Knoxville Eats

I luvvvvvv travel-planning.

Especially when it involves food and visiting my sister.

I am a bit obsessed with the idea of a perfect trip. My heart palpitates at the thought of missing that special something that all of the locals know about; I get sweaty palms when I think about NOT going to the local farmer’s market or trying every single flavor of organic goat cheese; I get chills thinking about all the fun we could have if we would just stay on schedule!

However, not everyone is like me. This past weekend I got to spend two glorious days with my very own sister (whose nickname(s) will not be announced on this blog due to the fact that I am trying to be a good person, but could be listed if said person was to blackmail the other person with how many cupcakes and kettle corn I ate on Saturday night). Because she is so nice, she allowed me to cart us around to every place my heart desired (ok, planned to visit). As you know, girls do have to eat, so it was our privilege to combine this eating adventure with blog research. Which had to, of course, include mandatory restaurant visits.

Friday night was Cafe 4– a hip, beautiful, wood-hewn establishment with a fantastic menu. For our appetizer, we had parmesan-truffle fries with truffle aoili. Needless to say, this kicked our weekend-of-eating off to a glorious start.

The next morning was a buttery, chocolate croissant and cafe au lait at The French Market Creperie and then on to the Knoxville Farmer’s Market, which included medieval swordsmanship, corn dogs, kettle corn, and milk shots. You can probably guess which of the above events got most of our attention.

Next was lunch at Tomato Head, a vegan foodie’s dream. I had the “Roger Roger”- a layering of hummus, fresh spinach, baked tofu, banana, red, and green peppers, green olives, and montery jack cheese. It was delicious and light- perfect for hte 80+ degree heat. And did I mention my sister’s AC broke on Friday night? Whole other story.

Dinner was Sergeant Pepperoni’s. This was the best pizza I have had in a long time, and a perfect ending after a day of hard exercise (walking) and heat (ok, some of you probably don’t sympahthize here). The “Pop-Eye”
(I am sensing a spinach theme…):

Finally, after a much deserved rest period, Magpies Bakery cupcakes for dessert. I will not tell you how many total of these I ate, but they were mini’s so it doesn’t really count. I think it just added up to one normal cupcake. Right. Anyway, the flavor of the week was “banana puddin’,” but the chocolate apricot-a rich and creamy chocolate cake with a tart apricot filling-was mouthwateringly wonderful.

I hope that you too will be able to visit and enjoy all of the food and culture in Knoxville, TN. And I’d love to hear about it in a post or two…or three (well, at least as many posts as cupcakes as I ate).