Catfish in the City

Growing up a Southern girl, I learned that there are irrefutable truths in this life. You don’t sass your mama (‘cause you’re not too big to be spanked). You can spot a Yankee a mile away, if only by their inability to properly use the word “y’all.” And the best catfish and barbecue (and fried chicken, come to think) come from buildings you’d think twice to set foot in, much less consider as restaurants.

Recently, though, I’ve had to reconsider that last one. In our constant search for new places to eat, EAToo and I stumbled upon Soul Fish Café, in the Cooper-Young district of midtown. This is not my usual stomping grounds — my inner suburban princess is quite happy living out in the county, thank you — but then again, we’ll generally travel any distance for the promise of good food.

Soul Fish Café is not what you’d expect of a great catfish joint. For starters, as a catfish restaurant, the outside looks remarkably new and well-kempt, a modern building with a coat of fresh paint on the outside. (It’s a far cry from my favorite catfish place, County Line Catfish, in Fayette County — while well kept and clean inside, the outside still strongly resembles the hunting shack it used to be before the restaurant opened.) Inside, it looks a bit like a diner; the tables, counter, and quirky decor give off a Route 66, roadside sort of vibe.

The food, however, is pure Southern goodness. I’m picky about my catfish; it’s such a simple food, but has so much room to go wrong if done improperly. I needn’t have worried, though — everything at Soul Fish was done just right. The fish is light and flavorful, with a cornmeal coating that is crispy and not the least bit greasy. The french fries had obviously never been frozen, and were cooked to perfection. Not a fan of ketchup, I dipped the fries in the homemade tartar sauce, and I couldn’t have asked for anything better. Except maybe the homemade remoulade sauce.

But the hush puppies — oh, the hush puppies. Hush puppies are a uniquely Southern food, and one of my favorite comfort foods. The cornmeal batter was fried perfectly, crispy on the outside, and just the tiniest bit still soft on the inside. There was just the right amount of kernel corn inside, and just enough spice to make things interesting without overpowering the slightly-sweet corn taste. And when paired with the aforementioned homemade tartar sauce... wow. Just, wow.

On different visits, we tried the catfish in both sandwich and plate lunch forms. I enjoyed the catfish plate (the slaw was also excellent), but I think Soul Fish really shines with their sandwiches. The bread was wonderful; fish sandwiches have an unfortunate tendency to get soggy, but this one was perfectly balanced until the very end.

Other sandwiches we tried included the Cuban Po Boy (yes, a Cuban sandwich at a catfish place), which boasted some of the best pork tenderloin I have ever had. The tenderloin was also the star of the Memphis Po Boy, which included the smoked tenderloin, bacon, coleslaw, and barbecue sauce. (I think this was EAToo’s favorite — despite being transplanted to the South during his teenage years, he appreciates all forms of pork, as well as any sandwich with more than one kind of meat on it, as much as if he were born here.)

Both of our trips to Soul Fish have left me too full to even consider dessert — the sandwiches, which run from $7.50 - $7.95, include a side order, and that’s been more than enough food for us. (So far, one of us will order fries and the other will order hush puppies. We share both, an arrangement we’ve been very happy with.) But we’ll definitely go back, and I hope to try the caramel pecan pie when we do.

Soul Fish also boasts a variety of appetizers, including catfish nuggets, several salads, a kids’ menu, and a specials board with a daily variety of plate lunches. I’m sure we’ll get around to most of the menu, eventually.

I’m still convinced that some of the best Southern food comes from the unlikeliest of places. But considering that Soul Fish is now one of our favorite catfish places, I suppose I’ll have to keep an open mind.

Except when it comes to barbecue. I’m just sayin’.


Soul Fish Café
862 S. Cooper
Memphis, Tennessee
(901) 725-0722

Getting the Band Back Together

Like all good geeks and fangirls, I revel in my geekiness, wearing it like a badge of honor. Also like all good geeks and fangirls, secretly, I’d like to be a rock star.

Almost a year ago, I began channeling those impulses into Guitar Hero. (I keep telling EAToo that most wives would be offended at getting Guitar Hero — or any other video game — for their anniversary present, and he should be grateful to have a wife who actually suggested it.) Guitar Hero is a blast, and I turned out to be really good at it. I’m not one of those people who thinks this means that I can actually play guitar — but it did give me the opportunity to show my nine-year-old nephew that he shouldn’t assume a girl is automatically incapable of kicking his butt at a video game.

Unfortunately, it turns out that Guitar Hero is a gateway drug of sorts. At first, it seemed harmless. We bought Guitar Hero II, and another guitar. Then, we moved on to Singstar. Singstar is basically karaoke — except it grades your ability to hold pitch and match the meter of the actual singer. As a bonus, unlike karaoke, you sing in your living room. Whereas I’m not certain there is enough alcohol in the world to get me to sing in front of complete strangers, I’m fairly comfortable making a fool of myself in front of people who love me (and would laugh at me anyway). We now own all five different versions available for PS2.

We did manage to skip over Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s -- mainly because it costs the same as the other versions, but with fewer songs. And we got Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for Christmas. But on New Year’s Eve, the most amazing thing happened to us. Our friends, who had gotten an Xbox 360 for Christmas, bought Rock Band. We rang in the new year playing, and within a week had bought it for ourselves for PS2. Things haven’t been the same for us ever since.

Rock Band is awesome for several reasons. The first is that, in addition to “guitar” and “bass”, Rock Band allows you to sing and play an electronic drum kit as well. Those two features, unlike the guitar analog, are actually similar to performing in real life.

The second reason that Rock Band is cool is that the entire family can play along. With Guitar Hero or Singstar, only two people could play at once. With Rock Band, up to four people can play together (five, if the four-year-old is playing guitar or drums with the help of an adult as she learns). And it’s great for all ages, unlike, say, Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto.

(One note: I strongly recommend Xbox for playing Rock Band. It’s fun on PS2, but that version lacks Xbox features like creating band member avatars, the “tour” mode where you can win fans and make money, and the Xbox Live download store, with lots of extra songs you can buy. I can't speak for the Wii version, which won’t be out until June 22, but I’m interested to see what it’s like.)

But I think my favorite thing about Rock Band (and Guitar Hero and Singstar) is that it is introducing young people to music they might not have heard of otherwise. I’m pleased to see the four-year-old princess, whose musical tastes normally run to Kelly Clarkson and High School Musical, begging to sing and play along to songs like Radiohead’s “Creep” or Nirvana’s “In Bloom”. (Although I was a little concerned when I heard her walking around the house singing “Paranoid”, by Garbage.) And the nine-year-old, who ordinarily likes rap, prefers Skynyrd’s “Simple Man” and CCR’s “Fortunate Son” to a lot of the other music in the game.

Ok, my real favorite thing is that I can score 100% singing “Dani California” on medium (98% on hard). Which is really cool if I ignore the fact that I score highest when I sing songs originally sung by men....

We spent a lot of Saturday nights playing together right after New Year’s, but had kind of slacked off due to soccer, baseball, and all sorts of other commitments. But thanks to the holiday weekend, we got to spend both Saturday and Sunday nights playing Rock Band with the whole family. I hadn’t realized how much I had missed it, and I’m hoping we have more chances soon.

And if Rock Band isn’t enough to keep us busy, there’s always Rock Band 2, due out later this year. And Guitar Hero: World Tour, which promises drum and vocals, like Rock Band. And Rock Revolution.

Now that I think about it, I think I’m gonna need an Xbox soon. And maybe a Wii. And a lot more hours in the day.

Rock on!

Just hangin’ out...

Yesterday was a good day. Why? Because for the first time in weeks, if not months, we had nothing planned to do.

Now, that wasn’t the case last week, and it won’t be the case this week. Most nights we’re out doing something or other. Lately, it has often been soccer (four-year-old “amoeba” soccer), which EAToo coaches, or little league baseball. I love “my kids” desperately, and wouldn’t miss their games and things for anything, but who knew that a childless “aunt” could be almost as busy as the actual mom?

So it was lovely to actually have no plans at all for once. After sleeping in, we went and met the parents for brunch, at Bittersweet in Germantown. Bittersweet is interesting to me, if only because in 2005 the proprietor closed the original Bittersweet (in New Hampshire) after 44 years, in order to move to Memphis and escape the harsh New England winters. I’m not sure he traded up, but I am glad of the opportunity for a taste of New England without taking a long trip. I’ll definitely post more on our experience at Bittersweet after we’ve tried a meal other than brunch.

After lunch, we did some grocery shopping and ran a few other errands. Then we were able to just hang out at home for a while, which was nice. I got a few things done I’d been meaning to do at home, and got to spend some time writing afterward.

Then I actually got to spend some time in the kitchen, cooking something that didn’t come out of a box in the freezer. We tried a gnocchi recipe from Tyler’s Ultimate on the Food Network. I had made homemade gnocchi once before, years ago, and Tyler’s recipe was a lot easier than I remembered. It turned out really well — plus, there are plenty of leftovers for dinner before baseball tonight. I hope to have a chance soon to make the green summer minestrone Tyler made on the same episode. If you’re a beginner cook, I would definitely suggest checking out Tyler’s show — it’s great for learning basic techniques. And I can pretty much guarantee you’ll never hear him say “EVOO” like Rachael Ray.

After dinner we caught up on some television, including the season finales of “Numb3rs” (which seemed to end at sort of an odd place) and “Smallville” (which was just beautiful, especially Lana’s sendoff).

There was only one thing I meant to do yesterday that I didn’t get around to, and that was blogging. I’ve been a very bad blogger lately, but hopefully this summer will allow me more time to blog, and cook, and read, and all sorts of other things I’ve been neglecting lately. And if not, maybe I’ll at least have some more days like yesterday.

Upfronts 2008: CBS and ABC

So, this is the week in Hollywood when the networks traditionally present their “upfronts,” introducing their fall TV schedules. As always, it’s a mixture of good news and bad news.

CBS:

The worst of the bad news so far comes from CBS’ fall schedule. CBS has canceled “Moonlight,” because it apparently didn’t keep enough of the lead in audience from ““Ghost Whisperer.” Sounds reasonable enough, except for the fact that “Moonlight” has won its time slot consistently since returning post-writers’ strike. I know the show withstood a lot of criticism (some valid) for lack of originality, but it was well-acted, and didn’t suffer from the tedious will-they-or-won’t-they story pacing you normally see on television. I’m going to miss it terribly.

I’d be really furious at CBS, but I’m in a forgiving mood since they did renew “How I Met Your Mother” for a third season. Every year, the show’s fate seems to be up in the air, because apparently one of the execs at CBS doesn’t find it funny. Which I’m guessing means they’ve never watched it. This is the only traditional, laugh-track sitcom I still watch, and I’m thrilled to have it back for another year.

The sad thing is, other than the renewal of “Numb3rs,” which was kind of a given, that’s all I really care about on CBS. The rest of their schedule sounds just deadly boring, with the possible exception of “The Amazing Race,” which I may watch, if the contestants are more likable than last year.

ABC:

ABC seems to be in the best shape of any of the networks so far, since its fall schedule seems to have the fewest new shows. Unfortunately, that also means not a lot of new things to be excited about. But that’s fine — I’m excited enough to have “Pushing Daisies,” “Samantha Who?” and “Lost” back for next year.

Plus, ABC has provided me with some of the best TV news so far for next year: as Zach Braff confirmed this week on his blog, the worst-kept secret in network TV is true — “Scrubs” will move to ABC this fall, after being canceled on NBC. The seventh season was somewhat unsatisfying, being cut short due to the writers’ strike. Fortunately, we can look forward to having the show’s continuing storylines wrapped up properly in its eighth season. For more details on how crappily NBC treated “Scrubs,” why the season finale wasn’t supposed to be, and what we can expect next season, check out Michael Ausiello’s interview with “Scrubs” executive producer Bill Lawrence here.

Overall, I wish I were more excited. Maybe I will be tomorrow when I take a closer look at The CW and Fox.

I really do want to...

Believe, that is.

Once upon a time, I was a huge fan of “The X-Files.” And I don’t mean I was a record-the-show-to-watch-it-later kind of fan. Or even a stay-home-to-watch-it-on-Sunday-nights fan. No, I was a bona fide, card-carrying, fanfiction-reading, convention-attending, scary obsessive fangirl.

Of course, that was before David Duchovny wanted out and started phoning in his performances. Before the show’s seemingly carefully constructed “mythology” sprouted holes you could drive a truck through. Before Chris Carter, for some reason I still can’t fathom, killed off the Lone Gunmen in the final season.

But I can’t help it. I do still want to believe. So I guess I’ll be there on July 25, when The X-Files: I Want to Believe hits theatres — nearly 15 years after “The X-Files” premiered on Fox.

Is the truth still out there? I don’t know. But the new trailer for the upcoming movie is finally out there, and you can check it out here and decide for yourself.

Here we go again...

As I mentioned in an earlier post, “Sometimes Fox just isn’t that into me.” But I had begun to hope that things were looking up — after all, “Bones” and “Sarah Connor Chronicles” have been renewed, and word is that “Prison Break” might be back to its old self next year. Heck, they managed to talk Joss Whedon into coming back with a new show, which is nothing short of a miracle after what they did to “Firefly”.

And then they have to go and hurt me again.

Now, I realize that “New Amsterdam” would probably never have seen the light of day (or at least never aired completely) if there hadn’t been a writers’ strike. So I should probably be grateful to have gotten to see it at all. And I am grateful — for a show that could have been a horrible rehash of sci-fi clichés, “New Amsterdam” turned out to be a breath of fresh air on a TV landscape that’s too often cluttered with formulaic, recycled “concepts.”

I mean, sure, we’ve seen immortality dealt with many times over. (Highlander, anyone?) But somehow, the story of John Amsterdam, a 400-year-old New Yorker looking to become mortal, managed to bring something new to the table. Maybe it was the way the show looked at family — John only shares his secret with a few people, in many cases the children he has fathered over the centuries. Or maybe it was the way the show examined love; when John became immortal thanks to a Native American girl after arriving in the “new world,” he was told that he could only die after being united with “the one.” It’s a double-edged sword — making him open to finding love, but also causing him to doubt every relationship he has that doesn’t end his immortality. And of course, all of these relationships fail, as he inevitably watches the women he loves grow old and die.

But most of all, “New Amsterdam” was about what it meant to be human. We are all the sum of our experiences, and at four centuries old, John Amsterdam obviously has a lot more experience than the average person. Through flashbacks to different eras, we see the choices, events, and mistakes that shaped his life, and how they affect present-day events. While John is a good man, he is by no means perfect. We see good that he has done in his past — after all, he only became immortal in the first place because it was the only way the Native American girl could help him after he nearly died protecting her.

But we also see the bad. “New Amsterdam” examined the harm we can do to those we care about, whether it be with the best of intentions or because we’re so lost in our own pain. A 400-year life leaves room for many mistakes (alcoholism, petty crime, bad parenting, to name a few), but it also leaves a lot of room for redemption, if you can learn from your mistakes and try to be better.

Every week I watched “New Amsterdam,” I came to love it more, because it was about hope, about the possibility of becoming better than what we are. And, unfortunately, therein lies the irony — it aired on a network that often seems to have completely missed that lesson. Sure, Fox is the network that gave us “X-Files” and “House.” But it’s also the network that cancels truly innovative and genius shows well before their time (see “Wonderfalls,” “Firefly,” “Pasadena,” and many others), in favor of real gems like “The Simple Life,” “Temptation Island,” and “The Swan.”

When Rupert Murdoch first put the Fox network together, he said of the fourth network’s programming that, “The only rules that we will enforce on these programs is they must have taste, they must be engaging, they must be entertaining and they must be original.” And yet, we’re still subjected to hours upon end of humiliating footage of people with more guts than talent or sense each year when it’s time for “American Idol.”

I’m trying to keep an open mind, as this is “upfront” week in Hollywood, where the networks tell us about the new prospects for this fall. On the other hand, I’m also wondering if I should wait to watch Joss Whedon’s “Dollhouse” at some point in the future, on DVD, so that I’ll be less disappointed when fickle Fox inevitably turns on me. Again.