Flocko

Charlie: Have you gone to mass at the little church in Chimayo, between Taos and Santa Fe? Have you eaten at Rancho de Chimayo. If not, DO BOTH!!! The church is wonderful. Pilgrims crawl many miles to get the holy, healing earth there. I can attest to its properties. The restaurant down the road is worth a trip all by itself. There is also a kiler taco/enchilada stand next to the church which is also great......and easier to get into than Rancho de Chimayo. Bill

Hi Charlie: Thanks for the tip. I rarely get over to that part of Colorado, east of Pagosa Springs, but I have an old buddy moving to the San Luis Valley soon. I'll be sure to give Emma's a try. If I do I'll post my thoughts. Bill

Hi John: Yeah, the Needles area is a lot harder to explore unless you are willing to hike looooong miles or are an experienced, intrepid 4-wheel driver. A number of the jeep roads that used to be open, like up Salt Creek to Druid and Angel Arch and All American Man petroglyph are now closed, so it can be a 12 mile hike, each way. I worked at Needles Outpost (then it was called Canyonlands Resort) in the summer and fall of 1970.................big fun!! I had worked the previous two summers running the Colorado River through Cataract Canyon and needed a change. I took people on jeep tours over Elephant Hill to Chesler Park and Confluence Overlook, and to Angel Arch.......Also served beer and "Stewart Sandwiches"...........frozen jobs that you microwaved.....................It was the only food in a 60 mile radius, so we had a captive clientele . The sandwichs sucked, but the view was great.......and with enough beer???? The view from Needles Overlook.................off Hwy 191 about 15 miles north of the turnoff for the needles...........is stunning................and rarely is another person there. It's administered by the BLM and is an undiscovered gem!! Bill

Charlie: Did you go, or are you going to Grand View Point and Green River Overlook in North Canyonlands.............beyond the turnoff for Dead Horse?? I agree that Dead Horse is incredible, and also, IMHO, more spectacular than Grand Canyon......especially considering the comparatively small number of tourists...........BUT..........these other points are a religious experience to me . Grand View does look out at the confluence of the Colo and the Green, whereas Green River obviously overlooks the Green and the stunningly stark and remote White Rim with the Henry Mountains in the distance. Dead Horse is a little higher and looks down on a large bend in the Colorado. BTW, it is quite easy to access the area below Dead Horse as well, and look UP at where you have been . I agree that Black Canyon is worth a look......and there is great trout fishing in the canyon if you have or charter a boat, but Canyonlands, Arches, Dead Horse, Natural Bridges, and the La Sal Mountains can well occupy a lifetime..............well, at least it has for me If either you or Ayana desire any further tips or ideas re: sights to see or food to eat , please just post or P.M. me. I would be glad to help! There's even a couple of pretty good places to eat in Monticello now, which is close to the Southern part of Canyonlands.....the Needles. I'm dining at one of them tomorrow night, in fact. Have a blast out here! Bill

I never had Miracle Whip while growing up, only Best Foods Mayo...............Now I am a MW afficianado!! I use it 5 to 1 over Mayo. Blackmail away Bill

Hi Ayana: If you're going to Arches Nat'l Park, you'll be off of I-70 about 30 miles and will be wanting to stay in Moab............maybe take in a little of Canyonlands Nat's Park and Dead Horse Point State Park, then continue up Hyw. 128 following the Colorado River .....a beautiful drive........ to join I-70 again near the Colorado border. In Moab I strongly recommend dining at the Desert Bistro.......excellent nouvelle Southwestern cuisine...........the best in the area, if not the state. I dine there at least once a week For breakfast in Moab I suggest the Jailhouse Cafe, The Moab Diner, or Eclectica Cafe. For great coffee and/or a good read try Arches Book Company. Its companion bookstore, Back of Beyond Books, across the street is the best place for books on the area. No food festivals in the Moab area that come to mind, but the Farmers Market every Saturday morning is great, though small. Fabulous vegetables, fruits, and breads plus a very good folk jam session all morning . On the way back, I suggest the restaurant at the Far View Lodge in Mesa Verde Nat'l Park. Very good game and other dishes. It is also a great place to stay.............no TVs or phones...............fantastic views.......You would need reservations, but pretty reasonable. There are many good restaurants in Durango of every type. If you have any further questios about restaurants or accomodations in the Moab or 4-corners region, just ask or PM me. Have a great trip to paradise !! Bill

Tammy, Alex, et al: \ Please put me down as a maybe. I am working toward being there!! Bill

Que? ← Clickety =R= ← Thanks Ronnie!! I make them all the time (the cabbage ones) as piroshki, but had never heard of runza. Best, Bill

Hi Angela: Lucky you . I made it to Takashi's about once a week when I spent more time in SLC............now it's only about every two weeks............but that's almost enough to keep me from totally "jonesin'" and going into withdrawal for his great sushi I was a devoted customer of Takashi at the Shogun for about 15 years.............same great sushi..............just a little "seedier" ambience I love his fried oyster lunch specials and the rice wedges as well as all of his sushi and sashimi. This sushi talk has me really looking forward to getting up there Thursday and Friday.............YUM!!! (And, anyway, it's "Jeep Safari" down here in God's Country and really a ZOO this week!!..............no way to get into any restaurant in Moab right now ) Maybe I'll run into you at Takashi sometime. Best, Bill

cchen: Yup! All within a block of my SLC office and 1 to 2 blocks from the Salt Palace: Cafe Atlantic (or Atlantico?) in 300 South block of Main St., East side of street. Eastern European......great smoked beef, feta, gyros, stuffed cabage rolls, salads etc. A Chilean place on the West side of Main in the 200 block. Empanadas and stuff....cheap and good. Curry in a Hurry..........same side and same block of Main..............pretty good Pakistani style curry, very cheap. House of Kabob..............same side and same block of Main.............pretty good pan-middle eastern food......reasonable. Also the Thai Orchid is pretty good and reasonable.......a couple of blocks west of the Salt Palace on 200 South. Next door is Cup of Joe...........a great coffee joint. I second the vote for Junior's Taco's. I am less inclined toward the brewpubs, but that's just me, I guess An excellent Mexican place............a little further afield is Julia's..............about 10th or 11th West between 1st and 2nd South, east side of the street. Mom and Pop place................no English spoken..........Very good and cheap! My favorite Mexican place is really south in Murray. Tacozana at about 8000 South State on the West side of the road, next to a bowling alley. Superb and very cheap. Again, limited English. Have a great stay Bill

Yes, yes, a thousand times....YES!! ← Thanks. How much does omakase usually run?? ← cchen: I honestly don't know. I have my favorites and usually order them (hirame sashimi, sweet and spicy giant clam roll, spanish makeral, pray for snow roll, tuna tetaki, etc); and then ask Takashi what is special or good to try. Takashi is pricier than most of the other sushi places in SLC, but not unreasonably so. Do try to sit at Takashi's own station (He is the short guy, slender, about mid forties) if you can. Tell him you're a friend of Bill's from Moab I'm going up to SLC later this week for a few days and will definitely be at Takashi's Thurs or Friday (or both ) I hope you enjoy it. Bill

Yes, yes, a thousand times....YES!!

Hi Megan: Thank you so much for letting me vicariously experience your New York culinary adventures. It's great!! Best, Bill

Hi Maggie: 27 new since my last post here, including Ruth Reichl's "Garlic and Sapphires" and FG's new opus!! Bill

Yes, I am a lefty and it's completely comfortable. I'm at my office now but I'm reasonably sure that the handle is symmetrical. If you want to check them out, many Williams Sonoma stores carry them . . . perhaps there's one near you. =R= ← Ronnie: That's a nice looking knife. What's the approximate cost of one of those? Thanks, Bill ← It was right around $200 US, iirc. So, definitely a bit pricier than the standard brands like Henckels or Wustoff. But, still less costly than a custom unit from Bob Kramer's Bladesmiths. Too bad you couldn't make it to Varmint's Pig Pickin' over Labor Day weekend, I brought it with me and would have gladly let you help me break down that crate of tomatoes =R= ← Hi Ronnie: I was to be on the deviled egg detail, so perhaps it might have been overkill there. I would have been happy to have given it a test drive, and help out on the tomatoes, however Does the knife require special Japenese whetstone sharpening and ceramic honing a la my Globals, or could I send it out occasionally to a professional sharpener?? Thanks, Bill

Yes, I am a lefty and it's completely comfortable. I'm at my office now but I'm reasonably sure that the handle is symmetrical. If you want to check them out, many Williams Sonoma stores carry them . . . perhaps there's one near you. =R= ← Ronnie: That's a nice looking knife. What's the approximate cost of one of those? Thanks, Bill

Sometimes you can't win. I Emeril had showed up on the local news there others would be accusing him of grandstanding. He's done a lot for the city, and I'm sure he'll continue to contribute in the future. Considering all the work there is to be done, the criticism seems a bit snarky? SB ← No, actually to me, someone who is in the middle of this mess, I don't think that it's snarky at all. Let me tell you something. I got a paycheck on the Monday after the storm and I got one on the 15th and I got one at the end of the month and I got another this week. I am one lucky guy and I promise that, in the future when I feel like smacking my boss, I will think about this and how much it meant to me to check the mini bank the day after the biggest natural disaster in the history of North America and know that I could feed my family with no interruption in our lavish lifestyle. I don't know many people who continued getting paid throughout this ordeal unless they were doing something to earn it. Some employers did handle it as best they could and paid until they ran out of dough or could put them back to work, and others immediately laid off and told everyone thanks but no thanks. The one's who just wrote checks, and in many cases, are still writing them, are to be congratulated in public and loudly as far as I am concerned-and I think that you might have some trouble finding anyone down here to disagree with me. Emeril has alot of employees. He has made his career here and this city, New Orleans, has, in fact, made him as much as anything that he has done on his own. Do you think he would be yelling BAM from the rooftops if the had landed in Dubuque, or Denver, or Raleigh? I suppose that it could have happened, but it's hard to imagine. Nothing snarky about it. This is kind of "put up or shut up" land. We've been torn down to the raw wood, no veneer left. Little things don't mean much. It doesn't even bother me one bit that it takes two hours to make groceries or that it is now taking me 4 hours to get back and forth to work when it used to take 90 minutes. I know this is happening because many of the people who are clogging the road and the checkout lines are here because THEY DON"T HAVE A HOUSE ANYMORE and I know better than to bitch about it. I also know that it's perfectly ok for the Picayune, or anyone else , to praise the folks trying to do it right or to chastise the ones who might not be quite so selfless. Good on The Picayune, says I. It's not just restaurant guys who are getting this treatment. It's everybody and that is exactly what the paper is supposed to be doing. Reporting. Maybe to many of you this kind of stuff seems trivial, but the restaurant business here is a big, big deal. The operators here are (sadly) our titans of industry and people want to know what they are doing. Everyone has family or friends in the business and many, many people here have worked at one time or another in the industry, so they are interested in how the things are being handled. Do good? Hurraahhh. Do bad? Boooooo. Don't get me wrong. I like the guy. I've been eating his food since he (and I) was a young man working on Washington Ave. for Ella Brennan. I like his restaurants. I am all over this website in various places saying exactly that. I'm happy for him and his success, but at this point, most observers, including me, (and no doubt the people on his payroll who are here and want to work-very few in reality are here, most likely)believe that it's time for him to come home and take care of business here. It's time for some truly NEW New Orleans Cooking. ← Right on target, Brooks!! Bill Louisiana expatriot

At your command, Capt. Varmint! So, you prefer more traditional deviled eggs, or something different? And what time Sat 9/3? Here are the ones I'm considering: basic recipe (mayo-mustard-vinegar), Cousin Judy's (Old Bay, Worchestershire), Pimento Cheese (Cheddar, Vidalia, garlic, pimentos), Bloody Marys (sundried tomatoes, horseradish, etc.), Blue Devils (blue cheese, bacon) or Devil Made me Do It (habanero hot sauce, curry). I can do two kinds, probably not more with the volume. Others can - and knowing you, will - weigh in but the decision of El Jefe Varmint is final! ← Damn, I have to choose only two? This is what I suggest: first, is there any way we can make more? I know 6 dozen sounds like a lot, but deviled eggs are incredibly special and highly coveted. What I suggest is that we make at least 10 dozen (yeah, I know!). We can cover the costs. We boil the eggs on Saturday, let the crew peel and cut them, and make the filling. We fill them on Sunday as we're getting ready to serve. With 3 or 4 people on egg duty, we could put out a lot of deviled eggs in a hurry. Debbie, don't underestimate how much help you'll have here. That is why this event is so much fun. And the music will be very, very good! With that in mind, and with the hope that we can do 10 dozen eggs (wow!), I think that we need to make half of those the traditional variety. Then I suggest making two other types, preferably pimento cheese and bloody mary's. I can be influenced toward any of the choices, because they all sound great. Regardless, these will be incredible. Is this do-able? Who's willing to help Ms. Moose???? ← Oh, my, my. We probably do need 10 doz. OK - 6 doz will be free-range (I've already ordered those and I believe that will clean out the farmers I'm getting them from) and will get 4 doz more from the store. My tentative plan is to cook all the eggs Friday 9/2 (they'll keep) and possibly devil some. I think the fillings taste better after they sit overnight and the flavors have married, as chefies say, so if we're not already doing too much, could devil Saturday morning. A volunteer refrigerator is near Varmint's and I have a neighbor (not attending) who has offered space, plus my own. For this volume, we may want to use food processors to make the fillings (I have one). Food mills would work, too, but I don't have one. Instead of filling all in advance, we could fill about half for immediate consumption Sunday and hold the rest of the fillings in ziploc bags for filling as we go. Would help with fridge space, too. If things are too crowded Saturday, I live about 10 mins from Pig Pickin Central and we could have a deviled egg task force break off and come here (my kitchen is adequate, if not as sumptuous). I will feel much better with help! I'm happy to cover the DE costs for egullet and for Varmint's gracious mentions of my book! I believe we should go with those choices: basic, pimento cheese and bloody mary. Sound OK? ← '' Debbie: I will volunteer for egg duty in whatever form it may be. I'm also looking forward to woking with the "master" and will do whatever is required. Justt let me know what's happinin' and I'll try to help. Thanks for letting me be a part of this!!! Will you sign my book?????..............please<G> Looking forward to seeing you and helping with the egg/ Bill

<ahem> The Limoncello that's currently infusing on top of my fridge. ← Ummmmmmm...............limoncello !!

Janet, I hope you can locate cardooni in Raleigh. I love them. The salad sounds wonderful

Dean: I'm donating, from the spirit sodden steppes of Utah, a bottle of 100 proof Rittenhouse Rye and a bottle of Van Winkle 13 year old Family Reserve to try with the Blenheim or for whatever other nefarious concoctions Katie and JAZ can come up with.

Damn! There goes my plan to assemble an away team and storm the fridge =R= ← Shoot, man...........I was so "in" on that gig I guess we'll have to figure out something else.

Our Utah State Liquor Stores only carry Rittenhouse at about $12 or one may special order Van Winkle Family Reserve, 13 years old @ $29. No Wild Turkey Rye available. Any thoughts on either of these?If it's the Rittenhouse 100 proof, it's definitely the choice. Van Winkle's rye is very good, but I think it's best for drinks where it doesn't have to compete with too many other flavors (a Sazerac, for instance). Van Winkle only uses 51% rye in their grain bill (the minimum required by law), so it is not a very "rye like" rye and would be lost with something as powerful as Blenheim's. ← It is the 100 proof Rittenhouse. I scored a bottle of it and was able to find (thanks to my friendly Moab State Liquor Store manager ) a bottle of the Van Winkle Reserve 13 years old at an agency up north (they had one bottle and are saving it for me till Friday.....only one in the state).................So, maybe a taste test is in order Thanks Sam!

Sam: Our Utah State Liquor Stores only carry Rittenhouse at about $12 or one may special order Van Winkle Family Reserve, 13 years old @ $29. No Wild Turkey Rye available. Any thoughts on either of these? Thanks, Bill ← The Van Winkle is awesome stuff. Hard to find here in PA, don't know about NC. If you're a rye fan, this one's a good one. ← Thanks, Katie. I look forward to seeing you in Raleigh! Bill

Sam: Our Utah State Liquor Stores only carry Rittenhouse at about $12 or one may special order Van Winkle Family Reserve, 13 years old @ $29. No Wild Turkey Rye available. Any thoughts on either of these? Thanks, Bill