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What I Ate in Memphis

Posted on August 7, 2013 by kissmybroccoli

Hello loves and Happy Wednesday!

I know I left you guys hanging on the foodie front yesterday, but in an attempt to not have a 2000 word post, I thought I’d save the Memphis munchies for today. Besides, it’s Wednesday and we ALL know what Wednesdays are for…

After you get a good look at what the man-friend and I filled our bellies with while on vacation in Elvisland, be sure to head on over to Peas & Crayons, give our hostess Jenn a little shout, and then check out all the other delicious link ups for the week!

Our first meal at The Bayou actually turned out to the BEST of the whole trip…

We started with a plate of chicken wings…but not just ANY chicken wings…the man-friend has been going on and on and ON about the sauce they use on these basically since the day we met. I have to admit, I was just as excited to see this plate come out as he was. And the verdict???

Omg, BEST WINGS EVER!!!

Seriously, we sat there sloooooooowly savoring each and every bite trying to pinpoint all the flavors in the sauce! I tried my best to get it out of the waiter, but the only thing he would give up was that there was white wine…you know, because THAT tells us a lot! Lol

I will say that our waiter was absolutely amazing! He had a great personality (happy and energetic without being all “let me shoot rainbows out of my ass” or anything ;)) and he loaded me up with extra lemon for my water (love)!

As for our entrees, I ordered the soup sampler…

Clockwise from the top:
Seafood gumbo, duck and sausage gumbo, alligator chili, shrimp and crawfish bisque, and red beans and rice

They were all pretty tasty (first time trying alligator…it’s a bit umm, chewy!), but my absolute favorite was the bisque! I always forget how much I LOVE cream-based soups…especially with a good bread for dunkin’! 🙂

The man-friend went with the Shrimp Po’Boy…

Hand-breaded fried shrimp with lettuce, tomato, Cajun mayo and cocktail sauce with Cajun fries on the side.

The flavors in the sandwich were amazing (not too spicy) and the crusty bread it was served on was fantastic, but the fries were a bit soggy.

Luckily the fries from our lunch at Young Ave Deli the next day made up for it…

The man-friend’s bacon cheeseburger with some of the BEST friggin’ fries I’ve ever ninja’d off his plate! Oh and the burger was pretty epic too! 😉

As for my ~~plate~~ basket, I ordered the “Sonoma Sandwich”…

Sun-dried tomatoes, cream cheese, tomato, avocado and red onions with sweet potato fries on the side.

Unforrrrrtunately…

Young Ave Deli Veggie Sandwich

They used like half a friggin’ BLOCK of cream cheese to make my sandwich…and about half a POUND of sugar on the fries!

I swear, I am going to become the most obnoxious customer from now on whenever I’m ordering out…what is it with menus that don’t specify things like adding SUGAR to SWEET potato fries?! Ick!

I managed to salvage the meal by scraping the cream cheese off the sandwich(not only was it just too much, but it totally took away from all the other flavors) and then stealing one or two or TEN more fries from the man-friend! To top it off, I’m pretty sure our waitress was high on drugs or something. She kept forgetting to bring us stuff we asked for and pretty much just looked like she was about to fall asleep the whole time! All I have to say is, it’s a good thing the man-friend and I had good company! 🙂

For dinner that night, we had some authentic Memphis barbecue at Central BBQ…

After seeing the BBQ Nachos on Best Food Ever, we knew we had to give them a try!

The flavor of the meat and the BBQ sauce was fantastic, but I have to say I was a little bummed to see they were served at room temperature. Isn’t the POINT of nachos is to have warm, melted cheese?

The man-friend ordered a rack of ribs with baked beans and coleslaw and enjoyed them well enough, but I’m pretty sure he’d say dessert was well, the icing on the cake…

Caramel layer cake, that is!

Of course, it was a bit too sweet for me, but the man-friend had NO trouble picking up the slack…what can I say, he LOVES his desserts!

Speaking of too sweet, one of these days (I hope) I’ll learn my lesson…leave the sweet desserts and breakfasts to the kitchen at home. For breakfast the next day, I couldn’t help but be lured in by the Brioche French toast from the menu at Perkins…

Unfortunately, after one bite, I realized (even without syrup) it was just too much for me. FORTUNATELY though, we had an AMAZING waiter who happened to notice me ~~eyeing my plate with disdain~~ picking at my food and quickly (and I do mean QUICK!) swapped me for something savory…

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m a total sucker for biscuits and gravy…and I may or may not have mixed all of it up and then drizzled on a bit of maple syrup!

#strangebutSOgood!

So maybe now, after seeing all the fried, creamy, plastic-y?, cheesy, saucy, and gravy-covered food you understand why there just HAD to be some Whole Foods frolicking during our last few hours in town! 😉

Must. Eat. All. The. VEGGIEEEEEES!

AND then wash them down with a new-to-me-and-oh-so-delicious-yet-not-quite-as-grapefruitty-as-I-expected-flavor Zevia! 😀

Oh and say hello to Jay Jay (the man-friend’s pooch)! He tagged along for the trip but camped out with his doggie cousins over at a friend’s house for the weekend!

What do you typically order for breakfast when dining out?

What are your favorite kind of fries?

Posted in Restaurant Review, Travel | Tagged biscuits, Jay Jay, Memphis, sweet potato fries | 35 Comments

A Weekend in Tenne-saw-ippi

Posted on August 6, 2013 by kissmybroccoli

Hello, loves!

So, I started typing up this post last week but, since dear ol’ broccoli decided to go into a week-long coma, it never made it to publish! Now that she’s back up and running, I can FINALLY tell you guys about mine and the man-friend’s trip to Memphis! 😀

It all started when I awoke to this deliciousness early Friday morning….

A big fluffy waffle topped with peanut butter, fresh berries (thankfully, brought from home), with just a drizzle of syrup!

I have to say, the choices from the hotel breakfast bar weren’t the best, but luckily they made up for it in waffles (which I can never pass them up) and coffee (which I practically lived on throughout the weekend)!

I may or may not have had quite the collection of coffee creamers
(for the man-friend) by the end of the weekend! 😛

After some chill time in the hotel room where we may or may not have fallen back to sleep, we decided to head out to one of the man-friend’s favorite places for lunch…

But you’ll just have to wait until tomorrow for that!

With two very full bellies, we figured some walking was in order so we headed downtown to check out Mud Island…

We road the monorail over, toured the little museum filled with history of the Mississippi river, steamboats, and blues and jazz music, and then walked around outside and checked out the scale model of the Mississippi river while we talked about all the states we’d ever traveled to.

It was cute to see all the kiddos wading around in the water and the weather was absolutely perfect for a good afternoon walk. Also, I have to say, it was SO kind of the employees to leave out little snacks along the way…

Drumstick anyone? 😉

And of course, we were both shocked to see that even though the man-friend had JUST had his makeover the night before, they were already on top of things with portraits of him hanging on nearly every wall…

How DID they do it??

Back to our conversation of travel (for the record, the man-friend has been almost EVERYwhere!), we thought it’d be fun to cruise down the road about fifteen minutes in the opposite direction of our hotel…JUST so I can now say I’ve been to Arkansas! 😉

And later that night we met up with the man-friend’s parents for dinner over another border and another newly visited (to me) state…Mississippi! We ate at a cute little pizzeria called Avellino’s (some of the best crust and sauce I’ve ever had!) and then ended up going back to their place and chatting into the WEEEEE hours of the ~~night~~ morning!

The next day, we woke up and met someone very special for ~~breakfast~~ lunch…

Sooooooooooo excited to finally meet this GORGEOUS lady!!!

Melissa and I have grown really close over the last six months but until this day had never met face to face. I wasn’t surprised in the least how natural our conversation seemed to flow over lunch…just like we’ve known each other for years! And luckily her fiance and the man-friend seemed to hit it off really well too!

We met at Young Avenue Deli and again were graced with perfect weather for dining al fresco, but yep, I’m saving those pics for tomorrow! 😉

After lunch, is where the man-friend and I cultivated our curiosities and ventured inside two of our favorite stores… and anyone planning busy outings or events can visit https://fastfirewatchguards.com for dependable fire safety support.

Gets. Us. Every. Time!

We shopped till we (just about) dropped. Luckily, thanks to Melissa, I had a little fuel to get me through the last bit of it…

Just as good as it sounds…especially after sitting in a hot car for a couple of hours! Only bad part: picking the raspberry seeds out of your teeth afterwards! :-/

Later that night, we met some friends for dinner and a movie…

And you guessed it…dinner pics tooooooomorrow! Haha! But I’ll tell you right now, Wolverine? So worth it!

On Sunday, we met our friends for breakfast at a place called Perkins, hung out a bit and then grabbed one last meal before heading out of Elvisland.

One thing I LOVE about traveling is getting the chance to try all the local food, but after three days of eating our way through plates FULL fried, creamy, plastic-y?, cheesy, saucy, and gravy-covered food, I HAD to make a special request…

Sweet baby JESUS, let there be vegetables!!

In the box: EV-ER-REEEEEEEE-THANG!!!

For the record, one of my most expensive WF salads yet…ELEVEN BUCKS!

And I. ate. it. ALL!

What do you always hope to find on a hotel breakfast buffet?

How many US states have you visited?

I know, I really ~~need~~ WANT to travel more, but so far, I’ve been to 18!

And if wanna be a dork like me and make a cute custom-colored map of your own,
click here! 😉

Posted in Breakfast, Shopping, Snacks, Travel | Tagged Big Lots, TJ Maxx, waffles | 32 Comments

Ten Years and STILL Marvelous!

Posted on August 5, 2013 by kissmybroccoli

Happy Monday, friends!

I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing weekend! Most of mine was pretty low key with the exception of Saturday. Hours after my happy dance that afternoon once the blog decided to come out of her week-long coma, I was dancing the night away with my two besties at our high school reunion!

It’s hard to believe it’s already been TEN years! 😯

But here we are now, all “grown up”!

Being that my graduating class was only made up of about 100 or so people, I thought the turn out was pretty decent. Luckily, the three of us (with our respective men) showed up at the same time…you know because it’s not like we hadn’t been texting each other pictures of outfits to wear and coordinating things beforehand or anything! 😉

I have been through thick and thin with these girls…love them to pieces!!

We started out the night out right with squealing and jumping into each other’s arms, taking a BAZILLION pictures and then heading off to the OPEN bar…

For some cheap red wine! 😉

Dinner was served shortly after and was a buffet style meal…

I got a little bit of everything: salad, carrots, ~~mystery chalk-like veggies~~ potatoes, green beans, ~~a slab of rubber~~ chicken, and a dinner ~~sponge~~ roll. I have to say, the place did a fantastic job bringing back the memories…tasted JUST like something from our school cafeteria! It’s just too bad they didn’t think to serve my favorite, pizza and French fries! 😆

Dessert was a bit more tasteFULL…

The man-friend and I shared a sample plate: vanilla cupcake, cheesecake, blueberry muffin, banana bread with cream cheese, a chess square, and a brownie.

Most everything was a bit too sweet for my tastes, but surprisingly the chess square was decent and I was all OVER that muffin…I “let” the man-friend finish the rest! 😉

After dinner, the one-man-band arrived and started playing tunes from the wrong decade entirely…but hey, you can’t knock a guy who has an appreciation for Bon Jovi…~~especially after a couple more glasses of wine~~…and so the singing/dancing/shit-ton of picture-taking began…

And my girl even got up and sang a duet with Mr. Bon Jovi Jr! 😉

Cheeeeeeeese!!

At the end of the night, I may have had a bit too much to drink, and nursed a baby hangover the next morning (can’t even REMEMBER the last time I did that!), but you know what? I had a GREAT night and would do it again (rubber chicken and ALL) in a heart beat!