memphis eats: central bbq.

[bbq nachos with home chips and jalapenos. can't go wrong]

I briefly mentioned Central BBQ in a post last year, but I don't think it adequately described the deliciousness that is that restaurant.

Central is a Memphis institution. Located in Midtown, just near the CBU campus, Central is some of the best bbq you'll find in the city [and that's saying something]. And my personal favourite is their bbq nachos. Chips, pulled pork, bbq sauce, cheese, and jalapenos pretty much means it's a party in a basket. No matter what my appetite, my stomach will always expand itself enough to finish off the basket, and I have come dangerously close to licking the last of the sauce off the paper an embarrassing number of times. It's that good.

Although I am partial to the nachos and never order anything else [why mess with success?], I have it on good authority that their sandwiches are also quite good. My mother enjoyed hers immensely when we were there for lunch last week. And the baked beans were probably the best I've had in the city. I'm pretty partial to some well-made baked beans. And my particular favourite? You can take your cups home with you. We've probably collected upwards of 20 over the years.

Central also sells bbq in bulk, and I bought 2lbs to take with me to Nashville, but I forgot it on the counter :( the upside of it was that my parents and I got to have it for dinner last night, and it was super good. The meat itself is cooked to perfection, and the sauce really gives it that extra oomph that it needs. Additionally you can place an order through their online shop and have Central BBQ delivered straight to your doorstep. If that's not pure genius, I don't know what is. [I definitely tried to do this while I was living in Bangalore, but unfortunately they're not allowed to ship internationally. the tragedy of it all]

So if you ever find yourself needing to fill a meal in Memphis, look no further than Central BBQ. And if you're there on a nice day, enjoy your meal out on the patio overlooking Central Ave. Just beware of the potholes in the parking lot.

stuff to know:
Location: 2249 Central Ave, just west of East Parkway. [technically there are locations at 4375 Summer Ave and 147 E Butler Ave, but I'm a purist, and you'll rarely find me anywhere but at the location on Central]
Parking: there is a parking lot attached to the restaurant, but be forewarned: it can be a tight squeeze for big cars, and there are a few big potholes in the lot. navigate at your own risk.
Hours: open from 11am-9pm, 7 days a week.
Specialties: the bbq nachos, as I previously mentioned, and the pork sandwiches. I'm also intrigued by the portobello mushroom sandwich.
Prices: super reasonable. check out their menu and see for yourself.
Methods of Payment: accepts cash and credit cards.

Now go forth and eat at Central.
xx

the joy project: week fifty-one / 1 of 52: meeting miss evelyn marie wright.

The penultimate joy project post. I can't believe it either.
[and yes, the extra part in the title is how I'm hoping to carry it through this year, with a few changes. full explanation below]

Sunday: made chili and buttermilk biscuits for lunch [both recipes from the Smitten Kitchen's website].

[perfect lunch for a cold and rainy sunday]

Monday: 30-minute workout. read 3 chapters in Will's book. printed out a few job descriptions to get started on cover letters. felt nice to kick off my routine; fingers crossed it lasts.

Tuesday: 15-minute legs workout [and now I can't feel my quads. eeks]. 4 more chapters. sent off my resume for a few jobs. two days in a row totally makes it a proper schedule, right?

Wednesday: a very stiff 45-minute run. 4 more chapters. finished The Fault in Our Stars [John Green].

Thursday: 45-minute workout. a nice cold and rainy day [I'm one of those weird people who loves cold and rainy days. the colder and rainier, the better]. hung out in the B&N Cafe, sipping on hot chocolate and reading 3 more chapters in Will's book. picked up some goodies for Miss Evelyn. tried a new sushi place for lunch. scored a robe from Target for $11!

Friday: 15-minute butt workout. lunch with my mummy at Central BBQ and then introduced her to Sweet Noshings. sorted out some order stuff with my buddies at Rock/Creek in Chattanooga [love those guys, love that store]. watched the Rhodes Women's Basketball team dominate. farewell dinner for Amber at Interim. finished Will's book!

[bbq nachos from central. never gets old]

Saturday: drove to Nashville. went for a drive with Steve. finally got to meet little Evelyn. hot chicken lunch at pepperfire. took a tour of the Jackalope brewery. all the Nashville peeps came over for the Patriots game.

[stevo pretending to do some work in the brew house]

----------

I have been wondering for the last few weeks if and how I wanted to continue this series into the new year. I went back-and-forth between just continuing with the "Joy Project" line, but I decided I wanted to do something slightly different. So this year, instead of doing the day-by-day like I did through 2013, I'm going to do a longer post on my favourite memory from each week, hopefully with more pictures and more in-depth stories. For these first two weeks, it will be added on to the bottom of the Joy Project posts so that it will correspond properly with the weeks of the year.

Make sense? Good. Now, on to week 1 of 52...

Lindsay and Steve have been two of my very best friends since we were in college. As the years have progressed and the miles have increased and decreased between us, we have somehow managed to keep up with each other. We've been through a lot over the years, and they remain two of my absolute favourites in the world. Wherever we are, we'll always remain close.

[my little muffin. we're best friends already]

This past October, Lindsay and Steve brought a new friend into the world: Evelyn. When I found out they were expecting, I was thrilled. My response when they told me Lindsay was pregnant was, "I'm so happy for all three of us." I always love it when my friends have babies, and I was particularly excited for the two of them because I was certain they would be incredible parents - and they are.

[checking out the view on our way to lunch]

E was born while I was in San Francisco for my race, and because of my travel schedule that followed and then the holidays, suddenly it became January and I hadn't seen her yet. Lindsay assured me they were free this past weekend, so I drove myself over to Nashville on Saturday morning to spend some time with my little Muffin.

[not many things in this world are quite as adorable as a sleeping baby]

I guess it's pretty safe to say that I'm in love. She's a nearly 3-month-old bundle of awesome, and I'm so glad I finally got to spend meet her and simultaneously spend a little time with her parents. I can already tell we're going to be besties for life, and I may or may not be counting down the days until I get to see her again.

So here's to miss Evelyn, the cutest little muffin in all the land.
xx

book review: the fault in our stars [john green].

[my idea of a perfect saturday afternoon: curled up in my chair in the sunroom with a blanket and a book]

[WARNING: THIS POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS]

On the first of the year, I began reading The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. And 8 days later, I finished it. It was both an easy and a difficult read -- easy in the sense that it is written simply, from the viewpoint of Hazel, a 16-year-old girl living with cancer, but difficult because of the subject.

Hazel is a teenager struggling with balancing being a teenager and living with a cancer than requires her to constantly have an oxygen tank with her at all times. She's angry and she's sarcastic and she's all those things a 16-year-old is supposed to be, and she's also living with the knowledge that her illness is terminal and will end her life before she properly gets to live.

At one of her Support Group meetings for Kids With Cancer, Hazel meets Augustus Waters, a "hot" [in Hazel's words] and charming 17-year-old boy who survived a "touch of osteosarcoma" [his words] and has the prosthetic leg to prove it. They see in each other a kindred spirit, an understanding soul, and although Hazel worries about dying and breaking Augustus' heart, they embark on a sweet, simple love story together.

Their love is the pure kind, the kind that brings a smile to your face even as it breaks your heart. You know how the story is going to end, but you can't help but root for them to have their moment. As both Hazel and Augustus note throughout the book, "Some infinities are bigger than other infinities," and even they are entitled to their infinity for however long it might last.

Eventually, their infinity ends, but not before witnessing Hazel and Augustus share some very sweet - and some very sad - moments. I saw the end coming from a mile away, but that didn't stop me from continuing to read, nor did it stop my heart from hurting when the inevitable happened.

It's a quick read, and although I think it's technically considered a "Young Adult" novel, I for one think it's a book for readers of all ages. It reminds all of us that life is fleeting and that we should soak up every moment of happiness and wonder and excitement that comes our way. I know it sounds cheesy, but it's true. Some of our infinities will end before others, and we shouldn't look back and have regrets. We should always like our choices, just as Hazel and Augustus do.

If you decide to read it - and I strongly encourage everyone to do so - keep some tissues handy. There were plenty of moments that got to me throughout the book, and I pretty much cried through the last four pages. I read so many reviews that said this book would have me laughing and crying in equal measure, and they were right.

So here's to all our infinities, however big or small they may be.
xx

ps -- The Fault in Our Stars is available from both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It is also being made into a movie starring Shailene Woodley and set to release this June, so read it before the movie comes out!

memphis eats: chiwawa.

Last week I finally tried Chiwawa in Midtown. I know, I know, I'm a few months late on the bandwagon, as per usual. But at least I finally made it...

Chiwawa is a restaurant that sprang up in Midtown sometime last year. It's another brainchild of Taylor Berger, the owner and operator of the YoLo frozen yogurt franchise [another of my favourites]. As far as I can tell, Chiwawa is a converted industrial space of some sort, mostly wood and exposed steel. It's a small place* but has a nice feel to it, at least on a Monday afternoon for a late lunch. I've not been there for one of their Grizzlies watch parties, but I imagine those nights could be quite crowded. The building gets a lot of natural light, so it's a great spot during the day, and the outdoor patio looks like a nice spot for the evening.

[on the top you will see the Pollotillo taco, and the bottom one is the Taco de Madre]

And aside from the ambience, the food was pretty good, too. I had two tacos - the Pollotillo, which is chicken, and the Taco de Madre, which is smoked brisket. Both were really tasty and come highly recommended. I also had the Elote, which is grilled corn-on-the-cob covered in a lot of yummy deliciousness. Totally worth the mess you create when you eat it.

Chiwawa also has a full bar and offers drink specials during the week and for brunch on Sundays. I feel like they had a "Margarita Monday" offer when we were there, but none of us ordered anything, so I can't remember what the deal was.

[the Elote in all its splendour. before I made a mess, of course]

I will say this, though: I really liked the place - the food, the atmosphere, the natural light - but it's one of those places that's slightly a bit expensive for lunch, if that makes sense. It's a fixed menu, and for some reason I don't mind spending $17 [$7 tacos + $4 elote + $? soft drink + TN tax] on dinner, but it seemed a little excessive for lunch. Then again, I'm the one who decided to order two tacos and the side along with a soft drink, but surely someone out there understands what I'm saying.

Other than that, it was great, and I'm sure I will be returning there at some point in the [very near] future.

the deets:
Location: 2059 Madison Avenue. located between Memphis Pizza Cafe and Kwik Chek.
Parking: there is limited street parking available and about 8 spots in a lot just behind the restaurant. I've been there almost 2 times*, and both times I found parking easily.
Serves: Lunch and Dinner all week and Brunch on Sunday.
Specialties: all the varieties of tacos. and the Elote.
Prices: moderately expensive for lunch, but reasonable for dinner [see my above paragraph].
Methods of Payment: accepts cash and credit cards.

My stomach and I love having all these fun new restaurants in Memphis, and one of my goals is to try as many as I can in the coming months. Watch this space for more reviews.
xx

*we attempted to go there for dinner this past Saturday, but we had a party of 10, and they did not seem prepared for such a large group. it took about 5 minutes for anyone to even tell us that it would be a wait of 25 minutes. with the small space, it would be a tight squeeze, so maybe call ahead if you have a lot of people.

mommy mush: a new take on an old recipe.

"Mommy Mush" is a dish my mother has been making since I was in high school. Someone gave her a recipe for some south of the border something-or-other, she added a few of her own touches to it, and voila, a household dish is born. We didn't really have a name for it until I went to college, when Maggie Goodman dubbed it Mommy Mush, and the name just kind of stuck.

I've made it a few times in the last few years - most recently just a few weeks ago - and I've just about got it down. I thought I would share the process on here, in case anyone out there is interested in trying it out for themselves.

A small warning: I decided to take pictures after I'd already begun the process, so they sort of start in the middle of the whole thing. Sorry 'bout that.

What you'll need:
makes enough to feed 7-10 people [we don't really do small portions in my household :)]
-2 lbs. of ground beef chuck
-2 bags of Uncle Ben's Boil-in-a-Bag plain rice [1 box contains 4 bags]
-2 cans of whole kernel corn, drained [we prefer Green Giant in our house]
-1 can of extra hot rotel
-1 can of Mexican rotel
-1 can of tomato soup [we are partial to Campbell's]
-8 oz of Velveeta cheese, cut into cubes [get the Mexican cheese if you can find it for some added spice; otherwise the regular Velveeta cheddar is fine. I would like to try it with the white queso and jalapeno Velveeta one day, but I'm not sure how my parents would react]
-1/2 a large red onion, chopped
-2 tbsp green chillies, chopped
-1 tbsp garlic, chopped
-2 tsp ginger, grated
-chopped coriander [cilantro] to garnish

To begin, cook the beef as you normally would, stirring occasionally, and drain the grease once it's finished. Leave to cool.

While the beef is cooking, fill a 5- or 7-quart pot [your choice] 2/3 full and drop in the 2 bags of rice, still sealed. Bring to a boil and cook for 5-7 minutes. Pour out water and let rice cool, still sealed.

In the meantime, go ahead and chop the onions, green chillies, and garlic, and peel the ginger.

When the pot cools a bit, saute the onions and ginger on medium heat [our little trick is to grate the ginger over the onions before we put them in the pot to save ourselves having our hands over the heat for too long. I added my own trick and put in just a pinch of red chilly powder over the onions and garlic]. Stir occasionally.

Once the onions are a light brown colour, add in the green chillies and garlic. Let those mix in for a few minutes -- and throw in another small pinch of red chilly powder, if you're so inclined. Keep on medium heat.

After letting those mix together for a few minutes, reduce the heat and add in the beef and stir. Cut open the bags of rice and add them to the mixture, and then add in the corn, both cans of rotel, and the can of tomato soup. Fill the soup can with water and swish around a bit and pour in also [just watch out for those sharp rims! I got myself a nice slice on my finger the last time I made it...]. optional: add in a 1/2 tsp of red chilly powder here, if you want to make it a little spicier. Mix well, leave on low-to-medium heat, and cover, stirring occasionally.

After about 7-10 minutes, add the cheese. Mix well and cover, again stirring occasionally.

Once the cheese melts, it's ready to serve. Usually takes about 10 minutes, depending on how low or high you have your heat. Garnish with coriander and dish it up.

It's a personal choice, but we like to add a small dollop of sour cream once we have it in our bowls to add to the taste. Also, a lot of people like to scoop it up with Fritos, although I usually pass on that one. It's up to you. Regardless, I hope you enjoy it.

Bon appetit!
xx

the joy project: week fifty.

Happy 2014, folks!

Sunday: made mommy mush for lunch. Kwik Chek for dinner. watched the Rhodes Women's Basketball team dominate. Packers beat the Bears -- we're in the playoffs!

Monday: my boots arrived from Zappos! lunch at Chiwawa, popcorn sampling at Sweet Noshings, and another basketball game.

Tuesday: chilled-out NYE at home with the family.

Wednesday: one heck of a New Year feast - Indian green beans, kheema, stuffed bhindi, and green gram daal with homemade chappati. talk about yum. dismantled all the Christmas decor with help from the father and brother. pakodas and black-eyed peas for dinner.

Thursday: spent the morning snuggled in bed watching episodes of SVU. chili + Sugar Bowl watch party at the Koelsch household.

Friday: final family lunch before the brother heads back to school. picked up a planner at 50% off, got a new jigsaw puzzle [nerd alert], and saw some of my B&N friends.

Saturday: said farewell to the brother. ran and walked and gritted my way through 5 miles. spent the afternoon curled up with a blanket and a book. dinner at Memphis Pizza Cafe.

Here's hoping your years are off to wonderful beginnings.
xx

all the things I hope to do in 2014.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I've mentioned before that I'm not really one for resolutions, but I do have an idea of various things I want to do / accomplish in 2014. I don't like the term "bucket list", but I also don't have a better one. For now we can just call it "All the things Veena thinks she can do in 2014". Sounds good to me.

And here we go...

I want to start volunteering again. I've been realising in the last month or so that part of the reason I've been getting down about the whole unemployment thing is because my weeks don't have a routine, and because I really miss being around people. I decided that while I'm continuing to look for jobs, I want to start volunteering a few days a week around Memphis. For one, it's a great way to contribute to organizations around the city who can always use help [some personal favourites include St Jude, Literacy Mid-South, MIFA, and Volunteer Mid-South]. Additionally, it will help me increase my network around the city and potentially open up some new avenues for future employment that I hadn't thought about before. The biggest potential setback I see is that most places want a 6-month commitment, but that is a hurdle I will cross when I come to it.

I'm going to run another half-marathon. I know, not something you thought I'd ever say. Truth be told, I didn't really think I'd run the first one, let alone consider running a second one. But here I am, bitten by the running bug. And my experience running my first one was pretty positive on the whole, so it's put me in the mood to train for another. I also know that having a specific race to train for makes me more motivated to stick to a regular running schedule. So with all that in mind, and at the urging of my friend Julie Clary, I have taken the plunge and registered for the Little Rock Half in March. Only 8 weeks to my next 13.1...

I hope to run more races in general. I recently realised I want to participate in a few "fun" <read: shorter> running events in addition to a more serious half marathon, so I got the ball rolling on that in December. I was signed up for an Ugly Sweater 5k in Memphis a few weeks ago, but it was canceled due to weather conditions; instead, I can transfer my registration to a race organized by the same company in 2014. I ran the Orion Starry Nights 4k at Shelby Farms Park a few days after Christmas and had a pretty good time getting to see the Christmas lights in the park. I'll likely sign up for another in late March or early April once I've finished my run in Little Rock. It's a fun way to get in a run while having just a little bit of fun at the same time. Who knew the two could go together?!

While I'm in Memphis, I want to be more active in the city. Last year I had the pleasure of re-visiting both Graceland and the National Civil Rights Museum, getting back to some of my favourite restaurants, and attending a few Grizz games, and it reminded me of what an awesome city Memphis is. I forget sometimes, staying out in the 'burbs with my parents, but downtown and Midtown have such a great personality, and I want to explore those areas more. I got around a lot during my undergrad days, but it's been a long time since I got to properly play tourist in Memphis, and so much has changed in these last 10 years. I want to go to museums. I want to try out new restaurants. I want to hang out in Overton Square. I want to experience as much of Memphis as I can in the time that I'm here. The ILoveMemphis blog has a ton of great recommendations that I plan on checking out, but I'm always in the market for more, especially if it involves eating in Memphis.

I want to travel somewhere I've never been before. This is something that's on my list every year, and I've been able to cross this one off the last couple of years -- Charleston & Ann Arbor in 2011; Miami, Paris, Nepal, Kurnool & Pune in 2012; and Nashik, parts of northeast India, Kansas City and Topeka, & Aruba in 2013. It doesn't necessarily have to be somewhere crazy or exciting or even necessarily out of the country; it just has to be somewhere new.

I want to cook more. I'm not necessarily very inventive in the kitchen, but I enjoy cooking. For years all I could make was brownies and 7-layer dip, and while I'm pretty good at both, I want to add to my repertoire. I've slowly been working on cooking some Indian veggies under the supervision of my mother, and I'd say I've gotten pretty good at them, especially cauliflower, stuffed okra, and parwar [a Gujurati vegetable]. I can make chicken biryani also, but the thing with Indian food is that it's quite time-intensive - especially this dish. It's nice on Sundays, when my mother and I make lunch together and have the whole morning, but it's just not feasible to throw something together quickly during the week. So I want to find some easier recipes that I can make, say once a week for dinner. I figure the Smitten Kitchen Recipe Index is a great place to start, but I'm definitely open to other suggestions if anyone has any. I've also been craving gumbo recently, so I'm on the lookout for good gumbo recipes.

I want to read the following books:

• Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
• The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
• And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
• Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
• Americanah by Chimamada Ngozi Adichie
• The Round House by Louise Erdrich
• Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
• Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
• The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux
• On the Road by Jack Kerouac
• Creating Room to Read by John Wood
• Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

Some of these I've had for years, and others just came out and will be releasing in paperback sometime in 2014. There are obviously scores of other books I am also interested in reading, and I would like to make some more progress through the Wheel of Time series - I've been stuck on Book 4 for a while - but the ones listed above are the ones I absolutely will [hopefully] read this year. If anyone is interested in reading along, let me know.

I want to learn basic coding. I don't need to be the world's expert in programming, but it would be nice to know some of the basics of coding and building a website. It is something that is pertinent to the world today, and it would go a long way to helping me further develop this blog, should I choose to do so. It's something I've been thinking about for a while, and I figure now is as good a time as any to begin. I've mentioned Coursera a few times before, and I just found a self-study Computer Science 101 course that they have on offer [taught by a professor at Stanford, no less!] and signed up for it. Wish me luck!

I want to watch The Wire. I've been hearing rave reviews of the show for over a year, and I figure it's time I see what it's all about for myself. My brother has all the seasons on DVD, so it's right on hand for easy viewing. I sense a marathon in my future.

I want to buy a record player. This is one that I've been thinking about for a long while now, and I decided a few months ago that a record player will be my "congrats on getting a job" gift to myself. Sounds like a pretty solid plan to me. Now to just get that job...

From the looks of it, this is going to be quite a busy year, but I'm looking forward to seeing what it has in store. Here's hoping yours is busy - and prosperous - as well.
xx