My Confusing Horoscope

We're going to Lafayette in June. We usually buy about 30-50 pounds of fresh shrimp to take home with us in Maryland, but this year my wife is skeptical about their safety since the hurricanes last year. Have you seen any reports on the safety of shrimp down there this year? Your own experiences? Thanks.

We were just talking like this on one of the music discussion boards I frequent (troll?). Never mind which genre we were disparaging. Great line!

The best time is September. That is the peak of the season. They should be fresh then. They're very good at Seafood Express Market in Delcambre, LA 102 North Richard Street, Delcambre, LA 70528 (337) 685-5708 They're very lean, mostly white meat. A thin casing so they they might not be best for grilling, but they sure are good in a sauce piquante!

New Orleans -- add chicory coffee, beignets, poboys, King cake Keep gumbo and jambalaya. But not crawfish. Sure, you can get crawfish in NO, but that mostly migrated from the Acadiana region where they were first farmed in great numbers. You can hear Cajun and Zydeco music in NO but it migrated there from Acadiana. You would associate NO with jazz, which originated there. 2 sense

Jaymes, how's the chicken fried steak at the Broken Spoke? We went to this historic, hopping dancehall a couple of years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it! Alvin Crow's band was playing. Thanks for all the recs as I might be down that way in June!

I noticed they fussed Andy once because his tone was "too instructional." Go for it Andy! That's what I want in a host. No offense, but some of the contestants seemed like they were just showing off. Maybe that spells "personality" to some people, but not everybody. Andy was more laid back, and his food looked like it would be quite tasty. I thought the Hispanic lady was pretty mad at the blond who was negative about what she was doing in the team cooking segment. To get booted off before that lady must have been hard to swallow. Did I read that wrong?

We've been enjoying it at our house. I guess we missed the first series, though. It gives you an appreciation for how hard it must be to do a show and make it look smooth and easy! What I like best is the advice of the real cooking show hosts. You get an idea what they think is important, what they think works or doesn't work. I really thought the Hispanic lady was going to do better, but the judges didn't really go for her cooking too much. They liked her TV presence but her food just wasn't that special. I guess Guy has the skills and the personality, but both he and Reggie use ingredients assuming we know what they are, why they are being used. They leave me, the viewer, out of the loop because I don't understand what they are doing. The best cooking show hosts do a lot more explaining, it seems to me. I am not too sure about some of the advice they are being given, like personalizing the show, showing who you are, etc. It looks forced when out of the blue Nathan tells you he'll be cooking this dish because his niece loves it. I don't know his niece and I didn't need to hear that. It just seemed forced. The guy already has a lot of personality shining through. I also like cooking show hosts who seem to have a past, telling you stories of where they got their ideas, their love of food, etc. So far I get no sense of where the contestants are coming from. On Lidia's show on PBS you really get a sense of where she's coming from. If you ever saw John Folse's show, he comes across that way, too. Paul Prudhomme does, too.

Agreed! It was nice meeting fellow eGullet folks, and Malawry's description is right on. Thanks, Pontormo. Our Year of the Dog is off to a great start! Did anybody have the chicken and ginger casserole? That was pretty good, too. Our favorites were the ribs, the rockfish (head on), the flounder steak, and the oyster omelette. We'll be visiting again. Big menu. Gotta try pamphlet!

My wife and I would like to expand our horizons, so some suggestions from Bob would be good for us. We're doing our homework, though, and could probably order a la carte if that is what we as a group decide. Soup sounds like a good choice, and a whole fish for good luck. There's a pork "burger" that sounds good, and an egg and oyster casserole, if I remember right. Not "musts," by any means. Looking forward to it!

fricassaw (leftover fricassee) gumbolaya (gumbo served with so much rice you can hardly see the "soup")

My sister tells me there is a good steak place at the new Evangeline Downs and Casino, which I guess is now close to Opelousas. Is it Silks? Is it good? Not new, but I had my first try last May at Joe's Dreyfus Store Restaurant in Livonia, off US190 between Opelousas and Baton Rouge. Anyone else been there?

If the chef's entree was copyrighted, did I bring new meaning to the term "derivative work" when I digested it?

This copyright discussion is getting to me. The law assumes that I am so DISINCLINED to be creative, I need a STRONG economic incentive like copyright. Hence this absurd scenario applies: I will not so much as write down my ARTISTIC, creative recipe for 3 minute eggs unless I have ironclad guarantees that not only will I be able to receive financial rewards from it, but also my next 3 generations of descendants, who apparently have no inclination to be creative, either, or even fend for themselves! Where's the soapbox smilie when you need it?

The food is not copyrightable at all. This is the actual list of copyrightable material given at the U.S. Copyright Office site 1. literary works 2. musical works, including any accompanying words 3. dramatic works, including any accompanying music 4. pantomimes and choreographic works 5. pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works 6. motion pictures and other audiovisual works 7. sound recordings 8. architectural works Another category of works covered in U.S. copyright law, strangely enough is vessel hulls. I was being facetious above with my joke, but here I am not. This list does NOT include appetizers, entrees, desserts, wines, etc. The chef's roasted pigeon or whatever has nothing to do with copyright law. A judge would first go through this list of 8 categories and throw out a claim of copyright infringement. The contrary would be absurd if the chef's sweet potato cake were covered by copyright law for 70 years beyond the death of the baker, as the term of copyright is 70 years beyond the death of the creator (in the economic interest of the creator, her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.... whoa, that's a lot of looking after the economic interests of the creator!)

Creative Chefs can turn to recent changes in the copyright law outlining what is covered by copyright: Copyrightable works include the following categories: 1. Used to be literary works; now is appertizers 2. Used to be musical works, including any accompanying words; now is soups 3. Used to be dramatic works, including any accompanying music; now is salads 4. Used to be pantomimes and choreographic works; now is cheeses 5. Used to be pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; now is entrees 6. Used to be motion pictures and other audiovisual works; now is desserts 7. Used to be sound recordings; now is wines 8. Used to be architectural works; now is other beverages

Great looking jambalaya! This can't be what someone earlier referred to as red rice? I make the Andouille and Cabbage Jambalaya from the Prudhomme Family Cookbook (Darilee and Saul's recipe). It calls for a bit of tomato too. I usually use kielbasa since I don't have andouille. I hope to make it to Jacob's on my next trip to LA.

They work well in a shrimp and egg gumbo with a really dark roux.

Story here

Nice piece! I know the feeling! And I hope the little girl still plays her clarinet to Good King Wenceslas...

Definitely interested in Vermilion, Acadia, and Lafayette parishes. I won't be down there until next May. Delcambre is where we get our supply of shrimp for the year up here in Maryland (head them at $3 a pound for the mediums, pack them in freezer bags with a little water, then freeze them--good for a year!). I suspect not next year if the shrimp fleet was damaged. I heard the oysters are still good, so of course you will report from Abbeville about that? Would also be interested in Baton Rouge and Lake Charles if you should travel there. I suppose Henry, Esther, Intracoastal, PI, and Cameron are not the same. What about Suire's grocery in Cow Island? Best turtle sauce piquante you can get down there at a lunch stop. Happy Thanksgiving and good luck to your family and neighbors in Erath!

Taco Bell's Five Ingredients Combined in Totally New Way

There haven't been any notes about this place since summer! We were thinking of going there for a special occasion in a couple of weeks. Are they still open for dinner? Anyone visited lately, any idea what's on the menu?

I've seen detailed recipes that end with "cook until done." Since I naturally prefer to overdo or underdo things, that's good advice! Now, at what temperature and for how long?

Down Route 1 in Riverdale there is the Calvert House Inn. Good fish and seafood, some pasta dishes.

I am sure it's good but this looks like chicken soup with some okra thrown in. Not an okra gumbo a la southwest Louisiana. For the strongest okra flavor, see http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=37077&st=210 at post 240 Okra gumbo without roux is not just decent, it's great. If the okra is cooked down enough, it thickens like a roux, so adding roux to an okra gumbo is like adding roux to roux, i.e. too thick, plus overpowering the wonderful flavor of the okra.