You know you have them–call them vices, foods you love and have to have every so often, or just items you are just a slave to. I could probably list 50 things here, but I’m going to start with five and maybe do another one of these soon. Here are five food items I crave either weekly, monthly, or a few times a year.

1. Buffalo chicken wings–It’s probably the sauce more than anything, but it’s also the fried. The crispy fried skin of chicken wings soaked with buttery, tangy hot sauce. You may as well inject this stuff, but then you wouldn’t get to taste it. I have gotten by of late by ordering those fried chicken tenders (or even grilled if I’m on a diet) at Buffalo Wild Wings (sorry, nobody does it better….it’s just true), but the real deal is sometimes the only way to kill the craving.

2. Green curry–an amazing combination of spices, hot peppers, coconut milk, fish sauce and other stuff that makes up a thick, spicy and addictive sauce that is cooked with meat and/or vegetables, and served over sticky rice. Sometimes you have to find the best green curry where you live, and that’s not always easy. But once you find it, you are golden. Or at least that’s the case with me.

3. Steak–I’ve tried to eat little or no meat before, but I’m just not wired for that. I love beef, and I especially love a great grilled steak. I also make a killer steak sauce, but if the steak is good enough I don’t like to drown it in anything extra-curricular.

4. Fried chicken–We have a diner here in Madison called Hubbard Avenue Diner. They have fried chicken every Thursday and Saturday, and sometimes on Saturdays I have to practically beg my wife to let me take us there. Their chicken is just phenomenal.

5. Donuts–I can’t always walk past them, but I really can’t walk past Dunkin’ Donuts or Krispy Kreme without buying a donut or twelve. Yum. Nothing like fatty, doughy, fried sweetness. Sadly, there are not many donut shops in Madison–only grocery store and gas station donuts.

What are your cravings? Let me know in the space below, or e-mail me at mikeyskitchen@gmail.com and I’ll post your replies soon!

So trying to remember the foods I like from the places I’ve lived has become fun and has also jogged my memory, and made me hungry. So here is the latest one, foods I miss from Nashville, where we lived from 2003 to 2010. Nashville is known for its music, but it’s also smack dab in the middle of the South, and has its own regional food but also some unexpected treasures. Here we go…..

Fried chicken at Loveless Cafe–Good luck getting a table at this institution on the western fringe of Nashville. But it’s well worth the wait, especially the fried chicken and biscuits. My goodness, my mouth is watering thinking about the crispy on the outside, moist on the inside deliciousness that is Loveless fried chicken. Their biscuits are served with homemade jams and are also insanely good.

Hot chicken–Considering my love for spicy food, I didn’t get this nearly enough, but it’s quite a regional blast of heat and flavor. I think the chicken is broiled or baked (maybe fried but at this point it doesn’t matter). What matters is that it’s dusted and doused in cayenne pepper, giving it a high level of spice but also a blast of flavor that is just awesome.

Green Curry–yeah, I know, it seems odd, but Royal Thai made some of the best green curry I’ve ever tasted. And we lived right around the corner from this spot.

Pizza--There is great pizza in most places, and Nashville is no exception–the best there are Sal’s (authentic NYC style) and Mafiaozo’s, an awesome Italian restaurant in the 12 South neighborhood. The latter had a two-for one happy hour special so that you could have kickass wood-fired pizza and two frosty beers at once served at the same time.

Rippy’s Ribs–This downtown spot served dry-rubbed Memphis style ribs–smoked and dusted with Cajun spices. Damn, I’m hungry!

Popsicles–Las Paletas is another 12 South institution, down the street from Mafiaozo’s, and the perfect dessert spot in summer. They made homemade popsicles in crazy flavors like avocado or hot pepper/chocolate or cantaloupe along with traditional flavors like strawberry. There is really nothing like this place.

Meat and three–The best place for this that I found was Arnold’s downtown. Remarkable stuff like meat loaf, fried chicken, pot roast or chicken and dumplings, that were served with three sides such as mac & cheese, collard greens, creamed corn, or a gazillion other choices. The key is the meat, and three sides….reminding you of comfort food your mom made (at least if you grew up like I did). But also, the food is outstanding at Arnold’s (which was recently featured on Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives).

Just in time for the start of Season 5 of AMC’s hit series Mad Men, you can make some of the drinks the characters drink on the show by checking out a new book from Rick Rodgers and Heather Maclean called The Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Sixties Cookbook, and Mikey’s Kitchen is offering you a chance to win a copy of the book right now.

If you grew up in this era (I sort of did, but was more a kid of the ’70’s than the ’60’s), you will love creating some of the food and drink that your parents or grandparents made back in the day, or that Don Draper, Peggy Olson and company make or consume on the show. Rodgers’ drink recipes are authentic and the PR company shared one with us for an Old-Fashioned using Four Roses Bourbon, below.

Old Fashioned
1 sugar cube
2 or 3 dashes of aromatic bitters, such as Angostura
2 1⁄2 ounces Four Roses Bourbon
Soda water
Orange slice, for garnish
Maraschino cherry, for garnish
Lemon zest twist, for garnish
Instructions: Put the sugar in an old-fashioned glass and moisten with the bitters. Crush them together with a muddler. Add the whiskey and fill the glass with ice. Stir well. If desired, fill the glass with soda water. Add the orange and cherry, and lemon twist, if using. Serve.

But being that this is primarily a food blog, I had to sample some of the recipes myself:
Flower Drum Song Barbecued Ribs–These were sweet, tangy and delicious and used a method of parboiling the ribs before marinating that I hadn’t tried before.
The Ultimate Meat Loaf–Used potato chips and chip dip mix as time-saving ingredients, but overall lacked flavor and needed ketchup (and tasted like a McDonald’s hamburger after dipping in the ketchup!)
Cold War Beef Stroganoff–This one was heavy on the sour cream and maybe too saucy, but still very tasty.

If your mouth is watering from those recipes (others include fried chicken, piggies in blankets, beef wellington, vichyssoise, or desserts like pineapple upside down cake) or at the thought of enjoying a cocktail while you watch Season 5 of Mad Men, Mikey’s Kitchen is giving one lucky winner a copy of the new cookbook. Click here to enter for your chance to win!

CONTEST ENDS: April 25th

Whew. Say that five times real fast.

Flavor Flav’s House of Flavor opened yesterday in Las Vegas. Below is the press release we received in advance of the grand opening and all I have to say is, I want to go there now! I am a huge New York Giants fan and one of the best parts of the Super Bowl post game show last month was seeing Flavor Flav hug coach Coughlin immediately afterward. But hey, this is about chicken!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Flavor Flav Now Serving Up Fame And Fried Chicken In Las Vegas: Yeah, Boy!

Las Vegas, NV, March 6, 2012 – Rapper and reality-TV star Flavor Flav announces the opening of Flavor Flav’s House of Flavor with his famous shout out of ‘Yeah, Boy.’ A ribbon-cutting ceremony is planned for 6:30 p.m. on March 15 at 3333 South Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV. The venture recalls memories of his boyhood, when his father was in the restaurant business; the new eatery features recipes and secret spice rub mixtures developed by Flavor Flav himself over the years and during culinary school.

Flavor Flav’s House of Flavor is a celebrity-centric Las Vegas take out restaurant with a quick-service menu specializing in specialty recipe soul food. The menu includes fried chicken, fried shrimp and Flavor Flav’s signature red velvet waffle, indulgent and delicious. The restaurant is decorated with memorabilia from Flavor Flav’s multi-faceted career as a rapper hype man, reality-TV star and entertainer for audiences around the world. Patrons of the House of Flavor might also expect celebrity sightings.

Flavor Flav is an iconic figure domestically and internationally, having made appearances in over 77 countries to sold-out audiences. Most recently, fans will have spotted him starring with Elton John in the Pepsi Super Bowl commercial premiere; the Super Bowl XLVI broadcast set a record with 111.3 million viewers on February 5, 2012.

According to VH1, 7.5 million viewers tuned in for Flavor Flav’s season finale of ‘Flavor of Love 2’ – this goes down in the VH1 history books as the network’s highest rated telecast ever, propelling the episode to the #1 telecast on cable for the night and the #1 non-sports telecast in all of basic cable for the entire year.

The Flavor Flav Comedy Central Roast was the most-watched, #1 highest rated show ever among men ages 18-34. The star recently donated a signature ‘Clock’ which is displayed in the ‘Enduring Traditions’ Exhibit Hall of the Grammy® Museum. Flavor Flav’s “Clock” is also on display at both the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame Museum and the Hard Rock Café.

The Las Vegas based Flavor Flav House of Flavor Take-out Restaurant is independently owned and operated by FLAVOR FLAV and is not associated with the former Clinton, Iowa licensing deal.

Contact: Rassa Eddie
Flavor Flav’s House Of Flavor Restaurant
3333 S. Maryland Parkway
Las Vegas, NV 89169
Phone: (702)735-2869
Email: PR@flavorflavhouseofflavor.com

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Like most guys, I have an affinity for cheese crackers, and in particular I’ve always been partial to Cheez-It brand crackers. And for some reason, I haven’t been able to look at a box of them lately without thinking that I need to use them in recipes. So I just figured this past weekend that I was going to do it. So I made fried chicken breast cutlets with crushed Cheez-Its as the breading. Do you think that sounds good? Yeah, me too, but they came out even better than I had anticipated. Here is how to do it…..

Gather a pound or two of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, and flatten them slightly with a mallet unless they are already on the thin side. Put a couple of tablespoons of vegetable or olive oil in a nonstick pan and set over low heat. Meanwhile, set up a station of plate-shallow bowl-plate leading up to the pan. Take about 2 cups of Cheez-Its and run them through a food processor until you have the consistency of bread crumbs. Put some flour on the first plate, crack two eggs in the shallow bowl and whisk together, and put the Cheez-It crumbs on the other plate. Season each station with salt and pepper. Then dip each chicken breast into the flour, egg and then crumbs before placing in the heated pan. Raise heat to medium and cook chicken about five minutes per side or until crispy on the outside and cooked through and no longer pink in the middle. Depending on how many you are making, it might be better to cook them in batches. Serve as is or with ranch dressing for dipping.