If you missed the story in today’s Gazette, we happily reprint it for all you barbeque carnivores out there. Blues BBQ, which already has a locale out on Jefferson Road in South Charleston, has opened up in the old Top Cats/Chef Dan’s spot across from the Clay Center. You’d think that spot would be a to-die-for place for a restaurant. Is it jinxed? The new purveyors of pulled pork and other meaty delicacies don’t think so. Read Sarah K. Winn’s story right here.

So what is your intrepid food blogger’s favorite meal in the world?

Vegetarian duck with curry sauce from Asian Garden in Morgantown, West Virginia. Yeah, you read that right. I’m by no means a vegetarian, but gosh darnit, the stuff just tastes good.

So what is “vegetarian duck?” It’s basically sheets of dried soy milk layered together to form a kind of faux meat that looks a lot like duck. And while it doesn’t really taste like duck, it’s sweet and nutty, with a wonderfully firm texture. Stir-fried with broccoli, carrots and baby corn, it’s then sauced with a mix of spicy red curry and coconut milk — what I consider to be one of the greatest flavor combinations ever devised by humans.

Oh! Instead of the normal steamed or fried rice you’re used to eating with Asian dishes, you can order curry fried rice at Asian Garden — fried rice, as you might imagine, with an ethereal, not-at-all-greasy texture, scented with yellow curry spices. Highly recommended.

Asian Garden is located in a small strip mall plaza on University Avenue in Morgantown’s Suncrest Area. Don’t let the humble decor and cheap plastic plates fool you — they feature an extensive menu of Chinese, Thai and Malaysian dishes (the chef / owner is Malaysian, as is the dish reviewed here). Even the thought of their numerous vegetarian offerings causes the mouth of this dedicated carnivore to water. And unlike the grub served at so many lesser Asian joints, all of the food at Asian Garden is decidedly not greasy — even the fried food, like sesame chicken.

If you’re in or traveling though Morgantown, Asian Garden is a must. A few meals like this, and you’ll understand why some of us turn our noses at other places.

If you go: Asian Garden, 3109 University Avenue, Morgantown (in the Suncrest Area). (304) 599-1888. Closed Sundays.

– By Josh Saul

There’s an inspired comment war going on over at the Local Bands blog concerning smoking in bars. While this is a food blog, I feel compelled to comment on this subject because after all, beer is food! And bar food might be the best food. So here goes:

I don’t smoke.

The vast majority of people don’t smoke.

It’s funny how smokers will get all Libertarian about government intrusion, then forget about things like majority rule.

And “rights?” What right? You don’t have a “right” to smoke any more than I have a right to pinch off a big brown chud onto your dinner plate. Google it.

But like smokers, I don’t care so much about the ill health effects of smoking. Give yourself heart disease or cancer and drive up the cost of healthcare for all of us–I don’t care. And with all the bacon and steak I eat, second-hand smoke, if it really is so bad, is the least of my worries.

The smell of cigarette smoke turns my stomach, pure and simple. It burns my eyes and stops up my nose. It gets in my clothes and makes them stink. (My prop’rty! Take that, Libertarians!!!) But you smokers puff away, oblivious to the fact that you’re irritating almost everyone.

There have been dozens, if not hundreds of occasions I’ve felt like going to a bar to grab a burger or hear a band, but didn’t–just because I didn’t want to come home smelling like I’ve been RAPED BY A HOBO.

People aren’t going to stop going to bars just because they can’t smoke there (so long as it’s banned in all bars, of course). Such is the case in New York City, and last I checked, their bar scene wasn’t exactly anemic.

The wind of change is blowing, smokers–get used to it. And that wind doesn’t smell like it’s been hanging out at the transit mall all day, either. Get a new hobby. Chew some gum. Take up knitting. Eat some bacon.

Well, it’s that time of year again. You know, the season when it’s not entirely unexpected to see a giant pumpkin riding along the interstate in the back of a pickup truck. On the way to a giant pumpkin contest, perhaps?

My first thought upon seeing this enormous gourd was: I wonder how many pies you could make with that? My second thought: Are the seeds in that pumpkin bigger than in your average pumpkin? Mmm . . . giant roasted pumpkin seeds.

In fact, this pumpkin probably was headed to a pumpkin contest. The largest pumpkin festival in the country is held annually in Circleville, Ohio during the third week of October, which is precisely when I saw this fine specimen. The Circleville Pumpkin Show celebrated its 100th anniversary this year. They have a great web site filled with all kinds of information about the history of the pumpkin festival, including historic photographs. There’s also a page of pumpkin recipes, which of course includes pumpkin pie, but also includes things like pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin burgers, and pumpkin fudge. You can also look at photos of this year’s pumpkin weigh-in. I wonder how this big guy fared in the competition.

WEB SITE: www.pumpkinshow.com

You’ve probably heard by now that the Capitol cafeteria was shut down due to a number nauseating violations. Now they’re busy gutting it and starting from scratch.

Not so long ago, I was a regular at the Capitol cafeteria. Most of my friends (both of them!) know that, and since the bad news broke, I’ll bet they all want to know how it makes me feel–if I’m shocked and disgusted by the truth behind all those greasy burgers and grey green beans I ate in my days as a public servant.

The answer is no. I’m not shocked. And I’m not even especially disgusted. You can say lots of bad things about the Capitol cafeteria, but it didn’t pretend to be something it wasn’t. And what it was was a hellhole. No windows. Spotty fluorescent lighting. Fake plants that nonetheless managed to look like they’d withered and died. The smells of bacon and stale cigarette smoke hanging in the air at all hours. A patina of years-old grease covered everything. With only a few more shorts in the lighting, the Capitol cafeteria would look a lot like the set of a horror movie:

Maybe it’s just because it’s almost Halloween, but I don’t think this guy would have looked the least bit out of place behind the grill or salad station (and the chainsaw would explain that awful shredded lettuce they served).

My point though, is if you ate there, you knew what you were getting into. You were trading quality, health, cleanliness, and ambience for serious convenience. Convenience and price–good God, that place was cheap! (Who knew what you could save by just never cleaning?) No one ever tried to fool me about the kind of establishment they were running, and I’m not going to complain now about the deal I got. (And besides, the employees there were much nicer than the mean old vendateria ladies in building 7.)

In any event, I doubt I’m the only person who thinks it was the perfect setting for what went on there. From January through March, it was packed with state legislators and their unsavory hangers-on, and damned if I can think of a more appropriate setting for them than a dimly lit, roach-infested, grease pit of a restaurant. The work of lawmaking, at least in this state, will seem entirely out of place in whatever shiny new bistro they unveil down there next spring.

Downtown Charleston diners have felt a hole in their limited culinary universe ever since some down-on-his–luck fellow lit a light to find his way through the building in which he was squatting — and promptly burned out Delish restaurant on MacFarland Avenue. But you can’t keep Virgil “If you can’t go big, go home” Sadorra down for long. He re-opened yesterday as the new Tex-Mex fast-food wjoint Cilantros at 110 McFarland St. Click here for a gazzTV video report on the insides of the place.

And for the cranky poster who complained a few posts ago that this foodblog doesn’t give addresses to places mentioned (oh, but we do), there’s the address for you but here’s a nice Google map link to the place.

But we warn you, getting your hands on a spicy bean and cheese burrito with peach salsa may be hard at peak hours. The place seems narrower and less spacious than the old Delish (and, of course, the next door room that used to sell raps was atomized). Two co-workers returned burrito-less after encountering a line snaking to the door of the place today. But persevere. A good burrito is hard to find and the fixin’s are all in place on McFarland.

Screen shot above of photo by Kenny Kemp, Charleston Gazette

– By Douglas Imbrogno

So Robert Wong (the closest thing Charleston has to a celebrity chef) has parted ways with the Power Alley Grill. From now on it’ll be operated by ballpark management. While it makes perfect sense for the ballpark to be operating the restaurant, I certainly hope this doesn’t mean the Power Alley’s in trouble. It’s a great room. It’s a pretty good sports bar too, and I don’t even like sports.

(Here’s a link to their menu, and a list of weekly specials.)

The principals have assured us that this is what they intended all along. Unfortunately, that’s often a sure sign it isn’t. Running a year-round bar/restaurant in a half-year ballpark must be tough, especially in a deserted part of town. But I’m a fan of the Power Alley, so I hope there’s less to this than I’m imagining.

Please Sarah “Tex” Winn, tell me how wrong I am. And pass the chips.

I believe it was Robert Rodriguez (above) who said not knowing how to cook is like not knowing how to make love. Or something like that.

Everybody should know how to cook one good meal. If there’s one easy dish I think everyone should know, it’s this riff on the classic called Chicken and 40 Cloves.

That’s cloves of garlic mind you–but you don’t have to use 40 cloves (hence the “riff.”) However, if you’ve never tasted the sweet, mellow flavor of slow roasted garlic, then my-oh-my are you in for a treat. Not only is this dish simple (you don’t have to measure), it’s inexpensive, and only uses one pan. Oh–and it makes your house smell like the part of France that doesn’t smell like dirty Europeans. Try to contain your excitement.

Before you start, make sure you have some really nice crusty bread on hand. It’ll make sense later.

I like to use chicken thighs for this because I love their flavor–but they’re also very cheap. What you see here is about $1.50 worth of bone-in thighs with the skin removed. Honestly though, you can use any cut or combination of cuts of chicken for this–but pieces with the skin removed prior to cooking do better (you can remove it yourself.) Just make sure it will all fit in your pan.

A note on the pan–a pan with an oven-safe handle and lid works best for this. But if you don’t have one of those, a cast-iron skillet and a piece of aluminum foil works just as well.

Now follow along. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Put your pan or skillet on medium high heat, and let it get good and hot. Into the hot pan pour more than enough extra virgin olive oil to coat the bottom. When the oil is almost smoking, carefully put in the chicken (don’t burn yourself!).

Now walk away for a couple minutes. Let the meat brown. It’s the only way to develop the depth of flavor we’re after–you know, the flavor that makes good restaurant food taste so much better than ours. Plus, if you don’t fiddle with the meat too much, it’s more likely to release from the pan when it’s time to turn it over. Which you should do–but only after seasoning it with salt and pepper. When both sides are finished browning, remove the pan from the heat and season with a little more salt and pepper.

We’ve now reached the point of improvisation. Garlic is essential to this dish–I use almost an entire bulb’s worth of peeled cloves, but you can use as much or as little as you want. Just toss them in the pan like giant sprinkles.

We also need herbs–parsley and fresh thyme for sure. A few sprigs of each. To this add a few sprigs of either fresh sage or fresh rosemary. You could use both, but I think that takes things too far. After you’ve made up your mind, pour about a half cup of extra-virgin olive oil over everything. Use more if you want to.

Put the lid on (or cover tightly with aluminum foil) then place the pan in the oven. It takes 90 minutes for this to cook, but set a timer for one hour. When the hour is up, remove the pan from the oven, turn the chicken over and cook for 30 more minutes.

Congratulate yourself. You just made some incredibly tender, rich and flavorful chicken. But that’s not all! You also have a pan full of garlic and herb infused olive oil, perfect for slathering over the crusty bread I talked about earlier. And the garlic cloves are now soft, sweet and mellow. Spread them on bread or eat as is.

Oh, just look at that. And look how beautifully it pairs with a few roasted vegetables! But that’s another show.

You know you want to enter. You can do it. Have your mom be your advisor and fillings coach. As a public pie service, gazz passes on this e-mail press release we got today | thegazz.com editor

ENTRIES NEEDED FOR THE 3rd ANNUAL “PERFECT PIE CONTEST”

Charleston, WV: Time is running out to enter the Third Annual “Perfect Pie Contest” to be held Saturday, Oct. 14. The contest will have prizes awarded to top bakers in the area and a fundraising sale and auction of pie slices and whole pies afterwards, all to benefit the East End Main Street Program. Area celebrity judges will be on hand to taste and rate the pies. Only 25 entries will be accepted and early registration is suggested.

The top three winners will receive Capitol Market gift certificates, Fiesta® Pie Bakers and engraved pie servers. Following the contest, slices of pie will be sold for everyone to choose their favorite. The highlight of the Perfect Pie Contest is the pie auction… This year’s Perfect Pie Contest will be held in conjunction with the Capitol Market Pumpkin Party. Pies will be accepted at the East End Main Street Booth at Capitol Market between 9 and 10 a.m. Winners will be announced at 1 p.m., with the pie slice sale immediately after. The pie auction will begin at 2 p.m.

To learn more about how to register, contact Mary Alice Hodgson at 340-4353. Fax: 340-4356. Or on the day of the event (10/14), call (304) 415-1188. E-mail: mahodgson@charlestonareaalliance.org

Welcome to ‘Blog In My Soup: After Hours.’

So the Red Carpet on the East End might not be Charleston’s most “upscale” watering hole, but the fact remains they don’t call it the Red Carpet for nothing. If you’re looking for great service and drinks that aren’t watered down, then the Red Carpet is second to nowhere in this town.

Plus, there’s no goofy dress code, and no need to worry about a $20 minimum since it’s cash only.