Dignan

In about the 3rd or so chapter of Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry there's a few pages featuring Gus McCrae sitting by his dutch oven waiting for his sourdough biscuits to rise, while he watches the sun rise and reads his bible . . . .

Her's another freegan story from the Houston Press. This being Thanksgiving here in the US, when we celebrate the bounty of the year, it seems an appropriate revival. Part of this story focuses on their efforts to feed the homeless with found food. The terms used above, "sanctimonius" and "self-righteous" do often seem to fit, as well as unrealistic. At one point a "can of meat" which, if unopened and undamaged was likely the most sanitary and "safe" find of the dumpster dig, is discarded due to the vegan stance. I suspect very few of the homeless lined up to eat that day would have rejected it out of hand. And it's clear to me why an establishment would "protect" its garbage and garbage areas. I imagine all dumpster divers aren't fastidous, so garbage will be strewn about and have to be cleaned up again, at best an annoyance. Then there's the obvious safety and liability issues: dumpsters are repositories for things other than food, as pointed out in the article, which may cause injury directly or indirectly -- broken glass, chemicals, etc. Add spoilage and the years old sludgy residue coating nearly every dumpster I've been near, and I must conclude that eating food from a dumpster isn't just gross, it can be dangerous. I guess what bothers me about their position is that it is the very system they don't wish to participate in is that makes their position possible, and allows them to be aloof and scornful and parasitic all at the same time. Certainly there are ways in which we as a people fail another in many many areas, including food production and distribution, and we can do better. But these absolutist notions about what is "right" in food and what is "wrong" when stretched to hysterical hyperbole will eventually render you without credibility in my mind. It's our wealth and our ability to produce beyond our needs without noticable shortage or delay that makes what is a daily struggle for survival for so many people in this world into a counter-culture pat themselves on the back for these folks. Have a good holiday if that's what today is for you, and if not then please have a good ole' thursday.

Only as a conduit of the management, I agree. I took the complaint as against the sports bar and its management. When you walk into a sports bar, you sit down according to a TV, and what game that TV will be showing. And as their food was served, the game was switched. I saw it as a condemnation of Texadelphia.

I gotta go with Ms. Lamon on this one, Elie. As I spend an inordinate amount of time in sports bars, there's an established protocal for tvs in a sports bar-- once a game has been put on a television and that game is being watched by someone, only in extraordinary circumstances should the channel be changed to something else. My favorite spot usually has all the tv's mapped out and assigned to games prior to broadcast.

My family lived in B'ham about (gulp) 20 years ago when I was in high school. As I recall there were few memorable dining choices. For fancy we went to the Club, which was a private dinner club on the mountain overlooking downtown, and for cuisine we went to Five Points to a place the name of which I find I cannot recall, but where my mother had a garlic custard for dessert that I will not forget. Other than that it was BBQ and Milo's hamburgers and the like. What I do recall was how rare restaurants with a bar in them were at the time. And at that time the family would make frequent excursions to Atlanta, for both the shopping and the food, Panos and Pauls, and another restaurant at the other end of Paces Ferry in Buckhead that was owned by the same folks, and Otto's and Hedgerose Heights and the Buckhead Grille, and other places in the area before it became the nightspot that it became in the late '80s and the restaurant scene moved elsewhere. All that by way of saying that I recall Atlanta with a relatively vigorous restaurant environment 15-20 years ago, though one that has changed alot in that period from the sounds of it.

Nice report, fifi, and great pictures. Thanks! I wish I had known about it. I enjoy just wandering around Spec's, searching the shelves and cases for oddities....

This is the one I remember him writing up. He didn't get thrown out as much as he got chased out ... Bagels Rip My Flesh.

I guess it's looking like it's headed your way, but pretty much to the east from you, so perhaps it won't be so bad (insert sound of me rapping on my noggin, which equals wood). I've a Grandma in FL who didn't need anymore H2O, but sure as hell wouldn't wish it on others. Good luck, and good prep, which I'm sure you've already taken care of.

I'lll bite. I googled it, but can't seem to pin down the nature and character of an "Old Gold." Whatizit?

Here's a pig ear sandwich.

So I had some time today and went to Antone's at 2424 Dunstan in the Village for a "The Original" "Super Po-boy." Super means that there is more meat in the sandwich. It is $3.85 as compared to a regular "The Original" at $3.35. I examined and hefted both and couldn't tell a distinct difference between the two in that fashion -- note that even at the stand alone Antone's the sandwiches were already made and wrapped and sitting in the refrigerated reach in. The sandwich contains the following: ham, provolone, salami, mayo, hot chow chow, and dill pickles. Here's what it looks like (and I apologize for the quality of the pictures -- they were taken with an antiquidated picture cell phone (yes, I used antiquated and picture cell phone all in the same sentence) which I've never really used before. If the pictures hurt your eyes or just generally are useless, let me know and I'll yank them. I took a nice picture of the store itself, but apparently didn't save it). The first is a shot of the sandwich closed, the second is open so that you can sort of see the insides. The red spread is the hot chow chow. My opinion is that is a much better sandwich than the one I bought at Randall's. The bread is of a definate better quality than the foamy hotdog bread at Randall's, though I think I was expecting a sandwich more like a pressed cuban as far as the bread. You can see the cleft in the crust of the baguette in the first photo, and it was an honest one, where as the one on the Randall's bread was the more manufactured cleft like that found on a loaf of sliced white bread. It had a good bite and a good chew. The chow chow applies a mild bit of spice which works nicely with the mayo as well as the pickle at the same time. It was a good sandwich, with a reasonable price. I myself trend towards sandwhich dressings that aren't so creamy, like a spicy mustard, or a vinegar/oil treatment. I would never order mayo on a sandwich, but because of the chow chow (cabbage, vinegar, onions, sweet green peppers, paprika, sugar, salt, and other things) I could enjoy this one. I'll eat another.

I can remember the same thing about restaurants and travelling. My family always dressed like it was a special occasion to do either. I was told that it was because you didn't know who you might meet, and whether you would ever see them again, and therefore you wanted to make a good impression.

And I hear that, they are the Bastognes to which I was refering. [insert here off topic rant that includes discussion of the intersection of the guvmint of these towns and the owners of the local biznesses when responding to a Walmart]. I shudder to think that the influences that impact local SE cuisine will be lost because of big business. But media will infiltrate, and I think that, before the cable/satellite era, the isolation of those areas perpetuated what we remember as important food traditions. Grandma's garden will be lost when Grandma is.... and I for sure hope it won't happen. But if there is a cuisine to be preserved, it has be preserved by folks like us, and its loss can't really be blamed on Target if we don't plant corn and tomatos, and talk to our progeny about it.

That's kinda what I meant with the quotes around "Swedish." I've had the meatballs in the crockpot buffet item lots of times, and I'm certain I've never had an actual honest Swedish meatball, but I've had what people thought were or would call a swedish meatball.

I agree with you, snowangel, I've seen them all around, but those meatballs in glop would probably be advertised as "swedish."

Good luck! I've got people there too, some who took water over Labor Day and don't need anymore. But your gen should be adequate for keeping food stuffs for a few days. The heat is one thing, but enduring it just takes us closer to our forebearers, so think of it as some low level karma as you sweat it out.

I agree with you to a great degree, Carrot Top, because you and some others (need to learn the new multiple post function!) have pointed out the true SE items. Family and tradition and local produce. This is not to say that other areas and cultures do not have the same things. But in the SE they can take a character different than they do in other areas, and that's neither a good or bad thing. Even if you want to break it up into bits of the SE, the same holds. Whether its a cajun crawdad burl, or a low country boil in Savannah, the tradition is the local items that are normally available in abundance and are something to be celebrated. Certainly in Nashville, you won't have the same items, but you will have the same theme and philosophy. I think that is what this thread is about. You could surely do a thread about how different creole and cajun roux are, but they both are important to SE regional cuisines based on abundant local ingredients. There is a lively and vital cuisine in Florida and the SE originating in Cuba and the rest of the Carribean, but that doesn't mean that there is no longer an SE cuisine worthy of discussion because other influences have arrived in the geographic neighborhood. The fact that Florida has lots of people from other places doesn't mean that people in Florida didn't know what to do about food before those people arrived from somewhere else. I've chopped down a cabbage palm to get to the heart for eating. Did it once, I was about 8 years old and in the throes of "My Side of the Mountain" and probably will never do it again, but that counts I think because it was something my older family members were very familiar with, and they taught it to me. And its not that other areas don't have similar experiences, cause they do, but these should not be ignored. I grew up in an relatively urban area of Florida, but had relatives in other areas and would spend a good deal of time each year, holidays and summers, in southern rural areas. We weeded gardens, shelled peas, shucked corn, caught trout and catfish, picked berrys, peaches, tomatos. Where I have to differ, Carrot Top, is that I think this a withering vine. Where I did all the above are now suburbs of Orlando and Atlanta. Cable TV alone put a big hole in the towns I used to enjoy. I sure hope there are holdouts, but they must be virtual Bastognes here and there. A town square versus walmart rant inserted here. I'm not declaring it an evil (why should our rural cousins pay more for an plunger than I do here?), but still lament the change that I saw happen.

The whine reads "Margaret Mika of Houston writes about a restaurant (whose name she doesn't wish to divulge)" (emphasis mine), so it appears the admission was intentional, and I agree curious. Perhaps she is a regular, and will continue to dine there despite her complaint, and doesn't want hard feelings. Cabo's also charge for chips and salsa, but free is more common I think with these ubiquitous tex-mex items. I for one would not pay for them -- if they are there I'll usually eat them, usually too many of them, and usually regret it. It's peculiar, because I don't particularly care for them, but if they are there it's like I go on auto-pilot and munch away. Digression aside, you'd likely get a similar reaction from someone who was charged for table bread in an italian restaurant. The restaurant certainly is entitled to do so, it's just uncommon and as such sort of a minor eyebrow raiser.

There was an incident a year or so ago where someone wrote a fake Whine & Dine about Da Marco. The give away was a rave about the purple onion rings. Friday about noon, folks started showing up there asking for them, and Da Marco's folks kept saying "What are you talking about?" The Houston Press' reported it with the incident with an admission of association Here.

Dagnabbit, I did a search, saw mention of it but nothing on point.... Ah well, now we have Dan's opinion as well.

Here's a test of the Wine Clip, which claims to instantly age wine by means of a clip with magnets affixed to the neck of the bottle, at Dan's Data. Doesn't seem to be very effective. Who woulda thunk? Anyone own one of these things? Have an opinion?

I have to agree. This is the first nostalgia thing in Houston that disappointed me. I had heard about Felix as an institution, and went there first thing (literally the first dinner I had here), but I guess I was actually looking for some more modern tex-mex and was disappointed. It wasn't much more than a Chi Chi's or something, IMO. I understand now why I felt that way, due in no small part to R. Walsh, but it was still a disappointment to me coming from somewhere else. I respect it now as a holdout of the original places that bridged the gap between tex-mex (that introduced anglos to a certain style) and tex-mex (queso and tortillas are no longer enough). And that's fine. But I would not take someone from out of town there to introduce them to anything other than old time Houston.

word I'll second that. Don't get the jackets required policy either. Is there no difference between a "Jackets Required" policy and a "No Tanktops" policy in your mind? You should, in other words be allowed to wear what you wish wherever you choose to give your patronage (provided, I guess, that you aren't exposing what we'll call "private parts")?

There are a couple of Fajita Flats here in Houston....

Also due to the discussion in the aforementioned Houston must eats thread, and specifically Madame fifi's post, I went to Randall's last week and bought a regular original Antones po'boy. I have been here for years but never had had one before, and I must say I was disappointed. The main problem was indeed the bread. Foamy soft hot dog bread, no crust or substance. I was expecting something baguettish. I actually ended up pulling the meat and dressing out of the bread and ate it solo. The rest of the bread went into the bin. I intend to try an Antone's shop and compare.