Dine Around Memphis: International Edition

DF and I like going out to eat at new and different restaurants. If I was making a list, I'd include it among our hobbies. You could probably project all kinds of psychological dimensions on this, like it's because neither of ate at restaurants very often as children...so now we're making up for lost time :)

The last edition of Dine Around Memphis was more domestic-focused. Lately we've been checking out various international flavors. It's a little harder to find "exotic" restaurants here than in Seattle. (There is a serious shortage of teriyaki in Memphis, too.) But if you do a little research, you can find some good choices.

Here's just a sampling of where we've been in the last week or so. (I really do cook at home sometimes, promise! Actually the week before this, we hardly went out at all.)

Sunday - Indian buffet at Mayuri. I LOVE Indian buffets. They are one of my favorite types of restaurants. I like to try a little bit of all the different dishes, because I like almost all Indian food and it's rather boring to have to pick just one. Mayuri's butter chicken is totally delicious. Definitely worth taking a Lactaid to eat it :)  They had some type of cabbage dish this time that I also really liked - bonus - it had lentils!

Monday - in honor of St. Patrick's day, we had Chinese food. Ha ha! This is our tradition actually, starting a few years back. We used to live close to an Irish pub in Seattle, so we walked over there on St. Patrick's Day only to find out they were charging a $10 cover just to get in the door. We were like, "um, no thanks!" and proceeded down the street to our local Chinese establishment. And after that, it became a tradition! This year we did happy hour at P.F. Changs. Not quite as quaint and local, but still pretty tasty.

Tuesday - BBQ. Ok, that's not exactly international. But what would a week of dining in Memphis be without it? Germantown Commissary is da bomb! I got chicken and beans. Their beans are really good. They don't have jalapenos in them like some other BBQ places. And their prices are really reasonable. I mean, $5.45 for half a chicken - who can beat that?!

Wednesday - dinner at church. It was taco salad night. Does that count as being international?

Thursday - the first day of spring is Persian New Year/Nowruz, so I decided we needed to eat something semi-Persian. Yelp directed me to the cumbersomely-named Mediterranean Pita Sandwich & Grill. Oh my word, Memphians who read this blog, you have GOT to try this place. Yes, it is kind of strange because it's half grocery store/half restaurant, and we were the only patrons there, but it is really good! I had the vegetarian platter because it had all the things I love - grape leaves (dolmas), falafel, hummus, and baba ganoush. This restaurant is kind of randomly hidden in the corner of a strip mall so they probably don't get much foot traffic. But seriously, it is worth the drive. Also DF was happy that they don't put onions on their gyros.

Doesn't this all sound tasty? Three cheers to Memphis for being exotic and delicious!

Volunteering: New Territory

Memphis is a youthful city - we ranked #9 on a Forbes list of "Future Cities" due to the percentage of population under age 14. The 2010 census found 26% of Memphis residents were under 18. If we can support and nurture these young people to develop essential skills, they have great potential to help turn the tide of some of the negative factors Memphis is dealing with. Unfortunately, though, the city faces a number of issues that affect children, and education is one of the big ones.

I have neither the historical understanding nor personal experience to attempt to explain the Shelby County School District to my non-Memphian readers. Let's just sum it up by saying that the school district has some problems, and there are places where children are really struggling due to a variety of factors. I've recently begun volunteering with a program for some kids who need help. 

To preserve the privacy of everyone involved, I'll call it Calvin School. This particular program is implemented by a non-profit organization in cooperation with Calvin (at least, that's my understanding so far!) I'm helping out with a reading program that uses curriculum structured to help students improve reading fluency, accuracy, and comprehension. Not all the students at Calvin participate, just those who have been identified as needing the most help with reading. 

At first I was a little worried, since I haven't actually worked much with native English speakers - my background is more in English as a Second Language. All the students in this program except one are native English speakers. But as we went through the training materials, I realized that a lot of my ESL skills actually could be applicable. 

When I went to the school for the first time this week, my GPS sent me to a new part of the city I hadn't visited yet. I made some initial anthropological field notes, but I'll withhold them from publication until I've been able to observe in more detail. Also I didn't actually get to meet any of the kids yet! I did training last week, and they're out on Spring Break now. This gives me an extra week to brush up on my phonics skills!

Luckily I learned all about phonics when I was a kid. Now let's see if I can access those far recesses of my memory bank...ah ha! I knew the internet would help me :) If you scroll through that article, you'll see a chant I learned in elementary school about the sounds that letters make. I went a little something like this:

A block A block A A A

B beating heart, b- b- b-

C cracking nut, k- k- k-

D knocking on door, d- d- d-

and etc...

(full disclosure, that article was really long and boring, so I didn't read most of it. I hope it was saying it's in favor of reading!)