timothycdavis

thanks for the suggestions...that's exactly the kind of stuff I was looking for. and your procedure was just fine. welcome! I gotta try the Chevron just out of curiousity. I'll report back on Sunday.

Any suggestions? John T. Edge is outta town, or I'd ask him. Even a lunch counter is fine, long as the food's good (travelin' on a budget!) thanks in advance. I leave Wednesday morn.

Just read these two quotes, which provide as good a reason as I can think of to like the Eagles and the Texans. "He's the spaghetti sauce that covers up the noodles and, if you've got good sauce, then you're going to have good spaghetti. The quarterback has got to be the spaghetti sauce, the one who makes it all work." -- Houston Texans offensive coordinator Chris Palmer on the significance of second-year quarterback David Carr to the team. "I like going with my gut, and I have a very big gut"- Philadephia coach Andy Reid

It IS cheap, and, when broke, will do in a pinch, 'specially if ice cold. that said, to consider it anything like, er, tasty, you've got to be either a serious alcoholic, an "ironic hipster," or, like most in Charlotte, NC, both. Honestly? I think Schlitz is better. Has more of a sweet aftertaste.

Fine article. JAZ, right on. If it's their party, they can fry if they want to.

"Why is it, that a nice meal can be described in english as (lamb, green beans and potatoes) and it just sounds like Sunday dinner... but substitute in "Haricots verts" for green beans and it turns into something exclusive and labor intensive.... does this work the same if you say Petit Pois instead of peas?...... " for the simple reason that everything sounds cooler in la francais. how about "freedom beans?"

any volunteers? it is an interesting debate, I think. If nothing else, I believe it may provide the artistic/creative person (i consider a good chef or cook artistic, or at least alchemistic) with another angle, if you will, another way into what's already in their own head. Not to be NORML or anything, but you'd have a hard time finding any of the great musicians or writers of this century who hadn't dabbled with something or another. Try to rely on it for inspiration *completely*, however, and you'll probably soon be serving sizzleplatters at the Sizzlin'. Moderation, like everything else.

From what I know from people who hung around that whole Ronstadt/California scene in the 70s, THEY were all loaded while making the music. I'd like to think one can pick up on that sort of thing. Good drug music seems to attract drug users....just look at Phish!

I'd kill for a good, simply made burrito right now. Sharp cheese; warm, lightly browned corn tortillas, some cilantro, some perfectly cooked beans, and a good handful of spicy, shredded beef. (Along with an icy cerveza, of course....)

I say they can deal with it. I don't sue McDonalds every time my dumb ass doesn't learn its lesson and ventures into their drive thru, nor do I bitch and moan everytime the Coke lacks carbonation. I bet the French are behind it all! (not really) TCD

thanks, all. I now have my little notebook filled for my next visit to the local wine merchant, as well as a good reason to get liquored up in the name of culinary research.

thanks a lot for the tip. After perusing it, it appears they agreed on nothing (as goes the NYT food section), but at least it gives one some ideas.

Any nice reds under $10 anyone would recommend as a good versatile table wine to keep around the house for little impromptu suppers and to use as gifts? I have some personal faves, but wanted to branch out a bit. tanks. T

Thanks for the post. I knew most of the story, but it's always nice to be reminded that food and cooking (and friendship) is about more than raw ingredients. (trying out new "avatar.") TCD

I really like a place in Asheville called The Greenery (http://www.greeneryrestaurant.net) . Sometimes they throw a few oddities your way, but it's a nice, sort of out of the way place that isn't overrun by people with lots of yapping kids (not that there's anything wrong with that)....

Yes! I drive every day under a billboard showing a hard-bodied woman doing situps. Next thing you know they'll toss some caffeine in that bad boy, or vitamins. Agreed also that it is virtually tasteless. When I must drink it (IE, at a dieting friend's), I put a small slice of lemon in there. Might be sacrilege, but it gives it at least SOME flavor....

Consider me in regardless -- it's a short drive, and I have a place to stay in Chapel Hill (and a driver -- she's my girlfriend) if the adult beverages get out of hand. Assuming they get in hand first.

You'd have to ask Kathi on that one...that's a two hour drive listening to me yapping, which is a lot for anybody!

I'm with Varmint on the BBQ. If you'll pardon my crudity, it's like my view of blondes, brunettes and redheads. If they're dressed properly, I have no problem with any of the above!

Watch it, or I'll go back in those shadows! I prefer "outsider." There's way too many food writers as it is -- and some damn good ones on here, even. I certainly have nothing but an autodidactic food background. I deal in marginalia, if you will. To do food writing specifically as a living would expose me for the (well-fed) fraud I am! (as might my next piece for Gastro, on that most fizzy of comestibles, Coca-Cola) Kath, I owe you drinks. Now about that book deal....

How'd you know about the Neil Diamond thing?

Thanks all for the signature advice. Once I got there I couldn't think of anything! As for Gastronomica, there is a website: www.gastronomica.org, but it's only got one article that you can read online. (now testing sig line -- crossing fingers)...

Thanks, all. Now if I could figure out how to make a signature line, I'd be in business! I did a little essay thing in the current "Gastronomica" about the SFA Symposium on BBQ held last year in Oxford. Much of that piece (at least the non-cheeky parts) was a sort of rebellion against that same thing: the whole "South Under Glass" syndrome when seen from afar. If we do have more mystery and tradition than some other places, it's because of geography and and the mixture of black and white culture and the sheer age of most of the cities, not from some strange fog that emanates from Charleston or Oxford. I love when people try and get the culture here, and have a real interest. Just don't act like we're some indigenous tribe to be studied, though. It is true we have some of the oldest American foodstuffs in the South, but that has a lot to do with the above culture, etc. You really want old-school, area-specific cuisine, check out the Native Americans! Timothy

Lesse. Kathi's post wanted "food in the South that would surprise and delight people who don't know the South and don't know the variety and diversity of what's going on down here." I agree with Kathi here. It seems to me that most of what people commonly refer to as "Southern" dishes are what I heard a lady recently call in a restaurant "peasant food": shrimp and grits, BBQ, pimento cheese, etc. Strangely, the ignorance of that woman does have some truth to it. It is food that started from the ground up, food-wise, and was then adapted by restaurant chefs, as opposed to the other way around. (Let it be said that I agree with Ron Johnson's take that this *doesn't* mean it doesn't take mucho skill to make this stuff -- it does, and then some). Does scuppernong added to foie gras make it Southern? No more than adding a fried green tomato to a brick oven pizza makes it California-style. To me, Southern cuisine to me is more a matter of regional ingredients and cooking styles than it is anything else. in this way, it's no different from Cali cuisine, except one may have humbler origins. When I grew up, I loved me some corned beef hash and chipped beef on toast for breakfast. My mother is from Texas, and my father from NC. Up until I was in my teens, I just assumed this was all Southern cuisine. My father ate chipped beef on toast in the Army, which is where he met my mother. After my brother and I were born, it became a favorite breakfast. It added mystery to it all, and a story. This to me became Southern cuisine. It was food that our family made that had a story. We just happened to live in the South. Perhaps people need to take a little more time looking for the story. (forgive the rookie post!) Timothy C. Davis Writer/Contrarian/Gut Charlotte, NC