Visiting Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina by Ruth Paget

Visiting Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina by Ruth Paget 

The first time I visited Asheville, North Carolina was with my mom. She was driving me home from my childhood vacationland – Murrells Inlet, South Carolina (outside Myrtle Beach) – where I had stayed with my sister. 

Mom drove her black Thunderbird, which I thought looked like a movie-star Mercedes, back to Detroit (Michigan) up and around the Appalachian Mountains. The ride is thrilling since a lot of the freeway sits on stilts around the mountains with treetops below. 

We listened to country music on the radio. The only other choice at the time was gospel. We stopped to visit “an American castle” when Biltmore Estate surged into view. 

Biltmore looks like a French Loire Valley château notably the fairy tale Ussé château but on a grander scale like Chambord château further down the Loire River. I was so happy they had room on the guided tour for us despite not reserving ahead of time. 

I think I was in the fourth grade at the time and vaguely remember that the guide said the Vanderbilts made their fortune in transportation (railroads and shipping) in the 19th century. I was impressed that the Biltmore Estate had 100 bedrooms each with their own bathroom. 

I asked if each room had a telephone when I saw what looked like a manual dial phone by the door of each room. “Some rooms have telephones, but that is an intercom. If a family member or guest needs something, they call the butler on that intercom. The butler decides if what someone requests is a job for him or the head of housekeeping,” the guide explained. Modern hotels still function like this when you make calls to guest services to request something. 

My next question was, “Do you have a hotel here?” 

My mother intervened at this point, “We have to go home, so I can work Monday.” 

I was disappointed, but understood. The tour guide mentioned at the end of the tour that the Vanderbilts had a university nearby, if we wanted to visit that, too. 

Back in the black Thuderbird on the way to Detroit, my mom drove around Vanderbilt University to check out the campus. I thought the campus was pretty, but even as a child I liked cities. (Detroit was fun.) 

I thought about Biltmore a lot in high school. I had two pairs of favorite jeans by Gloria Vanderbilt with swans on the label next to her name that I wore to be cooler than the Calvin Klein wearers. We had anorexia wars to see who could be thinner in their straight leg jeans. 

On some more recent visits to Asheville, my husband Laurent and I toured the University of North Carolina – Asheville campus and bought a 501 German Verbs book at the university bookstore to do some verb conjugating as a souvenir of living in Stuttgart, Germany. 

The Biltmore Estate now has become a tourism magnet for Asheville, North Carolina offering an outdoor concert series, garden tours, exhibits for families like the current one on Tutankhamun, biking trails, wine tastings, and a hotel with a spa no doubt. 

I like it that this American castle can be maintained by offering services to the public that allow everyone a chance to be a prince or princess for the day. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Food History Buff book for $1.99 today on Kindle by Ruth Paget

Food history buffs might be interested in today’s Kindle deal - The Food Book by DK Publishing - 1,197 pages about the origins, traditions, and use of everyday foods from “salt to sushi” for $1.99 today.

I absolutely purchased this to learn more about what I eat and be a better consumer.

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Visiting Georgia's Gold Town of Dahlonega by Ruth Paget

Visiting Georgia’s Gold Town of Dahlonega by Ruth Paget

On a pre-hurricane Helene trip to Georgia, my husband Laurent and I drove to Georgia’s gold town of Dahlonega high up in the Appalachian Mountains to visit the Gold Museum downtown. 

Dahlonega feels surprisingly close to Atlanta. To get there from Smyrna on Atlanta’s north side, you take 285 East to 19 North. 

You pass over two rivers on the way to Dahlonega – the Etowah River and the Chestatee River. When you reach Chestatee Road, you make a left turn from 19 North and arrive directly downtown. 

The Gold Museum is small, but highly informative. 

One of the first things you learn in the museum is that gold began being mined in Dahlonega in 1829, a full 20 years before the California Gold Rush. 

The gold region, which extends from today’s northeastern border of Georgia to northeastern Alabama was mostly occupied by Cherokee Native Americans. To make way for mining operations, the Cherokee were removed from their lands and forcibly made to walk westward, the Trail of Tears, to be resettled in Oklahoma. 

Once the Cherokee lands were available for mining, a lottery was held which gave the lucky winner the right to own and set up mining operations. People who did not get land in the lottery received blank lottery tickets and were said “to draw a blank.” 

People who wanted to mine gold, but drew a blank are rumored to have left Georgia for the California Gold Rush in 1849, 

Georgia’s gold is still highly sought, because it is 96% pure. The state capitol’s dome is sheathed in shimmering Georgia gold. For smaller investors, there are coins with the Eagle gold coins still providing good returns according to the museum guide. 

The gold mines in Dahlonega are closed today. The town is now famous for orchards, wine tasting, and the University of North Georgia. 

For a pleasant outing about an hour outside Atlanta, Dahlonega (Georgia) has history, culture, and food that will appeal to visitors from Western United States as well as the Eastern Seaboard. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking is $1.99 on Kindle today by Ruth Paget

Dupree and Gaubert’s Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking is on sale today for $1.99 on Kindle.

It has 600 recipes and is 1,954 pages long.

I own this book and use it for reference.  

I think this is a great buy for Kindle owners.

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Rustic Spanish Cookbook - 322 pages -on Kindle today by Ruth Paget

Rustic Spanish Cookbook by Richardson from the Willams-Sonoma collection is $1.99 on Kindle today.

It is 322 pages long, which I consider a great buy for the money.

If you do not have a Spanish restaurant in your neighborhood, making Spanish food at home is a way to learn about the country and make a family meal at the same time. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Rachel Ray’s Italian cookbook deal today by Ruth Paget

I am not sure how long the deal will last, but I saw that Rachel Ray’s 1,000+ page Everyone is Italian on Sunday cookbook costs $1.99 on Kindle today.

I always liked her show for using canned beans and tomatoes instead of doing everything from scratch, especially when these items were basic ingredients in a larger recipe.

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Eggplant Stir-Fry Mash at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

Eggplant Stir-Fry Mash at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

Eggplant stir-fry mash is called baingan bharta on the menu at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California. 

This vegan (food made with no animal products) dish a little tricky to make at home. You have to char and fully cook the eggplant before being able to mix it with a tomato and onion based curry. I always get this dish at a restaurant for this reason. 

I consulted hebbars.com for a recipe for baingan (eggplant) bharta that is similar to what Avatar Indian Grill does for its version of the dish. Once the eggplant is fully cooked and cooled, the skin is peeled off and the interior of the eggplant is mashed. 

After this is done, you heat oil in a sauce pan and add cumin, dried red chili, ginger, and garlic and sauté these spices along with chopped onion. Once the onion begins to shrink, you add chili powder and coriander powder. 

When the spices become fragrant, you add the eggplant mash and chopped tomatoes and cook the mixture till the tomatoes are soft and mushy. You let the vegetables cook down and add garam masala (curry powder) before serving. 

Avatar Indian Grill differs from this recipe a bit by mashing everything down and then adding peas to the curry. 

Baingan bharta is usually paired with rice. The peas, a pulse, combine with rice, a grain, to form a vegetarian protein combination according to vegetarians. 

The result regardless of scientific claims is delicious, especially if you eat some naan flatbread studded with licorice tasting fennel seeds with it. 

Baingan bharta is from the Punjab region in northwestern India that crosses over into Pakistan as well. 

I eat vegan foods in case of any disruption to meat supply that could happen due to disruption to constant temperature for safe meat handling and preservation such as electrical blackouts that can affect butchering facilities and stores. 

I am happily going through the vegan menu items at Avatar Indian Grill in Salinas, California to learn about foods that have withstood the blistering heat on the Indian subcontinent for millennia. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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