Levine has 2 great food events

Need a better taste of the city and the region where you live? Tom Hanchett and the Levine Museum of the New South have you covered:

Munching Tour: Central Avenue, noon Saturday, May 5. Hanchett will lead a "Jane's Walk," in honor of urban scholar Jane Jacobs, around the neighborhood at Rosehaven and Central. Expect Vietnamese, Salvadoran and Somali food. It's free, but you need to bring $10 to $20 for purchase snacks. Limited to 15 people, so you have to RSVP to get a spot. Call 704-687-1203 or email mnewsom@uncc.edu.

New South for the New Southerner: Eating Local, 5:30-7:30 p.m. May 15 at the museum, 200 E. 7th St. The museum has been doing these lectures for years (I've spoken at a couple) and they're fun evenings. This time, the subject is "Eating Local," with Cassie Parsons of Grateful Growers Farm and the Harvest Moon Grill and county extension agent Kristin Davis. It's free for museum members or $10 for nonmembers and includes wine and a Southern buffet dinner. Again, you need to reserve a spot. Call 704-333-1887, ext. 501, or email rsvp@museumofthenewsouth.org.

Need a market? We got 'em

On www.charlotteobserver.com/food today:

• Don't miss 0ur searchable database of farmers markets. We paired with Raleigh N&O, so we have the details on markets from Morganton to Louisburg. And if the weather ever clears up and warms up, we also have the list of pick-your-own farms up, too.
  
• Need to know how to cook what you find at the markets? Andrea Weigl followed chef Andy Schaumann on a shopping expedition and into the kitchen.
• My column: There's so much local food out there, the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market can't hold it all.
• Tom Hanchett brings you sandwiches, Jerusalem-style.
• Robin Hall Domeier gets lunch at City Deli & Bagel.
• Peter St. Onge really likes Hop Sun from Southern Tier Brewing.

Tom Hanchett is a smart fellow in The Times

In this morning's New York Times, John T. Edge explores the ethnic food diversity of the suburbs of Indianapolis with the help of Dr. Tom Hanchett of Charlotte's Levine Museum of the New South.

Hanchett rode along with Edge during the reporting and supplied insight on why suburbs can be just as exciting and diverse as urban areas:

Hanchett, writes Edge, "coined the useful term 'salad bar suburbs' in 2008 to describe post-World War II suburbs, where 'newcomer and native-born intermingle without ethnic boundaries.'"

There's a lot more, but the gist is that what is really interesting in cities isn't what's going on in the downtowns, it's what's going on in the outer rings, where empty malls and abandoned big-box sites become mixtures of new populations and entrepreneurs.

It's smart reading to start your Thursday morning. As Hanchett says in the story, "The grownups don't usually know this is going on. . .. When they don't see a Chinatown, they see nothing."

Southerners and Northerners, what's on your shelf?

Tom Hanchett, the curator of the Levine Museum of the New South, needs your help with an interesting project. The museum is making some changes to the permanent exhibit, Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers to reflect the old and new cultures that call Charlotte home. One feature will be a grocery store shelf with the favorite foods of the various groups that live here.

As a dedicated food searcher, Hanchett has the Latino, Vietnamese and Indian/Pakistani groups covered. But he'd like suggestions for the Northern and Southern products.

He has some ideas, but he'd love more. Here are the categories, with the ideas he already has:

Soft drinks: Southern - Cheerwine. Northern - Dr. Brown's?

Potato chips/snacks: Southern - pork rinds. Northern - ?

Canned vegetable or fruit: Southern - black-eyed peas or collard greens. Northern - ?

Hot sauce or other sauce: Southern - Texas Pete. Northern - Buffalo wing sauce?

Cookies: Southern - ? Northern - Tastykakes.

Spices: Southern - Barbecue dry rub? Northern - ?

Flour/rice/grains: Southern - grits (what brand?) Northern - ?

Post your suggestions in the comments and I'll let Tom know to watch for them. Personally, I'd think the cookie list is missing a Moon Pie and a black-and-white cookie.