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| Birmingham News U.S. 280 emerges as specialty food corridor Posted by News staff writer Kelli Hewett Taylor April 25, 2007 9:55 AM Driving U.S. 280 might conjure up thoughts of four-letter words more often than four-star food. However, tucked into the blur of U.S. 280 strip malls, little pieces of culinary heaven are attracting shoppers from around the Southeast. From Inverness to Greystone, specialty stores and restaurants make up a food lover's treasure trail. These stores often boast fresh, imported, organic, authentic or rare culinary items in the metro area. Are you in desperate need of a 60-year-old bottle of Tuscan balsamic vinegar -- for $200? Then The Vintage Wine Shoppe on Cahaba Park Circle is your place................ Maybe the Emeril in you is dying for three types of saffron, or the choice of eight specialty sea salts. Penzey's Spices in Inverness Corners shopping center beat out Atlanta for a franchise in the Southeast................. When it comes to fresh-off-the-farm products, Wright Dairy organic milk, ice cream and cheese have a loyal following.................. U.S. 280 also offers choices for out-of-the-ordinary dining. Lee Branch has brought back the craze of the 1970s with Alabama's only franchise of The Melting Pot, an upscale fondue restaurant...................... For even more variety, 280 Crazy Cajuns' Boiling Pot in Inverness Plaza has Cajun seafood specialties, Thai Emerald offers elegant Asian food, and Amore Ristorante Italiano in Greystone Center serves up Northern and Southern Italian food. Nearly two years ago, Rosemarie Kramer opened Miss Rosemarie's Special Teas. It's a European-style tea salon and lunch restaurant in Inverness Highlands shopping center, about three blocks west of U.S. 280 on Valleydale Road. The antique tables, fresh flowers, custom-blended tea, and homemade sandwiches, quiches and desserts are standard, but treats to customers such as Belinda Speigner-Lyons of Fairfield and Chevalla Wilson of Bessemer. "Once you've been here," Speigner-Lyons said, "you want to come back." Kramer suspects that lunch is the new indulgence for busy people. The 280 corridor, she says, is offering some competition to the fine dining often associated with downtown Birmingham. "The china, the silver, the crystal -- I try to tell people they should be doing things like this for themselves every day," Kramer said. "Why not treat yourself? What are you saving it for?" ..................... |
| 90.3 FM WBHM - NPR News - An Interview with Rosemarie Kramer - Green Tea & DNA - on September 6, 2006 Birmingham -- Tea, for centuries a beverage that cultures, ceremonies and even economies have revolved around; a tax on the leaves lead to the Boston Tea Party, after all. In today's globalized world there's a plethora of teas for a consumer to choose from; there's red tea from South Africa that isn't really tea at all (it doesn't come from the right plant), then, of course, there are traditional blacks and greens. UAB Researcher Dr. Santosh Katiyar says if you can only drink one, reach for the green. "These green tea are available in several stores and they have very good flavor. And, actually, these should not be boiled in boiling water for longer time otherwise they may lose their antioxidant, or anti-inflammatory, properties." Katiyar is an expert on the leaf. He's published study after study talking up the health benefits of green tea polyphenols. The findins of his latest study are a doozy ... "They inhibit the directly damaged DNA and, also, they reduced or removed DNA damaged DNA and repaired DNA damage, that is why they can protect the skin easily." You read that right -- polyphenols, or antioxidants, in green tea appear to actually repair DNA damaged by UVB radiation in mouse models. That damage leads to skin cancer, so Katiyar's work shows pretty compelling evidence that green tea can prevent skin cancer, in mine anyway. Katiyar's certainly not the first researcher to examine the benefits of green tea. There are several studies being funded by the National Institutes of Health looking at tea's medicinal qualities. One researcher who's spent a lot of time with green tea and its seemingly miraculous polyphenols is Dr. Stephen Hsu of the Medical College of Georgia. "The skin conditions associated with autoimmune syndromes is our focus right now. Also, we're doing studies focused on skin cancer and some molecular studies." Hsu says in Asian cultures, which traditionally imbibe large amounts of green tea, there are much lower incidences of certain types of cancer as well as other conditions. "Diabetes in China is lower than in the United States and the dry mouth is so low in China and Japan compared to the U.S. population. For example, our senior population 30% of them complain about dry mouth in different degree but that percentage is so low, it's like 2 or 5% in China and Japan." And Hsu says epidemiological surveys have shown a tie to lower incidence of those health problems and green tea intake. There is, of course, a catch to all of this. If Americans want to see that kind of health benefit they're going to have to drink a lot of green tea. Again, Santosh Katiyar. "If people are taking green tea, five to six cups a day that will be useful and beneficial and can be compared with animals. And, also, when we are talking about five or six cups it means one cup should contain one gram green tea." That doesn't sound so bad until you start asking people about green tea. Again and again those who won't touch the stuff say they don't drink it because it tastes like grass. But, apparently, it is a taste that can be acquired; at least Rosemarie Kramer of "Miss Rosemarie's Special Teas" thinks so. "When people come in here and have never had green tea before I usually suggest flavored green tea, and I have a couple here, there's a jasmine that's very popular, Bangkok, which is a coconut and lemongrass flavored Japanese green tea and citrus green. And that flavor will kind of camouflage the 'blah' grassy taste." Kramer says that grassy, or fresh, taste some people acquaint with green tea comes from the Japanese tradition, where the leaves are steamed before being brewed. She says you can drink green tea with a fuller flavor, you just have to make sure it's a Chinese green tea. "If you look at them you can tell they're Japanese because they look like blades of grass; the leaves are flat. The Chinese, on the other hand, pan fry it; so when they pan fry it it kind of rolls into a ball, or twists and turns and it's very dried looking and it kind of gives it more of a smokey flavor." Dr. Stephen Hsu says if you do decide to take up the green tea habit, make sure what you're drinking is actually green tea and not some super sweetened beverage trying to make money off the green tea phenomena. That's something the federal Food and Drug Administration is wary of. It has yet to label any green tea product, whether loose-leaf or one of those mass market drinks, as good for you. That's because there have been no major studies published chronicling the health benefits in humans. In early May the FDA denied a tea maker's request to put labels on its products saying it helps prevent heart disease and, in the past, it's rejected claims that the beverage prevents breast, prostate and skin cancer. Again, Stephen Hsu. "Cancer is not an overnight phenomenon. For example, skin cancer as studied by UAB, people are getting exposed to UVB and their DNA gets damaged they don't get cancer tomorrow. They don't get cancer next year; they get it ten, twenty, even thirty years later. So, in order to confirm that green tea can prevent cancer that study probably has to last for ten, twenty or thirty years." Hsu says there is evidence to support he and Katiyar's work, it just comes from animal, epidemiological and small human studies. But to get FDA approval something has to have been studied on a much larger scale, with subjects sometimes numbering into the thousands, for a very long time. UAB's Santosh Katiyar says he hopes to do that kind of study after his work in animal models is complete. "After that I plan to test in human system how these polyphenols are useful for humans and, particularly, Caucaisans are at higher risk for skin cancer so they should be tested in Caucasians." In the meantime he hopes his current findings, even if based on mouse models, will encourage people to give green tea a closer look. He even says if you can't stomach the thought of drinking green tea, you could always use a skin cream full of the polyphenols. As far as skin cancer prevention goes, that's actually the best way to get the chemo-preventive benefits. --Rosemary Pennington, August 6, 2006 Curious about tea faux pas? Listen to Rosemarie Kramer of "Miss Rosemarie's Special Teas" |
| Birmingham News - Wednesday June 13 2007 Miss Rosemarie's tearoom featured in 'Tea Experience' JO ELLEN O'HARA - News staff writer "The Tea Experience" is a new book compiled by the editors of Tea Time magazine, which is locally published by Hoffman Media. The book provides insight into the service and style that makes each tea experience what some feel is "uniquely appealing." "The Tea Experience" is a great addition to the library of the tea enthusiast, as it offers a broad glimpse at some of the country's most celebrated tea experiences, as well as a handful of newly discovered destinations. Eighteen tearooms around the country receive special attention, and one of them is Miss Rosemarie's Special Teas at 5299 Valleydale Road, which opened several years ago. Rosemarie Kramer tells how she feels about her own tearoom in the book. "I wanted to provide people with a haven. Somewhere to come in, take a deep breath, and relax and enjoy." Miss Rosemarie's Special Teas was Kramer's first venture into the restaurant business. (She serves lunch and food to accompany tea), but she recalls her mother hosting many teas and card parties for friends in Michigan. As an adult, Kramer learned the art of tea time from an Atlanta decorator, who taught that good china should be used every day and enjoyed. Kramer's story, plus some of her recipes, are among those featured in "The Tea Experience." Some of Kramer's recipes are included in the book, which is available online at the Web site www.teatimemagazine.com, or by calling Hoffman Media at 995-8860. The 136-page, hardback book is $19.95. |
