Mayhaw Man

No mention of these wonderful southern junior league cookbooks would be complete without River Road Recipes. I may be wrong (since I haven't researched it), but I think River Road may be the first, most famous, and best-selling of all. ← River Road, if it wasn't the first (1959) is pretty close to being the first. And, if for nothing else, it's worth buying just for the fact that they are the folks that brought Spinach Madeline to the world. Though you cannot buy Jalapeno Kraft Cheese anymore, it's still pretty swell if you follow the recipe that they have adjusted to. I know chefs with massive talent, Frank Brigsten being one, who make it for their own holiday parties and follow the recipe down the line. It's incredibly good. River Road, however, is a little more of a South Louisiana book and while it's still a great cookbook, the food in it is a bit different than the food from 250 miles up the river. I use them all, often, and enjoy them, but I was just pointing out books from one very well defined area in the South. The Delta might be the home of the blues, but no one got the blues from the food. If anything, that's what kept men and women going through every kind of adversity that can be put on a population. Lunch cheers everyone up. Always.

That's Marie Louise Snelling's recipe and cooking was one of her many, many talents. I liked her (and not just because she gave us the key to her gate to get behind the levee-though it didn't hurt matters, of course). And that is a great way to cook a turkey. I actually enjoy it and that's not my favorite thing to do. Now that I am using Alan Benton's Bacon bacon when cooking it, it's even better.

So, basically, what you're saying, well, maybe if the Saints started winning again, I guess. But right now, well, ummm, bring on the Taaka and Tonic down here. You'll see.

The South that I grew up in and will most likely go ten toes up in is located along the Mississippi River. East or Westside, if you're in the Delta, it's all about the same. I love it there. Very much. Part of the reason has to do with the landscape, part of the reason has to do with the food, but most of the reason has to do with the people who prepare it and how and why they do it. There are lots of good books about Southern food and there are some good books about cooking from the region that I grew up in. Two of my favorites are: The Cotton Country Collection Published in 1972, when I was 12, this book has more to do with what became, for me, an obsession with food in the South than any other single publication. My mom was on the "testing committee" meaning that for about a year, we ate all kinds of stuff that I wasn't used to normally seeing and lots of things that I was, over and over again. While some of the recipes may seem oddly placed, some a bit "antique," (yes, there is a recipe or two that includes canned cream of whatever-just get over it and make the damned stuff. It's not in that book if it's not good to eat) it's a great way to learn about the cooking from the flattest, greenest place in America. It's worth it. Really. Plus, you get the recipe for sweet potatoes from my grandmother Lucille and the recipe for the best lemon squares that you will ever taste from my mother, Brooksie (If it says "Brooksie" you know it's good). and Southern Sideboards is another Jr League book, this one from the nice ladies in Jackson, MS. Printed about the same time as the book above, it's a similar book. The main differences are that the game recipes are better in Cotton Country and the baking recipes are better (imo) in Southern Sideboards (not that it's baking or anything, but the basic pancake recipe in this book seems a bit more complicated than you might think is really needed, but it's amazingly good. Oh boy, I love those things). I highly recommend this book. Both of these books have extensive sections on cooking vegetables which, even now if you hit the right table at dinner (that's lunch in the rest of the world-we eat supper at night) you might see as many as 5 or 6 vegetable dishes on the table. Peas of all sorts, beans, corn, tomatoes, yellow squash, eggplant, and many others including the blessed and most important of southern vegetables, The Pod of the Gods, OKRA. You'll find some pretty straightforward recipes and you'll find some that are a bit more of a challenge to cook, but a rewarding challenge. You'll also, along the way, learn some stuff and what more can you ask of cookbooks? Certainly, I could give you a list of good cookbooks as long as my arm, all of them worth having, but I would say this is a solid and very tasty way to start if you want to learn about this region of what most people call, "The Deep South." (though, in reality, the Delta extends as far north as very Southern Illinois, but most of it is in Western MS, Eastern AR, and Northeastern LA). Good luck!

Glad to see that you've made the right choice, Chris. Being from New Orleans, and being a fried chicken man to begin with, I am crazy about Popeye's, though I don't eat it that often. During the Mardi Gras parade season, though, I eat enough of this stuff to depopulate a house full of fryers. It is the go-to food for the seasoned parade goer who is in a hurry to get home, park the car, and get to his spot on the route. IF you show up with a box, your friends are sure to move over a bit and give you some room. Then again, a bottle of rum works just about as well and is easier to carry. After the storm, one of the first Popeye's to open in the city was the one on Magazine near Napoleon. The day that they opened people were, literally, lining up halfway round the block to get ahold of some of that stuff, as most of us were just looking for something, anything, familiar. I am crazy about their beans as a commercial alternative that is almost as good, sometimes better, than most people's home attempts at the same product. I like the bisquits, as well, though I wish that they weren't quite as salty.

I have all kinds of high end stuff, but if I am just dumping for frying or some kind of quick dressing, I use the 365 stuff from Whole Food. It's good, it's cheap, and has the convenient spout thing that keeps me from pouring it all over the stove when I am multitasking.

Unlike my erudite dining companion, I kinda liked the plantains, but, then again, I pretty much like anything that's fried, so don't count on me to be an accurate judge. Also, I had some Salvadoran style enchiladas that were filled with black beans that I was pretty crazy about. They were surprisingly large, with a thick masa skin (say, maybe, 1/2" thick) and the bean filling was slightly spicy, slightly salty, slightly perfect. They were really inexpensive and would make a good quick lunch. I'll be doing that soon, I suspect. The chiccarones con yucca were the bomb. I loved those things. A really good dish that I had never had, at least not in that form, before. Delicious. Too bad my dining partner is such a fast eater. I would have liked to have had a few more bites. Whatever happened to good manners and sharing? Ms. Manners would have been appalled. I did really like the whole fish, as did my dining partner, so I suppose that's just a matter of taste in terms of "how fried do you want that pesca, buddy?" It was a good piece of fish and pretty easy to bone, which means that they did a good job with it before they brought it out to the table. I'm totally with Busboy on the tomatoes. I just don't get it. Even in an inexpensive kind of place, why serve crappy ones when you can get tasty ones. Good ones, especially in that area of the country with a unusually warm early fall like they are having, aren't that hard to get and not particularly expensive. I bought a whole bag of great ones, probably 7 pounds or so of mixed varieties, on the way home from Rehoboth and I think that the whole deal was about a dollar a poun)d (it was very late in the day, on a Sunday, and the fruit stand guys didn't want any left to take back-but still, they don't cost that much unless you only shop in the Dupont farmers market for them-then they cost alot. That's pretty reasonable no matter how you like to slice them. Anyway, I really liked the place and look forward to going back. As for the neighborhood, well, being from New Orleans and seeing what's going on there gives me some ray of hope. While there is certainly a new, hip factor to the hood, there is also a solid base of multi-ethnic housing all over the place and businesses of all sorts that, according to my friend who has lived in the place for a very long time, mostly have long term leases so they will be able to enjoy the new traffic, as well-either that or sell their leases for a ton of money, which is a good thing too.

I've been several times in the past and always found it pretty swell. Just don't plan on doing much in the way of close contact afterwards with anyone who is allergic to the stinking rose. You won't get very far.

← So Todd, why is it called Mila? ← Lorin, MI-Mississippi LA-Louisiana Slade hails from MS and Alison is from LA. I really like the name for some reason. B

It's a Texas joint so they have ice cream from Texas. You want they should serve some gelato for dessert? Sheesh.

Bravo and the place on the corner (you're talking about the place with the fancy brass railings, right?) are on the same side of the street as Zea. I'm think it's the place that was the St. Charles Porter House bar right before the storm. Either way, that's good news. I'm not a huge fan of the Uptown Baru, but I've heard nothing but good things about the original, unconnected place, in Kenner. Haven't been, but I need to get there. Yeah, it sounds like our old neighborhood is turning around. ← You're right. I don't know why I was thinking the same side of the street. I have to say though, having a brew place next to a health club always seemed like a win/win. I would like to know what Al intends on doing with that hulk of a hotel that he has never so much as cleaned up (or barely, anyway). It must be making Ann Rice wish that she could conjure up a bunch of bloodsuckers to get him.

Are you talking about where Bravo was or that place on the corner across the street that they have been working on forever (actually, Bravo was farther down the street before those cheeseballs bailed out, so it must be the place on the corner)? It looked like they were doing a pretty good job last time I looked. Now if we could just get Al to clean up his part of the world, that end of St Chuck would be looking much perkier.

Well, don't forget, in this particular case, "us" and "them" are kind of the same thing. Tons of well to do Louisianians have places over there and I would imagine that part of the appeal to the restaurants is to know that they are going to have somewhat of a built-in clientele. Hell, even the Broken Egg, a breakfast place on the Northshore, did it. I guess all of them are banking on people eating what they already know. Besides our food is better than theirs and we like to take it with us so it's natural that our places follow us around.

When I was in high school (mid 70's just in case you are keeping score) I knew a couple of guys whose dads were freshwater fisherman (there are harder ways to make a living in the Delta, but you would have to look pretty damned hard to find one) and a big part of their income was catching and selling turtles, primarily alligator snapping turtles, but also big softshells. It was completely legal at that point and I seem to remember that they caught alot of them up North (North where I grew up was anything above the Arkansas line) in the Camden part of the Ouachita River and it's offshoots. I would think that was legal at that time as well. I'm assuming that it still is as long as you have a commercial fishing license, but I really don't know. I bow to Todd on the legal score. Besides, I don't like cleaning the things (wanna talk about gross?!) so I prefer to buy the meat when I occasionally need it. My own turtle bubble was burst when I was 15 or so and the Federal government, looking out for our good health and well being, banned the sale of wild caught map turtles (small ones for use in pet shops) because of concerns about salmonella. Now, why do I remember this little turtle fact? Because my brother Tom and I and our 4 horse Mercury on our 14 foot flat could catch 30 or 40 a day and sell them DIRECTLY to the guy that had the only pet shop in town. We got a quarter a pop and a dollar for the occasional small softshell. It was great money and something we could do while fishing at the same time in the bayou behind our house. Man were we pissed when they ruined that little goldmine.

Just got an answer in the Cooking forum, actually. (Check the thread on the book "Charcuterie"). Apparently the SuperTarget at Perimeter carries Morton's Tender Quick, which is one of the branded curing products I was looking for. Thanks! Edit: http://www.butcher-packer.com/pages-produc...nder-quick.html ← Call Scott at Watershed. He uses the stuff (at least I think he does) and I'm sure he would be happy to sent you in the right direction. Better yet, go eat dinner and ask him then. It's a win/win if you do that. I highly recommend the salmon croquettes. Oh boy, do I like them.

Next time, for something different, you might want to try this one. Like I say in the recipe, if you could can summer, this is what it would taste like.

Ghirardelli Semi Sweet Chocolate Blocks for cooking (sorry, can't tell you what they are really called, because I ate them all during the Federer match the other night). Anyway, they're good. Also, currently coming out of my backyard are about a bazillion figs (floodwaters are great fertilizer-I highly recommend it, distribution is easy though it's kinda hard to control) which are great when cut in half and cold cream with brown sugar is added over the top of them. Jelly Bellys-any flavor. Anytime. Anywhere.

Just get the roux hot enough to sautee in, without burning it, heave in the veg, keep it stirred occasionally with the lid on (if you don't, you'll lose the liquid and much of the flavor as the steam escapes) and you're on your way to some swell eats. Render the sausage seperately (if you don't, the combination of the oil in the roux and the oil in the sausage will give you way too much oil. You won't be happy). Once the veg are soft, then you can add the stock and everything else. Piece of cake. A good piece, as a matter of fact. Have fun. B Oh, and this might be helpful. It's funny going back and reading it now, as life ain't the same no more. But, happily, at least The Gumbo is.

Beaver's, Pope's, whatever. If Monica is running it there are two things that are dead certainties. 1) The food will be delicious 2) It will be an entertaining place to go and you'll want to go back That woman is a dynamo and deserves one hell of a lot more recognition than she gets. I was in Houston in early July (stayed at the most bizarre hotel I have been in for a long time, Hotel Zaza! . Yikes!) for some meetings and we had dinner on Friday night at T'afia. For the record, it was one of the best meals that I have had anywhere, New York, New Orleans, San Fran, Chicago, you name it, in a very long time. Awesome. And at my table were a couple of chefs who have won Beard Awards and a well known reviewer, food writer, Southern gadfly goofball. All of us felt the same way about the meal. Then next morning I went back for the farmers market that she kind of sponsors/hosts and got a chance to spend some time with her. She's a remarkably funny and well spoken woman and I look forward to eating there again. Oh, and as an added bonus, she does a kind of carryout/standup breakfast during the market that is a great value-and there is really good coffee to boot. It's kinda hard to beat. As for the Beaver's thing, she said, "that's what it was already named and that they thought it was kind of funny, so, well, what the hell? Let's just keep the name." If you are in Houston, whatever she is running, you should go there. She has an amazing talent that has to be experienced to be believed.

Well, just for the record, that bunch from DC has been spreading around their generosity at several local restaurants. Last time W was here he ate at Lil Dizzy's, Wayne Baquet's current outpost on Esplanade and then L managed a lunch at the then not open Willie Mae's Scotch House, which is interesting, in that her husband was turned down for a special meal there that would have occurred on the day that he ended up at Lil Dizzie's. I suppose that they both like New Orleans Creole cuisine and bombed out neighborhoods where nobody lives. Who knows. I would hope that, while they were hanging around in the hard hit Treme neighborhood, they both looked across the street at the architecturally pleasing Lafitte Housing Project and called someone to say that it's probably a good idea to redo it instead of tearing it down, but it's hard to tell if they even realized that they were there or not or if anyone pointed them out.

Dean has been a friend, a mentor, and a source of good entertainment for me for a very long time. eGullet has been lucky to have him aboard. I wish him the best. But as for this pig pickin business... As soon as he learns that taking a pig that he has lovingly cooked for 18 hours, perfectly, and then chopping it to bits, mixing up all of the meat, and then pouring some sour vinegar based concoction all over it is not only wrong, but should be a crime, he'll be a much better and infinitely happier man. Good luck with the soccer thing. I'm sure that you are training future Olympians and will get much credit for it down the road.

The trucks will stay, I am willing to bet. If the merchants aren't behind it, it won't fly. Also, I don't know who Oliver Thomas (often a welcome voice of reason at CC meetings) is pandering too, but it is clear that he has some kind of agenda going. What the hell does he care about taco trucks? It's funny that Shelly Midura is all for them. Someone should go park one in front of the Uptowner. It would be fun to see how long she remains in favor of them. Hell, if we had known that I'm sure that we could have talked Greg Sonnier into opening a truck and parking it out there. Sometimes this place is just too screwed up to even comprehend.

Where else are you eating while you are here?

Walk out of the front door of the casino and either walk just a bit to your left on Canal and then right on Decatur. About 8 blocks on your left, catty cornered across from General Jackson, you will find Cafe DuMonde. If you aren't into walking a half mile or so, walk out of the casino, go towards the river, catch a convenient Riverfront streetcar, and ride it to the back of the place. Either way, you aren't far. There used to be a place in the Riverwalk, but honestly, I don't even know what's open in there anymore. It's a nice shopping area (if you like that sort of thing) that now gets so little traffic that it's kind of sad. Even during the holidays it was pretty dead.

The article also says that New Orleans Grill will once again be known as the Grill Room. Is there really a difference? They both sound like generic hotel restaurant names to me. ← Well, Grasshopper, There was a time when saying, "I'm going to the Grill Room for dinner" meant that you were a sophisticated diner. This was, of course, pretty much before any of the places in the Warehouse District had opened up (once again, there was the mostly forgotten but awesome Esther's at the corner of Camp and Julia (now a medical clinic, oddly enough), and Emerils was working on getting going, but for a few years, The Grill Room was a happening place if you were into the semi cutting edge/not so New Orleans meal. It was pretty swell. My point is, of course, that in that price category, bringing back a familiar name is probably a pretty good idea in terms of business.