Hong Kong House Memories
Hong Kong House Cookbook is a nostalgic gastronomical journey rooted on Tate street, a how-to manual for re-creating the tastes that sustained scores of students, musicians, hippies and just plain folks for nearly three decades. The menu is the delicious soundtrack of a generation served with great affection by Hong Kong House owners Robert and Amelia Leung. The cookbook was a six-year-odyssey for author Karen McClamrock, longtime Nightshade Cafe door person and rabid HK cuisine fan, who coaxed the recipes from Amelia.
Adapting her menu to accommodate regulars like Bobby Kelly, creating a breadless version of her Wok chicken sandwich with rice and cottage cheese called the Brown Bob, and the healthier Green Bob with broccoli substituting for rice, Amelia quite literally nurtured musicians. It’s a feast for the eyes and the stomach, plus tasty time-travel fare for body and soul. — G.B.
Praise for Papadaddy
Let’s hear it for Clyde Edgerton, who, along with crime novelist Margaret Maron and poet Carl Sandburg will join the ranks of O.Henry, Thomas Wolfe, Paul Green, Doris Betts, Lee Smith, John Ehle, Fred Chappell and a host of other Tarheel literati as inductees into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame on Thursday, October 16, at the Weymouth Center for Arts & Humanities in Southern Pines. The author of ten novels, including the ever-popular Raney, Walking Across Egypt and Killer Diller, Edgerton has been a Guggenheim fellow and is currently a Thomas S. Kenan III Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at UNC-Wilmington not to mention being regular contributor to this magazine and its sister publications, PineStraw and Salt. We think a laurel wreath is quite becoming on ol’ Papadaddy — as long as he doesn’t rest on it.
BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
Whose woods these are? If you’re referring to Woods of Terror (5601 North Church Street) the answer is owner and impresario Eddie McLaurin. Celebrating a quarter-century of scaring the living daylights out thrill-seekers, McLaurin offers twenty-five reasons to visit his haunted attraction, including a new Hell-evator, the parade of monsters, tracking your heart rate on your FitBit and perhaps most important, a new escape room. Info: woodsofterror.com.
How Do Our Gardens Grow?
One is never too young to learn the delights of green and growing things. Thanks to Greensboro Parks and Recreation, and Guilford County Cooperative Extension’s 4-H Youth Development Division, garden field trips are available on October 25 and 26, November 1 and 2, to elementary school children. At the Gateway Gardens (2924 East Gate City Boulevard), kindergarteners, first- and second-graders will explore sound, weather and life cycles. Students in third through fifth grades will learn about ecosystems and the connections between plants and animals at Tanger Bicentennial Gardens and Bog Garden (1105 Hobbs Road). Excursions are a mere $5 per student, with a maximum of 60 allowed per trip. Info: greensboro-nc.gov.
Seasoned
Patting ourselves on the back again, you say? Guilty as charged! If you haven’t picked up a copy of the Fall/Winter issue of our sister publication, O.Henry Seasons Style & Design, please do! In this edition, we continue our fascination with all things related to home and garden in the Triad, go Christmas-shopping in Old Salem, reveal hidden gems . . . and the secrets to making droolworthy pies. You can find Seasons at the usual O.Henry distribution points around town or online at ohenrymag.com.
Green Acres
There was a time when more of the country’s population dwelled in the country on farms than in cities. Exploring the importance of the farm in American culture and history is Grant Wood and the American Farm, which started last month at Reynolda House Museum of American Art (2250 Reynolda Road, Winston-Salem) and continues through the end of the year. Through the paintings of Wood, Childe Hassam, Thomas Hart Benton, Andrew Wyeth and others, the exhibition looks at farm life between 1850 and 1950, and offers perspective on current “farm to table” trends of today. Tickets: (888) 663-1149 or reynoldahouse.org.
Greensboro Gothic
A small Southern town, revenge for a crime . . . and its consequences. Such is the stuff of Southern gothic, a genre perfectly suited to the season of chills and thrills, and all the more hair-raising when adapted to film. This month head to Community Theatre of Greensboro (520 South Elm Street) on October 21 at 7 p.m., and check out an alternative to the usual monster flicks with Lake of Fire, produced by Highway 29 Films (owned by Greensboro filmmaker Les Butchart and his family) and starring O.Henry’s own Billy Ingram. In between biting your nails, you’ll get a kick out of identifying familiar shooting locations in Rockingham County, Ramseur and, of course, the Gate City. Tickets: lakeoffire.online.
O.H.-down
Meaning our idea of a “throwdown,” and we’re doing it up right: To celebrate O.Henry’s fifth anniversary and Preservation Greensboro’s 50th, we invite you to don your hippest Rat Pack duds and fly yourself and anyone else to the moon, by way of Blandwood Mansion (447 West Washington Street) on Thursday, October 20th, from 7 to 10 p.m. In addition to the thrill of Chairman sound-alike John Love and the Doug Burns Big Band Orchestra, craft brews, among other libations, abound as do tasty eats (oysters Rockefeller, anyone?). Raise a glass to the magazine that loves Greensboro, while benefiting the organization that helps preserve its history. Tickets: (336) 272-5003 or preservationgreensboro.org.
Ogi Sez
After the scorching, oppressive summer we’ve had, don’t you think we deserve October? Sure, September was tolerable, but now is the time to truly enjoy the seasonal changes. It’s also time to enjoy the plethora of live music choices in our backyard. Some things never change.
• October 15, Carolina Theatre: When I heard that Jimbo Mathus had put the Squirrel Nut Zippers back together, I literally jumped out of my chair. There are few bands that I’ve loved more in my life than the Zips. And if you need proof, I’ll show you the gold record their label sent me for giving them so much press back in the day.
• October 15, Greensboro Coliseum: Greensboro has become a regular stop on every tour that Jason Isbell goes on. There’s good reason for that — he packs the Coliseum to the rafters every time he shows up.
• October 20, Blandwood Mansion: I’m not kidding; this is a once-in-a-lifetime show. It is a song-by-song re-creation of the Vegas show that Frank Sinatra performed at The Sands in 1966. John Love is Frank and the Doug Burns Big Band Orchestra is the Count Basie Orchestra. For real.
• October 22, O.Henry Hotel: The bar seems to be continually being raised for the burgeoning local jazz scene. And one of the prime bar-raisers is monster jazz trumpeter Benjamin Matlack and his quartet. I swear, the kid channels Miles Davis.
• October 30, Huggins Performance Center: Last year two Greensboro College profs, Dave Fox and Ted Efremoff, put together the Healing Blues CD, featuring all the stop-shelf talent in town, to benefit the Interactive Resource Center. So well received was it, that
Dr. Drave (Fox) decided to do another, and is launching Vol. 2 with a live concert on the GC campus.
