Mayhaw Man

Looking forward to a good blog from colder climes. Here in South Louisiana our usual Thanksgiving weather consists of 50F and rain (we call it winter, but it really is a poor excuse for it). Unusually warm so far this year, 80 and blue sky here today. I have to ask, do you stuff the bird or have dressing on the side in your part of the world?

I think that my choice would be a pot that I recieved after my grandmother died. It is a cast iron oval about 16 inches long and 10 inches wide that has a roasting rack (detachable) in the bottom of it and weighs about a ton. The brand name on it is "Drip Drop Baster, Patent 1913". Not only is it big enough to cook leg bones carved from other island strandees (they would not be Survivors very long if I got hungry and could find nothing else to eat ) but the thing is virtually indestructible. It has a very heavy lid and the bottom is twice as thick as the rest of the pot, so it would probably be good for open fire cooking. I love that thing. Every time I cook with it I get a warm feeling knowing that my Grandmother used to churn out great fried chicken, chicken and dumplings, seafood gumbo, and awesome braised beef tips in that thing. Good cooking Karma and I always feel connected to her when I use it.

We eat rice dishes of one sort or another four or five days a week and this thing is always on the counter. Once I got the water/rice ratios down for various kinds of rice I could not be happier with it. I actually took a sharpie and wrote down water/rice type ratios on the back of it (tacky I know but very practical, which actually describes both myself and much of my lifestyle) and now it is a no brainer to make rice, even for my fourteen year old. Previous to this I had a very expensive Panasonic that was purchased for me as a gift and it worked very well. It had many more features (the much heralded fuzzy logic and so forth) but I found that due to the fact that I am only making two cups at a whack most of the time for same night consumption I did not need many of the fuzzy features (I really prefer my rice to be un-fuzzy ) Anyway, her ismy rice cooker Good luck with your purchase. A billion people in the Far East can't be wrong (actually, I suppose, in theory, that they could be, but in this case they are spot on ).

This is one of those things that probably only happened in rural Louisiana but-My brother and I made a pretty good chunk of change (for little kids, anyway) when we were growing up catching small maps, yellow ears, red ears, and softshells for a pet wholesaler in North Louisiana. They paid us twenty five cents for the green ones and $2.00 for the softshells. Imagine our dissapointment when the pet guy told us our little cottage industry was coming to an end (we had been doing this for five or six years at that point) because of Federal Regulations involving the transfer of salmonella by turtles to humans. man were we bummed. We had managed to pay for a 14 foot skiff with a little Merc 9.8 on the back and had transformed ourselves into little swamp men. A couple of years ago, just for grins and nostalgia, my brother and I took my boys out and showed them how we did it "back in the old days" (1970-1976). We caught a bunch of little ones and it really was a whole bunch of fun. I kept the little softshell we caught in a thirty gallon aquarium for a couple of years until it got too large to keep (it could eat gold fish like a vacuum sucks dust) and we turned it loose in the swamp down the street from my house. Not that this has anything to do with food or anything, but just to get it back to food-I do like turtle soup, hold the sherry please.

At the end of the skit Akroyd throws a whole fish into a blender and lets it rip. Without a camera switch he pours some into a tumbler and Laraine Newman picks it up and seemingly takes a slug (at least her lips were covered with it), smiles, and says........."MMMMMMMM, that's great bass!". It was pretty disgusting and really funny.

I think that would depend on how you define tailgating. There are lots of 19th century accounts of large groups of people bringing organized meals to everything from political speeches and church services to public hangings. I suppose that if you define tailgating as something related to cars and sports, than the tradition could be traced to some Ivy League School or another. Many fine automobiles (and some less fine if you go far enough back in auto history) came with picnic gear as one of the options available to active motorists in the early twentieth century. I know that Harvard and some of the other Ivy League schools have football traditions that go back past the history of American automobiling and also that the fans have strong traditions of dining before the game on site with some pretty elaborate picnics, so it would make sense that it comes from the Ivy League. But of course, that is all conjecture and now I am off to Google to find out the facts.

that's the funniest, and best, idea i've heard in a while. I had a roommate in college whose father had a medical supply place. The guy was sort of a genius when it came to making sure he was never in a situation where he was stuck without a soothing beverage. One of the best things he ever came up with was a way to get liquor into football and basketball games. He supplied all of us with strap-on catheter bags that go around your leg and have this little tube with a clamp on it. Talk about impressing your date! "Excuse me honey, would you care for a cocktail?". I don't know what those girls were expecting, but I promise seeing someone unzip and pull out a small plastic tube and insert it into a drink cup while squeezing their thigh was not it. I miss being completely irresponsible and drunk all of the time. I should try it again sometime.

MMMM......that's great bass!

I assure you that I am much thinner in person and that giant bag full of ughhhh......dietary bakery products.....were for someone else.

Today, the tailgating center of the Universe is in Oxford, MS where the Tigers and the Rebels are about to battle it out for the SEC Championship (in reality anyway) and the Tigers are battling to stay in the hunt for the Sugar Bowl and the National Championship. If LSU loses they might as well go home for the rest of the year as far as the Sugar/NC goes and if the Rebs lose they have a very thin shot at the SEC championship. THe stadium only holds about 65,000 but they are estimating that there are 100,000 plus in Oxford today for the game. (as a disclaimer I am in no way a Tiger fan although I have lived in Louisiana all of my life) If you have never witnessed the parking lot in Baton Rouge for a football game you cannot imagine the amount and variety of food that is available. These people go "whole hog" for the tailgating thing. An average person who has never been here might not believe it, it is pretty amazing. Giant seafood boils, BBQ trailers cooking slab after slab, big grills filled with chicken, seafood, vegetable, and everything else you can possibly think up. The Tiger fans take this traveling buffet on the road and have gotten pretty famous in Omaha for their weekong tailgating sessions that have taken place during many recent College World Series. If you are ever in the neighborhood on a fall afternoon it would be well worth your trouble to go see this amazing spectacle.

Woohoo, Father and son of what or whom?

Jason, That is a great photo of Austin and Jack. Nice work. On the other hand, I guess those orgasmic chicken livers are better to eat than to look at Brooks

I would like to add to the visuals in this post. This place is run by a couple that took over the place as a retirement project (wow, they must be crazy) and is owned by a housewife and a retired architect in their seventies. It is cutesy and looks like someplace that you would expect totally run of the mill food in, but.....this woman knows her way around the pots and pans. The gumbo that Jason had for lunch had a VERY light brown roux (not beurre blanc, but not much beyond it) and was delicious. Her Gumbo Z'Herbe (which Jason coaxed out of the kitchen even though it had been taken off of the menu for the day) was great. Several kinds of greens and a nice stock (I suspect chicken). A delicious example of a dish that you mainly find in people's homes and not so much in restaurants. The bread pudding (which Rachel mentioned in The Perleaux Thread) was made with huge SLICES of really good bread and not little hunks of stale french bread. The sauce was very, very, rich and more redolent of butter and dark brown sugar (which makes sense since we were in the middle of sugar season in sugar world. There were trailers full of cane everywhere) than rum. The chefs husband insisted that we order some and none of us were sorry. He said that the the bread pudding in most New Orleans restaurants should be called "Bread Bricks" due to the dense nature of what is usually served, and that his wife's was light and airy. He was preaching the gospel on that one. Man was it good.

You will find that 1007 from Wyeast works well as an ale yeast that performs and has a flavor profile similar to lager yeast is very easy to deal with in a home brewing situation. The problem with brewing lagers at home (at least ones that you will want ot consume) is that most lager yeast have very specific profiles that need to be followed during the fermentation and secondary fermentation periods. Most homebrewers do not have the refrigeration control needed to make truly exceptional lagers and will find that alt yeast is durable and produces nice dry beers in a vein similar to good lagers. Wyeast is a good source. They began as a supplier to homebrewers and moved into commercial production as the micro industry grew. David Logsdon is a microbiologist and one of th leading yeast nerds in North America and a really nice guy to boot.

I actually like the little tube thing, but after I got it I realized that a rubber pad used for opening jars works just as well and is much easier to clean.

Yes, the Porterhouse is great recommendation for Dublin. The Oyster Stout was my favorite. Do they still have a two-pint limit on An Brainblasta? Yes, and it is often very crowded, but worth the crush. There is a barman there who is absolutely hysterical (his name will come to me as soon as I push send ). An older Dubliner who is full of stories of bars and drinking in Old Dublin/Temple Bar. He knows eveybody and is full of great reccomendations for places to eat (even though I suspect that he has never left the Porterhouse). He is pretty easy to spot as he looks about as much like a living leprachaun as anyone you are likely to meet in Dublin. And tey still have the two pint limit, but given the strength of that deadly brew, it's not such a bad idea. And yes, I like the oyster stout as well, but I honestly think that the Porter is one of the finest commercially vended versions of the style that I have ever had.

You also should try and seek out Caffery's. A bitter made in Belfast, but available in the Dublin in many places. It is a very smooth, almost malty sweet , bitter. Very enjoyable. You also might try to get to the Porterhouse while you are in Dublin. A great place and even better beers. Have a couple of "brainblasta" and relax. I highly reccomend their porter. A really fine brew. The Porterhouse

Gladly, Varmint, you must be crazy

Oh sure. Haul em all over God's creation and what happens? One little wrong turn (actually about 5, but who's counting? And we weren't lost, we just didn't know where we were. It IS NOT the same thing as being lost) and it ends up being read by millions of interested readers who will now never trust me to take them to Poche's Meats in Cecilia again. Like it's not in the middle of nowhere or anything. Auggghhhhhhhh Signing off to go buy a GPS

The garlic press that I recieved when I got married has been used all of one or two times. I have moved it to three different houses and two apartments in the last twenty years. I have no idea why. I have a tea ball, and haven't made tea in years. But since it is made of non reactive metal, I have found it very useful as a garni holder in soups. It actually works great for this purpose. I have a top o' the line ricer that I need to put in someone's garage sale. Pain in the ass to use and worse to clean up. What's the point?

Trotter's (during first trip to see the hapless Cubbies next year) French Laundry (already got it planned) Varmint's House (if I can get a reservation)

I just got through eating a 1/2 of a boned chicken with shrimp stuffing gotten yesterday at Hebert's Meat Market in Maurice, LA. Wonderful. Everything that is right with this simple, yet delicious dish is basically what makes South Louisiana such a wonderful place to eat. Earthy, filling, spicy, easy, tasty. My little world at it's best. So there. It was good and I love this place.

O.K. Just returned to Royal St apt. after dropping off a couple of tired but very happy yankee tourists. Jason photographed everything he put into his face (no small feat on a day like today, trust me) so I am sure that there will be a full report. He also stocked up on boucherie products from Hebert's in Maurice and Poche's in Breaux Bridge (where, just to ruin any semi humorous tales from the guy in the shotgun position and the backseat driver, I got a little turned around in the dark in the swamp and we ended up having a little adventure before we got to Poche's. But all was forgiven as soon as the Perleauxs, who will never be know ever again as the Kosher Kajuns, saw the delights located behind the pristine glass counters of the meat case in this pork product mecca). The highpoint of my day (and I think a delightful suprise for our skeptical travelers) was a stop early in the morning at Lejeune's Bakery in Jeanerette. They only make two things, french bread that is so good it will make you slap your grandma and delicious ginger cake (a soft gingerbread cookie, basically). I got 4 loaves of still warm bread and 6 cakes, plus a small paper grocery sack of broken gingerbreads to make breadpudding out of (.75 cent thank you very much). The place has been there since the twenties and so has the help. Jason took photos, and you will see what I mean when you see them. I will let them tell you about their trip, but I would like to say what a pleasant day it was today and I was very pleased to spend the day showing these hapless northerners the better parts of our little culinary wonderland. It would be a massive understatement to describe them as "enthusiastic". There was not an unpleasant moment (except for when Rachel called me a "man" for sensibly and methodically circling in on Poche's rather than asking directions ). They are lovely people and pretty game tourists to boot. I look forward to the next trip. Edited for substandard typing technique

I am on my way at a rediculously early hour to pick up the Perlows for a brief tour of Cajun Country. Or at least I am going to pick them up if they avoided exploding last night. I met the Perlow's last evening in the Carrollton area of Uptown New Orleans at Jacques-Imo's. Dinner at Jacques-Imo's was, to put it mildly, a hit. At one point in the meal Jason decided that he just had to order one more thing. The sound he made when that deep fried roast beef po boy hit the table was EXACTLY the same sound that Homer Simpson makes when he slowly keels over from a long session at the donut counter (aaarrglllghhhhllleeehhhhaarrrgghhh ). Briefly dinner consisted of Shrimp and Alligator Sausage Cheesecake Chicken Livers on toast (trust me on this one, just order it) Something Else very good involving oysters and butter and garlic Eggplant Pirouges with shrimp, crabmeat, oysters and art. hearts Stuffed Merlitons Fried Chicken (Austin WAS in the house) Deep Fried Roast Beef Po Boy Some kind of thick two layer chocolate mousse cake (in house, full time, pastry chef. rare here in New Orleans. ) White Chocolate Brownie (Oh Lord, please let me eat this last bite before you take me from this place) Then it was over to the Maple Leaf so they could soak up a little underlife. Jason photographed everything that moved, so I am pretty sure you will be seeing all of this food somewhere/ Gotta Go pick em up. I will try to bring you breaking news of exploding tourists as it occurs.

Ugghh, what she said Actually they are easy to do and most places that serve them in Baja (where I used to live in Valle Guadalupe between Tecate and Ensenada) have the tomato soup as a base and you order the ingredients individually, much like you would add toppings to a pizza. They are incredibly delicious and "seafood gazpacho" is a very accurate description as to the consistancy and ingredients in the soup. Generally they are served in a beer schooner if it is a sit down place. My wife develpoed a great relationship with a vendor at El Pulpito (a great seafood stand) in Tecate, BC and they were selling the stuff to her by the quart. It is a great thing to have in the fridge on a hot evening (as they tend to be there) when you don't want to heat up the tile in the kitchen by cooking dinner. A "make your own" fish taco stand might be fun to do as well.