TAPrice

Recently I've started tasting individual ingredients as I cook and then repeating their names three times (out loud if I'm cooking alone, under my breath if my wife is around). My theory is that detecting flavors is as much about mental awareness as it is sensory perception. Hopefully my mind will make a strong connection between the flavor and the name. Of course, there are limitation to this approach. Many raw items taste dramatically different when cooked.

I wouldn't consider it close. About 10 blocks. Not a terrible walk, although it will probably be hot as hell and twice as humid. By the time you get to Hansen's, though, you'll have earned that snowball.

I think Domilise's has really fallen in quality recently. Hate to say that, because I people are great and the atmosphere is fun. But the shrimp has been tiny and overbattered recently. If you're in the area after a Hansen's run, I would recommend Guy's Po-Boys on Magazine or red beans or jambalaya from Tee-Eva on Magazine and Dufossat.

Does anyone have a link?

This is a quote from a 1943 ad touting the Ramos gin fizz at the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans:

I'd guess someone may be about to quit, or they're having problems scheduling the current chefs due to their outside commitments. Rumor was that Batali got a pass on appearing this season due to other things he was involved in. ← Perhaps Michale Symon didn't work out so well for the network. They pulled him from Dinner Impossible and brought back the guy with the questionable resume. I don't watch much Food Network. Does Symon have another show?

Domenica won't open until September. Sure, it's still an experience any day of the week. I would recommend Galatoire's as the place for an old-school experience. Commander's has a more classic service style, but the food is less old-school.

Certainly there are structural issues that prevent some urban and suburban dwellers from cooking. If ingredients are hard to come by, then you'll have to way other than cooking to feed yourself. It seems, though, that there are largely cultural issues at play. I'm constantly shocked by how little interest many of the vendors at my local farmers market (I'm in New Orleans, but they're coming from outside the city) have in the produce they sell. They grow items like Swiss chard or artichokes, but will tell me they have never tasted them and clearly have no interest in trying them. I'm sure these farmers do cook, but the lack of curiosity about what they grow suggests that a very limited repertoire of dishes are being made at home.

Heading to Savannah, GA, for a wedding next week. We have time for one nice dinner. Got a tip that Local 11 Ten was a good bet. Has anyone been? What do you recommend?

It's true. A glass of red is more common. I just remember much talk about his odd fixation on restaurants in the early reviews.

In this review of Table 8, it looks like Frank Bruni is going out much as he came in: obsessed with restaurant bathrooms: Now that we know about his history of eating disorders, is it too facile to think that his focus on bathrooms when talking about food might arise from these psychological issues?

They're both 80 proof.

I been deeply dubious about the whole legal "moonshine" thing. It reeks of a drink born in the marketing department. They're selling bad boy Southern attitude in a bottle. Not to mention that I don't understand how it can been moonshine if I can buy it at the Winn Dixie. But I was willing to withhold judgement. I figure it was unaged corn whiskey, which could be ok. I got samples of Midnight Moon and Catdaddy at Tales. I cracked them open tonight. Midnight Moonshine: the label says grain neutral spirits. It's got an old time hot rod on the mini-bottle. At least it says produced in North Carolina, so they're not just buying bulk netural spirits. Taste like cheap vodka. Unpleasant. Catdaddy: this is the moonshine bottled in a bottle that looks like crockery. I suppose when it's empty you can use it for those jug band gigs with Jethro and Jimbo in holler. Label says grain neutral spirit with natural and artificial flavor. Taste like vodka with sugar and fake vanilla flavor. So both of these really suck. And the maker, Piedmont Distellers, must realize they suck. In the little recipe book that came with the samples, most of the cocktail mix the moonshine one to one with other spirits (bourbon, gin and even vodka). Here is my question: what is moonshine? Is there a legal definition? And what flavor are they going for?

I found myself completely disinterested. ← I read somewhere that this was actually the first episode shot. Guess they wanted to bury it in the middle.

How do you know that he's not making money from the commercial?

Nor would I think of Cochon as offal-centric.

Kirk Estopinal was on the opening crew at the Violet Hour and worked there two years before coming home to New Orleans. He also participated in the bartender exchange with Death and Co. Maksym Pazuniak is a career changer. He was in commercial real estate in New York before deciding to take the B.A.R. course and become a bartender. Not sure if he worked anywhere in New York before moving to New Orleans, where he had gone to school. Over the last year, the level of talent has increased dramatically in New Orleans.

The bar at the Ritz-Carlton is now a members only cigar bar. That's why Chris McMillian left.

No idea if this would work, but what about coconut milk and a banana puree. Would it freeze hard enough, or would you need to add water (or something with high water content)?

Any advice on how to make popsicles? I'm assuming any fruit puree can be frozen, but there has to be more to it than that. Any hints? Any combination that were particular good? I'm mainly making these for 1.5 year old, but I'm interested in popsicles for grownups as well.

Brett Anderson reviews Boucherie in the Times Picayune and gives it three beans. Short take: good food, bad service. Personally, I haven't had the slow service that Brett got, but I've only gone for lunch. What have others experience?

Agreed. I love to cook, but getting dinner on the table by 5:30 for my one year old is not fun. It's a shame that there is hardly any decent, healthy take-out in America (perhaps NYC is different). Last time I was in Paris, I was amazed by the high-quality food that you could get at the traiteur on the way home.

This is really fun. Thanks for sharing. I can say with some certainty, though, that everyone involved in this project must have grown up in a very different cultural milieu than me. Say the word skoal and I immediately have memories of high school jocks sitting in the back of class and furtively spitting brown goo into a cup. How did the chewing tobacco end up being named after a Swedish toast?

Chris told me last week that they're still waiting on the health inspector. Hopefully is will all be legit soon and he can open the doors.

Yet around here pork chops are sometimes considered a side item. That I will never get used to.