The Carmelo's "biscuit fiasco"

I had the lucky opportunity to visit Tuscaloosa, AL this past weekend and went on a little hunt for yummy baked goods while there.  The tough thing about sweet treats in Tuscaloosa is that they are hard to find- but they are well worth the search.  You won't find them in your traditional bakery on campus, but at little restaurants here and there.  Later this week, I'll be talking about a to-die-for banana pudding.  But I digress.

On Sunday, we went in search of brunch and found it a little area downtown at a nice little place called Carmelo's.  Carmelo's menu is described as American, Southern, and Soul- which makes sense given that many entrees are more American grill or cafe than Southern, but they are served with smoked gouda grits to give it a southern flair.   On this particular day, they had written on their chalkboard menu that they were serving grilled salmon black bean biscuits.  They also had croissant french toast.  I was torn by the savory vs. the sweet, but when I learned that the french toast stuffing was plain old cream cheese, I thought I would try out their savory biscuits instead.  Besides, according to the waiter, this biscuit was made with salmon and black beans, which was unusual and adventurous.  I was sold.

Well, what arrived was definitely playing it fast and loose with the word biscuit.  It was definitely a wrap with grilled salmon and black beans, not a biscuit.  So I inquired with the waiter a little just so I could understand how the chef was interpreting this wrap as a "biscuit".  Maybe I was missing something.

It turns out, they just wrote the menu wrong.  The menu was supposed to say burrito, not biscuit.  Not 3 minutes later, an annoyed waitress marched over to the menu and practically broke her chalk as she scratched out the word biscuit for burrito and harumphed back to service her other tables.

Regardless, my burrito was good, but I had been left with no biscuit, no baked good to savor over my brunch.  At this point, I wasn't going to order dessert (probably best to avoid when you can clearly tell your server is annoyed with you), but it got my wheels turning about grilled salmon and black bean biscuits and biscuits in general.

Biscuits, because of their lack of sugar don't normally fall into a Sugar Lovin category, but biscuits are the savory version of scones and an easy and essential building block in baking. You need dry ingredients- flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt- butter, and wet ingredients- buttermilk or sour milk.  Mix these all together and you've got biscuit dough.

The south is known for great biscuits.  Take the Loveless Cafe in Nashville.  Their biscuits, made by the irrepressible Carol Fay, are so famous that Food Network's Throwdown with Bobby Flay featured them.  Biscuits and gravy is an essential part of southern breakfast.  You can't get away from biscuits in the south.

In Pittsburgh, we seem to be lacking a great place to buy biscuits.  They aren't really bread, they aren't really pastry.  Our big bread bakeries in town- Mancini's, Cibrone's, Allegro Hearth, Breadworks- they don't do biscuits.  You have a lot of artisan breads, rustic loaves and Italian-style breads, but no biscuits.  Bakeries are doing sweets and confections.  And our lack of Southern cuisine here is rather appalling.  Big Momma's House of Soul in the Strip District had to close due to some issues with customers having nowhere to park.

So rather than reaching for the Pillsbury can, since biscuits are so easy to make, try making a biscuit or two on your own.  Check out this recipe from Alton Brown at the Food Network for your basic biscuit.  You can also try Bobby Flay's biscuit recipe that beat out the famed Loveless Cafe version.
And my "biscuit" from Carmelo's?  Well it inspired me to try making a salmon and black bean biscuit. 

Check out my recipe here.