Mayhaw Man

Why can't you use leveling compound just as you would on a rough uneven surface (which, broadly, is what a tiled surface consists of) and lay the vinyl squares on that. You would be adding very little height to the floor (at least not enough to get in the way of your cabinets). Of course, I don't know if that would be good technique and it would certainly make more to remove when you really do tear out the floor, but it might work pretty well for now.

I have spent some time in the last couple of years posting on a couple of other food related sights and frankly staye away from egullet as a poster (but not as a lurker, I have been reading for a long time) because I always percieved that it was kind of an urban East Coast sort of place. I may have been right a year ago, but I do not think that would be an appropriate description of egullet at this point in time. I find the reading and posting audience to be diverse and interesting. Many social and economic circumstances are covered here and for that matter, many diverse cultural points of the globe are represented as well. I don't live in New York. I live in South Louisiana. I have traveled more than most people will ever get the opportunity to and appreciate that experience for what it taught me about how and why people live (and eat) the way that they do. I spent many days on industrial sights with regular blue collar guys and many nights being wined and dined by whoever I was working for and many, many times I found that I liked what I had for lunch waaay more than what I had for dinner. Many times the regular folk food is just better on every level (this is, to me, especially true in Mexico and my home New Orleans) than what the white table cloth crowd is eating. I do cook from scratch. Almost everything, almost all of the time. We eat out as a family rarely, but we eat really well at home. The dollar amount involved is certainly more than we need to spend. Then again food and cooking consist as my biggest hobbies and I don't see $100 or so extra per week as any different than someone else having premium cable and going to two movies a week. Cooking is what I enjoy and what my family enjoys me doing. I buy the best ingredients when I want them and buy as much as I am going to need. FFRoux is right about South Louisiana cooking though, it can be pretty inexpensive as much of it is pot food and when we are eating native (which we do about 1/2 the time) it certainly does not cost much to feed the family. Katherine is similar to me in that I appreciate my home and my situation more and more as I read these threads. Anyway, I think that the group here on this website is pretty diverse and getting more so everyday. And while I know just where to go get a big hunk of liver, I don't do it very often (twice in the last two years) and only then for a very special occasion. On the other hand I have an Oyster House 1/2 mile from mine and one of my neighbors shrimps every weekend it is legal. I have a boat and all of my friends have boats-this provides redfish, speckled trout, flounder, red snapper, white trout, etc. Those guys up in New York may be able to get good liver and have great delis, but I got your fish right here, bubba We all have something the other guy can't get and that is what I come here to read about and I assume that many of you are similarly situated. I think that there is room here for the guy on the high horse and for the guy riding the mule. They both have much to learn from each other. There is generally so much info here that it is hard to take in even a small portion of it. For example-I have lately found myself reading a conversation among some of our Indian readers about what foods the players eat during the breaks in a Cricket match(between innings? ). I know nothing about cricket and still don't (the rules are more unfathomable than Gaelic ), but their banter is fascinating and it is like reading code of some sort that you can't quite crack. I like that conversation BECAUSE i can't really identify with it and I see it as a way of learning something about a culture I might otherwise have not been exposed to. Incidentally for those of you that were wondering-I like my truffles and caviar on a bed of chopped and breaded okra

Ok Fans, Mr. and Mrs. Bleachboy extended an invitation to dine with them at Peristyle on Tuesday evening. I accepted, as I am loathe to dissappoint them , but I have not been there in about 6 months. I am looking for any menu suggestions that some of you might have anjoyed recently. My last two trips I have eaten the same thing (something I am in a bad habit of-I tend to eat what I know is going to be good at a given place instead of stepping up and trying something new)-whole, boned white trout filled with mussels, crab, and potatoes, and it is pretty damned fabulous. Any suggestions from egulleteers who have dined at Peristyle would be helpful. Please help an "old stuck in the mud" step out and enjoy a little variety. Thanks

I'll swap you for my Ginsus. How about it?

Exactly. If this were not the case every winery in North America would be using scuppernong (muscadine) grapes for their production. They can be about the size of a golfball, produce a ton of juice, are disease resistant, prolific, and really easy to grow. Sadly the juice does not produce very good wine.

Clearly the Russian guys do not have a problem with fish odors, at least if one uses the list on this thread as a benchmark.

Thank you for the blog, I think you did a great job. I really enjoyed reading about your children, especially your Japanese dinner. Those children are lucky to have you around.

Thank you for your answer. As a follow up, would it be possible to see a list of what the Cosmonauts eat and drink? Thanks,

Hey man. I love those things. Who needs fois gras and huge shrimp when you've got cocktail weenies and BBQ sauce?

OK kids! Today's lesson is to instruct the ignorant masses on one of the most boring, but most important, components of Carnival-The Masqued Carnival Ball. There are about a million of these things (actually about 40, it just seems like more) and they mostly take place at the Municipal Auditorium (that building that you might have seen if you wasted your time and visited the sadly delapidated Armstrong Park) on Rampart Street. These balls are highly scripted and stupifyingly dull for everyone but a few delusional participants, mothers of the Deb's involved, and the Debutantes themselves (this is a big Deb deal as the balls are conveniently designed to "intorduce" girls at the beginning of their Deb season). The link listed below is an example of one such write up in the paper. The woman that wrote it has been doing society for the Picayune for about 50 years and the formula is the same for all of the articles, no matter what kind of Krewe is involved. I am only going to do this type of listing today and for the end of carnival (Rex and Comus), but I highly reccomend you take the time to read the article. Read it out of context (using your imaginanations ) they are pretty hysterical. That's it for today. There will be a test at the end of this blog, so keep notes. B3 (Big, Boring Ball)

I can't speak for Bux, but I believe that that is exactly what he is saying. The real estate costs alone make reasonably priced restaurant start ups a very difficult proposition. I have only been involved in one potential startup and that was a brewpub in Manhattan (which I ended up not getting involved in, but it did get off of the ground and was a spectacularly expensive and well documented failure) and the startup costs were mind boggling. I was involved in a number of projects (20 plus) in several parts of the US as well as a few in Ireland, Mexico and Hong Kong and none of them CAME CLOSE to the amount of expense and regulation involved. It is very easy to see why Blue Smoke would charge a couple of bucks EACH for an oyster. They don't have any choice. I am sure that there are places that have real estate that is as expensive (Tokyo and pre crash San Francisco come to mind) but the combination of the prices and the regulations and permitting complications make New York like nowhere else I have heard of. Of course, I am just another dumb cracker from the Southland and everything I say should not be taken as expert opinion, just as my reasonably well informed observations.

Hey Jude, Is the Encyclopedia of Sushi Rolls well......encyclopedic? I have seen it and am not sure if it would be useful or not. Inquiring minds want to know.

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions. I greatly enjoyed reading the material you supplied which answered many of the questions that I had intended on asking, but one thing that was not covered was the subject of requests for specific items by astronauts and how they are handled by your agency. Do the astronauts have much input on what they get to eat? And if they do, what is the turnaround time on an item that is requested being turned into space food? Do you send up foods based on the nationalities of the astronauts (I understand that Ilan Ramon, the Israeli astronaut who was tragically killed last year asked for some Kosher items) or do the flyers pretty much get what they get, regardless of nationality?

I really need to find the New Brewer article and find out, as my interest is piqued (and my memory is unclear, beer conferences will do that to you. That is why they always have tapes for sale ) I know that the Egyptians were certainly not culturing yeast. They were basically pouring water onto stale bread and leaving it out in the yard with a towel on top to keep out the bugs . That is what the straws were all about. They allowed aincent thirsty Egyptians a way to avoid chunks and bugs . I will call the Association of Brewers Monday and and out what issue the brewing specs were in. I have every issue (only beer thing I regularly save) and can probably find it, or maybe they could email me a copy.

I guess I didn't make it clear in my goofy post above. I had the stuff from Anchor when it was debuted at the Microbrewer's Conference (as it was known then) and it was interesting in that they had gone to so much trouble and time to make it, but beyond that I would not go out of my way to get it. It was underattenuated (it depended wholly, I believe, on wild yeast) and tasted a bit like a poorly made barley wine with no hops (lots of body, but too sweet for my taste) and contained no hops for flavoring (as hops were a fairly modern innovation, initially used as a method to extend the life of the beer and not so much for flavoring, although that was a happy result of their use).

Jackal10-Wow. What a meal and belated happy birthday to you. Best wishes for the coming year. Saturday Night-Birthday dinner for twelve 14 year old boys, all of whom spent the night. It went very well and we only had one pucture wound (a hand, minor, no stitches required) and a broken finger (my 11 year old, playing with the big boys has it's price ). Mostly they just watched stupid movies and acted cool. If I hear the word "dude" in the next 24 hours I am going to hurt someone. It is the single most overused word in the 14 year old dialect. "Dude, I can't stand you saying Dude anymore, Dude!" Pork Ribs (low and slow over pecan) 4 1/2 hour cooking time. Tender and delicious BBQ'd Brisket (not Kreuz Market, but really good) Cooked for 6 1/2 hours on pit Pomme Frites (fried outside on my swell frying set up in order to keep from messing up whole kitchen) Crunchy Cole Slaw (trite I know, but really good and the kids eat it) Chocolate Pound Cake with Coca Cola Chocolate/Pecan Icing (hey, what can I say? It was a kid request. They love that stuff) Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream (custard based, whole bean vanilla, none left, it was awesome) Edited because I still can't type

Thank you for putting that into words. It is exactly what I have been feeling since my first post. As with anything in life, if she has the stones to do it and is willing to make the personal risk/investment, why shouldn't she give it a shot? Clearly some people do very well and make it big. Some people who run restaurants have lives outside of them and some people manage to have decent and fulfilling family lives, but not that many (see, there I go again-I will stop now ).

And that's a bad thing?

Our experiences in growing up in the Deep South could not be more different. I could list what I saw on my plate, but it is too long of a list. We regularly saw a virtual farmers market moving through my mother's kitchen. In fact, come to think of it, we hardly ever ate corn on the cob except in July when it was just getting ready, and the varieties of corn that we ate were delicious but not nearly as sweet as many of the examples available for planting today. most of these vegetables were not overcooked and hardly ever boiled (with the exception of butterbeans and I still like 'em that way) to pulp. We had cucumbers in some form or fashion (often just in ice water with a little vinegar and sugar) virtually all summer and we ate squash, eggplants of various sorts, snap beans, peas of every description, butterbeans, all kinds of lettuce (until it got too hot, then it was iceberg from the market) and greens, roots of all sorts (I love turnips) cooked in a ton of different ways, and the ever present tomato. Except for my dad regularly claiming that "a meal without meat is just a snack" we might have been vegetarians and never noticed. I do agree about squash casserole though. I love that stuff (quick, easy to make in small portions, and delicious) and yes, it probably was crunched up saltines on top. MMMMMMM

THIS is a class that should be taught in all business schools. It would be at least as useful a class as one teaching how to put together a business plan. And while I fall just short of Bux in discouraging you to try to follow your desires (although I do support his suggestion of getting a good mental health advisor in advance of opening ) I do think that raising money from non family sources (and I mean your family-not the bent nose family ) is going to be very difficult for a first timer with no experience. I might suggest that you try to get involved in an operation (or two or three) before you start and see what running a successful place entails. Anthony Bourdain's book is not a bad place to start, although as much as I enjoyed it I do not think that he spent as much time as he might have (he was writing an entertaining book, not writing a warning for potential operators) on how the places he worked in got off of the ground. The story about the two guys who brought in all of their Broadway friends and slowly went broke is as close as he comes to this. Many of the things that might attract you from the outside may soon become VERY unattractive once you see them from the inside. The best reason to open a place is because you genuinely think that you can make a go of it financially in a VERY short period of time. You will not have enough capital and your investors will not have enough money or patience for you to do otherwise. The worst reason is to open someplace because you are of the opinion that you would enjoy it and that you would be "good" at operating your own restaurant. The only people who truly enjoy it are adrenalin junkies. There are always exceptions to any rule, but I have found this one to be generally accurate. My experience is absolutely not in Manhattan, but outside of rediculous real estate prices and supplier difficulties, most places are similar in terms of success rates for first time ventures (close to zero). I do have a very realistic view of what happens outside of New York, but I cannot even imagine what it would be like to take on a project there. My friend Jack Leonardi (Jacques Imo's) is about to open up in New York and he fortunately he has a great local partner, good investors with very deep pockets that love his food, and a number of successful startups under him. He might have an even chance. But even if he fails he still has his spectacular place on Oak St. in New Orleans that will be there for a very long time and while he has a great amount of personal pride and reputation wrapped up in the New York venture, he has no money in it (or that is my understanding, anyway) and a failure will not ruin him or his credibility (not to mention his credit). OTOH he is a pro and will work very hard to make it a complete success, but it is the only way he knows how to work which throws him into the "adrenaline junkie" category. I would proceed with the business plan, but while you are working on it you might want to look into a job (back of house, to start) in a successful place and see what's up with that. Good Luck.

Doesn't this pretty much qualify as the same thing as a "guaranteed reservation" in a hotel? You are indicating that you want the hotel to hold a room for you and the hotel promises to do so, even if they have to turn away other guests. If you do not show up and the room goes unused, you are charged. The issue to me is not whether or not the place was full that night, but whether you knew that there was going to be a charge if you did not show up. If you were told in advance and you did not show, I would say that the restaurant has the right (if they choose to exercise it and take the chance that you won't return) to bill you for the no show if they wish.

Oh no, don't misunderstand. He IS a teenager. He definitely asked for money.

Love for the business and a combination of fearlessness and blindness (and occasionally, but rarely, way too much money in their pockets and a need to throw it away). The way you stay in the game is to have a success and get a group of people who will consitantly back you financially. These people need to (and usually are) be more interested in how the overall bottom line pans out than how many free meals (none if it is done right) they can get out of the deal or whether your roast chicken is to their liking. Some of the most interesting and intense meetings I have ever been involved in concerned raising money for restaurants and brewpubs. The term "qualified investor" gets thrown around alot as there is a pretty good chance that the money invested is going to slowly go down the drain and in theory a "qualified investor" knows this and can afford to take a chance-also because the operator is going to need to go back to the investors before opening for more money, as these projects almost always run over budget (at least on the first couple of tries). Once a person or group has a decent track record, it is suprisingly easy to go back again and again to the same group of satisfied investors (and you would be suprised how many people call you out of the blue offering to give you money for your "next project"). Of course, at that point, you don't need the money and you already have an obligation to give your original investors first shot at whatever you have in mind. It is not easy. If it was there would be many more places to eat. Running a decent place to eat is one of the more difficult and time consuming tasks that one can undertake. OTOH, the amount of instant gratification involved in a success is hard to quantify or overstate. There is no drug that can recreate the feeling of running a large kitchen churning out good food smoothly and on time. Gladhanding it around a dining room with a room full of happy and satisfied customers who are paying you to do what you love is a pretty amazing thing. And the drink or two or ten that you share with your workmates after the end of a smooth and successful evening is the best one you will ever drink. If there were a buzz like that available in a pill, I would buy it and so would many of you.

COuld you please describe the milkshake? It sounds delicious.

Exactly. Into every life a little slime must crawl.