Eateries serve up samples for charity

Taste of Hamilton Place

The second annual Taste of Hamilton Place happens Sunday, Sept. 12, from 7 to 9 p.m. A team of chefs from restaurants in the Hamilton Place neighborhood and beyond will showcase some of their signature dishes for you to sample. It's a chance to meet the chefs as you travel from station to station.

Restaurants participating this year are:

Abuelo's (Mexican favorites).

Acropolis (Greek salad, Mediterranean stuffed eggplant rolls).

Blue Orleans Seafood Restaurant (chicken and sausage jambalaya, Nawlins Pasta).

Bonefish Grill (select seafood dishes).

Chili's (chips and salsa, Southwestern quesadillas, Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie).

Fresh 2 Order (favorite menu selections).

Gigi's Cupcakes (gourmet cupcakes).

Jason's Deli (party pinwheels, herb focaccia sandwiches, granola yogurt parfaits, mini breakfast croissants, strawberry shortcake).

McAlister's Deli (club sandwich, Spud to the Max bar, chocolate chip and chocolate chunk cookies).

Melting Pot (milk chocolate fondue).

Moe's Southwest Grill (Tex-Mex).

P.F. Chang's (chicken lettuce wraps, Chang's Spicy Chicken).

Piccadilly Cafeteria (chicken tenders, spicy Cajun chicken, broccoli-rice au gratin, brownies, chocolate chip cookies).

Smoothie King (assorted smoothies).

Salsarita's (grilled chicken nachos, chips and salsa).

Sticky Fingers (Mini-Q sandwiches, banana pudding).

Tickets to Taste of Hamilton Place are $35 for adults and $10 for children ages 5-12. They may be purchased at the mall tourist information center ( upper level near Sears) or online at www.tasteofhamiltonplace.com. All proceeds benefit the children's cancer center at T.C. Thompson Children's Hospital.

Wings

Wings are one of the top football foods, so this is a good time to sample Krystal's new Game Time Wings. This weekend, you'll get to sample them for free if you attend either the Chattanooga Mocs or the UT Vols game. The Krystal Crave Cruiser will be at both games, so be on the lookout. The wings are also sold in area restaurants in orders of five, 10 and 20 - perfect to pick up for your football party at home or your tailgating event at the games this season.

Wild-caught shrimp

One of my favorite correspondents, who wants to be known simply as "Longtime Reader," wants to know where he can buy wild-caught, not farm-raised, shrimp. "I don't like the idea of eating farm-raised shrimp," he said. "Who knows what goes in those ponds? The shrimp can hardly move, so their flesh is not firm. And our domestic shrimp fleets are disappearing." I'm right there with Longtime Reader. I won't touch farm-raised shrimp.

I suggested Greenlife, knowing about its remarkable fish program. But do you know of others? I'd love to see a good fish market come to Chattanooga, and I know getting wild-caught shrimp has been more difficult lately due to the oil spill in the Gulf. Send your suggestions to abraly@timesfreepress.com.

Beer-can sauce

Will you be grilling out this Labor Day weekend? Here's an idea I plan to try. I've often made beer-can chicken. It's one of my favorite ways to grill a tender, flavorful whole chicken. All you do is open a can of beer, pour out - or drink - half, then put it in the chicken cavity and grill it over indirect heat for a couple of hours.

Here's an additional way to add flavor:

Make a beer-can sauce (recipe follows), add half to the half-full beer can before putting it in the chicken cavity. Then put the chicken in a grill-proof skillet and put the skillet over indirect heat. When the chicken is fully cooked, collect about a tablespoon of the fat collected in the skillet, discard remaining fat and return the tablespoon of fat to the skillet, along with the remaining contents of the beer can. Boil the sauce until it is as thick as gravy, 2-3 minutes. Serve the sauce alongside the chicken. Here's the recipe for the sauce, from Fine Cooking's Chicken magazine.

Beer-Can Sauce

6 tablespoons ketchup

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 1/2 tablespoons molasses

1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon spice rub (see note)

1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

In small bowl, whisk all ingredients until they're well blended. Makes 3/4 cup.

Note: To make spice rub, combine 1 teaspoon each kosher salt, crushed red pepper flakes, ground coriander, dry mustard, garlic powder, onion powder and freshly ground black pepper. Stir in 2 teaspoons ground cumin. Mix until well blended and store in airtight container. Makes 1/4 cup.

E-mail Anne Braly at abraly@timesfreepress.com.

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