Mayhaw Man

Sometimes calmly explaining in a civilized manner just isn't enough when it involves important matters (such as nuclear politics or BBQ). I find that by yelling loudly right in someone's face I can usually get my point across pretty well. I have also found that grabbing people by the collar and pulling them really close while I yell at them is effective (politicians call this buttonholing, because you are grabbing them by the buttonhole on the lapel of their jacket). You could also send them to their room or ground them, but this only works with your own children and I suspect the Little Varmints already know what BBQ is and what it ain't.

I was trying dammit! I would try harder, but once again-"low and slow" pretty much covers it to MY satisfaction.

BBQ equaling pork is not always true. In Texas BBQ, when used as a stand alone term, almost always means beef (and probably beef brisket) more often than pork. While you will certainly find lots of pork sausage and pork products in Texas, the predominate meat of choice there is brisket. To me the term " low and slow" would come pretty close to covering all bases (as long as it is over wood). Other than that there are lots and lots of variables that can be applied and the result would still be able to be defined as BBQ. The type of meat has very little to do with what should and should not be called BBQ. Sure there are classic, regional preperations of the dish-but they do vary from region to region and often vary wildly. It is a pretty long stretch from classic Texas brisket to N.C. pulled whole hog and sauced BBQ (both culturally and geographically), but they both have a legitimate right to be called "Real BBQ". A rotisserie type set up does not always mean that it is not BBQ. I have had many whole hogs cooked on very elaborate homemade rotisserie set ups that absolutely qualified as BBQ. Come to think of it, I have eaten more than one goat cooked on the same kind of setup.

Dolomite would make an excellent host on the Food Network: You could call the show "THe Signifying Chef". Dolomite cooking and cussing his ass off for thirty minutes at a crack would be really funny and draw in a whole new demographic for Food Network.

I will be writing the first few episodes of the "Okra Hour" over the weekend and submitting them to the guys on programming on Monday. Hopefully we can take a few meetings and do some lunches and after my people talk to their people we can get this thing into a summer replacement spot. I see big money in syndication. Okra residuals are a big part of my retirement planning and I am counting on egullet to help me out here.

Oh like we're gonna be satisfied with that. What Kind, How Much, Why Don't you understand how this all works

I decided that this is as good a place as any for this. If you are going this is an awesome deal. Great Festival. Great Music. Pretty Good Food at the fair. Really good food in Austin. Edited to say that there are going to be $35 dollar -3 day-tickets available Monday 3/16-web only. I will post a link when I can get it to work. I got it by email and can't link to it from work.

Pickles man! Just one of the many delicious disguises this pod often wears.

We actually have at least one member, Beto, who is currently in Kuwait or Iraq. I have pm'd him to see if he would like to tell us what he has to eat regularly.

El Pato makes a brand of canned tomatoes with chiles that should be available almost anywhere in North America that sells Mexican stuff. They are very close to Rotel, if just a little spicier. El Pato as a general brand is pretty high quality stuff.

Sam, Here is some interesting discussion about meat grinding equipment and sizing. Here is some meat equipment in the Cabela's catalog. My father in law has the first grinder that you see and it has worked well for him in processing all kinds of game. I thought I would throw it in the mix as game processing equipment could be an alternative source in your search, as I am sure that you are pretty much only looking at kitchen supply resources.

This is delicious. We wouldn't steer you wrong. When one is willing to stand up for a dish ( especially one with three canned items in it, including cream soups) you better make sure that you can back it up with deliciousness. This place is filled with some tough (but always well meaning and constructive ) critics.

You're tight about Mulates. The food is just o.k. (although I have had very good Gumbo there), and it is touristy (Good Lord, name me another restaurant in the entire world that was on the COVER of National Geographic). But it is what it is. Kerry Boutte runs a dance hall that provides food and drink for it's patrons, alot of whom are tourists. On the other hand, on any given night, you can find old guys dancing with young women, little kids on the stage and on the dance floor, old ladies dancing and chatting on the sidelines, and some of the best musicians of the genre "ting a linging" away the night, etc. There are other places like this in South Louisiana, but they are getting harder and harder to find (especially ones that tourists find "down home" but "non threatening". El Sido's, SLim's Y KI KI, etc. are wonderful places and EVERYONE is welcome there-but the cultural disconnect is a bit much for the average tourist, whether from Japan or Dallas) If you can dance a little bit and laugh alot and accept what is going on as real and a vital and interesting part of a changing culture and not some kind of anthropological throwback to times gone by, you can have the best time that you will EVER have in some of these places. Unbelievable fun. Off the chart, wishing the night would never end, kind of fun. I tell people to go there because it is accessible and in many ways, just as real as it is going to get these days.

I have a call in for Jack and will try to let you city dwellers know what is going on with Jacques Imo's later today. My understanding is that the place is going ahead full steam and will open sometime this spring (but I was told that around Christmas, so plans may have changed).

/curtsies, slips, tips over, rolls, hits head against wall Jin, You must realize that I am from a family in Louisiana with a long history in both the legislatures in Texas and Louisiana (great grandfather-Senate and House-Texas) (grandfather Senate-Louisiana). Any vote counting that I do should be considered highly suspect, as I will genetically tend to alter the results in favor of my candidate. If there were any dead people or prisoners on egullet I would gladly add those into my total as well.

I have some very, very old cast iron pans where the sticks are shaped like ears of corn and some very new ones (cast iron again) where the sticks are shaped like fish. They are fun to use and I really like using the corn ones as they were my great grandmothers. My problem with these is not that they are so hard to clean up (use of the proper amount of BACON GREASE seems to take care of the clean up issue ), but that the product tends to turn out dry. I have adjusted various recipes and cooking times and never can make myself happy with the results. I don't have this problem with sweet corn muffins (an altogether different thing than proper cornbread) or with regular cornbread out of a 9 or 12 inch cast iron pan. Any ideas?

37Y to 17N 1 sometimes (Jinmyo can vote any way she wants to. She's funny and that counts for quite a bit at my polling place)

In this case I believe that the old saw, "It takes one to know one" can probably be applied.

THis doesn't exactly fall into the craving, but we sure ate a bunch of it. We had both of our children at home (midwives, no drugs, the whole deal) and Robin was mildly anemic for part of her pregnancy with both boys. We ate tons (lots anyway) of liver and lots of greens of all kinds-turnips, collards, mustard, kale, etc. (along with cornbread most of the time). Beef liver was the preferred by my wife as it has tons of iron and I would rather chicken livers but not nearly as high in iron. We never got tired of the greens, but never have eaten much calves liver since. I think we both got sick of it. Before you ask-it must have worked. Miles was a whopping 10-2, and Graham was 9-6. Healthy young men. Miles is now 14 and 6'2" and Graham is 11 and well on his way to the same thing.

I have to admit, cooked salmon is probably the last thing I will order if there are other choices. It is o.k., but generally I can find something I like more. I love smoked salmon however, especially that cold smoked stuff from Northern Europe. I can eat it by the boatload. I wonder if this is a strange trend, plate cleaners who would rather eat something besides salmon (but who, of course, eat it if it is there and ready to be eaten )

Yes Yes Yes As you can see from my lack of a list in the Axis Thread, I literally cannot come up with four things I hate. Certainly I like some things more than others, but I will eat just about anything put in front of me (and probably lots of it) if everybody else says it is good or some cultural tradition tells me the same thing (and just to stop all of the smartasses-no I will not jump off of a bridge just because everyone else is doing it ). Just tonight I enjoyed several things on the hated list - cilantro (in pico de gallo I made tonight), pickled okra (just a couple before supper), avacados (both sliced and made into fresh guacamole), and really, really ripe drippy tomatoes with crushed pepper and salt. I am a happy member of the "Clean Your Plate Club" and proud to be one because it is just too much trouble to not like stuff (except....well....nevermind, this is not a political forum )

There are no wrong ways to prepare okra, it's just that some ways are better than others.

Maybe they are so buzzed that they have to immediatly vacate the premises and go burn up some of that caffeine they just ingested. Remember the old Dragnet Episode when they busted the "otherwise respectable citizens" for smoking weed (the famous Baby in the Bathtub episode), their kitchen was a wreck-dirty dishes everywhere, ashtrays overflowing (with yellow papered half smoked joints), and bugs crawling in the sink. I think it is a similar thing (he says while knocking back a huge cafe au lait concocted with Community Dark Roast and Steamed Heavy Cream )

25Y to 14N

So far we have 20 yeas and 7 neas. Much as I thought. Those of us that proudly consume this delicious gift are happy to proclaim that fact proudly and the okra haters are loathe to crawl from their dark little hovels and expose themselves and what they stand for.