Eat Arkansas

One astute reader responded to yesterday’s Facebook lunch suggestion with one of his own.  Wes Holden suggested I check out Morrilton’s Blue Diamond Drive-In, and since I was headed that general direction I decided to take him up on it.

On the suggestion of a reader, an open line talking about something pretty urbane… Halloween treat offerings.  The ghouls and goblins (and undoubtably the Scream masked and Hannah-Montana garbed) will be hitting the streets Saturday night looking for goodies to fill their bags.  Here at our place, we hand out individual bags of microwave popcorn and Playdoh; the neighbors tend to look at us as eccentrics, but that goes far beyond October 31st.

Quiche. Stuffed Bell Peppers.

This is a slice of decadent and lovely butterscotch pie from Butter Lovins in Cabot.  It is one of the finest examples I have found of  this sort of pie, and the first I’ve had in ages that included meringue.  Not too butterscotchy-y… more like… well, honestly, first thing I thought of was how pound cake batter tastes.  Good stuff.  And the crust is flaky and not sweet. 
The little restaurant is a nice example of the local lunch joint — cheerily clean and bright, small, a few bar stools for counter service and several country-style tables.  They have lunch specials (today it’s Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, tomorrow Ham & White Beans, Wednesday Chicken & Dumplings) for $4.25 and a mean Chef’s Salad, too.  But what people have kept telling me all about is the pie — chocolate, coconut, whatever happens to be the flavor du jour, $2.79 a slice.

Let me tell you what… writing about food on a public forum is certainly not all puppies and rainbows.  But it is a lot of fun.

This blog tends to celebrate good food, but as we all know just about everyone has had a bad restaurant experience.  One of mine had to do with the salad in the photo above… the restaurant itself wasn’t bad, but the salad sure was — whoever thought of mixing Catalina dressing, cranberries, pine nuts, cheese, strawberries, wilty greens, and black olives together was certainly exercizing poor judgement.

Others may think it’s common and unsuitable for fine restaurant fare, but there’s something about pimento cheese that’s always made me happy.  Finding it on the menu at a local establishment in those rare instances usually brings about a round of curiosity in me, followed oft-times by disappointment when it’s delivered and turns out to be of the pasteurized processed consumer foods variety.  Imagine my joy to discover it at Taziki’s, the local Greek fare eatery that specializes in all those things we consider “Greek Eats.”  One of just two places I know of that do it up anywhere close to right.  Read more about both places at Tie Dye Travels. 

FuLin Chinese Restaurant used to be that fancy place we’d dress up and go to on special nights when I was in high school.  The food was good, the prices (at the time) were a little high, but it all seemed so formal.

I missed the little coffeeshop in Hillcrest where my peeps would gather on the odd Friday night to sit around and commiserate.  Sure, there are all sorts of places you can go to have coffee in the evenings, but finding a place open past 9pm that didn’t care if you hung out on the furniture and took up space for hours at a time? 
So I’m glad to see The House go into the old Sufficient Grounds/Laughing Moon Cafe slot on North Palm.  Sure, the location is plagued by a lack of decent parking (and believe me, I did notice the new fence put up across the side of the Kroger parking lot), but it has charm in the way only an old, beloved house can have.

Too hot for pasta?  The heck you say.  Within the air conditioned comfort of Pia’s Italian Restaurant in Conway, warm and delightful pastas accompanied by cold refreshing beverages are a diner’s delight — especially when they come with a sauce this good.  I found myself spooning up the incredibly rich and deep Cardinal sauce that accompanied my Tortellini ($11.99) with favor and gusto on a recent visit.  It’s a very good balance between the rich marinara and the creamy Alfredo with a healthy wine reduction included.  I am all about that.