kpurvis

Anything in West Asheville, where the rents tend to be lower (and the people are more fun), the meat-and-three restaurant at the entrance to the Western N.C. farmers market (sorry, forgot the name -- has Moose in the name), and Rosetta's for cafeteria-style vegan with a good late-night crowd. I seem to recall a good peanut butter fried tofu at Rosetta's. Also, EarthFare, the whole-food style supermarket, has a cafe. Too bad you're not there in growing season. They have some very good tailgate markets.

I haven't yet lived my dream of visiting the Cookbook Hall of Fame on Avery Island, but I got a grant a couple of years ago to spend several days in the cookbook collection at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe in Boston. Among other things, including castoffs from J. Child's personal collection, they have an extensive selection of community cookbooks. It's a rich pasture for grazing, if you're looking for how a particular kind of food was worked into lives. Among the synagogue sisterhoods, the Greek Orthodox church cookbooks and the endless church circle books, one of my favorites was a cookbook by an Anglo women's group in Mexico City in the '50s. Made for interesting reading.

You didn't put Crook's Corner on the list? (I'm pulling for Vin, if only for the deviled eggs.)

Have you forgotten all of those 'ice box pies' that southern cooks 'carry' to various 'covered dish suppers'? Many of them are made with store-bought ice cream that one melts slightly just until softened, and then stirs something into it (like creme de cacao or creme de menthe or sliced bananas or chopped fruit or nuts or crushed pralines or instant coffee or chocolate or all of the above), and then pours it into one of our time-honored crusts....oreo or graham cracker or vanilla wafers or something...and then tops it with marachino cherries or cool whip or something equally disgusting (and you get extra points for garish colors or, best of all, a rainbow effect) then refreezes it? Huh? Have you forgotten all those? Or maybe you live in a different 'south' than the "ice box pie" ladies. ← Ice Box Pie in our house wasn't an ice cream concoction. It was a specific pie: The lemon pie made with sweetened condensed milk in a graham cracker crust topped with Cool Whip. On ice cream, we certainly made a lot of it. Our ice cream maker had a bum latch when I was a kid. As the youngest, my job was always to sit on the ice cream maker to hold it down while my older siblings turned it. Just thinking about it makes my butt sore. However, the universal homemade ice cream was always peach. My husband won't let me make peach ice cream in the summer, because that's the only kind his parents would ever make.

August, exceeded in misery only by September . . . the heady smell of red tide . . . tiny blue-haired heads peering through the steering wheels of very large cars . . . scraping sand-covered tar off your feet . . . Military Trail in West Palm Beach . . . sandspurs in the instep of your foot . . . people who think coconut oil is an appropriate personal scent . . . no-see-ums . . . NJ license tags on the aggressive SUV that just forced you onto the shoulder of I-95 . . . Sorry. Lived in South Florida from 1969 to 1980 and go back to visit family regularly. Sometimes I just like to hold my hands out to the glow of the fireplace and remember. Good times, good times.

John T, did you ever hear of these "town sin eaters"? Real life stuff or pure folklore? Sin eaters used to be real life stuff in parts of Europe up until a hundred years ago. (ref: encyclopedia britannica) ← I've got a good bit of research on that as part of my book on funeral food customs. There's evidence that it was still going on in the Appalachian Mountains in the early 20th century. Margaret Atwood wrote a lovely short story with sin eating as a theme.

I could probably track this down in the archives if you're interested, but when I first came to The Observer in the mid-1980s, there was a juicy murder case in South Carolina that involved a man who killed his wife with a skillet after she overcooked his pork chops. As I recall, his defense was that he had dentures and claimed that she overcooked his pork chops every night on purpose, just so he couldn't chew them. He finally had enough and whacked her over the head with the skillet. A crime of passion if I ever heard one.

On the "meat and three" issue, here's a theory, Holly: I think it means you get a meat, two sides and a piece of bread (usually cornbread or roll). So you get a meat and three other things on the plate. Most of the ones I know let you get three vegetables if you want, but you pay extra. On the macaroni and cheese issue, I'd agree that it's usually a side dish and is almost always on a plate that has a meat. But here's an interesting side note to chew over: I was asked to speak to several classes of 8th graders in November for a career day. Since Thanksgiving was so close, I illustrated what I do by quizzing them about what their families serve at Thanksgiving and how we could use those menus to talk about family background and tradition. Macaroni & cheese became a topic of discussion in every class. Almost all of the African-American students included it as an important part of the Thanksgiving menu. Not only did none of the white students list it, most voiced surprise to hear it used as a side dish, not as a main course. Somebody ought to teach an academic course on macaroni & cheese.

Well, I own a GRITS hat (and call all baseball-style hats "gimme hats"). I have a cast-iron skillet so well seasoned it's glossy black, and trained my husband and son to Never Touch The Cast Iron. The first thing I planted when I moved into a new house was mint, for my juleps. I have two kinds of country ham in my refrigerator at this very moment. I have two deviled egg plates. And I can make collards so good, even my collard-hating spouse likes them. On the other hand: I can't handle the Sweet Potato Queens, I never harbored a secret desire to be a cheerleader, and I developed a severe allergy to sorority mixers in college. I was born in Georgia and raised in North Carolina (North Cakalacky, as we like to call it), but I lived in South Florida long enough to be able to imitate Northern accents. Put it all together and I suppose that qualifies me to only be a Cracked Belle.

In my experience, the distinction between creamed corn and fried corn is that with creamed corn, you cut the tops off the kernels and "milk" the ears by scraping them to get the juice. I add milk or cream and then cook it down until it thickens. (Imagine my girlish delight when I realized one day that it thickens because of the natural cornstarch in the kernels -- you could almost hear the light bulb over my head bumping against the ceiling.) Adding milk is good but isn't necessary -- my mother remembers that during the Depression, her mother usually added water because she couldn't spare milk. Fried corn is cut off closer to the cob, more like whole kernels, and is tossed in a hot skillet with a little fat. I seem to recall a story in the Washington Post last year on frying corn to increase the corn flavor in sweet corn. Creamed corn was one of my mother's standards and it's still on my table, but only in the summer when the corn is juicy. Creamed corn on a plate with sliced tomatoes topped with a dab of mayonnaise -- that just says "summer" to me.

It's more than a winter special. Brunswick stew is served as a side dish at barbecue places all over North Carolina, all year, along with hush puppies at most places. In South Carolina, you usually get hash, which serves the same purpose as a side that rounds out the plate.

I'd make a case for coconut cake, red velvet cake, Williamsburg orange cake and that poundcake that involves dumping together a whole bunch of different flavor extracts. But I also think there's a point to be made that cake is merely something on the dessert plate to soak up the juice from your ambrosia. Now, what you put in ambrosia -- that's a heated discussion waiting to happen. In my family: oranges, freshly grated coconut, chopped pecans, halved maraschino cherries, sugar and a little alcohol, usually a splash of sweet wine like sherry. As Joan Crawford would say, No marshmallows, ever!

Since it's my neighborhood hangout and already too crowded, I shouldn't. But it's in the small shopping center at the corner of Sharon Amity and Providence. Hotel Charlotte is on one end, Eddie's is on the other. I didn't know about the taqueria in Sav-Mor. I'll put it on the list. As long as you're into cooking at home, you know they have a tortilleria at La Carniceria at South Boulevard and Archdale, right?

I agree in regards to the typical white grits that restaurants serve but the steel cut grits I use at home have a distinct yet subtle flavor from the corn. Do any restaurants in Charlotte serve that style of grits? I'll still use 'em for the yolks but I like the flavor more. ← Sounds like you've got yourself some phain-see grits, son. Go find a breakfast served on a white tablecloth.

If you want the real Coffee Cup breakfast experience, go really early and get either salmon cakes or country ham. Also, if you're a grits novice, remember that grits are simply a delivery vehicle for the yolk from your eggs over easy. Preferably mopped up with biscuit.

Good call, Hazard. I forgot about Chicago Dog. It's a chain, but a good one. I can track down that E&T piece, but I remember right off the bat that the Comet Grill dog got the highest marks. I'm also a big fan of Eddie's, but mostly because it's my neighborhood joint. I live within walking distance.

According to this week's Newsweek, she's the savvy survivor who is going to come out on top in the Kmart/Sears deal. Her stock value and her approval ratings are both up.

We've got really good stuff in loncheras all over town these days. For sit-down Mexican, I'm still a fan of Taqueria Mexicana, but Taqueria Unica has a big following. Uptown, Johnny Burrito now has tamales on Fridays. The wrapping isn't anything to write home about, but the fillings are usually good. Last week's was chicken in mole and the week before was a sort of pork chile verde. You can get most of the northern meat brands around here somewhere, including Boars Head, so I could probably find Sabrett if I put my mind to it. And I'm pretty sure Kosher Mart has Hebrew National. Of course, those would be for cooking at home.

Green's has big fans, Owen. But at the moment, I'm enjoying the Chili Man's hot dog stand uptown.

Fetch my pink flamingo, William. I always did have a soft spot for John Waters.

I just got back from doing a food story in Charleston. It should be posted through today at www.charlotte.com (click on Food on the left side of the opening page). A couple of suggestions that would probably please both a basic-food person and a foodie: Hominy Grill. It's simple Southern food, but prepared very well. Chef/owner Robert Stehling was a protege of Bill Neal's, and also trained at restaurants in New York. It's open breakfast, lunch and dinner. It's also a little away from the tourist areas around Market Street, giving you a chance to see other parts of Charleston. Jestine's Kitchen. Also Southern food, more in the blue-plate special line. FIG and Slightly North of Broad are both excellent, more higher-end, white-tablecloth places. But they also walk that line between familiar foods and more interesting things. SNOB particularly specializes in twists on Lowcountry foods. I also like Anson, which has a comfortable Old Charleston feel. Kathleen Purvis, The Charlotte Observer

Those are serious issues - and you'll need some time to think about them - and go over the rules with the people who pay your bills. By way of analogy - in the early days of financial chat boards (I was there in the late 80's) - all manner of financial professionals - from brokers - to mutual fund managers - to hedge fund guys - felt free to talk. We even had Mark Cuban around for a while . It was - like you say - talking over the backyard fence. Once things got more organized and professional on the boards - the professionals developed rules to avoid problems (particularly problems with the SEC). Your problems are less weighty (you won't risk going to jail by saying anything here) - but you have to find out what's acceptable or not in terms of your professional dealings. Robyn ←

You may have trouble with that, Victor. North Carolina isn't really in the boiled-peanut belt. You'll have to get closer to South Carolina for that. Generally (and all food regions are always general), the boiled peanut zone is Alabama, North Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. North Carolina is where you're more likely to find what we call "parched" peanuts, which are more like roasted peanuts.

I don't think it's a question of allowing the subject to "approve" quotes. But it is sometimes an issue of ensuring accuracy, especially when you're interviewing specialists. At my newspaper, it's left to the reporter to decide. I've read quotes back to sources in rare circumstances. The main example that comes to mind was a three-part investigative series that I spent more than a year reporting (yes, it was on food). I read quotes back to certain sources to ensure that they recalled them and still stood by them. Also, early in the reporting, I had talked to some sources on background. At the writing stage, I went back to some of those people and read them quotes to see if they'd go on the record with them. All did. I've never sent the fully written story to a source and I don't know of anyone who would. But there are circumstances where reading quotes back is appropriate. I always explain to the source that I'm not doing it so they can change their words or vet what they've said. If a source had an objection, I'd probably kill the quote and go find another source for the information. As my mother used to say, there's always more than one way to skin a cat. Kathleen Purvis, food editor, The Charlotte Observer.

Thanks, J. It was fun, but I'm in no rush to do it again.