It's been a long time...

So, we've majorly slacked off on updating this thing. We've been super busy doing all kinds of fun stuff. Here a quick list of what we've been up to over the last month or so:

Nicole-

- Elvis Costello at the Ryman. This was my tenth time seeing him and coincidentally my tenth year of fandom. Since I am really lame that was kind of a special show for me. He played for a long-ass time and pulled out a few rare gems such as "Beyond Belief" and "You Belong to Me".

- Dining Club. I'd been talking about starting a dining club forever and this month I finally did it. So far we've eaten Vietnamese food at Pho Yen Hoa and celebrated Seis de Mayo at Las Cazuelas. Both meals were kinda hit or miss for me but we had an excellent time just hanging out. I hope we can have many more meetings this summer.

- The Hives at the Wildhorse. This was seriously one of the best shows I've ever seen. The Hives have more energy than is humanly possible. High kicks abounded. At one point I turned into a 13 year old girl and had to touch the hand of Howlin Pele Almquist. Only criticism I have is that the guitar player has really freaky eyes. I can't explain it but he really creeped me out.

photo by flickr user groomsy57

April-

I'm so sorry that we left you without a dope beat to step to! I will make a greater effort to update this blog at least once a week, even when things get crazy. Scout's honor.

-The Kids in the Hall at the Ryman. Fabulous. Wonderful. Completely orgasmic. This Canadian comedy troupe were easily just as adorable as they ever had been (and, incidentally, were just as funny as they ever had been, too). They delighted me with some completely fresh material and brought back some of their most beloved characters (Buddy Cole, Gavin, etc.) in hilarious new situations. They also did one of my favorite skits word for word: the Chicken Lady as a phone sex operator. My face hurt at the end of the night from smiling so much. One of my favorite nights ever.

photo via Nashville Cream

-Southern Girls Rock and Roll Camp. Both Nicole and I, as Assistant Directors, have been extremely busy contributing to this amazing organization. It is always the absolute funnest week of my summer and I am completely honored that they allow me to become more involved with the camp each year. But, sister, it's a lot of work! We are always in need of volunteers. To find out how you can contribute or to learn more about the organization, visit http://www.sgrrc.org/. Be sure to come out for the showcase at MTSU's Tucker Theater on Saturday, July 19th!

-Carmen's Taqueria. I know I already did an entry on Carmen's, but Jesus Cristo, it just keeps getting better. Their empanadas are, for lack of a better term, da bomb. Just go there. You'll probably run into me.

Fork off!

On Wednesday Nicole and I went to Iron Fork, a foodtastic event held LP Field club area. Basically, chefs from Nashville's most bangin' restaurants came and competed in an Iron Chef-style competition (secret ingredient: fiddlehead ferns). And, most importantly, there was free food. Well, a little bit of it.

I was really hoping that I would have some sprawling account of Wednesday's activities for you, dear ETTB reader. One packed with deliciously charming anecdotes. But the truth is that I was too caught up in the immensity of it all to really have anything particularly interesting to tell you. We went. We stood in lots of lines. We didn't get to eat that much free food because of the overwhelming and unanticipated turnout. Sure, we were a little disappointed when confronted with empty station after empty station, but the money went to a great cause (St. Luke's Community House) and I still had lots of fun.

Go visit Nashville Scene Bites for a more thorough and certainly more entertaining take on the event.

But, hey, here are a few pictures.

Wholefoods samples: a plethora of pestos (delicious), spicy ceviche (delicious), and sweet gazpacho (meh).Winning chef Deb Paquette of Zola during some slammin' Iron Fork Action.

No food from Flyte makes Nicole feel sad. She considered sampling from the scraps left in the pan.

Come to this show!!!

April and I both whole-heartedly support this event!

Come check out the first show at the Youth Culture and Arts Center's new space on the downtown square in Murfreesboro! It's at 25 North Public Square this Sat at 8pm sharp.

The Youth Culture & Arts Center Presents:

Turncoats- cultivators of world's largest sideburns
Rock Paper Scissors- past Southern Girls Rock & Roll Camp-ers who love lawn gnomes (and unicorns!)
Kelly Kerr & The Distractions- the dude that used to work at Video Culture!



Saturday, April 26, 2008
Tall Grass, 25 N Public Sq, Murfreesboro
8pm, $5, ALL-AGES

The Nashville Scene wrote this about the event.

The New Pornographers/ Okkervil River @ Cannery Ballroom (with guest blogger Manley)- 4/18/08

I'm gonna skip the Okkervil River review. I ditto what Manley has to say below.

On to the main event...

I've seen the New Pornographers twice before and enjoyed every single second of it. The New Pornographers have been hyped as a super group for years because of the members' involvement in numerous other projects (Destroyer, Neko Case solo, AC Newman, Immaculate Machine, Fancy, Zumpano...). Dan Bejar and Neko Case were absent from the line-up in Nashville but the remaining members still managed to put on an enjoyable show. I was surprised that they played certain songs that prominently featured the absent members though. My jaw dropped when they invited the front man from Okkervil River to perform the Dan Bejar penned "Myriad Harbor". It was kinda like when I saw REM a few years ago and Pete Yorn replaced Patti Smith on "E-Bow the Letter". It just wasn't right to me. But hey, what do I know? Everyone there ate it up and was singing along like it was the best song of the night. On the positive side, I really enjoyed most of the selections played that spanned all four albums. For the encore, they did an excellent cover of the ELO favorite "Don't Bring Me Down" (available for download as a track off of their live album on iTunes). I also thought Katherine Calder did a good job filling Neko Case's shoes for the night. Her voice is not as powerful or distinct as Neko's but she held her own while trading parts with Carl Newman. All is all an excellent way to spend a rainy Friday night in Nashville. -Nicole





Most people agree that Bright Eyes sucks now. Sure, Conor Oberst’s sprawling, doom-laden, hyper-literate lyrics are still present, as are his songs with seemingly unrelated verses loosely tied to a theme of doubt, change, or end times, but gone is the drunken fervor and urgent musicianship that made Lifted… so believable. Last night, Okkervil River succumbed to the same fate. Perhaps, had I been able to hear Will Sheff’s similarly verbose lyrics over the Cannery Ballroom’s lackluster sound, I may have found the voice of a new poet laureate of indie rock. Instead, I saw a guy with lots of bangs over-emoting to songs composed around G, C, and D. The musicianship of the band just was not urgent or passionate enough to make up for Sheff’s squeals and honks. To be honest, I have only truly listened to his second record, Down the River of Golden Dreams, so I was not familiar with many of the songs he played last night. However, I saw on stage what I experienced when listening to the record – I was stunned the first time I listened, but upon third or fourth listen I found myself tuning out his somewhat pubescent vocal cracks and shrieks and trying to decipher the lyrics to see what he’s talking about. There were a few great moments at the show, at the beginning of the set, but they were few and far between. But, as I like to end everything on a positive note, I gotta give props to a backing band of bald dudes that want to rock without following any superficial trends. To a husky rocker like myself, they looked pretty cool and genuine. Rating: 2 out of 5 salty snaxxx.

Though the night started off slowly, at least musically, it ended with a bang. The New Pornographers rocked it. I must say I had high expectations when I saw their gear – Peavy Bass, Gibson Explorer, Guild Les Paul style, Nordlead synth, 2 macbooks, and Orange, Matchless, and Ampeg amps. Nice. This would certainly put the power in power pop. Like my experience with Okkervil River, I was only familiar with a couple of NP records, but in this case my inexperience was not a hindrance. NP were energetic, exciting, and fun. I really got into the second half of their set, which included “Sing Me Spanish Techno,” “Bleeding Heart Show,” “Don’t Bring Me Down,” (a bitchin’ cover indeed,) “The Laws Have Changed,” “The Jessica Numbers,” and my personal favorite tune of the night, the title track off their new album, “Challengers.” They really brought the thunder with their set list, and essentially played only high-energy numbers that would keep a moderate fan like myself entertained and boppin’ along. I must say, NP’s secret weapon is their drummer, a slightly-tipsy Andy Serkis look-alike whose arsenal of big-rock drum moves and “Are you ready to rock?” (he really said that!) count-offs made for big fun. Some of his favorite moves with the stixxx were the finger twirl, the toss-and-catch, the bite-the-spoon, the play-with-one-hand-while-grabbing-a-Corona, and the pop-the-top-off-the-Corona-with-the-stick-while-playing-a-4x4-beat. His antics livened up the more stiff performances of the other people in the band that no one knows their names. Unfortunately, Neko was not present, but their performance did not really suffer for it. AC Newman’s beard made up for it. I truly enjoyed myself and plan to purchase Challengers today at Grimey’s record sale. Rating: 4 out of 5 salty snaxxx.- Manley

*All photos courtesy of Jenny at J Anne Photography*

The Raconteurs @ Cannery Ballroom, 4/15/08

When considering whether or not I wanted to buy tickets for last night's Raconteurs show, there were many factors that I took into consideration:

1. Tickets are $20. In grown up world, this is an extremely fair price. But in college student world, that's twenty whole dollars that I could spend on something like gas or food or a haircut at Fantastic Sam's.

2. I've seen them before. I saw their show at City Hall during their first tour. It was pretty great, but do I really need to see them again?

3. I never really have fun at shows held in Mercy Lounge (the show was later moved to the Cannery, but still...).

4. Even getting tickets is going to be a fiasco. Ew. I don't want to deal with that.

5. Going to shows on weeknights is the pits.

But then I remembered that one Mr. Jack White is quite possibly the most perfect specimen of maleness to exist on this planet. Next thing I know I'm entering my Visa number on the Raconteur's website.

The Magic Wands opened. Despite the mysterious disappearance of all things Slack-related on the internet, Nashvillians will recognize that the two aforementioned bands' frontmen are one in the same. The Magic Wand's set was very short, which was probably a smart move on their part. It was a lot of "teenage"-this and "sex me up"-that. But using stuffed tigers and projection screens as props didn't hide the fact that they played the same song 4 times in a row. Another Magic Wands show? This girls says "no thanks."

The Raconteurs portion of the evening was pretty kickass. I'm going to have a hard time giving you specifics on their set because being in the presence of Jack White reduces my maturity level to that of a tweenie princess. But, by golly, I will try my darnedest. My feelings on the Raconteurs are this: They are a good rock band. They play pretty good rock songs and they play them really well. Honestly, if Jack White weren't in the band then I probably wouldn't have given them the time of day. But I'm glad that I did. "Broken Boy Soldiers" had a handful of really good songs on it. And "Consolers of the Lonely" shows growth.

Any problem that I have with the band, and the show for that matter, stems from the fact that Brendan Benson is a complete booger. Seriously. Any song that I dislike is sure to be a Benson-heavy one. Regardless, the show was still great. Jack was in top form. He warbled in screeched his way into my heart as if he had no clue that he already had a place there. I'm fairly certain that his soulful performance of "Blue Veins" made the loins of everyone (that's right, everyone) in the room quiver with desire. The highlight of the night for me, however, was "Carolina Drama," which is totally the "Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" for hipsters. It brought the house down. I had to resist the temptation to "raise the roof." All in all, I'd say their mediocre-good songs on CD translated to an outstanding live show. It was the best non-Fantastic Sam's $20 that I've spent in a long time.

Get Baked! Vol. 1 - Lassies with Tassies

There are a plethora of ways to deal with life's many stresses. Some people throw on their fanciest sweatband and shoot some mad hoops. Some whip out their MasterCard and hit up QVC. Others smoke crack. I like to bake delicious treats for my family and friends. So I decided to start this feature, uncleverly titled "Get Baked!", on Eat to the Beat. In it you will hear about my many baking adventures and misadventures. It will often feature other rockin' renegade bakers (a.k.a. "my friends") and their righteous recipes. So sit back and enjoy the first edition. Baking is totally the new yoga.

My adorable and bake-savvy friend Lauren (pictured with her giant chocolate zucchini cupcake), aware of my propensity to social baking, graciously invited me over to do just that. Her Alice in Wonderland-esque confection was delicious. The cake was moist and dense (in the most delicious of ways). Even after a small snafu with the icing dispenser, Lauren was able to come up with a brilliant design (one that makes me want to high five every cupcake I see from now on). Even though chocolate is usually my least favorite cake flavor, I plan on trying out the recipe for myself ASAP.

I browsed through many a cookbook in search of the perfect recipe. I wanted something that I'd never tried before, but also something that was inexpensive to accomplish. I finally decided on a recipe from my Favorite Recipes of Methodist Women: Desserts cookbook that I acquired at a yardsale just last summer. I must admit that settled on this particular sweet due mostly to its funny name: Teatime Tassies. These are basically just tiny pecan pie tarts, but they were pretty delicious. The instructions were simple and it was fun to make. I made some with little tops on them just because I had some extra dough (we lovingly called them "sassies"), but the taste of the tassie was unaffected. Make sure to grease your mini-muffin tin well, because these little buggers would be difficult to get out otherwise. Enjoy!

Teatime Tassies

Dough Ingredients:

1 3 oz package of cream cheese
1/2 cup butter

1 cup sifted all purpose flour

Filling:

2 tbsp. butter

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

dash of salt

1 1/2 cups pecan pieces

Let cheese and butter soften at room temperature. Blend well; stir in the flour. Shape into 1 inch balls and press into bottoms and sides of muffin tins.

Beat all of the filling ingredients EXCEPT PECANS until smooth. Sprinkle half of pecans in the pastry cups. Add the filling mixture and then the remainder of the pecans.

Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes. Yields 30 tarts.

(Recipe originally from Mrs. Clifford G. Cutlip, Pres. of the first Methodist Church in Richwood, West Virginia)

Noppakao Thai-Murfreesboro, TN

First of all, I should mention that I am by no means a connoisseur of Thai food. I like it fine. I eat it sometimes with my friends. I usually end up picking the wrong thing, which is probably why Thai food has never been one of my go-to's as far as restaurant-choosing goes. Despite my entree selection curse, I enjoy eating at this fine establishment.

I started with the Thai tea, which I had always wanted to try but never had. It's a sweetened tea blend (black tea, I assume) topped with evaporated milk. Very rich, but very tasty. It had kind of a tamarind-esque flavor. I don't usually enjoy tamarind-flavored things, but I liked this. I'd recommend trying it at least once.

I skipped the appetizers, but some of my dining crew ordered some particularly appetizing ones. The Tofu Thong (fried tofu) was really yummy, with most thanks going to its accompanying dipping sauce. I didn't try the chicken dumplings (pictured in the background), but they received positive reviews.

I ordered Pla Song Kruang for an entree. It was a piece of deep fried (not breaded, duh) trout topped with a carrot, green apple and red onion slaw with roasted peanuts served with steamed rice. I thought that the fish was good. The good frying that it took allowed it to take on a meatier texture (as Nicole pointed out). The slaw was not my favorite, but by no fault of the restaurant. It was a taste issue. I think the vinegar and the tart sweetness of the apples and carrots formed a picket line on my taste buds. However, the slaw was applauded by other diners at the table. I like to define the world in terms of two types of people: people who do like sweet pickles, and people who do not like sweet pickles. I do not. And I think this was my problem. The slaw, while very pretty and well put together, had whatever that taste is that makes me gag at the thought of sweet pickles. Thai restaurant ordering curse strikes again!

Though the waitress may not be learning my name anytime soon, I would definitely be happy to go here again. The seafood panang curry, with shrimp ,scallops, calamari, and a fish fillet in the curry sauce, is amazingly good. And their roses carved from tomatoes are as cute as the spawn of Tomkat (very very cute). Prices are moderate (my entree was $12.95). Go there and thai it out for yourself! (Don't hate me.)

Burrito, baby

via Serious Eats

Vicious Rumor or God's Honest Truth?

Inspired by the How I Became the Bomb/ Velcro Stars/ Coral Castles show....

You decide if the statement is true or false:

1. Rick from HIBTB consumed one too many test tube shots and ended up on the stripper pole.


2. Shane from VS likes to drink his beer outside and he'll fuck you up if you try to stop him.


3. John Burr from HIBTB was visibly aroused by the dancing ladies projected on the screen beside the stage.


4. The drummer from VS smells bad.


5. The singer from Coral Castles is also in American Bang.

Now for the food-related part of the evening. So after the show we made our way to Dodge's Chicken on Broad Street. If you have a couple of beers in your stomach then you NEED Dodges! They've got these things called jojos and oh lordy are they tasty. The jojo is a potato log that is breaded in delciously seasoned batter and then deep fried until golden brown. Behold....

So if you find yourself in Murfreesboro and need a tasty and not at all nutritious snack then check out Dodge's. They've also got a plethora of other fried treats including chicken, egg rolls, and fruit pies!

Guilty As Charged

From stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com:


#71 Being the Only White Person Around


This concept ties heavily into post #7 Diversity and post #19 Travelling, but is important that you fully understand how white people view authenticity and experience.

In most situations, white people are very comforted by seeing their own kind. However, when they are eating at a new ethnic restaurant or traveling to a foreign nation, nothing spoils their fun more than seeing another white person.

Many white people will look into the window of an ethnic restaurant to see if there are other white people in there. It is determined to be an acceptable restaurant if the white people in there are accompanied by ethnic friends. But if there is a table occupied entirely by white people, it is deemed unacceptable.

The arrival of the “other white people” to either restaurants or vacation spots instantly means that lines will grow, authenticity will be lost, and the euphoria of being a cultural pioneer will be over.

Being aware of this can be extremely valuable in your efforts to gain the trust of white friends and co-workers. If you bring a white person to an ethnic restaurant and another white person (or group of white people) shows up, you can lose all respect and trust that you have worked so hard to acquire. Do your best to find a table with a divider, or ask the waiter to put future white people out of sight.

Note: This does not apply to night clubs.

Leonel's Cheesecake-Murfreesboro, TN

If you have ever lived in Murfreesboro, you've undoubtedly (and perhaps unknowingly) cruised by this tiny sweets shack on your way to Outreach Thrift or the Premiere 6 theater (the Jan Brady of movie joints in Rutherford county). Every time I drive by, my heart says "Yes!" but the clock always says "No!" Well, I finally told that clock to get lost while I got lost in a tasty dessert island paradise! Seriously, it was like a slice of heaven. It was totally sweet. What? Too cheesey? Too cheesecakey?!

I promise not to do that ever again.

Leonel's cheesecakes are one of a kind. They are homemade on site with no preservatives. They are also crustless, butterless, flourless and are low in sugar? I know, gross. But they're totally good! If you don't believe me, go in for yourself. My dining crew and I were offered very generous free samples so that we could be sure that we made the correct confection selection. And boy did we!

I admit to having a questionable obsession with both cinnamon and pumpkin, so imagine my surprise when our extremely kind waiter listed a cinnamon pumpkin cheesecake as one of that day's options! I was a little skeptical of the whole "crustless" thing, but I really did not miss it at all. The texture of the cake was smooth and not overly dense. The sweetness was perfect: definitely enough to satisfy your sweet tooth, but not crazy sugary (I judge this by whether or not you can feel the sugar granules when you grind your teeth). Also, shortly after we were seated, the aformentioned waiter provided us with complimentary, freshly-made hot fudge, followed by a free (huge) sample of another cheesecake for us to share...just because. He was seriously the nicest waiter/possible business owner?/dude that there was or ever will be. And I, for one, greatly appreciate the appreciation of my business. But, really, you don't have to be that nice when what you serve looks like this:

To to the left of mine is the Irish cream, and to the right is pistachio chocolate chip. Other interesting Leonel's flavors include banana, guava, cappuccino, and chunky peanut butter with nutter butter cookies. Really, their menu offers over 25 flavor combos! Got the betes? No sweat! They also offer a completely sugar free variety of their classic-style cheesecake. And at $3.25 per slice and $16.00 for a 6 " ($28.00 for a 9"), their prices are very fair.

Or you could just come to see this weird statue. I may look uncomfortable, but on the inside I am super happy to be there!

Bonus Challenge: Visit this place and write an Eat to the Beat guest-writer entry on the "& BBQ Chicken" portion of the restaurant!

Herbed Buttermilk Popcorn

A few weeks ago a close friend of mine celebrated his birthday with an intimate potluck and party. I get a little too excited by the thought of picking new recipes for such occasions and usually end up going way overboard. I started thinking about what to make at the beginning of the week and by the time Friday rolled around I had about ten recipes gathered from various food blogs and websites. I ended up choosing four things:

The standout amongst all the things I made was definitely the herbed buttermilk popcorn. I found this recipe on 101 cookbooks, one of my absolute favorite food blogs. I'd never made my own popcorn before and felt sure that I was gonna screw it up. I have a horrible habit of burning everything- even things you think would be impossible to burn. I was pleasantly surprised when I got it right on the first try. The recipe calls for powdered buttermilk which I am admittedly not fimiliar with. Luckily, it didn't require a trip across the river to Whole Foods- it's available at Kroger near the evaporated milk. Just pop the popcorn as directed in the recipe, mix up your toppings, melt some butter, and toss it all together. In about 5 minutes you have popcorn that kicks the shit out of any of that microwave stuff. Look how happy it made me...

Herbed Buttermilk Popcorn

1 tablespoon powdered buttermilk
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon lemon pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/2 teaspoon powdered chicken bouillon or kosher salt
1 tablespoon corn oil
1/3 cup popcorn kernals
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Combine the buttermilk, garlic powder, onion powder, lemon pepper, dill weed, and chicken bouillon in a small bowl.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the popcorn and cover with a lid (hs note: I leave a little crack in the lid to let a bit of hot air out and prevent condensation in the pot). Shake the pan frequently. Remove from the heat when the poppin subsides. Pour the popcorn into a bowl. Wipe the pan clean with a paper towel. Melt the butter in the pan. Pour the butter over the popcorn, tossing to distribute evenly. Sprinkle with the flavoring mixture and toss to coat.

Makes 8 cups; serves 4.

Carmen's Taqueria-Murfreesboro, TN

If you have a mouth and a stomach, you must go here!

Carmen’s Taqueria offers a considerable variety of delicious, authentic-style Mexican foods at affordable prices, which made ordering about as stressful as choosing my favorite chapter of R. Kelly’s "Trapped in the Closet" (Impossible!). I started with the horchata, a cinnamon/almond flavored rice milk drink. I love horchata, but I’ve found that some restaurants make it a little too rich, leaving you with something reminiscent of a melted milkshake. Sweet but still light, Carmen’s mix was flawless. The perfect compliment to the fresh flavors in their salsa.

After agonizing over the menu for what seemed like 4 hours, I finally decided that I should take advantage of its uniqueness. I began with húaraches. What the hell is that, right? Right. It’s a gigantic piece of flatbread piled high with refried beans, lettuce, tomatoes, and plenty of queso fresco. Also included in the price of the dish is your choice of meat (a concept to be expanded upon later), which I skipped in order to save room for a taco. This dish was simple, warm, filling and comforting. And at 5.99, the portion size is more than enough to constitute a whole meal. Our friendly waitress also provided us with our choice of condiment: salsa verde or a spicy red sauce.

Next, I had the funnest taco-ordering experience ever. I never want to be asked "Beef or chicken?" again. Carmen’s tacos roll in style. Along with asada (steak) and pollo (chicken), diners may choose to fill their tacos (and bellies) with chorizo (mexican sausage), barbacoa (slow-cooked over an open fire-style), carnitas (fried pork), pastor (pork broiled with pineapple), lengua (tongue), cabeza (head meat), and tripa (tripe... you know, stomach lining). I’m still learning to be an adventurous eater, so this time I went with the pastor. The tacos are small. Their white corn tortillas are maybe half the size of one you might find at another Mexican restaurant, and at 1.25 a piece, they are perfect for sampling. Topped with fresh cilantro and onion and served with lime, the presentation was really quite charming. The flavor was incredible. The pork was tender, but not at all fatty. And the sweetness of the pineapple really balanced whatever was in the mystery marinade. My fellow dining divas (I give the best nicknames EVER) also wound up with some tasty vittles. Crisi (left) had a chicken torta (Mexican-style sandwich). Her thumbs were definitely way up. Nicole had a cheese empanada, a sope (a smaller version of the húaraches), and some very tasty and very fresh-to-order guacamole. Her thumbs were doing something similar to Crisi’s. I really cannot wait to go back. I grabbed a menu on the way out in order to plan my future Carmen’s dining endeavors. Items that grabbed my eye? Mojarra Frita (fried queen tilapia), Camarones A La Diabla (shrimp in a spicy sauce), and Pozole (soup made of hominy and pork). And don't worry, vegetarian friends, there're plenty of choices for you, too!

Carmen’s Taqueria is located on Northfield Boulevard directly next to All Things Possible Bargain Center. They have daily lunch specials on pretty much everything from 11am-1pm. Girlfriend, you know that burrito is so tired! And, boyfriend, those nachos are extra faded! Give Carmen’s a shot. It’s nothing short of a fiesta in your tummy.

Drink To The Beat- The Dazed and Confused Drinking Game

You will need:

1. Lots of beer (a variety of cheap sixers)
2. One bottle of hard liqour for shooting
3. Weed (totally optional)


Rules:

1. Everytime a character says "man" take a drink.
2. Everytime Mitch touches his hair or nose, take a drink.
3. Everytime a character says "sixer" take 6 drinks .
4. Everytime a character says "O'Banion" the group must shout out, "THAT ASSHOLE!". The last person to do this has to take a shot.


Sounds too easy, right? WRONG! "Man" is said over 200 times in this movie. That fact alone makes for an excellent drinking game (because it gets you super drunk). With the addition of a bad ass soundtrack with choice cuts from Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, and Foghat you really can't go wrong!


Disclaimer: We did not invent this game. Apparently there are many different versions floating around out there. This is one that myself and a group of friends made up out of boredom on a Saturday night. You know what else cures boredom, karooke brought to you by the fine folks at On Demand. They even had "I Believe I Can Fly"!

A house so nice they named it twice.

Floating happily through my early twenties, when Thursday night rolls around I often find myself in the same pickle: What the hell am I gonna do this weekend? This is Nashville. And there has to be some tragically hip yet ultimately listenable act rolling through town, right? Right. But sometimes $12 admission + a quarter tank of gas + overpriced alcohol doesn’t add up to fun night for a girl with an already light pocketbook. Thank god our town has seen a recent resurgence of a classic ingredient to the proper collegiate experience: the house show. And when it comes to house shows, my hands down favorite venue is House House.

Murfreesboro’s House House prides themselves on hosting shows consisting primarily of "experimental/weird/art'ish/fun'ish music of various sorts." Now, before you start to judge (either the venue or myself) let me do it honest with you for a second. This girl loves pop music. I clap my hands to Of Montreal, shake my head to Talking Heads, shuffle my feet to Wanda Jackson, and generally freak out to Roxy Music on a fairly regular basis. I mean, you might catch me listening to Deerhoof once in a blue moon, but isn’t that every pop-lover’s go-to "experimental" band? What I’m trying to say is that my feel for the whole experimental music scene is extremely limited. Ain’t no shame in that. But I’ve genuinely enjoyed every show I’ve seen at House House. There is definitely something to be said about standing in a room full of interesting, cool, ecclectic, and all-around badass people, appreciating music that you would otherwise not have been exposed to. And don’t be suprised if you, my fellow pop-lover, feel your knee start to jerk to the, um...non-beat.

Some local bands that have played at House House in the past include: The Most Amazing Century of Science (pictured), Lazer Slut, High on Life, and German Castro. A full list of artists that have graced the place can be found on the venue's myspace page. Though I admit that I may not be jammin’ to these bands in my car anytime soon, I definitely give them props for amazing and fun live show experiences.

But wait, there’s more! House House also hosts regular art shows! Past gallery themes have included "antidepressant" and "ROBOTS!"

House House is located on Greenland Drive across from the cemetery (insert joke about no noise complaints from the neighbors). It’s always BYOB and donations are most appreciated for touring bands. Keep an eye on their myspace for upcoming event dates. If you’ve never been, you should really give it a shot. Sure, the air may be a little smoky, but it’s definitely free of pretention.

(This photo is by a House Houser, not me.)

King's Market- Antioch, TN

To quote Tek from Real World Hawaii- I'm a baller on a budget. I appreciate good, cheap eats and don't mind going a little out of my way to find them. King's Market is a small-ish Asian grocery store in Antioch that also has a cafe inside that serves Laotion and Thai food. We were a little confused when we entered the store and didn't immediately see the cafe. We wandered around to the side of the store and spotted a little cafe that has been built back into the wall. It's a small space with only about 8-10 tables. The waitress/hostess quickly greeted us and seated us. She was extremely friendly despite the fact that she was experiencing mild contractions- a fact she casually mentioned while giving us our menus and taking our drink order. We took a few minutes to peruse the double-sided menu of appetizers and entrees. All of the dishes have a short descrption that comes in handy when ordering something out of the pad thai comfort zone. My dining companion was a vegetarian and the waitress assured us that any of the dishes could be made with tofu instead of the specified meat. He went with the Khao Op Saparod, fried rice with pineapple, raisins, and nuts. He gave it high marks and seemed to enjoy it. I thought the tofu was rubbery.

My turn! I always order summer rolls and these had an added bonus. Little strips of pink pork! I don't eat pork so this was not so cool in my book.

Thankfully, the entree was redeeming. I chose the Lad Nah with seafood, a dish of wide noodles with brown gravy, chinese broccoli, fried egg, shrimp, and squid. It was definitely tasty and for the price, $6.95, it was a hell of a deal. I had more than enough to take to work then next day.

I give this place two enthusiastic thumbs up. Most Thai restaurants price their entrees in the 8-15 range. King's Market is cheaper by a few dollars and has a large portion size. That fact alone could win my heart but there is more. This place is also super cool because it's a one-stop shop. You can sit down for a quick meal, do some grocery shopping, and buy a snazzy gold necklace (yeah, they have a jewelry store in there too!). The grocery selection is impressive and I left with some tofu and durian chips. If you don't know about the power of the durian then I suggest you read this .

Eat to the Greet

"Music with dinner is an insult both to the cook and the violinist." G.K Chesterton said that, and I, like, totally disagree!

So welcome to our blog. The "our" refers to Nicole and myself, April. We’ve been super BFFs for a long while now and we only like two things: food and music. Okay okay, we may like a few more things, but we promise not to talk about them here. You see, what we’re trying to do here at Eat to the Beat is super important. We’re eating at restaurants. We’re going to shows. We’re cooking stuff. We’re listening to records. And, get this, we’re going to tell you about it!

On the slight chance that people besides our friends are reading this blog, I’ll give you some mini bios. Nicole lives in East Nashville. She’s off to grad school for library science in the fall. She’s into Anthony Bourdain, books and being awesome. I live more towards Murfreesboro. I’m finishing my Spanish degree in December. I dig kitties, drive-in theaters and baking things for you. If you spied on us, you’d probably find us pilfering through thrift stores, breaking it down to Blackstreet and Montell Jordan or just having some laughs with our friends. You love us and we love you.

So, G.K. Chesterton, I just wiki’d you and you may have been an influential English writer of the early 20th century, but you are certainly not welcome here at our blog. Because eatin’ food while listenin’ to music is so 21st century it hurts.

America '08,

April