Mayhaw Man

These items, accompanied by sardines packed in mustard, constitute a well balanced diet for fishermen all over the world. As much as I hate to admit it to this group of urbane gourmets, I still like Vienna Sausage (where I live it is pronounced-VI eena) and saltines with a little French's Yellow Mustard.

I had the same situation on New Years day when my nieces connected the photos on the mantle (of my fourteen year old son Miles with his latest victim, a very nice spike) with the stuffed backstraps on their plates. Much crying and screaming ensued . It was pretty funny, but THEY WERE NOT going to eat any more of it once they found out it was Bambi's big brother.

Well, dear readers, it's that time once again. Last night the Phorty Phunny Phellows rolled out of the streetcar barn on Willow Street and proceeded down St. Charles Ave spreading joy, cheer, and tradition to the lucky observers and casual passersby who happened to see their car full of happy (drunken) maskers. These guys (P.P.P. is a secret society as are a number of carnival organizations) throw small trinkets out of the windows of the streetcar to the happy observers who get their first opportunity of the season to yell the Carnival Mantra-Throw Me Something Mr.! Yesterday marks the first day of the "King Cake Season". In offices and schools all over South Louisiana people started showing up at work with round loaves of brioche (traditionally) covered in purple, green, and gold granulated sugar. The traditional method of eating is thus-The provider of the cake cuts it into small slices and passes them out to friends and co workers. Inside one of these pieces is a small plastic baby and the person who recieves the piece with the baby is weighted with the responsibility of bringing the next cake. And on it goes until Mardi Gras Day, which will be Tuesday February 24 this year. As the big day approaches there will be more and more parades and events all over South Louisiana (and the rest of the Gulf Coast as well including Mobile, AL-Mobile's Mardi Gras is equally as old as New Orleans and Mobilian's are mighty touchy about who had the first events in North America, so I mention them early in this note so as to avoid the wrath of Alabaman's who feel they are not getting their props ). The whole celebration culminates with a series of parades on Fat Tuesday (Zulu, then Rex, mixed in with colorful walking groups) and finally officially ends with two things-Rex, the King of Carnival toasting Comus in a cereomony at the Municipal Auditorium and the public end of the celebrations when the cops come down Bourbon St. art midnight on horseback and in locked arms being led by street cleaning trucks spraying everyone too drunk or too stupid to heed the traditional warning espoused by local cops-Go Home. Carnival Is Over. Get the Hell out of here and stagger back to where you came from . I have decided that it might be fun to write a Carnival Blog over the course of the next seven weeks and will try (try I said, I did not promise) to relate each post to some kind of food related activity and to link an interesting site or two relating to the food or event. I know that many egulleteers have come down for the holiday or are thinking about it and this might give some of you a little better idea of what it is all about. It is, after all, like many things in South Louisiana. It is ultimately all about the food and the celebration. Here in my part of the world they are almost impossible to seperate, so we just don't try. I hope that you enjoy the ride. An Explanation of Twelfth Night Edited to expain the thread title: Carnival Time is a song that I, and all residents of South Louisiana will be hearing about a million times in the next seven weeks and the first line of the song is: "Throw the Baby out the Window, let the house burn down-All because it's Carnival Time" (repeat incessantly )

Nice work Varmint. While my parent have a house on Caney Lake in North Louisiana and I grew up fishing pretty much 3 or 4 times a week (more or less year round except during hunting season) I too resorted to the pond experience when the boys were younger. Down here it is a catfishing experience rather than trout, but other than that the pond trip was exactly as you described. They do eat fish with a great deal of gusto now that they have gotten older and in fact, will eat it raw when presented on a little plate with wasabi and ginger. They are smart enough to know that bream tails are one of the finest things to ever come out of hot grease and have learned to steal them while no one else is looking (chips off the old block ). Their favorite way to eat fish is BBQ'd redfish. Skin on filets, cooked skin side down over hot coals with a very thin BBQ type dressing/sauce. It comes right off of the crispy skin completely boneless and is really delicious. (I took some not very good pictures when I did this before New Years and if I can ever figure out how to post them I intend to, as the technique lends itself to many kinds of rough scaled fish). Western North Carolina is wonderful. My boys go to camp in Mentone AL (Lookout Mountain Camp) and we usually spend a few days directly afterward in a house up on the Ocoee. I love it up there. Besides the scenery there is an abundance of great produce stands and many of them vend some of the finest watermelons I have ever had the pleasure of dripping down my chin. I enjoyed your article and wanted to take the time to tell you not to give up hope. They will come around to eating fish (and salad, etc.). I think you just have to put it in front of them enough times until they finally consider it to be something other than unusual.

Are those ribs pulled or chopped? Or pressed?

Trillium, Do you have an opinion on Craig Claiborne's Chinese Cooking? I have always enjoyed it and found both the recipes and the instruction on technique to be helpful (I am admittedly a novice at Chines cooking but I do enjoy stumbling around with it).

Well put. It should be brought up more often. Thank you.

If off flavors are preventing you from using using ice in blended scotch, you can always freeze a gallon of distilled water and chip it as needed. This will introduce (in theory at least) no off flavor to your delicious beverage. It will also not add any cloudiness to the scotch.

Of Course

I have a set of those cool ice cubes (plastic I think) that have flies embedded in them. You can use those as well.

Once again I must direct your attention to Poche's in (kind of in, anyway ) Breaux Bridge, LA. Awesome Boudin. Champagne's Grocery on the main drag in Breaux Bridge is really good as well. If you are going to Poche's you can pm Rachel P. for directions. She knows the way.

I don't eat them very often, but..... I do like Sausage McMuffins Rally's (local chain in San Diego and New Orleans only, I think) Bacon Double Cheeseburger

Turkey Tots?

Don't forget that unforgettable Cacique Guarro in Costa Rica. A delicious plastic bottle boquet in every grimace causing swallow. Yikes. Talk about a headache in a bottle I bring home two liters every time I like everything eventually.

Don't ever go to a crawfish boil. Thier screams of anguish as they are dunked into that hot spicy water would make your cry

Venison Chili (with LOTS of beans). I am making some tonight as we have gone from sunny and 80F for the last few days to rainy and bleak and 40F currently. There is currently a large abundance of venison in the freezer at my house. I am going to make hot water cornbread and a ceasar type salad to go with it. Last night I concocted ducks in olive gravy. It is made thusly: Brown four mallards in a very hot oven (500 F). THis takes app. 15 minutes turning a few times. Meanwhile I roughly chopped 4 onions, 2 cups celery, 1 cup red and one cup green bell pepper, and 10 cloves of garlic (garlic was not strong so I used alot). I made a roux of 1/3 cup duck fat (you could easily sub oil, I just had the fat) and 1/3 cup flour. I made the roux very dark ( I use the P. Prudhomme cajun napalm method of browning flour in oil over VERY high heat. You burn it every once in a while, but it beats stirring for thirty minutes ). Veg was thrown into roux and wilted. Veg mix was placed into the bottom of a dutch oven and ducks were placed on top. I added two cups duck stock, 1 cup burgundy, 1 cup parsley and 1 cup cilantro, 2 tsp. Tarragon, 2 tsp. basil, 1tsp crushed black pepper and one tsp crushed white pepper, 2 tsp sea salt, and 4 bay leaves (all herbs were fresh and coarsely chopped) This was placed (covered) into a 325F oven and baked for 2 hours. At the end of two hours I added 1 cup green olives (w pimientos) and one cup black olives. Ducks were cooked an additional thirty minutes This was really, really good. I served it over orzo along with a salad and french bread. Delicious and easy. Why is this in a Chinese thread? Or have I missed the point? Again

Craig, Does this mean that no healthy active yeast is added for the second stage (in bottle for primarily carbonation purposes) fermentation? Do you have any idea what the process is? Do they shoot a bit of finished still wine that has been stirred to mix up the yeast that settled out during fermentation (for lack of a more technical term) into the bottle and then add fined product? Or is this a deep dark secret protected by cloistered, drunken monks? Greatly enjoyed the piece. Thanks.

Mark it down. February 24th is Mardi Gras Day. I will try to get someone to tag me for that week. It gets pretty nuts foodwise. Crawfish boils, fishing trips (and the subsequent cooking of the redfish, specks, flounder, sheepshead, white trout etc.) and lots of dining on street food. Since my apt. is directly across the street from the World Famous Verdi Mart (The Nelly Deli, according to the sign out front) I will do the first ever review of the treats available there as we eat there about once a day during carnival (this place is where Bourdain got his smokes, whiskey, and plate lunch delivered from when he was in New Orleans). I look forward to it.

I am currently stuck on eating Reeses Bits straight out of the freezer. I originally purchased them for some holiday baking (which is what they are designed for), but they are being wiped out regularly. I don't eat much candy (although I will eat all chocolate if I have it) but when I have it around it seems to vanish.

Mallards in Olive Gravy over orzo (trust me, mmmmmm ) Stewed Red Cabbage Steamed Aparagus w/lemon butter French Bread (Leidenheimer's, The Gold Standard) Pound cake and satsuma sorbet for dessert All eaten before the Tigers came on TV. I can't believe I am pulling for LSU.

I am not sure that I understand. Are you saying that you would rather have no clue where your food comes from or how it is handled? Or are you saying that you are crazy about foam? I prefer to witness the entire trip down the line. I find it very comforting to know where something came from and how it got on my plate. Trust me, that chicken led a whole lot more satisfying life than the average fryer raised in a hen house (not to mention that it probably ate a much better diet than that poultry from Megelomart).

Yes. Of course. No doubt about it. Anything for the benefit of science and mankind. Nice work says I. Thanks for the sacrifice. We are all the better for it

Go Hillvalley Go!

I know that I will just seem like a "bumpkin from Flyoverville" by asking this but-Is Durian easy to find up there in that Culinary Mecca that is New York? I once made a fairly serious effort to find it in New Orleans, but no dice.

Yes. I often find myself woefully short of fatty netting, fois gras, and white truffles. Although I am happily usually running a bit on the shy side when it comes to natto