Cucina

Do you have a link to it? And if not, how do you know? ← Alinea website ← Visually - it's very interesting BUT - like many of the others, it's designed primarily for use on broadband which limits who will use it and how much it will be used.

I rather thought that one "biggie" from each coast and then, something smaller and more intimate, might be representative of restaurant websites. Actually, I have a special spot in my heart for smaller, personal sites which offer ways to "connect" with the owner/chef ... and, because 33 Liberty is within my region of the Southeast .. shameless plug for that forum fully acknowledged! ← Good choices and variety. Could plan a trip around it!!! And no apologies necessary for the shameless plug. I used to be from Atlanta myself and have been pining for good southern cooking all day. It was very much appreciated.

Melissa - thanks for these too! Very helpful. Charlie Palmer's is hands down the best from a design, loading time and functionality standpoint.

Do you have a link to it? And if not, how do you know?

Thanks. These are all good recommendations. I like 33 Liberty the best - graphically, it's not as fancy as the others, but it loads quickly and it's very easy and intuitive to use. I particularly like the "Ask the Chef" function on both the Daniel and 33 Liberty site. The Send to a friend function on Daniel is also nice. 33 Liberty's Chef's recommendations are very useful too. Gary Danko's site uses a font that's way too small but the design itself is attractive. It also takes way too long to load unless you have a broadband connection. Kudos also for a sampling from around the country!!!

Thanks. That's really good feedback - especially the part about being supportive of other businesses in the neighborhood. Do you use the website regularly or subscribe to their newsletter? Have you or would you buy a cookbook or other item through it? If not, why? Do you use it to make reservations? Do you check back to see if the menu changes? The reason(s) I'm asking are obvious. Just got a new client and we're going to be redoing the website. Would like to have a better understanding of what features, functionality people find appealing and useful and why.

Curious to know which chefs and restaurants have the best websites? Provide a url please and describe what you like about the design, content and any special outreach or functionality that involves customers. Note: This post orginally started a new thread, but we elected to merge that thread with a recent thread on the same subject.

My grandmother (who grew up in Mississippi) used to make an asparagus casserole for thanksgiving and christmas. You use a loaf shaped pyrex dish and create alternating layers of asparagus, and sliced mushrooms, then coat with white sauce and place slices of hard boiled eggs around the side. Depending on the depth of your dish, it will be two or three layers like this. Once you're at the top of the dish, you cover the last layer with sharp white cheddar cheese and crumpled ritz crackers on top of that and then you bake it until it looks done. It's really quite delicious. If you are too lazy to make your own white sauce, campbells cream of mushroom soup can be substituted for the white sauce and mushrooms but it's not quite the same. That said, my grandfather was in the airforce and they were stationed all over the country and the world. I've never asked how far back this dish goes and whether or not any of her siblings families have it too. The recipie could very well originate outside of the south but I don't know. For comparison purposes, just look at the southern obsession with jello salad variations.

Thanks!!! This is very helpful. Actually, I want to make fried chicken so the butchering lesson is what I was looking for (thank you for leaving off the part about wringing the neck and plucking feathers too!!! My only other lament is that it's really hard to find chickens of suitable size anymore. By that I mean, my grandmother's cook taught me to never buy chickens that were bigger than 2.5 pounds - she always said they weren't as tasty and I tend to agree. Ocassionally, you can get lucky at the Whole Foods and find free rangers that fall in that category but all these chickens are so overfed and most overhormoned to become miniature turkey size that it's almost impossible.

Homemade cranberry sauce is pretty easy - a bag of fresh whole cranberries, cover them with just enough water and add about 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar depending on how sweet or sour you like them. Add grated orange and lemon rind. Bring to a boil and then simmer until they reach the desired consistency. I like mine where they are tender but not overboiled. They are better after a day in the fridge.

Okay - I looked at the menu of Southside and it is tempting and I'll try it but it's not exactly what I'm looking for - they have a menu that tries to appeal to anyone from any southern state. I want a simple soul food kitchen.....surely we are not below the Mason Dixon line if one doesn't exist? HELP!!!

I never learned how to carve a chicken correctly and it drives me crazy when I make fried chicken and the pieces don't look right - specifically - where the heck is the wishbone? Can anyone provide a detailed description and or a link to pictures on how to carve one up correctly? thx.

I actually posted this as part of the discussion over pecan pies or cheesecakes. My grandmother served a sweet potato casserole on special holidays. Don't know exactly how many sweet potatos it takes, but enough where when they are mashed, they can fill a good sized round and deep caserole dish - here goes - hand mashed sweet potatos dash of salt 1 to 1.5 cups of orange juice (fresh squeezed is of course best) - amount depends on consistency a little grated orange peel to taste mix all of this together and put in the casserole cover the top of this with a generous layer of chopped pecans and light brown sugar - drizzle about a half cup of melted butter on top. Add a generous dollop of borbon on top of that. Bake at 350 until the top all goos together and is a bit crispy. Yum

Here's one for a lively discussion - one of my grandmothers always made cranberry sauce every thanksgiving and christmas using whole fresh cranberrys. The other used to serve cranberry slices right out of the can - looked like a bad jello mold. (Guess which grandmother's house we visited more often for holildays?) Anyway - just curious what kind of experiences others have had - especially when it comes to being a guest in someone elses home for a holiday or at a first holiday dinner with your in laws where you realize they eat strange food.

I'll have to check with my mother and get back to you but she sends me a one pound bag of pecans every year from an outfit in south Georgia. There is nothing southern about cheesecake thank you. If you ever happen to stop in Jesup, GA - go by the Kiwi Restaurant. It's changed ownership so I can't vouch for the pies now, but as a child visiting my grandparents, they consistently had the most marvelous pecan pie, lemon meringue pie and key lime pie in the universe. And I've never heard of sweet potatoe pie being served as a dessert - only as a vegetable. My grandmother made a sweet potato casserole every thanksgiving and christmas with sweet potatoes, a dash of salt, orange rind, about a cup of orange juice, and then she sprinkled pecans and brown sugar all over the top. On top of that, she would drissle about a half a cup of melted butter and then a healthy dollop of bourbon. Yum.

I second this recommendation. Food so good and southern, Strom Thurmond once had a mild heart attack there. ← Geez - you must be in marketing! That's an excellent tag line that would have folks lined up out the door! Thanks to both of you for the recommendation!

Have you actually ever eaten at Madam's Organ? I've always thought of it as a drinking joint - would never occur to me to order food there.

Is there a restaurant in DC/MD/VA that serves true southern cooking (as opposed to pretentious nouvelle Southern cuisine?) It doesn't have to be fancy at all - I just want one that serves some of the following: Sweet Tea with Lemon - (don't laugh but the only place I've found that has tea made right is Chick fil A - the fast food chain out of GA that has a few locations around town like the Ballston Mall) Cornsticks - not corn bread but individual corn sticks. Made in a cast iron pan so tha they have a crunchy exterior. Not sweet or fluffy cornbread either. Fried Chicken - made the way my grandmother's cook made it - no egg batter. Just shaken in a bag with flour, salt, pepper and some spices. Peas - not green - but blackeyed, pinkeyed or lady peas - and the small kind too! Have you noticed that the only peas they have at any of the farmers markets in the spring and summer are picked too late so they are huge and not tasty like the small peas you get at farmers markets in the south Greens - mustard or collard stewed with a piece of ham all day long so the pot liquor is a brown and rich - oh yes, and pepper vinegar sauce on the table please. Butter beans - same rules apply as the peas - not the big kind but the baby lima's - cooked long enough to be tender but not so long where they become mushy. Pole beans - also cooked with a piece of ham and yes please, more pepper vinegar sauce on the table. No need for dessert - just plenty of second helpings please. Oh and please don't tell me to go to Vidalia's or such - it will only show that you don't understand what I'm talking about. (I'm not knocking Vidalia - they have good food but I'm looking for something closer to what my grandmother would have put on the table).

This sounds like a great gift for my niece, who was born and raised in Louisiana but is now living with her new husband in Tribeca. She is a recent culinary school grad and will enjoy the read. thank you for the recommendation.

Julia Reed's book Queen of the Turtle Derby is a hilarious collection of true stories about the south with a big emphasis on the importance of food. She includes a number of good recipies as well. Reed is a political writer for Vogue magazine but also regularly contributes food articles to the New York Times. She grew up in Greenville, Mississippi. What I like most about this book is that her voice is authentic - she writes the way she speaks - matter of factly with dry wit and humor added to the mix. She really captures the south and what being a southerner is all about - especially as it relates to the importance of food. I can't remember if it's in the book or if it was a remark she made at a luncheon but she made a brilliant observation that if you ask a southerner to describe the best meal they ever had, it will without fail be one that was homemade and had around a family dinner table. If you ask someone from the North, they will name some four star restaurant. This is a great book but it will make you hungry.