Tau Poco...Say What?

Whenever I am out with my friend, Lu, the one thing you can be sure of is that you can never be sure.  This day was no exception.  We started out with a plan...head to Birmingham to visit with Sherri.  That was it!  There was no planning beyond that one simple goal. After that, it was all up for grabs!  But, if you know anything about us at all, you know we are going to find food.  So, as we hit the road, the conversation went something like this...
Me: Have you thought about where you would like to eat lunch?
Lu: No, but I'm hungry, so let's decide.
Me: I will do a search.  

At this point I begin punching buttons on my phone and end up on Urban Spoon.  Now, if you have ever been on Urban Spoon, you know there is a section called Hottest in Alabama.  Well, yours might not say Hottest in Alabama.  It might say Hottest in Texas or Colorado or wherever you happen to be from, but mine says Hottest in Alabama.  (By the way, if yours says Hottest in something besides Alabama, let me know because just the fact that you are reading this is so cool!  Anyway, I digress!)  There is also a section called Talk of the Town and since we were in Birmingham, that was the town in question.  So, that was our starting point.  Lu is driving, I am reading off the Talk of the Town sections for Birmingham.  Here were our choices:

1. Primeaux Cheese and Vino
2. Tau Poco
3. Hot and Hot Fish Club
4. Cafe Dupont
5. Foodbar
6. Highlands Bar and Grill
7. Dixie Fish Co.
8. Todd English P.U.B.
9. Vittoria Macelleria
10. Fish Market

Some of these we had been to before...Cafe Dupont, Highlands Bar and Grill, and Fish Market.  Some, we knew were not open for lunch...Hot and Hot Fish Club.  So that left us with Primeaux Cheese and Vino, Tau Poco, Foodbar, Dixie Fish Co., Todd English P.U.B. and Vittoria Macelleria.  Of those, we had already passed the exit for Primeaux Cheese and Vino, so we eliminated that one.  Good, we had our list whittled down to five.  Of those five, Foodbar was only open at dinner and Vittoria Macelleria was closed for the day.  We weren't really wanting seafood and the reviews for Todd English P.U.B. were not promising, so we settled on Tau Poco on 20th Street North.  First, we liked the name.  Second, we liked the concept, kind of a multi-ethnic global food truck without the truck.  And, finally, Tau Poco's chef, Chris Dupont, owns Cafe Dupont just down the road and we already knew we liked that restaurant.  

So Tau Poco...here we come!  First, the decor...eclectic and colorful!  Painted by Veronique Vanblaere, who owns the Naked Art gallery, the look is bright and multicultural.  On the restroom door, Vanblaere painted the different words for restroom from languages all over the world.

As the menu says...1200 possible combinations!

As for the menu, we might not be sure how to pronounce all the words, but we googled the meaning of Tau Poco...Little Vessel.  Appropriate for the concept, because the first thing you do in this eat by numbers establishment is Step 1..pick a vessel...sort of like the holder for the rest of your choices.  There are four to choose from: a Venezuelan corn cake, a Moroccan flatbread, a Korean pork bun and napa cabbage.  Lu went with the flatbread and I opted for the corn cake.  Step 2, we were on to our protein.  The choices here were Japanese steak, Moroccan chicken, Korean pork, fennel sausage and Peruvian vegan ceviche.  I chose the Korean bossam pork and Lu got the Japanese miso BBQ steak.  Step 3, the next choice we had to make was for sauces to go on our meat.  At the suggestion of our hostess, I ended up with bossam and ginger scallion.  Luanne, true to form, went through her problems with sauces so that our hostess could see the limitations and challenges she would have when helping Lu choose a sauce.  Those of you who have been with us for a while know the drill...Lu doesn't eat mayo, ketchup or mustard and nothing made with or similar to those ingredients. Armed with the required information, our hostess suggested the ginger scallion and chimichurri sauces.  For Step 4, we had to choose a side.  My choice was the Caribbean plantains and Luanne, who wanted the plantains but, (ever the professional and in the interest of our readers), chose something different... the Korean kimchee and the Israeli couscous.  Finally, Step 5, we were onto drinks...Mexican Coke or Sprite, Jarritos (a variety of fruit sodas) and water.  Lu loves fruity drinks, so she got a mango Jarritos. I got a Mexican Coke.  What is a Mexican Coke, you ask?  It is a Coca Cola, but unlike the American version, it is made with cane sugar instead of corn syrup.  Trust me on this...it makes a HUGE difference!  Mexican Coke is much like the Coke I remember from my childhood in those little tiny glass bottles...so much better.   

Since Sherri could not eat with us, we asked her what she would have chosen.  She said she would have gotten the Korean pork bun, the Japanese beef, the bossam and ginger scallion sauces, the plantains and the mango Jarritos to drink. We cannot get Parker to embrace the concept of choosing something different in the interest of our readers...even if she is not actually eating the food! 

Waiting on our lunch!

Korean Bossam Pork with Venezuelan Cachapa Corn Cakes and Caribbean Plantains

Japanese Miso BBQ Steak with Moroccan Msemen Flatbread and Korean Kimchee

So, what was the verdict?  We loved our multicultural lunch.  Our favorites were Luanne's beef brisket, my corn cakes, the plantains and the smoky, bacony Israeli couscous. I am not a big kimchee fan, but Lu loved it.  The yummy sauces added an extra dimension that should not be missed. Tau Poco is definitely not the place for those timid eaters who refuse to try anything new, but if you like to venture out and sample cuisines from around the world, there is no better place than Tau Poco.  Go pick your own little vessel and fill it up!

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Three Friends and a Fork give Tau Poco 

3 International Yums UP!

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This Rooster Rules the Roost!

I just got back from a lovely trip...no, not along the milky way, but it might be close!  It was a ladies only trip to the Red Rooster Retreat on Smith Lake, near Cullman, AL.  What was so great about this trip, you ask?  Oh, well, let me make you a list.

1. You go off for a few days with some of your best girlfriends.
2. You wear pajamas for every one of those days and you aren't even sick.
3. You don't do one single thing you don't want to do, not one!
4. You have all your meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner, prepared for you every single day.
5. The meals are ahhhhmazing!
6. You leave your dirty dishes sitting right on the table when you are through eating and someone else cleans them up!
7. You can scrapbook, sew, quilt, read, sleep, walk, watch television, sit in the hot tub or do absolutely nothing... It's up to you!
8. You do not have to make a single decision about anything other than what you want to do with your time.

The Red Rooster Retreat is the brainchild of Jim and Jennifer Bridges.  They wanted a place on the lake where they could hang out with their grown children, but in order to make it happen it would have to pay for itself.  So....the Red Rooster was born.  It was built in 2005 and opened for business in 2006.  It sleeps up to 23.  The large central room is set up with tables for whatever crafty thing your group has in mind...scrapbooking, sewing, quilting, etc.

Our group usually starts arriving on a Thursday afternoon around 2:00. As soon as we unload all our "stuff", we rush to change into something more comfortable...those comfy jammies that will be our friends for the next several days.  Then we get busy setting up our tables.  For our group it is scrapbooking.  We drag out all our paper, pictures, scissors, tape, glue and get everything organized before we begin.  By the time we leave, the tables look like they have been visited by Edward Scissorhands, but we do try to start out with neat areas!

We work and talk and laugh until that first dinner bell rings.  Part of our discussion revolves around wondering what we will be eating, so when that bell rings, we jump up like we have never before in our lives eaten a meal.  Jennifer, or Aunt Jenny, as she is known by our group, because her niece, Deborah, is one of us, is an extraordinarily talented cook and she is creative, too.  We never know what the meal is going to involve, but we do know it is going to be wonderful! The most decadent part of eating at Aunt Jenny's?  You get up and leave your dirty plate sitting on the table!  I know, it feels almost sinful!  But we do, and then we are back to scrapbooking and talking or sleeping or...well, you get the picture.  We carry on with this until we decide to go to bed and then we get up the next day and start all over again...waiting on those dinner bells like Pavlov's dog.  After each meal, we declare we will never be hungry again, but when those smells start wafting from Aunt Jenny's kitchen we are helpless and our tummies start rumbling again.  Here are some of the yummy plates that came out of that kitchen on this past trip.

Pork tenderloin, butter peas, Brussel's sprouts, potatoes, slaw and roll

Taco soup, grillled cheese sandwich, peanut butter cookie

Meatloaf, macaroni and cheese, salad roasted broccoli and roll

Blueberry French toast, scrambled eggs, blueberry muffin

Hot chicken salad, chips, pickles, orange congealed salad and pumpkin bread

Eggs Benedict, cheese grits and grapefruit

So, the moral of this story is: If you get an opportunity to visit Jenny and Jim at the Red Rooster, pack your bags as fast as you can! Then you, too, can look as happy as this group!

Three Friends and a Fork and this happy group give The Red Rooster Retreat 3 relaxed Yums UP!

Here is the link to the Red Rooster Retreat website: http://www.redroosterretreat.com/