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Table Talk: Ice cream for breakfast and other ideas for the most important meal of the day
 
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Sugar Ghost offers nine flavors of scoopable ice cream, all made in-house. (Chris Herrington/The Daily Memphian)
 

Sugar Ghost offers nine flavors of scoopable ice cream, all made in-house. (Chris Herrington/The Daily Memphian)

Welcome back to Table Talk, where Daily Memphian food and dining editor Jennifer Biggs sends the latest food news (along with a dash of this and that) to your inbox every Wednesday.

Breakfast is a hard meal of the day for me, and I often skip it, something I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing 10 or even five years ago. I try, but usually the best I can muster at home, unless I’m cooking for others, is an infrequent protein shake.

And it’s not bad. I use high-quality protein, throw in my collagen, sometimes mango and yogurt and make it a mango lassi. Sometimes it’s caffeinated, a protein-packed latte, and sometimes it’s just a bottle of Fairlife Protein Drink, poured over ice and whizzed up in the blender. I’m not drinking ready-made protein drinks straight from the carton because while they’ve come a long way, they still taste off to me. 

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Like many of you, I heard all through my formative years that breakfast was the most important meal of the day. But maybe not. Intermittent fasters often don’t eat until noon or later. I don’t know about the practice itself, but the people I know who do it seem the picture of health, counting macros and putting in the time at the gym.

So, sure, maybe we should eat breakfast and maybe we’re fine without it, but what I’m coming to has nothing to do with being healthy:

On Saturday, Feb. 4, Sugar Ghost Ice Cream & Bubble Tea is hosting Ice Cream for Breakfast, which is brilliant! Why didn’t I think of this in my own house? 

Sugar Ghost is located on the east end of the Broad Avenue Arts District. (Chris Herrington/The Daily Memphian file)

Last year some items sold out early, so here’s your notice to go to the website and get your orders in. You could go in your pajamas, which is fine for little kids at ice cream and doughnut shops, right? But come on grownups — have we really let COVID do this to us? Put on some clothes, even if it’s your weekend worst. Then it’s time for us to all scream for ice cream and let’s just hope we’ve had our coffee first. I can tell you right now that the doughnut ice cream sandwich has my name on it, so pre-order, unless you want to chance me getting the last one. Or just show up and take your chances.

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My grandkids are easy. Like me, they don’t care for breakfast cereal (I like some hot ones), but they love pancakes. I used to make them from scratch; then I discovered the Kodiak protein mix that I buy in a huge box at Costco. I mix it, griddle it, serve it, and we all get a little protein and whatever healthy I feel like I can get away with hiding in the batter. What could be easier?

Good Flippin' Pancakes’ recipe is banana-based. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian file)

Turns out frozen pancakes, and Good Flippin’ Pancakes have the benefit of being pancakes that are made with only four ingredients and are good for you. This week Christin Yates brought us the story of Brinkley Erb and how her food allergies led her to create a pancake she could eat, and one that’s now being picked up by stores all around town. 

We quickly filled that extra table for our Friday lunch this week at Dim Sum King, where we’ll eat dim sum and some authentic Chinese dishes in anticipation of the Lunar New Year, which is Jan. 22. If you missed getting a ticket, sorry. But here’s something that might interest you.

The Chinese Historical Society of Memphis and the Mid-South and Greater Memphis United Chinese Association (GMUCA) is hosting a dinner at Dim Sum King on Sunday, Feb. 5, to celebrate the new year and 150 years of Chinese-American history in Memphis. Tickets are $60-$100. The meal includes 10 courses, speakers, entertainment such as a lion dance and live music, and a cash bar. Click here to get your tickets

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Burns night is officially Wednesday, Jan. 25, but this year the celebration at Celtic Crossing is Saturday, Jan. 28, and yes, of course there will be haggis. In fact, yours truly will be on hand to watch chef Reny Alfonso make it next week, and all I have to say is there’s nothing like watching sausage-making at 8 a.m., right? Get your tickets here — they’re $80 for a three-course meal, bagpipers, poetry readings and a whiskey cocktail — and look for more about the ins and outs of haggis next week. 

Panta Goes to Portugal pop-up dishes include (from left): caldo verde (kale and potato soup with chorizo a la plancha), ensopado de carne (beef stew) and sardinhas assadas (grilled sardines with olive oil and lemon). (Courtesy Panta)

Quickly: If you’re reading this as a newsletter as it arrives in your inbox, I’m at The Lobbyist getting my first taste of Jimmy Gentry’s new menu in his Downtown restaurant. It’ll open to the public next week, and I’ll have more about it for you very soon. 

Here’s something fun for the week: Panta goes to Portugal Jan. 19-23, and you can read more about it here and make your reservations to try to something new, part of a quarterly pop-up series at Panta and The Second Line.

I liked my $10 Deal at Tops Bar-B-Q, and I’m a decades-long supporter of the Tops cheeseburger. I’ll admit: The wait for my lunch was excessive, but I tell you the cure for that in this story. 

The Tops Bar-B-Q chicken sandwich is served in white sauce with tangy pickles. A combo, with the sandwich, a drink and two sides is a $10 Deal. (Jennifer Biggs/The Daily Memphian file)

And Catfish Acadian from Café Roux is a dish that has been requested several times since we started our Recipe Exchange. I haven’t found it, but here’s betting that if you take the shrimp and crawfish etouffee recipe from this week’s Recipe Exchange and pour it over your catfish, it’ll be mighty close. 

That’s it for this week. Have a lovely one ahead, and for those readers coming to Friday lunch: Don’t forget to bring your own wine and your wine glass, unless you want to drink from a water glass (which is not a huge deal).

 
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