An Indonesian in Mississippi. Not as catchy as "An Englishman in New York"
Appetite for Jackson
We made it to Appetite for Jackson after all, and I’m glad we did. Fun event that can be completely free if one so chooses, good food and music, a celebrity appearance, and a warm (by winter standards), beautiful day–what’s not to like?
Appetite for Jackson is happening Saturday, 1/28/2012, 2:00 pm – 9:00 pm at the new Art Garden at the Mississippi Museum of Art. The event will feature great food from local restaurants and live bands. All proceeds benefit the Craig Noone Miracle League (Craig was the recently deceased co-owner of Parlor Market). If that’s not enough to get you to attend, eatjackson.org says Andrew Zimmern of Bizarre Foods fame will be there as well sometime between 3:00 pm and 6:00 pm, and according to visitmississippi.org he’ll be there with his TV crew for his new show Appetite for Life.
Admission is free. Just pay $5 per plate for food from any of the participating restaurants if you so choose. Otherwise just enjoy the event. If you need parking “there will be free parking at City Center across from Thalia Mara Hall on Pascagoula Street during the event” per Appetite for Jackson’s Facebook wall. Also according to posts on their wall this will be a family friendly event, which means you might see us there. Look for the Asian guy with the big camera (as if that’s not stereotypical enough) with wife and 2 kids in tow.
What: Appetite for Jackson
Where: Mississippi Museum of Art
When: Saturday, 1/28/2012, 2:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Why: Awesome food and music, proceeds benefit the Craig Noone Miracle League, and Andrew Zimmern will be there
Appetite for Jackson Facebook page
Appetite for Jackson website (How about some contact info, peeps? I want to volunteer to take event photos since it’s for a good cause, but I can’t figure out who to contact and how.)
They come, they go… it’s hard to keep up sometimes.
First some good news: the Clinton location Bonsai restaurant is open. It looks like they’re calling themselves “Bonsai II”. It’s been open since late December 2011, and we even tried to go but the place was packed with an hour wait so we left. Soon, Bonsai, soon.
The sad news: Lula’s Cafe is closed. We heard from the grapevine that it was actually too successful and became too much to keep up with since it was only supposed to be a side project for the owner. They’ve been bought out by people who will start a new restaurant there named “Olde Towne Grocery”. A quick Google search only turns up Olde Towne Grocery’s Facebook page that says they’ll be serving lunch Monday-Friday starting January 3, 2012 and dinner Thursday-Saturday starting January 12, 2012. I haven’t been by to see if they’re actually open yet though–update here when I do. Edit 1/23/2012: drove by during lunch hour today and Olde Towne Grocery was decidedly closed. They even still had the Lula’s Cafe logo etched on the door. Hopefully they’ll update their Facebook page or get a proper website up soon so we can get updates. Edit 1/26/2012: per Emily’s comment below, Olde Towne Grocery will not open at all.
Lastly, China Express has a new, bigger menu, in English too no less! Since our first visit we’ve been quite a few times and have gotten the same great service and food every time. The new menu of course adds some new items, and their new signature dish seems to be the Szechuan Spicy Chicken, which we haven’t tried but definitely will sometime soon.
Ciao Bella--a hidden treasure
I’ve got a healthy backlog of food places and family stuff to post about, which is very much par for the course, but I thought I’d go ahead and get this post about Ciao Bella written up while the memory is still fresh. As a new business I think they’re doing a great job and deserve as much good pub as they can get.
“Why do you have a picture of Piccadilly as the lead photo for a post about Ciao Bella?” you ask? I don’t really. See that door with “6B” above it and a white rectangular sign with the Italian flag on it? That’s the door to Ciao Bella. They’re painfully aware of the lack of signage and are working on getting a sign. I post this picture in case they still don’t have a sign and you’re having as hard a time finding the place as I did. I ended up going elsewhere the first time I tried visiting after I had driven 4-5 times around the Lefleur’s Gallery parking lot looking for it and couldn’t get anybody on the phone. Turns out I was calling the catering number and not the restaurant number, duh. Called the right number, they told me where to go, problem solved. » Continue Reading…
Craig Noone, chef/owner of Parlor Market passed away last night. He was involved in a fatal car accident.
I don’t do a very good job of keeping up with local news. The only reason I know about this is that yesterday I had wrangled a couple friends to go with me to Parlor Market today, and this morning one of those friends told me the news. I went to Parlor Market for the first time a couple weeks ago and had been working up a head of steam to go back a few more times, try a few different dishes, and report on the restaurant (not that it needed any publicity boost–it’s pretty popular already).
From what I’ve heard from friends and other people who are Parlor Market regulars, Craig really changed the game in Jackson. He was all about local and seasonal, which are big trends elsewhere but strangely not in Jackson until he opened Parlor Market. I’ve only met him once so I can’t speak to his character, but as far as the food scene in Jackson I know that he’ll be sorely missed.
Parlor Market is closed through the weekend. I don’t know what will happen to it but hope that it continues on.
Just goes to show how much I don’t pay attention to current events–the 2011 Jackson Restaurant Week (inaugural?) is October 2-8, 2011, and since it’s the 5th right now it’s already underway. There are a bunch of participating restaurants, and I think some are giving discounts while others are doing package meals of a special appetizer + entree + dessert for a nice price (although I’ve spotted a few that look like they might be regular price). You can also vote for your favorite local charity while at participating restaurants, and the winning charity will receive $10,000. Definitely at least check it out and see if anything piques your interest
China Express Restaurant at closing time
Score another local find for Denise. A couple months ago she noticed that China Express Restaurant had taken up residence in the old location of the by-then-defunct Euphoria Smoothies and said that some Asian folks were eating in there. I remember her saying that but for some reason it didn’t register in my consciousness that this could be the first solid Chinese place in Clinton, so we didn’t go until recently after being reminded of its existence by a friend from church (thanks, James!). Maybe the name made me dismiss it right off the bat, but whatever the reasoning at the time I was sorely mistaken. Oh, China Express… please forgive me for neglecting you. I prone myself before you both begging for mercy and basking in your magnificence, for you are truly a marvelous restaurant–to my knowledge the first and only authentic Chinese restaurant in Clinton.
Burrito Mexpress
“Burrito Mexpress”!? Really!? The name of this new restaurant in Clinton filled me with nothing but doubt. Thankfully Denise convinced me that we should try it, and because of that we’ve discovered the first authentic Mexican restaurant in Clinton and the best tacos in town.
Posting about Lula’s Cafe reminded me of this since they have similar food. Since my 1st post about Froghead Grill a couple years ago we’ve been back quite a few times. Good food and a nice variety–what’s not to like, right? Well, let me throw some caveats out there:
Despite all that, I must say that if you’re dining in and have no particular attachment to any dish on their menu and you’re not in a rush, they do a good job with their food. I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad meal there food-wise, so it’s still a good place to eat if you’re in Clinton.
Lula's Cafe
Working through some backlog items here. What can I say? I’m a prolific eater but not a prolific blogger. We had lunch at Lula’s Cafe a while back when they were just getting started. Lula’s Cafe is a Southern food restaurant in Clinton. They serve breakfast and lunch on weekdays (they weren’t open on weekends when we went, but call them to find out for sure). They’re a soup/salad/sandwich kind of place with a sprinkling of Southern dishes and a daily plate special.