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Mayhaw Man

eGullet Society staff emeritus
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Everything posted by Mayhaw Man

  1. Perhaps, as a public service, we could sign this guy up here at eGullet and broaden his horizons a bit.
  2. I am afraid that you have lost me again with strange talk of things that don't exist her in the swamp. What is this strange "chuch eye" of which you speak? Is this something I should seek out, or is it something better left to you denizens of the North Country-as I have decided about "Tuna Hot Dish".
  3. Actually I think that you will find several bakeries supplying the things that we need (french bread new orleans style)-Mostly you will see Leidenheimer's, Binder's, and Gendusa's though. It's the brick ovens that do the trick at all three of these old line bakeries (there used to be a fourth-Reising's-but they sold out to Leidenheimer a few years ago. Personally, since I can walk there from my wifes apt, I like Binders (in the Faubourg Marigny kinda down Frenchman St. past and behind Doerr Furniture going towards St Claude Ave). You can go there really early in the morning (on your way home, as is often the case in my case) and get a couple of loaves and some donuts (they are very good) and go home with a little breakfast before you conk out. Binder's is conveniently located just down the street from most of the clubs on Frenchman. Zip (Leidenheimers) makes awesome baguettes though. So I guess it's a toss.
  4. Mayhaw Man

    making sausages

    Cabela's has these. I have the big boy and the thing is great. Incidentally, they sell a kit to add a motor to the thing if he just goes crazy playing with his Sausage. They really are well made and for the price you won't do much better. Incidentally, I know that you were going to the midwest, but you might take a look at the retail locations to see if one is near you. The stores will blow you away. Nothing, anywhere, not even Japan, will prepare you for the targeted (sports and outdoors) retail experience at Cabela's. I hate to shop and would drive a couple of hundred miles to go to one. Unbelievable.
  5. Slim Jims Don't say it's not a meal. It all depends on how many you eat. And I love that crock pot roast as well. It smells great when it has been simmering a few hours and the pot is loaded with thin sliced onions.
  6. I referenced this sight for the photo only. These things are available in any market in MX for under 5 bucks and are the superior citrus squeezers of all times. They come in a couple of sizes and work great and are really efficient. As far as the lemon juice goes, I have frozen it in the past and it seemed to work great.
  7. Try this one. I have found that I really like it alot. 1 small bottle Prudhomme's Meat Magic 1 lb. Dark Brown Sugar Mix Well Rub on the meat about an hour or longer prior to cooking. It's really good.
  8. and.............?
  9. I've been eating yard eggs all of my life. In fact, I have some on the counter now (we go through them fast enough to skip the fridge and I have a cool wire egg basket from France that I like to use) and although I wasn't the one who collected them (my neighbor did) I go over there and get them all of the time whe they are not around and except for a few feathers and perhaps some straw and stuff, they are generally pretty clean. I guess if you left them there long enough they might get kind of yuck, but not with the daily picking that these layers recieve.
  10. I am having King Ranch Casserole for dinner manana and other than the chicken and the tortillas it is pretty much just canned stuff and I make no apologies for it. The stuff is great. I love it hot and I like it cold the next day. Let's face it, sometimes you can't do it all from scratch (although most of the time I seem to, but mainly because I enjoy doing it-not because it is easier or faster).
  11. When I was living Uptown and going to school at UNO we only had one car and I used to bike out Carrollton Ave on sunny days, but on rainy days I took the St Charles Ave Streetcar downtown and transferred to the Elysian Fields bus in front of the Cotton Exchange building on Canal St (you can get along quite well in New Orleans proper without a car with just a little effort). On my way home I often stopped at Kolb's as I had been going there for years growing up with my German grandfather (sometimes I would go to The Pearl next door for beans or oysters). It was always full of really old people and I never gave it much thought until they closed up. THe article that ran in the Picayune at the time quoted the manager as saying that young people just didn't go there and that all of the old time customers were dying off and that there were not enough to keep the place open. It was really sad. They had a menu of German fare that hadn't really changed since the turn of the century and the place was really kind of a cool throwback.
  12. My birthday is in two weeks. I promise, I guarantee, I swear I know what kind of cake I will be dining on (for several days-these things are like the Eveready Bunny of cakes-they last and last) the same kind of cake that I have had for every birthday since 1983. Firm cake, that jelly stuff, and icing that is just slightly resistant to the blade when the knife (use a sharp knife) slices into it. Nothing else like it. I will be eating this Lemon and Chocolate Doberge Cake from Gambino's Bakery in New Orleans! Incidentally, for those readers who don't know what the deal is, order one. They ship overnight and they are totally great a day after they are iced. I love those cakes. Thanks for bringing it up. I can't wait till week after next.
  13. I hate to see this series end. It has been most enjoyable.
  14. Mayhaw Man

    Cooking Shrimp

    Heads! Always heads on for boiling. More flavor!
  15. Today's Picayune ran a very nice piece by Elizabeth Mullener on 2 workers who, together, have worked in the kitchen more than 100 years. It was very well done and I thought that their thoughts on the modernization of the place were very interesting. There are some great photos that Kathy Anderson shot that accompanied the piece. If you can find them you are better at navigating that stupid sight than I am. The Keepers of the Flame
  16. Oddly and sadly true, there is a story about Walt coming here, to St Tammany Parish-Strategically located right in the middle of the Gulf South, right on the 1-10/1-12 split(6 hours from Houston, 7 from Atlanta, 5 from Memphis, etc.)-where it never freezes and the weather is pretty good (albeit hot) year round and looking at a site in the lower half of the Parish for a new Disney East. So many politicians hit him up in his very short visit (once again, well documented by Disney's biographers and local political writers as well) that he got back on his plane shortly after his arrival and continued to a little town in Florida that had real estate that was just as plentiful and cheap and politicians that were a little less greedy. And that, as Paul Harvey is so fond of saying, is the rest of the story.
  17. What prompted the change from regional marketing? Was it pressure from the evil empire in St Louis (former employer-not really evil-just monolithic and megolomiacal) or some interior policy change?
  18. Because Florida extended across what is now South Alabama and South Mississippi and into Louisiana as far as the Mississippi River/Lake Ponchatrain/The Rigolets (If you look on the map you will find that these are (mostly) the "St." Parishes. The Louisiana Purchase was all on the West Side of the River (sort of, it gets complicated considering New Orleans is on the East Bank and a bunch of exceptions like that ). It was all one big hunk of beach front waiting to be developed. Walt Disney would have loved it.
  19. Peach Kernals=Peach Pits Yes? I have never heard this term. Although I did buy a sack full of dried ones one time and used them to smoke some fish with. Big waste of time, but I was trying dammit.
  20. Mayhaw Man

    pocket knife

    Spyderco makes high-quality folding, locking-blade pocketknives. Many of them can be ordered with serrated edges, perfect for thinly slicing a tomato or halving a bagel. A miniature all-stainless-steel Spyderco knife with a curved, serrated blade (the "Cricket") has been my standard take-everywhere-but-airplanes pocketknife for years now, and has sliced everything from bread to sausages. Highly practical. Doesn't look "scary," isn't very big, but will cut anything. Whether you get a stainless blade or not, the steel Spyderco uses is of very high quality. They are offered with plastic (reinforced nylon) or steel handles (plastic makes for a much lighter overall knife but is still quite sturdy.) It's been years since I bought mine, but I'd guess one of these guys could be had for between $40 (plastic handle) and $75 (steel handle) at retail. They can often be found at quite decent discounts online. Hope this helps. I'm with you. Spyderco makes some of the finest pocket knives (for the money) in the world. I have been carrying a smooth edge version of this model in my front pocket for at least ten years. The knives are tough and the blades hold up well. Just a bit of work with my swell Lansky Knife Sharpeners and you are good to go. I like the one hand opeining feature (on all of their knives) as well. I used to be able to get away with carrying it onto the plane, but no more. Gotta send it through in checked luggage these days.
  21. Are Keith's and Rickard's generally available in all provinces? I know that you could get them both in Ontario.
  22. I regularly eat all of that stuff (except possum-ever seen a skinned possum?looks just like a cat-yuck-they are as dry and lean as toast-kind of like giant rats ). Squirrells are damn tasty, although kind of a pain because even a fat one is pretty lean. Had turnip greens last night (although during the summer the greens tend to lean towards bitter-somehow related to the heat-they are much better in the wintertime). Squirrel Suace Piquant is fine dining down here in my neck of the woods.
  23. 1) Pecans 2) Pecans 3) Pecans Incidentally-that's "puh-cons" for you that are pronunciation impaired.
  24. This is a pretty good map of Acadiana, although it uses Parish Lines as boundaries and that is not entirely accurate. Certainly the line could be extended into extreme Southeast Texas (ever been to Sartin's in Sabine Pass? (now apparently moved north to Nederland)-it might as well have been in Lafayette). And parts of several parishes on the Northern Border of Acadiana could easily be included. Anyway, the map broadly supports my triangle description and I can use all of the support that I can get. Incidentally, I live in St Tammany Parish which is located in the part of the map labeled as the Florida Parishes as we were not part of the Louisiana Purchase but were a part of British (and occasionally Spanish) West Florida. West Florida has been part of a number of nations. Louisiana is an interesting place. with a very diverse history.
  25. Actually, vinegar is fine for pickles, salad dressing, and works well in the water to keep boiled eggs from cracking-but on fries? No. Never. I digress- On to Winnipeg and my thoughts to food there. You have to understand that Winnipeg was only a handy stop during this recent round of fishing so this will probably not be as comprehensive as I would like. Frankly, I kind of wish that I had a few more days to kill as I think that the ethnic eating and grocery shopping potential has been highly underrated by most people here. Sure it's a big burg in the Prairie and is apparently looked at as sort of the Lincoln, NB of Canada (No hatemail from Lincolnites, only an example ). A city that exists because it kind of has to as a business center for the area but somewhere with not much to offer. Anyway, after all of the bad press I was not expecting much and was happily suprised. The downtown is somewhat vibrant and much of what I wanted to do could be accessed by foot (although, once again according to local wags, I am lucky to be alive after hoofing it all over Winnipeg) or cab (which are really cheap by New Orleans standards). Anyway, onto the food: On Friday I got the happy news from my lazy as hell brother that since he drove with one of my kids and I was getting the relative pleasure of a) traveling with only one child and b) flying instead of driving north across the fruited plain (say this over and over again-housetreebarnsilohousetreebarnsilohousetreebarnsilohousetreebarnsilotownhousetreebarnsilohousetreebarnsilohousetreebarnsilohousetreebarnsilotownhousetreebarnsilohousetreebarnsilohousetreebarnsilohousetreebarnsilotown- You have just driven through the midwestern US and South Central Canada. Beautiful in a way, but mind numbing for a thousand miles or so) that I could finish up the shopping for a weeks worth of groceries for the cottage in the woods. Shop for 6 guys (not including beer, he wanted to handle that all important task himself-Discuss the State of Canadian Beer Here! Please?) ice it all down, get it ready for air transport, and still be in Kenora for dinner at 8. N.P. I met my youngest brother (a confirmed non shopper, although he can identify good food if forced at gunpoint) and we headed out for Safeway and the adjacent Superstore at the edge of the St. Vitae district in Winnipeg (conveniently located across the road from the St Vitae Curling Club House and Curling Court-a great photo op for those of us who have mo clue at what's up with curling but are somehow fascinated by the strangeness of the sport and end up glued to the TV when it appears late night on ESPN 2 ). First the produce: I found it interesting and refreshing that the location of origin for everything (that I looked at anyway) was very clear. Potatoes from the US and Canada were labeled differently (even if the same type), etc. The selection was great. I could have been anywhere. Now on to the meat. I have no clue if it was just this Safeway, or the state of Canadian Beef in general, but the meat in this store was positively glowing. It was gorgeous. And Cheap! Beef was just great (tasted great too, incidentally) as was the pork. We loaded up on a rib eye to cut for steaks (it had been boned, incidentally, and now that I think of it I don't think that I saw any bone in meat. Is this a result of Mad Cow or just Canadian shopping preference?), big thick pork chops, a couple of kinds of sausages and some great (it turned out to be, anyway) thick cut hickory smoked bacon from Quebec. All in all a very satisfying experience at the meat counter. Thus loaded we headed out of town with a quick backtrack to the Red Top Drive Inn, a place that my keen eyed 11 year old spotted as being "cool". It was, in fact, cool. We had burgers and my brother had a gyro (Greek owned and operated by a guy named Nick-what else?). The burger meat was grilled and served on very good bread (something I found all over during this trip). The fries were semi skinless, hand cut in odd lengths, and fried to very crispy (and I would bet that they were fried in animal fat, although I am not sure about this). The gyro was bursting with meat and peppers-really good in fact. You Winnipeggers and travelers on Hwy One should seek out this fine place. (photos will be added when my brother emails me his, we were using his camera that day-he thought that it was a bit nerdy to be photographing things for a food site and my own easily satisfied pleasure-but he cooperated. After all, he is a bigshot nerd at Dell. On to Kenora, Ontario in the heart of Ontario's Cottage Country. We had dinner at Haps. A restaurant and bar on the Harbor in Kenora. Apparently the most happening spot in Kenora. We had an assortment of TGI McChilibee's type foods and all of it was pretty good. Burgers, steaks, fries (no gravy for me although the more heretical types in my family seemed to enjoy this digression from the right and true way to eat fries) etc. The seating was outside and as long as you were covered with enough deet to kill the nearest flying insects, very pleasant indeed. Breakfast was at at Dino's, a coffee shop on the side of the local Railway hotel (those places are really cool architecturally, as is the Fort Garry in Winnipeg). Great blueberry pancakes and some tasty, very high quality bacon and sausage ( I asked for grits, just for grins. The waitress didn't have any idea what I was talking about ). The coffee here is of pretty high quality for a diner and the place is cheap. We ate there coming and going. I reccomend it. On the way home, after 6 days of eating fish in various ways (walleye and small mouth bass primarily) I was ready for some green food and some red meat. We ended up at Earl's-a HUGE place on the edge of "the Falls" area of Winnipeg right next to the Railway Station. I'm not sure how this happened, perhaps I was tired and didn't express my desire for something interesting. Anyway the combination of very attractive waitstaff, lots of drinks, and some really, really good Canadian Beef seemed to satisfy my dining companions (ever seem an 11 year old tear into 16 ounces of New York Strip after a week of camping? It's a shocking sight ) Actually, on the surface, this is a place I would never have chosen on my own, but I ended up enjoying it quite a bit and my brothers and Dad loved it so I guess I would do it again. Did I mention the attractive waitstaff? I'm sure that I did. Everyone had early flights on Friday and my youngest son and I were left to our own devices. I woke up early (sunset at 10:30 or so and sunrise before 5-it was awesome-I know it's cold up there in the winter but the summer is just great) and headed over to Starbucks in the bottom of the Portage Mall for some dependable coffee and walked over to the Manitoba Capital Building. It was a really interesting place and suprisingly, damn near wide open at 6 in the morning. I wandered back to have a look at the Assinbone River directly behind it and then went for more coffee and woke up the sleeping boy. Boy and I headed to Gunn's Bakery and enjoyed a pretty delicious selection of stuff and then I succumbed and took him to the mall for about an hour of looking at stuff you can buy anywhere else in the world, but he loved it. I did talk him into going across the street to the Hudson's Bay Company and I actually enjoyed that, as it is such a throwback. There are very few downtown "true" department stores left in the US and this place was huge-one block, four or five stories, everything departmentalized. Quite fun, actually. Now, on to lunch. We walked through downtown (managing to avoid all of the ne'erdowells trying to rob us ) and went to King Street and the Chinatown area of Winnipeg. After going through the stock at a couple of local Chinese Groceries and picking up a few things, we headed for Kum Koom Garden, a highly touted (rightly it turned out) dim sum palace. First of all , I was expecting the usual storefront type place that one usually finds this kind of restaurant in but KKG is huge, much more like a cafeteria than a bun shop. And did I mention efficient? Well, let me do that. As soon as you sit down a woman hits the table and takes the beverage order, before her wake clears another woman (the first of 6 different women circulating with 6 or seven items per cart) comes by, offers her wares, and after we chose the one's that we wanted she would snap them into pieces (if appropriate) with her very sharp poultry shears and lay them on the table. This is about one third of the plates. We aren't proud and we don't get to do this very often. It is really great to have children who aren't afraid to try new stuff. He mowed through some pretty unfamiliar foods without even looking up. KKG is now the "best dim sum place in the world!" We ate until we foundered. The aforementioned BBQ Pork Buns were our favorite, but lobster dumplings, steamed shrimp dumplings, spicy pork rib filled dumplings, and some really cool shrimp dumplings with lots of fried dough in a kind of puff deal were some of our favorites. We ate 13 different items (no chicken feet, we'll save that for next time) and loved all of them. Service was great and the servers did their best to explain the items if we asked questions. All in all a superb experience and I would do it again in a minute (in fact, I will next summer as we already made reservations to return-the fishing was awesome and the weather was such a refreshing change from here-90% humidity and rain every day coupled with 95 degree temp). On the way out of town I wanted to take Graham to a couple of institutions so we stopped by a Robin's Donuts for a donut or two (like we needed more yeast, but there's always room for a tasty donut) and at the airport (we had a couple of hours to kill thanks to the really stupid and (this is my own observation of actual happenings) really ineffective Homeland Security Precautions we had to be there really early-we enjoyed another donut and some coffee from Tim Horton's. So he has now covered two ubiquitous Canadian Dining Landmarks. It was a great trip and I look forward to another visit. You Prairie Dwellers need to stop underselling the place. It's a pretty cool looking downtown and in the summer, and extremely interesting place to wander around in. In the Winter-you couldn't get me there with a free ticket and all of the Polar Fleece in Canada. BRRRRRR. To cold for my thin blood. Oh yeah, there is lots and lots of street cart food and Mr Chippie Van type operations. Someone should take some time and analyze these. I had an excellent smokie from a cart on the corner of Portage and Edmonton on Thursday p.m. Good bun steamed and a decent large sausage to go with it. Very Tasty. Are all Canadian cities filled with these food carts? After all of the warnings about the crime epidemic in Downtown Winnipeg I suppose that I am lucky that I made it out with my skin.
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