The GYPSY KITCHEN – Week # 11 | The GYPSY KITCHEN Blog

So, after a great lunch, we started our journey North along the Natchez Trace, a beautiful roadway which extends for almost 450 miles. The original trace was a nearly 500-mile
footpath that ran through Choctaw and Chickasaw Indian (Native American) lands connecting Natchez, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee. Today it is managed and maintained by the US Department of the Interior’s National Park Service. In my humble opinion, this is one of the prettiest roads that I have ever traveled…I would rank it right up there with Ireland’s “Ring of Kerry”; the mountainside roads up to the city of Ronda, in Andalucía, Spain; the “Les Routes du Champagne”near Reims, France or the road trip from Southern Maine up through the Green Mountains to the wineries of Niagara On The Lake.

(Natchez Trace Parkway – Mississippi)

This is not a “go-fast” road but rather a “lazy-days” kind of roadway with the maximum speed limit set at 50MPH but if you are not in a hurry and want to simply take in some lovely, historic countryside – make sure to consider the Natchez Trace.

After a days worth of comfortable driving, we parked the motorcoach at Davis Lake in Chickasaw County, Mississippi. A lovely rolling hill camping area rests on the shore of this 200-acres lake – and yes there was plenty of fishing (although non for me).

The next morning we headed back onto the Trace until we picked up Route 20 as we made our way into Chattanooga, TN where we stayed for two days.

While visiting Chattanooga, Cindy and I had the great pleasure of dining at 212 Market Restaurant. This is Tennessee’s first Certified “Green Restaurants”, and actively work to minimize their carbon footprint by recycling glass, cardboard and metal; compost a large portion of food waste; use low voltage lighting, heating and cooling equipment and will be installing solar panels on the roof sometime this summer.

(212 Market Restaurant – Chattanooga, TN)

As good as all this sounds, it pails in comparison to the food quality and presentation. Cindy tried the Fried Green Tomatoes with a Creole remoulade and a Cajun slaw which was a delightful dish. The tomatoes fried to a light golden brown color, the remoulade had just the right amount of heat and the slaw was fresh and tangy. I set my taste buds on the appetizers special of Pulled Pork Spring Rolls which were also excellent. The rolls was crisp and light with a nice amount of pulled pork shoulder served with a pleasant Asian inspired BBQ sauce.

For dinner, Cindy had the Roasted Redfish Special but I had to have the Coffee Seared Duck with an Amaretto glaze and nicely roasted sweet potatoes. Both dishes were wonderful treats and almost all conversation ended as we worked our way through the meal. We paired these lovely meals with an excellent bottle of Foris Pinot Noir from Oregon which had a nice balance of blackberries and raspberries with a hint of chocolate and spice.

For dessert we sampled the Cheesecake and the Crème Brulee, both made by owner Maggie Moses – mother of the other two female owners Suzie and Sally who also head up the kitchen.
(212 Market Restaurant – Chattanooga, TN)

212 MARKET RESTAURANT rates:

Would recommend this restaurant to anyone!

After our visit to Chattanooga, we packed up and made our way to Roanoke, VI where we stayed at the Riverside Campground only to awake the next morning with fresh falling snow! Oh boy, that was a rude wake-up call that Spring is not in the air all over America!

As we left the snow covered roads on towards Washington, it was a lovely sight to see the Dogwoods coming into bloom.

We checked into Greenbelt National Park just outside DC and the next morning packed up the dogs and made our way into the Capital to partake in the Cherry Blossom Festival. In a word – beautiful!!!