The Jealous Crumpet

A sweet little blog


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FEED Fried Chicken Food Truck

16Once upon a time, I worked at the Madison Square Mall. Over the years it became a bleak, shell of what it was and the powers that be made the decision to tear it down. They built a new utopian place filled with food and entertainment. One of the first places to arrive was The Camp. 20The Camp is a multi-faceted place thas supports a coffee shop, seating, a stage, a bar and several food trucks including FEED Fried Chicken.23 So to kick off Resturant Week 2019, us food ‘influencers’ (That feels ridiculous to say)… local food lovers got together for the Huntsville Visitor’s Center to try out what FEED had to offer.    24It was pretty warm outside, so we killed all the waters kindly provided to us by the Huntsville Visitor’s Bureau. 19And we also partook in the yummy adult drinks from The Camp.1Y2B4360FEED serves an Atlanta take on a Nashville specialty Hot Chicken. They also provide delicious southern sides and desserts.21 The banana pudding is made with roasted bananas and it definitely takes the dessert to the next level.22 So pop on over to The Camp and FEED to enjoy this tasty meal.

 


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Clyde’s BBQ

12Have you been to Clyde’s Barbeque yet? Madison’s newest barbeque restaurant offers a wide variety of smoked meats, decadent sides, and sweet southern treats! Sorry vegan’s this one isn’t for you.1Y2B4677 If you’re a fan of pork, turkey, beef, lamb Cylde’s has you covered. They smoke their meats with actually wood, something that isn’t often found. 9The bbq joint is named after a stray (well former stray) dog-Clyde. Owner Stan Stinson was out barbequing, when a scruffy mutt smelled the smoking meats and came trotting up. And he came back the next day and the day after that and the day after that. Soon Stan took the pup in and when it was time to name the restaurant he knew who his mascot would be.  13That have delicious sides and a massive stuffed baked potato with lamb bacon and all the fix-ins.14 They support local food purveyors such as Pablo’s Pickles and The Dessert Fork. I love foodies supporting foodies! 11And for dessert make sure you get one of their smoked cookies. My photo does not do it justice. 15Southern style, Clyde’s has a revolving menu, offering different dishes on different days, including smoked meatloaf.10 The savory hand-pies are especially popular.


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Honest Coffee

1Y2B4461Restaurant Week is Back!! And this year promises to be an excellent one. Once a year the city of Huntsville (and Madison County) celebrates the amazing local eateries, breweries,  and coffee shops across the city. Restaurants offer special dishes and deals to lure hunger patrons into their businesses. It is a great way to try out a new place without breaking the bank.   5Each year as part of Resturant Week food bloggers are invited to same some of the fare. I seriously look forward to it every year as it allows me to meet the chefs/owners, learn the history of a restaurant and sample a wide array of food from places I haven’t yet visited.   2First stop was Honest Coffee. I’ve been here several times before and enjoy every time I go. They have an assortment of gluten-free pastries from Mason Dixon Bakery. Such as this gluten-free cinnamon roll.  8Their special is a Mo-tea-to, a virgin Mojito made with green tea and the coconut lime acai bowl, which you can have made with gluten-free granola. All for $10!

4They also have vegan options, including a ‘lox’ bagel made with carrots instead of salmon. The carrots are from Hippea Camper. It tastes amazingly like fish. So weird, but also so awesome. Below the bagel on the left is salmon and the one on the right is carrot. Both are delish!

7And their coffee, to die for. Their latte art is on point. 1It’s a great place to chill at or grab a cup of joe to go. Either way, you’ll love it.3 And they have an outdoor area so your pups can enjoy it as well! I made a friend! 1Y2B4527If you haven’t tried Honest Coffee, or if you have and already know it’s awesome, make sure you stop by from Aug 9-18 to get the deals and try something new.6


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Tis the season of good eatin’

38769165_500387043756234_7140208985856016384_n copyFoodies rejoice! Once again restaurant week is upon the city of Huntsville. From August 10 until the 19th restaurants across Madison County are offering their fare at promotional prices. Even the breweries are jumping into the fun with new brews. As part of the promotion for Restaurant Week, I got to sample some of the promotional dishes with the Resturant Week Blogger tour. This is my fourth year to participate (I missed last year because was visiting my in-laws in France! Lucky me!!) and I love it! I get to eat good food with lots of talented food bloggers. What’s not to love. Plus it’s nice because food bloggers don’t even notice the weird things I do like stand on a chair to photograph a piece of cheesecake or gush about how adorable that curl of lettuce it in a salad. Normal people just don’t understand, but food bloggers will offer to hold the reflector. Below: Bloggers doing their blog thang!But seriously how pretty is the salad below!!!!  This year I got to try the special dishes at two restaurants I’d never tried before: Ruth’s Chris Steak House and Keegan’s Public House.Let’s start with Ruth’s Chris. Great restaurants, but I find the name super confusing. Nine times out of ten I call it “Chris’s Ruth” or “that Ruth Steakplace” or “Ruth Christoper’s Resturant”. I digress. As I said before I’d never been, so I let me GPS lead the way. This was a mistake because it led me straight to the Publix Loading Dock. As I walked to the back of Publix I thought, “this is a weird place for a fancy steakhouse” and I was right because there was nothing but some confused employees and dumpsters back there. I eventually got there. It wasn’t confusing, but GPS was just a jerk.1y2b7594-e1533774057866.jpgI met an assortment of extremely talented bloggers and got to eating! Please check their blogs out as well. I know I will. www.diningwithdeliajo.com happeninsintheham.com the bitter socialite rocket city eats hvsfoodlifeWe got to try an assortment of dishes but my absolute favorite was the scallops!! I really wanted to try to Lobster Mac and Cheese, but I have an allergy, but dang it looked GOOOOOOD!!!!!Earlier in the day, I tried Keegan’s Public House. I did not get lost, so I was actually on time to this one.  The restaurant itself is really fun. It is located in the AL.COM building (shout out to all my journalist besties! You rock!! May the Fourth Estate Be With You!)There were different bloggers at this event and I got to meet Love at First Bite and Ihearthsv.comWe started out with the house chips with blue cheese.I ordered the Shepard’s Pie, which was everything you want comfort food to be: warm, tasty, the vegetables hidden at the bottom.  There was also a nice salad

 

Bloggers taking the shots of the dessert on the left. It’s amazing that it wasn’t melted by the end.

…and most importantly yummy, totally unhealthy, but oh so good dessert. It was Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding with Ice Cream and Whipped Cream on top. Yes, you read that right. It came with 4 spoons to prevent anyone from overeating and slipping into a food coma.

 

As you go into Restaurant Week make sure you tag all your local food pics on social media with #dinehsv to win prices and if not prices glory. There are also the most adorable gifs from your posts on Instagram. Just search for #dinehsv. 

So grab your forks and see y’all out and about from Aug 10th to the 19th!


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Experiencing TBEX as a Local

I recently had the awesome experience of being a tourist in my own city by attending TBEX. For those unfamiliar with TBEX (Travel Bloggers Exchange) it is an event that brings travel bloggers together from around the world. At each TBEX, bloggers (and travel professionals) meet in a new city to spend the week bonding with fellow wanderlusters, learning the tricks of the trade and exploring the host city, which was Huntsville, Alabama this time. Huntsville, AlabamaAs a local, I know that Huntsville is a cool, kind of weird, super nerdy place. I’m proud to call Huntsville my home, but let’s be honest it’s not known as a travel destination, so I image the TBEX attendees were a bit disappointed to be coming here of all places. (The last one was in Jerusalem and the next one is in Killarney!) I myself wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I have to say the City of Huntsville and the Huntsville/Madison County Visitor’s Bureau pulled out all the stops. It was truly a fun to experience a city I have lived in for over 10 years as a tourist.The started the conference by taking a photography workshop with Travelure’s Ajay Sood. It has been several years since I have been to the botanical gardens and I was surprised by all of the improvements. It was an excellent workshop and you can read about it here.

The evening after the workshop, I attended an event for speakers at Lowe Mill Arts Center. I felt extremely VIP and as I walked through the doors was handed a glass of wine and a token for free Piper & Leaf tea. Pizzelles Confections was giving out samples (and when I say samples I mean full-sized desserts) from their new pastry kitchen. On the second floor you could screen print your very own t-shirts with Green Pea Press and there were numerous dishes from every local genre you could imagine. There was even a giant cheese sculpture, but since I broke my camera phone (and can only do selfies) there is no photographic evidence.

There was local beer, local artists, local ice pops from Suzy’s Pops. Local bands entertained the crowds and artists happily gave tours of their studios. I spent the evening rubbing elbows with people far legit than I and it was amazing! It was also wonderful to see Lowe Mill through people who were new to the arts complex. I forgot what a unique place it is and how lucky we are to have it in a city of our size.

On Friday and Saturday speakers gave 45 minute talks about social media, travel blogging, making money, etc. I had to great opportunity to do a panel discussion about working with local markets and visitor’s bureaus. The panel was composed of the talented Rocket City Mom aka Stephenie Walker, Southern Plate aka Christy Jordan with the CVB’s talented Marketing Director Kristen Pepper.  I’m typically comfortable talking to people, just ask my husband after he’s had to wait while I swap life stories with the cashier at the grocery store. But I got nervous at the last minutes before the talk. Because of my nerves, my numerous goals of being informative and charming, make a difference, have perfect hair, enunciating my words, etc. etc. got shortened to two goals: don’t swear and don’t vomit. It would have been just don’t puke, but while I was rehearsing I said something was ‘f___ing crazy’ (fill in the blanks) so I decided to make an extra effort to not swear like a sailor. I’m happy to say it was a mission accomplished. Damn, was I relieved.

The panel was actually a lot of fun and people were generous with their attention and asked insightful questions. Thank-you to all that attended! We gave one of the first talks of the day so I could enjoy the rest of the conference worry free. I gained SO much information and learned that I’m doing SO much wrong. Sigh. Oh well, at least I know what to work on. Later than evening I attended a get together at the Space and Rocket Center. More VIP treatment with excellent food, booze and a jazz band. Again, I take for granted what a cool place the rocket center is and it was fun to see people truly amazed to be sipping craft beer underneath a freakin’ full-sized rocket. I spent the evening catching up with some local bloggers whom I haven’t seen in forever. Sadly, Katie Actually is moving  so it was nice to see her before she left us (sniff, whimper).

I also learned that Sweet T Makes Three blogger Jenn and I are sneaker sole mates. Get it sole mates. ha ha! At least I find myself funny even if no one else does.  On the last day of the conference the keynote speaker was Samantha Brown, as in THE SAMANTHA BROWN. She was funny and brilliant and said all the things about travel that you know but can’t articulate. And she was kind enough to stand there as person after person got a picture with her.

The last night of TBEX was at Campus 805 and appropriately themed Back to School, retro field day activities, free beer, free food and the Fringe Saloon offering 1980s hair and makeup.

Katie getting the super tease done. I wonder how much of the ozone layer is gone because of 80s hair.

All the colors of the rainbow and then some! I got some Lisa Frank eyes done as well as the bouffant hair style.

The Master at work on Jenn’s ‘subtle’ eye makeup. So fun!

I was NOT going to get 80’s hair as that is ridiculous, but as I watched Katie get her hair crimped I thought what the hell… I mean heck. See swearing just comes naturally for me.

All gussied up we strutted around campus like the cool, 80s prom queens we never were. Well, I can’t speak for Katie, but in high school I was neither cool nor a prom queen. For the most part we blended with the other 80s hairstyles and people ignored us, but a few locals were very obviously staring while we ordered our beers. Finally one of them asked where we were from and when we said Huntsville he said the group thought we were Eastern European due to our hair and ordering dark brews. ha ha! Sorry to all Eastern European’s that have to endure that false stereotype.

At the end of the night we snuck into the Campus’s hidden Speak Easy for gin cocktails and enjoyable banter. I have to say, after attending TBEX I felt a real swell of pride of what my adopted city has grown into over the years. I often take Huntsville for granted as I’m sure many people do with their own cities. It is a city of smartypants. The phrase, “It’s not rocket science” makes no sense here because half the population are actually rocket scientists.  I show up to a party and, with a master’s degree, can easily be the least educated  person in the room. Huntsville children want to grow up to be mathematicians or Dr. Who and every day we drive past a Saturn 5 rocket without thinking twice. When you live in a place it grows so familiar that you cease to be amazed, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things that can still surprise you. For me it took a group of wide-eyed travelers to see that Huntsville is in fact an extraordinary place with much more for me to experience.


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Photography Lessons with TBEX

This week my hometown of Huntsville, AL is hosting TBEX (Travel Bloggers Expo), a group of professional travel bloggers coming together to explore a new destination, listen to speakers and make connections. I was one of the lucky few that got to attend a Travelography Workshop with esteemed travel photographer Ajay Sood at the Huntsville Botanical Gardens. It was an amazing workshop and I won’t do the disservice of giving away all of Ajay’s secrets (take a workshop with him, you won’t regret it), but here are two assignments he gave us in the workshop.

Here’s the little birds! Aren’t they adorable!

The first one was to create a multi image photo essay that had a cohesive theme. I covered the gorgeous butterfly garden, which opened a couple of weeks ago.  I spent an hour in there and got to see mating turtles, mating butterflies, these flightless birds (they weren’t mating, but probably had just finished up), tons of flowers, a waterfall, happy people and more.

First assignment:   

The second one was to great a stand alone image. A birdy in a bottle tree.1Y2B0267small
This first day of the workshop was so good, I can’t wait to see what the rest of it holds.