Mayhaw Man

Thanks for the report and, even though you didn't know you were doing it, thanks for the compliment about the beer. It was one of my projects many moons ago (before the evil corporate world stepped in a messed up a really good gig ) I highly reccomend the Chimes next time you go back. Juban's is really good and has been going for a very long time. Mike ANderson's is also good and very dependable. They have awsome boiled crawfish (which will be in season next time you go back).

Welcome to egullet Dignan. I don't know much about you but I think your Mama must be o.k.! Mine just sent me a fresh bottle of Mexican Vanilla today. She's pretty much o.k. as well. I still like 'em spicy though.

What Jason said. I would (this is a personal opinion, and maybe a pretty jaded one since I can eat anywhere in town often and do) but I can think of a number of places in the price range of Bayona that I would personally prefer: Chief among these is the fabulous (I am not overstating the case, trust me on this one) Restaurant August. John Besh had his first Big Chief job in my little town at the once superb and no o.k. Artesia. The guy has one all kinds of awards (deservedly I might add) and you will find that if you do a quick review on google for the place that both he and the restaurant have gained a very good rep. very quickly. It is both beautiful and not overdone at the same time. If you are spending Bayona type dough I think this is a more interesting choice. 2) Peristyle (I love it. Really. Anne Kearney rocks!) 3) Mr B's (they're right about the shrimp, but the one's at Manale's are the originals and damn good and they have a very good oyster bar to boot, but you will need a cab to get Uptown) Have a great trip. The weather here today was 85 and clear. Really gorgeous. After what seems like weeks of rain it was a welcome relief.

Don't fear, things can change with time and therapy. My wife said this about me for the first fifteen years of marriage, but she seems to have finally gotten past it. Of course, she may really be thinking this and is just too worn out to tell me:

The guy that runs the vegetable stand in my little town has them all the town. They are boiled in a spicy mixture instead of just salt (although there is still plenty of that) and man are they good. He boils them in salt, crab boil, and a pretty healthy dose of Tabasco Mash. I go there a couple of times a week and get stuff and he usually throws in a baggie full as lagniappe. Nice guy that tomato man.

I keep my mice up there. It gives them easy access to the bread and stuff in baskets on top of the fridge. Sadly, this is true. Today it is 84F, so hopefully they will be moving back outside for the summer.

Thank you Dr. Varmint for that valuable info. Next time I am looking for a "rapid GI purge" I will now know just what to do.

I'm thinking Okra. Everybody loves it and okra manipulation and cooking would make for riveting TV viewing.

I have truly enjoyed reading most of these posts. Ruthcooks was beautifully written, interesting, and affecting all at the same time. And this line by afoodnut rang so true for me I sent him a note about it- If you grew up in as rural an area of the South as I did and remember the world before the interstate came through (I do, I-20 runs THROUGH our farm and that section of it was not completed until about 1969) you have no idea how true his observation about McDonalds is all across the South. As far as chickens go I have the opportunity to eat (not regularly, but 4 or 5 times a year) yard chickens. I also, everyday, get to eat yard eggs. I am here to tell anyone who wants to argue that Tysons and Pilgrim's Pride are better, or even the same, that they are not only wrong but that they have non functioning taste buds. Grain fed semi free chickens (I am not talking about namby pamby free range chickens but chickens that live in the back of the house in a hen house or in semi free roaming) are a whole nother world from chickens raised in breeder operations. No comparison, at all. In a blind tasting anyone could tell which one they liked the best and 100 out of 100 times it would be the yard bird. This is a very interesting thread. Thanks to Fat Guy and to all of his correspondents.

You just made my day. Thanks

I believe that this is a large part of what this sight is all about, although most of us manage to do it without insulting each other or stooping to general insults concerning a very wide range of generally well informed and knowledgable posters. Cooking refers to the process of preparing food with heat (for a non specific length of time and in many different ways), I would argue that simmering is pretty much the same thing (except that it generally involves liquid at lower temps than say, boiling). Symantic arguments of the type that seems to have developed here are tedious and waste bandwidth and everyone's time. This thread started out with an interesting question from a poster who was looking for an answer to a pretty specific and legitimate question and seems to have digressed into a comical argument in unending circular form.

Just for fun I made a little fettucine last night with AP flour (Not just any AP flour, but Martha White's Finest). Used my KA pasta rig and cranked it right out ably assisted by my 10 year old son. It worked out great. Good quality and tasted fine (especially considering it was cooked in shrimp stock and sauced with shrimp and oysters sauteed in butteer and fresh creme (as opposed to creme freche-this was made Friday and sold on Saturday at the Covington, LA Farmer's Market ). Damn good. I have a couple of pounds of semolina (not sure what brand, I buy it at Central Grocery in New Orleans and repackage for the freezer) but I decided to do what I knew was wrong and possibly crazy - I used the AP flour and lived to tell about it. I like to live on the edge.

Alright. I'll bite. I have been cooking with cast iron (the same 4 pans and one dutch oven) for most of my life (literally at least 30 years on pans that are 75 plus years old). I like them and have never, until this very (and possibly important) moment considered smooth bottomed cast iron. I can think of several reasons that they might be advantageous, the largest being that I think you might be able to actually clean them without doing damage to the cooking surface. What do you consider the advantages to be over regular old cast iron? And, as a follow up Sam (I love saying that, I always feel like I am in the basement of the White House) do you know how they machine cast? That would be very difficult to do as cast iron, by it's very nature is brittle and would be very difficult to machine. Edited to say: Wow! That stuff is cheap. I may order a new one just to see how they compare. Such a deal!

Who's bashing? Believe me there are plenty of people here willing, but I was actually promoting something somebody I like happened to be doing on t.v.

Thanks for the help. I just ordered a few sets. Like I need some more cooking gear! Hopefully my wife will not see the credit card bill. At this point I think she would give me less hell for a $100 dollar charge for "services" in a strip joint. She does not see the need for more stuff to cook with (she seems to have the same problem with fishing and hunting equipment-go figure ).

Neil, Those are very cool. Although I am not sure that they would work South of the Border as they are metric. Have you used them before? If so, how did they perform?

I was just thinking dried pasta from the market was sounding better and better.

Lundi Gras 86 I was working at Carrollton Station and we had Dash Rip Rock (they played there almost every Wednesday for a year-thier frist regular gig--I hated working those nights ) playing late. At about two the bar was still packed and a bunch of us were already "mentally prepared" for going down to the Lyon's Den and getting ready to march between Zulu and Rex behind the Half-Fast Walking CLub. Anyway, they were wrapping it up and we didn't want them to quit for both business and personal reasons (Bill Davis-aka The Bad Clown and guitar/singer for Dash is in the Lyon's as well) so I asked Fred what they would take for another set. He sat there on his stool behind the kit thinking about it and slowly started chanting (louder as he went)," Jaegermeister.......Jaegermeister.......etc". Once we had them fortified with this elixir of fools they knocked out another whole set including a rousing rendition of their fabulous "Stairway to Freebird". Fred is indeed, a force of nature (or a real bad day for nature-it could go either way ) I had a very good time that night. New Orleans at it's best (or worst, point of view depending).

I'm sorry, I was not clear enough to get the help I need. Pate Brisee-3" Cheating might be the way to go, but I have some time this week and thought I would scratch it (I usually do when I have the time, no sub for real pastry IMO-at least not if it is any good ) Thanks

I need to bake 150 small tart sized shells for crawfish pies. I really would like to use something that is NOT disposable but does not cost a ton of money. These are to be served as cocktail food at a Gallery Opening. I can use mini muffin tins (have done it before, but it is a pain to turn them out of the tin-too much breakage, even when I use parchment liners) and am looking for a source for individual tins. Obviously I don't want to drop a ton of dough on these (actually I do want to drop dough on them, but I don't want to spend much money on the tins). A little help, por favor?!

Banana Pudding! You can make a mountain of it and actually, when garnished correctly, it can be pretty cool looking. Made from scratch with decent ingredients, it can be a great dessert. Make the pudding base and serve in ramekins and garnish with vanilla wafers, banana slices, and mint. Pretty retro, very American, and even if they are loathe to admit it, most people love the stuff.

I think the deal with Uglesich's is that people have tried to turn it into something it is not. What it is, and always has been, is a very, very good lunch spot. It is not haute cuisine by any stretch (although Anthony has, rightly in my mind, taken advantage of this and raised his prices a good bit) but it is really well cooked food several steps away from a po boy joint. The seafood is fresh (most of it comes from various family members as the Yugoslav immigrants have a lock on the oyster trade and a big chunk of what is left of the shrimping industry) and it is well prepared. The place is a lunch room across from a dairy in a crummy part of town that got discovered by local foodies (primarily people in the business who found out about it through suppliers) and the word spread from there (Zagat's helped a bit).. It is damn good food for what it is. I don't think that the quality has dropped off, only that people seem to expect to get something other than what it really is. I have been going there for about twenty years and other than adding a few things to the menu and losing real Barq's not much has changed but the prices (the neighborhood workers can only afford the sandwiches now, as the swell stuff has gotten a little pricey). I believe that it is all about expectations and percieved value. Uglesich's was much better when it was a cheap dive instead of an expensive one.

Episode EMSP28 Big Easy Bash Actually, even the cooking portion of this is pretty good. In case you are wondering, that is not his kitchen or his house. That COuchon del Lait poboy with the matchstick fries is gorgeous. Maybe not traditional, but what a fine looking sandwich.

I like (and enjoy ordering) coffee in Starbucks. Here is how it goes- "I would like a large coffee please" "Excuse Me" responds the overwhelmed barista. "Coffee, black, in a large cup. To go. Please." "Americano?" she says, hoping I will run up the tab by adding a cool name and cutting my beverage in half with hot water and slyly adding a shot or two. "No, Coffee. That stuff you have in that large vacuum container with the dust on it." "Oh, you mean like just coffee? Like regular drip? Wow. Nobody ever ordered that before." marvels the stunned, but secretly impressed by my obvious indifference to fashion, barista. "Exactly. Black coffee in a large go cup. Thank you." This is a recreation of a conversation I have had about a zillion times. I swear that if you stand in line behind ten people NONE of them ever order regular old, but very delicious and refreshing, black coffee. I really like the stuff. When made properly it is a damn fine beverage.

Here is what I am thinking-tell me what you think- Meet at Fairgrounds for a casual meet and a little fine dining followed by dancing followed by more dining Perhaps, just perhaps, (there are alot of issues to be worked through on my end-not the least of which are my courtyard neighbors in the Quarter, although they can be pretty amenable) we could have a crawfish boil Saturday evening if there is some interest. I will tell you after almost 25 years of doing this almost everyday that doing something after the Fairgrounds (besides getting cleaned up and going back out for five or six more hours) can be problematic. BUT, I am willing to try and think it would probably be fun. Ya'll think about it and I will too.