Mayhaw Man

One more Full moon high over head Thanksgiving was wet and cold Wish you could send snow

Pan, I don't know about European school lunchrooms but I know a hell of a bunch about school lunchrooms in the US (at least my part of it) and the food is as bad or worse than anything that you can get from Burger King or McDonalds. I am certainly positive that readers will write in with tales of the fabulous gourmet delights offered to their children at school, but you won't hear me responding because the stuff offered to kids here is Crap. School lunches are a big part of the equation that makes it so hard to get people to shop for and eat better food. They are part of the conditioning process that gets the average person to lower his or her standards to next to nothing. (oh boy, look out, you hit a nerve and I'm on a roll ) When school officials are asked what the lunch for the day is and they list: Red Beans and rice (everywhere on Mondays, 1 tiny piece of sausage ) Chicken Nuggets Pizza Hamburgers Fish Sticks When I was a kid my elementary school had a lunch room that was as good as plenty of meat and three places around our town (and there were some damn good ones). We had homemade rolls every day. Real food, chicken spaghetti (made with actual cut up chickens and not "Tysons Processed Chickenlike Food Fodder for Tykes"), mystery meat that you were reasonably sure was meat and that the gravy it was swimming in consisted of flour and juice from the meat, not cornstarch and "Gravy Mix for Institutions #23". I could go on and on. My wife's High School for a couple of years (because of a bizarrely enforced and even more strangely executed Federal Desegragation Order) was Carroll High School in Monroe, Louisiana. It is a historically (or at least in 1975) black high school and their lunch was so good that people used to sneak IN to the school to eat. I know. I did it. More than once. They had some ladies whipping it up in that kitchen to a point where they could have easily given Frymaster Austin Leslie and run for his money. We ate pretty much what many of us would have been eating at home. It was good, solid, nothing fancy food (most of you would see the entire menu and think that you had fallen into Soul Food Heaven) but we were savvy enough even as elementary school students to know it was good. Hamburgers were served as a treat for special events, and oddly, I remember them as being dry and soy like. Most kids had no clue what a pizza was. All of us knew what catfish was and it damn sure didn't come in a nugget. But it came in a couple of big golden slabs just like clockwork every Friday during Lent. I do not remember a single fat kid in my elementary or Jr. High. It was not because any of us were starving and many of us ate like horses. The difference is that all of the prepared foods that most children eat today were not available to us. Sure we ate a burger occasionally, but we didn't even have a McDonalds until 1974 and it was closed on Sunday (so was everywhere else that served food, Blue Laws). We didn't have a real pizza joint until Shakey's came to town in the early 70s. Kids ate at home and the food was prepared there. I am not being romantic about this. Everybody's Mom couldn't cook and some people had food at home that was not as good as what they ate at school, but it was not full of stuff some food chemist shot in it to make it look better or last longer. It was just basic food and that is what everybody in this country ate for the first three quarters of the twentieth century. Then along came two wage earner households, double car notes and two income families. Nobody has any time to cook and even if they did have the time they wouldn't do it because the little time they have off is needed to do other things. Mom sees on tv that the other Moms are picking up a big bucket o'chicken at the Colonel's and she thinks that it is a fine idea and she does it too. Pretty soon the kids grow up and that is all they have ever eaten. Worse than that, by not growing up in a household where somebody cooked they have no clue what to get at the store and even if they get that far, they wouldn't know how to cook it. So now, a large percentage of this country in their late 20s and early 30s not only doesn't know how cook, they don't have a clue what a healthy diet is. So their kids are really screwed. Pretty soon kids are just going to be born with a couch attached to their ass, a video controller in one hand and a slice of pizza in the other, hooked up to an IV of some damn soft drink or another. These are the people you hear at work discussing the new Sizzler Plate at TGI McAppleback Grill and Eatery with Sushi. They think the Sizzler Plate is high dining. Throw in a machine poured frozen Margarita and it is as good as it can ever hope to get for them. Those folks of the lost culinary generation love TGI McAppleback the way that some people love a big heaping dish of Foam at El Bulli. Disclaimer to avoid slagging: This is not to say that everyone is like this. Clearly almost no one on this website is like the sad people that I just launched on. But we are a very small minority in a world full of people who just don't care what they eat and unless someone (that would be us) does something to help change the way that it is, it will continue to get worse. It doesn't take too much to help. I helped a couple of kids do some baking last night while their parents (my best friends) were in the city trying out John Besh's Steakhouse at Harrah's in New Orleans ( I really want to go. I really admired his work at Artesia, especially since I could walk there). We baked a simple yellow layer cake and made three minute icing to go on it (man I love that stuff, it doesn't keep, but whatever you put it on doesn't last long enough to worry about). They did all the work and I kept an eye on them while I watched LSU destroy Georgia and wreck the BCS in the process. They had fun. They learned alot. They also will now know how simple and quick it is to make something from scratch and I am honored they let me help (it all started out with them needing some butter and I just horned in from there, but I think that they enjoyed it). Their cake got motherly raves and that counts for a bunch. We are going into the end of the second and the beginning of the third generation in the US that has no clue about good food. Things must change if for no other reason just because it will eventually break our health care system. That's enough for now. Sorry Pan. You asked a good question. I am sure someone will answer it. Thanks for listening.

After Thanksgiving Haikus for the Post Holiday Blues: Neighbor fried turkey Big fire was awfully hot No more neighbor now Not much on stuffing But boy that oyster dressing I might eat it all Awful cold up North Macy's balloons look chilly Pass the suntan oil Really burned chess pie Ran out of eggs and butter Still pretty damn good

Nick, Probably too late and you have already fallen into Fifi's Chili Trickbag , but next time you might try something like this Venison Sauce Piquant served over a little white rice and acompanied by some crusty bread and a salad. MMMMMMM. C'est ci bon! Actally, Fifi got me thinking about Chili and I am thawing out a couple of beef shoulder steaks and going to cube em for chili tommorrow night. With Beans (but no Okra is involved)

Sunday Night Braised Pork Tenderloin Orzo cooked in duck broth (leftovers from last nights gumbo) Stir fried Broccolli w/sweet soy and oyster sauce Butter Lettuce salad with avacados and toasted pecans Garlic Buttered French Bread from Lejeunes in Jeanerette, LA Satsuma sherbert (if somebody helps, otherwise no dessert, too bad for them)

I was thinking fondly of you as I chopped the okra

White Russians?

I am pretty sure you don't have it anymore, but it is too bad that car is not still around. I wouldn't mind taking a tour of Northern NJ in a 62 Caddy Convertible. And you are completely correct about living in the age of the Megastore. They are here to stay and in some ways (many of them stated above) we are better off for it. Not everything they sell is junk, much of thier stock consists of things that sell for much higher prices elsewhere and represent legitimate bargains for price savvy consumers. OTOH, I (and clearly many others) do have some serious and legitimate concerns about Wal Mart's treatment of their employees. Low wages, and poor working conditions are not things that should come into common discussion when one is talking about the largest employer in the US. Clearly elitists can choose not to shop there and no one will be hurt (1.5 billion in 4 days is pretty good cheese even without elitists) . And people like me can shop there selectively (I don't buy meat and produce there,, but it has nothing to do with politics, just a quest for some better table fare) and get what I need because I know it to be a good value. I am not naive enough to believe that by not shopping there I will somehow cause positive change. And thanks to Pork ( God, I love that name) for splitting off this thread. It has, so far, been mostly fascinating. Edited, once again, because I type too fast

Barbacoa has a slightly different meaning in the Border Regions of Texas. When one says "Barbacoa" what is being referred to is the pit roasted head of a cow. The whole head. Brains, eyeballs, tongue, etc. The best part is the cheek meat. Sweet and delicious. This is a dish that is normally consumed on Sunday morning as a treat for the family after mass. Generally the places vending Barbacoa will only have it on Sunday and cook a limited amount. When it is sold out, it is gone for the week. There is an excellent description of this dining experience in Eric Lolis Elie's fine book, Smokestack Lightning, the finest BBQ book ever assembled. Well researched, insightful, and often very funny. This book is as good as it is ever likely to get on this particular, and highly volatile (at least with highly opinionated devotees of BBQ) subject. Now, Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Since you mentioned Al, I thought that you might be interested in this bizarre little slice of life from the pages of the Times Picayune. This was very big news six years ago and provided a great deal of entertainment for observers of our strange little culture. Battle of the Titans-New Orleans Style If you want more, just google on "Al Copeland Ann Rice". You can read the transcripts of Anne's answering machine tapes and more

Community Dark Roast Some cool little ham cups that I made after reading about them in Tommy's post on another thread (I tried to find it, but no dice). They are slices of excellent country ham mooshed into a cup shape in a non stick muffin tin. You then crack an egg into the cup (I added Tabasco and a little worchestershire on top) and baked for about 8 minutes. A new favorite easy breakfast item at the Mayhaw Household . Thanks Mr 13,000 posts. Those things are a hit.

We just call him Al. He is a class act I have had dinner a couple of times at Mr B's on Thanksgiving (once on the day before Tulane won their last game to go undefeated. Something that apparently is not going to happen again any time soon. I have gotten 3 pm's relating to the Bayou Classic. I know what you mean. I was in the Quarter at my apt. on Sat. night and had to park WAAAAY back in the Faubourg. Huge crowd, but for once the game meant something more than a party to the fans (SWAC Title Game) so I suppose more than usual showed up. Incidentally, I am sure that you noticed restaurants were not as busy as you would expect with that many people on the street. Locals stay away in droves because of the crowd problems and it gives tourists in fine dining places a pretty good idea of how many locals are normally dining with them. Cuvee is the second restaurant owned by Kenny La Cour, who also has a much more established place on the Northshore called Dakota. They are both excellent and have very tasteful decors . The art on the walls is, in fact, provided by my wife through Brunner Gallery. (sorry, pretty crass promotion, but you gotta take your shots ). Yes, please pm me next time you are coming down. Always happy to meet someone new.

Maybe you should have let them, it might have been the beginning of the end for Wal Mart. Here in New Orleans we dug up one of the older cemetaries in town to build the Superdome, and look what has happened to the Saints over the last 35 years. If that is not a curse, I don't know what is.

I believe that you have hit on the actual crux of the problem here in the United States. The rule these days, not the exception, is a household where both parents work. Children, once they are old enough to participate, are involved in after school activities that often take the parents straight from work to some kind of pickup and/or organizational meeting several days a week and this leaves little time for the preperation of good food. Some people go to great effort to cook fresh, good food that is interesting to eat and healthy for the family (me), but it does, in fact, require much extra effort and is often impossible in the social situations that families find themselves in these days. This means, I think, that there will need to be some basic social change before the change back to well made foods prepared at home win out over garbage prepared in fast food and semi fast food restaurants. People will need to decide what is important. Do they really want or need a new car, a house larger than they need, or less work and time to relax and provide for their families in some way other than monetary/material support? The other part of this irony is that the cost for four people to eat at a BK is about $20 (it might be more. but I don't actually do it). For twenty bucks a family could have a rooasted hen, onion risotto, steamed zucchinni and brocolli, with decent bread and something simple for dessert, like roasted pears or peaches . The leftover chicken can be used to prepare lunches the next day as could the bread, lowering the cost of the meal even further. The time of preperation is about 1 1/2 hours and unless you happen to live next door to a BK this is not much longer than it will take you to round up the family and haul them off to the burger joint, given the traffic situations in most suburban areas. Ultimately one of the bigger parts of this issue here in the US is consumerism. Big houses, big cars, swell electronics, are all very nice but require lots of income and in order to get the income to pay for these things people find themselves working longer hours and spending less time at home (which means that they have less time to enjoy the things that they are working for in the first place, not the least of which is time with their families). There is no easy answer and it only gets tougher with the declining middle class wage in this country (which ironically is being driven by Wal Mart, the largest employer in the US, a company which manufactures nothing, making our largest employer technically a service employer) and an apparent rise in the number of hours worked per employee (the productivity rating that pleases so many investors and displeases so many workers). It will all eventually come to personal choice. Do consumers buy new stuff constantly or do the decide that thier house is big enough and that they can drive their car 6 or seven years instead of 3? Seemingly small choices like this can give families much more time to spend at home buying and preparing good food and eating it together. I hope more families make some of these choices in the near future. We would all be better off for it.

Local Schlepping provided by The Galloping Goyim (who incidentally is expecting a swell new GPS for a holiday gift )

I would like to point out that the well organized Wal Mart haters in Maine and elsewhere had the benefit of watching hundreds of small downtowns go down the tubes. While I am glad for them, it doesn't take much organization to zone something out if the population doesn't want it. The towns that Wal Mart destroyed, in many cases, let the big wooden horse in the gate and welcomed it to town. They had no clue what lay inside, just waiting to appear when they weren't looking. My point is that in most cases the population does want choices like Wally World. They have let their small town stores go down the tube and it (as has been pointed out here by several people) was and is not all about money. Some of it is about choice. In many cases Wally World brought a much more diverse selection of goods to town than what had been offered for the last 50 years at Western Auto, Piggly Wiggly, and Seligman's Dept Store . What needs to change first in order to ever see change in the Megelomart world is personal taste. When personal taste changes, so will personal shopping habits. When that happens, something has got to give. Either Wal Mart will start selling the best beef in town or people will buy it elsewhere. Ditto Produce. Ditto Cheese. Ditto every damn thing. I will be the first to admit, EMSG, that I have huge political problems with Wal Mart. Mainly involving an economic cycle that ultimately ends in the largest company in the world not paying it's workers enough to shop in it's own stores. But that is not what we are talking about here. This is about food and shopping and grocery stores and the people who shop in them (us) and why.

Hand schlepped (and smuggled ) Community Dark Roast Coffee when I was living in Mexico. I told everybody to bring it whenever they were coming down. Too much instant in that part of the world, even though they do have good coffee.

Ducks were SPATCHCOCKED and grilled over charcoal. Meat was stripped (Wednesday, I had the day off) and the carcasses were then cooked for stock along with backbone that got whacked off of it before grilling (the usual, onion, celery, green bells, garlic, and bay leaves). Stock was cooled overnight and fat was skimmed off (there is plenty of fat still on the meat, but not as much as you might think, as these are wild ducks and not some big tub of a farm raised duck ). Today I browned some really, really nice italian sausage (sweet) and set aside to drain on paper towels. I made a roux of equal parts flour and butter/duck fat (reserved) and browned until the color of cafe au lait (not dark brown, but not roux blanc either) I sauteed in roux- onion, celery, red and green bell pepper, garlic, and some leeks (they were going over and it seemed like the right thing to do. It is, after all, gumbo). Added roughly chopped duck meat and sausage and cooked over very, very low heat for about two hours. This made for a very rich and rediculously meaty concoction that would command a premium price at one of our local gumbo joints (if they could use wild ducks)/ During this time I concocted jalapeno cornbread with some extra whole kernal corn and some thin sliced okra for added color and okra deliciousness I then talked to Mrs. Mayhaw, who was out doing a little light damage to our credit situation, and she told me that she was running behind due to all the phenomenal bargains she had found and that I could begin, accompanied by the Tee Mayhaws, to devour this delicious concoction. We did and now I am telling (bragging) you about it.

This has improved, I think, in most markets in the last couple of years. Due at least in part, as you said above, to the "middle brow" appeal of the Food Network. Many people who are watching "Emeril clown around and the best of" may, in all liklihood, have had their first exposure to something besides Antarctic Red Delicious Apples (mmmm, where do you get those ) on one of those programs. It does serve a purpose, even if it is generally derided by many here and useless to many of us who have traveled AND can cook. And you are right about store managers not wanting to sit on stuff because people are buying the same old stuff, but I think that it is incumbent on those of us who do want something better and more easily available to make sure that we are buying the stuff and telling others about what we are buying and why. I live in the most affluent parish in Louisiana. That being said it is mostly rural and there is a huge and visible gap between the haves and the have nots (this is not liberal perspective peeking through, it is born out in every kind of demographic that anyone cares to tee up). One grocery in particular stands out here as someplace that is trying and sometimes failing and sometimes hitting a big one out of the park. It is a small, independent and just a few years ago I think that it could have fairly been described as a "ghetto grocery". After Wal Mart killed our local Delchamp's and Winn Dixie the owner of this store saw an opportunity to do two things-1) sell more groceries due to decreased competition because he is a long way from Wal Mart and convenient to many who were being forced to go there due to store closures 2) Put in some interesting items that cost a little more, but are much more interesting than not only what he had previously been carrying, but make a little more money per item because they were unique to his market. The outcome of this has been amazing. While his produce is still not always the best, his non perishable goods are diverse and wonderful considering he is in the middle of a small town. He has his own meat cutters, cuts and packs his own meat and makes fresh sausage (I am having some tonight in Gumbo) and the guys in the meat market will do virtually anything you ask them to with a smile and usually throw in a little lagniappe if you smile and act appreciative. No water, no polysorbate. Just carcasses coming in and nicely cut and fairly packaged meat going out the door. And this is not to say that he has run off his former (primarily low income/working class) clientele. He still does the "fill your freezer" specials that are so popular in the South (do they do that anywhere else? mixed meat chicken, pork, beef, etc. in various combos for a set price) and they make run of the mill po boys that, while middle of the road in flavor, are tremendous. A great value. He cashes checks and has the setup to pay all of the various utilities, money orders, wire transfers, etc. It is kind of fun to go in there and see lunch ladies picking up swell olives and great wine standing in line with some nursery guy (nurseries are huge in this part of the state) with clippers hanging out of his pocket buying a big old roast beef po boy and a Barq's. It can be done, and some grocers are doing it. But the one's who are invariably going to lose out are the middle of the road chains. Winn Dixie, Albertson's, Delchamps, etc. don't have a chance. They can certainly load up the produce section but what about local specialty items (a great example here is creole creme cheese. Everybody eats it and none of the big chains carry it) and real meat, not some stuff packaged with pride at Remote Meat Packing Plant #38, but stuff cut by butchers with bloody aprons who carry the same meat they cut out to the meat case and tell customers "this packiage is the best in the pile" with a smile and a wink. Knowing that it might have been slightly misweighed or that it is totally prime and mismarked. Those middle level chains are too top heavy, cumbersome, and spread out to take on Wal Mart and they will never have the appeal of a small, but really well run grocery. After rereading this, I think that the key to getting people to shop better is to make sure that when they decide to stop somewhere on the way home from work, instead of going to Wal Mart, that they be treated fairly. I will pay a little more everytime knowing that I am getting something of more value that if I went the convenience route and headed over to Megelomart (which in fact, for me, is not convenient and 25 minutes away). Some produce guy needs to lean over, when he sees mom reaching for the big, shiny Antarctic apples and say, " Excuse me ma'am, but these apples right here are pretty much the same price and taste about a million times better". This woman might just buy the apples and if she likes them, stop in one more time and skip Wal Mart, etc., etc., etc.

Don't forget Central Market. I had a couple of Dutch guests, very well traveled, who got back home and told me that of all of the reccomendations I gave them for things to do in Texas and Louisiana, Central Market (the main one) was their favorite place that they visited. It is, in fact, pretty amazing.

Yes. I know them. I met them in jail I also know Andy Thomas, another of their cohorts (I believe that he has been released). Andy is the Andy in Andygator and his winning of a Homebrew contest in New Orleans is what got his name on the bottle (but not his recipe in the bottle, we already had that ). Nice guys all and all avid (he says avid while looking crosseyed and thinking of all the grain they hauled off from me) and technically adept homebrewers. Glad to have you here.

It's a little cool here (hell, it's cold) and the duck season is closed in my part of the state for two weeks, so tonight's bill of fare is going to be Duck and Italian Sausage Gumbo w/jalapeno cornbread and Pecan Pie (baking now) for dessert. I thought you might want to know And while I am thinking about this, there is the other thread going about Corporate America and this meal pretty much qualifies as the opposite of a Corporate meal : Ducks: 2 mallards and a woody killed by me and one of the little Mayhaws Sausage: Made fresh at a butcher shop about 2 miles from my house Pecans: Outta my yard or my Mom's yard (not sure as they are picked already) Syrup for Pie: Steen's from Abbeville Jalapenos- Outta my garden

A tasty treat?

As someone who was at The University of Arkansas in the late 70s and early 80s I know something of the corporate culture that developed around Wal Mart. I watched it develop and know many people who have spent their whole working lives in Springdale at Wal Mart Central. Yes, they absolutely shop in their own stores. Those people are fanatically (and I am not using the word fanatic lightly) loyal (I am talking middle and upper management here). They honestly believe (wrongly) that their corporate focus of lower prices all of the time no matter what is great for America. I can make a long argument (no suprise there ) about why this is not good for America in general or the employees of Wal Mart specifically, but I believe the reasons are pretty self evident.

Good questions. This could take a while (and we will never get to the bottom of it in the limited bandwith provided by the nice people at egullet As far as North America goes I believe that part of the answer is as follows: 1) Until the end of WWI this country was completely divided into two parts, urban dwellers and rural/farming communities. They were stuck in their respective areas by lack of an efficient transportation system (roads, which were primarily bad and unpaved until the 1930s) and the fact that most people had no need to leave the immediate area where they lived. Families were not nearly as spread out and people tended to stay in the situations they were born into (geographically anyway). These communities provided shopping and dining opportunities to their citizens and generally these services were provided by citizens of the same communities. Family businesses, small stores, and the like were the rule and not the exception. In most cases an individual had a choice (to some degree) about the quality of goods that he wished to purchase and how much he wished to spend. There were exceptions, even that long ago, such as Sears and Roebuck and Montgomery Wards (and I am sure that, even then, this subject was being hotly debated by local shop owners pissed off when the train rolled into town in rural communities and the mail order freight was unloaded). With the increasing mechanization of farming and the advent of the industrial boom brought on by (and continuing after) WWII many people left rural America for a bigger paycheck and a better, more comfortable lifestyle. Since many of the inner cities were already full, these people had to find alternative places to live and that led to the advent of Suburbia. Affordable houses for middle class people pretty much defines suburbia. And since there was no real "culture" involved in Levittown and it's offspring, places like Sears, JC Penney's and others thrived. They carried everything and the names of the stores were vaguely familiar and the prices were good, so people were happy to shop there. On top of all of that these venues offered "easy credit" which previous to that had only been available to purchasers of big ticket items like automobiles (don't get me started on the history of Ford Motor Credit and GMAC and Chrysler Acceptance, I might never shut up ). Once people became able to get to a big central shopping area like a Shopping Center, strip mall, or eventually the Supermall, they were able to begin shopping in stores that were being driven by national competition and huge purchasing power, providing lower prices (and, without argument, a generally lower quality of goods) to everyone willing to take the trouble to travel a bit to shop. I have said all of this (admittedly I have not mentioned food, but I am getting to it) to set up this point-With all of the mobility that came available in the latter half of the twentieth century the one thing that people craved (as people always will and have) is a sense of sameness. McDonald's, with it's Golden Arches, and others like McDonalds provided that in a fairly unique way. EVERYTHING was exactly the same from store to store. And, not so suprisingly thanks to their success, everything on the road around the McDonalds (or at the mall of any other example you care to come up with) came to look the same too. For example, excepting extreme weather differences, there is no difference between suburban Memphis and suburban Philadelphia. People on the move in society will always go for the safe choice (and that is certainly not always the best) because it is what they know. Wal Mart is perhaps the biggest example of this and they have filled their roll brilliantly. Wal Mart was so good at what they did that they put the first round of suburban stores completely out of business. All over my part of America (rural South, where Wal Mart started) Wal Mart has killed downtowns and put local people out of business. But, remember, Wal Mart only (at least initially, when people still had a choice between local and national) provided the opportunity. Local people were the ones not choosing to shop with their old friends the local shopkeepers. Towns could have stood up and said "Hell no, we're not putting our old neighbors and friends out of business" but they did not. Apparently in our consumer society the pocketbook outweighs the heft of loyalty. That, in my opinion, is how it started. I believe that part two has already been answered nicely by Fresco. I think many of these businesses have reached a peak and while I am not naive enough to believe that it will change dramatically overnight, I do think that one benefit to all of this standardization is that, as Fresco nicely stated, companies wishing to compete with Wal Mart HAVE to offer better choices. They certainly aren't going to beat Wally World on price. Hell, Wal Mart did 1.5 BILLION dollars worth of business in a four day span after Thanksgiving. Their annual revenue makes them (using gross revenue as GNP) one of the largest countries in the world. The only way that any business can compete with WM or McDonalds is to offer better, more interesting choices at a price point that makes them a profit, but is still attractive to the consumer who is looking for something better than the standard (which these outlets have become). Many grocery stores are now moving into specialty items that have been previously unavailable to anyone but people who can shop in ethnic shops. People are starting to understand that getting real meat from a real butcher shop not only provides you with a better cut of meat and way better service, but you also get what you pay for (as opposed to "This product has 10% water and or polysorbate added to give it the fresh shiny look that consumers have come to expect in their soylent green). I love grocery shopping these days and I have Wal Mart to thank for it. I guarantee that 20 years ago I would not be able to walk into Rouse's Family Market (an excellent South Louisiana chain) and buy fresh nopales and mangos. Nope. Not here. Twenty years ago it was apples, bananas and plums. There is now a huge array of things that are great to eat and good for you that would have never existed if these stores were it not for their need to provide a hook that sets them apart from Megelomart (I love Hank Hill ). I know for a fact that most stores that are thriving (no matter how much they whine about Wal Mart and the like) are doing so offering better choices. These choices may cost a little more, but many people are willing to paythe extra change for the fresh, delicious, goodness of quality groceries and prepared foods. Therefore I don't believe that it can be stopped, but I can believe that this process can be dramatically slowed and even reversed (to a degree) by informed consumers who are looking for value and not just low prices and something to get by with. Thanks for your patience with this long post. I have to cut it short and go to work now. You are safe Edited to get this thing back on the food track, as I had strayed a bit and I don't want my rambling incomplete history of twentieth century migration in the US to raise the ire of Sr. Fat Guy.