Mayhaw Man

Also, you may find (you will find) that you will get much better results when the water that you charge is cold-the colder the better. Keep the thing in the ice box when you aren't using it. You'll see the difference on the first try. Unlike with many broad and entertaining anecdotal claims that I am prone to make, this one is based on science and years and years of operating breweries-where, in a way, the bright beer tanks are the largest soda siphons around. You can make thousands and thousands of gallons of carbonated anything in a bright beer vessel.

Rachel, Parasol's Really. Parkway is cool and everything, but, well, I'm just saying... Also, on the upscale dining front GW Fins has been outstanding since the storm. Most dependable fish in town, I think. Lilette has been great (see this months Atlantic, Corby Kummer mentions it in his excellent piece on general recovery in New Orleans-I was one of the "other friends" mentioned in the piece), August is, will be, always is, just marvelous. I, of course, am good for a ride or two in the fabulous Hurricane Mobile. B

I made the recipe that I have in recipe gullet for Peach Pound cake, but substituted, one for one, with fresh strawberries (both the chopped and the puree). It was served at dinner the other night to people who I like to think know a bit about good cake and when I tell you that there wasn't a crumb left, I'm not kidding. All chefs and foodwriters, gluttons all, and there was nothing left. Of course, these are the same people who ate all of the Hubig's in the cupboard before dinner-so they may not be the most highly selective judges. The only thing about that recipe is that you really have to test it with a straw as you go, especially with the strawberries, as it is pretty moist no matter what, so you'll have to use your best judgement. It's awfully good though, and a true pound cake (pound of all 4 major ingredients-milk, flour, egg, sugar). I highly reccomend it.

Well, the powers that be announced this a while back. Apparently you missed the memo. I'll see if you can find a copy and send it along to you.

I have a client who has a business that was formed to sell nothing but Scottish Goods. There are some incredibly good products here. Maybe you can get some ideas from her site. Scottish Gourmet USA

I don't drink a lick. I haven't for a very long time. The reasons are my reasons, but I'm happy enough to say that I know what I am missing and I don't miss it anymore. You can draw your own conclusions. I'm a food and travel writer and formerly a skilled, trained brewmaster in a past, and very long and happy phase of my life. I live in New Orleans (or what's left of it), and I am not only a regular, but maniacally dedicated attendee of many festivals including Mardi Gras, The Jazz and Heritage Festival, and about a zillion smaller ones. I am a crazy regular host of seafood boils and other events where drinking is pretty much half of the event. Seemingly everyone in my social circle drinks and when I first quit it was really kind of amazing just how complicated it was to get people to remember that just beer wasn't going to get it at a party anymore. I needed something else. Like I said, I don't drink. They eventually caught on. I can cook. They needed me around. So, they started thinking about it for me so I didn't have to keep showing up with my own drinks, which was nice. It all depends on what I am doing when it comes to what I drink. I am a dedicated consumer of carbonated water (Seltzer, Soda, Lemonata, Orangina, whatever) at all times and especially when I am doing some big time dining. Seafood boils and festivals tend to leave me more in the diet coke vein and casual food like lunch during the week I am a massive consumer of ice tea (most of the time unsweet, which in my part of the South is more common than the sweet variety). You know, it's funny, but once you get used to it, you can do pretty well and not even feel like you are being deprived. In fact, for fine dining when one is trying to pay attention to whatever they are eating, water actually works pretty well and I can always read my notes at the end of the meal. So there's that. Sometimes you can find places that have an interesting beverage or two, but generally I am fine with water of some sort, tea on occasion, and always ready for coffee after dinner. I also really like fresh juice and it's usually available in better places if you bother to ask for it. Sometimes I like it with a bit of soda in it, and sometimes not, but it's usually a nice way to start dinner while everyone else is having a belt or two. So that's what I do.

Click on this link and scroll down a bit to "Recovery Menu" and you can see a very nice piece on Willie Mae Seaton, the work going on at her place, and the seriously depressing scope of the damage to JUST ONE BUILDING among a couple of hundred thousand. And as you are watching, the half million estimate is about 350k high, but it doesn't make much difference, as it's not there to spend, anyway. Hopefully, soon, we will have some good news on that front, as well.

Oh boy. Now you've done it. You won't get anything done for the rest of the day once you start reading this stuff. Here are a few places to start: Col Klink smokes at home (it's still legal in most states) Behold our butts Behold our briskets And many, many more.

In my town, at John Preble's fabulous UCM Museum, we have Buford the Bassigator

Photos of weekend 5 This past weekend, John Currence of City Grocery in Oxford, MS (he's the guy in this week's pictures holding the old Scotch House sign-the guy who looks like he just got off of an 8 hours shift in the bottom of a coal mine) and a couple of helpers worked on framing a new roof on the place. John can not only cook his ass off, but he is a skilled carpenter, as well. He bombed it down from Oxford on Thursday night, worked all day on Friday and Saturday (in some crummy weather, I might add) and shot back up I-55 on Sunday. Nice work, John.

I can't believe that no one has mentioned it. What's with you people?

Bux is a well known fan of Tony. He documents every exciting move that Tony makes. I believe I read something in the Post about a restraining order, but I could be wrong about that.

Is it open? Does a bear.... Does the Pope.....Does, well, you know. I was there yesterday afternoon with a friend and we, the two of us, knocked back 4 dozen char broils and a couple of loaves of bread. Oh yeah. They're open. That, for those of you that are wondering, is the home of the single most sublime oyster dish on the face of this or any other planet-Charbroiled oysters from Drago's.

See the correction above as Todd points out that I'm an idiot. There is an Acme open, but it's on the Northshore.

This piece appeared today in the LA Times.

The taxi situation is fine. No problem. Just dial 522-9771 and a friendly United Cab driver will be there shortly. I had a stupendously good meal at Jacques Imo's last night. I spent most of the evening with Jack as it was his tenth anniversary (I am going to write this up seperately as there is some commanality between what we were both doing 10 years ago and we've been friends a very long time) and he was, well, as ebbulient as a restauranteur can be in Post K New Orleans. It's really hard to get cheerful as all discussions inevitably go back to "the thing" and we just can't get away from it. It's kind of in your face at all times. It was, really, probably the best meal that I have ever had there are one of the three best that I've had since Aug 29. I'll come up with a decent, doable list for you. Brooks

"Gravy with that?"

Upperline is open for business and I have eaten there several times recently. The place is usually packed (as are many of the places in that general vicinity and quality range) from open until close. Call ahead now if you are planning on going that weekend. There aren't any tourists here now, I can imagine that it might be quite a project to reserve as the event gets closer.

As a matter of fact, the place I mentioned above, adds both bitters to the glass.

Chuck, I recently spent the better part of a Saturday afternoon in Tujague's for a story that I was working on. It was a slow afternoon, not much traffic in the Quarter or through the door at Tujague's. One thing that was happening though was that thirsty supplicants were coming through the door, in ones and twos (apparently, Sazerac's are a medicinal need) and ordering up Sazeracs. They would knock one back, maybe two, and be on their way. The afternoon drinkers seemed to be only ordering Sazeracs, as if they were on a mission or something. There must be something to it, I thought, so I observed the cocktail operation for a while. The woman behind the bar expertly prepared them from dead scratch-she did it efficiently but with a very reassuring amount of care and skill. I have to tell you that I actually hung around for an extra hour just to watch her ply her trade (yes, yes, she was a very attractive woman but that had NOTHING to do with this particular project. I remained, and remain, a highly trained professional). Her drinks were all EXACTLY alike, made with a degree of precision that is, sadly, often lacking in New Orleans drinking establishments. I would reccomend Tujague's Sazeracs both for the setting (gorgeous bar where men have been drinking for a very, very long time) and for the quality of the pour.

And you're complaining? Everytime that I order espresso I get this little tiny cup of the stuff and it costs something like 3 bucks. I hate that and get the feeling that they are making a ton of money off of me. If I was getting a healthy 16 oz., that might kind of perk me up some and make me feel a little better about the money that I have spent. Some people will complain about anything.

I live in the South. I am Southern, if nothing else. I have lived elsewhere, but chose to move back here, and stay here, based on the people and the food. This one discussion is something that I take seriously when it's a serious discussion, and one that I can take lightly in another. While these matters are important to me, I sometimes get very frustrated at the course this discussion often seems to take. I am frustrated now. This whole argument, not just the discussion here, but the one that I seem to have been continuously involved in for the last several years-on eGullet, at Southern Foodways Alliance events, in my writing, and at countless dinners with folks since the hurricane-is that Southern Food, when deconstructed, is not what everyone seems to think that it is. Last night, for example, my dinner for myself and my boys consisted of grilled pork loin, collard greens (cooked slowly, with nothing but a LITTLE salt, pepper sauce, garlic cloves, and water with a bit of chicken stock added, unsweet okra cornbread, and a salad that consisted of butter lettuce, grapefruit, avacado, and a thin vinegar dressing. This meal is damned healthy. Lots of greens, some lean pork, corn meal, okra, and fruit. This is, really, pretty damned healthy eating. My point here is that it's not about the raw ingredients, but about the cooking methods. Collards are delicious (and I have to say, just for my own edification, that in terms of this discussion this term seems to represent a food that is somehow inherently evil. For God's sake, they are just greens-kale, cabbage, lettuce, turnip, mustard, whatever-collards are just green leafy vegetable matter. They're good and good for you. If you think that the only way that people eat these things is with a pound of ham and swimming in fat you are just plain wrong and it's a stupid argument. So stop it), easy to get most of the year, easy to grow, and cheap. You can't beat them. We eat either collards or mustard greens at least twice a week most of the year round. Rarely, if ever, do I cook them in fat (though I sautee them sometimes in butter and garlic-but even then, not so much). We eat lots of pork, lots of chicken, and lots of fish-rarely fried-though I love it and would do it more often, likely, if it wasn't so much trouble. I am good at frying and enjoy doing it, and given the rest of my diet, don't feel like I am putting a gun to my head when I do it. What I am saying is that this conversation, and many that I am involved in, is so full of stereotypes that it's hard to take it seriously. Fried twinkies? Fried snickers? What the hell? I have never seen this. Ever. And it's certainly not any mainstay of the Southern diet(though I will say that Jack Leonardi's invention, the deep fried roast beef poboy, is, really, a sublimely delicious invention and is probably-no, wait, it is-evil. But I still eat one every once in a while). Peas, butterbeans, greens, okra, tomatoes, etc, etc, etc, are not bad things and we should be doing EVERYTHING THAT WE CAN to encourage school systems, parents, and whoever else is feeding our kids to serve these things. They are part of our culture and native to where we live. THese foods are not expensive, can be had virutally year round in many parts of the South, and are exactly the kind of thing that we should be promoting as eating choices. Have you looked at what your kids eat at school? Do you have any regional specialties on your menus? We used to. Red beans on Monday, Fish on Friday, etc. Today? Naaahh. We have, regardless of the school (my children go to a school that, in my opinion, should be able to serve anything that they want given the cost of the place-but they still serve the same old crap: chicken fingers, tacos, pizza, burgers, etc), developed a system where, mostly, lunch ladies who can cook and care about what they do are a thing of the past. They are just opening up boxes of highly fatty food service glop and plopping onto a tray. I can tell you that in 1969 Monroe, LA (it's a Southern as it gets, trust me) the lunches at Lexington Elementary School were seriously good. They were actually using local produce and putting it together in a way that was so good that parents actually came to school JUST to eat with the kids. All of the things mentioned above were served regularly-greens, corn bread, awesomely good yeast rolls, pork, tons of veg, etc. Why has this changed? Budget probably. But also I think that it's because the schools are cooking for so many more kids today and their kitchens are set up for reheating, not cooking. It just costs too much money to put in a real kitchen anymore. The result is that many children never see Southern food done well, they just see what happens to be, in my opinion, a charicature of the real thing-what most of us grew up eating and in many cases, still eat. So, do I think that kids need to be weaned off of this stuff? Hell no. I think that they should be introduced to it in a healthy way and shown just how good it is and also, maybe more importantly, that they should be shown how local ingredients, their ingredients, can be eaten everyday and that eating locally and supporting the local economy is a damn good thing for them to do for the rest of their low cholesterol consuming lives. That school principle should be shot. He has gotten a rediculous amount of press off of something that is, to me anyway, so wrongheaded and misguided that it doesn't deserve to see the light of day. What the guy should be saying is that his kids should be eating better and that he is going to take a serious look at what he is serving in his lunchroom and how it should be cooked. That's what the guy should be saying and in reality, that's what the press should be saying, as well. Too much time is being spent on a red herring when the real issue should be feeding our children well and educating them about local foods, the history of these foods, and why it's important to cook them well, in a healthy manner, and to eat them. So that's what I think. Carry on.

Casamento's is in a very tough place to do business (or stop doing it, take your pick-either way it's tough). They are just off the corner of Magazine and Napoleon and will have parades FORMING in front oof them for 10 days in a row at all hours of the afternoon. They've always done this, or at least for a long time. Hell, you know, if it's an oyster po boy that you're after, the Acme is not far from there on Prytania. They make a good one-it's not the same, but it's pretty dependable-though that place has been doing tremendous business.

Over the course of my life, when I am in a quandry such as the one that you have posed, I simply ask myself, "What Would Willie Do?" and that has always served me pretty well. Gary Allan handles problems the same way as I, apparently.

I am making a number of calls over the next two days and will ask specifically about Mardi Gras, but usually, most places, with the exception of a few that rent the whole joint out for private parties, will be happy to accomodate you. This is not to say that you shouldn't make rezzies now, though. Many places have limited hours, aren't serving lunch, or have some other problem that make it a damned good idea to get organized ahead of time. Brooks