TAPrice

← Dear Danno, Let me be the first to welcome you to eGullet. Glad to have you. Check my link, and you'll see it's actually your recipe. I posted the question on Mr. Lake's forum, who sent me to your site. Small world.

Baumer food has found a new plant in St. John Parish. It's still in the metro area at least. They will use the New Orleans facility as a warehouse and the iconic sign will stay put for the immediate future. The T-P has the full story.

Who won? I though it was running next week.

Is Bruni's blog going to make me love the man? I wasn't too jazzed with his writing initially. Recently, I think it's been cleaner and stronger. But have you read his review of Hooter's? It reads like an Onion parody of Bruni, but of course he's totally in on the joke. It's damn funny. And because bathrooms are Burni's signature, he even gives us a description of the WC.

I would say yes and no about the bandwagon. He maybe shares Cuozzo's frustration, but Bruni (or someone at the Times) recognized that this new medium offers a better solution. As far as the "life" of the critic, as someone who's done the job in the past I can tell you that people find it endlessly fascinating. EGullets folks might not, but many readers still do. It's really not that fascinating (you eat, then you write), but people like the details.

For the first time in a long time Frank has done something to cheer about. Obviously we're going to have to see what he writes about, but this gives him the opportunity to comment much more in "real time." It's a welcome change. And the first few blog entries are better written than his articles for print.. ← Will this replace the Friday Dining Journal? That's the way I read the first entry.

Got a recipe? (I enjoyed reading your blog--good luck my friend) ← I haven't tried this, but I was pointed to this recipe: Tasso Recipe There's less smoking involved than with a good Texas brisket.

In Dallas it was by the cheese and olives. How hard would it be to make? It would require hours of smoking, but that sounds like something a Texan would enjoy.

Are you sure that Central Market doesn't have it? It was always in stock at the Dallas branch.

Upperline is open. As of last weekend, Acme in the FQ was still closed.

School lunches are universal at all U.S. public schools. As far as cost, they tend to be a bureaucratic boondoggle. Low income students receive free lunches, but the administrative costs of determining who qualifies would often pay cover free lunches for every student. My mother was an elementary school counselor who spent many hours administering the free lunch program when she would have prefer to be working with kids. The percentage of students on the free lunch program is used as a proxy for a school's income level. I'd often hear administrators talk about how strong a school was academically, despite a high percentage of free lunch students (i.e lower income students excelled at that school).

Brooks meant the new Felix's on Prytania and Upperline (more or less). I've only been once, but agree that it's good. The room is a little sterile (put something on the walls, why don't you!), but that weekend it will be so jammed with people that no one will notice. Not a place where you'll need a reservation. I bike past there pretty much everyday on my way home from work. It's great that Felix's replicated their neon sign from the Quarter.

Nicely said Brooks. If Emeril had behaved differently, I'm sure he could have packed his places with locals. How many locals ate at K-Paul's before the storm? Take a survey tonight, and I bet you'd find a lot of local faces. People appreciate what Paul Prudhomme did and they want to support him.

When the Picayune made blistering attacks on Emeril, I wondered if it was out line. Given this recent comment, I'm beginning to think he deserved all the scorn he got: Quote from the New York Post. Emeril's "homebase" released this comment in response: Columnist Chris Rose is not buying the excuse: "An Idea: Stay in the Kitchen"

Stat Boy loves a challenge (I think that I've found my costume for Mardi Gras). Here is the breakdown for the three parishes, with additional info on Kenner and Gretna: Parish: Hispanic / Asian Orleans: 14,826 (3.06%)/ 10,972 (2.26%) St. Bernard: 3,425 (5.1%) / 889 (1.3%) Jefferson: 32,418 (7.1%) / 14,065 (3.1%) Cities in Jefferson Parish: Hispanic / Asian Kenner: 9,602 (13.6%) / 2,002 (2.8%) Gretna 1,105 (6.3%) / 543 (3.1%) This time I didn't have a census table sitting on my desk. I dug up these numbers from ePodunk, a cool little site for people who love demographics data. A pal of mine who used to be the editor of American Demographics co-founded the site. Brooks, I'm not really sure if you're disagreeing with me. I think you're saying that this area has always had a large Hispanic population, and I know I'm saying that it isn't the case. Relative to Louisiana, Kenner has a huge Hispanic population (13.6% vs. 2.4%). Relative to the U.S., it's slightly above average (13.6% vs. 12.5%). And relative to the South, it's well below average (13.6% vs. 35.7%). Steering this back towards food, I still find it interesting that the Hispanic population outnumbers the Asian population considerably. Yet, Vietnamese cuisine is much more prominent in the area than Latino cooking. (I don't have a country origin breakdown for Jefferson and St. Bernard, but in Orleans roughly 75% of the Asian population are Vietnamese.) Clearly numbers alone can't account for the prominence of Vietnamese cuisine in the metropolitan area, or we would see more Honduran than Pho joints. Brooks, I know you were working on a piece about Vietnamese restaurants in the area. Any insights on why so many Vietnamese in the area open restaurants?

I had to look that up, and TAPrice is correct. The 2004 estimate was 3.2%, up from 3.1% in 2000. The national average is 14.2% (up from 12.5% in 2000). http://factfinder.census.gov/ - Julie the Librarian ← This may well be, but in New Orleans the Honduran population was roughly 15,000 people before the storm. At one point, I believe that we were the largest center of Hondurans outside of Honduras. ← 14,826 Hispanics to be precise, with 9,602 counted as "other" (as opposed to Mexican, Cuban or Puerto Rican). That makes up 3.06% of the New Orleans population (this doesn't include the more heavily Hispanic areas in Kenner). Some argue that the census count (these numbers are from 2000) underreports the illegal population. The Vietnamese population is only 7,118 (1.47%) in New Orleans, but they certainly seem to have a larger cultural impact on the city and its food. I happened to have some census numbers around for another project. I'm really not this anal.

When I worked at Willie Mae's the weekend before last, the plan was to restore the old layout. I think they convinced her to go back to the high ceilings instead of the modern drop ceiling. The architect was just getting involved, however, so there may have been changes. My sense was that she didn't want a larger restaurant.

JB is tha MAN!!! ← To be fair, the spread John Folse provided the next day was also damn good. The man himself didn't appear, but his catering company certainly took care of us.

What would be really cool is if you could scan the barcode with a camera phone, and then the notes would be downloaded. I've heard of barcode readers for camera phones, so it would be possible.

Surely Brooks was drinking when he wrote that. Herbsaint was one of the early openers. I ate there in late October--as good as ever. Although I haven't been down that way recently, I can't imagine that anything happened to it. Fear not! I've heard that Donald Link still plans to open a second, more casual restaurant. Not sure when.

Yeah, and so is the trend piece, but writers keep churning those out. There are very few genres under the sun.

Have you ever tried mojama? It's salt-cured tuna from Spain. Something like tuna jerky. Nothing better with a glass of dry shery.

I just spent the day doing demo at Willie Mae's Scotch House. I'm sore and tired, but man it feels good to help out. There is still a need for volunteers. Having John Besh cater lunch was a nice bonus. He even came back by in the afternoon to bring us coffee and king cake.

My flight is booked and my car rented, so I'll be there for the last weekend Feb 10-12. I'm really looking forward to helping out. ← I'll be there as well, for most of the time anyway-that is also the weekend of the Viking/Beard House thing and I will have to go to a couple of events during that. You should have a great time if the first weekend's reports are any indication. Thanks for helping out. We need all of the help that we can get down here. Brooks ← That's also the weekend that Krewe du Vieux rolls. Good times. I'll be working at Willie Mae's both this weekend and Feb. 10-12. See you there.

Consumer Reports offers its opinion on when to buy organic: "When Buying Organic Pays (and doesn't)" For those who don't want to click, here is the magazine's short answer: Buy these items organic as often as possible: Apples, bell peppers, celery, cherries, imported grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, red raspberries, spinach, strawberries, meat, poultry, eggs, dairy, and baby food. If price is no object: Asparagus, avocados, bananas, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet corn, kiwi, mangos, onions, papaya, pineapples, sweet peas, breads, oils, potato chips, pasta, cereals, and other packaged foods, such as canned or dried fruit and vegetable. Don't bother buying organic: Seafood.