Videos need no introduction or justification. But, I’ll give you one anyhow. Everybody loves a picture that tells a story, especially when that picture is moving and literally telling you the story. Watching TV pairs with food, especially when the televised topic is food.  Maybe Richmond needs more food TV. Well this will have to hold you over. I caught these few clips recently and wanted to share. It’s all positive. Stuff I really like that deserves your attention. Grab a snack, kick back, and press play – three times.

If you like southern comfort food, soul food, or fried food. If you like slow cooked food, warm and friendly atmosphere and staff.  If you put hot sauce on everything except dessert. If you like your restaurants in hundred year old buildings on historic downtown streets, and the Westenders far away, holed up in their corporate chains where the food looks like it does on the TV commercials, then Mama J’s is for you.  I recommend the seafood salad. This video review is by Soliel Paden, whom I met via her tweets.

The one thing I buy consistently at farmers markets is Bombolini pasta. Their five twists for five dollars deal, in all those pretty colors and delicious flavors, just seems too good to be true. Okay, you do need to know how not to overcook it (hint, check it at one minute and every 10 seconds after).  It’s great to finally see how the pasta is made. The news that it’s vegan is cool (except the squid ink linguini, which I love). And that guy in the interview really is that laid back and nice. He’s even spotted me a few twists of pasta when I was short on cash.



To know An Bui is to love him, especially after getting caught up in his enthusiasm over a craft beer at his restaurant, Mekong. Even without his enigmatic persona, the combo of really high quality beer and steaming hot delicious Vietnamese food is like heaven. If you didn’t already know that he makes videos about beer, then get ready for hilarious beer geekery. Here, he brings on Richmond’s Pho King, John Reinhold, whom I first met when he helped MC the banh mi throwdown (and An was one of our celebrity judges!). Swell guys. One, a restrained reviewer of beer who makes pho disappear (John, not An), the other, a head over heals beer luva.

The members of Victory Farms CSA just received a big announcement from the farm’s matriarch, Gina Collins. Although they don’t foresee any immediate impact, the future of the farm is going to take a big turn, and they’re asking for input. Victory has been a leader, a catalyst, and model for the viability of local food in Richmond over the last several years. Those things may continue to be true, but it will surely look a little different in years to come. Have a read and chime in about the changes and opportunities that you see coming out of this development. As a Victory Farms CSA member, I’m certainly on the edge of my seat.

Our family has something to share with you. We as a family have decided that it is time for us to change our primary residence to Arizona to be closer to our families. It has been 6 years that we’ve been away and we feel that we need to be closer to aging parents and growing nieces and nephews.
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After two weeks of submitting pictures to RVAnews Garden Wars contest, I was the first to come up short on votes (and baby pictures – doh!) and got voted off island. Thanks to all who helped me keep it competitive. Most of my voters seemed to agree with the approach of focusing on sharing novelties and insights from the growing season, so I feel sufficiently validated.

No, scratch that. I was really looking forward to documenting the fruits of my gardening for the next several weeks, so I guess I’ll just continue doing so, without the pressure of a popularity contest. In fact, I’d like to encourage all of Richmond’s food bloggers to post pictures and stories from your gardens. There’s so much focus on local and natural foods these days, and the farmers markets are the talk of the town, it’s high time that the green-thumbed people of Richmond showed the rest of us how to DIY some delicious produce.

So, bloggers (especially all of you on EatingRichmond.com). Show off what you’re growing. If you don’t have a blog, RVAnews has created “The Community Garden,” where you can upload pictures and captions from your garden. My most recent Garden Wars submissions are featured there. One of those pictures suggested you come check out what I was going to do with all of the overgrown herbs that I had to cut back. Well, here it is:

My new toy.

I just picked up this mammoth dehydrator on Craigstlist and I’ve got BIG plans for it. Although, I’m sure it’s perfectly sound practice to hang your herbs upside down for a week to dry them out, I wanted to try something a little more expedient. Plus, is anything really going to dry out without molding in this Richmond humidity?

An herb I didn’t pick for drying was basil. Instead, that went into our annual supply of pesto that I freeze for later use. (more…)

When the news arrived of Captain Buzzy’s Beanery expanding a couple blocks east on Broad under the name Buffington and Wine’s Pies Fries and Franks, a shit-storm of vitriol manifested overnight on the Church Hill People’s News site (200 comments and counting?). Though I sometimes miss life in Church Hill, having rented there almost six years ago, I couldn’t have been happier to leave it behind. Buzzy’s opened nearby our apartment, but it wasn’t a compelling coffee option for us. We wandered over to Jumpin J’s Java where the scene was more our speed, but it was kind of a hike. For the most part, we felt stranded, as anywhere outside Church Hill that we might want to go was an arduous drive, both down the hill and back up it.

Pretend that's a pizza.

Well, life goes on in Church Hill. I’m not an authority on the subject now, and probably never was. What really opened my eyes to the evolving restaurant reality of life on the Hill was the most recent CHPN comment thread responding to the Richmond.com reviewing team’s panning of Buzzy’s Buffington. My introduction came with comment #90, excerpted on Twitter, as it was coming from an outgoing partner in the Buffington and Wine business. The comment brings up so many questions for me. I have to warn you that reading Victor Wine’s parting shot pretty much obligates you to read the comments leading up to it. They’re not all as inflammatory as you might imagine (well, there are some combative tangents, but compared to the usual CHPN mudslinging, this stuff seems like it’s coming from a high school guidance counselor). In fact, it’s just the open window into the conflicted mindset of Church Hill residents that I needed to better understand restaurant customers up there. And, the discussion may have even convinced the Buzzy Buffington’s pizza project to revamp their entire menu.
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