Inside My Table #61 | Contents
ExcerptOn the coverIllustrator/painter Larry McEntire created our cover’s faux woodcut illustration, titled Watermelon Man. Besides teaching illustration at The Art Institute of Houston and Texas State University-San Marcos, McEntire is also proprietor of Lonestar Studio. If you’d like to see more of his work, visit larrymcentire.com, or call him at 713-520-1298. |
28 REHASHED: DRIVING A WEDGE
After a decades of being dissed by the food media, iceberg lettuce has finally come back full circle. Starting about five years ago, the classic wedge salad began showing up all over the menus of trendy chefs—yes, the same chefs who wouldn’t have been caught dead serving iceberg during the 1980s and 90s. Here are three chefs’ versions of the cool, crunchy, perfect-for-summer wedge salad.
Recipes by Jay Hernandez, Ronald A. Killen and Michael Frietsch
Chef portraits by Kim Coffman
32 AISLES OF DREAM: Shopping for an Identity in an American Grocery Store
Filling our carts with the American Dream, we claim our right to the abundance that has attracted people to America since colonial days. Even the simple act of entering a supermarket (or, for that matter, a Gap, a Barnes & Noble or a Home Depot) reassures us.
By Alexandra Zohn
34 COVER STORY: THE WELL-SEASONED GARDEN: From Earth to Table
“There was a time when I went into this gardening thing with the idea of growing produce I wanted to eat,” writes contributor Mark Hanna. “I had visions of going out daily to pluck fresh leaves of lettuce and spinach, of filling a colander each afternoon with crisp peas or beans and carefully digging up long, thick carrots and plump round radishes. There was also a time I was under 30, had hair and didn’t care for martinis.”
By Mark G Hanna
Illustration by Larry McEntire
64 JUST DESSERTS: TREASURE FROM A COMPOST PILE
Our correspondent confesses he started his compost pile with two large bags of stale taco chips and a jar of moldy salsa dip, followed by plate scrapings of coleslaw, potato salad, green beans, black-eyed peas and white bread. Cow manure and fallen leaves topped off the heap. In late spring he tossed in some leftover watermelon and a big pan of two-month-old barbecue sauce. Then a real-life miracle took root.
By Peter Heyne
8 TABLE TALK
8 LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
9 HOUSTON BITES BACK
Includes Letters to the Editor, Noteworthy Openings & Closings, Tasting the Town, On The Road, Edible Etymology, Man About Town & more
24 MRS. ANON: AND GOD CREATED RO-TEL
40 WINE & SPIRITS
Houston’s Top 10 Wine Lists 2004
42 ¡SALUD!
A toast to Fred Peterson
48 DINING WITHOUT BORDERS
The Other Asia
50 WHAT’S BUZZING IN THE KITCHEN WITH …
Georg Riedel
52 LISTINGS
The Cheap Side of Town
54 RESTAURANT REVIEWS
T’Afia
Uptown Sushi
Smith & Wollensky
55 ADVERTISER DIRECTORY
