Mayhaw Man

Welcome to egullet. I hope that you will stay around and tell us about life in the boiled goober trade. If you don't mind, how did you approach the people at the stadium? Boiled peanuts, even in the deep south, are not the kind of thing you usually see at sporting events (although they should be dammit! I get sick of Frito Pie ) What is your cooking set up? Do you cook them at the stadium and let hungry sportsfans get them straight from the source or are they cooked and packed in advance? Are they spicy or salty or both? How much do they cost? Tell us about it.

Koch's was the family brewery of Samuel Adams founder Jim Koch (just ask, he'll tell you-over and over again ) I used to have friends bring down Black Horse to New Orleans many years ago. Love that stuff. Tell me about this Ame stuff. I am always looking for something new for the table (as there is no longer wine on mine). Edited to say that you really should invest in some decent coffee equipment. A bad cup of coffee is a bad thing.

I always like to see what ads pop up on an interesting thread. The ads on this one are pretty good. Everybody needs a Toy President action figure.

Well, if that's the case. Dear Bill, Please stop telling people about your favorite places to eat in Little Rock. They are no longer cool once they end up in Esquire and in the case of Doe's and a couple of others, they are no longer great because they end up overwhelmed with whatever the current version of yuppies are in LR (although the original is still probably the single best steak house in the US, certainly in the South-damn good tamales too). While I'm at it, how about giving the Oxford American a little help. They are right on your street in LR and could use a boost. Perhaps you might give some thought ot being an editor or something in your spare time. I know that the DNC is a little short of cash right now, but you could still funnel some really overpriced ads into the magazine and get it back on it's feet. The average readership is pretty much your domographic target voter wise. Thanks, Your Pal, Brooks p.s.- The check is in the mail (really )

When I was a kid BBQ sauce (in a silver gravy boat, no less ) started appearing on our holiday tables thanks to LBJ (good Hill Country boy that he was) and his habit of doing the same. He enjoyed it on his Turkey and as good Southern Democrats we followed his lead. We still do it today. LBJ also enjoyed scotch (at various parts of his life he enjoyed it in excess, apparently), which was a pretty big step considering that he grew up around a bunch of people who were more likely to drink cheap bourbon or homebrew before they drank anything else. BBQ sauce can cover a multitude of dry turkey sins. I highly reccomend it.

Actually, with the exception of dinner wine, the White House was pretty much dry during the Carter Administration. On the other hand, FDR took great joy in mixing martinis for his guest and political cronies and Truman was from a long line of Senators who had developed their political drinking habits in the Capitol building after hours in back offices with other Senate members. He sontinued to enjoy this habit after he occupied the White House by inviting his Senate buddies over in the late afternoons. I do have a little personal experience in the White House drinking department. One of our first out of state distributorships at Abita Beer was in DC. Some of the staffers in the Bush White House began to have it stocked on a regular basis. WHile all of the principles at the brewery pretty much qualified for bomb throwing libs, I did take a certain pride in knowing that I was making beer that was being consumed in the White House. And then there was US Grant. The man enjoyed wee dram at just about any hour of the day or night.. As far as food goes there was the corpulent Chester A. Arthur. I don't know if the guy was a gourmet, but he sure liked to eat. Probably in the twentieth century the Kennedys qualify as the only true gourmets. They, for the first time in history, bagged the Navy chefs who run the White House Food Service in favor of a french guy. This caused much furor among meat and potato advocates, but the guy stuck around and took the food up to a new level. Previous to Kennedy, the White House Mess seemed to take great pride in serving pretty dull and unimaginative fare, as the general thought seemed to be that that was what "average Americans" ate. Infact, the food was so plain, that even mid westerners like the Trumans constantly complained about the quality of the food. Truman was well known for his early morning strolls out of the front gates of the White House to restaurants located in nearby hotels. Bill Clinton was a guy that liked to eat, but his favorites were Southern type food, definitely not gourmet fare. He has repeatedly said in interviews that he would rather eat at Doe's Eat Place (either location) than anywhere else. He regularly had cans of tamales (yes, I said cans -they are shipped to go in coffee cans) shipped to the White House during his administration and several, now famous, interviews took place at the Doe's location in Little Rock (Clinton's interview with Rolling Stone conducted by a very loaded Hunter S Thompson comes to mind). So, with all of this in mind, I think that I would vote for Kennedy as the President most likely to be an egulleteer.

Blue crab claws I marinated last night. I can eat my weight in these things (not a pretty sight for anyone else, but nevertheless enjoyable for me )

You're in the South (at least, ughhhh, the SOuthern Hemisphere) so why not serve these little devils.? Food cost will be low and satisfaction levels will be high.

I haven't seen anyone mention a great seed source right in your own backyard, Wildseed Farms in Fredricksburg, is the biggest wildflower and herb seed farm in the US (of course it has to be the biggest-it's in Texas ). I buy stuff from them all the time and have visited a number of times. If nothing else ya'll should all be getting their catalog because it is a pretty gorgeous thing to get in your mailbox on a grey winters afternoon. Their flower seeds work and their wildflower mixes are the best.

THat looks beautiful. What will you be serving for breakfast? Did the place come with guests already on the books? Are you dealing with primarily South Africans on holiday or do you have an international trade? I just looked it up on the map, as I had no clue where Knsya was.

As I mentioned above-much of the tuna (yellowfin and blackfin), bonita, lemon fish (ling), shrimp, blue crabs, speckeled trout, redfish, etc. that is offloaded after a nights fishing in the Gulf of Mexico is packed and shipped to Tokyo by flights that are specifically designed for this purpose. New Orleans Int. is one of the largest fresh seafood exporters in the U.S. Also, almost all fish shipped to Japan from New Orleans is on the hoof (or in the case of crabs-live) meaning that it has been gutted and rinsed, but EVERYTHING else is left in tact, as that is how the buyers seem to prefer it. It is entirely possible that some of the seafood being sold in Sushi places here has made the round trip.

A few updates from local publications for your reading pleasure: Drinkin with Tennessee -Food and Drink creations designed especially for the annual Tennessee Williams Festival in New Orleans. A review by Picayune food critic Brett Anderson of Il Piato, a new Carrollton area Italian place. In Vino Veritas- afew of this weeks wine events in and around New Orleans. John Folse packs up Lafitte's Landing in Donaldsonville and moves it to Baton Rouge. A review of Muriel's. The restaurant that took the space where Chart House existed for about 25 years. It is a great building with great views and apparently not a bad place to eat. Brady's is right down the road and is conveniently located for lunch on the Northshore of the Lake (actually, with the complete lack of urban planning and the fact that a few families owns damn neat every piece of property in the Parish nothing here is conveniently located). I really like the place and they seem to be doing well. In conjunction with this weekend's Tennessee Williams conference there will be a number of food related events (including one on Sunday morning featuring John T. Edge, Director of the Southern Foodways Alliance-I am going to this one). Eatin with Tennessee Sarah Moulton will be here for the conference as well Marcelle Bienvenue (my favorite writer at the Picayune) writes about Mushrooms and Asparagus. Split Pea and Shrimp Soup sounds like a good thing to me. I think that I might make this on Sunday. Shrimp are dirt cheap right now and we are eating them more than red meat. Great news about the French market

Other than Kantoro Sushi in Carson (yet again, proving my theory that the quality oriental food of all types is inversely proportional to the quality of the strip mall it occupies. If the strip mall has a check cashing place, an oriental grocery, and a low rent video store you can bet that it is going to be great, as they have nothing to sell but good food because they sure aren't selling atmosphere) I think that my favorite West Coast Sushi Joint is Sushi Ota in San Diego. Located on Mission Blvd. and right next to a 7-11, you will find some of the best fish and presentation that you can find. The place is usually filled with salarymen and other Japanese expats who seem to enjoy the place as much as I do. It is definitely not a dive, the decor is pleasant and comfortable. I reccomend sitting at the sushi bar. The chefs are nice guys and I just like sitting up there. I second all of the recs. for Rubio's. Were all fast food served with the quality that they vend their fine tacos, there would be no room to gripe about fast food. I love those things.

As someone who can pretty regularly have tuna (mostly yellowfin, less often black fin) that is literally "still dripping" with salt water I can honestly tell you that yes there is a difference in the texture and taste of fish that is cut and consumed on the back of the boat (it's fun to eat like that-everyone standing around with strips of sashimi and bloody hands standing over the carcass of a frshly caught tuna ) and fish that has been cut, refrigerated, and is sold the next morning and served that evening (24 hours). I actually prefer the fish that has been refrigerated as the texture is more pleasing to bite and the flavors that develop with the slight aging of the fish are a good thing. Everyday tuna caught in South Louisiana is gutted, washed, packed in these cool coffins with chipped ice (flakes-they only use one specific kind of ice) and shipped out of Louis Armstrong International Airport for Tokyo. This fish, they tell me, is in that cool giant fish market and being sold many time within 24 hours of being caught. My point here is not about Louisiana Seafood (although I highly reccomend it ), it is about the availability of fresh fish in the world today. I can pretty much assume that some one living in NY, London, Paris, Tokyo, Dubuque, and San Berdoo can get anything that he wants any time that he wants it- fresh, well packed, delivered from the dock to the sushi joint - as long as he is willing to write what can be a very large check. I see no reason that Wasa is not serving unbelievably fresh fish as I am sure he has the resources and the checkbook to get it. It is a pretty good bet that the man is serving the best he can get and it is as good or better than anyone else in the city is handling right now (according to these and other reports). Anything inside 24 hours is fresh. Period. Sure it is going to start deteriorating as soon as it leaves the water, but as long as it is well treated, it won't suffer much for the first twenty four hours-at least. I hope that I get the opportunity to find out for myself some time this summer. Edited for bad typing and even worse spelling

I eat em both. I am a member in good standing of the "Clean Plate Club" and an avid follower of the 11th commandment. I prefer vingary to creamy as far as cole slaw goes, but they both have their place. I like anything pickled. Even bad pickles are better than no pickles IMHO.

I have kind of stayed out of this thread as 1) I have an apt. in New Orleans and don't stay in hotels very often and 2) my friend are divided into two groups and they aren't much help. They either stay in rediculously expensive places or they stay with me. I know that if you don't mind a little mystery in your life that there are some fabulous deals online. Hotels.com, expedia, etc. can all get you a downtown room in a nice, perfectly adequate place for under a hundred bucks almost all of the time. One more thing. You might want to try calling the front desk of somewhere that you want to stay instead of the reservations/800 number. We have too many hotel rooms currently and these people are usually willing to bite on a reasonable offer as they are more concerned with occupancy than price of the room. Good luck and let us know what you did while you were here.

If you are looking for late night cocktails (clothed or otherwise ) you had better snap it up. Snake and Jakes is on the chopping block thanks to a Councilman named Jay Batt who has taken to making closing uptown bars his hobby. One of the things that is unique about New Orleans is the fact that the corner bar is a vital part of many neighborhoods. The location for Snake and Jakes was formelry known as the Christmas Bar (thanks to it's year around display of tiny Christmas lights) and was located in a pretty seedy part of a pretty seedy block in an otherwise o.k. neighborhood. There were some dilapidated row houses across the street that housed starving musicians and other hipsters in the mid eighties. SOme of the current owners of Snake and Jakes (musicians Cranston Clements and Jay Bentonatti) lived there when I first got to know them. Hopefully this will all get shot down in council, but the neighborhood has now become gentrified and the new yuppie neighbors want to change the situation that they bought into instead of accepting it. If they wanted quiet at night they should have bought a house in the burbs. It's a great place (and there are many other places in similar circumstances) and I hope they make it. Even Dives have web pages these days. Here is Snake and Jake's!

I recieved an email about the peach pound cake. I just posted the recipe in recipe gullet. It is very good. Tastes just like summer. Enjoy.

Peach Pound Cake This is a great cake and really not very difficult to make. The addition of fresh peaches (as opposed to canned) is the only way to go here. I have also done this with plums and it is pretty tasty as well. Enjoy, Brooks 1 c butter 2 c sugar 4 eggs 1 tsp vanilla 1 tsp almond extract 1-1/2 c cake flour 1-1/2 c all purpose flour 1/2 c whole milk 1 c fresh peaches Cream room temp butter and sugar until very fluffy Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between Add vanilla and almond (w/1/2 tsp lemon extract) Puree 1/4 cup peaches Fold in puree, remaining peaches coarsely chopped, flour and milk (ending with milk) Bake in a greased bundt or tube pan at 325F for about an hour or until a straw comes out clean Make a simple glaze of 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/2 cup finely chopped peaches. Glaze cake while still warm Garnish cake plate with sliced peaches and cake with powdered sugar. Keywords: Cake, Intermediate, Non-Alcoholic Beverage ( RG926 )

Peach Pound Cake This is a great cake and really not very difficult to make. The addition of fresh peaches (as opposed to canned) is the only way to go here. I have also done this with plums and it is pretty tasty as well. Enjoy, Brooks 1 c butter 2 c sugar 4 eggs 1 tsp vanilla 1 tsp almond extract 1-1/2 c cake flour 1-1/2 c all purpose flour 1/2 c whole milk 1 c fresh peaches Cream room temp butter and sugar until very fluffy Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between Add vanilla and almond (w/1/2 tsp lemon extract) Puree 1/4 cup peaches Fold in puree, remaining peaches coarsely chopped, flour and milk (ending with milk) Bake in a greased bundt or tube pan at 325F for about an hour or until a straw comes out clean Make a simple glaze of 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/2 cup finely chopped peaches. Glaze cake while still warm Garnish cake plate with sliced peaches and cake with powdered sugar. Keywords: Cake, Intermediate, Non-Alcoholic Beverage ( RG926 )

I've made it (about ten years ago) and loved it, but the general reaction was a mirror of the one's that you recieved. I think that the recipe came out of one of Candy Schermerhorn's beer cookbooks, but I am not sure. I will check when I get home.

I have read everthing that has been written above and there were some great answers. I have been giving this some thought and came up with the same answer over and over again. My cooking has as much to do with some sort of subconcious desire to be connected to the ones that originally got me started in the kitchen as it does with anything else. I have a hard time thinking of anything better than using worn out cookie cutters that belonged to my great grandmother, roasting pans that cooked the Holiday Meals that my mother ate in the thirties, a tiny cast iron skillet (6 inches) that has melted sugar for caramel in countless batches of pralines starting some time around 1880 in Cass County, Tx. I like making the recipes that come from my Mom's cookbook and making the foods that need no recipe because they taught them to me- fried chicken exactly how my grandmother learned it from her mother, okra and tomatoes that are the same as they were when I was 6 years old, peach cobbler with peaches from trees planted by relatives and friends who long ago ate their last peach, chicken pie the way God intended it (Mrs. Swanson never saw one, trust me),. I ended up cooking for a living for a long time and certainly that is not what we are discussing here. I did that for money and the adrenaline rush. I cook for myself for the connection to the past and hopefully to instill a little bit of this in my children as much as I do for the food. And I do it pretty much everyday. Kitchen time is when I feel most grounded and centered. I love to cook.

Everybody likes a theme party. How about a Louisiana Party? We don't know how to do much down bere, but we are experts at having parties. Chicken/Turkey and Sausage Gumbo Shrimp Etouffee Red Beans and Rice Piles of Boiled shrimp All of the above with bread and salad Peach Pound Cake for dessert All of this stuff can be served ahead of time and you can load up on beer, wine and soft drinks. It's easy, reasonably priced, and all of it can be mde a day or so ahead of time (in fact Gumbo is always better the next day).

It is probably how the guitar man was getting paid. More than likely the collection was being done at the behest of the musicians, not the club owner. It is very common practice in New Orleans in the smaller clubs to do this same thing. Otherwise, the place would still be full from happy hour/early evening and, while the band might have a good crowd, there would be no money to pay them. Remember, the whole point of having live music is to draw in patrons who will eat and drink. If circus monkeys and carnival geeks drew a better crowd that is what they would feature as entertainment. To the club owner it is mostly about getting people through the door to buy stuff, not some great love of live music (although, fortunately, this is sometimes the case). The music, in an ideal world, is not an added cost to the business owner. Many times (and I would imagine in the situation you describe above) the musicians are just playing for the take at the door (this would not be the case with "name entertainers", they usually have a price set in stone or an either or deal) and since you came through the door and are staying for the music it seems fair that you should pay. I personally will always gladly pay for music. I know too many starving musicians.

Glad you enjoyed the trip. As far as your comments about Brennan's go, I couldn't agree more. We regularly beg off of invites for breakfast from friends who are in from out of town that insist on going there. It is good and the service is great, but I can think of many many early morning options that are more appealing than dropping $75 on breakfast. And, as I have said many times, I like NOLA. Those that dump on it either can't get over the fact that it belongs to Emeril or they have never tried it. It is certainly not the best place in town (although it does offer great value for the buck) but it is much better than a number of places that are reccomended here over and over again.