Vista View Farm is a vendor at the Morgantown Farmers Market that I've been wanting to visit for quite some time. I kept seeing them on the Farmers Market email list, but I just recently had the chance to check it out at the Westover market.

Vista View Farm, headed up by Chris Tatham in Kingwood, had lettuce, broccoli, cucumbers, zucchini squash, yellow straight neck squash, hot hung peppers, sweet banana peppers, and Chinese cabbage. He also has some berries that will be coming up soon, hopefully!

What's your fav product from Vista View Farm?

Buckle up, folks. Let's get ready for a month's worth of Nashville.

I recently traveled to the city (8 hour drive from Morgantown) to see my friend, Brittany. While there, we embarked on a week's worth of gluttony, adventuring and boozing. The first stop, after the long drive: dinner at Hattie B's Hot Chicken.

Hot chicken is a regional specialty in Nashville, so I had no fewer than at least three places (maybe four) that served it on my wish list.

According to Wikipedia, hot chicken was discovered by accident:

It is generally accepted that the originator of hot chicken is the family of Andre Prince Jeffries, owner of Prince's Hot Chicken Shack. She has operated the restaurant since 1980; before that time, it was owned by her great-uncle, Thornton Prince III. Although impossible to verify, Jeffries says the development of hot chicken was an accident. Her great-uncle Thornton was purportedly a womanizer, and after a particularly late night out his girlfriend at the time cooked him a fried chicken breakfast with extra pepper as revenge. Instead, Thornton decided he liked it so much that, by the mid-1930s, he and his brothers had created their own recipe and opened the BBQ Chicken Shack café.

Hattie B's has a bit more of a polished look compared to some down-home chicken shacks and has found itself on all the must-try hot chicken lists for its welcoming environment and easy locations. The branding is on-point with the red accents carried throughout the decoration (and the chicken!).

When we arrived, we were greeted with a small line. No worries, it moved quickly. Once we got close enough to the counter, I was able to make out the menu and figure out what I want. Dark meat or white meat? White. Large or small? Small. I ended up with a small white meat plate, which came with a breast and wing (mild please) and two sides: I went with pimento mac & cheese and red skin potato salad.

After placing our order, we found a table outside and awaited our food. My chicken arrived atop a piece of bread with pickles speared through the top. This plump, juicy chicken breast packed a little cayenne heat in that crisp deep-fried breading, but nothing too toxic - for that, I was thankful. It was flavorful and went along perfectly with my sweet lemonade. My favorite part was as the chicken settled into the bread, the bread soaked up all this flavor and spice and was just delicious.

Pimento mac & cheese was so good - how could it not be? And the cool potato salad added a welcome break from the hot temperatures otherwise.

This was tasty! And, with it being my first, real hot fried chicken, I was impressed and couldn't wait for more. Fortunately, I had options already lined up!

Grade: A

"Three gringos and an 8-legged culinary muse, who goes by the street name täkō, have brought the so-cal surf vibe to the Steel City with south of the border force and fierce margaritas."

It hit me that I didn't have reservations for dinner during my day in Pittsburgh, so I texted a friend really quickly about whether or not that would be a problem for the two restaurants in particular I had in mind: Tako and Butcher & the Rye. His response was basically, if you're not already in line waiting for Tako to open up, you're not gonna get a seat without reservations. Challenge accepted.

After drinks at Hofbrauhaus, we rushed across town, found a nearby parking garage and got to Tako at 4:20 p.m. That's 40 minutes before the restaurant opens. We stood outside the door, and slowly a line started to form behind us. By 5 p.m., there were a solid 20 people standing behind us on a Friday night waiting to get into the coveted late-night taco stand.

Tako has a few slide-out bar stools on the street that face into the restaurant. Perfect, I thought. We're first in line, so we can easily get the best bar seats (good lighting). No can do. Some reporter of some sort and her crew took up those spots. But, as soon as the door opens, we went inside, and they told us the first available slot would be 6:30 p.m.; I then asked if we could just sit at the bar. Oh, yes, she said. So, we sat at the closest bar stools to the kitchen, giving me the best chance for any sort of lighting in there since everything is red. It's loud, and it's busy, and as soon as we were seated, there were people standing behind us waiting for our seats.

The menu has some killer options:

I ended up ordered a Korean taco (wagyu shirt rib, peanuts, fermented cucumber, napa cabbage and cilantro). Heather got the pollo asado (grilled chicken, avocado, white onion, salsa verde, queso fresco, crema, serrano and cilantro). Each comes with two tacos - homemade tortillas - overstuffed with ingredients.

Heather called her tacos life-changing, and I have to say I had some envy. Meanwhile, my Korean tacos were very good. I loved the fresh, crunchy toppings and the sweet/spicy sauce enveloping the tender short rib. I love being able to see the chefs hand-making fresh tortillas, piling on incredible ingredients and delivering it to me just after the last garnish touches the top. My lips were on fire after scarfing down the first taco, but that didn't stop me from diving into the second.

I do think the environment is a little crazy. I felt rushed the whole time, and it's not easy to hear your dining companion. And my taco was tasty, but it wasn't a foodgasm. Heather, however, may disagree.

Grade: B

If I had to pick some of my favorite foods in the world, they'd probably be sushi, caramel, ice cream, s'mores, Chinese food, macaroni and cheese, lasagna ... and more sushi. RL and I are always on the hunt for some good sushi, so while in Vienna, we stopped at Tokyo, which boasts thai, sushi and hibachi.

We were there, literally, as soon as it opened, so it was empty. We were quickly served miso soup, which is always eh to me. Looking over the menu, I skipped straight to the specialty rolls section to see what kind of trouble we could get ourselves into.

Side note: I completely missed out on the special rolls written on the white board - lobster, godzilla both sounded good. But I didn't see them until it was too late.

We ended up ordering a Tokyo Roll (fried shimp tempura, spicy tuna, avocado, spicy mayo and eel sauce) and a Yum-Yum Roll (fried crabstick, cream cheese, cucumber, avocado, topped with crabstick, crunchy, spicy mayo and eel sauce). We also got a side of hibachi noodles because yum.

Noodles were fine; they only gave us the "yum yum" sauce and not the other. But that's OK. I should've opted for some veggies in there so there was a textural difference. Still good.

The sushi, which I didn't realize, was all fried. I was thinking there were just fried pieces inside. But, that's my bad. The Tokyo roll is quite large, making it a bit difficult to eat, but flavors are good. But I liked the Yum-Yum Roll better. The fried part wasn't overwhelming since there were a lot of other ingredients happening. The spicy mayo and eel sauce can make anything better, I think. Add some cream cheese and crab or shrimp - and you have a delicious combo. It may not even be considered sushi anymore, but it's pretty tasty.

Grade: B

I think I've arrived at a very important realization: I'm kinda over flat, thin New York-style slices. Blasphemy, right? Meh. Those large, droopy slices are a dime a dozen. Give me that crunch that can hold up that mound of sauce and cheese as it makes its way to my mouth.

That brings me to The Pizza Place, the beloved pizza shop in Parkersburg. There are actually two locations; the Dudley Avenue one I visited previously. So, it was time to check out what Southside had to offer.

The building has glass windows in lieu of walls, with a central ordering area and tables that spill around the space. I just ordered two pieces of thick pepperoni pizza that were boxed up right in front of me. We probably spent about five minutes from the time we entered the restaurant to when we had pizza in hand, ready to go.

Southside does it right; Dudley Avenue does it right, too. I don't know if one is better than the other, but I know that I love both. I love the thick, crunchy crust that gives way to pools of tangy tomato sauce, a blanket of melted mozzarella and a ton of crisp little pepperonis. It's just good - and that's not just nostalgia speaking. That's straight from my tastebuds.

Grade: A