Mayhaw Man

The man from New Jersey hits it on the head again. Now is the time to come, or what you might think of as alte fall (end october early november). On the other hand, serious deals are to be had during the summer on accomodations. Hotels drop down to as cheap as they can get due to the lack of convention business in the summer. I like the heat, but it is not for everybody. And wwinemiles seriously undersold the food at the Jazz Fest. Click the link below my name (best rest. in the world opens soon) to see what I mean. Try the Louisiana Forum index to find out more about New Orleans.

We are in agreement it would seem. On the other hand, I can count on 1 hand the mumber of breweries under 100,000 bbls that have the technical ability AND the interest to watch their beer carefully. We at Abita spent a ton of money per bbl. running a real lab (which was truly unusual at the time) and watching our beer to see what I could grow in it with a general medium and a warm incubator. Happily, we got pretty good at finding the sources of the various spoilage bacteria (people should swab heat exchangers more frequently than they do-they are generally pretty gross) and had a decent (60 day) shelf life without pasteurization. THe real problem was that we shipped lots of draft. You can take great care of the beer, but once it hits a keg, only God knows what will happen to it. It is IMPOSSIBLE to truly clean on of those things (particularly hoff-stephens) and the beer may or may not be treated to decent refrigeration once it leaves the plant. Bulk pastuerization of draft, for many small breweries, would be a major step towards shipping good beer that is gonna go bad quick. Anyway, the point of this thread is a question about additives in beer. Outside of Miller using some stabilizers that they developed themselves to keep beer in flint bottles (they also developed a plastic to keep beer in, Tobacco companies should stay out of the beer business, IMHO) and using enzymes to extract sugars and then later stop chill haze-I don't think that the big boys use much at all. I worked with AB for a couple of years and I can virtually guarantee that they don't.

I am making this fine dish (or a reasonable facsimile) and have a question-did you par boil the sliced potatoes or heave em into the onions and pork raw?

That's a wonderful thing, that tartiflette. Simple and it looks wonderful. I think that you should treat us all to a late night snack.

The "renheitsgebot laws" are a big pile of crap. Sure they sound good, but you wanna talk about chemicals? Get a list of what those guys use to preserve their beer for export. They might as well be pissing in the stuff (it's fairly acidic and would probably work pretty good). If you are drinking close to the brewery and soon after the stuff is brewed "renheitsgebot rules" are just fine, but those guys are no more able to ship their beer over here without adding something to it than a spook. They just throw up that stupid law over and over again as a smokescreen. European brewers who export dump all kinds of goo in their brew. Most European breweries won't put in pasteurizers (which would be a much better choice than most of the stuff they use for stabilization) for export beers (not because they don't like pasteurization, but because they are huge energy hogs and the EU rules don't like to waste energy on heating stuff up and then cooling it right back down-previous to the EU the resistance to pasteurization was that it cost too much and phamaldehyde was much more reasonably priced). Look at the additives list on a beer. You generally won't see any. That is because most of the "additives" that are used are in there to take something out-not to put something in- and they never see the end of the process (protein absorbers used pre filtration come to mind). I'm not saying that people don't use anything other than grain, hops, yeast and water because I know they do-and I, frankly, think that most of us are better off for it. That law is as if there had been a law passed saying that all "real radios" must use vacuum tubes and that any other kind of radio (such as a transistor or one made with digital technology) wasn't a "real radio". Beer is beer. Technology has made the average beer that is purchased in this world a more stable product and one that you can depend on (trust me, aged in tar lined or concrete tanks, unpasteurized beer shipped in wooden barrels to the hinterlands was not better than beer that you can buy in the middle of nowhere today). Better living through chemistry, says I. My hats are off to the ASBC. I ran what became one of the most successful small breweries in the country. We grew like crazy over a ten year period and we did it by using malt, hops, yeast and water-but as we grew and shipping distances became greater, I learned alot about stabilizers and pasteurization-not because I liked it really, but because I liked the customers and wanted to make sure that they received beer that was as close to the beer that I was drinking out of the tank at the brewery as possible. Brewpubs that sell their beer on site don't have to worry about any of this, but shipping breweries do and should worry constantly about how their beer travels and how it is treated out in the shelf world. Face it, everything doesn't jump off of the shelf and having a stable, good to drink beer is important the first time and everytime that the customer picks up a bottle. One of our biggest selling points when the microbrewery movement was in it's infancy was that the beer was fresh, but nowadays the big breweries have caught on and followed out lead with freshness dating and advertising telling folks about it-in fact, I would argue that the large brewery product on the shelf is probably as fresh, if not fresher, than any micro product you can buy outside of it's home area. That's not to say that it tastes better in terms of flavor profile (generally it is all the same and not particularly interesting), just that they can get it on the shelf in a given area faster than the little guys.

OK-let me help out my old friend Pennbrewer here-he's a nice guy and unlike me tries to not step on toes (he also knows more about beer than all of us combined) Outside of MILLER suicidally doing stuff like emotionally attaching itself to a flint bottle and making light beer that utilizes enzymes to reduce chill haze in protein laden light beer-there are very few, if any, chemicals in commercially produced beer-even the cheap stuff. Heat pasteurization kills pretty much any biological evils that are picked up through the process (and unfortunately some of the flavor too), and chill haze generally isn't a problem in large breweries thanks to qualtiy brewing practices and the ability to cellar and filter/centrifuge their products at low temps. Beer, generally, is one of the few products out there that has changed very little in the last 50 years. Technology and the equipment used have certainly changed, but it is still the same basic process-mash-boil-cool-pitch-ferment-age-filter-package- and although many of the agricultural products used have improved or changed as well (better malting barley and the "super alpha hops" come to mind) the process itself has not changed much and neither have the ingredients.

Shredded Wheat with fruit of some sort but only if I am out of ice cream

My friend's place in Bastrop is next to a family whose tendency towards cars-as-landscaping is all too familiar a Texas tradition, but the bamboo growing up through the empty engine bay of their '72 Lincoln is lovely thriving. Yeah, rocks should really hold 'em..... Oh you laugh! But in some parts of Texas cars in the yard are more than just a handsome addition to any well appointed front yard- some folks consider cars in the yard to be art.

Wal Mart should just save themselves some money and post this sign as you pass through customs at all port of entry to the US. It would, after all, be true.

Where do the scallops come from? And more importantly, how much were they? When I can find them here (scallops are not harvested in the Gulf of Mexico very often, although they do exist-something to do with warm water I think) they are as high as a cat's back and often I think that they are skate that has been cut out in rounds, rather than scallops. That is one nice looking dish you concocted though. Just beautiful.

Yes but it's French soup, made with French stuff -in France.

Ummmm....thanks. I'm losing it. I edited my post to what I knew was right in the first place. I'm losing it faster than I thought.

You can't see or do everything and you especially can't let it stress you out. As far as music goes I have a pretty extensive "life list" going, so one of my main criteria is to go see people who might be gone before I get another chance. Charles Brown, Champion Jack Dupree, Clifton Cheniere, Lee Dorsey, etc. all appeared at the Fairgrounds the year before they died (Clifton was playing that big ass accordian while balancing himself in a walker, it was just wonderful to see a man doing something he loved that much when he felt so bad). After that sometimes I just wander until something grabs my ear. This is not a bad way to do it. For example, when looking at the schedule one might never guess that the Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble would be completely knocked out, but they were! (how can you go wrong playing bop classics on 100 variously sized and tuned tubas? It was an amazing thing). I never would have heard Trout Fishing in America except for accidentally walking by the kids tent one year and hearing their hysterically funny and great for kids act. Kanda the Bongo Man (African guy from Africa by way of Paris) in a very stylish set of outfits with limber (literally, these women were made of rubber) and attractive and talented back up singers and dancers playing a fantastic to hear and fun to watch show. How about the time that I walked through the grandstands and witnessed Allen Toussaint and Champion Jack playing 4 handed piano? Wow! Or maybe seeing Fred LeBlanc of Cowboy Mouth (a friend, although sometimes I am loathe to admit it, but he probably is too) climbing to the top of the speaker scaffolding with security climbing up behind him while he was singing some song or another. Maybe the time that James Brown wouldn't come out of his bus (crack does that to you ) and his announcer just kept saying "James Brown, James Brown!" over and over again. Or the time that a storm passed over the Fairgrounds and most of the stages were closed, except for a game and humorous Randy Newman playing "Louisiana" in the pouring rain (if you don't know the first of the lyrics you won't get the importance of the moment). That was one of those moments when the world is just right. I could go on for hours. Figure 7 hours a day at an average of about 6.5 days per year since 83. That's alot of stories. One of the guys that I go with (a writer for the Tuscaloosa News) hasn't missed a DAY since 1979. Lots of stories (including a sadly hysterical one about his 2nd ex wife telling him that he had to decide, right now, between her and the Jazz Fest-guess which one he chose? She really wasn't very much fun, anyway ). Save your money. Change your life. Happy people living free are a good thing. It should happen more often in this world.

A few items to peruse during your weekend web surfing from New Orleans Picayune critic Brett Anderson doesn't like Meauxbar very much, but you might. Meauxbar Review But he's crazy for Tapas Vega Tapas Cafe Susan Tucker, food historian, gives a lecture at the Ogden Museum of Historical Cookbooks and Keegan Gerhard, Chef at the New Orleans Grill at the Windsor COurt, cooks at the Beard House (which should open a branch in New Orleans given that everybody here but the guy behind the grill at Waffle House has cooked there). Assorted Food News Can't figure out where you want to dine tonight? Here are 100 great places 100 Great Places to Eat Marcelle Bienvenue digs onions. She cooks them, too. Marcelle tarts it up Sara Roahen of The Gambit Weekly likes Harbor Soul Food and she is flat crazy about their bananna pudding. Harbor Soul Food And Sara tees off on lunch at the Audobon Golf Course Grill Eating at the Links Sara also likes the cut of Guillory's Meat and Grocery Market in Metairie You can't beat Guillory's Meat. If they're open, I like (and so does Sara Roahan) this place for a great mexican breakfast. Taqueria la Mexicana

I have liberally marinated myself a couple of times with Georgia Moon. It didn't work out very well for me either.

Venison lasagna (deer is very lean, this works great in lasagna) Chili (chili with lean meat, goood) turn it into sausage patties with fresh herbs (add 30% or so of good ground pork) meatballs (once again, add some pork)

Well then, I stand corrected (actually I am sitting, but I think you get my drift ).

I just finished one that I loved. I am a reader of information and rarely get sucked up in the emotional side of things, but I highly reccomend this to anyone looking for a good read. It's one of those things that just makes the whole thing seem better (whatever that means). Google on the book, the reviews sound just as dumb as my explanation, but the general consensus is that there is "something about this book". If you like Tom Robbins and you like Larry McMurtry and ever wondered what a combo of the two might be like, this is probably it. Anyway, if you order it through the nice folks at Amazon with this link Fat Guy and Jason can continue to keep this thing operating. The Blue Moon Circus

I am enjoying a Barq's Floatz at my desk right now. I don't reccomend that you try it Pickles. This drink is a combination of the two flavors you mentioned as evil. I, on the other hand, find this to be a fine combination. As far as belching and farting go, while it should be a highly private affair, I think that you should consider the alternative (see the food scene in The Meaning of Life-The very funny Monty Python skit/movie-"Would you like a mint? They're wafer thin."), there would be people expoding all over the place. As far as ranch dressing goes, I love raw vegetables dipped in the stuff. This post has been edited because of an apparent early onset of Alheimer's. Either that or I'm an idiot. Or both.

Paz, Thank you for correcting me, but somewhere around here I have a whole thread discussing the German coast and why it is the center of Andouille making in Louisiana. I do, however, believe that there is some good sausage to be had in Acadiana and I believe that you will see my link to Jacob's in LaPlace. In fact, I can easily make the argument that the sausage from Poche's is as good and just as traditional as anything that they have in La Place. Incidentally, I can drive to La Place in about 45 minutes and often choose to drive the extra 45 and go to Breaux Bridge instead to fill up the ice chest. Just personal preference I guess. While this is not about andouille, it is about the area that Paz so kindly mentioned. THe article is about the production of Head Cheese in the traditional manner, but it has a good general explanation of the area. Hogs Head Cheese on the German Coast The Jacob's Andouille Website shows how proud they are of their German Heritage. Thanks for pointing out my weakness for the sausages of Acadiana. It's all true. Every word of it.

Acutally, if you follow the sorbet recipe I reccomended in my blog you can do a totally acceptable version of it in the freezer. It does take a fair amount of going back and stirring regularly, and the ice crystals tend to be a bit large, but it really is good (the color is the best part, just gorgeous). I still haven't gotten around to putting the recipe in recipe gullet, but I will try to remember to do it when I get home from lunch.

Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. French Strawberries. I'm sure they are delicious. Probably an import from Louisiana.

Google Priceline Hotwire Travelocity How many frequent flyer miles do I have available? Must go back to France. Now! When I asked you to do this I was thinking that it would be nice to have someone from France blog. I was not thinking that it would require rethinking travel plans and cost me lots of money.

Owen, You might want to try to hit the decaf for the rest of the morning, buddy. On the other hand, what is it that the hip kids say these days? Word! to Owen. His remarks (especially as they realate to the deep South and the manner in which Wal Mart selects most of their store locations) are exactly on target. There has been a recent and much publicized exception to their suburban building in New Orleans though. Wal Mart will be building a Supercenter (the first one in Orleans parish) on the site of the old St Thomas Housing Project in the Tchopitoulas Corridor-very near the convention center) and many fought hard and long to keep it out. Oddly, it appeared to me (I did not have a dog in this hunt, so I am just an observer) that the people who did not want it around were the people who could afford to, and had the ability to, head out to the burbs to discount shop and that the people who supported WalMart were the ones that saw themselves as potential discount shoppers. If you google a bit on New Orleans+Wal Mart+St Thomas you should be able to find lots of interesting reading on this specific subject and the subject of who shops at Wal Mart and why. The construction has started, so the argument at this point is pretty much moot, but it was an interesting fight.

Local soft drinks can be a big hit as well (Cheerwine comes to mind). They are not expensive, and can be purchased even less expensively by the case. Local chips can be another interesting item to add.