The Lodge at Buckberry Creek, Gatlinburg TN

The Lodge at Buckberry Creek

Sunday morning after closing the restaurant the evening before, we were not in a big rush to get away from the house because we could not check in at our home for the next two nights, The Lodge at Buckberry Creek, until 4pm and it was only a 7-hour ride away south and west down Interstate 81. If the dogs were uneasy the night before first as Ann packed her things into the Jeep and then as I got home and packed my things, that was nothing compared to early Sunday morning. Both Grace and Charlie were moping around like it was the end of the world.

At 8:30am we got on the road and immediately had to return home to get Ann's purse. That was the only little hitch in our long ride south that proved uneventfully boring. We started with leaves just starting to bud out on the trees at home and hit fairly full leaves by Roanoke. Aside from lots of white dogwoods, swaths of yellow blooming cress in the medians, and thousands of tent caterpillar tents, there wasn't a whole lot to look at zooming down the interstate.

Road Food: Grilled Vegetable Sandwiches

As we cruised the length of Virginia, we snacked on sandwiches that I had made the day before, knowing that there aren't any places along the interstate that serve quick and decent food. The one in the picture is grilled squash, grilled red pepper, grilled onion, arugula, provolone, and pesto. I also made a couple with cream cheese and an olive salad made from olives, giardiniera, olive oil, garlic, and oregano all tossed in the food processor and roughly chopped. Every time I make sandwiches, Ann asks rhetorically, "Why can't we get a good sandwich like this anywhere in Winchester?"

Late afternoon, after crossing the Virginia-Tennessee border at Bristol, we continued down 81 until it seamlessly merged into I-40 heading into Knoxville. We hung a left just shy of Knoxville on US-441 heading through first Sevierville and then Pigeon Forge on the way to Gatlinburg. Although I had read a little bit about the stretch of 441 heading into Gatlinburg, nothing prepared me for the "Holy Putt Putt, Batman!" experience that is the 15-miles of tourist hell leading up to the border of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I just don't have words to describe the abuse that has been inflicted upon the landscape on this stretch of highway.

Trees, A Sight for Sore Eyes; Leaving Tourist Hell

Just after we passed the infamous Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, we quickly entered the park and the woods and some of our "What exactly have we gotten ourselves into?" doubts eased. It was an easy 7 or 8 minutes to the Lodge at this point. We checked in at the main building and then wound our way up the hill to the building where we were staying.

Viewing Mt. LeConte from our Balcony

The Lodge at Buckberry Creek is beautiful and styles itself as an Adirondack camp in the Smokies. It really is a beautiful property situated up on a hill bordering GSMNP with expansive views of Mt. LeConte. Only five minutes out of Gatlinburg, it seems worlds apart. Our room was extremely comfortable and well appointed and I would certainly go back. The staff were all incredibly friendly and we really felt welcomed.

After checking in and making a dinner reservation for the following evening, we tried a quick nap, but though tired from the road, neither of us could sleep. So we decided to hike down the hill to the creek below, just to get a little walk in. On the way down the hill we saw a trail to an overlook, so we followed it a few hundred feet to find a circular opening in the trees overlooking exactly nothing. It was proving to be quite warm, in the mid 80s, and we were getting hot.

Awesome Pavilion by the Creek

Thankfully as we descended the hill into the trees, it became much, much cooler. As we reached the creek, perhaps 200 feet below the lodge, we could see a path leading upstream towards a really neat pavilion by the creek, which turned to be a tiny little brook tumbling over rocks in the valley of two rhododendron-clad hillsides. Here and there, we found little patches of dwarf crested iris in full bloom, something we rarely see back home.

Buckberry Creek

First of Many Dwarf Crested Iris

Back up the hill and after a shower, we decided to have the cheese, salame, and wine dinner that we brought with us on the balcony watching sun go down playing on Mt. LeConte opposite, watching it go from green to blushed red to dark while being serenaded by an enthusiastic avian cast including a very insistent Rufous-Sided Towhee and a really loud warbler, probably a Yellow Warbler.

Chorizo, Soppressata, Grayson Cheese, and Barolo

Knowing in advance that the Lodge's restaurant is closed on Sunday nights and that dining opportunities in Gatlinburg are limited at best, I brought along a little feast for our dinner. When we checked in, the receptionist told us that the restaurant kitchen would be open that evening because of a special event and asked if we wanted to dine with them that evening. I demurred because at that point after our road sandwiches, I wasn't sure if we were going to be hungry enough to tackle a formal dinner. In retrospect, this was a wise move. More details in tomorrow's post. Fortunately, our room had a little kitchenette that I used to toast the bread for our dinner. It was a great dinner with great company with spectacular views.

Flame Azalea

Included in our spectacular view just below our balcony on the edge of the woods was this flame azalea in full bloom.  Just after the sun went down, I passed straight out at 9pm and slept like a dead thing straight through the night. Welcome to vacation!

Pot-O-Pho, Winchester VA

One of the primary types of restaurant missing from Winchester is a decent Vietnamese place. You can't swing a dead cat in Northern Virginia without hitting at least a pho shop if not a full-fledged Vietnamese restaurant, but here, there is zip for Vietnamese cuisine, which ranks up at the top of my list of cuisines that I love. I was happy to learn about a month ago that somebody was giving it a go at a restaurant named Pot-O-Pho which we tried yesterday.

Phở Đặc Biệt

Gỏi Cuốn: Summer Rolls with Shrimp

The restaurant itself is a huge cavern, a recycled Chinese buffet, that is very deep, very hard, and very noisy. It's not a comfortable space. Service was lackadaisical to comical. The food was decent for the money. Having a lot of experience making pho broth, I would give the pho broth here a solid B, being both a little too cloudy and a touch overseasoned for my liking. I like to take my spices out of the broth sooner than whoever made this broth does. The bean sprouts served with the pho should have been thrown out the day before.

The atmosphere is tough to love and the servers really don't know what they are doing and have had no training, but the two dishes we tried were pretty much what they should be. Given the poor location of the restaurant, it's going to be a tough go for them. I wish them luck.

Black Bean Burgers

Black Bean Burgers and Salsa

I could eat these black bean burgers every day. Monday, I cooked black beans with garlic, cumin, onion, chipotle salsa, poblanos, cilantro stems, oregano, and the merest hint of cinnamon. And we ate black beans topped with salsa. When we had taken our beans out for Monday's dinner, I added a few tablespoons of masa harina to the beans and cooked them for another minute, until they seized up. Then they went in the fridge to get good and cold. I pattied them out last night, covered the faces in panko, fried them, and served them with a batch of impromptu salsa.

This salsa was grape tomatoes, white onion, green onion, poblano, cilantro, sambal oelek, salt, and because I didn't have any limes, sherry vinegar. Sherry vinegar is a nice and different touch. And the masa is a great touch. It adds a nice sweetness to the spicy beans.

Zucchini Noodles with Tomatoes, Basil, and Shrimp

Zucchini Noodles with Tomatoes, Basil, and Shrimp

Ann asked me on Tuesday if I had some fish that I could bring home and would I turn some zucchini noodles to put it on. I didn't have any spare fish but we did have some shrimp in the freezer at home. I've given up on preaching to Ann about eating zucchini and other things out of season; I'm just glad that she's actually getting some vegetables of her own volition. Picking my battles.

I had some leftover microbasil from last week that I could contribute to dinner and brought home some pine nuts, pesto clearly on my mind.

Pine Nuts, Zucchini Noodles, Lots of Garlic

Really simple preparation: slice some tomatoes and add them to a bowl with the basil; cook the garlic in extra virgin olive oil until it's fragrant, add the shrimp and pine nuts and cook through, season, and add to the bowl. Blanch the noodles until tender in boiling salted water, 2 minutes or so. Deglaze the shrimp pan with 1/4 cup of pasta water and add to the bowl. Toss all well. Serve with cheese.

Slumming It

I don't do chain restaurants. I just don't. It's a matter of principle, mainly, in that I like to support the home team, keeping my money in the community where it helps out our neighbors rather than to send it to some corporate office somewhere not even in Virginia. I also like to support individual entrepreneurs, who like me have their own money at risk because they believe in what they are doing. And in terms of food, I prefer minimally processed food cooked from scratch by professionals.

Sunday after our noon walk, Ann rather forcefully suggested in her own reserved politic manner that we should go to iHoP for lunch, "You're not going to like this, but we are going to iHoP for lunch and that's that!" Guys, what do you say to an ultimatum such as this? If you're smart, nothing short of "Yes ma'am." If you're not smart, well, let's just say that divorces are expensive.

Gloating

I knew that at 2pm in the afternoon, I wasn't in the mood for pancakes. I used to make them for the girls when they were young, but they're not among my favorite foods. So, I opted for a burger, Ann for a ham and egg melt and she also ordered mozzarella sticks to start. My burger was really good even though it was more cooked than I like. The bun and the toppings were all really fresh and decent quality (look at the photo below; this is how the burger came to the table, I didn't style it or anything). So much better and less expensive than Five Guys (whose burgers I have never liked, though their fries are wonderful). And the onion rings were made with real onions, though I am partial to a tempura/beer batter coating.

Mozzarella Sticks

Ham and Egg Patty Melt

Cheese Burger

And now let me say that I had never been to an iHoP before, so I really had no earthly idea what to expect. What I found was a bright, clean restaurant that was packed busy, efficient service, a very quick kitchen, high quality food for a reasonable price. As much as it pains me to say this, I probably would go back of an occasion.

Seven-Layer Dip Bowl

Delicious and Healthy, Too!

This cold wet weather is not helping the restaurant business one bit, but it is giving me more time at home with Ann, so that's something of a win, no? Last night was another in a long series of slow week nights and so I decided to go home and make dinner for us. It's no secret that Ann and I are slowly trying to work off all that winter weight we put on and so we are being a bit more selective in what we eat.

We haggled a bit on the phone over dinner, throwing out one idea after another. It all kept coming back to the thawed ground turkey in the fridge. It finally dawned on me that we could do a really healthy version of the horribly unhealthy seven-layer dip, yet put it in a bowl so that we could eat it without the usual tortilla chips.

The layers are up to you, but I avoided the cheese and sour cream in my bowl because of my lactose intolerance. Ann went for both from her stash in the fridge. This is not a quick or haphazard meal. Between vegetable prep and milling spices and adding cook time for the beans and the turkey, this was a solid 30 minutes of work, even for a very quick professional chef.

The bottom layer for both of us was ground turkey which I added to a sauté of onions, poblanos, and garlic and cooked until just done through. Then I seasoned with salt, cumin, ancho powder, oregano, and the barest hint of cinnamon. A spice mill really helps. Get one. Keep your spices and chile peppers fresh and rotated and mill them to order. It does make a difference.

For the beans, the second layer, I opted for something texturally between soup beans (frijoles de la olla) and refried beans (frijoles refritos). I started by draining a large can of cooked pintos: I love to rehydrate dry beans overnight, but that's not a possibility much of the time, especially on a day when I didn't anticipate being home for dinner. Canned beans aren't as economical or even as tasty as dried beans, but they sure are one of life's great convenience foods and there's no shame at all in using them.

In the bean pot, I started  a sauté of diced onion, diced poblano, minced garlic, and minced cilantro stems. Once this cooked down for a bit, in went the beans, about two ounces of the adobo off a can of chipotles, salt, and water to cover. I cooked the beans in parallel with the turkey. Once the turkey was done, I moved the beans to the high burner and brought them down rapidly. Towards the end, I smashed some beans against the side of the pot with my spoon and this thickened the sauce quite quickly. I finished them like refried beans, cooking them while stirring often, until the beans started to pull away from the side of the pot.

On top of the turkey and beans, I layered chipotle salsa, halved grape tomatoes, nopalitos, green onions, and topped the whole thing with cilantro. Cubes of avocado and fresh, raw sweet corn would be great in this, in season.

This dish has it all: extremely tasty, high protein, low fat, high fiber, and has only complex carbs in the beans. It's a winner even if you doctor it with a bit of cheese, sour cream, or both.

Bonchon, Winchester VA

Bonchon, the South Korean fried chicken and beer phenomenon, has just come to little old Winchester and Ann and I went to check it out on Sunday. I wasn't sure what to expect from the menu that is pan-Asian and not traditionally Korean. I generally prefer restaurants that stay in their lane, do what they do well, and not try to be all things to all people. Still, I have been hearing about the other KFC—Korean Fried Chicken—for a few years and was eager to try it.

Takoyaki and Onion Rings

We started with an order of onion rings and an order of the classic Japanese streetfood takoyaki, octopus encased in batter, topped with Japanese mayo and hanakatsuo. We figured that a place that can make good fried chicken can make good onion rings. We figured wrong. The onion rings were miserable, machine-formed rings of reconstituted dried onion. This is what real onion rings look like. The takoyaki sure looked like they were going to be awesome, but the batter wasn't cooked through leaving them mushy and unappetizing.

Fried Chicken, Kimchee, Daikon Pickles

The fried chicken arrived as we were about done with our appetizers, much of which went home to Carter to eat. The chicken is stellar and is reason enough to go back to this place. The crust is crackling and infused with just the right amount of really spicy sauce while the interior of the chicken is moist and tender. It is hard to imagine better chicken.

I really appreciated that the spicy sauce wasn't particularly dumbed down for Americans. Although I would have liked it spicier, it had plenty of kick. I also ordered a bowl of kimchee (because it is one of my favorite foods) and the chicken comes with a sweet daikon pickle that doesn't seem to be fermented in any way. As banchan go, these were pretty weak, but then, this isn't a traditional Korean restaurant.

Wheat Beer with Orange

None of the plates were wiped down before going to the dining room: each came to the table with extra drips of sauce, showing a real lack of care in the kitchen. Our server was pretty lackadaisical, more intent on watching TV than keeping an eye on her tables. I'd go back for the chicken but would skip the appetizers and I'm curious to try some of the other Korean dishes on the menu and on the special board.