Cooking With Ideas

Mozelle's

As I write this, I have been to Mozelle's in Winston Salem 4 times. I have enjoyed myself each time. Once with a friend from near Charlotte early in my time here, twice by myself, and most recently with a friend/colleague from Salem Academy and College. The food has been terrific each time, the wines delightful, the service very good, and the ambience just right - both for sitting alone at the bar (and dining) and sitting at a table for two, in various seasons and more. Overall: go there. Yes, it is a bit price-y but worth it. 

Details, you ask? Let me begin with the aspects that have been the same each time and then turn to specifics about the various items I have eaten, etc. 

Ambience: Mozelle's is a somewhat upscale place on a corner on 4th street in downtown Winston Salem. There is parking on the street, and the restaurant is situated on a corner a bit away from down town. (Several blocks, for example, from Bookmarks.)   In warmer weather, there is a seating area outside - and in all weather there are areas within: (a) to the left and right as you enter there are arrays of tables, including alongside windows that look out on to 4th street; and (b) seating along the bar for a relatively small number of people. At least part of the cooking area is out front, and the chefs can be seen from the bar very directly without being either intrusive or unduly noisy. (To be honest, that's part of why I like sitting at the bar.) The service is easy going but efficient (despite this being literally a white table cloth place). And, most servers I have encountered have known the food well. The wine list (there is not bar) varied and interesting - somewhat extensive by the glass. There is a good beer list as well, with local and NC beers mainly. And, there are "wine cocktails" (I had a kir royale on one of my visits, a terrific gruner veltliner, and other white wines on other visits.) For good or ill, I did not visit the restroom on any of my trips so cannot comment on that aspect of the ambience. 

On eating at the bar: I do try to send a signal to leave me alone by reading either a book or on my phone or kindle. This is a totally ok place to do that - though one of the two nights I did so, a stranger - who turned out to be a nice man somewhat older than me - chose to talk a bit too much about his wine choices and more. 

The Food: I can say with 100% certainty that the food at Mozelle's is with the trip and enjoyable. Every single time I have been there I have been impressed with the qualtity and not overwhelmed by the quantity, and enjoyed the variety from traditional Southern (I knew nothing of Tomato Pie - though this is not the season obviously - but had seen a show re Vivian Howard that featured it while in Geneva and tried it at Mozelle's shortly thereafter. It was so good I had it again - despite my southern friend telling me to wait til it was in season.) 

A bit more details: (a) the first visit, I had brunch and it was March or April. I don't recall what I ate, but the coffee was memorable, I have a vague idea it involved green tomatoes, and a delightful conversation about life and more. More recently, I have had the tomato pie (as I noted above) which comes with succotash - and I have to say the succotash was delightful. I am so looking forward to having both it and the pie in season. I have also had the southern spring rolls - one gets 3 and they are cut in half - which feature pulled pork and come with a delightful gingery sesame dipping sauce. And, I went for an appetizer of ribs one evening - to which I give an A+.

I know I have been tempted by dessert - but usually I am so full I am not learning that way these days. 

So: I ought to have more details - but this self-styled "southern bistro" comes with an "excellent" from me for the food. 

Cost? I have spent in the $30s and up for myself. Wines run between $9 and $18, appetizers 

A Quibble: When I write recommendations and things, I often think I need to have a quibble in order to be taken seriously. On the one hand, on this blog, I have occasionally indicated my serious displeasure with restaurants. On the other hand, ether are truly only quibbles for some. A quibble for Mozelle's? I would say that its the parking which can be a pain in the neck. But: I did call once for a reservation (when alone I do not bother) and was told there was nothing available. On a whim, I went to Open Table and there were ones for the time I wanted. So: I clicked away - and when I got there, they had it and everything was ok. Had I been just a tiny bit lazier - or more trusting? or more irritated - I would have gone elsewhere that night - and . . . 

Where is Mozelle's? 878 West 4th Street, Winston Salem, NC 

try it. You'll like it. 

 

The Cooking Gene

Long before I intended to spend time in Winston Salem and turned my attention in new ways to the "South," I bought a copy of a book entitled The Cooking Gene by Michael W. Twitty. 

For various personal reasons, I only read it after I was ensconced in an apartment all too far from home, lonely and finding my way by reading obsessively. It turned out to be a book that I needed to read - and eventually I saw Twitty on television, and started reading his website, Afroculinaria. 

But, it all began with a book I picked up on a whim. The book has its limitations - the last third is actually fairly poorly written - but, for me, it is one of the most important books that I have read in a long time in the world of food, history, and related matters. The themes are evident in the book's subtitle: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South. What is hidden there, though, is the ways Twitty uses his own personal explorations of, say, his family history across the South as slave and free as well as his own choice to have his DNA explored to seek family connections. His journey is both a journey of external history and a deeply personal journey. It is a memoir, granted, but in some significant ways, a memoir of more than a single individual. (Perhaps that is always true, but it seems critically important in this book.)

And, the book has won multiple awards - including a 2018 award from the James Beard Foundation and more. 

So, what do I have to say about the book? A few points: something I had thought obvious becomes dramatically more important and interesting in the details: that southern food is in many ways entangled with the history of slavery in all its horrors. Both the particular foods and the modes of cooking are attached - to crossing the middle passage, to the ways house and field slaves existed and survived, to the expertise of Africa (e.g., rice) and the demands of what eventually became the Southern United States. The book also points to how Twitty is (and in some ways all of us are) inheritors of both the horrors and the food of an era of slavery. That today, when Twitty re-enacts slave cooking in various settings and is criticized for raising the issues of slavery and race all too often, is itself a reminder that we have not settled the legacy that he writes about. We cannot, I was reminded in reading the book, romanticize nor can we forget the past - we must, as Twitty calls us to do - embrace the discomfort. And, to quote the back of the book, "bring the kin of the enslaved and their former slaveholders to the table, where they can discover the real America together." 

That is, in some ways, this is a deeply political book (especially these days), a deeply hopeful and simultaneously mournful book, and a pragmatic book: if we meet around food, quite literally, perhaps we will find restorative justice. Perhaps. 

Perhaps two more details: (1) Twitty is effective in reminding readers that many lineages in the US are interconnected because of the rape of slaves. (2) Twitty is also effective in reminding us not to homogenize Africa and thus the foodways of slavery, African Americans, and the South. Each has varieties. Perhaps because I am spending time in NC, after decades of not having done so, I see some of this in new ways. (When I headed to NC in my youth, I thought the state the heart of the Sooth. Now, I know that there are many Souths and to understand NC one must try to understand that as well as the ways there are many NCs. In an unrelated context, I read a book recently that distinguishes between the peripheral South (including NC) and the deep South. Hmmm.) 

I learned a lot about myself and about the worlds in which I live by reading the book. 

I grew up above the Mason Dixon line, centrally isolated between Valley Forge and Gettysburg. Indeed, they were each the site of multiple field trips, as was the site of the Liberty Bell, across my childhood and youth. It is no wonder I wanted to grow up and be a history teacher for part of that youth. As an adult, I came to understand that the history we are told is often (to use a term from my field) mythologized and always told from a perspective. So: the version of American history I got was a particular one. It shaped me - so that I believed the Civil War was about slavery (it was), that one side was virtuous and the other not (I now know that the so-called virtuous North was itself deeply problematic though I continue to believe those defending slavery were doing just that), and that version always steered toward believing that we were all about freedom. I forgot too often that we were also, always already about genocide and slavery. I am not sure if I knew that they were slaveholders, those founding fathers - nor that there were founding mothers. And, I forgot all this even though I was raised near Philadelphia. The story seemed so simple then. It was so distorted. And, we know it was a story told to sustain the status quo and that I looked past many stories around me including where, exactly, the African Americans around me came from, to get to such a simple tale. 

The food I ate was, in many ways, the voice of my heritage - third generation American Irish of a certain sort. And yet, it was the white 1950s that I ate. I was reminded of the limitations of my stories by Twitty, of the clash of aspiration and reality, of the need for survival and the joy of community. Tobacco was what my parents smoked, not what they - or anyone I knew - grew. 

Today, I live in a re-claimed tobacco warehouse. I have a friend who grew up on a tobacco farm. And, I live in a city which is defined by much of that history. 

I might, just might, need to re-read Twitty's book. 

The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah

There is a lovely bookstore in Winston Salem, NC called Bookmarks. And, they have various events - which often include bringing authors to town. While I rarely make the events, I do benefit from them because I see the books and read them. Some time ago, I think Ann Mah was in town - and that's why I ended reading her novel, The Lost Vintage.

I loved it. 

I got terrifically engrossed in the novel, including the family background of characters, the ways contemporary events were linked to historical events, and the ways it mattered (and matters) that (the main) characters were women and experienced life in very distinct ways because they were women. The novel offered insight into the ways history is not a progress narrative - with things getting better and better for women - nor is it ever simple. I liked seeing the ways women's curiosity linked to science and, as importantly (and you will assume this from the title!) to wine and wine making. I also liked the ways the landscape and culture of Burgundy are highlighted by Mah. 

Across generations we see women striving to succeed in relation to wine - and we see it happen as we also see it challenged by individual failings, world events, and more. 

These days, for reasons I do not fully understand, we are seeing many many novels which connect our era to World War II. This is the case with this novel too - linking the many ways that French history of the WWII era was complicated, personal, and continues to shape the present. Yes, there is romance. There is pain. There are confusions between people who seem to be trying to understand one another. And, the long reach of history is evident in each of the characters in ways that are both obvious and unexpected. 

I think the main theme I took from the novel, beyond the ways it resonated with the ways war leads to immigration which continue to reverberate today, and the very way that history matters. Ignoring history - ignoring the past - seems to me not to be wrong for simple reasons (like the cliched risk of repeating the past) but because of the risk of festering wounds. History matters because it shapes us - and because we are making tomorrow's pasts. If that makes sense. 

And, in this novel, in nontrivial ways, history is also genealogical in both the every day and the scholarly meanings of that term. How families intertwine - and how a more Foucauldian genealogy transpires - are both lifted up in this novel. 

Perhaps also relevant is the fact that Mah has been journalist and now novelist, writing nonfiction and fiction. She does so without blurring the fact/fiction distinction in the way contemporary politics does - perhaps because as she turned her eye to the horrors of WWII in France one of the realities she saw was one where the re-politicization of who counts as human and what counts as factual created tragedies that still shape us all. The moral dilemmas facing characters in this novel reverberate with those facing us each day. An enjoyable novel, The Lost Vintage does not, though, let us off the hook. 

For a review of the novel, click here. 

 

Burgers in WInston Salem

I admit it. I like burgers once in a while, juicy, beefy and with various accouterments. I used to eat them fairly regularly at a place in Chicago down the street from where I lived, with a beer or two. In Winston Salem, i have discovered a few placed with burgers that are, to be honest, quite quite quite good.

The first place is called Cin Cin Burger Bar. I have been there on my own and with a friend. I have sat in a booth and at the bar. And, I have had burgers that they "designed" as well as ones where I just picked what I wanted on the burger (no reader of this blog will find my choices surprising" bleu cheese and bacon when I picked for myself). The ambience is fairly decent - though its a bit large and the menu veers toward a kind of 1890s feel, and maybe a tiny tad of a self indulgent feel. In my view, for example, booze filled milk shakes are just . . . . a very bad idea. (And no, I have not had one. They just truly put me off. Almost as much as one of their specialty burgers which includes peanut butter on the burger. That just seems wrong.) Having said that a few things I can say that are very positive, beyond the excellent parking (which in Winston-Salem matters a lot to me) are these: (a) they serve a good cocktail; and (b) the burgers are juicy, cooked nicely, and come with a nice bun that does not crumble. I like the onion rings a lot - which come with a kind of odd dip which is near addictive. I can also attest to the pirogies (which I tried more recently) and a chicago-greek-town-like oompa with the flaming saganaki. The service is usually terrific - though once in a while it is a little too in my face for comfort. 

There is a bit of a chain feel to it, though I have no idea if it is a chain - I can, though, say I have enjoyed it each and every time I have been there. (Ok, I just checked the about section of their website and yes, this is one of several restaurants in the triad region. IT even turns out they own another place I like in town: Yamas. Small world.

Hops is another place where I have had a good burger - with the same friend. They have a place in Winston-Salem as well as Greensboro. We sat at the bar, and each had a burger and beer. Again, well cooked, blue (or is it bleu) cheese and bacon, and in this case fries. Very good fries if I say so myself. 

 

Locations:

Cin Cin 

1425 West 1st street, Winston Salem 

Hops Burger Bar 

901 Reynolda Road, Winston Salem 

 

Dining Across Winston Salem

So, i moved here almost a year ago (temporarily - yes, home is still upstate NY!) and have been barely blogging. Hence, there have been no entries yet on any place I have eaten in Winston Salem. Yes, I am in NC. And yes, I have been eating out, despite being in the land of Publix, a terrific farmer's market (near Old Salem) and even Trader Joe's.

Watch here for a whole range of restaurants reviewed relatively quickly - including:

Mozelle's 

Crafted: The Art of the Taco

Cin Cin Burger Bar 

and many many other places. I am, indeed, eating out and you deserve to know my views on food here in Winston Salem. 

And, of course, there is beer. Yes, there is indeed. Wait 'til you hear about that.  

 

Shaken and Stirred - Intoxicating Stories

I love anthologies. And, I admit it: I like the hefty - and the small - size of Everyman's Pocket Classics. I also like the cloth bookmark incorporated into many of the books.

So: I like the physical reality of the book I am reviewing here, not read on kindle, but in a real (yes, I used that word) book, and, indeed, a hard back book. I also like the wrap around paper cover, complete with a delightful bit of artwork. I like anthologies because one can dip in and out, in the editor's order if one chooses, or one's own order, and at the speed one wants. If you stop for a while, unlike a novel or a nonfiction monograph, one does not risk losing the thread or crucial aspects of plot of argument. (Ok, I admit it. One might miss the implicit argument underlying the editor's choices. But, except in exceptional circumstances, I do not care!)  

The title, you ask? Shaken and Stirred: Intoxicating Stories edited by Diana Secker Tesdell. Here is a visual:

But: to the subject at hand. What did I make of this particular anthology? I liked it but did not love it. Why did I like it? Variety - variety - variety. In authors. In settings. In characters and roles. Most crucially, I liked that alcohol - appearing here as THE main character - seemed to be deeper and more meaningful than any one approach - risky, horrifying, delightful, enchanting, challenging, snobby or (frankly) low class. Everything almost appears.

What was less enchanting, to be honest, was the feeling that the theme was overwhelmed by fairly flat prose. I wanted more sparkle in the writing than I got. I wanted to be engaged not merely because I was entertained by the theme, but because I cared. Even though the range of authors was itself fairly strong, the range of writing was not. Hmm. Getting picky in my old age? For someone who reads (and comments on here) an enormous amount of utterly junky writing and formula fiction, I find myself surprised by my own critique. Fitzgerald, Wodehouse, Dickens, Poe, Jack London, Doris Lessing, Munro and Rhys. Happily, Dorothy Parker, ,Yes, all stellar writers. Even some snarky prose and some important figures.

Maybe it's me. 

Yes, you will want to read this. But, I am just not sure you will want to re-read and re-read this. We'll have to see. 

Finally, a few side notes:

Tesdell has edited multiple of these pocket classics most of which do not focus on food or drink, though I do think I might be interested in her Stories from the Kitchen. 

And, here is a review of Shaken and Stirred by someone other than moi!