Taqueria Garibaldi (Closed)

Ed. Note: This spot is undergoing another change in ownership and looks to be re-opening as Taqueria Los Picosos.

Taqueria Garibaldi
4159 Summer Ave.
323-7003

We have been to a lot of Mexican restaurants in town. When I hear someone say that so-and-so is the best and it is somewhere I haven't been, I usually want to see if they are right. A friend of mine has been going on and on about Taqueria Garibaldi. We went in its earlier incarnation as El Torito and really liked it, but something about the name, Taqueria Garibaldi, made me hesitate. When I hear Garibaldi, I think pizza, not tacos.

Regardless, we finally went, and I was impressed. Jiro (age 6) was at a sleepover, so we had Satchel's (age 8) friend, Will (age 10) stand in. In my preliminary interrogation with Will, I discovered that his family usually eats Mexican food at Los Compadres, which is a fine restaurant, but it's no taqueria. I think its more of a margarita place than anything else. I then learned that Will's standard order is a cheese quesadilla. Part of me wanted to talk him into ordering something more exciting, but the other part of me decided to just let him get the kid's meal with a quesadilla because it was cheap ($3.50).

While Warren, Satchel, and I made our final decisions, we started in on the chips and dip. I love it when they bring multiple salsas. And the old guacamole-like traditional tomatillo salsa from El Torito was still one of the freebies. It's super yum.


I ordered some cheese dip for Satchel and Will to share. (Cheese dip was absent from the El Torito menu). I love watching the trail of cheese drops that develops between the bowl and Satchel's mouth. (When he isn't sharing, I usually let him scoot it right up under his mouth to avoid the drippage.)


Our food came out very quickly, and I was thrilled with the way my steak burrito looked and tasted. It was filled with lettuce, tomato, cheese sauce, and pickled jalapenos. The meat, which is grilled behind the counter but in view, was fantastically crispy and flavorful. This is definitely the best burrito I've had in town.


Warren was similarly impressed with the quality of the meat in his tacos. He got his usual spicy pork, carnitas, tongue, and one other weird meat I must purposely forget. (Tripa, or intestines, I believe.) I also noticed that they are doing the radish garnish thing. This must mean something, or at least denote a certain faction of Mexican cuisine.


Okay, I just Googled the radish thing and a savvy Chowhounder has this to say:

It's a way to cut through the grease. Carniceria-type salsa can be really greasy, and of course the meat can be greasy... so this is a way to cleanse your mouth.

I don't add them to tacos, I just eat them separately.

They also hypothesize that radishes are a more available substitute for jicama.

Okay, on to Satchel's tacos. He ordered three, plain--spicy pork, carnitas, and tripa?? Again, I can't let myself remember for a reason.


The tacos are really stuffed with meat and he got full after just one, which was okay since you can clearly see Will's fingers digging in here. He loved the meat. I didn't tell him what it was.


We had no leftovers, which is saying something. There are many other things on the menu that I want to try. Of note, they have charro beans (almost like bean soup), breakfast, a lunch special, fried ice cream, and a few dishes with pork and pineapple. (Not sure what the deal is with the pineapples, but I remember them from El Torito.) The prices are very cheap and the service is good. I didn't go into the bathrooms, but I will warn you that there's candy for sale near the counter.


Candy they prob won't eat. (At least these guys didn't.)

YoLo

YoLo
559 Erin Drive
683-0190

I have been waiting for YoLo to open for several weeks. Maybe months. The monkeys (Satchel, 8, and Jiro, 6), along with some of our friends, got a chance to try it out on Sunday after an afternoon of swimming.


I had briefed the monkeys on the protocol before we got there--it's self serve everything, pay by the ounce. The idea alone thrilled them. Once we got inside, they dashed to the back, grabbed an eco cup and got started filling it up.


There was a lot to take in, and I didn't really get a chance to do that. Between trying to take pictures and trying to keep the monkeys from going too crazy, I had little time to snoop. I can say that they had several delicious flavors to choose from.


Jiro got the coconut, Satchel got triple chocolate, and I got a swirl of espresso and vanilla. Jiro was absolutely stoked to self serve the yogurt. I just watched him go, camera in hand.


Rather than do what I did, I suggest you take a cue from Colleen and monitor the amount of yogurt the kids get, since it is the heaviest component.


As for the toppings, beware, the candy and cereal are up first. Satchel did do a quick run up and down the topping aisle to see what they had first, which is an excellent idea. I love that he went for the shredded coconut. (We've been eating coconuts at home, hence the popularity with the monkeys.)


I love that they have several local ingredients. I can only assume the "Lo" in YoLo is for local.


I really, really love Groovy Granola. I buy it almost every week at the Farmer's Market. Best. Granola. Ever. And it has to be the #1 yogurt topping in the whole world.


The fruit toppings looked really fresh and they included peaches from Jones Orchard as well as a couple other local selections. Sadly, I didn't see the fruit until I had already loaded up on other toppings so I just sprinkled a few peaches on top for good measure.


"Hmmm...should we get more toppings? What did you say about only getting two? Huh?" Yes, suggesting they only get two toppings was rather silly.


Here's Jiro getting his 10th topping from the local bakery section. Mini cheese bites anyone? Chocolate mint chocolate chip cookie?


This is what $18 worth of YoLo looks like.


Colleen and I had a little sticker shock after paying for our orders. We optimistically discussed how in the future we'd limit the amount of yogurt and try and scale back the number of toppings. But in general, we talked about how damn yummy everything was. Satchel and Jiro both only ate about half of theirs, which was rather annoying, but it did allow me to get a few extra tastes, which I wasn't complaining about. Overall, everyone was having a great time.


Silly bands were the talk of the day. Not sure who had one shaped like a YoLo.


Colleen & Ayden were all smiles, as usual.


YoLo sells a variety of drinks as well as bottled water, but not just any bottled water--Memphis water.


Cute, but I prefer mine from the tap.


When I went to throw away my eco cup, I noticed a few empty water bottles in the trash. Despite the local ingredients and earth friendly products, they don't have any recycling in place. However, I believe they are pursuing their Project Green Fork certification, so hopefully it's just a matter of time.

I took a peek in the bathrooms before we left and they were very nice, but didn't contain a changing table. There's definitely room so maybe they'll add one. I saw lots of kids and babies in the store! And lots of people without kids for that matter. This is one popular place, and it's no wonder why. I can't wait to go back.

Thai Bistro

Another beautiful installment from our super talented guest blogger, Sophorn....

Thai Bistro
1250 N Germantown Pkwy #105
(901) 755-6955


Thai Bistro was recommended to me by a loyal customer who happened to know that the owners are Cambodian. I had been on an unproductive search for a local Khmer cuisine restaurant to do a special celebration of my home country, so visiting Thai Bistro with our dinner group was the next best thing (without me cooking for 20 people). I mentioned then that Thai cuisine was actually rooted from Khmer cuisine, a type of cuisine my four-year-old, Atticus, craves quite often. See below to see what we tasted on our recent visit.


Tasted
~ Fried Wonton Appetizer served with sweet and sour sauce
~ Chicken Pad Thai
~ Pla- Dook with fried catfish, mixed vegetables, and homemade chili sauce.
~ Fried Ice Cream


Anytime I want to persuade Atticus to eat anything, I use the words “crispy, sweet, or sour,” so the fried wontons with the sweet and sour sauce were a great choice of appetizers as it hit every single key word.


We then ordered a spicy fish dish, Pla-Dook, to fulfill my cravings and Pad Thai, one of my husband’s favorite dishes, that he could share with Atticus. As you can tell from the photos below, limes are a very important finishing ingredient to the way we enjoy Asian food. Atticus almost had to squeeze drops for every bite.




Sometimes I ponder whether Atticus’ taste for Asian food is just in his genes. He even loves the fish sauce we make for dipping that disgust some adults. As for the Pad Thai and most of the dishes at Thai Bistro, the flavors seem irresistible even to new palettes. Pad Thai is on the kid’s menu as the one noodle dish among the other popular options of fried rice and chicken fingers. What kid can resist noodles? I can attest to the fact noodles are fun for Atticus to slurp. You can see in the photo he’s going cross-eyed watching it go in his mouth.

Finally, the moment we’d all been waiting for, was the fried ice cream dessert that was so superb the first time we ate there. We enjoyed it just as much the second time.


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Hours
Mon - Thur: 11-2:30, 5-9PM
Fri: 11-2:30, 5-10PM
Sat: 12-10PM
Sun: 12-9PM

Menu

Crepe Maker

Ed. Note: Sadly, this location has closed.

The Crepe Maker
175 Peabody Place
522-1290

While we were in San Francisco we saw several places that had a guy in a window making crepes. Several times the monkeys (Satchel, 8, and Jiro 6) insisted on stopping to watch (and drool) through the window. Sadly we never had a chance to actually eat at one of these places.

When we returned to Memphis, Satchel was still lamenting the fact that he did not get to eat any crepes. That's when I remembered the Crepe Maker downtown. "I'll take you to get a crepe after we go to the Farmer's Market on Saturday," I promised him.


I made good on my promise a couple of weeks ago. It was a blistering hot day, so I didn't think we should make the walk from the market, or even my office which is closer, so I decided to drive to the restaurant. Finding street parking is pretty tricky downtown, so I sucked it up and parked inside the Peabody Place garage caddy corner to the Hampton Inn, where the Crepe Maker is housed. I wasn't thrilled about leaving my market bounty in the hot car, but I was less thrilled at the thought of lugging it over to the restaurant.

The Crepe Maker is very small inside. There's seating for six at small tables, three seats at a bar facing the wall, and a small two-seater table outside. When we arrived all of the seats were full and the one lone employee was cooking up crepes as fast as she could. I didn't see any menus handy, so we all stared up at the giant menu board.


As you can see, there are quite a few selections. I highly recommend looking at the menu in advance if at all possible. (There isn't one on the website and the one on Urbanspoon is pretty hard to read.)

After a cursory glance at the menu, I determined the Red & Black to be closest to what Jiro wanted--strawberries and Nutella. I ordered him one with whipped cream. Satchel didn't seem to know what he wanted so I sold him on the pizza crepe from the kids' menu. I hadn't really planned on getting anything, but I realized that this was not going to be a quick in and out as I had imagined, so I ordered a Western Crepe which includes eggs, tomatoes, black beans, corn, sweet red onions and cheese.

Since the only employee present was busy making others' food, she just jotted down my order real quick and then handed us cups to get drinks on the house. This pleased me enough to wipe the unhappy look off of my face.


The monkeys always love getting their own fountain drinks. They filled up, then we just stood and watched as the woman cooked since there was nowhere else to go.


Jiro soon had soda dribbles on his hands and gave me his all too common complaint, "My hands are sticky." He's been driving me nuts with this, but since we clearly had a long wait, I agreed to take him to wash his hands. The woman directed me to go the inside of the hotel. Satchel chose to stand guard while we were gone.

The bathroom was very large and very nice since it was a part of the hotel. I don't recall seeing a changing table, but that doesn't mean there isn't one.

When we got back, the woman still hadn't started on our order and the other people in the restaurant still hadn't abandoned their tables so we could sit down. The woman apologized and said that it wasn't always this busy. Clearly we just had an ill-timed visit.

Meanwhile another employee showed up and appeared to unload several boxes from her car. She eventually settled in and started ringing people up. I went ahead and paid for our food so we could get out quickly when we were done eating. With our free drinks, the total was $15. (The kids' crepe actually comes with a free drink and small bag of Goldfish.)

By the time everything was ready there was still no seating, but the second employee told us we could eat in the hotel lobby. (There are a couple of tables outside the restaurant between it and the hotel, but they were also full.) The monkeys were absolutely thrilled to eat inside the hotel lobby. It was fine with me too because frankly the restaurant is a little claustrophobic. My only concern was getting to the table without the monkeys dropping their food.

I found that our presence in the hotel lobby immediately made everyone think we were tourists, including the Crepe Maker employees, which I kind of liked. If the monkeys were to go crazy, chances are no one would notice or care. Everyone was happy and on vacation!

Ok so on to the food. Satchel's crepe was just a plain ol' cheese pizza crepe, but it had the right spices added, so it tasted pretty good.


Eating it was a bit tricky. Satchel complained that it was falling apart on several occasions. The small cone cup they give you to help with the eating, only helped a little bit. The crepes come out extremely hot too, which makes the eating of them by children even more difficult when cheese is involved.


Jiro's crepe wasn't as hot since it was just Nutella and strawberries. It was a little unwieldy, but I heard no complaints from him. (My only complaint was that cook forgot the whipped cream, so it came on the side. Actually, it was probably better that way.)


See? Happy boy.


My Western Crepe was actually quite good. I would have liked the outside a bit crisper, but overall it was very tasty. I was impressed. Satchel was also impressed and ate about half of it, once I removed the tomatoes for him. (A word on the tomatoes--they are described as "vine ripened" on the menu, and are actually very good. No pink mushy tomatoes to be found. However, I doubt they are local.)

When the monkeys like something, they immediately want to know when they can come back. I suggested we return on kids eat free night.


We did in fact return for kids eat free night this past Tuesday since the kids were at the Y camp downtown. This time it was raining so we didn't walk, as I had planned. I went ahead and parked in the garage right next to the Hampton Inn, which was just $1 per hour. We were then able to walk under cover all the way to the hotel, which was just a few feet away. On our way in and out, Jiro had a blast running through this fountain in the hidden courtyard.


The restaurant wasn't as crowded as the first time we went, but the service was painfully slow again. A man was working this time and he was busy talking on the phone for most of our visit. Thankfully, I think the monkeys have gotten their crepe craving out of their systems.

Trolley Stop Market

Trolley Stop Market
704 Madison
526-1361

The monkeys (Satchel, 8, and Jiro, 6), Warren, and I were anxiously awaiting the opening of the Trolley Stop Market, which is the brain child of our favorite farmers, Jill and Keith Forrester of Whitton Farms. Every week when we picked up our CSA we'd ask, "When is it going to open?" Eventually we had to stop asking because I could tell that we were probably one of hundreds who asked week after week while they sorted out permits and the million other things they weren't expecting to delay their opening day. Keith was looking a little stressed to say the least.

I did get a sneak peek though when I interviewed Jill and Keith for a couples profile, and was reminded of the good old days at Squash Blossom, the natural food store that used to be in Midtown. (I worked there in college.) The Forresters' concept was simple--food from the farm, cooked up nice and hot as well as a market full of local produce and handmade products.

I told Jill and Keith that I would eat there at least once a week after they finally opened, and I have. Look how cute this place is. I love all of the handpainted signs. The store definitely has the same homey feel as their farm.


Their brand spankin' new logo stands out a bit due to its extreme polished-ness, but I kinda like it too.


And I feel that I should point out that it is actually located at a Madison Avenue trolley stop. Someday we may actually take the trolley (or ride our bikes), but we haven't yet.


Last week, Warren was home with the boys and I was at work, so we all met up for lunch. I suggested we go at 11:30am to beat the rush, but apparently the rush starts at 11am, because it was already packed when we got there! The monkeys had been once before during opening week, and went directly to the pizza case.


I informed them that now they have table service, so after scoping out which slices we wanted, we grabbed one of the few empty tables. (I also noticed that there were way more tables since my last visit just before our vacation. I wondered if maybe they should have named it the Trolley Stop Cafe instead. The market is still there but it seems it's qucikly becoming more peripheral than integral.)

Per usual, there were several people I knew there, but there were also tons of people I'd never seen. Our waitress informed us that the Commercial Appeal just reviewed them, so that explained the even bigger than normal crowd. She took our drink orders--water all around--and quickly returned with paper coffee cups with lids for the monkeys and large glasses for me and Warren.

The kids had slept til 10:30 (!!) so this was technically their breakfast. Or brunch, I guess. We placed our orders and soon found ourselves with a table full of deliciousness.

Jiro calmly explained to me that he wanted TWO slices of pizza; one cheese and one pepperoni. The slices are big, New York style slices and I knew he probably couldn't eat two, but I was one step ahead of him. His leftovers would be my excuse for eating more than one slice myself!


Satchel ordered a slice of pepperoni and a cup of cream of chicken soup. He had the soup on his previous visit too and once it came out he said, "That's what it was!" "What?" I asked. "Celery!" he said. "Just pick it out," I instructed. And he did.


My pizza with chicken, squash, and yellow cherry tomatoes was awesome. Their crust is perfection. Their sauce is perfection. And it tastes great with every topping imaginable. I mean, who else would even think to put squash on a pizza?


To be "healthy," I ordered a side of beets. I love beets. Warren's been roasting the ones from our CSA. Theirs were pickled like when I was a kid. They had a really intense flavor that was enticing, but hard to pin down. Peppercorns were definitely involved and maybe anise?


Warren boldly ordered the BLT with pimento cheese. It seems that pretty much everyone who writes about the TSM raves about the BLT, so it was a safe bet since I steered him away from his usual order of a burger. (I had a burger on one visit and found it mediocre, despite its Neola Farms origins. Warren can't pass up a burger!) I told him that the de facto side was Ruffles potato chips, so he paid the extra $1.50 to get a veggie. He chose crispy cucumbers. When his sandwich arrived I was very impressed. It was huge! Thick homemade bread, garden fresh maters, huge strips of bacon, and spicy pimento cheese.


I wondered how he was going to eat it, but he had no trouble. He offered me a bite and I have to say that it was incredible. I don't usually like pimento cheese, but the spicy seasonings made it suit me just fine.


Everyone was very happy with their lunches and Satchel gave TSM his highest honor. "Can we come here for my birthday?" he asked. "Of course!"I said.

Our happiness must have been apparent because the waitress wasted no time tempting us with dessert. Jiro had spotted the brownies when we were at the pizza case, so he was sold before she even opened her mouth. The browines are huge, so the boys split one, and Warren and I impulsively decided to try a slice of chocolate chip chocolate cheesecake. The kids' brownie came out pre-cut and they each had their own half on their own plate, which I thought was sweet. Warren and I were each given a fork to dig into our scrumptious cake.


Words simply cannot do this cake justice. "Celestial" comes to mind.

While we waited for the check, Satchel and Jiro complained of being cold and wrapped themselves up in our tablecloth. We were sitting right under a huge vent. With the outside temps hovering near 100, I was enjoying the artic breeze! While the monkeys continued to cocoon themselves, I went to get a peek at the bathrooms. They were very clean and nice, but no changing table.

We went to the register to pay up ($34 plus tip), chatted with Jill a bit, then said our goodbyes.

The Trolley Stop is also open for breakfast and dinner. The dinner menu is somewhat limited, but they do theme nights which sound fun. (Monday is Vegan Night, Tuesday is Taco Night, Wednesday is Burger Night, etc.) They also have music and special dinners from time to time. Jill says she hopes to have a special dinner once a month. "Like" the TSM on Facebook and you'll get daily menu and special event notices. There are daily lunch specials. The spaghetti is my favorite so far!