|
|
Do you miss New Orleans?
Date: 7/17/2008
By:
Arkansas Times Staff
Copeland's, the "Famous New Orleans Restaurant and Bar" chain invented by Popeye's chicken creator Al Copeland, has at last landed in Little Rock after establishing an Arkansas beachhead in Northwest Arkansas years ago.
/more/
|
|
Gina's gets it
Date: 7/10/2008
By:
Arkansas Times Staff
Sushi places seem to have been cropping up in the Little Rock area faster than you can say "wasabi" in recent years, but there's still something to be said for a nice, hot plate of Chinese food.
/more/
|
|
|
Wednesday, July 23, 2008 - 10:08:20
Welcome to the end of the world. Or, at least, one of many. I will try, in vain, again, to get some one other than my Mom pumped up about Alaska. This mean you, less-than-thrilled Eat AR blog readers. Tough crowd. Jeeze.
I mean, okay, I get it. It's not Arkansas. However, I will shamelessly whine, "but... it's Alaska." ALASKA. And it ranks right up there with New Zealand, in terms of beauty. Wouldn't you enjoy a paper in a steamy hot tub with a view for which there are no words?
Continue Reading »
Tuesday, July 22, 2008 - 18:55:21
So, according to their website Wal-Mart is jumping on the “locally grown produce” wagon. Shopping at Wal-Mart is sometimes unavoidable so I wanted to see just what kind of local produce you could find there. I visited a few different Wal-marts just to get a good perspective: The Super Center on McCain in North Little Rock as well as the Neighborhood Market and the Super Center both on Hwy 107 in Sherwood. Walking into the McCain Super Center I had reason to be hopeful. After all, Wal-Mart is an Arkansas business. What better place to implement their new plan than a Super Center in their home state? Upon entering I was excited to see big farmer’s-market-type bins of corn and squash. Just to be sure, I inquired about the bins. According to the employee I asked, neither the corn nor the squash in those particular bins were grown in Arkansas. In fact, on my first visit to this location the only Arkansas products I saw were tomatoes. There were some blueberries that were packaged in Arkansas, but of course that does not mean that they were grown here. Someone who worked there did tell me that they have or have had Arkansas watermelons, cantaloupes, squash, corn, and tomatoes. Too bad, I didn’t see any, except for the tomatoes but it did give me an excuse to check back. A few days later, I visited the same location and found that they had added Arkansas cantaloupes and yellow squash. However, the squash was not marked as local and I had to ask someone to find out.
Next, I went to the Neighborhood Market on Highway 107 in Sherwood. This location was a little better. They did have Arkansas tomatoes, cantaloupes, and watermelons. All were clearly marked as having been grown in Arkansas. An employee told me that the squash, the collard greens, and the parsley were local, too, but they were not marked as such. Why wouldn’t they be?
Nearby, at the other Super Center on Hwy 107, I found Arkansas peaches. They also had Arkansas watermelons, cantaloupes, and tomatoes, but you kind of had to search them out.
I think we can all applaud Wal-Mart for at least taking a step in this direction. All of these stores carried some Arkansas items and that’s a good start. Change never happens overnight.
Imagine if a GNC, a Whole Foods, and a medical supply store had a child. It would look a lot like the small health food store that has recently opened on S. Bowman. It’s kind of a strange little place because in addition to organic groceries and vitamins they also carry medical supplies. (Huh?) For this reason, the store operates under two names: Cook’s Unimed and Cook’s Natural Market. Regardless of how odd the concept is, they have products that I’ve been looking for for a while, but can never seem to find. Organic hotdogs to name one. (My kid loves them.) The owner, Jerry Cook, has another store, called Jerry’s Unimeds, in Rogers and this Bowman location is his first effort to branch out. Cook makes his own sausage and has all the meat (which is all naturally raised and hormone free) butchered at the main store in Rogers. He then ships the meat from the Rogers store to the Little Rock location. In addition to staples like chicken and beef, they also carry elk, buffalo and several types of seafood. They have a wide selection of gluten free foods, juices and juice concentrates, ice creams and gelatos, essential oils and extracts and a heck of a lot more. There is long empty refrigerated shelf along one side of the store, which the manager promises will soon be stocked with organic produce and dairy products. Once that happens, they will have the official grand opening. In the mean time, it’s worth checking out the store and the website, which has a lot of health food info.
801 S. Bowman Rd.
Little Rock, AR 72211
501-221-1306
