Carrot Top

The Southeast is a really mixed bag. You do have the marvelous and dynamic big cities with so much to offer in many varieties of ways. Then there is Florida which is a place unlike any other...it is just Florida...just as California is California. Florida has a distinctive personality because so many people have been drawn to it from other places. And then there's the rest of the Southeast...as FistFullaRoux says, 'tempo, tradition, family'. A lot of this part of the country is rural, and there is very little money or industry in many places. Families have lived in the same towns for generations. Lots of people have grown up on small farms and have never moved away from the area they were born in. There are many rather isolated areas where people from other places would never move to, because there is no industry and no 'culture' of a higher sort...there is just the day and the night and nature and food and church and family. Besides never meeting any 'city folk', the children that grow up here hardly ever meet anyone from a different ethnic background than their own (English/Irish/Scots) because of the isolation. This can change when they grow, for one of the options for 'work' is for them to enter the armed forces. In a nutshell, it is a world that can resemble the world before such intensive communications and travel options were available for all of us. It is quieter, slower, generally much more hospitable (forgive me, but I've never met a rude or unfriendly hillbilly...they have beautiful manners of an sort not seen often elsewhere) and life is based on what the world has offered up right there, that very day...not upon what can be dragged or kicked or forced out of it, nor on what can be bought on credit. Of course this includes food. There are no 'farmer's markets' because everyone grows their own. It is a more private sort of world in these rural areas. They like the way things are and do not want to change it. A very special part of the world. In the small town I lived in for four years, I saw incredible support and generosity given to those in need...such as when a family's house burned down, or a husband and father died...the love that came from the community with real feeling and real support was...one of the finest things I've ever seen in my life. These rural areas can be heartbreaking to an outsider who sees missing opportunities for the children, both in schooling and in 'high culture', but I am not so sure that it is the outsider...that has the right to speak, anymore. To each their own choices of lifes and joys and challenges.

How did it come out, ludja? Did you have time to make it yet? It sounds truly delicious....

bloviatrix, what a good comment. And I wonder if some of those new waters they are selling now...with all sorts of sustaining this's and that's pumped into them ( geez don't I sound intelligent here... ) would be additionally helpful in keeping one's blood sugar level for the extended time...

Hmmm...yes...and puff pastry would be nice with liverwurst too!! But what sort of mushrooms would do? Not enough flavor in the usual 'button' mushrooms...shiitake too dense perhaps....porcini/cremini have a slight tang that might not work...enoki would have to be it...what do you think?

Boy this is an active bunch. I am imagining everyone on this thread, together in the same grocery store. It would be a bevy of busy-ness, and very exciting. Most of the people I see in grocery stores sort of wander and throw things with not much interest into their baskets... My favorite thing is not poking turning or closely examining but moreso patting. Sometimes this serves a useful purpose, as with melons, but more often is it just a fruitless but pleasant exercise. Nice to give the chicken a couple of pats before you choose it, satisfying to pat a loaf of bread before picking it up.They all make different 'sounds'...very entertaining. Sort of soul-satisfying in an odd way.

If it were me, to keep it quick and simple, I would put the whole thing on top of a nice piece of pumpernickle toast. But low-carb...yikes. I have heard that the low-carb bread they sell is not too great. Another idea would be to put the whole thing on potatoes...say made into something like roesti potatoes....nice and crispy and browned themselves on the outside....or another idea...maybe baked into a hollowed-out tomato and served warm? Classic...low-carb...make the base be a thinly sliced seared medium rare steak... Mmm. Or...use frisee or chicory, tossed in a light lemon-y dressing to place underneath it all, and top the whole thing with...what do you call them...grattons? crispy little rendered bits of chicken skins.... The honey idea is a good one. Others might be a horseradish cream sauce or dressing....or with a sweet and slightly sour sauce made from lingonberries, or red currant jelly in a pinch...

But you have to admit that one of the things that is admirable about the Japanese and the Chinese are the often allowed intense loudnesses of their languages in public. Here back in America we mothers turn bright purple and have conniptions as we gently oh so calmly (grrrrr...) and most of all quietly! please...try to corral the kids in, in the same ways. Ah, for a good scream! I personally find that if my children accompany me grocery shopping, the bill increases by 20 percent. I figure by the time they are in about third grade, they have learned just by watching, how to shop...and then their minds turn to taking advantage of the situation. I've decided at the age of 14 my daughter will be allowed to do the shopping, with a list written by me, while I read the newspaper in the car. My son, also...when he gets that old. Best way to learn is by throwing them the ball, seems to me. Oh, got off track here. Forgot to mention that not only do I check the stuff I buy, but I check the prices that came up on the receipt. There are often mistakes here due to inaccurate price insertion in the computer systems....

And thank you, once again, GG, for your thoughtfulness and fantastic research skills!

NulloModo, that just sounds too ravishingly delicious. I can not believe we are discussing....liverwurst? Betcha crisp fried (not battered) onions would be great with liverwurst and eggs, but do not know if they are allowed on a low-carb diet....

And here's another question...having just read the eGullet piece on Diwali and learning a bit more about the holiday, I wonder if someone could tell us a bit more about Yom Kippur in general, the food and other traditions... P.S. Wow, Lalitha...that's an incredible amount of information...it seems that Indian life is intensely connected with food....(and why not?!)

Hmmm. Why do I think there is an Indian festival that has a fast as part of it... obviously it is not Divali....does anyone know of any other fasts that take place at other times in other cultures for religious purposes? I hope it is not simply my memory playing tricks on me, as was discussed in another forum...maybe hearing 'Eat your food there are people starving in India' transferred itself into an idea of some sort of Indian fast in my mind as a child...whew that would be an odd synapse lapse.

snowangel, when even such a fancy guy as Curnonsky writes 'Cuisine is when things taste like themselves', and 'In cooking, as in all the arts, simplicity is the sign of perfection'....well...you've just gotta realize that what you have offered up to us in your blog is right up there on top of the totem pole in terms of what would be considered fine food. Or in other words, if something isn't broken, why fix it? Your descriptions of your life and family are charming and appreciated...

One thing that any corporation (or any organization that was put together in ways that closely resemble such a thing) will avoid like the plague is to admit malfeasance or wrongdoing. To do so leads right smack dab into a wide variety of expensive and time-consuming lawsuits. (Not to mention the loss of face.) Therefore comes the corporatespeak. It admits no wrong, says not too much of anything specific, and has no 'mouthfeel' at all, if you could taste it. It is what one can expect, and it is always served up in the same fashion. Standardized recipe, you know. Could be that there will be a different direction taken by the Foundation now, but also could be that there will not be. It would be interesting to hear the meetings that are going on behind closed doors. Their first priority is to keep themselves 'safe', legally and financially. After that, the field is wide open. Will they change their previous style and philosophies? That will depend on whether they believe that in doing so they will become more of what they 'should be', whether they believe that in doing so it will bring in more money to support such changes, and bottom line, the Board's own personality itself including which person on that board has the most persuasive and determined personality during those times that they are meeting together. The only soft spot I can see is that this is not quite a 'private' foundation in ways that some others are. If money is coming solely from individual contributions, there is no way to say 'hey we don't like what you're doing'. But if there is money coming from more generalized places or groups that give because they want to see this Top Dog Name Food Arts Foundation be...a broad-based non-exclusive agent in moving forward the state of this art...then there is something to put one's teeth into and bite at.

I am curious not only what is served to break the fast of Yom Kippur but also curious about what traditional foods are served during Ramadan and Divali (I think there is some element of fasting during Divali but could be wrong?). Not sure whether to start a new thread here or whether doggirl would mind if this thread could be stretched to include these holidays...?

I only remember two jokes. (Wierd, I know, but there have to be some joke-tellers and some laughers in this world...I am the second). Here are the two I know: One is about a JAP and does have something to do with food, the second is about a WASP and has nothing to do with food. That, is a sad joke right there. ---Q. What is a JAP's favorite wine? A. "When are you going to take me to Bermuuuuuuuuuddddaaaa?" ---Q. How do you tell the bride in the photographs of a WASP wedding? A. She's the one in all the pictures that's kissing the Golden Retriever.

If the kids take to the word in aid of the direction a parent wants them to go..what can I say? Of course, then I say...great word. Give it to me!

Pork sprouts and beef blossoms are usually only found in untended pastures, and are few and far between, as most are trodden upon and snapped right into oblivion under the animal's hooves. Handle carefully and wear a mask while cooking. Let us know how it tastes, please. P.S. I am also selling tickets to a very special snipe hunt if you are interested...

Congratulations on your bravery and intrepid determination and not least, your cooking skills. It turned out looking very tasty!

Strange...in reviewing the words they chose for winners in past years it seems there are some entire years I must have slept through somehow, for I can not recognize the words they chose or even guess what they meant... Maybe I can do the same this year and therefore erase that flexitarian thing from my mind. Though I did like one other winner: 'Ass Hat'. What a novel idea. It used to be 'wipe', now it is 'hat'. I've got to get out more, obviously.

I've used suzilightling's coffeepot water and eggwhite method while living on a boat, in the past...once saw it referred to as the 'Maine Brew Method' as in the State of Maine...(no idea why, my family is from there and the coffee is not usually that rawly prepared!) It is useful, too, to have instant coffee available, just to get some caffeine in your system without having to think or work at anything too hard early in the morning when there is no electricity....

Very nice thread...thank you! There is another one, named 'Humour' ,for additional inspiration, over in the India forum....

I tested out to be 'Fabulous Feasts': "You don't know much about Medieval and Renaissance cooking but you probably don't care. You'd rather make up a recipe than do the research." Funny...because this is the only Medieval cookbook on my shelves...and every time I try to read it, a deep sleep happens instead (which is my fault, surely, not the author's). I really liked the question in the quiz that asked if you liked to 'cook a meat according to its humor'.

If anyone can bust open that place, that group, and make it the shining thing it should be, it will be someone like you, Bourdain. That little (now becoming elderly) clique that originally gathered round James Beard before the Beard Foundation even began ,set the tone that seems to have continued...and that tone is a large part of who they are (or who they think they are).They won't let go of that slow stodgy determined exclusivity easily. Keep kicking at it, please. There are many who could (and should) benefit from seeing change within that monied potentially-good monster.

Oh I dunno. The very sound of the word sort of makes me want to dance a little dance. Can that be all bad?

:laugh: thank you, I needed that laugh. But we know that NulloModo is not really on my slapping schedule....NulloModo is a fine person who is going to bake a low-carb nusstorte and share it with us....