fifi

Reading this thread has made me tired. But it has been instructive. Here is where I sit. I really don't want to know a lot about a reviewer's relationships. If I am reading a review, I want to hear about the food, the service, and the room. I always make the assumption that everybody in the industry knows everybody else and if a reviewer has a bias, I will figure it all out in the end. I am a big kid now. And, if a revewer is working within a confined space like a newspaper, please don't waste any of those words on telling me who your agent or your brother-in-law is.

GREAT CATCH! Thanks, Elie. I hadn't gotten to the paper yet. Alison sure did a nice job. I would like to know more about our brilliant city government's position on this, though. Do these people live under a rock? They should be doing all they can to encourage this. I don't live in the city so I don't know who is who. Sounds like we have a job to do on educating the clueless. Any suggestions from you lucky folks in our other, more enlightened cities would be appreciated.

You are probably right about that, Scott. But... There are rooms with a good amount of buzz and then there are places that will damage your hearing. And I am not kidding about the hearing damage thing. I have done enough walking around big machinery with a meter to see how you have to mark of the area that requires hearing protection. I am not saying that every restaurant should be elegant and very quiet, as in a temple of food. When it gets to the point that you can't even have a conversation, the concept has run amuk. The complaints in the diner's Whine & Dine column are getting more frequent. In fact, that is why the restaurant critic decided to add noise level. I can't remember which restaurant it was but she really rapped a place a few months ago for the noise. As I recall, it came out that the food was really good and interesting, even memorable, but she wasn't going to go back because of the noise level.

Coarsely grate in a food processor. Use as mulch on your row of garlic. Don't feed it to the poor pig. The SPCA will get you for making it eat turnips and the pig might pick up some of the turnip flavor. Can you tell that I hate turnips?

Noise is one of my consistent rants. Papasittos - the decibel level is way above OSHA standards. Sure, they have great fajitas. But I will NOT go there unless shanghaied by a visiting business group. You have to literally scream to be heard and then here come the damned mariachis. Joe's Crab Shack - I have only been once. I will not endure that kind of noise level and eat mediochre food at the same time. Out of control kids running around doesn't help either. Oh well... It is a Fertitta venue. Ruggles - The original, really uncomfortable rooms and really loud. Too bad. The food is really pretty good. When they opened the Ruggles on Main Street (I THINK it is closed now) we tried twice to have a business dinner there. On one trip there were exactly two tables taken (we were early) and the music was so loud the waiter was shouting. We requested that they turn it down. The waiter came back and said "sorry". Then the table next to us took up the rant. Only when both tables threatened to leave did they turn it down, a little. When the same thing happened the second time, I put them on my company's business dining informal black list. What is WITH these people? I am so glad that Alison Cook has started including noise level in her reviews.

You are correct, Dave. Prudhomme has been the guiding light in expanding Cajun cuisine seasoning. He advocates the use of multiple peppers (cayenne, black and white for instance) that also plays on the burn characteristics of each so that the warmth of the peppers and their effect on different areas of the mouth and throat are almost "orchestrated". He is a master at that. And I think that he has taken the cuisine to new heights. His spice mixes (either the commercial ones or from his cookbooks) are not a "thrown together" accident but are carefully crafted. Of course, all of the traditional Cajun mamans that relied on salt and cayenne are probably turning in their graves.

Well, what I have found when gumbo, jambalaya or whatever comes out flat, the culprit is often salt. As in... not enough of it. Cajun cuisine can be pretty salty. They don't use a lot of different kinds of spices so you are pretty dependent on the salt component to bring out the flavors and bring it all together. I tend to add my salt in "layers". That means that, for jambalaya, I will salt the trinity when I am sauteing that. The raw meat will be preseasoned. Of course, the sausage is already seasoned. I use fairly rich stock so there is a little saltiness there. Then I taste the liquid before putting the lid on to cook the rice, allowing for the fact that the rice will be absorbing some of the salt and diluting it out. Brooks... Am I wrong about that? I mean, you can only use so much cayenne.

The original I started from was in the Pace Picante cook book (no longer available and the recipe isn't on their web site either). I think it had a can of blackeyed peas and a can of hominy. It has morphed over the years... Red bell pepper instead of green, added celery and sometimes jicama for crunch, parsley instead of cilantro (lots of cilantro haters in my crowd), black beans and/or garbanzos instead of the peas, onion, garlic, picante sauce and cider vinegar. I don't have a recipe per se but I will put what I have in RecipeGullet. I choose the yellow or white hominy depending upon the color mix I am after. I don't find any taste difference. I don't recall finding any taste difference between yellow and white grits, either.

Sorry guys... I regularly buy canned yellow HOMINY for use in my variation on Texas Caviar. And it is hominy. Big swole up kernels. And, some years ago, I have bought yellow grits. I don't think I have seen them lately, though. (And I thought the universe was teal blue. )

Yeah... You are right again. Actually the original process used either. The pre-columbians used either lime made from burning seashells or lye made from wood ashes. It depended upon what they had available. The key issue is that the corn was treated with a very high pH solution.

I still don't know the answer. To recap... It is true that any coarsely ground grain falls under the generic term "grits". Therefore, polenta is one type of "grits". Polenta is not traditionally made from corn treated with alkali. What is called "grits" in the south has traditionally been made from corn treated with alkali and are, therefore, "hominy grits". What we don't know is whether or not our southern "grits" are still made from hominy. This is not clear because the alkali is not listed in the ingredients list (may not have to be since it is only part of the process and is theoretically not present in the final product) AND the product lists added nutrients (which, theoretically, would not be necessary if made from hominy). To add to the confusion, there has been some speculation that our southern grits are always white. Not true. While they are usually from white corn, I have seen and bought yellow corn "grits". All clear now? No? (I think I will e-mail the Quaker folks.)

Hee, Hee. A similar occurrence was what drove me to the restaurant supply store to purchase a half a dozen heavy aluminum half sheet pans. In my case, I had a custard like recipe in cups that I placed on a cheap pan. A few minutes into the baking the pan went "SPROING!". What a mess.

Well... This comment shows just about complete ignorance of traditional corn preparation in America since pre-Columbian times. And, if corn was the mainstay of your diet, that traditional preparation saved your life! Besides the posole that everyone knows about, the more pervasive masa used for making tortillas, tamales and other goodies is ground from treated corn.

You make a good point, Dave. I don't know what the Quaker Oats folks are actually doing. All I know is that lye treated corn tastes different than untreated corn. Posole has a different taste and texture than whole kernel corn. Maybe the Quaker folks are fooling us and giving us cornmeal that is vitamin fortified. Feh!

Thanks for that cool link. I am calling my sister now and giving her the mulching instructions.

Being a dog freak, I really enjoyed your stories about the incomparable golden retriever, Sky King. (I still remember the start of that TV show... Skyyyyyy Kiiiing!) Assuming that you still have the privilege of that wonderful creature's company: Are you still cooking for him? Do you have to add commercial food for convenience? Did you continue to research dog nutrition through your sources that gave you more guidance on your dog chefdom?

Bringing up a suggestion that was made up-thread, I think we should nominate ronnie as the official eGullet Santa Claus. Thanks so much for an entertaining blog. Awesome.

Jensen, I am not sure this is right. I have never heard of grits in the south referred to as anything other than hominy grits. If it ain't grits (hominy implied) it is corn meal. Many, many years ago, the wisdom of treating corn with lye was passed down to southern folks and those that resided closer to Mexico from the indigenous people in the area and became part of the tradition. In fact, many of my friends that are grits afficiandos tend to call polenta "bad grits". There seems to be a long standing tradition that recognizes the nutritional superiority of hominy over meer corn meal. It is not just a matter of removing the hull. The treatment makes essential nutrients available. The unfortunate part of the story is that the tradition of lye treatment did not transfer to Italy.

Great thread, jscarbor. When I was small, one tradition was going to my Aunt Audrey's house on Christmas Eve. We were not all that close to my father's side of the family but we always did that to play "catch-up" with those cousins. Aunt Audrey always served "Pickled Shrimp" and that was my favorite thing in the world. (I found out years later that my sister had gotten the recipe from her before she died. I make it now.) We would have our Christmas gift giving at home on Christmas morning and dad would always make pancakes. He was a pancake wizard. As time passed and my sister and I had our own families the Christmas traditions started to change. My sister became a real expert with quiche so that became a Christmas morning breakfast tradition. It still is. Christmas dinner is not as tradition bound as Thanksgiving. It has almost become a tradition that it is time to experiment. Dad started that many years ago when he started to really get into cooking. We have had the big six inch thick chunk of sirloin, sugar coated and shoved into a screaming oven. We have had that huge red snapper caught on a fishing trip encrusted in salt and baked. All sorts of things have been done to hunks of the noble pig. Venison figures into the equation if one of the hunters has been successful. We have some venison this year but we are also thinking about ducks and geese.

Mudpuppie... You misunderstand my question. The operative word in this potential distinction between "southern hominy grits" and polenta is hominy. Whatever the product in Oregon (yeah, they might not get the semantic distinctions) what I want to know is... Is the corn used to produce classic polenta treated with lye and transformed into hominy before grinding?

OK... Rereading the thread maybe I do both since a goose doesn't feed that many people. What is the deal with all of the fruit being used with goose? My family doesn't really like sweet with their savory. I haven't picked up either magazine yet. Does any one of those recommended have good savory ideas?

Goose... Duck... Goose... Duck... Goose... Duck... You know... It comes down to... What kind of fat do I want?

A friend of mine has been eating them raw, shredded or juilienne, in salads and tacos. She also eats french fry sized sticks dipped in lemon or lime juice then chile powder for a snack. My sister has put julienned mirliton in spring rolls.

OK... We have harvested the mirlitons before our latest cold snap takes them out. Thanks to all for the recipe ideas. Now I need some growing-them-next-year ideas. One of them that was sitting on the table as part of an arrangement has started to sprout. What do we do with that? Any gardeners out there? Is there any way to hold a few over for next year's planting?

Great post, Mudpuppie. Thanks. You are, of course, correct on the semantics of the word "grits". So, do I take it that the corn that is ground to make polenta has not been treated to make hominy? For a long time I just equated polenta with grits. I even make fun of people who won't touch southern hominy grits with a ten foot pirogue paddle but just swoon over the latest Mario polenta recipe. Then I started really trying to notice and found that polenta doesn't really taste the same. But you have to think about it to really notice the difference. Especially if there is garlic and cheese involved.