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The Cynical Chef

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  1. This season my favorite farmer has grown Peaches & Cream and Silverado instead of Silver Queen. The silverado is pretty darn good and the peaches & cream is tops. I don't mind because corn is planted every year so this guy is curious and always looking for something new. So long as he doesn't bulldoze his peach trees to plant mangoes I'm happy.
  2. Actually ended up at Jim n Nicks BBQ. The fried catfish was fine but the smoked beef brisket was miserable and the pork ribs were dull as dirt. The end.
  3. At last year's Food & Wine Festival at Disney World we were next to Joseph Seeletso, Executive Chef of the Phakalane Resort in Botswana, Africa. Jospeh served a delicious & spicy braised beef with flatbread.
  4. Any recs for a respectable lunch in Steel City? Unfortunately all of Frank Stitt's places are closed on Sunday. We will have 4 kids with us but we're not looking for chxn fingers....thank you.
  5. But they will let you decide who has the best Cheesesteak in Philly? You would be safer trying to autorotate a Hughes 500
  6. Chris, Does the helicopter figure into this whole thing or will you be on foot?
  7. Yeah I totally forgot about Georgetown. Kudzu Bakery & Market (120 King Street) is very cool and old Georgetown is so very charming and Southern. Rice Paddy is quaint and you can get great raw seafood from the fish market at the North end of Georgetown harbor. Don't worry about finding it, Georgetown proper is only about a half mile wide! A visit to Huntington State Park is a must. You will see more alligators than you can shake a stick at....but I wouldn't advise doing that. Getting to Sweatmann's from MB would be maybe 4 hours one way. Foster's in Lake City is way closer.....(145 Sauls St, Lake City, SC 29560 Phone: (843) 374-4227) McClellanville Diner is a good choice too. I do like the Fish Camp but the wait times can be astronomical..... For my money though, you have got to get soft shells right out of the tanks in Murrell's.
  8. Bill, Sorry but Myrtle Beach is a culinary wasteland. You will find decent fare at some of the big chains (look for their billboards every 1/4 mile) and plenty of cold beer and margaritas. If you want to drive to Murrell's Inlet just south of MB (20 to 60 minute drive depending on how many DUI induced accidents on the highway) there is a crusty old crabber that will sell you fresh soft shells right out of his holding tanks. PM me and I'll get you some directions cuz I don't want the entire James Beard crew showing up at his house with some sort of lifetime achievement award. Someone could get shot! For a real slice of Carolina coastal life, drive down to McClellanville and eat at the Crab Pot. I think it's still open. Will check and get back to you. There is better food in Pawley's island. Unfortunately the entire state will be in line for shrimp & grits at Louis's. There is also Franks in Pawley's. Franks is good but not memorable. There is also a respectable bistro (Bistro 122 or 242?) on the highway in Pawley's and I am sure that there is good barbecue nearby. There is Foster's BBQ in Lake City but that is inland by a good 45 minutes. I always stop in because it is the real thing. For a real treat you should drive south to Mt Pleasant and eat at Ben Berryhill's Red Drum Gastropub. It may take you 2 hours to get there (you might wait in line for 2 hours at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville or the house of Blues) but it is superb and exciting, much better than anything in Pawley's or Myrtle. Ben will know who you are and will take care of you. You can get his number off my website. I will try to find a decent BBQ place and PM you later. Don't walk on those rocks without your shoes!
  9. Richard, Do NOT go to Miami! There's too much sun, too much sand, too many babes and too much rum......
  10. Next time try some Kentucky Bourbon instead.....
  11. Breaths there a barbecuing region with soul so dead that never to itself has said, "We have the best barbecue. We are the barbecue capitol of the world!" ← I understand your point Holly..... there is tremendous (both civic & culinary) pride that eminates from the various BBQ'ing factions. I wish that South Carolina had the product to back up the boast. It ain't braggin if you can do it
  12. The uniqueness of SC Q is the yellow mustard sauces that can be found in the lower part of the state. My disappointment with the SCBA is that they have taken the stance that South Carolina has the greatest barbecue in the country and will very soon be recognized as the Barbecue Capital of the World as well as the ancestral home of Barbecue in the new World. What on Earth are they smoking cuz it sure ain't pigs! Now if an SCBA member were to win an SCBA event, all that it qualifies them for is a write up in the SCBA newsletter. By snubbing the KC & Memphis contigent they have done a disservice to their members that will win an SCBA event and then may want to go on to a regional event. And the only real difference between the 2 sanctioning bodies is that when judging time comes for a MIM event, the uniqueness of your booth counts towards your overall score. Not so at a KCBS sanctioned event. It is my opinion that the state of Barbecue in South Carolina is in deplorable condition. The general public and most of the traditional media regard Sticky Fingers (with 25 or 30 locations) as the pinnacle of SC Barbecue while in Alabama EVERYONE knows that the original Dreamland or Big Bob's are at the top...TN has Nealy's, NC has Lexington #1. It's too bad that the SCBA was not formed with the intention of improving the condition of Carolina Q. And I know all about Sweatman's but I promise you that Sweatman's is better known in the state of Florida than in SC. Tomorrow I am headed to the NC BBQ Cahmpionships at Tryon and will try my best to find a member of the SCBA.
  13. Last year I joined the SC Barbecue Association because I love barbecue and I live in South Carolina. I should have learned a little bit more before I joined up. I assumed that this group would be in the KC or Memphis camp but not the case. The SCBA is a feifdom unto themselves, not associated with any other sanctioning body. The SCBA also believes that SC can and will be the Barbecue Capitol of the World...and I am not kidding! Do I renew or not my membership or not? To be fair, the SCBA claims that barbecue was started in the New World right here in SC...which may be true but does that mean that the this state can be the Q capital of the world? Why can't they start small and work on improving the sorry state of Q in SC first? Am I just too damn cynical or is there good Q in this state...other than Sweatman's in Holly Hill & Foster's in Lake City.
  14. Wally Joe's Germantown Fine white table cloth restaurant but not exactly in Memphis Ronnie Grisanti & Son's on Poplar The son Judd Grisanti took over several years ago and his food is fabulous Chez Phillipe at the Peabody Hotel Not sure about this one since Jose is no longer there but Phillipe has an exquisite reputation.
  15. Sorry but we are closed on Sunday and since I have never made hot dogs before they my not turn out all that good Sunday night in Greenville near the stadium will be tough. There's always Sticky Fingers if you want something casual, just don't go in there thinking you're going to have fabulous barbecue. The service is prompt and friendly, it's always clean and your food will arrive promptly. Their burgers are good too! Or Barley's for a facsimile of pizza. At Barley's you can get some terrific micro brew but it's a shame that the pie doesn't match the beer quality. There is also a chain pizza joint near the stadium, Mellow Mushroom which probably does a better job than Pizza Hut.... Devereaux's is open on Sunday but it is anything but casual. Same goes for Rick Erwin's. The food at the stadium is no better or no worse than the food at your local county fair. It is reasonably priced though. A standard hot dog will set you back $2.00, sodas are only $1.75 and you can polish it all off with an ice cream for $2.00. The Drive are 50/50 right now but the games I have been to have been exciting, the stadium is clean and attractive and well run and the crowd is polite. As for tail gating, since the stadium does not have it's own parking lot you would be cooking on the street. After the zoo on Monday? There should be several Main Street locations serving lunch on Monday. For something casual We do have a 5 guys burgers on Congaree, there's Sarah's Kitchen on Augusta Road which is my favorite meat & three and Rosalinda's on Pleasantburg but the last time I ate there she had taken a few shortcuts.... Call before you go on Monday because it's Memorial Day so I can't guarantee any of these places will be open.
  16. This award should be given to the "best new restaurant that also spends a ton of money on p/r, is a contributing member of the JB society, is located in a significant city and donates a ton of money to the James Beard Society in the form of the chef making appearances at the JB house and cooking at off premise events that directly benefit the JB Society". Alinea may be the most significant of the 6 nominees but Grant's P/R machine was not strong enough to overcome Danny Meyer's P/R machine.
  17. Spent several days in CA last week and in spite of the rotten weather we had a great time. The food highlight is a toss up between noshing at the Ferry Market and In & Out Burger. We had lunch on Monday at the Ferry Market and we were in heaven! Wine, Oysters, Tacos, Chocolate, Rabbit Rillettes, Cheese, Fruit and Sandwiches like one can only get in California. We spent the better part of 3 hours indulging ourselves at the Market. Dinner that night was at the Argonaut Hotel because one of our little ones was under the weather. Since the Argonaut is a Kimpton Hotel, the food was splendid and the service above average. Next day we headed south. We stopped for lunch at Viognier in San Mateo. Scott Giambastiani is very talented. Our 2 hour lunch was resplendent! Charcuterie plate, handmade noodles, lobster cocktail, artisan cheese, wonderful sourdough and beautiful wines. We then spent 2 nights in Monterey and managed to find the worst restaurant in California: The International House in Pacific Grove. Imagine lasagna and pizza so bad that the cooks at Olive Garden would frown upon it. We meant to eat at Passion Fish but how were we supposed to know that the sidewalks get rolled up at 9:00 PM in PG? The worst part about the I H was their wine list. They only carried the Salmon Creek Collection of wines yet the interior was decorated with perhaps 100 bottles of California wine. Isn't Salmon Creek a third label of Boone's Farm? The next night we managed to find a place only slightly better than the International: Fish Wife. Frozen pre-breaded clams, canned lobster bisque, gloppy chowder and gloomy service. Here's a place that supposed features local seafood and even looks the part. Small & funky with whimsical interior colors but this place was serving crap you would find at a Morrison's Cafeteria. When we walked into the International House we knew we had walked into a dump but walking into Fish Wife we thought we were in for a treat. Those criminals.... In San Luis Obispo we had an amazing breakfast of Pozole over Corn bread, coffee cakes, tender buttermilk pancakes with apple jam and smoked salmon omelettes at Big Sky Cafe, very good sushi at Kimiguri (spelling?), interesting Asian fusion at Chow Nova and had a burger from In & Out. Hot Damn! A fast food restaurant that makes their own fries and idividually toasts each bun. How come I can't get a burger this good from Ruby Tuesday? Before we flew out of SF we had a lovely (and expensive) meal at Boulevard. By then the time change weighed on me like a 50 pound weight and we had been up late the night before. We enjoyed Boulevard but were so darn exhausted. The day of our event in San Luis we went to a farmer's market in the parking lot of an Embassy Suites Hotel and in spite of all the rain we found some gorgeous produce. Artichokes, citrus, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant & herbs and everything came in many shapes and sizes. If walk-in closets weren't going for 500K I would be packing up the family and moving west. Ya'll come see me!
  18. DAMNIT!!! How could they pass over Greenville!? Surely there is a top ten category for cheap meat n three's. I'm moving.......
  19. I have suffered through 2 epsiodes of this mindless claptrap and find the whole thing excruciating. A top chef is not necessarily the best cook in the kitchen. The best chef is the one that brings out the best in his/her cooks! The cooks in a top kitchen are part of a team, all working together towards a common goal: to make the customers happy. On that note, the whiny, self absorbed, ill mannered, read one too many Charlie Trotter picture books, holier than thou Stephen is a dismal failure as an aspiring chef. If he had a real restaurant....He would have to staff his kitchen with Stephen wanna-bes. Who else would work for him? Some of this food is mind numbingly bad....bland, thoughtless, unimaginative rubbish. The producers can get Colicchio & H Keller but the only contestants they could dredge up is this collection of washed up hospital cooks, fluffy wine twerps, granola grinders, brain damaged bungee jumpers, foul mouthed barflies and wanna be actors. And what sort of professional cook doesn't love Octopus! It is Amazing....and these weanies are turning up their noses at it? JoRic is correct. Have these yahoos work in teams and then we'll see what sort of food they can produce. And to think that we were this close to convincing the American Public that cooking is a respectable occupation! What time does Lidia come on?
  20. In August of 1999 I received an invitation from the Food Network to appear on Ready, Set, Cook and that led to 3 appearances on Sara Moulton’s Cooking Live Primetime. At the time I was the Chef of the Augusta Grill restaurant in Greenville, SC. The Grill was a 125 seat, 6 nights a week chef-wrecking machine that served about 1,400 covers over those 6 nights. Our sweltering kitchen was staffed with the usual collection of miscreants and social rejects and we cooked on beat up equipment that was well past its prime. On an average night I dragged myself home around 1:00 AM. When Matt Stillman from the Food Network called and asked me to come to New York I was ecstatic and ever so grateful. I practically passed out when I called my wife to tell her the news. After spending 4 years in that noisy sweatbox of a kitchen I was being rewarded with a few appearances on the Food Network. The week after taping Ready, Set, Cook, Sara Moulton’s producer Mark Dissen called and invited me up to her show. He even asked if I had a recommendation for another chef. I had just read about a guy in Charlotte at the Mimosa Grill, Tom Condron. I gave Mark Tom’s information and Mark told me that I would soon get a contract in the mail and gave me the number of someone at the network if I should have any questions. Mark even asked me if he could make some dinner reservations for us. “Hell yeah you can! How about Gramercy Tavern.” As I hung up the phone I thought that someone at the Food Network must like me. The day of the trip I was incredibly nervous. My wife Amy kept telling me to relax and just be myself. “You’ve done live TV before and you were great, what’s the big deal?” “Sara Moulton! That’s the big deal,” I said. “She’s only Julia Child’s protégé and she’ll probably hate me”. “Oh please,” chides Amy “she will not hate you”. When I get off the plane in Newark there is a limo driver with my name on a placard. “I’m Mr. Malik,” I announce to him and off we go. I check in to the Paramount hotel and eventually catch up to Tom Condron. Tom is originally from England and he is very cordial. We have been asked to spend an hour or so at the studio so that we can familiarize ourselves with the set. Tom is carrying a paper bag and when I inquire he tells me that he has brought his own pork chops for the show. “This is New York and I imagine that the Food Network can get pretty decent pork chops,” I tell him. We arrive at a dreary brick building near the East River. As I ring the bell I am hoping that we will bump into Emeril Lagasse, Curtis Aikens and maybe Jackie Malouf. The guard lets us in, checks out his paperwork then sends us down a long, cold hallway that dissects 2 enormous rooms filled to the ceiling with editing equipment and monitors. Eventually we end up in the prep kitchen and are introduced to the kitchen staff. The prep kitchen is literally overflowing with All Clad & Kitchen Aid appliances. Shiny pots and pans are stacked on steel shelves that line the kitchen and gadgets spill from every drawer. Tom hands the food producer his pork chops and she thanks him then shows us the chops that they had procured for him. They are thin and anemic. Tom’s pork chops are almost 2 inches thick, a rosy hue of pink and nicely marbled. “It’s a good thing that you brought your own chops,” I tell him. We have sent in our recipes about 10 days prior so we spend the next few minutes inspecting the prep for tonight’s show. The theme is Carolina Comfort food so I have decided to prepare she crab soup and scallion cornbread. The director mentions that Jessica Harris, the Southern food historian will also be joining us on the show; yet another reason for me to be intimidated. The food producer goes over the ingredients and the list of steps that she would like us to show. She is very matter of fact and not at all impressed with us. She then takes us on to Sara’s set. My heart is pounding as we are led in. I stop for just a minute to let the reality sink in. Back at the restaurant my sous chef is covering my shift. He’s probably butchering half a dozen bloody strip loins, cursing the clock and trying to guess which cook will pull a no-show, and here I am, smiling and nodding. The Primetime set is quiet, cold, dark and clean. It is also very cramped. Behind Sara’s counter top there is just enough room for 3 barstools, the oven and her refrigerator. On the other side of the counter the studio’s equipment is jammed into every space possible. It is literally a challenge to walk through the room because of the amount of cameras and sound booms. Lights hang from every possible angle and thick electrical cords snake across the floor. On TV one would think that Sara is casually holding court in the kitchen of her country home. In reality she is in the center of an electric beehive. I am genuinely worried about having to use a chef’s knife during the show. My recipe starts with diced onion and celery and I’m certain that I will be shaking so much that I will cut myself. I mention to the food producer that I would like my onions and celery diced prior to the show. We head outside and there is a limo to take us to dinner. While having an amazing meal at the Tavern Tom tells me that his city of Charlotte does not yet have Food Network so he has not seen Sara’s show. “My first and maybe only appearance on Food Network and no one at home will see it!” Tom has cooked for several hot shots in San Francisco, New York and London and as he is telling me what it is like to work for Michael Mina I begin to feel like a pretender. Other than a year at Christian’s in New Orleans I have not worked at a significant restaurant. “Sara’s definitely going to hate me,” I find myself thinking. I brush those thoughts aside and decide to enjoy dinner. The food and wine are impeccable and soon it is time to head back out. We arrive at the studio and are taken directly to the prep kitchen. 4 hours ago this place was dark, cold and quiet but now it is jammed with people and buzzing with energy. I am struck by how casual the production crew is. Cut-off shorts, flip-flops, t-shirts and tattered blue jeans are everywhere. Tom & I are then shown to the green room, which should be called the make up room. A lovely young lady powders me up to prevent the glow of the studio lights from reflecting off of my face. Jessica Harris arrives and introduces herself. Jessica is confident and deliberate and sizes up Tom and I immediately. I just know she is thinking “lightweights” as we exchange pleasantries. The makeup artist finishes with me so I take a seat on the couch, Tom climbs into her chair and that’s when Sara walks in. “Hello there! You must be John. I am so pleased to meet you, I’m Sara.” Sara offers me her hand and I gently squeeze it and smile. She then walks over and says hello to Tom and tells us how delighted she is that the two of us would come all the way to New York for her. She sits down next to me on the couch and with her ever-present smile says that she understands I am from New Orleans and that is one of her favorite cities and who did I work for down there. I am trying to speak, I really am, but the positively radiant Sara Moulton is sitting next to me smiling and wants to know something about me. I feel my mouth opening, words forming and finally a drawn out “uuuhhh” spills forth. I regain some composure then find myself almost yelling: “Christian’s!…I worked at Christian’s Restaurant…..Roland Huet was the Chef.” “Oh, I love Christian’s, what a great restaurant, Roland must be very proud of you” she says. More “uuuhhhs” is about all I can manage. One of the crew comes in and needs her attention. As she is leaving she smiles at Tom and I and says “Relax, you guys will do fine, just have a good time and enjoy yourself.” I find myself imagining that as she got around the corner she was shaking her head and wondering what sort of goofball I was. Mark Dissen arrives in the green room, tells us to relax and enjoy ourselves and more importantly says, “talk to Sara, do NOT look into the camera, just have fun and talk to Sara.” “Talk to Sara”, we repeat. Onto the set we go and it is now a veritable beehive of activity. There are easily 20 people on the set, all talking to one another through headsets. Lights are being adjusted, cameras are being moved and focused, sound checks are done and someone keeps counting down the time. “10 minutes people, 10 minutes!” Of course Tom & I are again told to relax but now my pulse is racing and my hands are starting to sweat. The set director comes over and pours us both big glass of red wine. “Try not to get drunk guys” she jokes. I take a sip thinking it’s faux wine but no, it’s the real thing. The director gives us a few last minute tips. “Do not look into the camera, talk to Sara and look her in the eyes. Do not look at the camera, there’s 5 different cameras and you will never find the right one and you’ll end up looking stupid. Talk to Sara, OK?” “Talk to Sara” I say out loud, “talk to Sara”. Now Sara is on the set and she chats a bit with Tom and I. The energy level in the studio is visibly rising and in no time the director is saying “10 seconds” and everyone gets quiet then at 5 seconds he sticks his hand in the air with his fingers spread out and pulls a finger back for each second then points his forefinger at Sara and we are live. Sara introduces tonight’s theme and then her intro music starts. I quickly sit up straight because I remember that my Mom is watching. Sara gives a welcome to her audience then gets in depth with our theme: the differences between the cuisine of the Carolina Low country and the Carolina Foothills. Tom & I are introduced. I raise my glass of wine as my name is mentioned then I look over at Tom and he has a noticeable line of sweat on his forehead. Sara tells the audience that John is here to cook a low country favorite, she crab soup then she invites me over to her stove. Sara is friendly and comforting. She helps stir the onions and celery as they are cooking, asks about the restaurant, engages Tom, Jessica and I easily in conversation and in no time I have forgotten about the cameras and lights. The 4 of us are in Sara’s country home, cooking in her kitchen, enjoying a glass of wine and discussing the differences of the coastal and foothill regions of North & South Carolina. She ladles the soup into 4 big bowls while I start the cornbread. She helps sift cornmeal then whip eggs and measure buttermilk. She playfully chides Tom for leaving her refrigerator door open and then smiles like a schoolgirl when I produce the previously baked cornbread and cut enormous slices. Sara passes out the cornbread and bites into it and crumbs go everywhere. “This is sooo wonderful,” she coos. I think the soup needs a bit of salt and the cornbread’s a little overdone but Sara has me brimming with confidence. Tom gets up there and we are once again helping each other with his Molasses marinated pork chops with sweet potato hash and tomato jam. His chops are full of flavor and though he has an English accent, he fully understands everything that is wonderful about southern foods. His sweat is gone and he is smiling and enjoying himself. Jessica joins in with her observations on the contributions that different ethnic groups have given to Low country cuisine. All too soon we are done. Sara closes by thanking us and Tom, Jessica and I are all smiles. As the lights go dim I cannot believe that an hour has come and gone. Sara tells Tom & I how great we were and we are grinning like a couple of Cheshire cats. Mark Dissen arrives on the set, thanks us and tells us how well the show went. I am relieved, exhilarated and exhausted and I want the cameras and lights to come back on because it was all so damn exciting. The next evening I am back at work and one of my customers asks me if Sara is as sweet in person as she is on TV. “She certainly is,” I answer. Several years later I read that Sara is leaving the Food Network. One evening I pop in the videotape of my first appearance on her show and only then do I really understand how brilliant of a host she really was. I marvel at Sara’s gracious ability to have taken a couple of nervous nellies like Tom & myself and transformed us into charming houseguests worthy of cooking in her kitchen. Thank you Sara.
  21. Thanks for these comments. New Orleans, right now, today, is still, easily, one of the three most eating cities in the country. Period. What we are missing and will be for a while, are many of the neighborhood joints that were so prevelent here. Slowly, even some of them are coming back. When the insurance companies pay, and things get fixed, people will move back and those corner door groceries will open back up. Sure as rain and hurricanes. The cleaner part could not be more true. It wasn't spotless before the storm, and now it's just a mess. Safer? I'd be willing to bet, without checking, that for the last 6 months we are the safest American city of our size. Dude, we have the NOPD, The Orleans Parish Sherriff's Dept, The INS, The National Guard, elements of the 82nd Airborne, The regular Army, the Coast Guard, and Lord knows who else patrolling out streets, rivers, and airspace. This is a cop shop like no other in the country-and we have waaay better doughnuts and coffee than they would get in Charleston. Well mannered? Better mannered? Have you ever spent any time here? I'm sure that the people in Charleston are very nice and all, but that is pretty much a generalization that I, and dare I say many, completely disagree with. Our manners, our ways, our customs, may be different that EVERYONE ELSE'S in the world, but they are nothing if not friendly and welcoming. We have more houses out of commission than Charleston even has houses. Right now there are, just in New Orleans and the immediate surrounding parishes, roughly 185,000 uninhabitable houses. And the Gulf Coast between Lake Charles and Mobile is not in much better shape, in some parts worse. This has nothing, nothing at all to do with inept politicians or anything else. This is completely related to really bad weather, poorly build levees, and slow paying insurance companies. I ask you, did the power company declare bankruptcy after Hugo? Did you have TWO Hugos in three weeks? Were any of the houses in Charleston underwater for 5 weeks? Does Charleston STILL have dead people in houses around town? I think not. I'm sure that the politics are all squeaky clean over there, and that life is rosy, but the magnitude of the situation here is just a bit different and the comparison is not valid. You should come here and have a look. Everyone who is going to even comment on the situation should. The tune you are singing will change suddenly and dramatically with just one hour in the car with me. Give me a call. As a friendly and welcoming native I will be happy to drive you around and then take you to someone's house, whom you have never met, and who will welcome you with style and grace, and feed you as well as you are going to be fed anywhere in this country. We've been doing it for months. I look forward to seeing you. ← Sorry to get you upset Brooks but I know of what I speak..... Born at Hotel Dieu Hospital, grew up in LaPlace, High School in Destrehan, field trips to the Audobon Zoo, Boy Scout trips to the old Indian mounds in Chalmette, hunted Alligator in the spillway, learned to ski in Ponchartrain, fished in Lake Des Allemandes, hunted ducks in Maurepas, SLU Grad, Delgado Culinary Grad, cooked at Christian's, Eiffel Tower, the old Andrew Jackson in the quarter and Brother's Po-Boys in Hammond. I even appeared on Tom Fitzmorris' radio show. My father was intimately involved in politics, law and the legal system in New Orleans and the surrounding area. We rode out Betsy, Camille and later Hugo and saw the good and the bad. For many years I marvelled at the city corruption (especially contemptable was the corruption within the levee boards of Orleans & Jefferson Parish). The corruption is nothing new, it goes back way past Sidney Barthalemew, Moon Landrieu, Chet Morrison even past Huey. I still have plenty of family and friends in N.O., Metairie, Hammond and LaPlace and have been back twice since Katrina. I still get tears in my eyes when I think about institutions like Angelo Brocatto's, Liuzza's and that Roman Candy guy. Will they come back? I did get off the topic a bit (I apologize) because the article was not about what city is more organized, able or tourist worthy. R.W. was making the point that New Orleans has temporarily lost its appeal and with it the high dolalr tourist interested in significant food. CHarleston is a growing food city with a certain charm and appeal and would be even if N.O were still in the picture. New Orleans will soon regain its composure, its livelihood and its tourists but this herculean task will not be done by the City, State or Federal Governments...it will be done by proud, hardworking never-say-die Louisiana Men (& Women) like yourself. I'll make a deal with you. If you want to fuss at me some more let's just PM one another instead of going public.
  22. Technically yes, a pit is dug in the ground...If you have ever built a Siberian tiger trap then you know that it starts with a pit. A brick or stone fashioned wood burning oven used for slow cooking pork should really be called a "cave".... I wonder how my local DHEC inspector would feel about a below ground pit for smoking pork
  23. In its heyday New Orleans had a greater number of joint cafes, unpretentious diners and fish houses that served great food but were lacking on amenities. Charleston has but a handful of places like that and Bowen's Island Oyster House is a 45 minute drive from Charleston proper. There is maybe 3 or 4 world class white table cloth restaurants in Charleston but another 2 dozen great regional restaurants. New Orleans had an enormous list of memorable dining opportunities......For a city of its size Charleston certainly can compare favorably to New Orleans but if one drives an hour away from Charleston (West) the food gets very bland very quickly. Not so in south Louisiana! If one stays along the Atlantic coast there are more oportunities for memorable food because that's where the high dollar tourism is. Charleston is certainly cleaner, safer and more well mannered than New Orleans could have ever hoped for. And if one were to compare their respective reactions to devastating hurricanes (Hugo vs Katrina) Charleston again comes out on top...way on top! Pity that no one in a position of responsibility in N.O. was able to take a look at Charleston's response to Hugo and learn
  24. Stop in Greenville and pick me up on your way down to Charleston......
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