kpurvis
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Posts posted by kpurvis
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Actually, if I can offer a word of defense for the regional farmers market, which is the one you mention: When did you go? There's a good balance between heirloom/organic farmers and truck-farm stands, but you have to go on Saturday morning, preferably before 9 a.m., to get the full range. If you go during the week or after noon on Saturday, all you'll find will be second-hand produce sold by vendors, not by farmers.
The Matthews Community Market is all farmer-grown and is also a Saturday morning kind of market. Since it's restricted to farmer-grown and -sold, it gets better as the summer progresses.
The uptown market on Saturday mornings has also been growing and is worth considering.
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Rats -- I wrote a nice, detailed reply and then lost my Internet connection. Let me see if I remember the gist of it.
Coffee Cup: Word is that it's recovering from the change of ownership, but I haven't been able to get over and check it out. The Cup always had the best pan-fried chicken; Price's has the best deep-fried chicken. Price's is only take-out, so be prepared to eat in your car, or drive over to Latta Park, which isn't that far away.
However, if you want another genuine Southern experience, get over to the United House of Prayer for All People. I prefer the mother house (I call it the mothership, no disrespect intended) on Beatties Ford Road. Remember, it's a church and I'm not sure of the weekend hours, although you can get a pretty good breakfast on Sunday morning. Best time to go is lunch during the week though.
Other places in the Southern/funky vein: The Penguin and Dish in Plaza-Midwood; Knife & Fork, which is an old diner that's been remade by a young chef; Mert's Heart and Soul downtown; and for a really interesting twist, Katchikaly, which is West AFrican/Southern.
Mid-range places I like include Ethans of Elizabeth, Cibi and Pewter Rose. High-end, if you want to drop a few bucks, Town is getting good word, although I haven't had a chance to go yet. Other high-end places worth blowing dough include Luce, Zebra -- controversial but always worth taking a chance -- Blue and Aquavina. I also like Palomino downtown. The menu has a range of price range options and the room is nice.
Enjoy your trip. With the rain the last couple of days, the farmers markets should be hopping this weekend.
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Thanks, Sam. I should have posted a link. I get tangled up by all this techie stuff! I miss my typewriter . . .
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"It's a daunting gantlet that diners must penetrate"
from the review. is this a common american spelling of "gauntlet"? or is bruni being fey? or is he talking about train tracks?
From my 1977 edition of the Associated Press Stylebook (sorry, I'm at home at the moment; my more current copy is on my desk at work, where it belongs. This is the dog-earred original copy that I got as a newbie on my first job). Anyway:
"Gamut, gantlet, gauntlet: A gamut is a scale of notes or any complete range or extent.
A gantlet is a flogging ordeal, literally or figuratively.
A gauntlet is a glove. To throw down the gauntlet means to issue a challenge. To take up the gauntlet means to accept a challenge."
I've never figured out how to quote from multiple posts, so let me see if this works: To the fellow who questioned how Bruni would know the details of Mario's shoe collection: It's pretty common knowledge, mentioned in many interviews with him. Even down here in North Carolina, in the "sticks" far from Manhattan Island, I know about Mario's orange high-top collection. (And his habit of wearing them with Scottish kilts on formal occasions.)
On the amount of space devoted to the desserts and the wine service: Newspaper space, unlike books or Web sites, is very tight. When I was reading the review, I thought the amount of space devoted, the way he worked both points in and the point at which they were raised were all appropriate. Nothing struck me as the slightest amiss. Just solid, concise craft of writing.
I also enjoyed this first review and thought he did a fine job of taking a bow to the real 800-pound gorilla in the room, the question of three vs. four stars. In fact, I was happily surprised when I read the review. Before I had a chance to see it, I had seen this morning's MUG On the Radar, which slashed the review as almost unreadable. I didn't find it so; I found it excellent writing.
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Angus Barn advice:
Take a deep wallet and a huge appetite. You might want to fast for a couple of days beforehand.
Brace yourself for the decor: Think Hoss Cartwright with an unlimited budget. Lots of things made out of antlers.
Stick with the steak. They don't call it the Angus Barn for nothing. Yes, you can get it rare. Personally, I opt for steak cuts with lots of flavor, and that takes fat and bone. That's why I'd avoid filet mignon -- it has neither.
Save room for dessert. (I'm fond of the Sawdust Pie.)
Don't expect cutting-edge cuisine: This ain't it. Bear in mind how the place came to be: Started in the late '60s to be the perfect restaurant for male legislators who were in Raleigh sans spouses and the lobbyists who needed them. It was a perfect formula in 1965 and they never messed with it: Lots of red meat, comfortable chairs and prices high enough for lobbyists to be able to really show their appreciation.
And my favorite and final Angus Barn experience: The valet service is amazing. Do not be surprised, when you stumble out after several hours, when the valet heads off to get your car without looking at your ticket. They've learned a few tricks about remembering faces from all those state senators they work with.
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Yes. I have to say the mind boggles when considering the possible role of leftover Barbecue in erotic entertainment.
Not that something along those lines hasn't been done. The world, if not wicked, is pretty weird.
"Ohmigawd, what is she doing with that spare rib???"
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The place is surpisingly cosmopolitan. Michelin has its north american headquarters there, as does BMW (well, in Spartanburg, 20 minutes up the road). BP, Fuji and Hitachi have a large presence in Greenville as do a couple of other international companies. Many of these companies rotate their high-level international executives through Greenville, so a culture has grown up to support their tastes and needs.
I'm not sure where I'm going with this, so this is just a musing-out-loud sort of reply, but it's not been my experience that company headquarters equal strong cuisine. What I've seen happen in Charlotte is that business towns attract some local chef-owned restaurants simply because there's enough money washing around the system that everybody benefits, but the places that really thrive are the high-end chains. I've seen this happen in Charlotte: We've got some wonderful independently owned restaurants that are truly emblematic of local interest and ingredients. But we've got an explosion of chains with recognizable names: The Palm, Capitol Grille, P.F.Chang's, Morton's, etc., etc. I think what happens is that when business people go out on expense account, they want to take the clients to places they know will be recognized when they go back to the Big City: "Wow -- they must really want our business, they took Jim Bob to Morton's and dropped a hundred bucks on him." Taking Jim Bob to Pewter Rose, Ethan's or Bonterra won't score them the same points.
So it doesn't just take money. It takes money that is willing to support local talent. And unfortunately, the people with money tend to seek a comfort level that involves going to a place where the people just like them go.
As I said: Not sure where I'm going with that, or if it is even relevant to this discussion. Just musing on the damage that does to newly prosperous, Sun Belt cities.
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I wouldn't take anything I read by Mr. Steingarten or the NY Times as holy writ on face though.
Ah, young William -- so young to be so cynical. Good for you.
A couple of thoughts on your points, as I understand them and for what it's worth: Yes, turducken is a thoroughly modern phenom -- I'd call it a fad -- that was certainly inspired by a medieval dish. Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans, as port cities with French-influenced populations, all had traces of cuisine that hied back to European court cuisine. They also had large populations of people who had A) servants to cook for them; B) high literacy rates; and C) ink, paper and the leisure time to use them. So their 18th and 19th century cuisine had more documentation to hand down.
There are endless traces in both New Orleans and Charleston of similar dishes that had in common French origins, similar ingredients and class status.
For another example: Nobody would probably argue that gumbo is connected to New Orleans. Nobody except John Martin Taylor, who presents good argument and solid documentation that gumbo originated in Charleston. It's a moot point and a fairly silly argument, of course: Charleston and New Orleans had so much in common, cerrtainly they had similar dishes.
But Charleston today doesn't have tourists seeking gumbo restaurants. And Louisiana today has plenty of marketing that can convince otherwise sensible (well, OK, maybe not so sensible) people all over the country that they simply can't live until they've deep-fried a turkey and cooked a chicken that was stuffed inside a duck.
On the question of getting people to take interest in something Southern besides barbecue: Sigh. Been there, tried that. If you look back in the refrigerator to when this Southeastern thread first started, the first question I posted was about the South "other than barbecue." Know what happened? It devolved into an argument over barbecue. C'est la vie.
And finally, on the question of whether South Carolina has notable cuisine: Of course it does. All the restaurants you cite and many more. However, and I think this is true all over the world, from Spartanburg to Istanbul: Cuisine takes money, and a sizeable population of people who have that money, the leisure time to spend it and the interest to spend it on food. The number of restaurants a place has is in direct relation to the number of people it has with disposable incomes.
Not to knock South Carolina -- truly, I'm not -- but there's an old joke in the South along the lines of: South Carolina -- eternally grateful for Alabama and Mississippi. Because they keep it from being dead last in all the economic indicators. South Carolina isn't, by anyone's definition, a wealthy place. There are pockets of wealth, mostly in Charleston and Hilton Head. And both those places are far better known for their restaurants than, say, Gaffney. That doesn't mean Gaffney doesn't have something notable in food. It's just not likely to support more than one or two places.
Food places also get attention when they have food writers to draw attention to them on a regular basis. Do you really think Oxford, Miss., would be on anybody's culinary radar if it didn't have a John T. Edge, banging the drum for John Currence and the City Grocery and the duck hash at the Yocona River Inn? Or how about Birmingham -- would Frank Stitt be as widely known if he didn't share a town with all those writers at Oxmoor House?
Every region needs its Boswell, son. You may be South Carolina's by default.
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Finally, as a Methodist I can not fault Mr. Bowles for leaving "God's Frozen People" -- the Episcopalians -- to embrace the warm sunshine of my Wesleyan Tribe.
No, no, sweetie -- God's Frozen People are the Presbyterians. The official Episcopal slogan is "wherever four of us shall gather, there will always be a fifth." We believe in the sanctity of the 5 o'clock cocktail hour and the use of decent wine at communion. (At my church we also do home-baked bread, but we do tend to be doctranal purists.
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Young William: Jim Auchmutey of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution gave a lecture on barbecue and politics at Southern Foodways two years ago. I have notes on it, but they're back at my office and I'm currently stranded at home for several weeks, recovering from back surgery. As I recall, it was pretty Georgia-centric, but as always, he was errudite and thorough. He traced the history of the political barbecue from George Washington forward. It's a pretty obvious connection: A pig feeds a lot of people. Get them together gnawing on pork and you've got a captive audience. But the history has evolved to include restaurants with specific political leanings. Perhaps you could contact Auchmutey backchannel and ask him to contribute to this thread, if he has the time.
I'm very lucky, of course: Here in Charlotte, we still have one of the best remaining examples of a pure politics and barbecue event, the annual Mallard Creek barbecue every October. You have to walk the gauntlet of politicians to get to the food line. (There's a great study to be made in the evolution of the political handout. Last year was a disappointment -- I made it through the line with both sleeves covered in campaign stickers, but didn't receive a single campaign emery board or comb. Somebody really should do a study relating campaign finances and the disappearance of the campaign emery board.)
Another interesting sidelight from Mallard Creek: It's really a church fundraiser for Mallard Creek Presbyterian Chuch. But because of the timing -- barbecues are traditionally held in the fall, when it was cool enough to slaughter a pig, a fact non-Southerners sometimes fail to grasp -- so they coincide with elections. The people at Mallard Creek sometimes grumble about how their sweet little church event got co-opted by all these politicians, but it's sort of like a flea grumbling about the dog he's riding on. They even set up the line so you can skip the hand-shaking. It's always interesting to see how few people take that option.
OK, one last Mallard Creek story (see? Sitting here in bed, I have nothing to do but ramble) relating to your original Erskine Bowles note. When Bowles was running two years ago, he suddenly joined my church, St. Peter's Episcopal, which is an old and very historic Charlotte church. He has family history there; his late sister, Martha, was a beloved and active member. So I didn't question it, although we noticed he got involved in our winter homeless shelter, Room in the Inn, just long enough for the cameras to capture him setting up cots one night. When the election was over and Bowles lost, he suddenly disappeared from the pews.
At the next Mallard Creek, just last year, Bowles was working the tables, meeting and greeting. He didn't recognize me -- I have the perfect face for a journalist, a middle-aged soccer mom look that never stands out in a crowd -- so I was able to listen in while he greeted a couple next to me. They asked him about his church affiliation. He assured them he was a Methodist and was quite happy to leave the Episcopalians behind. Yeah, now that we no longer provide a venerable and picturesque backdrop for the cameras.
Loyal Democrat that I am: Mr. Bowles lost my vote for all time.
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Oh, and his replacement is Kathleen McElroy, currently the Weekend editor, former deputy sports editor.
And Sam, if you check in here: I've heard good things about Kathleen, but I'll miss you in the slot. You did a good job.
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He'll be deputy editor.
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It's actually pretty good on a salad, too.
I can vouch for that one. There's a restaurant here in Charlotte, the Roasting Company, that serves a salad topped with their version of pork barbecue. I've also had a lot of luck making a version of corned beef hash with barbecue and leftover baked potatoes, topped with a poached egg. And the original S.C. barbecue hash started as a way to use leftover barbecue. (Although the version down around Charleston, with the innards and stuff, apparently evolved as a way to use all the pig parts you didn't use for barbecue. Offal, but true.
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Oh, and the short ribs truly were delicious. My other favorites:
Seared Scallop with Cachucha Chili Syrup (you couldn't get near Rodriguez's roast pig, but this was right next to and was fabulous);
Cabrito barbecue on goat's milk cream (goat on goat -- very nice);
Coco bean salad with chorizo and duck confit;
Adobo pork tenderloin with Chenel goat cheese, pinon and pork demi-glace;
Fresh corn tamal with queso blanco salad and a bitter orange vinaigrette;
Chicken with three moles (LOVED that one);
and the Pisco Sour by Dunia and Espartaco Borga.
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I went to all (except the journalism awards of course -- no nomination means no reason to go!) The TWC party was the worst mob scene I've ever experienced, although the people-watching was great if you could find a spot to perch and do it. NY food fashion: People either dress to the nines or they dress like circus acts. The tour of Gray Kuntz' kitchen-in-progress was impressive, but you wouldn't get near Per Se.
The after party at FCI, I have to say, was one of most fun events I've attended at the Beards. With all the theme rooms (all caviar! all champagne! all miniature French pastries!) and the curtained tunnels leading from place to place, it was like a Halloween party for grownups.
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Well put, young William. (Told you you'd like egullet!) And writing can't work without a good subject. Give yourself the credit for that.
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I don't know if Carolina fans could stop arguing long enough to form a society, although William McKinney's barbecue club when he was a student at UNC might be the groundwork. However, there is a move afoot to try to start a barbecue museum, in Lexington. I reported on it in The Observer a couple of weeks ago.
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I'm in the middle of "CandyFreak," by Steve Almond, and I'm loving it. Picture David Sedaris on a sugar high.
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Kathleen, you're a great food writer. So I'm wondering, why is it you think you would suck as a critic, or should I say, reviewer?
Wow, thanks for such kind words.
I don't know how much light I can shed, because it's more of a gut thing, a question of knowing my strengths and weaknesses.
At heart, I'm a bit of a Pollyanna. Every time I sit down at a restaurant table, I'm pulling for the chef to do good, to rock my world a little, or at least show a glimmer of soul. When they don't, rather than wanting to tear into them, I'm just sad for them.
Great reviewers pick apart and instruct. My instinct, when something falls short, is to shake my head and think, "Well, bless their hearts -- at least they tried."
I lack the killer instinct, I suppose. Not that I regret it.
As a writer, I'm a storyteller. That's my strength. Sometimes I define my beat as "food and the meaning of life." (Well, after a couple of glasses of wine, anyway.) When I'm really jazzed about my job, it's when I can use food as a microcosm/macrocosm -- a way of focusing tightly on a small thing to define a larger thing. Finding the whole world in a crumb of bread. (See? You really don't want to get stuck at a table with me and an open bottle of wine!)
My favorite reviewers are the ones who do that. Jonathan Gold. Tom Sietsema. Dara Moscowitz. Amanda, bless her, at her very best.
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But I think you might want to wait until he has written a column before you decide that he sucks and he's an idiot.
Actually, the thing that's kept me checking back for the last couple of days isn't the issue of whether Bruni sucks or doesn't suck. It's because the debate wandered beyond idle curiosity about the unknown comic and into the far more interesting territory of the role of a critic. I'm not a critic, I'm a food journalist (to my great relief -- I'd suck as a critic. Maybe that's why I'm cheering for Bruni.) But I know and work with a lot of critics -- or reviewers, which I prefer -- and appreciate the debate. Busboy, once again: Good thinking while typing. I've enjoyed your input.
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he arguably can carry as much weight as The Times
No pun intended . . .
sez who?
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Like Busboy said.
Second the motion.
And from the sidelines, it's interesting to check into this thread and see all the flailing about Bruni's credentials. I recall an e-g post a while back on whether there was a relevant difference between food journalists and people who decide to go on a Web site and declare themselves food writers. Sitting here at my newsroom desk with 26 years of background, 14 or 15 of them in food writing, I had a similar sensation to the one some of you seem to be voicing: Who are these people and what are their credentials? What are their ethics? Do they understand the power of words in print? Do they have the daily necessity of accountability?
Stephen Shaw is an excellent example. (Pardon me, Fat Person.) He was a talented amateur in a different line of work who made himself over into a reviewer. Bully for him, and he's been quite good at it. But he also had a steep learning curve, and given the staying power of the Web and the kind of attention e-gullet has gotten from the print media, he arguably can carry as much weight as The Times.
As Busboy and Tony have pointed out, there are plenty of examples of people who made themselves into food critics. Perhaps that's the value of a Bruni: Aren't most restaurant patrons really just talented (or not) amateurs when they walk in the door and pick up a menu? Isn't there a value in being represented by a critic who doesn't bring an eye tainted by too many innings of inside baseball?
On the Johnny Apple comment: He's a damn good writer. Proof, once again, that a great writer can write anything, from politics to food.
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As always, it's hard to answer without some guidance on your price/style/etc. But I'm in Tallahassee every year to see family. Unfortunately, we're usually eating with family while we're there, so when we get off on our own, we head for seafood. Some of our regulars:
-Cool Beanz for lunch. Sort of funky with a fun menu.
-Tails and Scales, which has been around forever. It's not fancy by any means, very old Florida menu in a strip mall setting, but they have some favorites of mine, particularly the bacon-wrapped shrimp from the old Talquin Inn.
-Paradise Grill is a sentimental favorite. It's also an old-Florida seafood house, informal setting. We get a kick out of it because my husband remembers when the building was the town teen hangout with great vanilla Cokes.
-I have heard good things about Cafe Cabernet but haven't been.
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The NYT did a story on non-Euro truffles, including the ones from N.C., within the last couple of months. They did a comparative tasting and the N.C. ones didn't fare well. But that's the Times. I think it was Grimes who did the tasting though, and I often disagreed with him.
Taking first trip to Charlotte
in Southeast: Dining
Posted
I was at the regional farmers market yesterday morning about 8 -- my first visit in a month, since I've been waylaid medically and just returned to driving. My haul:
Four kinds of lettuces out of a total of eight to 10 kinds, a small and very sweet cabbage, new potatoes with rough red skins, chioggia beets, two kinds of heirloom cucumbers, jade beans, long pink radishes, Easter egg radishes, farm eggs, fresh-dug garlic, two-tone baby squashes (the yellow and green ones) with the blooms attached, locally made goat cheese and farmhouse cheddar from a new vendor, tomatoes (still hothouse because it's a little early in the season for the heirlooms), the first S.C. peaches of the season, S.C. cantaloupes, local blueberries, and, yes, a bouquet from the Vietnamese family. (I'd been a month on nothing but supermarket produce -- I got carried away!)
It sounds from your description that you went to the regional market, but I'm puzzled why you didn't find much, unless you went in March. We early birds do tend to pick over the best stuff and some vendors are wiped out by 11 a.m., but still . . . . However, please understand that I have followed the evolution of these markets since 1989 or so, so I tend to see our locally grown produce as having vastly improved. On the other hand, I'm not exactly a neophyte who hasn't seen enough other markets to compare: I'm a market nut and have prowled from Union Square to Pike Place and Granville Island, plus all over both Carolinas.
The directions to the regional market, just to be sure: Take I-77 south to Woodlawn. Turn right and go through the light at the Billy Graham Parkway. Turn right at the next light, Yorkmont Road, go about 2 miles and the market is on the left.
If that one still doesn't ring your bell, you can take an excursion out to Matthews for the Matthews Community Market (it's small, but very earnest) or if your girlfriend is into antiquing, head farther east to the still-new Waxhaw tailgate market. One of the organizers is promising ducks and duck eggs.