Mayhaw Man

I'm pretty sure that is what most people consider to be a safe place with me. I think I remember my wife, 21 years ago, when the hippie minister asked her . "Do you take this man to be your lawful wedded husband?" that her answer was something like, "I do, kind of". As for BBQ in DC, I don't think that the situation is as bad, or as unusual as you might think. For all of the talk about all of these legendary BBQ places all over the Deep South, and occasionally elsewhere-Memphis Minnie's in San Francisco comes to mind, it's pretty terrific- there really aren't that many great ones. Of course, putting that into perspective, even the average ones in the South are probably better than most of the big city wannabees, but not always. There are many many things that can go wrong when cooking a cheap cut of meat for a very long time. It's pretty easy to do OK, moderately difficult to do well, and damn near impossible to do specatacularly. Later this Spring, and early this Summer eGullet will be hosting a related series of events involving BBQ-not only how to, but why and what for and who. We are still working on the particulars, but it is shaping up to be something that even BBQ neophytes can take an interest in and real BBQ freaks will positively love. Stay tuned to this station for more late breaking announcements.

I usually don't try to give personal advice, but, well, this subject calls for an exception. Man, if she doesn't like BBQ, and gets all flipped out with a little sauce on her clothes...... It's your life. Make the right decisions the first time.

The Bright Star is a gem. There are lots of (or there used to be anyway) lots of those around, back when Birmingham was the "Pittsburgh of the South" (that has always been, in my mind, a truly bizarre way to describe a place). The pie is really good. Next time, Holly. Next time.

I might do that. I am beginning work on "peas". Oh such a life. Peas will now fill the hole in the void that tamales have been filling for the last 4 months. I love a Roundtable. A stop in Mindenhall was required everytime that we drove from Monroe to Mobile. I used to love to watch that table spin, fairly groaning with peas, butterbeans, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, corn off of the cob, okra and tomatoes, green beans with bacon or ham, squash casserole, ham, fried chicken, stewed chicken, pork chops, hamburger steak with onion, and many, many other delights. You just sat down with the other travelers, introduced yourself, and started spinning that culinary wheel of fortune. There were no losers in that game of chance.

pterostyrax, Welcome to eGullet. It's nice to see someone from Vicksburg show up. I was there twice this week. Once on my way home from my parent's place in Monroe and the second time as I passed through on my way up 61 to eat a little food. I have a copy of the book that you reference, I believe that it came out of my great aunt's kitchen after she died (in pristine condition, she couldn't cook a lick). It is indeed a gem. But you should really get over to a good bookstore and check out the Folse work, it's nothing short of enthralling. A really well done book. Well written, with a gillion researchers involved, and the photography is done as well, if not better, than the writing. All in all, well worth the money. Brooks

Fried Chicken. It might not cure your friend, but it sure will cheer him up. Can't go wrong with fried chicken.

Willie Mae Seaton, owner on Willie Mae's Scotch House in New Orleans won an award during the recent ceremonies in New York. She is an 88 year old woman who was born in Central Mississippi and moved to New Orleans 65 years ago. She has been operating a little known (until now) but highly respected, and in some ways protected, restaurant in Treme for over 40 years. The food is good. The food is honest. The heart that goes into it, well, you'll need to read this profile of Willie Mae Seaton written by Lolis Eric Elie. And, I don't know if the Beard Awards has ever recognized someone who was writing about the Beard Awards, but this should be the first time if it has never occurred before. Lolis has achieved something that is rarely, almost never, achieved in a short newspaper format. The writing here fairly exudes with a level of respect and understanding that is difficult to feel, much less convey on paper. Most people deserving of respect and recognition in print usually don't get it because the writer can't bang it out-this time is different. I highly reccomend this piece as essential reading. Incidentally, there were a couple of great photographs that went along with this, but because the Picayune Website is awful, they do not appear to serve as a visual compliment to the writing.

ahem...just what exactly happened to your kitchen renovation??? ← I don't even have a drawer, so who am I to talk? I will post a photo tonight. It's pretty depressing, except that it is now filled with my wife's art, since we aren't using the kitchen anyway. And to answer your question, it seems to be going forward. I will post something about it in the other, months dormant thread. The project kept growing in scope, eventually involving the entire house, and that slowed things down a bit. But happily we seem to be close to full speed ahead and I could not be happier.

Where's the photo of the drawer full of rubber bands, paper clips, twist ties, half used note pads, bent screwdrivers, small broken toys, and old wine corks? Did you not plan for this certainty? You should go back in about 2 months and post photos of your cabinet interiors after the "House Beautiful" effect wears off, lest everyone think you are some kind of freak.

Fried mush? ← Certainly not. Here's how! First, make some grits. Better yet, make some cheese grits! Next, put them in a cake pan and let them cool there over night in the icebox The next day (we eat these for breakfast, but who am I to tell you when to fry grits?) heat up some bacon grease (you can use some namby pamby stuff like canola oil or something, but I wouldn't tell anybody that you did it if I were you) and cut the grits out of the pan into managable pieces. Fry them in pretty hot oil, like 375 or so until they are crispy and brown on the outside and warm and delicious on the inside. Fried mush, indeed.

Holly, I didn't realize you were going to be in Brimingham. Go to Bright Star for lunch. It is exactly your kind of place. It is over in Bessemer, which is just a few miles west of downtown, but it's easy to get to and the food and the place, well, you won't regret it. This is a pretty good description of the place. I have been going there for 25 years and look forward to every visit, as much for the "throw back" experience as for the food. Hope you like it, I sure do.

The serving piece for the bison? Was that glass or some kind of acrylic? The Strawberries Argan? Could you describe that in a bit of detail? I notice that there is no ketchup on the table. Was this a problem?

It's in Austin, on Lamar. There is a newfangled location, but you want the real thing. It's is an institution in a town full of them. I go everytime I am there. Food's good and the place is pretty entertaining even without the food. Threadgills can fry a steak.

Good point... I've used Longevity brand a lot for this recipe, usually because it's in the market on the shelf near the Cafe Du Monde French Roast coffee I pick up for the recipe. That's a brand I usually see being used in the restaurants too. Haven't actually tried it with Borden yet myself... ← Recently I have been working on a story about Gulf Coast Vietnamese Food (it is, pretty much without argument, the center of Vietnamese dining in the US) and until I started on this, I was under the impression that Vietnamese in New Orleans used CDM because it was available. I was quite suprised to find out that, to a large degree, it is because they really prefer it. I had some today, at lunch, as a matter of fact. At Cafe Pho Bang-a great pho joint on Veterans Blvd near the airport in New Orleans. And they were using a brand of condensed milk other than Borden, La Lechera-by Nestle-I asked why they were using it and the woman said that it was "not as sweet" as the kind in the red can" (I assume that she meant Eagle Brand, but she was not sure). This is commonly sold here in ethnic markets and also, I recently noticed, at the Dollar General stores-which are now carrying a number of ethnic foods.

If you are going through Tuscaloosa I can't reccomend the Waysider highly enough. It's a great building and really, really good food in the traditional roadhouse style.

These guys are the ones with the big orange billboard heading into the town from the airport. It is right at 1-10 and Power Blvd.

I work in the tallest building in beautiful Kenner, LA. (that's where the airport is-the building is all of 5 floors ). I am on the top floor and can see all the way to downtown on most days (about ten miles). Just down 1-10 from my office is a large bill board that until today seemed to be owned by Harrah's Casino and Larry Flynt's Club in the Quarter. But no more! A new sign went up today that says, simply, in big block letters Demand Louisiana Shrimp I am not really sure who sponsored this, but it is an interesting coincidence considering this topic. While I was trying to find out whose billboard it was I ran across an interesting website that is not really about the business of shrimp, as much as it is about the history of the shrimping business. I reccomend it though, as it is pretty well done. A brief history of Gulf Shrimping

When I was living in Enfield, we used to drive into Dublin frequently for parts (I was building a brewery) and try to time it for evening beers and food at The Porterhouse. The food, primarily various sandwiches, pub type food, and great mussels and oysters, is really good and very dependable. It's a great place with exceptional beers. If you feel like you just want to get all liquored up, you might want to try a couple of these babies or, since you are very near St James Gate, how about a stout? Maybe an Oyster Stout? It's like drinking your meal. It's much better than it sounds. I was once in the Porterhouse and witnessed, easily, 300 Irish guys in full on cowboy gear downing pints and getting ready to go to a Steve Earl show just down the way. It was a very funny, and oddly disconcerting sight. Irish cowboys are usually wearing threadbare sweaters and muddy wellies, but these guys cleaned up right nice.

I believe that most of the Rally's that still exist are primarily in Southern California and New Orleans. The guy that started the chain, Billy Trotter, is from New Orleans (he owned the Chart House on Jackson Square for years and years, man I miss that place). I believe that he, several years ago. sold out to Checkers. Checker's may have taken it to a broader market, but the initial stores were only in New Orleans and San Diego.

That's great news. I have been looking for a new one to upgrade from the Cuisinart in time for the summer peach ice cream season. But that link leaves me with one question: What the hell is an electric ice cream scoop? Is it somehow heated? (this MIGHT make sense. Maybe) Or is it mechanical in some way. (this would be stupid, IMO) Anybody know?

First of all the Emeril issue: Emeril is, and remains, an important part of New Orleans and our food culture here. He is recognized everywhere and inspite of what many naysayers and know-it-alls here say, he is a hell of a chef, a great businessman, and a generally nice guy. Why wouldn't he be a good spokesman for the Gulf Shrimp Guys? Frankly, I can't think of a better one at the moment. Now to the shrimp issue: The combination of environmental issues (t.e.d.s, hurricanes, coastal erosion, etc), the high cost of fuel (you try to start out your day buying a couple of thousand gallons of diesel at $2.25 a gallon and then driving on into work, not knowing if you are going to get paid or not), and a market being depressed by foriegn imports have combined to make it just short of impossible to make a living shrimping. Those guys know that they are important to the economy and to the culture, and they know that somebody is going to catch them, they just want to make a living at it. Maybe if somebody like Emeril, with a fairly broad and occasionally sycophantic audience, really started promoting the things demand would actually go up. Case in point: In 1980 or so, Paul Prudhomme, a brilliant chef and larger than life personality in his own right, came up with a highly seasoned piece of fish that was quickly cooked on a dry, very hot, black iron skillet. This led to, in very short order, the Gulf of Mexico completely getting wiped out of redfish and a ban on commercial redfishing that in some forms still exist today. The price was sky high and fishermen were making out like bandits (admittedly they were shooting themselves in the foot catching all of the fish, but that's another kettle of fish). This bizarre episode almost wiped out a species of fish. Just one guy. Just one dish. I certainly am not promoting that kind of trainwreck, but who is to say that one really popular guy can't have an effect on the sales of a few million pounds of shrimp? Perhaps Emeril will have the same kind of effect on the shrimp market that Paul Prudhomme had on the redfish market. I sure hope so-because right now I can buy really large mixed shrimp (these would be some in the 16-20 range and a few in there above and below) for 2 bucks right off of the boat. Those guys would rather sell them like that than go to all of the trouble of selling them to a dealer. If you're going to lose money, you might as well lose it to your friends and people who admire you-or at least that seems to be the prevailing attitude among the guys I know. I, personally, would be most happy to pay more if it meant that a few more people are going to be able to do what they want to do. Shrimping is very, very hard work and it is beyond me why anyone would want to do it for a living, but I fully support them in their efforts. I buy Louisiana seafood. I buy it because I live in South Louisiana and I would be, let's face it, stupid not to. People come from all over the world to eat the stuff. Maybe with the right kind of promotion they will start to demand it at home, as well.

I passed by at noon today, on my way out of Federal Court (Jury Duty-apparently I am on the hook for a year) and there were at least a 100 people hanging around, looking sunburned a hungry. I think that your best bet is to go real early and plan on it taking a while. Early is usually a good idea, though. It means that there is a pretty good chance that most of the stuff on the menu will be there. Have fun!

Dairy Queen has always been active in this important field: The Beltbuster is a particularly alluring description of a delicious sandwich and the eventual result of enjoying this delight. The Dilly Bar? An excellent description as they are, in fact, scrumpdillyicious. Especially the rare and hard to find cherry dilly. And of course, the bizarrely named Moolatte.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. There's food to be eaten, music to be heard and danced to, and fun to be had. Film at 11. Brooks

THat's known as atmosphere. You can't eat standing in a foot of water just anywhere.