I took the picture at left of Curtis Congleton last year. I visited Congleton Farm outside Versailles, Kentucky (that’s ver-SALES) to watch Curtis and his sorghum partner, Randal Rock, make sweet Country Rock Sorghum from sorghum cane grown on the farm.

I enjoyed learning about the ways Curtis and Marti Congleton are diversifying their farming post-tobacco so they can continue living on their beautiful Woodford County land with their children. The scale and openness at Congleton Farm give real meaning to the their statement on the Kentucky Department of Agriculture website, “Know where your beef comes from.” Read the rest of this entry »

W&M Market, corner of W. Jefferson and Second in Lexington, is so beautiful one’s eyes feast along with the tastebuds. See a gallery of W&M photos. The W portion — for wine, not a Texan — opened earlier this year. Owner Krim Boughalem chooses moderately priced bottles from around the world and helps tentative shoppers take home a bottle likely to please.

The “M” portion — the (food) market — opened recently. What a fine spread of cheeses, fresh breads and pastries, locally grown fruits and vegetables, and special jams, crackers, and condiments! I like the French-ness of supporting and touting local foods, while also selling some fine things that crossed the Great Water, bringing the world of tastes to us in downtown Lexington.

I discovered today that W&M sells sandwiches with a French flair for carry-out or eat-in lunch. How do these sound?

Duck confit, Mountain gorgonzola, Kentucky apple, quince jam on ciabatta/panini Read the rest of this entry »

I have never seen cherries like this year’s cherries. Sour Montmorency cherries, gallons of them even on small trees.

Here’s an experiment: a Flash slide show dedicated to my love of cherries.

“Going Out to Eat but Staying Green,” an exciting story by Florence Fabricant in the New York Times (2-13-08), describes the spread of “green” practices at restaurants. Fabricant’s examples include restaurants that use sunflower seeds and straw as building materials, practice intensive recycling, buy local ingredients, and avoid problematic cleaning products.

Fabricant reports that restaurants are seeing cost savings from many of these practices. Even more, she notes that many restaurateurs adopt environmentally sound practices out of a commitment to our planet’s wellbeing.

We had a grand time eating Sunday brunch at the Colorado Kitchen when we were in Washington, D.C. last week. I wrote about the doughnuts as part of my story for the May issue of Nougat Magazine.
This small, bright, quirky place is more than five years old and still drawing crowds and accolades.

See recent reviews in The Washingtonian, Voice, and Yelp. Not bad for a place where the chef, Gillian Clark, has stood up for Chef’s Rights — or for chefs being right — about their sides and combos. Even NPR picked up on the controversy.

My own thoughts: Gillian Clark cooks so beautifully and works so hard she gets to say whatever she wants. If we don’t like it, we can eat somewhere else. Me - I like the place. I think I like Gillian Clark, after watching her cook for a full crowd last Sunday. I’d like to eat dinner at the Colorado Kitchen, and see how the southern-fresh-European-finely prepared sensibility translates.

A version of this article first appeared in Nougat Magazine, February, 2007.

When someone tells me how much they like Dudley’s, I get ready to make a new friend. I assume they like what I like.

Dudley’s, at 380 South Mill Street, was the first Lexington restaurant to serve beautifully prepared fresh, locally grown foods, and among the first to operate in a renovated historic building downtown. I like everything about going to eat there.

I usually eat at home, but recently I got lucky and ate at Dudley’s three times in three weeks. Like most of the meals I have eaten at Dudley’s since it opened in 1981, all three took place in daytime.

Most recently, I ate lunch with my oldest friend on a grey January workday. Read the rest of this entry »