Southern Fare, Stagiaire, and Bourbon Pear - My time with the Sunday Dinner Club - Part 1

"Back in the day" there was a family ritual.  This was at a time when there were no smart phones, video games, home computers, and Sunday night football.  When families interacted with each other, not via text messages, but actually used their inside voices.

Times have changed over the years.  Now, a Sunday dinner is difficult to find, although it is still there, somewhere.  My Brothers John and David, down in Nashville stick to the tradition of at least a Sunday gathering, whether it be dinner or brunch.  And let me tell you, I've had some amazing meals on Sunday's while visiting them, on a Sunday.  We put down our electronic devices and talk and eat and drink and eat some more.  And then sit on the couch and drink and all is well.  And this is what should be happening in homes around the country, because it's just right.  It brings family and friends together and everyone leaves happy and full.  How does that sound like a bad thing.

This brings me to Josh Kulp, Christine Cikowski, Becca, Allison, Julia, and Irma(sp.).  These folks are the amazing people that have brought back the idea of Sunday Dinner with the Sunday Dinner Club. http://sundaydinnerclub.com

Josh and Christine began the Sunday Dinner Club after bringing back the Sunday dinner tradition at home.  A)Because as classically trained chefs, they wanted to shy away from the mad rush of the restaurant scene and B)They basically want to make friends, family, and strangers happy, by cooking food that Josh and Christine enjoy, I mean, shouldn't that be the ultimate goal?

 One great bonus for diners is the fact that Josh and Christine try to keep their products local.  Leaving a very small footprint.  Sometimes, that can certainly be a challenge, especially when it comes to seafood, but knowing your purveyor when you have to go beyond local, makes a difference as well.  For example, their most recent dinner with Vinejoy(A local wine distributor of fine California wines), featured a crudo(raw fish) of beautiful Hamachi(Japanese Amberjack or Yellowtail).  Obviously, something not caught or farmed here in the US, unless I missed something.  Other than that, they keep it real and local and real local.

My first experience with Sunday Dinner Club, was for their Southern Menu.  This, as most of their dinners are byob, so we brought a bottle of wine and an empty stomach.  Now, the club is located at Roscoe and Elston, in what was once what appeared to be an apt, right above Josh's restaurant-Honey Butter Fried Chicken.  The entrance is inconspicuous, just a door with a buzzer.  When you are buzzed in, you walk up the steps to a communal dining area.  You'll find 3 tables with 8 chairs and you are seated as you walk in.  It's a very comfortable atmosphere, especially if you are a return member.  This was our first time, so we were a bit shy and quiet.  However, the other people at our table were return guests, and came prepared ready to mix their Mint Juleps to keep with the Southern theme.  It was boisterous in the dining area, with great conversation and laughter.  Then the crew came out to give everyone a run down of the history of Sunday Dinner Club and Honey Butter Fried Chicken.  Then we discussed the menu for the evening.   Oh, speaking of menu's, for every theme, a menu is specially designed.

On to the food!!  First course - Housemade Saltines with Pimento Cheese.  Thanks to Josh and the crew, I've decided I could put Pimento cheese on everything!  This was an awesomely creamy, cheesy, delicious treat.  The crackers were perfectly crispy with just enough salt, that when combined with the cheese, left just a subtle salty bite on the back of your tongue.  If you have never tried pimento cheese I urge you, do it and do it soon.  But remember, not all pimento cheese is the same.  Try making your own, the recipes are out there.  And please pardon the photo quality.  I was using my iPhone and it was quite dark and I didn't want to use my flash.

Next course - Salad - When I was young, my family would travel to Louisiana to visit my Mother's side of the family.  Without fail, on each visit, my Aunt Dwena and Uncle Jessie would have dinner at their place.  What I can remember was everything fried.  Fried catfish, fried hush puppies, and french fries.  So when my salad was placed in front of me, I was automatically thrown back to those days.  Except on a different level.  The salad was a smoked catfish, crisp market greens, perfectly fried corn hush puppy croutons, pickled melon rinds(and my Mother used to tell me not to eat the white parts, hah!), and a perfectly balanced honey vinaigrette.

If you are not a fan of catfish, this will definitely change your mind.  Sometimes, smoked meats can be a bit overwhelmingly smokey.  And as delicate as fish is, you have to be very careful when adding smoke, however Josh managed to nail this perfectly.  The pickled melon rind did make me rethink eating that part of the melon and I'm afraid if Mom would've been pickling melon rind all this time, I may have been willing to skip the fruit and go straight for the rind.  The hush puppy croutons?  I could have locked myself in a room, turned off the lights, poured a little bourbon, and eaten a bowl of the croutons.  And the honey vinaigrette bound it all together.  Which takes me back to culinary school and the days of making salads.  The biggest problem quite a few places have is that they bury their salads under heavy dressings.  At the most, you need 4 ounces of dressing, and that's a bit heavy depending on the size of the salad.  This salad was well dressed, so you could taste everything with just a hint of that vinaigrette.  No flavors were masked.  If you want to eat a salad for the dressing, just have a cup of dressing.  Once again, pardon the photo.

The third course of this Southern menu - the almighty, ever present on most Southern menu's, Shrimp and Grits!  But this wasn't just your typical, run of the mill Shrimp and Grits.  NO!!!  These grits, which are from Kankakee(yes, even Yankees know their grits!), were cooked with a ton of love and some buttermilk.  Holy $%^, $(#*^%, #)*^%)(*#$)*#^)*$^)(#*(%^)(#*^*^^^@&(#*%!!!!!!!  Sadly, my palate developed slowly as I grew up, so shrimp and grits for me were just discovered over the last few years.  After having this bowl of awesomeness topped with incredibleness, filled with I'm going to pass the $^% out because the flavor rocks, has changed my entire outlook on shrimp and grits.

So, as I said, the grits, cooked with buttermilk, topped with delicious, and perfectly cooked shrimp, then add some olive oil poached cherry tomatoes, pickled green tomatoes(which go great on everything!), and crispy !@#$%^& chicken skin(imagine chicken skin fried into chips!)  You, you look at the picture!  Me?  I'm going to have a moment.

Where do you even find room for another course?  But these culinary masters will not send you home hungry, and this brings us to the fourth course.  Before me sat this beautiful Grilled Pork Tenderloin with an Apricot BBQ glaze.  This was rested on a bed of Country Ham fried rice.  Sharing this plate were green beans topped with peanuts and Carolina Gold Rice.

Where to begin?  The tenderloin was grilled, sliced and topped with a traditional Carolina bbq sauce, however to mix things up a bit, a puree' of apricot was added.  The tenderloin was moist, and the sauce was just sweet enough to play well with the pork.  The green beans were prepared with a bit of fish sauce(Do not be intimidated by that.  When touched with heat, the flavor of fish sauce plays well with whatever else you are adding to it).  Then crushed peanuts were placed on the beans, as well as Carolina Gold Rice, which had been cooked, cooled, and deep fried.  What is Carolina Gold Rice?  Well, since this blog is getting a bit wordy, I suggest you google it, then go to Amazon and order some.  You will not be disappointed and you will be eating history.

Where does this Southern food orgy end?  With pie of course!  I've learned from my Aunt and Uncle that every dinner must end with pie and coffee.  I don't know if it's a Southern tradition, but if it isn't, it sure should be.

I've never been a fan of cooked fruit.  It's always been a textural thing with me.  Fruit pies always smelled great, but I didn't want any part of them.  Give me my chocolate pie, coconut cream pie, lemon pie, or a good old cheesecake and I was happy, but none of this cooked fruit business.  One exception, was my Grandma Fletcher's Sweet Potato Pie, which I could sit and eat an entire pie in one setting.  So, tonight, this was something that I was going to overcome, because A)I did not want to insult anyone back there slaving away to feed us and B)The meal had not been a disappointment, so I was sure that this would help me overcome my fear of cooked fruit.  Tonight's dessert was a Peach Pie ala mode.

This pie was not traditional in the sense of crust, filling, top crust.  The filling, the Georgia peaches were baked separately from the crust.  The filling was then placed in a bowl, and topped with a traditional crumble.  A wedge of crust was added as well, to give you the best of both worlds, pie and crumble.  Then the topper was a scoop of black pepper ice cream.  I know, I know, black pepper ice cream?  I've had black pepper gelato and it was peppery!  So I was a bit worried, however this was much different.  Josh and his crew used a sour cream base for this ice cream, which I think may have mellowed out that black pepper punch.  The ice cream had an amazing sweetness, but not overwhelming.  And the black pepper snuck past the tip of your tongue, and then tapped you on the back of the tongue, just to say "hey, I'm really here, and you really love having me in your mouth"!  It was a perfect pairing and a perfect way to end a great meal.  One that I will not forget for a long time to come.

It was after this meal, that I decided to approach Josh and Christine about staging one night.  They welcomed me to stage, and what happened next, well, that will have to wait for the next blog.

Good night and I promise, the next blog will be worded a little more precise, and the photos are much better quality.