New Huntington restaurant 9th St. Diner has an old-town feel. The diner is fairly small with some counter seating, booth seating and random memorabilia on the walls. 



They serve up breakfast and lunch - and recently added dinner. The menu focuses on fries, breakfast, salads, burgers and soup. The dinner options are TBD. 



Breakfast food is not my favorite - sometimes I'm in the mood for it. But usually, I'd rather have dinner for breakfast than breakfast for dinner. So the hamburger jumped out to me - which can be topped with cheese, bacon or eggs.



I went with a burger topped with cheese, and wanted onion, ketchup and mayo but added those at home. I think those are my ideal, go-to toppings on any burger. I like a tomato, but they're so often watery and mealy. And lettuce is just too unwieldy. Ketchup adds some sweetness Mayo adds some creaminess. Onion adds some crunch. It's the perfect trifecta. And cheese is always necessary.



So let's talk about this burger. It is thin and cooked on the flat top so it gets nice and ever so slightly crunchy on the outside, which I love. And with that perfectly melted cheese, it makes for the perfect proportions. The bread is homemade and fluffy and really tasty ... but I don't know that it's the best burger bun. It's soft and not super hearty to stand up to a greasy burger. I really enjoyed them both - maybe not together. 



I also went with a side of potato salad, which was okay. Overall, it was a decent meal, and I'm excited to see what they'll offer for dinner.

Grade: B

Andy's Grill has a storied history in Institute. The former restaurant served WVSU students for years with its legendary wings. 



"Andy's Grill: In 1957, Andrew Johnson opened his locally famous restaurant, Andy's Grill, on Route 25 in Institute. The business operated for over 40 years as a family restaurant that provided service to the Institute campus and the entire Kanawha Valley. The grill was best known for hot bologna sandwiches, ribs, shrimp, chicken, his secret sauce, and grilled honey buns. Johnson, affectionately known as "Mr. Andy," always greeted guests with a smile and made everyone feel at home."



I, however, knew none of this when I saw "Andy's Wings" from Brandon Johnson pop up on my Facebook feed saying they were having a pop-up and dozens of people commented that they were coming through. Let me first state that I do not encourage anyone to reach out to a stranger on facebook, drive to their house and pick up food, but that's exactly what I did. Do as I say, not as I do.

Brandon is the grandson of Andy and carries on the tradition through pop-ups at his home. He offers the wings plain or tossed in the famous sauce. He also occasionally does ribs. He also sells bottles of the famous sauce. After a little wait, I had a whole box full of wings and headed home to dig in. First of all, these are not tiny drumettes - these are whole wings. And the sauce is this sweet and tangy sauce that is addictive. I licked my fingers after each bite. The wing itself is good - but that sauce - is really tasty.

Grade: A

One of my favorite ways to eat is to order a bunch of little snack size options and share so that everyone can try a little bit of everything (unless I'm really hungry, then I want my own dish because I am ready to throw down).



So, I kinda recreated a tapas concept at Panda Chinese Kitchen in Wheeling. 



The longtime Wheeling favorite is a pretty standard go-to for Chinese food in the downtown area. They were still primarily takeout when I went, but they made it a pretty simple process. 



I had called in an order for sweet & sour chicken, pineapple chicken, vegetable lo mein, and general tso chicken combination to go.



So I took this home to my parents' house and we had a little bit of everything. They don't do shellfish or pork, so our dinner was pretty chicken heavy. 



Sweet and sour chicken is always a crowd-pleaser. It's white chicken meat covered in a batter and dipped in a sweet sauce - it is universally beloved. That's an easy win in case the other selections weren't as favored.



The general tsos was not my favorite rendition. Pretty chewy and stringy - though, honestly, that seems to be the norm nowadays. Or maybe I'm more cognizant of it? I'm not sure. But I don't want to feel like I'm chewing on an old piece of chicken - even if dredged in a tasty sauce.



The pineapple chicken was the same quality of meat, but it does give me a faux sense of "health" when there's a fruit involved. It definitely makes it sweeter, but this sauce was almost soupy. The chicken breading got kinda soggy. Flavor of the sauce wasn't bad; just the texture wasn't my favorite.



And veggie lo mein - this was a hit. Simple, straight-forward and tasty. 

Grade: B

There's a brand new Irish pub in downtown Hurricane, and it's making a splash in the Guinness already. 



Hurricane has a small, but strong, downtown with some really stellar restaurants, and Connolly's Irish Pub is the newest addition.



They're still in their soft opening phase and were just serving select parts of their menu when I went - but I just couldn't wait to get my hands on fish & chips.



I can't say enough good things about the service. I placed an order to go, they got me taken care of, paid for, and out the door in a number of minutes. The food was good, too. The fries are like those crispy batter-fried fries that have a nice seasoning on them - nice crunch. The fish also had a nice batter. I do wish it was just a bit thicker to get some real tooth-sinkable bites of white flaky fish. But, of course fillets vary, and I'm excited to try more.

Grade: A 

Here's my latest column for the Charleston Gazette-Mail:

Hand me a pie: Fried pies are a mountain favorite
By Candace Nelson

“What is a ‘hand pie’?!” I asked to Vivian Howard, a famed chef who traveled to Fairmont a few years back to judge a pepperoni roll baking competition.

At the time, Howard was filming a hand pie episode for “Somewhere South,” a PBS show that takes viewers on a culinary tour of the South. She was trying pepperoni rolls for the first time and compared them to the fried, filled pockets she was familiar with: hand pies.

Hand pies are single-serve pastries filled stuffed with a filling – savory or sweet – that can be baked or fried and are often found in the south. Other regions refer to them as "pasties” or “fried pies” and, of course, West Virginia has a version with an Italian flair in the pepperoni roll.

All of the above can trace some of their roots back to 19th century England when Cornish miners would take a stuffed pastry to lunch that would stay warm and remain free of dirt with the men holding onto the edges of the dough to enjoy the filling and discarding the dirty edges they held.

The concept of a hand pie – or more often called a “fried pie” in Appalachia even when baked – is not new in mountain cooking. In fact, Mark F. Sohn in his book “Appalachian Home Cooking: History, Culture, and Recipes” lists fried pies as one of the top 100 most common Appalachian foods.

Fried pies in Appalachia tend to find their place on a dessert menu – filled with thick, concentrated fruit conserves like peach, pear or apple butters. The most popular fried pie, though, is filled with an apple pie mixture.

West Virginia is home to not one, but two apple varieties: the Golden Delicious and the Grimes Golden, so it is fitting that this native fruit found its way into many dishes. Cooked apples combined with cinnamon, sugar and a bit of lemon juice are enveloped in a buttery, flaky pastry dough that has been fried or baked are the perfect snack or dessert.

A certain restaurant with golden arches even thinks so, as McDonald’s started serving a fried apple hand pie in 1968 before moving to a baked version. And the brand known for Twinkies, Hostess, sells a pre-packaged snack version of apple hand pies that I recall buying at “the bread store” when I was young for my dad’s lunches. They also had cherry, blueberry, lemon and other flavors.

Before these fried pies made it big time, it’s fascinating to imagine women in kitchens throughout Appalachia crafting their own hand pie creations – maybe for their husband’s lunches, maybe for a portable picnic lunch, maybe for a shelf-stable school snack.

The ingenuity of making use of what’s available is always at the heart of mountain cooking. And, of course, it always tastes better in Appalachia.

What is your favorite type of fried pie?

RECIPE: Vivian Howard’s Applejacks

Kinston, North Carolina Chef Vivian Howard not only took a trek across the country to learn about the history of hand pies, but she also serves them in her restaurant Handy & Hot in the other Charleston – South Carolina. On the menu are “Apple Jax,” which has a homemade apple filling; “Tomato,” which has a tomato, fontina cheese and basil filling; “Cheeseburger,” which has a beef, special sauce, onions and pickles filling,” and “Jill’s Pie,” which has a pear, arugula, gorgonzola and toasted almond filling. 

Howard shares her “Applejacks” recipe from her “Deep Run Roots” cookbook with the Somewhere South show. She said this about her Applejacks, which are hand pies filled with apples:

“The hardest part about making these is rolling out the dough. We recently started using a tortilla press to make the job easier. It does require a few more strokes from the rolling pin after it’s been pressed, but overall the gadget helps. The other thing I see people struggle with is the urge to overfill the pies. Two tablespoons of dough just doesn’t look like that much when it’s laid out on the dough. That’s because it’s not that much. This hand pie is just as much about the thin, blistered brown crust as it is about the filling. Let it be. The rosemary sugar is not a traditional garnish but I like it. Your call.”

Ingredients
For the Filling:
• 2 cups dried apple slices. (If the slices are more than 1/4 inch thick, give them a rough chop with your knife.)
• 2 cups apple cider
• 2 cups water
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• Zest of 1 lemon, removed with a vegetable peeler
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
For the Dough:
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup lard or shortening
• 2/3 cup hot water
To Fry and Serve:
• 2 cups lard or shortening
• Rosemary Sugar

Directions
1. Make the Filling: In a large saute or sauce pan, combine the apples, cider, water, sugar, salt and lemon zest. Bring it up to a boil and cook until the apples have soaked up all the liquid and the pan is nearly dry. Stir in the lemon juice, and transfer the apple filling to the refrigerator to cool before assembling.

2. Make the Dough: Mound the flour in the center of a large bowl. Make a little well in the center and drop the lard in the well. Pour about 2/3 of the hot water over the lard, and using your hand, work together the lard and the water until its all sludgy and homogenous.

3. Begin working in the flour gently, and bring it together until a soft, tender dough forms. Add the remaining water if need be. Cover the dough with a damp paper towel until you’re ready to make the pies.

4. Make the Pies: Pinch off a golf ball sized piece of dough and flour your work surface. Dust the golf ball as well as your rolling pin with a little flour since this dough tends to be pretty wet. Roll the dough into a super thin circle. I’m talking thin like you can just about see through it. Trim up the edges, and stuff the inside with about 2 tablespoons worth of filling. Fold the dough over and crimp the edges with a fork. Store the hand pies on a floured baking sheet until you’re ready to fry.

5. Fry and Serve: Heat half the lard in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Once the oil is shimmering, lay the jacks in a single layer and fry until golden on one side. Flip and fry on the opposite side. You’ll need to fry these in several batches and will probably have to add additional lard.

6. Once the applejacks are browned on both sides, drain on paper towels and sprinkle liberally with granulated sugar. Serve warm or at room temperature.