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Jaz - I've been making caramel corn for 30 years, having learned at the elbow of my grandfather - 'nuff of that. Instead of using roasted, salted nuts at the end of your cooking process, try adding the same volume of raw peanuts 1/2 through your cooking time. They'll still "sink" but they will all become mixed with the corn once you complete your cooking process, add the corn and stir

2013-0424 Lunch • More of the beef short ribs, daikon & “Far Koo” soup, well-developed/matured in taste now; with a bundle of “Fun See” (粉絲; cellophane noodles) added in to the reheated portion of the soup taken. 2013-0425 Lunch • A riff on lotus root soup. Generous garlic (~ 1 head, deskinned, dehearted, halved) sautéed in veggie oil; baby pork back ribs (1/2 rack, cut into riblets) added, sautéed w/ sea salt; water added, brought to a simmer; added in “Tai Nam Chou” (大南棗) (large sort-of-smoked large Chinese jujubes), generous “Yook Chook” (玉竹; Yale: yuk6 juk1; Polygonatum odoratum (Mill.) Druce), raw peanuts, finely sliced soaked wood fungus (木耳), a couple of dried cuttlefish (小墨魚) (see here); and the mix simmered for about ½ to ¾ hour. Soaked, trimmed snow fungus (Tremella fuciformis) and thinly-sliced de-skinned long-type (i.e. crunchy-type) lotus root added and the mix simmered till done. Left overnight to meld further and reheated for lunch. Except for the hard pits of the jujubes and the pork rib bones everything is now edible; but the soup itself – the broth – is the more appreciated part. Yum. • Rat tail noodles (老鼠粉; Yale Cantonese: lou5 syu2 fan2)§ dressed w/ a chicken liver sauce¶ & chopped scallions. § In Hong Kong & Taiwan (& mainland China, I believe) it would be better known as “Silver Needle Noodles”, 銀針粉; Yale Cantonese: ngan4 jam1 fan2. See the wiki article. ¶Generous sliced shallots & a couple of chopped smashed garlic cloves were sautéed in veggie oil; chopped fresh chicken livers added & the mix stirred a bit; followed by fish sauce [Red Boat], Ryori-shu [MRT], sweet mirin [Honteri], light soy sauce (“Sang Chau”; 生抽) [Kimlan; Grade A], a splash of rice vinegar [Marukan] plus a little water and the mixture stirred then covered and simmered for a while. Some sesame oil [Dragonfly] was added towards the end.

I use dry roasted peanuts (Planters low salt) in my most excellent peanut brittle. The recipe came from my Aunt Rosie, and it called for raw peanuts, put in after the sugar dissolved and cooked in the hot syrup and stirred constantly. Too much work. Cook the syrup to 305, dump the peanuts in and stir just enough to incorporate. Then add the baking soda. If you warm the peanuts in the microwave a bit, the syrup stays liquid enough to stir the soda in after a brief heatup.

Here's one from the Eleven Madison Park Cookbook (with some modifications): Crimini mushrooms three ways (poached in olive oil-white wine reduction on pan-fried bread rounds, pickled, and raw), peanut puree, fresh garden greens, crushed peanuts, and peanut vinaigrette. I've never been a huge fan of Crimini mushrooms, but the poached ones are delicious.

I was in the mood for more "Tai Yee Ma Kar Lui" [大姨媽嫁女] today. (Hairy gourd with cellophane noodles & dried shrimp) Made a lotus root soup to go with it. (Beef slices sautéed w/ garlic, water, sliced lotus root, snow fungus, fresh cloud ear fungus, raw peanuts, soft tofu, sea salt) White rice. (Hom Mali)

• Lotus root & pork spare ribs soup.§ With garlic, jujubes, raw peanuts & fresh "Far Koo". • Bone-in chicken¶ stir-fried/sautéed with garlic, Napa heart & hot green chillies. • White rice (Basmati). § Short-cut pork spare ribs sautéed w/ lightly crushed garlic cloves plus some salt till fond is well developed then water added. Simmered for 10-15 minutes or so, sliced lotus root & jujubes‡ added, followed shortly by the fresh "Far Koo" mushrooms (flower-patterned thick cap shiitakes; quartered) and peanuts and the mix simmered till done, about 1+ hour or so. ¶ Chopped-up chicken pieces pre-marinated w/ Shaohsing wine (Wei Chuan), fish sauce (Red Boat), fresh ground black pepper, sesame oil (Dragonfly). The smashed, chopped garlic was tossed in the hot pan containing oil, the chicken + marinade tossed in quickly, the mix stirred/banged around; followed by the sliced hot long green (ripening to orange) chillies and trimmed leaves of the heart of a Napa cabbage ("Wong Nga Pak") almost at the end - the idea was to just barely cook the Napa cabbage and retain the crispiness/crunch of it as far as possible. ‡ I used "大南棗" today, a.k.a. "Blue Dates". They're not actually blue in color but are very dark black-red visually, are larger than the more common "red dates" and have a smoky smell to them. Side note: The currently accepted name for Chinese dates/jujubes appears to be Ziziphus jujuba, rather than the Ziziphus zizyphus previously used which is recognized as a synonym. See: http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl/record/kew-2470699

Mmm! Boiled peanuts! Since no southern peanut lovers chimed in, I'll just give you the boilerplate recipe that works for me. I never ate them until my second trip to the south. That was in early fall, in Atlanta, and the new peanuts were fresh and plentiful in the markets. I never heard of soaking first, but it's no secret I'm a rank amateur. So, you can take my ratios with .....well, a grain of salt, but I find them addictive. On our third trip to the south, also in the fall, we bought some at a roadside stand, sold in a brown bag that was getting soggy by the time we arrived at our airbnb. Our hosts were split on boiled peanuts: she was a South Carolina native who loved them, he was a transplant and hated them. She pronounced the ones we brought as being pretty much like they always are, so that was a good indicator for me. I assume that the size and freshness of the peanuts has everything to do with how long they need to be cooked. Around here we get fresh raw peanuts in the late summer / early fall at the farmers' market. Many of the vendors who sell them are Asian and I have never asked how they cook them. Honestly, the ones I make with organic peanuts grown in CA are better than the ones I had in South Carolina. All my trips to the south have been in the fall, except for my first one. That was in the spring. All the trees in Atlanta were in bloom and I didn't stop sneezing for the whole week we were there. It looked lovely but omg the pollen was like a perfect storm. 2 pounds fresh raw peanuts in their shells 5 quarts of water 1/2 cup + a bit more to taste kosher salt I don't season, but I'm sure that's delicious. I start by mixing everything together in a big pot and bringing it to a low boil or a high simmer. Believe it or not I too came up with the idea of using a vegetable steamer basket to keep them down while cooking. With nice fresh peanuts it shouldn't take more than an hour and half or maybe two hours to cook them, but since freshness varies, checking for doneness is a good idea. I was told to let them sit in the water for half an hour after removing from the heat. The longer you let them cool in the water the saltier they will be, so I always taste and adjust time.

Some soups from the last two months. • Pork meatballs & daikon in peppery pork stock. • Kale in chicken broth. (scroll down) • Fuzzy melon (a.k.a. Hairy gourd) soup; w/ short-cut pork spare ribs, garlic, cellophane noodles. (scroll down) • Harm Choy Tong w/ chicken legs. (scroll down) • Another version of Harm Choy Tong. • Fish tofu soup w/ garland chrysanthemum, Napa cabbage, white mushrooms, garlic; in chicken stock. (scroll down) • Choy Kon Tong (dehydrated Cole soup). (scroll down) • Soup of pork spare ribs, fresh Chinese mushrooms, snow fungus, daikon, garlic, chicken stock. (scroll down) • Bak Kut Teh (Herbal Hoklo-Canto variety) w/ fried tofu puffs. (scroll down) • Bak Kut Teh w/ pork hocks & pork spare ribs. Heavy herbal treatment & heavy saucing. • Beef shin stew w/ root vegetables. • Angled loofah soup w/ pork spare ribs & snow fungus. • Rice congee cooked w/ pork spare ribs & a form of preserved mustard. (scroll down) • Rice congee w/ sliced pork belly & ja3 choi3. • Slow-simmered chicken broth w/vegetables. (scroll down) Another iteration here; and also here (scroll down). • Cabbage, parsley & garlic soup; chicken stock. (scroll down) • Lotus root soup; w/ chicken & beef, garlic, oil, raw peanuts, lam jou, goji berries, yook chook (Solomon’s Seal rhizome), dried salted oysters, water, salt. • Lotus root soup. With pork short-cut spare ribs, garlic, Chinese jujubes, honey jujubes, goji berries, raw peanuts, dried cuttlefish, sea salt. • A riff on Tachiyama Chanko-Nabe. (scroll down) See also here. • Chanko-Nabe Miso-Aji. Noodle soups, many from dressing up “instant noodle” packs or building upon them: • Pork & cabbage dumplings, poached eggs, skinny wonton noodles in chicken stock, leaf celery, chopped scallions. (scroll down) • “Ho Fan Abalone Chicken Soup Flavored” with sliced Chinese BBQ pork, seafood & cabbage dumplings, and edible chrysanthemum. (scroll down) • “Sau Tao Noodle King Wonton Flavor noodles” w/ lots of chopped scallions & poached eggs. • “Instant Noodles Artificial Hot & Sour Shrimp Flavor” w/ leafy celery leaves & stems, Dodge City salami & Prosciutto Rosa. • “Pickled Cabbage Flavor Instant Vermicelli” w/ leafy celery, pressed tongue & hard-boiled eggs. • Baechu kimchi, bamboo shoots, fried tofu puffs, scallions & garlic soup; with the ho fun plus the soup sachet from a “Ho Fan Abalone Chicken Soup Flavored” package. • “Spicy Kimchi Flavor Bowl Noodle Soup”, w/ white standard mushrooms & trimmed scallions. • “Instant Noodles Artificial Seafood Flavor”, w/ Napa cabbage, poached egg, fish tofu & scallions. • “Myojo Chukazanmai Oriental Flavor ramen” w/ young Tuscan kale, quartered white mushrooms & Chinese roast duck. • “Ibumie Penang Har Mee instant noodle” soup; w/ water spinach, fried tofu puffs & hard-boiled eggs. • “Sour-Hot Flavor Vermicelli”, w/ sliced Debreziner sausage, a few splashes of Chinkiang vinegar, chopped Napa cabbage & scallions. (scroll down) • Beef, veal & celery meatballs; in beef & sautéed garlic stock, w/ chopped curly kale & banh pho noodles. (scroll down) • “Sapporo Ichiban Chicken Flavor Ramen”, w/ standard celery, leafy celery, Chinese roast pork, eggs poached in situ. • Daikon-porkballs-white pepper soup, w/ min6 sin3 (mee sua). • Pork & shrimp wontons & skinny wonton noodles soup, w/ choy sum. Edited to fix formatting.

If you plan to make BLTs with all the luscious tomatoes tomatoes available, you can't go wrong with the Green Meadow Farms product double-smoked by King's Butcher Shop in Paradise, sold at the Reading Terminal by the Fair Food Farmstand. Then again, the applewood smoked bacon available at Harry Ochs works, too. And I've got a package of Country Time's uncured bacon (also from Fair Food) sitting unopened in the fridge which I'm going to try soon. As noted in another post, Livengood's is offering fresh killed chickens at the moment. Dwain Livengood said they'd be available fresh rather than frozen at $3.80/pound whole. The birds are in the 3-4 pound range, and it's best to reserve them. I'll pick up mine this Thursday at Fairmount, but they'll also be available Tuesday afternoon at South Street and Saturday at the Reading Terminal. At the Pennsylvania Dutch Festival earlier this month, Nick Ochs got into the spirit (photo above) with some overalls and a straw hat. As usual, the festival attracted strong summertime crowds to the market, and the pony cart rarely traversed the block with an empty seat. Fishers was making donuts in center court, and I tried a hot oe as soon as I arrived about 8:30 a.m. Alas, the oil must not have been hot enough: I could have fried a flounder with all the grease this baby absorbed. Both Iovine's and OK Lee offer local produce as well as the same California, Florida and Mexican imports you'd find at a supermarket (though usually at a lower price). Jersey tomatoes and Pennsylvania corn are among Iovine's offerings, as well as local eggplants, green beans, etc. Finds from further afield recently have included raw peanuts and black figs. Plenty of local produce can also be found at L. Halteman's and Kauffman's Lancaster County Produce. Benuel Kauffman has expanded across the aisle (photo below) to some of the space formerly occupied by Dutch Country Meats. Across the aisle (between 12th Street Cantina and Martin's Meats) is the vacant space once occupied by Natural Connection and, before that, Margerum's. David Schreiber has finally got his financing in place and signed a lease, so work will begin soon on converting the spot to his Jonathan's Best grocery. "The store will carry a wide variety of gourmet groceries and packaged foods, plus pre-made sandwiches, salads and their signature line of soups to eat in or take home. Dave, a native Philadelphia, hopes to open in October," said Paul Steinke, RTM general manager.

Am I correct in assuming that it would be a mistake to use caramelized cacao nibs in a brittle because they are already cooked and would therefore burn in the process? Greweling's Peanut Brittle calls for raw peanuts, with a variation of 'cocoa nibs' with no mention of raw, cooked or otherwise. Thanks edited for typos

I've been hoarding nuts like a squirrel. In my freezer: 1 1/2 cups pecans 1 cup sliced almonds 1/2 cup pinenuts 1/2 cup sesame seeds 1/3 cup black poppyseed 1 1/2 cups roasted peanuts 2 cups raw peanuts (why did I buy all those peanuts?) 1 1/2 cups toasted walnuts 2 cups pistachios (for the ice cream I never made) 2 cups raw almonds (I forget why I bought these, too) 1 cup cashews Also in my freezer and fridge: 1 Italian pork sausage 2 Chinese pork sausages 4 Chorizo sausages 3 beef hot dogs, ONE roll 1 qt homemade spaghetti sauce 1 cup sorrel puree (oops, forgot to do something with this) about 1/4 cup duck fat scraps 1 cup chicken stock 2 big bundles of raw chicken bones (I'm supposed to make stock) 2 rutabagas (leftover from my CSA order) 1 lemongrass stalk 3 oranges, 2 without zest And in my cupboard I found a treasure trove of homemade candied citrus peel, over 2 cups worth. I forgot about this!

Every winter at this time I am nuts about the food in my house ..kind of getting sick of wintery dishes ...and just knowing there are going to be fresh things around the corner ...spring mushroom season starts here soon ...salmon....Yakima asparagus....fresh eggs......it is all just about a month away for us right now ... every year at this time I demand of myself to begin to purge the larder...completely! I wonder do other people do this? It is like any other spring cleaning ...can be tedious ....but the point is ...the search for spring is just ahead! today I am going to start for myself and have a bunch of stuff going ..it is always easy the first few days because you have a lot to choose from! I use the foods in order of decline to save on waste that also limits choices ..also I dont want frozen rhubarb in my freezer when I can start picking mine next month ...I dont want frozen green beans when asparagus comes in ...and I am not into missing out on salmon season because I have something I need to use up first... I am happy to keep anyone interested posted and if there is anyone out here who wants to join in on this ...down right fun and sometimes frustrating tradition ...please do todays self challenge is: raw peanuts 6 red potatoes 1 cabbage 1 big assed winter onion a few dried porcini mushrooms a giant fresh frozen pork hock garlic rhubarb 1 open bottle of decent merlot I am not an organized person just a seasonal one

I wish I had a green house ..I would never come inside I think if I did! and a potting shed as well ...I will take pics of my garden and post it for sure and would love to see others? I am planting herbs and flowers all over that reflect the moon this year especially sage and silver thyme.....it glows a beautiful silver in the dark when the moon is full ...so pretty! I need ideas for more herbs that reflect like that what do you have growing inside? ...I have some lemon grass and ginger in pots they make wonderful house plants I also planted some raw peanuts to see what would happen ...I had a piece of taro growing for ages ..it was stunning then the root just rotted

Damn, I need to go back and retaste that. I'm posting the review I started to write because I don't know if I'll actually have time to go through every dish. Maybe the member of our group who took pictures will post them? My 1/6 of a review: Upon our late, as usual, arrival, our dinner companions were already well into their second (third?) cocktails. Having already sampled at least 12 cocktails on 4 different occasions at Tailor myself, I can’t say I blame them. The cocktails are just as good as anything being done at Death & Company or Pegu Club, but they’re pushing flavor boundaries even further. I’m loving the Lavendar Fizz, the Cascade and the Paprika Punch. Nathan or Sneakeater can talk about the cocktails, though, since they’re far more expert consumers. After our reservations snafus over the past two weeks, the service could not have been more welcoming or gracious. Throughout the evening we were served by our waiter, had the GM to explain each dish and the head bartender stopped by several times with cocktails and occasional special tastes of new beverages. I’m not personally a fan of drinking cocktails (even great ones) with dinner, so I’ll look forward a full wine list becoming available. That being said, I expect to find myself at the bar as often as in the restaurant. Because of the number of components in the dishes, sharing a Tailor dish among more than two people is somewhat untenable, so we ordered three of every dish for our table of six. The Salty I think our entire table unanimously agreed that the foie gras and peanut butter was a standout hit. Quotable quote of the night: “I’ll know I’ve found my future wife when she and I go together as well as foie gras and peanut butter.” When you taste this dish, the combo seems too obvious to be as novel as it is. The foie is 80% foie and 20% peanut butter, sprinkled in bitter chocolate with raw green peanuts and finely diced pear on the side. The raw peanuts enhance the peanut flavors while giving the dish a tiny bit of bite. I thought the dish was even better than the first time I had it, though Dave H pointed out that it was a smaller portion than the first time- not a good sign. The pork belly, miso butterscotch and artichoke was the other dish that I had eaten previously. I think this dish is absolutely fantastic. The butterscotch somehow avoids being clingly sweet, and the artichokes are the true star of the dish. The pork belly was less tenderly cooked than the last time (it’s sous vide), but it was still delicious. I hope they’ll quickly be able to improve the consistency of the dishes to turn out perfectly cooked versions of this stuff every time, because the food is too good for the cooking or ingredient quality not to stand up. There's also some sort of alcohol in the butterscotch. An aside: the bread at Tailor is fantastic. They have an olive bread and a raisin bread- top quality. The breads are served with a canelle of butter topped with thin chives. It is especially great if you steal ALL of the chives for your slice. Again, raisins and chives- why aren’t more people doing it? (And don’t tell me you’re putting chive cream cheese on your raisin bagel, because I don’t accept raisin bagels to begin with). It’s kind of hard to pick favorites from this menu, but the peeky toe crab, smoked pineapple and basil may have been my favorite of the new dishes I tasted. The menu fails to mention the delicious, preciously thin iberico ham “chip” that adds the necessary salt for this dish. Each of the three spoonfuls of peeky toe crab salad have a smear of pine nut butter beneath them, bringing a wonderful nutty woodsiness into the mix. Like many avant garde dishes, it’s best if you combine all of the elements in each bite. The crab, pine nut, microbasil, pineapple and ham all bring a necessary taste and texture element to the dish. If they sold ham chips like that in bags in our vending machine at work, I’d have a serious problem on my hands.

My wife and I went for an early dinner on Saturday, and our experience preety much mirrored Nathan's. While I won't say it's a top 5 of NYC, it's a fantastic restaurant with great service and an interesting cocktail program. (The Chanterais, made with walnut-infused cognac, was amazing. The red pepper cocktail was a little too savory, though; it would have been better as a drink amuse-bouche/small shot. It was tasty, but too big.) Favorite dishes were the foie gras with raw peanuts (they taste like sprouts - who knew) and the amazing pork belly with butterscotch. Since the butterscotch wasn't too sweet, the dish worked perfectly. I disagree on the artic char dish - I found the salting to be appropriate and the avocado ice cream to work very well with the fish and watermelon. The desserts were again very good - the panna cotta a squiggle of tasty pudding on a plate coated with coffee "crunch" or whatever it was called. It was delicious. The only disappointment was the corn sorbet - we had hoped that it was Sam's amazing cornbread ice cream from wd~50 re-purposed. Sadly, it wasn't. It was still a good dish, just not what we had hoped for. 4 cocktails, a bottle of sparking water, 4 savory dishes ($15 a pop), 3 desserts ($11 a pop) - and it came to about $190 with tax and tip. I think the menu is great and I'm hoping to see it expand some. I'd like to have some spice in the components - whether savory or sweet dishes - and I think some of the dessert options should bring a little more saltiness to the table. He's got a winner on his hands here if he keeps up the quality and service.

I got some fresh raw peanuts at the farmer's market yesterday and I would love some suggestions on what to do with them (other than roasting). I have thought about an african-style peanut soup, but I'd love other ideas. thanks!

It's pretty hard to find old fashioned, non-hybrid corn these days. But Earl Livengood has it. Priced at 50 cents an ear, the certified organic corn is "open pollinated". The kernels aren't as uniform and perfect as you'd see in a hybrid variety, but I bought a couple of ears to see if they have a "cornier" taste; I don't expect them to compete in the sweetness category with Mirai or other modern hybrids, but I'm prepared to be surprised. They'll be consumed tonight, so I'll try to post an update soon. Lots of local produce at both Iovine Brothers and OK Lee to supplement their regular fare. Iovine's comes from Shadybrook Farm near Yardley, OK Lee's from Lancaster County. Among the items: cantaloupe, wax and green beans, corn. Certainly not local, but a welcome seasonal return nonetheless at OK Lee: Cactus pears, two for a buck. Makes great magaritas. Suffering succotash! Lima beans at the height of their season. At least one of Earl Livengood's farmhands was popping them raw as a snack this morning. Also new this week: fresh, young, small celeriac. Earl's also got some additional varieties of heirloom tomatoes. Livengood's heirloom tomatoes Blackberries and peaches still going strong, of course, at Livengood's, Kaufman's and Fair Food, but also making an appearance in advance of autumn are some early pears at Kaufman's. Benuel says he expects to have Sanza apples next week. (Benuel spells the varietry with a 'z', but I've only seen it with the second 's', Sansa.) Benuel Kauman's fruit, including early pears Attention mrbigjas: raw peanuts back at Iovine's, $2.99/pound. Here's my shopping list for the week: EARL LIVENGOOD $4.95 Corn tomatoes Celeriac IOVINE $0.39 Bananas KAUFMAN'S $3.95 Cherry tomatoes GIUNTA'S PRIME SHOP $10.10 Chicken 12th STREET CANTINA $3.34 Mexican chorizo HERSHEL'S DELI $5.00 Lox

My first post here... Peanut and garlic stuffed salmon... My own creation. Crush some raw peanuts then lightly brown in a pan w/ olive oil and some garlic. Set aside. I used a salmon filet and sliced it as if to butterfly it . With the filet closed dip in egg (w/ salt and pepper) and then bread crumbs. Then drop it into a hot pan with a bit of olive oil. After it's browned on one side, flip it, open the filet and place inside the peanuts/garlic mixture. close the filet. When this side is browned lower the heat, cover and simmer til done. Fantastic just like this, but I want to try making a light, white wine cream and garlic sauce for this . I may also try it with cashews... Good luck

I got into New Orleans a little bit, so I would include real andouille and tasso, raw peanuts freshly fried, Acme grilled oysters and soft-shell shrimp (at Coquette) for new to me taste sensations. Black garlic was an ingredient that I only became aware of in 2009, though I first had it in 2008. Believe it or not, I had never actually eaten goose before 2009, though I had eaten goose products such as foie gras, goose fat and goose eggs.

I think perhaps what you are experiencing is a difference in preparation rather than the base peanuts themselves. The saltiness comes from how much salt is put in the boiling water, and the firmness is a matter of how fresh the raw peanut was and/or how long it was boiled. I'm no peanutologist, mind you, and they certainly come in different varieties (size of pea, number of peas, etc.), but the variations you describe are cook influenced, I think, and not botanic or geographic.

I use peanuts to make a starter. Just roast raw peanuts, cool and toss with lemon juice, chopped onions, corriander, salt and chillies. Episure you are forgetting the famous sindhi "sel dabal"... Some gujju things done in my house... take leftover namkeens, combine in a bowl, toss with diced onion, tomato, chilli and fresh corriander and serve. Also a dich the maharaj in my house used to make was bhujia in the usual onion tomato pcurry paste yummmm. Rushina

*Not* a problem! Currently 38degC in my office... Cucumber sounds like an addition my sons would enjoy too. This is a peanut-growing area, so raw peanuts are cheap too. Sounds good! Cumin and mint? I often wonder exactly where the middle east and India stop and start. I've been using a home-made Bulgarian yogurt - that has plenty of flavor, but is mild and not sour.

Well, the first breakfast I ever ate in the South was at a Waffle House, which is a Southern thing, while at the same time it is not, as they do not have biscuits. I was a child travelling with my parents, and my sister happened to receive cold eggs on this occasion. She told the waitress that her eggs were cold, and the waitress looked at her quizzically, so she repeated the statement a couple of times. After a few more moments of confusion, the waitress' eyes lit up, and she said, "Oh, they're CAWLD!" That was the first moment that I realized that a few differences in pronunciation could amount to the definition of a separate dialect among the American English language. My memorable first Southern breakfast, however, was at a convention in a retreat near Talladega, Alabama. The place is called Lake Hypatia, and run by a very sweet couple. Because it's quite remote, or at least it was when the conventions began, there is not much good food to be had at local restaurants. Later on, I ended up catering a meal for a future convention, and the best I could come up with for dinner for 100 people on a limited budget was bucketloads of sloppy joes, with a TVP option for vegetarians, huge trays of baked beans, vegetables and dip, plus some potato chips. It must have not been horrible, since every bit was scraped up within a half hour. So the meals during the retreat are somewhat slim pickin's, and there are tons of activities inbetween, so you're starving by the time you get whatever is available to eat. The last day of the event is a Sunday morning, when you get a big Southern breakfast for the final meal, and then you head home. My first time there, after a weekend that included being seated for nearly 2 and a half hours at a local restaurant with nothing to eat but a few, tiny raw peanuts from a friend while we were waiting to be served, I got this huge gift of a meal. Big biscuits, eggs, bacon, sausage, grits, white gravy. I was like an escaped prisoner from a concentration camp who was finally allowed to eat. And every bite was lovingly prepared by a couple of nice Southern ladies. I can't remember a meal that I've appreciated much more than this. And an hour later, they came back with trays of fresh, warm banana pudding. Another first for me. It is indelibly etched into my brain as an ethereal comfort food.

It was never public, at least not in the 25 years I've lived near it. In fact, "strangers" were looked on with suspicion (at least I was when I would pass by on my early-morning power walks ). The South Street Seaport Museum used to have a 6 a.m. tour once a month, but I don't think the public was otherwise welcome. It was just too dangerous (read what the guy says about the hi-los; they drive those things FAST!). When SSSM opened its first new building, back in 1985 or so, there was a retail counter supposedly connected with the Fulton Fish Market. But since FFM is a group of many, many dealers, I don't believe it really was official, rather just someone using the name. In any case, it didn't last more than a couple of years before the true nature of the "new" SSSM (aka Rouse mall, NYC) came through. If the new place is anything like the rest of Hunts Point, there will be no public retail. The only way an individual can get into Hunts Point to make a purchase is if he/she has an invitation from a vendor there and can prove it to multiple layers of security. Some years ago, Ted Lee and Matt Lee wrote in the NY Times about going there to buy a bag (probably a 50-pound gunny sack) of raw peanuts to boil. They had a hell of a time getting in.

Green peanuts are late summer/fall (varies with where you live), but you don't have to use green peanuts, just raw peanuts (that aren't fresh out of the ground, but also haven't been roasted or otherwise processed yet). I can get them easily (pretty much any grocery store) but then I live in Atlanta. If you live in an area that doesn't routinely use raw peanuts you should still be able to find them in asian markets. NolaFoodie's 5 lb bag of frozen boiled peanuts for $10.99 sounds like reasonable retail mark-up. Do note that 5 lb of boiled peanuts is fewer peanuts than 5 lb of non-boiled peanuts, as the boiled peanuts are considerably heavier (because of the water they've absorbed). Dignan's half pound of "hot, wet, fresh nuts" for $5 doesn't sound too bad, given the convenience factor. The prices at southernpeanut.com are high, and the statement that "Any one can throw salt into a large pot and boil peanuts, but the peanut preparation and selection makes them 2nd to none" leads me to think that southernpeanut may have mistaken readers at eGullet for eGullible. Yes, anyone can throw salt in a large pot and boil peanuts. It's that simple.