Varmint

I'd also like to know what the tab was, as I've heard that things can get out of hand at Craft pretty quickly. Plus, I'm planning a NY trip in September and need to decide where to go.

Wow, I've got some ground to cover. Saturday morning, for some strange reason, the planets were in that alignment that caused me to crave children's super-sweetened breakfast cereal. I gave in to temptation and ate a small bowl of (gasp!) Apple Jacks. Man, that was great (with apologies to Tony the Tiger). We were out running errands, and so we had lunch at a Tex-Mex place, and I had a big-ass chicken burrito. I could tell this day wasn't going to be the most health conscious one I've ever had. Nevertheless, I didn't snack (as I was too stuffed to do so). It seems that my stomach has definitely shrunk, as it takes far less food to fill me up. Dinner that even consisted of lots of celery, carrots, and a couple slices of my homemade pesto pizza, the same things the L'il Varmints ate. Mrs. Varmint was off running in a 5K. I did manage to put in a solid half hour on the treadmill – not even my kids wanted to touch me after that. Sunday could have been very bad, but it turned out OK. The kids wanted Krispy Kremes (they want them every weekend, but I give in once every other weekend), so I got them but ate nary a bite. Of course, I made banana pancakes for Mrs. Varmint and myself, but I only ate 2 (she ate 4!!!). For lunch I had some cheese and grapes. I took the oldest L'il Varmint to the farmers market, where we sampled some peaches, blackberries as big as my thumb, and some sort of Mediterranean phyllo-based pastry containing a vanilla and hazlenut custard. It was awesome. I then made what the children requested for dinner: sloppy joes, green beans, home cut French fries, and apple slices. We went out for an hour long walk after dinner. I had a tiny scoop of orange gelato that evening. Breakfast this morning came from the farmers market: a peach and blackberry smoothie. It was pretty damn awesome! I had a large salad for lunch, and I'll likely have a vegetable plate tonight consisting of corn, limas, sautéed green beans, and red-skinned new potatoes. I love the summertime!!!!

Stingy? I ain't charging no $25 a head! The other thing is that we'll be having a fair number of sides. For a 125 pound hog (head removed), you'll end up with about 40 to 50 pounds of meat. Depending on everyone's appetite, that, along with the beer and sides, will feed around 100 people. Yes, there will actually be people who won't eat pork. That's why I'll be smoking about a dozen chickens, too.

Catered events are for tourists! Have fun, though.

Has anyone had a chance to review their new cookbook? I'd love to hear about it. I know kpurvis wrote a short piece on it in the Charlotte Observer, but I'd appreciate others' thoughts.

Enoteca Vin is owned by the same people who own Carolina Wine Company, which is arguably the best wine shop in the Southeast, if not the entire east coast. They have pretty damn good food at Vin, too.

The Waffle House is about 2 and a half miles away -- and it's on the same street as the hotel! No Cracker Barrels, nearby, however. The NC State Fairgrounds are about 3 to 4 miles away. And there's Big Ed's in downtown Raleigh for you, where you can get country ham, scrambled eggs with pork brains, grits and red eye gravy.

I measured distances from the Brownstone yesterday, so y'all would have an idea of walking distances: the NC State campus is about 3 blocks away. A great steak joint is 0.9 miles away (Sullivan's), which would be as far as you'd walk. Within that distance, you can find no fewer than 20 restaurants. We can send you for great pizza (Moonlight -- although it's owned by my wife's cousins, so we're biased), the best wine service in the city, if not the state (with an unbelievable wine by the glass option based on the size of the pour -- Enoteca Vin), a great martini selection -- oops, that's actually another block away (Bogart's), 2 Irish pubs, 2 Chinese restaurants, 2 earthy/crunchy/granola type places, a chili joint, a mexican place, an oyster bar, a sushi joint, a good Italian (518 West), a brew pub (Southend Brewery), a French restaurant (Bistro 607), a sports bar, a Greek fast food place, a hot dog drive in, and Char Grill, a Raleigh hamburger institution. Oh, there's an IHOP along the way, too. Going in the other direction towards the NC State campus, you'll find all the familiar trappings of a college campus, including lots of coffee houses and bagel shops (chains, unfortunately), but also 2 homemade ice cream places, a pretty darned good restaurant (Frazier's). I just wanted folks to know how perfect this location is for y'all!

It will probably still be quite warm then, Marlene, so perhaps an iced coffee with Baileys will be perfect! And thanks for the offer of help. As far as cars and walking are concerned, you'll probably want to rent a car. The hotel is 2.1 miles from my house and is a pleasant walk. It's also within a mile of a number of restaurants and watering holes. It's a 2.1 mile walk to the second oldest Krispy Kreme in the country. The hotel is standard issue Holiday Inn. You won't get luxury, but you'll get a fine, simple room. At that price, it's quite a deal. Thanks again Jaymes.

Did I say that? Well, I'm hoping someone excuses me from that obligation this time around, as I'm going to be fairly busy. However, whipping up a few dozen biscuits and plopping some good country ham on them is pretty damn easy. Anyhow, I want to start recruiting volunteers for the event. This is a thankless job, but I'll be indebted to you. I plan on starting the pig sometime late Friday night. I'll get everything set up, but I really need to get 6 hours of sleep. The early stages of cooking a pig are the most critical: you need to keep the temperature fairly low, right around 200 degrees. This allows the fat to begin the rendering process. Over the course of the night, we'll need to monitor what's going on, keep the firebox going, and add the wood coals to maintain the temperature. I'll need several folks who are night owls to take an hour or two. If I sleep from midnight to 6, I'll be fine for the rest of the day. I'll need help on Saturday, too, of course, but those wee hours will be crucial, and I want to be fairly rested on Saturday. I'll provide liquid refreshments of choice, of course! There will be lots going on, but I appreciate those who will take one for the team! Thanks!

Vengroff is Darren. Varmint is Dean. Mummer is Charlie. Holly is Hollister. hjshorter is Heather. Any more? As far as the comma thing, I'm not sure I follow. Please splain. Thanks.

The La Pizza di Cipolla di Bruna with its combination of sweet and savory seems like an interesting combination that might surprise folks. I'm also wondering about the watermelon tart. How common are watermelons in Sicily? Have you made this tart? I've never done anything with cooked watermelon, and this might be quite a surprising dish. I think I'll experiment tomorrow.

Matthew- Thanks for the Q&A session. We've heard about some of your successes with the Food Network. I'm curious to hear what were some show ideas that you saw or had pitched that were so bad, they were downright funny.

We all need to stand and give Jaymes a rousing ovation. That's great work, and the Raleigh CVB will be sending you their blue ribbon award soon. As they say round here, "Jaymes is as strong as train smoke!" I'll add some other "things to do" items as the event nears. In addition to barbecue and golf, we could arrange for mini-field trips to some local artisanal producers, including goat farms, dairy farms, apiaries, farmers markets.

Gee, I thought all that thong underwear would have helped!! As far as the lifestyle is going, I had a bagel and cream cheese for breakfast. For lunch, I had barbecue, 1 hush puppy, slaw, fries, and a piece of coconut chess pie. One of the finest lunches I've had in awhile! Read about it here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...=97&t=22259&hl= For dinner, I had 8 shrimp, 3 beers, and a couple ounces of pasta salad. It was my sister-in-law's 40th birthday, and the menu was oysters fixed 3 different ways. Oysters are the only food that makes me violently ill. Thus, I'm about to have a 4th beer now that I'm back. Lots of exercise this weekend!!!! Thanks for the words of encouragement, everyone.

Note: Although we all agree that southern cuisine is a hell of a lot more than barbecue, I can't help but return to a good barbecue joint. I intend to write an overview of some of my favorite barbecue restaurants from time to time. I encourage others to write about their favorite joints as well. The best barbecue in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill region of North Carolina is arguably Allen and Son, which is just north of Chapel Hill on Highway 86. It's also the most expensive, but you'll quickly learn why. North Carolina barbecue, as Fat Guy implied, is an acquired taste. It's not loaded with sweet sauces, and the best barbecue lets the flavor of the meat be the featured attraction. A little bit of smoke is an essential characteristic, and unfortunately, that flavor is becoming less and less common. When you do taste a bit of smoke, it's all too often a flavor obtained from a bottle rather than from burning hardwood. Slow cooking barbecue over hickory, oak, pecan or other types of hardwood is a dying tradition, as it's expensive, involves a lot of hard work, and in some cities, is prohibited for environmental reasons. Allen and Son cooks their barbecue the old fashioned way. And the owner, Keith Allen, splits the green hickory by himself – by hand. As a result, I don't mind paying $8.55 for a plate of his barbecue. The place itself is very low key. It's a cinder block building that is tucked behind a small grove of trees, nearly adjacent to the railroad tracks. I've never seen a train on those tracks, but it would be perfect if the freighter cruised by some day. I love the interior because there are stuffed varmints all over the place. An 8-point buck watched me eat every bite of my lunch while a fox guarded the dessert menu. As far as the barbecue is concerned, this is eastern style pork, with hardly a touch of tomato in the sauce. The meat has a touch of that hickory smoke, particularly in the cracklin's that have been cut in for added flavor and a change in texture. The pork chopped fairly coarsely and isn't very fatty, yet it retains a fair amount of moisture. One unusual thing about Allen & Son is their fries, as they're hand cut. Most barbecue joints use frozen fries, and this attention to detail is what distinguishes the restaurant. They need to crisp up the fries by a second quick dip in very hot oil, but they're pretty darned good nonetheless. The hush puppies are made by hand, using a fairly sweet batter that has a bit more cornmeal than many other pups that are too light for my taste. The slaw is fairly standard, but I don't generally rate a place by its slaw. The desserts, however, are what you ultimately remember about Allen & Son. First, they're homemade, including the vanilla ice cream (more of an ice milk, actually) and the banana pudding – no instant pudding at this place. They're damn good, too. The coconut chess pie is the crack of coconut desserts. The banana pudding is served slightly warm, with a perfect meringue and lots of bananas. Cream cheese poundcake, homemade cobblers (made with canned fruit, however – the only downside to the dessert menu), chocolate cake, and even chocolate chip cookies are some of the other choices. Allen and Son is a local treasure. It's in the country, not really near anything, but it's packed at lunch time. Like the rest of Keith Allen's fans, I'm happy to take a 2 hour lunch just to enjoy one of the finer barbecue joints in the state. Allen and Son Barbecue 6203 Millhouse Road Chapel Hill, NC 27516 919-942-7576

This is a blatantly sexist comment due to its generalization, but it comes from personal experience. Women are generally more reluctant to hang around a pig carcass, picking from it. That's much less of a problem with men, for some reason. Thus, pulling out the meat and "processing" it is best for a more civilized type of shindig.

It's been one month and one day since I started this adventure. I've had more than my share of gelato, beef, chinese food, thai food, bagels, and everything else I might crave. I've had baked potatoes, crab cakes, salami, lots of cheese. I've drunk wine, beer, and way too much liquor at our retreat. Before this week, I haven't even thought about exercising. Now I'm just going on a 50 minute walk. And I've lost 12 pounds. I started at 228 and am now down to 216. My pants are getting a bit large. I've got more energy (when I'm not hung over). This shit is pretty cool! Thanks everyone for your support. Oh, I had a beer for dinner, as I was just too stuffed from lunch. Plus, I needed it, as I didn't get home until after 9 PM for the third night in a row. Working can really suck, you know???

I didn't eat a lot of food, just a lot of different things. However, I'm still stuffed and may not eat anything for dinner tonight!

Quickly, now: Dinner last night was an egg white omelet with tomato, salami, gruyere, and garlic. Then a banana. Breakfast today was a banana. Lunch was with Kathi Purvis again. We had Chinese, which included baby fish with peanuts (these were tiny whole minnows fried to a crisp, served with peanuts and some chilis -- this would be a good bar snack with beer); shredded pork with chili pepper, scallions, green pepper, celery; crispy salty whole shrimp (I couldn't eat the heads); and we ordered green beans with shrimp paste, which I didn't try because it had an amazingly powerful stench of stinky socks. We then went to Murray's barbecue, where I had about a third of a barbecue sandwich. We then hit the Hayes Barton Pharmacy to split an incredible piece of coconut cake. I ate about a third of that. I'm still ridiculously stuffed. I fear tomorrow's weigh-in after what I ate today.

I'll just do a simple risotto earlier that day and let it cool. That's a great idea, and something that folks can work with. I'll make a couple of sheets of dough, and leave it to others to top. What would you recommend for a Sicilian style pizza? Will do. I'll take a look at the desserts as well. Thanks a ton!

Yes, there should be plenty of pig pickin's/pig roasts each year. It's just that I'm doing one this fall, so if you're interested in a huge party, it might be worth a trip. Here's the down and dirty: Saturday, October 11 in Raleigh, NC. This is Columbus Day weekend, if you happen to be in an area that celebrates it (we do not). Some people are coming down as early as Thursday, so they can get in a round of golf down in Pinehurst (about an hour away) or for a barbecue tour. From Chicago, I'd recommend taking American, which has direct flights for $164. Our resident travel agent, Jaymes, is actually arranging group rates for hotels and rental cars. We may have a bluegrass band. We WILL have fun. Oh, and there's some pretty good food in the area outside of barbecue. Here's a list of who's coming: Hjshorter + 23 (actually, only +3) (DC area) ZebA + 1-1/2 (Raleigh) Marlene +1 (Toronto) Vengroff +1 (DC) Jaymes (Texas but Missouri by then) =Mark (NJ) =Mark's "bro" Rich maggiethecat (Chi-town) Holly Moore (Philly) KatieLoeb (Philly) Malawry (DC area) edemuth (DC area) Dave the Cook (Hotlanta) Kpurvis (Charlotte) Dlc (Tennessee) Mummer (Philly) claire797 +2 (??) herbacidal (??) (Philly) Blondie (NY) Ditsydine (Raleigh) NewYorkTexan (??) (Austin, TX) Jason & Rachel Perlow (Jersey – in their RV) Timothycdavis (Charlotte) Weka +1 (Cary) Hungry Chris +1 (where are you from?) Jmcgrath (Massachussets) Hscottk is very interested (NJ) Sam Iam is trying to cajole family members to come (Michigan) Tommy is "in", and is starting to really think about being really in now that he's learned that Raleigh isn't totally populated by extras from Deliverance. But he's still probably out. Nickn from Maine realized it's a thousand miles, but is reconsidering. Xanthippe is crazy enough (and easy enough to manipulate) that she's very seriously considering coming from the redwood highlands of California. Aurora is trying to round up the Heartland gang, if only they'd get over their Bourdain hangover. Bourdain has been conspicuously silent. Sorry to hijack this thread. Please return to your regularly scheduled programming.

My favorite beer is the one that happens to be sitting in front of me at that particular moment.

Dean can say this since he's the Master Smoker in the Midwest.... Maybe we could do a Pig Roast in the fall...that would be awesome... Umh, "we" are: Come to North Cackalacky If we can get people from Texas, Missouri, Toronto, Philly, NY, NJ, Mass. and Chicago, too, we can get the rest of you 2nd City folks!

Yes, but only a tourist would do this. Or someone far smarter than I!