
Our daughter had her wisdom teeth out a couple of days ago, so she ordered a chicken noodle soup and a side order of "smashed" potatoes. I ordered a "Grande Sirloin", which was a smaller than expected seasoned steak which came on a bed of the smashed potatoes with some tiny fried onion rings. The plate, which wasn't large, looked pretty empty. I had inquired about getting a side order of cole slaw with it and to my amazement, they don't offer coleslaw as a side even though they have fish and chips and burgers. My wife ordered a chicken bleu cheese and bacon sandwich. My steak was pretty good although I and my daughter couldn't help but notice that the smashed potatoes had chunks of potato in it that weren't quite done. My daughter did like the chicken noodle soup but wasn't feeling well and had it packaged to go. I tried a bite of my wife's chicken sandwich and while it tasted okay, the chicken was noticeably dry and overcooked. The manager came back out and said we could have a dessert on the house and we decided to try a mini order of their apple cobbler ($1.99), which was quite tasty. Still with empty glasses and no offer of a refill the server brought out the check and after laying the discount card along with my credit card on the bill, it took over ten minutes for him to come back with the ticket. He did come by once during that time and said they were still trying to figure out the bill. Hmm, I wonder what they'll do when they get buried with these discount cards over the weekend.
All and all, I'll have give them a 'C' grade on this visit. If I'd had to pay full price for everything and they hadn't comped the spinach dip, I'd be more than a little unhappy with the general service, quality and quantity of their food. They need to have Gordon Ramsay come through or something as they intentionally or not violate many of the things a good restaurant, chain or otherwise, should be about. I guess I'll be going to Cheddar's next time I feel the urge to eat at a casual dining establishment. They've rarely disappointed me over the years.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Fettuccine with Shrimp and Basil Cream
It's been quite some time since I've posted to this blog but I haven't forgotten about it! I had about 3/4 lb. of frozen raw shrimp in the freezer and thought I might make some of it in a butter and wine sauce with fettuccine that I had on hand. After looking at the back of the pasta box, I noticed it had a couple of interesting recipes using shrimp and the fettuccine and this is the one I decided to prepare tonight:
Fettuccine with Shrimp and Basil Cream
1 lb. package Fettuccine, uncooked
4 Tbsp. butter
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped or 3 tsp. garlic powder
1 lb. shrimp, deveined
1 cup fresh basil leaves, packed or 1 Tbsp. dried basil
Salt to taste
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
Cook pasta according to package directions (I did 12 minutes), drain. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add garlic and saute until lightly browned. Add shrimp cooking 4 minutes or until shrimp is pink (not quite done). Stir in basil, salt and cream. Let simmer 5 minutes. Pour sauce over pasta and serve immediately.
One thing I noticed was with using sweet cream unsalted butter, I had to add slightly over a tsp. of salt to the cream. Another thing to remember about sauces with pasta is that extra salt is often necessary as once the sauce is added to the pasta, it may not be salty enough. I added an additional 1/4 tsp. to make up for this and once poured and mixed into the pasta, it turned out just right.
I slightly modified the recipe by chopping about 1/4 of a small white onion and adding to the butter along with the garlic. I used dried basil as I can't justify the price of fresh basil at almost $2. While the sauce was simmering, I added about 4 tsp. of dry Chinese Michiu rice wine a couple of minutes before it was done and 1/8 tsp. white pepper just before pouring the basil cream sauce over the pasta. I thought it turned out pretty good to have come off the back of a Walmart Great Value brand pasta box! Even my wife said it was good instead of just okay which is her usual response to my cooking. Feel free to play around with this, you might come up with something even better. Fear no food!
Fettuccine with Shrimp and Basil Cream
1 lb. package Fettuccine, uncooked
4 Tbsp. butter
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped or 3 tsp. garlic powder
1 lb. shrimp, deveined
1 cup fresh basil leaves, packed or 1 Tbsp. dried basil
Salt to taste
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
Cook pasta according to package directions (I did 12 minutes), drain. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add garlic and saute until lightly browned. Add shrimp cooking 4 minutes or until shrimp is pink (not quite done). Stir in basil, salt and cream. Let simmer 5 minutes. Pour sauce over pasta and serve immediately.
One thing I noticed was with using sweet cream unsalted butter, I had to add slightly over a tsp. of salt to the cream. Another thing to remember about sauces with pasta is that extra salt is often necessary as once the sauce is added to the pasta, it may not be salty enough. I added an additional 1/4 tsp. to make up for this and once poured and mixed into the pasta, it turned out just right.
I slightly modified the recipe by chopping about 1/4 of a small white onion and adding to the butter along with the garlic. I used dried basil as I can't justify the price of fresh basil at almost $2. While the sauce was simmering, I added about 4 tsp. of dry Chinese Michiu rice wine a couple of minutes before it was done and 1/8 tsp. white pepper just before pouring the basil cream sauce over the pasta. I thought it turned out pretty good to have come off the back of a Walmart Great Value brand pasta box! Even my wife said it was good instead of just okay which is her usual response to my cooking. Feel free to play around with this, you might come up with something even better. Fear no food!
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Restaurant Review: Golden Dragon Chinese Buffet & Hibachi Grill
Golden Dragon Chinese Buffet & Hibachi Grill
2404 Memorial Blvd.
Kingsport, TN 37664
phone 423-765-9588
fax 423-765-9589
I apologize to my readers for the lack of recent posts. I've got a couple of other restaurants to review besides this one that I hope to post soon. Back to the Golden Dragon: this in no way is related to the venerable Golden Dragon Chinese Restaurant that was in Kingsport for many years at the corner of E. Sevier St. and N. Wilcox Dr. It appears from their advertisements to be part of a chain. The building they're in is directly behind the Ft. Henry Mall/Kingsport Town Center in the former Ryan's Steakhouse/Red Apple Chinese Buffet that's in front of Ross N. Robinson Middle School.
We went there this Friday evening (7/8/11) with my wife, daughter and her boyfriend. As I had only a light late breakfast about 10 AM, I was ready to try as many things as my appetite could handle! The first thing that you notice when entering this fairly large restaurant is the large number of well-lighted steam table buffet stations. In addition to these it has a couple of cold stations as well as a "Hibachi Grill" where dishes can be fixed to your choosing in a giant wok from meats, vegetables and sauces of your selection. This is a feature that my friends Emily & Daniel Wong first featured in Kingsport as a "Mongolian Grill" at their nearby Ming Garden restaurant that's currently celebrating their twentieth anniversary.
After being seated by our friendly hostess (who knew our son), we were attended to by our cordial but basically non-English speaking waitress and placed our drink orders. This went somewhat awkwardly due the language issues as my daughter asked if they had Mr. Pibb which she didn't quite comprehend. After she gave us the list of available drinks (I requested ice water with lemon which ended up coming without lemon), we placed our orders and everyone proceeded to hit the buffet. We did have problems with our waitress keeping up with our drink refills and waiting for our cheque. I suspect she's not been long off the boat with her poor English comprehension.
As my daughter and her boyfriend had eaten her a couple of weeks earlier and told me about some of the offerings that were unique from other local Chinese buffets, I started on one side and quickly had a look around. One of the first things that caught my eye were oysters on the half-shell complete with a plate of lemon slices next to it. I selected three large good-looking oysters and a cold green mussel topped in a sweet-hot chili sauce. On a hot table I selected three green mussels with cheese sauce which seems to be pretty common at Chinese buffets at least locally. I also went to the sushi/sashimi table next to the hibachi grill and selected about six different sushi selections that surprisingly included Ahi tuna and salmon amongst several other types. We are so far from the coast and oysters are so expensive that I had a brief moment of nirvana enjoying them drizzled with lemon juice and salt. If only they'd had some Tabasco sauce to put on them! They were quite tasty and I could've easily eaten a coupe of dozen but wanted to have room to try the other offerings. If you notice my obituary in the paper in the next day or two, you'll know the oysters are what did me in as they are a bit risky! The mussels with cheese were okay but China Star's are definitely better. The sushi was quite good as I like Nori seaweed in a lot of things but the Ahi tuna was wonderful with just a bit of soy sauce without having to swish in a wasabi/soy combination. I also tried one of the fried dumplings with sauce that was pretty good. My daughter said their fried cheese wontons weren't too good but I didn't get the chance to try them. Another intersting dish on a cold table was the whole baby octopus in a sweet and slightly spicy sauce. They were quite tasty but frightened a couple of people at our table! I would really love to have hot squid dishes available at a buffet like this. There's much more to squid than just calamari, trust me. The Chinese have come up with some amazing dishes made from these critters!
Other notable items sampled were the roast duck. It was basically roast duck, skin on, chopped into various pieces and a plate of orange slices and a bowl of a fairly tasty soy/five spice sauce to ladle over it. I'm a big fan of duck and really miss the old Peking Restaurant that used to be in Johnson City, TN. They had a fabulous roast duck that sets the standard for any I've tried since. This duck was cooked pretty well, you just had to be selective about the pieces unless you like picking duck ribs which results in little meat but a whole lot of ribs and fatty skin. By and large I was pleasantly surprised by their roast duck. Another poultry dish I tried at the boyfriend's suggestion was the Hong Kong Chicken. It was chunks of boneless chicken in a somewhat orange, sweet and seasoned glaze that was pretty tasty.
Another dish I love is frog legs and Golden Dragon's didn't disappoint. They were complete hind leg sections cooked in a light seasoned batter coating and were pretty tasty with a lot of meat. If you've never had the nerve to try frog legs, let me tell you that they are quite delicious. If you like chicken, you'll be okay with frog. Same with turtle but that's for a different time. Many Chinese buffets around here at least offer snow crab legs on their dinner buffets especially on weekends. Surprisingly, these weren't available but instead they had basically chopped up sections of blue crab, also with a light seasoned batter. While these looked good and the batter was interesting, there was almost no crab meat left to pick in these sections. As you may know, blue crabs have almost no meat in their legs like their larger cousins the snow and king crabs. Unfortunately, these had almost no meat even in the claws which was a big surprise and a bit disappointing. They also had cooked whole crayfish which were okay, it's just peeling crawdads is such a pain for the small amount of meat in their tails. They did have a number of shrimp dishes and the couple I tried were good. They also have several boiled and fried fish dishes. Another surprise was the small steamed clams. I'm not sure what type they were but looked a lot like Manila clams and were definitely not Cherrystone's. Unfortunately as I rummaged through them, there were a lot of pretty open shells but only a couple that had the clam inside. I don't know if people had picked the clam out and left the shells or what. It was pretty strange and I passed them over.
As I was rapidly getting full from the aforementioned selections, I wanted to try some dessert to round out the meal. They have the usual selection of odd cakes and such but also a large selection of cold fruits like watermelon, grapes and so on. Some I wasn't expecting were there and that I really like including loquats and lychee. Loquats are unique to Asia and have a round orange fruit about the size of an apricot that contains a single large seed. Canners peel the fruit and remove the seed leaving the fruit with a single noticeable hole in each fruit. They taste something like a peach and apricot combination and are very expensive if you ever find them available. Lychees are also an Asian tree fruit that has a somewhat hard red armored exterior and are about the size of a large grape. Canners remove the shell and the single large seed leaving a round white fruit also with a single hole and they taste something like a grape and strawberry cross. Either of these should be tried if you ever encounter them. They also had slices of kiwi fruit on the bar which you don't see too often. On the hot table where they keep the soups, they have the sesame bean balls. I'm not sure what the proper name of these are but they are round, about the size of a quarter, covered in sesame seeds and consist of a pastry that's filled with slightly-sweet adzuki bean paste. This is an old-time dessert as the Chinese until recent years didn't eat very much really sweet things like we've done in the West for way too many years. This particular dessert in pretty much an authentic flavor from the past and are somewhat chewy and I like them!
The biggest problem with the Golden Dragon is that they have so many selections that you would have to make at least a half dozen visits to sample most of their offerings! While I've stated in a previous post that I'm not a big fan of Chinese buffets due to the food almost never being as good as individually prepared dishes, this one does have mostly okay food from what I've tried and nothing was really hideous as has occurred at a few other local Chinese buffets. They do offer a number of American items so that surely everyone in your party can find something they'll find acceptable. For the adventurous eater, I think you may be pleasantly surprised! I'm going to give them a 3 out of 5 stars rating based upon what I've tried thus far and the fact that it's a buffet which is an automatic one star deduction by my methodology. I'd recommend you give them a try and come up with your own opinion that I'd be interested in hearing. Fear No Food!
2404 Memorial Blvd.
Kingsport, TN 37664
phone 423-765-9588
fax 423-765-9589
I apologize to my readers for the lack of recent posts. I've got a couple of other restaurants to review besides this one that I hope to post soon. Back to the Golden Dragon: this in no way is related to the venerable Golden Dragon Chinese Restaurant that was in Kingsport for many years at the corner of E. Sevier St. and N. Wilcox Dr. It appears from their advertisements to be part of a chain. The building they're in is directly behind the Ft. Henry Mall/Kingsport Town Center in the former Ryan's Steakhouse/Red Apple Chinese Buffet that's in front of Ross N. Robinson Middle School.
We went there this Friday evening (7/8/11) with my wife, daughter and her boyfriend. As I had only a light late breakfast about 10 AM, I was ready to try as many things as my appetite could handle! The first thing that you notice when entering this fairly large restaurant is the large number of well-lighted steam table buffet stations. In addition to these it has a couple of cold stations as well as a "Hibachi Grill" where dishes can be fixed to your choosing in a giant wok from meats, vegetables and sauces of your selection. This is a feature that my friends Emily & Daniel Wong first featured in Kingsport as a "Mongolian Grill" at their nearby Ming Garden restaurant that's currently celebrating their twentieth anniversary.
After being seated by our friendly hostess (who knew our son), we were attended to by our cordial but basically non-English speaking waitress and placed our drink orders. This went somewhat awkwardly due the language issues as my daughter asked if they had Mr. Pibb which she didn't quite comprehend. After she gave us the list of available drinks (I requested ice water with lemon which ended up coming without lemon), we placed our orders and everyone proceeded to hit the buffet. We did have problems with our waitress keeping up with our drink refills and waiting for our cheque. I suspect she's not been long off the boat with her poor English comprehension.
As my daughter and her boyfriend had eaten her a couple of weeks earlier and told me about some of the offerings that were unique from other local Chinese buffets, I started on one side and quickly had a look around. One of the first things that caught my eye were oysters on the half-shell complete with a plate of lemon slices next to it. I selected three large good-looking oysters and a cold green mussel topped in a sweet-hot chili sauce. On a hot table I selected three green mussels with cheese sauce which seems to be pretty common at Chinese buffets at least locally. I also went to the sushi/sashimi table next to the hibachi grill and selected about six different sushi selections that surprisingly included Ahi tuna and salmon amongst several other types. We are so far from the coast and oysters are so expensive that I had a brief moment of nirvana enjoying them drizzled with lemon juice and salt. If only they'd had some Tabasco sauce to put on them! They were quite tasty and I could've easily eaten a coupe of dozen but wanted to have room to try the other offerings. If you notice my obituary in the paper in the next day or two, you'll know the oysters are what did me in as they are a bit risky! The mussels with cheese were okay but China Star's are definitely better. The sushi was quite good as I like Nori seaweed in a lot of things but the Ahi tuna was wonderful with just a bit of soy sauce without having to swish in a wasabi/soy combination. I also tried one of the fried dumplings with sauce that was pretty good. My daughter said their fried cheese wontons weren't too good but I didn't get the chance to try them. Another intersting dish on a cold table was the whole baby octopus in a sweet and slightly spicy sauce. They were quite tasty but frightened a couple of people at our table! I would really love to have hot squid dishes available at a buffet like this. There's much more to squid than just calamari, trust me. The Chinese have come up with some amazing dishes made from these critters!
Other notable items sampled were the roast duck. It was basically roast duck, skin on, chopped into various pieces and a plate of orange slices and a bowl of a fairly tasty soy/five spice sauce to ladle over it. I'm a big fan of duck and really miss the old Peking Restaurant that used to be in Johnson City, TN. They had a fabulous roast duck that sets the standard for any I've tried since. This duck was cooked pretty well, you just had to be selective about the pieces unless you like picking duck ribs which results in little meat but a whole lot of ribs and fatty skin. By and large I was pleasantly surprised by their roast duck. Another poultry dish I tried at the boyfriend's suggestion was the Hong Kong Chicken. It was chunks of boneless chicken in a somewhat orange, sweet and seasoned glaze that was pretty tasty.
Another dish I love is frog legs and Golden Dragon's didn't disappoint. They were complete hind leg sections cooked in a light seasoned batter coating and were pretty tasty with a lot of meat. If you've never had the nerve to try frog legs, let me tell you that they are quite delicious. If you like chicken, you'll be okay with frog. Same with turtle but that's for a different time. Many Chinese buffets around here at least offer snow crab legs on their dinner buffets especially on weekends. Surprisingly, these weren't available but instead they had basically chopped up sections of blue crab, also with a light seasoned batter. While these looked good and the batter was interesting, there was almost no crab meat left to pick in these sections. As you may know, blue crabs have almost no meat in their legs like their larger cousins the snow and king crabs. Unfortunately, these had almost no meat even in the claws which was a big surprise and a bit disappointing. They also had cooked whole crayfish which were okay, it's just peeling crawdads is such a pain for the small amount of meat in their tails. They did have a number of shrimp dishes and the couple I tried were good. They also have several boiled and fried fish dishes. Another surprise was the small steamed clams. I'm not sure what type they were but looked a lot like Manila clams and were definitely not Cherrystone's. Unfortunately as I rummaged through them, there were a lot of pretty open shells but only a couple that had the clam inside. I don't know if people had picked the clam out and left the shells or what. It was pretty strange and I passed them over.
As I was rapidly getting full from the aforementioned selections, I wanted to try some dessert to round out the meal. They have the usual selection of odd cakes and such but also a large selection of cold fruits like watermelon, grapes and so on. Some I wasn't expecting were there and that I really like including loquats and lychee. Loquats are unique to Asia and have a round orange fruit about the size of an apricot that contains a single large seed. Canners peel the fruit and remove the seed leaving the fruit with a single noticeable hole in each fruit. They taste something like a peach and apricot combination and are very expensive if you ever find them available. Lychees are also an Asian tree fruit that has a somewhat hard red armored exterior and are about the size of a large grape. Canners remove the shell and the single large seed leaving a round white fruit also with a single hole and they taste something like a grape and strawberry cross. Either of these should be tried if you ever encounter them. They also had slices of kiwi fruit on the bar which you don't see too often. On the hot table where they keep the soups, they have the sesame bean balls. I'm not sure what the proper name of these are but they are round, about the size of a quarter, covered in sesame seeds and consist of a pastry that's filled with slightly-sweet adzuki bean paste. This is an old-time dessert as the Chinese until recent years didn't eat very much really sweet things like we've done in the West for way too many years. This particular dessert in pretty much an authentic flavor from the past and are somewhat chewy and I like them!
The biggest problem with the Golden Dragon is that they have so many selections that you would have to make at least a half dozen visits to sample most of their offerings! While I've stated in a previous post that I'm not a big fan of Chinese buffets due to the food almost never being as good as individually prepared dishes, this one does have mostly okay food from what I've tried and nothing was really hideous as has occurred at a few other local Chinese buffets. They do offer a number of American items so that surely everyone in your party can find something they'll find acceptable. For the adventurous eater, I think you may be pleasantly surprised! I'm going to give them a 3 out of 5 stars rating based upon what I've tried thus far and the fact that it's a buffet which is an automatic one star deduction by my methodology. I'd recommend you give them a try and come up with your own opinion that I'd be interested in hearing. Fear No Food!
Monday, May 16, 2011
China Star Review 5/13/11
China Star Buffet
2400 W Stone Dr # 7
Kingsport, TN 37660-2388
(423) 247-8883
China Star is a large buffet restaurant located in the Jennings Farm Shopping Center on the west side of Kingsport, TN. The shopping center is located between the Walmart and the new Lowe's right off W. Stone Drive/Hwy 11-W at Deneen Ln. This fairly large buffet restaurant was one of the first tenants in the shopping center and has been fairly popular for several years being the first Chinese restaurant on the west side of town.
This restaurant has apparently changed management or ownership within the past year or so as it seems to have a completely new front of house staff. This restaurant has had one of the largest Chinese buffet offerings in Kingsport until recently.
The restaurant has three quite long two-sided steam tables and a large chilled table that support a large variety of Chinese food items. In the past year or so they've added a few sushi items to the chilled section and also have an ice cream freezer with at least eight flavors for those that might possibly have room for a dessert after sampling the rest of their offerings. From the time this restaurant first opened about five years ago, they were fairly consistent in their food items under the previous management as the food tasted pretty similar from day to day.
Let me tell you straight away that I am not a fan of Chinese buffet restaurants in general. From my own training in Chinese restaurants, chefs are taught to produce one dish at a time in the classical Chinese restaurant environment. The only items that are produced en masse are such things as egg rolls, fried rice and soups. To turn out a particular item in a large quantity as is required for a buffet, which is normally six to eight servings, is extremely hard to do with any consistency or quality. Much of this has to do with the wok that most foods are cooked in as well as the chef preparing it. The typical restaurant wok works best preparing no more than two servings of an item at a time. Beyond that it requires a much larger wok that has different requirements in temperature control much less the fine tuning of the many ingredients that often comprise a particular dish. The sauces that are an integral part of many dishes are not a premix in most instances. The ingredients are added one at a time to build the item's flavor profile. All of these things contribute to why most foods on a buffet are not as good as a single dish ordered off a menu in a quality Chinese restaurant.
Back to the China Star: this restaurant has several good items that aren't normally seen on many Chinese buffets. Their broiled green mussels with a cheese sauce is a very tasty item if not very authentic to Chinese cuisine. They also have a coconut chicken that's also very tasty. It's battered chunks of chicken deep fried with a thick, sweet coconut sauce. I suspect the sauce is derived from cream of coconut like Coco Lopez which is used to make a real Piña Colada drink. Authentic Chinese or not, it's tasty. Another is their peanut chicken which is pounded thin boneless chicken breasts coated in Panko crumbs, deep fried, sliced into strips and coated with an Indonesian-style peanut butter-based Satay sauce. Quite tasty if not Chinese. They have a tasty green bean dish which consists of very skinny young green beans (all green, no bean) that have been stir fried with garlic and other seasonings. Besides stir fried potatoes, this is one of the few vegetable offerings on the buffet if you exclude rice and noodle dishes.
Our Friday the 13th dinner was not very lucky nor one of the better meals I've had at this restaurant. On weekends, besides the wonderful cheese mussels, they have snow crab legs. Unfortunately, there were nothing but scrap pieces on the steam table from when we arrived at approximately 7 PM until we left an hour later when they finally put some more out. I was looking forward to them even if they use no seasonings and often overcook them. One thing that does bother me about many of these buffets is that at least 75% of their dishes are made from chicken. I grew up with Chinese restaurants that had such wonderful dishes as sweet and sour pork which I've found on very few buffets over the years. Sweet and sour chicken ala China Star is just not the same. In fact, I found no pork items on the buffet, even in their version of hot and sour soup. They do offer Mongolian beef and pepper steak. They had one fish item which was a slab of broiled salmon which I've had before and it was pretty much tasteless with a dusting of paprika to make it appear seasoned. They did have a couple of shrimp items such as typical breaded fried shrimp but they'd been on the buffet for way too long. It seems like none of the items are cleared away from being out too long rather they're only replaced with fresh when the bins are mostly emptied.
Their spring rolls were smaller in diameter than my fingers and were more wrapper than the unidentifiable tasteless filling they contained. Their Mongolian beef was definitely not as good as I'd had in previous visits and totally lacked that almost barbecued flavor that stir frying it in very hot oil produces. I made a huge mistake in trying their seafood casserole which consists of surimi seafood with tiny shrimp in a cheesy sauce. It's normally as okay as anything made with surimi can be but not this time. Evidently, some of the surimi or shrimp had spoiled and in the words of my son, "it tastes like death." That was not an understatement and after spitting out my first bite, I took a napkin to scrape my tongue hoping that it wouldn't kill me in a few hours. I can't remember ever putting anything in my mouth that tasted so vile. By that point my appetite had waned considerably and I thought I might try a few fruit items from the cold table to repair my taste buds. Their so-called sushi looked nice but contained no raw items and was disappointing. Wrapping sushi rice with nori around a piece of surimi and cream cheese leaves much to be desired. Even the wasabi was sub-standard as it was so mild and/or adulterated. I expect wasabi mixed with a little soy to clear my sinuses in about fifteen seconds after taking a bite of sushi I've swished through it. No such luck that night and barely any taste. I tried the Mandarin orange segments and I suspect they'd been on the buffet for several days as they were limp and sour in a fermented kind of way. My wife did like the raspberry-lime sherbet but I'm not convinced that a bowl of murky water is the best place to keep the communal ice cream dippers between customers. The honeydew melon was okay but the cantaloupe was pretty bad but that didn't surprise me since it's so early in the season. I though I'd try the cherry cobbler but found that it was only extremely thick cherry pie filling that must've been on the buffet since lunch and no pastry was evident. They used to have such things as sesame seed covered adzuki bean-filled steamed balls which were tasty if you caught them fresh but they don't seem to be available anymore.
My verdict is that this restaurant that was once as good as a typical Chinese buffet can be, has slipped considerably in several critical areas. Food quality needs major improvement including replacing items that have been out on the buffet too long. Allowing a seafood dish such as the seafood casserole to be served shows that no one in the kitchen is sampling before they serve it. Not regularly refilling popular items such as the the crab legs on a night they're featured is another mistake. The staff quality seems to have slipped a bit too as we were already seated with our first plates of food before our drink orders were delivered. Based upon our party of three's experiences Friday night, I can't in good conscience recommend China Star Buffet.
2400 W Stone Dr # 7
Kingsport, TN 37660-2388
(423) 247-8883
China Star is a large buffet restaurant located in the Jennings Farm Shopping Center on the west side of Kingsport, TN. The shopping center is located between the Walmart and the new Lowe's right off W. Stone Drive/Hwy 11-W at Deneen Ln. This fairly large buffet restaurant was one of the first tenants in the shopping center and has been fairly popular for several years being the first Chinese restaurant on the west side of town.
This restaurant has apparently changed management or ownership within the past year or so as it seems to have a completely new front of house staff. This restaurant has had one of the largest Chinese buffet offerings in Kingsport until recently.
The restaurant has three quite long two-sided steam tables and a large chilled table that support a large variety of Chinese food items. In the past year or so they've added a few sushi items to the chilled section and also have an ice cream freezer with at least eight flavors for those that might possibly have room for a dessert after sampling the rest of their offerings. From the time this restaurant first opened about five years ago, they were fairly consistent in their food items under the previous management as the food tasted pretty similar from day to day.
Let me tell you straight away that I am not a fan of Chinese buffet restaurants in general. From my own training in Chinese restaurants, chefs are taught to produce one dish at a time in the classical Chinese restaurant environment. The only items that are produced en masse are such things as egg rolls, fried rice and soups. To turn out a particular item in a large quantity as is required for a buffet, which is normally six to eight servings, is extremely hard to do with any consistency or quality. Much of this has to do with the wok that most foods are cooked in as well as the chef preparing it. The typical restaurant wok works best preparing no more than two servings of an item at a time. Beyond that it requires a much larger wok that has different requirements in temperature control much less the fine tuning of the many ingredients that often comprise a particular dish. The sauces that are an integral part of many dishes are not a premix in most instances. The ingredients are added one at a time to build the item's flavor profile. All of these things contribute to why most foods on a buffet are not as good as a single dish ordered off a menu in a quality Chinese restaurant.
Back to the China Star: this restaurant has several good items that aren't normally seen on many Chinese buffets. Their broiled green mussels with a cheese sauce is a very tasty item if not very authentic to Chinese cuisine. They also have a coconut chicken that's also very tasty. It's battered chunks of chicken deep fried with a thick, sweet coconut sauce. I suspect the sauce is derived from cream of coconut like Coco Lopez which is used to make a real Piña Colada drink. Authentic Chinese or not, it's tasty. Another is their peanut chicken which is pounded thin boneless chicken breasts coated in Panko crumbs, deep fried, sliced into strips and coated with an Indonesian-style peanut butter-based Satay sauce. Quite tasty if not Chinese. They have a tasty green bean dish which consists of very skinny young green beans (all green, no bean) that have been stir fried with garlic and other seasonings. Besides stir fried potatoes, this is one of the few vegetable offerings on the buffet if you exclude rice and noodle dishes.
Our Friday the 13th dinner was not very lucky nor one of the better meals I've had at this restaurant. On weekends, besides the wonderful cheese mussels, they have snow crab legs. Unfortunately, there were nothing but scrap pieces on the steam table from when we arrived at approximately 7 PM until we left an hour later when they finally put some more out. I was looking forward to them even if they use no seasonings and often overcook them. One thing that does bother me about many of these buffets is that at least 75% of their dishes are made from chicken. I grew up with Chinese restaurants that had such wonderful dishes as sweet and sour pork which I've found on very few buffets over the years. Sweet and sour chicken ala China Star is just not the same. In fact, I found no pork items on the buffet, even in their version of hot and sour soup. They do offer Mongolian beef and pepper steak. They had one fish item which was a slab of broiled salmon which I've had before and it was pretty much tasteless with a dusting of paprika to make it appear seasoned. They did have a couple of shrimp items such as typical breaded fried shrimp but they'd been on the buffet for way too long. It seems like none of the items are cleared away from being out too long rather they're only replaced with fresh when the bins are mostly emptied.
Their spring rolls were smaller in diameter than my fingers and were more wrapper than the unidentifiable tasteless filling they contained. Their Mongolian beef was definitely not as good as I'd had in previous visits and totally lacked that almost barbecued flavor that stir frying it in very hot oil produces. I made a huge mistake in trying their seafood casserole which consists of surimi seafood with tiny shrimp in a cheesy sauce. It's normally as okay as anything made with surimi can be but not this time. Evidently, some of the surimi or shrimp had spoiled and in the words of my son, "it tastes like death." That was not an understatement and after spitting out my first bite, I took a napkin to scrape my tongue hoping that it wouldn't kill me in a few hours. I can't remember ever putting anything in my mouth that tasted so vile. By that point my appetite had waned considerably and I thought I might try a few fruit items from the cold table to repair my taste buds. Their so-called sushi looked nice but contained no raw items and was disappointing. Wrapping sushi rice with nori around a piece of surimi and cream cheese leaves much to be desired. Even the wasabi was sub-standard as it was so mild and/or adulterated. I expect wasabi mixed with a little soy to clear my sinuses in about fifteen seconds after taking a bite of sushi I've swished through it. No such luck that night and barely any taste. I tried the Mandarin orange segments and I suspect they'd been on the buffet for several days as they were limp and sour in a fermented kind of way. My wife did like the raspberry-lime sherbet but I'm not convinced that a bowl of murky water is the best place to keep the communal ice cream dippers between customers. The honeydew melon was okay but the cantaloupe was pretty bad but that didn't surprise me since it's so early in the season. I though I'd try the cherry cobbler but found that it was only extremely thick cherry pie filling that must've been on the buffet since lunch and no pastry was evident. They used to have such things as sesame seed covered adzuki bean-filled steamed balls which were tasty if you caught them fresh but they don't seem to be available anymore.
My verdict is that this restaurant that was once as good as a typical Chinese buffet can be, has slipped considerably in several critical areas. Food quality needs major improvement including replacing items that have been out on the buffet too long. Allowing a seafood dish such as the seafood casserole to be served shows that no one in the kitchen is sampling before they serve it. Not regularly refilling popular items such as the the crab legs on a night they're featured is another mistake. The staff quality seems to have slipped a bit too as we were already seated with our first plates of food before our drink orders were delivered. Based upon our party of three's experiences Friday night, I can't in good conscience recommend China Star Buffet.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
My New Love
I guess I might as well announce it here as anywhere: I've fallen in love again. My wife's probably going to be a bit upset over that four letter word but I can't help myself. You might be thinking I've succumbed to the proverbial mid-life crisis but you'll be wrong as I've fallen in love with a Sunbeam. To be specific: a Sunbeam Cooker-Fryer Model CF that was made in the USA in 1952. Even today, it's considered by many to be the finest and most heavy duty non-commercial deep fryer/cooker ever produced. They are now collectors items selling as usable versions for $160 and up all the way to over $285 for one in mint condition. My darling that I inherited from my late aunt Mae might not be considered cosmetically to be mint but still looks good with no dents and has the original fryer basket with handle, the cooker's lid and power cord. This deep fryer would make a Fry Daddy leave town under cover of darkness!
I first came across this cooker/fryer in 2002 when doing an inventory of my late Aunt and Uncle's house after their deaths. I knew about deep frying as any respectable Chinese restaurant and almost every American restaurant has one. I'd not done any deep frying at home and most of what I knew outside of a restaurant was mostly limited to what my mother might do in her electric skillet while growing up. I knew of some college friends that owned various versions of a Fry Daddy but I quickly determined that they were good for cooking up a big handful of french fries and not much else. When I discovered my Sunbeam, I thought it looked pretty old and quaint and relegated it to spending it's remaining years in an under counter cabinet's shelf or so I thought.
About six months ago I thought I might attempt to do a batch of french fries or perhaps some fried chicken in it and brought it out and gave it a decent cleaning. One thing I noticed was that it was not only a sizeable deep fryer that could hold a gallon of oil but it was also capable of producing things like beef stew, roasts and many other things. It has a big metal plate on it's front that lists many things that can be cooked in it along with the proper cooking temperature. Unlike many similar appliances, it has a rotary dial where the temperature can be set from a simmer to over 400°F and remains backlit until it achieves the desired temperature. It has a substantial aluminum cooking body liner that helps it to maintain temperature along with an integral bracket for placing the fryer basket to drain. In other words, this was a well thought out appliance easily in the class of such things as a KitchenAid stand mixer and it's currently 59 years old!
In the past few weeks I've used it to produce french fries as good any restaurant could and on a whim tonight ran off a batch of fried chicken that not only turned out flavorful but also moist inside without being pressure fried. Later on tonight I turned out a batch of corn tortilla chips from fresh corn tortillas cut into 1/8ths along with a couple of flour tortilla chimichangas that were also memorable. I've got a feeling that this love affair is going to last! Stay tuned for pictures of our honeymoon.
I first came across this cooker/fryer in 2002 when doing an inventory of my late Aunt and Uncle's house after their deaths. I knew about deep frying as any respectable Chinese restaurant and almost every American restaurant has one. I'd not done any deep frying at home and most of what I knew outside of a restaurant was mostly limited to what my mother might do in her electric skillet while growing up. I knew of some college friends that owned various versions of a Fry Daddy but I quickly determined that they were good for cooking up a big handful of french fries and not much else. When I discovered my Sunbeam, I thought it looked pretty old and quaint and relegated it to spending it's remaining years in an under counter cabinet's shelf or so I thought.
About six months ago I thought I might attempt to do a batch of french fries or perhaps some fried chicken in it and brought it out and gave it a decent cleaning. One thing I noticed was that it was not only a sizeable deep fryer that could hold a gallon of oil but it was also capable of producing things like beef stew, roasts and many other things. It has a big metal plate on it's front that lists many things that can be cooked in it along with the proper cooking temperature. Unlike many similar appliances, it has a rotary dial where the temperature can be set from a simmer to over 400°F and remains backlit until it achieves the desired temperature. It has a substantial aluminum cooking body liner that helps it to maintain temperature along with an integral bracket for placing the fryer basket to drain. In other words, this was a well thought out appliance easily in the class of such things as a KitchenAid stand mixer and it's currently 59 years old!
In the past few weeks I've used it to produce french fries as good any restaurant could and on a whim tonight ran off a batch of fried chicken that not only turned out flavorful but also moist inside without being pressure fried. Later on tonight I turned out a batch of corn tortilla chips from fresh corn tortillas cut into 1/8ths along with a couple of flour tortilla chimichangas that were also memorable. I've got a feeling that this love affair is going to last! Stay tuned for pictures of our honeymoon.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Praise Allah: Tiger Seasoning!
Before everyone that knows me thinks I've somehow been abducted by aliens or Islamists, this is not a religious rant! This is simply an expose about one of the best seasoning ingredients that I've come across in my lifetime.
About the blog title: the incredible seasoning now known as Tiger Seasoning was originally called Praise Allah Seasoning and was originally made in Knoxville, TN. I found about about this magical seasoning from my younger brother who was attending UT at the time in the latter half of the 1970s. It came in a decent sized plastic shaker can and the label bore the name, "Praise Allah Seasoning" and had a picture of the Taj Mahal against a purple background on the label. This was just before the insanity happened in Iran with the American Embassy hostage crisis so that things Persian/Middle Eastern were considered exotic or at worst benign. Unfortunately, this was not to last. Basically this wonderful locally-produced product that is somewhat reminiscent of a Puerto Rican Adobo seasoning was pretty unique, especially in the spice-deprived Upper South of the 1960s. Mind you, adobo seasoning from Puerto Rico is nothing like the adobo sauce of Mexico nor the adobo vinegar meat stews of the Philippines. Even now, very few non-Puerto Ricans know what adobo seasoning is and Praise Allah was a much more balanced combination of flavors than the typical adobo. It basically consists of a combination of salt, dextrose, garlic, oregano, white pepper and MSG and was and still is an incredible seasoning for everything from steaks, hamburgers, pizza, stews, eggs, you name it. When my brother brought my mother home a shaker can of it home one weekend back then we were entranced by it. At that time, most folks at least in this area's idea of seasoning consisted of just salt and pepper. Garlic was an almost unkown ingredient and along with oregano was something those somewhat scary Italians were known to use. I hope you're getting the picture as to how culinarily and culturally deprived most of us were back then.
Chinese and Mexican cooking were almost unknown around here then and Italian cooking had made some slight inroads but it was mostly limited to pizza of a dubious quality that was rarely made by real Italians. I have to thank Pizza Hut and their advertising campaigns that made pizza a legitimate food in the Upper South or otherwise we would've probably had to wait another ten years for it to become so popular among the everyman. Fortunately, a Sicilian family came to our area about 35 years ago and showed us how pizza and other common Italian foods were supposed to taste. Chef Boyardee was no longer held in good standing here!
Back to Praise Allah Seasoning: this product had been around Knoxville for many years, even going back to about 1960 when it was considered quite exotic and made by a company called Davis Manufacturing Co. This product was nationally advertised in specialty food magazines at the time and was at least locally well known over the years. It could even be bought at a couple of local grocery store chains in the 1970s. Then came the problems in Iran with the overthrow of the Shah of Iran and the imprisonment of the American Embassy personnel. I wouldn't doubt that the FBI probably tracked some who bought the product especially in the Knoxville, TN area which had a goodly number of students from Iran going to UT during this time. By this time, anything Middle Eastern was almost a cussword for many Americans and Praise Allah Seasoning almost disappeared.
We're going to take a trip around the mountain for a bit that I hope you'll appreciate but I won't get offended if you skip to the next paragraph. I vividly recall the problems many foreign students at UT from the Middle East or South Asia encountered during this time. I wasn't really aware of how bad things had become until the fateful evening of July 4, 1979. I was living temporarily with my brother and his flatmate in a quite nice suites-type apartment building in Sequoyah Hills while in training with my Knoxville-based employer. We found out that night that we had students from Iran living in our building that we'd never met previously. We first met them that evening after we began firing off volleys of quite large stick rockets down the hill toward the neighboring apartment complex which was in a friendly pyrotechnic competiton with our building. One of our first rockets misfired and went down onto our pool deck instead of to the neighbors several hundred feet downhill. Unknown to us at the time, a young Persian woman, her sister and brother in-law were in our pool area. When this rocket exploded (it wasn't a little bottle rocket either), it like to have scared those folks to death and they all started screaming and dove into the pool. Needless to say, we didn't know they were there as it was almost dark. They thought they were being attacked by American terrorists for being from Iran! After they quit screaming, we quickly diffused the situation after assuring them that we meant no harm and they then joined us in the festivities of sending down close to a hundred big rockets down on the neighbors. Of course the neighbors were firing back but we had gravity on our side and their's rarely made it up to our building. These Persians had been pretty scared of the political situation for some time and had been keeping a very low profile and only came down to the pool late in the evening when no one else was around. This incident is how my brother's roomate, the late Brent Potts, met his Persian girlfriend Mitra L. They were a couple for quite some time. Mitra, her older sister and brother in-law were great people that hated Khomeini early on for a number of reasons and especially since he kept their professional parents from sending them money. They almost starved for a time as almost no employers would give them jobs after they found out they were from Iran and all eventually found minimum wage employment after a few months. I moved to NC after a few months and lost touch with them but hope they have done well. Unfortunately, Brent Potts, who was an experienced scuba diver and the only person I've ever known to own a Lancia, died in a cave diving accident in Florida in August 1990. Now, back to our topic.
The TryMe brand owned by Reily Foods Co. of New Orleans then assumed ownership of the brand but distribution was still somewhat local. This company owned the Luzianne brand which previously was well known for their coffee with chicory blend and teas. They changed the product's name to Tiger Seasoning but kept the TryMe brand and off it went to be marketed nationwide which is where it's at today. Reily/Luzianne had previously bought the Knoxville-based JFG Coffee Company in 1965 and was familiar with the area prior to the Praise Allah acquisition. Interestingly, there are quite a few recipes online that call for Praise Allah Seasoning and many folks in East Tennessee still call it that, me included if I don't think very hard about it. I've known it as Praise Allah far longer than Tiger Seasoning. In any case, it's a fabulous seasoning that should be in every kitchen. Locally, Food City and Kroger carry it and it's available online from several sources. A great use that's on the label is to blend it with melted butter and brush it on steaks about a minute before they're done. We regularly use it when cooking fresh frozen peas by adding it along with butter after draining them and also in beef stew or on hamburgers. We also sprinkle it on popcorn. It's wonderful!
About the blog title: the incredible seasoning now known as Tiger Seasoning was originally called Praise Allah Seasoning and was originally made in Knoxville, TN. I found about about this magical seasoning from my younger brother who was attending UT at the time in the latter half of the 1970s. It came in a decent sized plastic shaker can and the label bore the name, "Praise Allah Seasoning" and had a picture of the Taj Mahal against a purple background on the label. This was just before the insanity happened in Iran with the American Embassy hostage crisis so that things Persian/Middle Eastern were considered exotic or at worst benign. Unfortunately, this was not to last. Basically this wonderful locally-produced product that is somewhat reminiscent of a Puerto Rican Adobo seasoning was pretty unique, especially in the spice-deprived Upper South of the 1960s. Mind you, adobo seasoning from Puerto Rico is nothing like the adobo sauce of Mexico nor the adobo vinegar meat stews of the Philippines. Even now, very few non-Puerto Ricans know what adobo seasoning is and Praise Allah was a much more balanced combination of flavors than the typical adobo. It basically consists of a combination of salt, dextrose, garlic, oregano, white pepper and MSG and was and still is an incredible seasoning for everything from steaks, hamburgers, pizza, stews, eggs, you name it. When my brother brought my mother home a shaker can of it home one weekend back then we were entranced by it. At that time, most folks at least in this area's idea of seasoning consisted of just salt and pepper. Garlic was an almost unkown ingredient and along with oregano was something those somewhat scary Italians were known to use. I hope you're getting the picture as to how culinarily and culturally deprived most of us were back then.
Chinese and Mexican cooking were almost unknown around here then and Italian cooking had made some slight inroads but it was mostly limited to pizza of a dubious quality that was rarely made by real Italians. I have to thank Pizza Hut and their advertising campaigns that made pizza a legitimate food in the Upper South or otherwise we would've probably had to wait another ten years for it to become so popular among the everyman. Fortunately, a Sicilian family came to our area about 35 years ago and showed us how pizza and other common Italian foods were supposed to taste. Chef Boyardee was no longer held in good standing here!
Back to Praise Allah Seasoning: this product had been around Knoxville for many years, even going back to about 1960 when it was considered quite exotic and made by a company called Davis Manufacturing Co. This product was nationally advertised in specialty food magazines at the time and was at least locally well known over the years. It could even be bought at a couple of local grocery store chains in the 1970s. Then came the problems in Iran with the overthrow of the Shah of Iran and the imprisonment of the American Embassy personnel. I wouldn't doubt that the FBI probably tracked some who bought the product especially in the Knoxville, TN area which had a goodly number of students from Iran going to UT during this time. By this time, anything Middle Eastern was almost a cussword for many Americans and Praise Allah Seasoning almost disappeared.
We're going to take a trip around the mountain for a bit that I hope you'll appreciate but I won't get offended if you skip to the next paragraph. I vividly recall the problems many foreign students at UT from the Middle East or South Asia encountered during this time. I wasn't really aware of how bad things had become until the fateful evening of July 4, 1979. I was living temporarily with my brother and his flatmate in a quite nice suites-type apartment building in Sequoyah Hills while in training with my Knoxville-based employer. We found out that night that we had students from Iran living in our building that we'd never met previously. We first met them that evening after we began firing off volleys of quite large stick rockets down the hill toward the neighboring apartment complex which was in a friendly pyrotechnic competiton with our building. One of our first rockets misfired and went down onto our pool deck instead of to the neighbors several hundred feet downhill. Unknown to us at the time, a young Persian woman, her sister and brother in-law were in our pool area. When this rocket exploded (it wasn't a little bottle rocket either), it like to have scared those folks to death and they all started screaming and dove into the pool. Needless to say, we didn't know they were there as it was almost dark. They thought they were being attacked by American terrorists for being from Iran! After they quit screaming, we quickly diffused the situation after assuring them that we meant no harm and they then joined us in the festivities of sending down close to a hundred big rockets down on the neighbors. Of course the neighbors were firing back but we had gravity on our side and their's rarely made it up to our building. These Persians had been pretty scared of the political situation for some time and had been keeping a very low profile and only came down to the pool late in the evening when no one else was around. This incident is how my brother's roomate, the late Brent Potts, met his Persian girlfriend Mitra L. They were a couple for quite some time. Mitra, her older sister and brother in-law were great people that hated Khomeini early on for a number of reasons and especially since he kept their professional parents from sending them money. They almost starved for a time as almost no employers would give them jobs after they found out they were from Iran and all eventually found minimum wage employment after a few months. I moved to NC after a few months and lost touch with them but hope they have done well. Unfortunately, Brent Potts, who was an experienced scuba diver and the only person I've ever known to own a Lancia, died in a cave diving accident in Florida in August 1990. Now, back to our topic.
The TryMe brand owned by Reily Foods Co. of New Orleans then assumed ownership of the brand but distribution was still somewhat local. This company owned the Luzianne brand which previously was well known for their coffee with chicory blend and teas. They changed the product's name to Tiger Seasoning but kept the TryMe brand and off it went to be marketed nationwide which is where it's at today. Reily/Luzianne had previously bought the Knoxville-based JFG Coffee Company in 1965 and was familiar with the area prior to the Praise Allah acquisition. Interestingly, there are quite a few recipes online that call for Praise Allah Seasoning and many folks in East Tennessee still call it that, me included if I don't think very hard about it. I've known it as Praise Allah far longer than Tiger Seasoning. In any case, it's a fabulous seasoning that should be in every kitchen. Locally, Food City and Kroger carry it and it's available online from several sources. A great use that's on the label is to blend it with melted butter and brush it on steaks about a minute before they're done. We regularly use it when cooking fresh frozen peas by adding it along with butter after draining them and also in beef stew or on hamburgers. We also sprinkle it on popcorn. It's wonderful!
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