Recently I had a meeting with Julian Loue of Rise Bakery and asked him to join me at the new City Tavern in downtown Greenville.
I’d already made one visit and was served some of the best wings I’ve had in this town. Julian beat me to the Tavern and had already had a plate of the Kansas City nachos and some chicken bog bites. Chicken bog is risotto’s distant cousin, a rice dish made with meat and a few aromatic vegetables and served wet with broth. It’s not soup or stew, but is much closer to a Louisiana etouffee.
At the Tavern, the bog is rolled into a ball, chilled, breaded and deep fried. If that sounds too new and fancy for bar food, arancini — the Italian version of this dish of cooked and fortified fried rice balls — dates back to the 10th century…