While not a dish per-se, this member of the wild cabbage food group is one of the tastiest sides at Maya and leaves nothing to be desired.  Roasted brussel sprouts are a joy to eat, but have a much hated stigma behind them.  I am sure we all had our fair share of nasty brussel sprouts at one point in our childhood that scarred us for life. SFist, our long lost west coast relative wrote about these devilish sprouts as well:

If you don’t like Brussels sprouts, you’re probably turned off by the bitterness, which is never popular with Western palates. There’s no easy way around it: Brussels sprouts are often bitter. As Harold McGee says in On Food and Cooking, “whether we cook sprouts rapidly to minimize the production of thiocyanates, or slowly to transform all of the glucosinolates, the result is still bitter.” Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Thiocyanates are tricky little devils.

McGee offers one strategy for taming the bitterness: Slice the sprouts in half and cook them in a lot of boiling water. The water leaches the offending compounds out of the center stem of the vegetable, where they tend to congregate. Alice Waters suggests a more time-consuming approach: Cut out the stalk’s core before cooking the sprouts.

Unfortunately our parents must have over cooked them releasing these delicious sulfur smelling/tasting compounds.

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Popularity: 10% [?]

Thanks to the birdie that sent this in…

WCAV has this really ridiculous sounding promotion on their website where you can buy coupons to restaurants and shops that save you 50%.

Our favorites:

Aqui Es Mexico - 50% off. Face value of $30, buy for $15.  It can be used with booze, so long as you buy food.

Maya - 50% off. Face value of $50, buy it for $25.  It can be used with booze, so long as you buy food.

There is a lot of stuff outside of food, so check it out and let us know your favorite.

Popularity: 13% [?]

If you thought Ted’s Maya could only make amazing cocktails, you were very mistaken.  Their food is just as good, if not better.  Today I wanted to highlight their cornbread.  This is such a quintessential southern food, that most overlook its intricacies and are content with mediocre fare.

Maya pushes the cornbread envelope.  The “side” cornbread served a la carte and with their dinner entree items is literally the size of a slize of Christian’s Pizza…ok not AS big, but almost.  One look at this sexy number and you immediately noticethe crisp top, slightly burned bottom, and perfect moisture consistency inside the bread.

It is all too often cornbread comes out dry and makes you feel like a chicken, and somehow, Maya uses the best dam recipe ever.  While it isn’t overly oily, it sure is even tastier with a spread of butter.

I now dream of Maya…

Popularity: 21% [?]

If you recall, one of our Charlottesville Villains visited Maya during its opening weeks.  Maya rests across from the train station in the district we unintelligently call “Midtown.” As a restaurant serving Southern American influenced cuisine, Maya didn’t get a lot of praise initially, but I think that it is due for a re-evaluation.

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Popularity: 48% [?]

Alicia Keys said, “If I want to be alone, some place I can write, I can read, I can pray, I can cry, I can do whatever I want–I go to the bathroom”. I assume that she’s talking about the bathroom in her house, and not any of the public restrooms in Charlottesville, but for the moment, I will humor (probably only) myself and think that she could be applying this philosophy to say, Zinc. Or Maya. Or Mas.

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Popularity: 34% [?]

Left of Center is hosting a local food get together at Maya at 5:30 PM tomorrow (Tuesday).

Our local food economy: why it’s important to eat local, why it’s so difficult to be a farmer, and how family farms are all but illegal in Virginia today. Colin Steele and Lynsie Watkins will tell their story of creating “Perfect Flavor,” the Waynesboro ice cream company making frozen treats entirely with local, seasonal ingredients. They believe passionately in the importance of supporting local farmers, and they have faced some huge hurdles in realizing that dream. And Gail Hobbes-Paige, of Caromont Farm, will talk about her experiences as a farmer, chef, caterer, goat farmer and cheesemaker. Her broad knowledge provides rare insight into our local food economy.

Should be exciting. Food…mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Popularity: 8% [?]

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This is the real deal, folks. If you disagree, you obviously have not the powers of the bearer of thunder and lightning, nor the gentle powers of a storm demon who brings death and disease to your village. »Read More

Popularity: 18% [?]