SOSOSOUTHERN

THANK GOD FOR THE UNIBROW

2012-01-18T10:11:00.000-08:00

THIS ARTICLE WAS FOUND ON Eatocracy
HUGH IS THE MAN RIGHT NOW, COME TO ATLANTA AND WE CAN GO EAT AT HIS
NEW RESTAURANT.

Hugh Acheson: Southern food, beyond the butter

Chefs with Issues is a platform for chefs and farmers we love, fired up for causes about which they're passionate. Hugh Acheson is the chef/partner of Five & Ten and The National in Athens, Georgia and Empire State South in Atlanta, Georgia as well as a judge on the current season on Top Chef, and author of "A New Turn in the South: Southern Flavors Reinvented for Your Kitchen." He has a very famous unibrow.
If you search "Paula Deen" on the Google, these are some of the search suggestions that appear: riding things, recipes, furniture, cookware, meatloaf, and diabetes. I strongly recommend researching the first and last on that list because both point to the decline of Western civilization.
Let me preface this with the wish that this piece not be about maligning a personality or calling out specific dishes in a repertoire. Hopefully it is about furthering a constructive discussion to rejoice in a better Southern food.
Southern food did not make the South unhealthy, rather a broken arrow of cookery did, one that is ultra-processed, trans fat laden, lard fried, and massively caloric. That’s not how I eat and I eat Southern food pretty much every day of my life.

A number of months ago I was to pose questions and moderate a discussion with Paula Deen at a theater in Austin during the Texas Book Festival. Paula arrived shortly before the event began, while almost a thousand of her coterie sat in their seats. Two armchairs were on the stage with a stool next to Paula’s chair just in case her husband Michael wanted to join the conversation. He didn’t and it remained empty.
The event began and I starting out lofting soft balls for Paula to swing for the fences and please her amassed fandom. These folks were not there to see a strange little Canadian guy talk about the importance of your local farms and revel in the green bounty that my adopted homeplace of Athens, Georgia has to offer.
Paula talked about her history, her family, made light of herself, and chatted up her clothing line at JC Penney. There was nothing out of the ordinary and it was the sort of chat she probably does three times a week.
I then decided to ask a pertinent question, at least to me. The question was, “Do you think that Southern food has had a start and a finish or do you think it’s something that continues to evolve?”
If there ever was a moment in time where I was speaking Esperanto to the Korean grocer on the corner, this was it. Paula looked a little confused so I went on to clarify.
I talked about how we do a dish at my restaurant in Atlanta, Empire State South, conceived by Ryan Smith, the chef there. It is Carolina Middlin’ Rice Grits with Kimchi, Pork Belly and Pickled Radish. The rice grits are the broken kernels of Carolina Gold rice, which historically were an important staple of the rice workers, predominantly the Gullah population, in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. The whole kernels of rice would be exported while the broken kernels were kept by the locals and used to make porridges and paps, starches that when cooked are akin to the consistency of grits.
It is a dish that bounces between an homage to history and a celebration of the current. Its core is that very historical rice porridge, yet then it takes a current tangent and is suffused with chopped up house-made kimchi, an ode to the modern proliferation of Asian cultures in the South. Then we return to our Southern history with a small portion (two ounces) of braised and crisped local pork belly, and loop back to the world-inflected South with a simple pickle of local radishes.
It is a dish that thoroughly defines my views on the community of Southern food: Southern food is a celebration of the people within the community, using the agrarian bounty that is constantly around them. It pays homage to the past but is a constantly evolving, ebbing with the seasons and flowing with the constant progression of the South. It is a foodways that really has had a much stronger emphasis on vegetables and sides than huge portions of proteins, and one that is healthy if we show off the diversity of our crops and cooking styles.
Paula looked at me with moderate confusion and disdain and blurted out to her masses, “What’s wrong with just butter and salt in grits?”
And that’s the issue isn’t it? That is the monochrome image of Southern food, one that I am tired of challenging, a simply unhealthy version that has been pushed for decades. True Southern food is so much more than that.
The recent news about Paula’s diagnosis with type 2 diabetes should be a wake up call. What may be the most ironic twist is that she has already secured a deal with a pharmaceutical company to be a spokesperson for diabetes drugs. Here’s to hoping that well paid soapbox effects true change in how Southern food is viewed.

BONEHEAD

2012-01-12T14:37:00.000-08:00

2011-12-20T09:23:00.000-08:00

LOOKS LIKE THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA'S MASCOT!

WHO'S YOUR DADDY AND CAN HE DANCE?

ROAD FOOD

2011-12-12T09:16:00.000-08:00

LIL' LADY LIKES TO FLY EVERYWHERE WE GO IF POSSIBLE. I'M OK WITH THAT, BUT I DON'T MIND A ROAD TRIP EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE. A ROAD TRIP ALLOWS YOU TO SEE WHATS BETWEEN WHERE YOU START AND WHERE YOUR GOING. FLYING ALLOWS YOU TO SEE THE SUBWAY AND THE AIRPORT.

LATELY WE HAVE DRIVEN TO MOBILE, GULF SHORES AND PENSACOLA. THESE ARE SOME OF THE SPOTS WE ATE OR TRIED TO EAT AT. FOLLOW LINK FOR INFO ON EACH RESTAURANT.

ON THE TRIP TO MOBILE WE STOPPED AT SHELIA C'S BURGER BARN IN TALLASSEE, AL.
AWESOME BURGER AND THAT'S ALL. BURGERS. DRIPPING GOOD.
ON THE WAY TO SHEILAS WE PASSED A FOOD TRUCK ADVERTISING FRIED SEAFOOD. SO ON THE WAY BACK TO THE INTERSTATE WE STOPPED THERE. IT WAS PRETTY GOOD. I BOUGHT A PLATE OF FRIED SHRIMP.

THE LAST PLACE WE STOPPED WAS CONECUH SAUSAGE. WE DIDN'T EAT THERE CAUSE THEY DON'T SERVE PREPARED FOOD. SO WE BOUGHT A BUNCH OF SAUSAGE AND BACON. I DIDN'T KNOW THEY SOLD BACON.

ON THE TRIP TO GULF SHORES WE STOPPED AT THE HAMBURGER KING IN MONTGOMERY, AL.

WE HAVE SEEN THIS PLACE BEFORE, BUT COULD NEVER CATCH THEM OPEN. FINALLY. THIS IS A COOL SPOT, LIKE AN OLD DINNER. MOSTLY BURGERS AND BREAKFAST. I HAD A DOUBLE W/CHEESE STACEY HAD A SINGLE. BOTH WERE GOOD, BUT NOT AS GOOD AS SHEILAS.

OUR NEXT STOP WAS B.K.BBQ ADVERTISED AS HOWLING GOOD AND IT IS. STACEY ACTUALLY HOWLED WHEN SHE BIT INTO THE PULLED PORK SAMMIE. THIS IS A BBQ SHACK RIGHT OFF THE INTERSTATE SHARING A PARKING LOT WITH A BP GAS STATION.
MOST TIMES WE ARE EATING WITH A BUNCH OF GUYS WEARING CAMO AND DRIVING MUDDY PICKUP TRUCKS. ALWAYS A GOOD SIGN.

IN PENSACOLA WE TRIED TO EAT AT CHET'S. CLOSED. TO BAD I HAVE BEEN READING ABOUT CHET'S FOR YEARS AND FINALLY GOT THERE ONLY TO FIND IT CLOSED. CHET'S IS ALL ABOUT THE MULLET. CLICK HERE AND READ A REALLY GOOD ARTICLE ABOUT CHET AND HIS MULLET. YOU WILL SEE WHY I WANT TO EAT THERE.

SO WE WENT TO JERRY'S.

I HAD DINNED AT JERRY'S ONCE BEFORE, ABOUT 20 YEARS AGO AND IT WAS AN INSTITUTION BACK THEN. JERRY'S HAS A HUGE MENU, BAR SERVICE OR TABLES. EVERYTHING FROM FRIED GROUPER TO A MEAT AND 3 PLATE. EVERYTHING I'VE EATEN THERE WAS GOOD. REAL GOOD.

BOB

2011-12-06T09:44:00.000-08:00

I was talking to my dyslectic friend Bob the other day. His folks named him Bob so he would always be able to spell his name. Anyway I was complaining to Bob how I just don't get it, the world doesn't make sense these days. It's all backwards. The people causing the most trouble are getting rewarded. The guys at AIG, big bonus. The guys at BP, big pay checks. The Assholes in Washington. And on and on.

I told Bob I just don't get it, it's all backwards.
Bob said he gets it, he gets it just fine.

PERRY IN PEORIA

2011-12-06T08:57:00.000-08:00

I MET PERRY 10 OR MORE YEARS AGO AT A NEIGHBORHOOD FARMERS MARKET. PERRY WAS DRIVING DOWN THE STREET, SAW MY PRODUCT, WHICH AT THE TIME WAS STRICTLY FURNITURE MADE FROM ANTIQUE PINE.
ANYWAY PERRY STOPPED AND INTRODUCED HIMSELF. HE CHECKED OUT MY WORK AND MORE THEN LIKELY TOLD ME OF HIS LATEST PLAN. THE PLAN WAS PROBABLY SOMETHING LIKE A POP UP NIGHT CLUB DECORATED WITH ALL KINDS OF COOL FURNITURE, ART AND NEAT OLD STUFF ALL FOR SALE. PERRY ALWAYS HAD A NEW IDEA AND MOST WERE GOOD. I HAD FUN DOING ALL KINDS OF DIFFERENT PROJECTS WITH PERRY WHILE HE LIVED IN ATLANTA.
MOST OF THESE PROJECTS INVOLVED ART, FOOD, MUSIC AND ALL KINDS OF HAND MADE STUFF. ALL THE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE ALWAYS SHOWED UP TO A PERRY EVENT.

PERRY MOVED TO PEORIA, IL. A FEW YEARS AGO AND WE HAVE STAYED IN TOUCH.
ABOUT A MONTH AGO I WENT TO PEORIA TO SEE ABOUT DOING ART FOR A NEW RESTAURANT PERRY WAS INVOLVED WITH. THE ART DIDN'T WORK OUT, BUT I HAD A GREAT TIME HANGING OUT IN PEORIA WITH PERRY FOR 24 HOURS.
PEORIA IS WHERE PERRY GREW UP. HE KNOWS EVERYONE AND THEY KNOW HIM. HE SHOWED ME ALL OVER TOWN AND PUT ME UP IN A BED AND BREAKFAST WHICH SITS ON THE ILLINOIS RIVER. THE ILLINOIS RIVER IS A MIGHTY RIVER AND BARGE TRAFFIC IS HEAVY. THIS B AND B WAS ACTUALLY BUILT OVER THE RIVER. VERY COOL.
THE BEST PART OF THE TRIP WAS GOING FOR DINNER IN DELAVAN, A SMALL TOWN ABOUT 40 MINUTES FROM PEORIA.
DELAVAN IS ONE OF THOSE TOWNS THAT HAS ONE OR TWO TRAFFIC LIGHTS. BUT, THE SMALL TOWN SURROUNDING THOSE TWO TRAFFIC LIGHTS IS A PRETTY LITTLE TOWN.
WE WERE HAVING DINNER AT THE HARVEST CAFE WHICH IS MORE FINE DINNING THEN CAFE.
A FRIEND OF PERRY'S OWNS THE CAFE AND THE HIGH END BOTTLE SHOP NEXT DOOR AND SHE IS ALSO CONVERTING THE LOCAL OLD BANK BUILDING INTO A SMALL BATCH DISTILLERY. THE DISTILLERY WILL ALSO SERVE FOOD, I THINK IN THE GASTRO PUB STYLE.
THE HARVEST CAFE IS FARM TO TABLE AND I BET MORE FARM TO TABLE THEN MOST FARM TO TABLE RESTAURANTS. BEING IN A RURAL AGRARIAN PART OF THE WORLD I BET THEY HAVE INSTANT ACCESS TO THE FRESHEST PRODUCE AND MEATS. AND IT SHOWED ON THE PLATE. I HAVE NEVER SEEN VENISON ON A MENU BEFORE. I HAD IT AND IT WAS GREAT, TRULY ONE OF THE FINEST PIECES OF MEAT I HAVE EVER EATEN. IT WAS LEAN AND COOKED TO PERFECTION. IT WAS SERVED ON TOP OF A CAULIFLOWER PUREE WITH GREENS AND FRIED GARLIC. THE FRIED CHICKEN AND BRUSSEL SPROUTS PERRY HAD WERE AWESOME AS WELL. PERRY KNOWS HOW MUCH I ENJOY A GOOD MEAL AND THIS WAS REALLY A TREAT FOR ME.
AFTER CHECKING OUT THE TOWN AND HAVING DINNER AND A VISIT TO THE BOTTLE SHOP I THINK I MIGHT MOVE TO DELAVAN.

GULF SHORES THANKSGIVING

2011-12-05T09:52:00.000-08:00

FLYING MY KITE FROM THE 15TH FLOOR.
CLICK ON PHOTO TO REALLY ENJOY. I MUST SAY STACEY TAKES MOST OF THE PHOTOS ON THIS BLOG. THE GOOD ONES ANYWAY. SHES PRETTY GOOD FOR A ROOKIE WITH A $100 DIGITAL CAMERA.

CAN'T BEAT THIS LADIES MEAT

2011-12-04T14:30:00.000-08:00

Her name is Delia. She opened the Flying Biscuit Restaurant around 1994. She franchised and sold the business not long ago. And not long after that she opened Delias chicken Sausage Stand. And the shits like crack man. I can not get enough. I have had it everyday since Tuesday. Today is Saturday. I will have some today and then go to the Stand tomorrow and buy some more. Delias offers Slingers, Sliders and a few breakfast sandwich's. She uses great bread as well. That's a photo of her sliders. It's from her website.

I love sausage. I eat it 3 or 4 times a week. I have been digging Coneuh
Sausage. It's a pork sausage made in Alabama. It's not the largest operation, but it is massed produced. Delia has been working on this recipe for 15 years. She refers to her sausage as "small batch hand crafted".
She uses the best chickens she can get. Local I'm sure. I am not sure what the casing is, but it is like silk. It feels like a sausage encased in silk. The texture is what I would imagine silk would feel like if you ate it. That's the jumbo link. The breakfast patty is as good. It is flavored so well. I think it's sage. It's what you wish that log of Jimmy Dean sausage could taste like. And it's chicken. Delis also makess breakfast links. I have some in the fridge, but haven't tried then yet. That's right you can but it fresh by the pound and take it home and use it any way you want. Tonight we are going to make a squash and sausage casserole.

And it is very inexpensive which is a trend I am seeing and liking. On their website they say they want to be an alternative for fast food. The most expensive item on the menu id $6.49. WHA..... That's right
$6.49. It is in the hood. It is counter service. Seating is outside, although we stood at the counter inside and ate since it was rainy. But this is what we need more of. Awesome food, awesome ingredients. The place is small and someone did a great job on the design. Cool wallpaper. They are opened all the time, like they never close. Maybe they don't.

LOCAL THREE PART II

2011-10-27T08:14:00.000-07:00

IF YOU LOOK BACK AT MY POST
http://sososouthern.blogspot.com/2011/01/local-three.html
YOU WILL SEE SOME REALLY GREAT PHOTOS OF MY WORK AT LOCAL THREE KITCHEN AND BAR. THE WORK HAS NEVER REALLY ENDED. I HAVE DONE MANY MORE PAINTINGS, MADE COAT RACKS AND TAP HANDLES FOR THEIR DRAUGHT BEER.
THE LAST PROJECT I DID FOR L3 WAS TO REDO THEIR PRIVATE DINNING ROOM.
THEY WANTED TWO PAINTINGS AND THEY WANTED ONE WALL COVERED IN SALVAGE MATERIALS.
THE WHITE PANEL WITH THE LOCAL THREE KITCHEN & BAR LOGO ON IT IS FROM MY NEIGHBORS FRONT PORCH RENOVATION.
THE OTHER WOOD IS FROM A GUY SOUTH OF ATLANTA WHO DISMANTLES HOUSES AND SELLS THE LUMBER.
I WAS VERY PLEASED WITH THE WAY THIS JOB TURNED OUT.
ABOVE IS A PHOTO I STOLE FROM THE LOCAL THREE WEBSITE NOT SURE WHO TOOK IT.
CLICK ON IT TO ENLARGE.

CHICAGO SEPT 30 -- QCT 3

2011-10-20T10:41:00.000-07:00

WE DID A QUICK TRIP TO CHICAGO NOT LONG AGO WITH MY MOM, DAD AND SISTERS.
STACEY DID A LOT OF RESEARCH AS WE HAD NEVER BEEN TO CHICAGO BEFORE.
AND BEING AS WE WERE WITH A GROUP WE WERE LOOKING FOR THINGS WE COULD ALL DO. WHAT WE CAME UP WITH WAS A 90 MINUTE BOAT TOUR ON THE CHICAGO RIVER. IT WAS ALL ABOUT THE ARCHITECTURE ALONG THE RIVER WHICH WINDS THROUGH DOWNTOWN.
WE ALSO DID A 3 HOUR BIKE TOUR ALONG THE LAKE FRONT AND THROUGH SOME COOL NEIGHBORHOODS.
BOTH TOURS WERE VERY GOOD. THE LADY DOING THE BOAT TOUR DID NOT STOP TALKING FOR THE WHOLE 90 MINUTES. SHE KNEW A LOT ABOUT EVERY SKYSCRAPER ALONG THE WAY. VERY INTERESTING AND INFORMATIVE.
THE BIKE TOUR WAS JUST AS GOOD. CHICAGO IS FLAT AND MADE FOR AN EASY RIDE. WE LEARNED ABOUT PEOPLE AND PLACES ON THIS TOUR AND GOT A HANDLE ON THE LAY OF THE LAND FOR OUR NEXT VISIT..
WE TRIED TO GET AN RSVP AT ANY RICK BAYLESS RESTAURANT, BUT NO WAY. SO STACEY FOUND "SEVEN ON STATE". THAT'S THE 7TH FLOOR OF THE MACY'S DEPT. STORE WHERE YOU CAN FIND A RICK BAYLESS RESTAURANT ALONG SIDE OF MARCUS SAMUELSSON THE BURGER MASTER. THERE ARE 5 OTHER RESTAURANTS IN THIS FOOD COURT. AND BECAUSE IT'S IN A DEPT STORE IT'S VERY CAUSAL AND EASY TO GET IN AND OUT AND THE ONLY WAY WE WERE GONNA GET FOOD FROM EITHER OF THESE GREAT CHEFS.
ONE NIGHT WE HAD DEEP DISH PIZZA DELIVERED TO US. IT WAS VERY GOOD EVEN THOUGH THIN CRUST IS MY FAV. WE WALKED A LOT THROUGH MILLENNIUM PARK.
THERE IS LOTS OF GREAT OUTDOOR ART AND A FRANK GEHRY BAND SHELL FROM HELL IN THE PARK.
CHECK OUT SOME OF STACEY'S PHOTOS AND GET YOURSELF TO CHICAGO, IT'S LIKE A SMALL CLEAN NYC WITH NICE FOLKS WHO LOOK YOU IN THE EYE AND TALK TO YOU.

A FEW GOOD COCKS

2011-10-18T06:31:00.000-07:00

MY LATEST PAINTINGS! DETAILS AT TRACY HARTLEY ART AND FURNITURE

NASHVILLE AND ELVIS

2011-10-05T11:31:00.000-07:00

Lil LADY AND I WENT TO NASHVILLE TO SEE ELVIS COSTELLO. WE HAD NEVER BEEN TO NASHVILLE BEFORE. WE GOT TO TOWN EARLY AND THE FRONT DESK CLERK POINTED US IN THE DIRECTION OF THE FARMERS MARKET. WE WALKED ABOUT A MILE AND FOUND IT. A LARGE STATE FARMERS MARKET STYLED FARMERS MARKET.
THERE WAS A PRODUCE SHED, A GARDENING SHED, A RESTAURANT SHED AND A FLEA MARKET SHED.
THE FLEA MARKET SUCKED, ALL NEW STUFF. THE PRODUCE AND THE GARDENING WERE COOL AND THE RESTAURANT SHED WAS COOL WITH A FEW PLACES TO EAT THAT LOOKED REAL INTERESTING.
WE FOUND A LITTLE POP UP KITCHEN WITH A CROSTINI BAR TO SIT AND EAT. IT WAS CALLED AM@FM. THEY HAD A CHALK BOARD TELLING ABOUT THE CROSTINIS AVAILABLE. PORK BELLY CAUGHT MY EYE AND THAT'S WHAT I ORDERED. AS IT WAS SERVED THE FELLOW TOLD US ABOUT THE HOUSE CURED BELLY AND HOW HE BUILT THIS CROSTINI WITH HOUSE MADE GRAINY MUSTARD AND HONEY.
STACEY ASK FOR THE EGG SALAD WITH CAPERS AND DILL. HE EXPLAINED HOW HE BUILT THIS ONE USING LOCAL, FREE RANGE EGGS. HOUSE MADE MAYO AND HOUSE MADE PICKLES.
THIS WAS GOOD STUFF AND WE FELT LUCKY TO HAVE FOUND THE PLACE. WE LEARNED LATER THE CHEF BEHIND AM@FM, ARNOLD MYINT, WAS ONCE A CONTESTANT ON TOP CHEF.

LATER THAT NIGHT WE WENT TO A PLACE RECOMMEND BY THE GUY AT AM@FM. WE ASK FOR A LOCALS PLACE TO EAT AND DRINK CAUSE DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE IS A TOURIST TRAP. THEY SENT US TO THE PATTERSON HOUSE. A SPEAK EASY STYLE BAR THAT IS NAMED AFTER THE GOVERNOR WHO CHANGED THE PROHIBITION LAWS IN TENNESSEE.IT WASN'T ALL THAT. EXPENSIVE DRINKS, OK FOOD AND ATTITUDE.

BUT ELVIS COSTELLO DIDN'T HAVE AN ATTITUDE. HE WAS GREAT. I HAVE BOUGHT TICKETS TO SEE ELVIS TWICE AND BOTH TIMES HE HAD TO CANCEL. HE DIDN'T CANCEL HIS RYMAN AUDITORIUM SHOW. THE RYMAN IS A GREAT PIECE OF HISTORY AND IT WAS THE PERFECT PLACE TO SEE ELVIS. HE PLAYED FOR ABOUT 3 HOURS AND TREATED US TO A COUPLE OF ACOUSTIC SONGS DURING ONE OF HIS ENCORES. JUST ELVIS AND HIS GUITAR. HE EVEN STEPPED AWAY FROM THE MIC TO SING AND LET THE RYMAN DO ALL THE WORK. IT WAS REAL NICE.

mardi gras 2010

2011-09-29T18:20:00.000-07:00

I BUMPED MY NOSE THE NIGHT BEFORE, BUT I STILL HAD A GREAT RIDE THE NEXT DAY!
I DON'T WHO THE GUY ON THE RIGHT IS???

SLEW OF PIGS

2011-08-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

THESE ARE MY LATEST PIG PAINTINGS
SORRY ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THE PHOTOS, I SUCK AT TAKING THEM AND DON'T ALWAYS HAVE TIME TO GET SOMEONE ELSE TO TAKE THEM.
ANYWAY, THEY ARE AVAILABLE. FOR MORE INFO SEE WEB SITE.
http://tracyhartley.blogspot.com/

AIRPLANE WINGS AND COCKTAILS

2011-08-23T12:42:00.000-07:00

THIS IS THE DRINK RAIL AT THE MELLOW MUSHROOM BAR. IT IS ABOUT 2' WIDE AND 10' LONG. IT WAS MADE TO LOOK AS IF IT WERE BUILT FROM AIRCRAFT METAL.

THE BAR IS MADE FROM THE SAME MATERIAL, BUT YOU CAN'T TELL FROM MY PREVIOUS POST.. I DIDN'T BUILD THE BAR, I JUST PAINTED ON IT AND THE DRINK RAIL. CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE FOR A GOOD LOOK

MELLOW MUSHROOM FYETTEVILLE N.C.

2011-08-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

SO, WHERE HAVE I BEEN AND WHAT HAVE I BEEN UP TO YOU ASK. MAYBE YOU DON'T ASK, BUT I'M GONNA TELL.
LAST YEAR I FINISHED A REALLY HUGE JOB FOR A RESTAURANT HERE IN ATLANTA. LOCAL 3 IS THE RESTAURANT AND Ai3 WAS THE ARCHITECT FIRM HEADING UP THE PROJECT. AFTER THAT ONE THING LED TO ANOTHER AND I FOUND MYSELF DOING SOME REALLY BIG, FOR ME ANYWAY, JOBS.
THE LATEST IS A MELLOW MUSHROOM. THE THEME OF THE RESTAURANT IS MILITARY SINCE FT. BRAGG IS IN THE SAME TOWN.
I CAME UP WITH THE AMERICAN FLAG FROM SALVAGED MATERIALS IDEA. Ai3 CAME UP WITH 400 PIZZA PIE TINS ON THE CEILING IDEA AND THE BAR THAT LOOKS LIKE IT'S MADE FROM SALVAGED AIRPLANE WINGS. I WAS CHARGED WITH DESIGNING AND INSTALLING FLAG. HANGING PIE TINS AND PAINTING MILITARY AND MM GRAPHICS ON THE BAR.

NEXT UP IS GOING BACK TO LOCAL 3 AND REDOING THEIR PRIVATE DINNING ROOM. THEN I'M TAKING THE REST OF THE YEAR OFF. THAT IS AFTER I FINISH 3 CUSTOM PIG PAINTINGS THAT HAVE BEEN ON ORDER FOR A FEW MONTHS. THEN I TAKING THE REST OF THE YEAR OFF.

BELOW ARE PHOTOS FROM THE MM JOB. I WAS PRETTY HAPPY WITH THE RESULTS.

(thanks stacey and jamey)

WHOLE FOODS MARKET

2011-07-24T06:10:00.000-07:00

SO I HAVE BEEN WORKING EVERYDAY FOR THE LAST TWO MONTHS. IF YOU KNOW ME YOU KNOW I DON'T DO MUCH OF ANYTHING ON A REGULAR BASICS. BUT, I GOT WORK, I GOT WORK COMING OUT OF MY EARS.

LAST SUNDAY, THE 16TH OF JULY, STACEY AND I WENT TO NORTH END OF ATLANTA TO A BRAND SPANKING NEW WHOLES FOODS MARKET AND INSTALLED A BUNCH OF MY ART WORK.

IN LATE MAY A YOUNG LADY WE WILL REFER TO AS JULIE BECAUSE THAT'S HER NAME, ASK ME TO DO A SITE VISIT WITH HER AT THIS NEW WHOLE FOODS. SHE WAS INTERESTED IN HAVING ME DO THE ART FOR THE CAFE AND COMMUNITY ROOM.
SHE TOLD ME HER IDEAS AND TALKED ABOUT THE OVERALL DECOR IN GENERAL. I TOOK JULIES IDEAS HOME WITH ME AND A WEEK OR SO LATER WE MET AGAIN. I SHARED WITH JULIE THE IDEAS I HAD COME UP WITH.

FROM OUR CONVERSATIONS I CAME BACK WITH THIS.
DIG IT. PLANT IT. GROW IT. EAT IT. CATCH IT. KNOW IT. PREPARED IT. SHARE IT.
I THOUGHT I COULD DO A PAINTING THAT ILLUSTRATED THESE PHRASES.
THERE ARE FIVE LARGE SPACES IN THE CAFE JULIE WANTED ME TO FILL WITH ART AND COPY. COPY I LEARNED ARE WORDS.

SO AFTER ABOUT A MONTH OF BACK AND FORTH WE SETTLED ON USING DIG IT, PLANT IT, GROW IT, EAT IT IN THE CAFE AND PREPARE IT SHARE IT IN THE COMMUNITY ROOM. IT WAS DECIDED I WOULD PAINT SHOVELS FOR DIG IT. FOR PLANT IT I WOULD DO SEEDLINGS JUST SPROUTING OUT OF THE GROUND. FOR GROW IT I WOULD PAINT TONS OF PRODUCE AND FOR EAT IT A KNIFE, A FORK AND A SPOON.
IN THE COMMUNITY ROOM I WOULD BRING THOSE PAINTINGS TOGETHER WITH PREPARE IT SHARE IT. I WOULD DO A TAKE OFF ON A FARM SCENE. TREES, CLOUDS, SUN, A PICK UP TRUCK, A PIG AND A TABLE FULL OF PRODUCE AND PREPARED FOODS.
THESE ARE THE PHOTOS FROM THE GRAND OPENING 2 DAYS AGO.

click on photo to enlarge

EL BANO

2011-06-21T16:16:00.000-07:00

I CAN DO STUFF. IT ALWAYS TAKES A WHILE, BUT I CAN DO STUFF. A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO I DECIDED TO GUT THE "MASTER BED AND BATH" HERE AT OUR HUMBLE ABODE. AND GUT IT I DID. TWO YEARS LATER WE HIRE A GUY TO DO THE SHEETROCK. TWO MONTHS LATER WE PAINT THE NEW SHEETROCK. GRAY, RED AND AND AND I CAN'T REMEMBER. IT'S BEEN SO LONG NOW I CAN'T REMEMBER THE THIRD COLOR WE USED IN THE BEDROOM.

SO IT'S BEEN ABOUT 4 YEARS SINCE I GUTTED THAT BATHROOM AND TOMORROW MORNING A CREW IS GONNA COME IN AND BEGIN TO FINISH THE JOB. WE ARE GOING WITH LIl LADY'S FAVORITE COLOR. BLACK. BLACK SLATE SHOWER. BLACK POLISHED RIVER ROCKS ON ALL FLOORS. BLACK TOILET. BLACK SINK.

AND AC/DC PIPED IN 24/7.

STANDBY.

AS OF LATE

2011-06-16T04:10:00.000-07:00

As of late, this is whats been going on.

A friend sent us a couple cupons for a couple restaurants here in the metro area.

$100 at 3 SHEETS in Sandy Springs and $50 at Dogwood which is in between downtown Atl. and Midtown, Atl. We did em both last week, back to back cause time was of the esscence.

3 SHEETS is a night club in Sandy Springs. It was kinda of weird, but the food was good.

We had lamb Lolipops with a green sauce. We had a tenderloin steak. We started with calamari and a plate of Chrizo sausage with grainy mustard. We got mac and cheese and egg rolls to go.
It was all pretty good. Best of all Stacey had a 20 year old Pappy Van Winkle. Just a short glass
of some of the best Bourbon in the world.
It's was a good night. Thx K.E.N.

Dogwood has been around a few years and they advertise a "GRITS BAR". No bar per se just a focus on grits and a grits tasting on the menu. We enjoyed, but it was a stuffy place and over priced. But, again thx K.E.N. (and has since closed)

We have also enoyed a couple of really good meals at MISO as of late. Tempura fried advacado.

Dumplings, bla, bla bla.

We also spent all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Lake Chickamauga, Tennessee. Our friends have a big ole fat house. Pier. Jet skis. Green Eggs. Big brains. Pork. Hot Dogs. Sliders. The need for speed, drinks and boat rides. You get the picture? FUN FUN FUN.

Jamey's Crawfish boil. The beer maker the shooter maker and the competition were all there. This was a fun day. Jamey lives a few doors away and this was his 6th annual boil. Tons of good food, jello shots and lots of neighbors.

Later that night we went to another party and got to catch up with a bunch of other friends we don't see much these days. It was real nice to see some folks we have not seen in 15 years or so.

As far as work goes, I am working on a big bunch of art for a new Wholefoods Market that will open around the first of July. Big job for me and big art. Today I worked on a painting 4' X 8'. It is a painting of a knife, fork and spoon. Like I said big job for me and I will post plenty of photos when done.

More later.
STANDBY

WHATS NEW PUSSYCAT

2011-06-14T14:58:00.000-07:00

MY LATEST COMMISSIONED PIECE
IT WAS BIG 6' X 4'

ST. PETE SUNSET

2011-06-03T08:37:00.000-07:00

THE DALI MUSEUM WAS GREAT AND SO WAS THE BEACH.
STACEY TOOK THIS PHOTO.

TO BEGIN WITH

2011-05-31T17:44:00.001-07:00

NOT LONG AGO Lil'LADY AND I SPENT A FEW DAYS AT ST.PETE BEACH. TAMPA.
THE NEW SALVADOR DALI MUSEUM WAS JUST A FEW MONTHS OPEN WHEN MADE A VISIT AND TOOK THESE PHOTOS

AS YOU CAN SEE THE FIRST 3 PHOTOS STACEY TOOK WERE OF THE STAIR CASE. IT IS A TAKE OFF ON DALI'S MUSTACHE

WHERE YA AT

2011-05-20T07:05:00.000-07:00

This is the latest transmission for the good Dr. John. Usually we find him in some far away forest
or such. This time he's on his way to the great outdoors via Brooklyn, N.Y.

Sent: Wednesday, May 4, 2011 7:56:02 AM
Subject: Brooklyn

Hey T,
I am sitting in the New York Loft Hostel in Brooklyn eating breakfast.
I got on the Q33 bus out of LaGuardia and met a lady named "Lucy" who
had just flown in from Canada.
"Can't I connect to the L-subway line from here," I asked.
"I don't think so. I think you have to go into Manhattan first."
After some discussion, I figured out how to connect and get down to
Brooklyn from Queens, and we decided to navigate it together.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
"Morgan Ave stop."
"You going to the Loft Hostel?" she asked.
"Yeah, how did you know?"
"I live around there."
When we got to the Morgan stop on the L line, she said, "My husband is
coming home from work just now too." And there he was walking down the
platform.
Not much for local restaurant flavor here, so after I checked in, I went
back to the L-line and took the train to Williamsburg. That would be
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. Lots of people
walking, riding bikes, waiting for the bus, getting off the subway.
Just a nice neighborhood. There were restaurants, diners, hardware
stores, food markets, bakeries. I got dinner for 3.80 plus a beer for
about the same. I found some homemade fig bars in a food market for
dessert. Bought some bread for 1.50 at a bakery for my lunch the next
day and picked up some cheese to go with it. All on or near
Metropolitan Ave. I have specifics written down in my notebook. What
amazes me is all the produce sitting outside these markets and no one
steals a piece as they walk by. Its like there is this unwritten social
contract. Later. jd

RUNNING

2011-05-14T09:37:00.000-07:00

I worked at a pawn shop in the late 80's early 90's. Most folks have no idea how a pawn shop operates. I know that a pawn shop can do a lot of folks a lot of good, I'm sure most folks think otherwise. I know I helped a lot of people the 10 years I worked there. But, that's not the subject of this post and I don't care to defend pawn shops.
What I know is that you can't change a persons mind about things like pawn shops, same sex marriage, war, kids living on the streets or things like that. So I don't try to do so. I just want to share a story that took place when I worked at the pawn shop.

One day this kid came in the shop. I guessed he was maybe 13 -14 years old. He wanted to sell his cd player. I ask if he was 18, the minimum age one must be to do business with a pawn shop. He said he was not. He told me he was on his way south and need more money to continue his greyhound bus trip. I bought the kids cd player myself. I gave him twice of what the shop would have given him and he headed back to the bus station.

A couple hours later the kid came walking back into the pawn shop. At first I chuckled wondering what was up with this kid. He told me that when he got back to the bus station he was relieved of his money. It's been awhile so I can't remember exactly what went down, but he was upset and broke. I learned his bus was leaving at 8 p.m. and he needed $40 for a ticket. I told him to be back at the shop at 6 when I got off and I would make sure he got on the bus.

I got a couple of the guys at the shop to throw in some money. I called Stacey and told her I was gonna bring home this kid after work, feed him and get him on the bus.
Of course Stacey wanted to know where this kid came from and where was he going.
I had grilled the kid about all this earlier knowing hustlers come in all ages and sizes. The kid only said he was on vacation going to see friends. I ask about Mom and Dad, he said they knew what he was up to, but he could not reach out to them for money. I didn't press it. Although it was only about 20 years ago things really were different then. Now days the chances of me getting into trouble for aiding a minor are far stronger. I didn't think the kid was was trouble and I knew he needed help.

So there he was at 6 o'clock. I took him home and Stacey ask him lot's of questions, but we never thought to do anything but put him on the bus.

A friend came over and the four of us went to the local BBQ joint to get some food before we put the kid on the bus. At the BBQ joint I filled the owner in on the kid and he paid for the kids meal. A funny thing was one of my regular customers from the pawn shop happen to be at the BBQ joint at the same time. Hearing me talk to the owner about the kid the customer gave me $20 for the "effort".

So we ate and took the kid to the bus station. We all went in and bought his ticket.
We walked him to the bus, gave him the extra money we had collected, gave him back his cd player and put him on the bus. We watched it leave with him on it.

We felt good helping this kid, but sometime later it kinda hit us. What was this kid up to? What was he running from? We really had no idea. He was nice and he answered our question, but we really didn't know much. Stacey and I talked about it. Did we do the right thing? Was this kid a runaway who needed to be sent home? We had no idea.

In the end we decided we did the right thing. This kid was going somewhere one way or another. I think he was running from a bad situation, but I'll never really know.

I am glad we did what we did.

GENKI GRAND OPENING

2011-05-13T11:41:00.000-07:00

The sushi restaurant Genki had a grand opening Wednesday night and invited me. Stacey had plans so I took my official photog Katy. She took some great shots of the different pieces I did for this place. I really appreciate her effort. She took over 50 shots and took each til she thought she had a good one. I think you can hire her for casual events.
Here a some of her shots. The first one is looking in from the street. The door folds up and creates this awesome view.

s.

SOME OTHER MUTHERS DAY

2011-05-10T11:24:00.000-07:00

So we had the M and P unit up for my show at the Gallery at Serenbe. It was Mothers Day weekend and it was my first gallery show. Come December it will be 4 years since I started painting and selling those paintings. I have always wanted to be approached by galleries and ask to be part of a show. Finally my friend Mary ask me to be part of a show down at Serenbe. Mary wanted to have me and Tim Mosby, an artist in the Serenbe area, team up, fill her gallery with our art, tell everyone to come by Saturday and buy art. And, eat BBQ. And that's about the way it went down.

Tim took my art and laid it out around the gallery. He then went to his barn/studio grabbed pieces he thought would look good with my stuff and hung the whole gallery. It looked great and we both sold a lot of art.

We also took the M and P unit all over town, quickly.

Local 3 for an awesome dinner. Soft shells. Mussels. Craw fish and sausage on risotto. A broad pasta with fava beans, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and mushrooms. Duck meatloaf. Panko fried flounder in a lobster stock. Braised short ribs /kimchi. Martinis, bourbon tasting. Need I SAY MORE?

Saturday night we ate at the Feed Store where Patrick made us martinis with his favorite vodka, 360. We ate shrimp and grits, Frito Misto [fried soft shell CRAW FISH, fried pickles and

onion rings] and for the third visit in a row Lil Lady ordered wings on a sweet potato waffle, smothered in sorghum syrup and butter.

We also managed to work in a pound of craw fish and shrimp poboys earlier in the day Saturday.

And, a couple friends from Hoover, Al. showed up at the gallery opening, that was nice.

And, now, M and P unit are home, Hoover is back in their house and me and the Lil Lady are on the front porch eating craw fish and drinking beer.

B.I.G. T.I.M.E.

2011-05-09T12:21:00.000-07:00

Finally, I've made it. Straight to the top. I got my own t.v. show. That's right my very own show.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel.
Maybe not my own show, but real close.

Check out this video clip from the local Atlanta t.v. station on the Local 3 Kitchen and Bar.
It shows really nice shots of the bar I made from a felled oak tree and my 3 pig paintings.

Ok, so it's not even close to a t.v. show, but it's kinda cool.

http://www.cbsatlanta.com/local-video/index.html?grabnetworks_video_id=4684353

GENKI

2011-05-02T18:05:00.000-07:00

Just finished and hung the art for a new sushi joint in Virgina Highland. Genki is the name of the restaurant.
Here are some photos of the finished product from the Genki job. I had the pleasure of working with Peace Design. Hillary and Bill run an awesome business and were great.

The fans above are 6' in diameter. The painting below is a take off on a Japanese playing card.
It is 6' tall and 3.5' wide.
This was a really fun project. I was forced to work outside of my comfort zone. In a huge format.
Really, I'm not sure how I pulled it off, but everyone was very happy.

Next project is my first gallery show. This Saturday, the 7th, from 4 pm til 8 pm at the Serenbe Gallery. There will be cool art, cold beer and BBQ.
The art will be up for a month.
On Saturday the 14th there is a huge May Day Fest at Serenbe. There will be a lot of cool vendors and music and BBQ. The Gallery will be open as well. So go check it out if you get the chance. There are other galleries and shops and a couple of really good restaurants down at Serenbe. They also have a organic farm that has been in operation for 6 or 7 years so you know lot's of the food at the restaurants come from the farm. If you have never visited Serenbe and you like some of the above you need to go.
Alsoooooooooooooo. They have a farmers market every Saturday starting in May and running til December. It's a great day trip, I'm just saying.

SHOYA VS MISO

2011-04-22T09:38:00.000-07:00

Shoya Izakaya is all the rage right now. A lot of my chef and foodie friends are crazy about it.
Stacey and I finally made it there last night. I can use one word for our visit.
Disappointed.
The way everyone has been raving I was looking for one of the best meals ever. Really, that's been the reaction of everyone. Well, no one has said it's the best meal they ever had, but everyone loves it. And these are food people, chefs mostly. Just goes to show ya. I don't know what it goes to show ya, but it goes to show ya.

We ate pork belly. It was on a skewer. That should be fine. Pork belly is so good just cook it and eat it right? Well this was lacking. Must have been the quality of the belly.

One buddy bragged about the fried chicken skin. Hell yes, best part of the chicken. It came on a salad. It didn't suck, but didn't blow me away either.

We had an assorted sausage plate. Again just didn't blow me away. Maybe it cause I been eating the awesome sausage Muss has been preparing at Local 3. Or maybe it's the wonderful meats Kevin makes at Spotted Trotter. Nothing special at Shoya.

We had Wasabi Shumai. A pork dumpling Dim Sum style that had been steamed in wasabi leaves. This was good, I thought real good. Stacey thought it was just ok.

Tako Wasabi. Raw octopus in a wasabi oil. This was ok, but a little went a long way and we didn't finish this plate.And besides that have you ever tried to eat raw octopus with chop sticks?
Could someone give me a spoon, please

Flounder Karaage. A small fried whole flounder. It was good. It seemed fresh. If the rest of the meal was a little better I might have enjoyed this plate more.

Scallop Butter Yaki? I can't even remember this dish.

So we tried and just didn't get what all the fuss is about. And it's not anywhere near our home.

Much closer to home is Miso Izakaya. Now this place rocks. We been eating here for about a year or so and I been telling people good things. We went the night after we ate at Shoya and could really tell the difference between the two. And Miso is a beautiful room. Shoys is nice, but someone put some thought in designing Miso.

We ate a duck bun and a pork belly bun. A Bao. These things are about the size of a Jamaican Meat Patty, but the are soft, really soft. A Bao is a steamed bun. the Japanese version are the softest and the lightest. Lot's of cultures enjoy the Bao in different fashions. The Chinese Bao
is something at Dim Sum. It has a heavier texture than other visions. Searching on the net I see there are many different versions. To me the Japanese version is a sandwich. Plain and simple. Miso's version is so, so good.

Avocado Tempura. Holy shit. It's just what it say's. Creamy crunch. Avocado, tempura fried. That's it. Dipping sauce is something soy and light like. This is a dish I will try to match up with something else on the menu. It will be even better with a seared tuna or something.

Shrimp Shumai. Again very Dim Sum, and very good. Made just like a pot sticker , but steamed in bamboo instead of pan fried in a skillet. These were nice and fresh tasting.

Hand Rolled Unagi. My favorite sushi. Grilled fresh water eel. We had a hand roll. It was perfect. A seaweed cone stuffed with rice and grilled unagi. Ya gota eat the hand rolled fast.

Grilled Ika. I love grilled octopus. Ecco here in Atlanta does it with crushed olives and olive oil. Very good. I must say I have never had octopus's tentacles as long as these. But that's the good part, the thin, seared by the grill parts. They need to be perfectly grilled and these were.

Our last request was for Karubi. Short ribs. This was our least favorite at Miso. They were actually like usual at other restaurants, which is not usual for Miso.

We are in love with Miso and just about to get in the car and head that way.

BENEFITS OF BIKING

2011-04-20T16:34:00.000-07:00

Health you say? Maybe, but it's dangerous riding a bike around the Atlanta streets.
I keep it close to my hood so it's not to bad.
The best benefit as of late is this chair and this Donnie and Marie footlocker.

Found while riding bike on bulk trash pickup day in East Point.
I ran the chair photo through Photo Shop cause it was a bad photo and I couldn't fix it and didn't feel like taking another one.

FROM MOBILES LAGNIAPPE NEWSPAPER

2011-04-20T05:41:00.000-07:00

"I’ve got no use for regret. One thing an ancient man like me can tell you is that it’s all part of life. You make mistakes, you learn. If you’re smart, you don’t make the same mistakes again. And if you’re me, you’ll make the same ones three or four times. But it’s all part of being human, and that’s a beautiful thing.” — Male, 79

my office

2011-03-28T08:01:00.000-07:00

This is the front end of my work shop. Often folks pull up and ask if the restaurant is open? "No" I tell them "and get out of my backyard". I just happen to have a SPORTSMAN GRILL sign hanging in my back yard, right outside my work shop. Inside my shop I have a mess. I'm currently making 4 pieces of art for a new restaurant. It is a sushi restaurant so the paintings need to fit. I was given a crude xerox of a photo of a door at at Japanese restaurants that looked like an umbrella. You know like a huge version of the paper umbrellas in your foo foo drinks at the beach resorts. I was asked if I could do some kind of umbrella type thing around 6' in diameter. Sure I could. Could I give them an example of what I would do? Sure I could.
So I gave them this. By the way "them" is the architect firm Peace Designs. They are doing the design for this sushi restaurant.
Anyway I did this small sample of my idea for the umbrellas with different paints and papers for collage.

It is hard to see, but I have collaged different papers for the umbrella. Some of it is Japanese newspaper, some is silver leaf, some is different color tissue paper. I dripped paint for the seams of the umbrella.
These guys also wanted to have me reproduce the back side of a Japanese playing card. This is the image they gave me.

This is what I did. It was small about 2' square. They (peace design) liked it and wanted it to be 6ft X 3.5ft. No problem I told them.

So this is what the "office" is looking like right now. It's a mess.

I bought about 10 Japanese newspapers. I used those to collage two of the umbrellas. For the third umbrella I used the yellow paper with the red print from the sample above. I spent about six hours on each just applying the paper. Some of it I tore into pieces about 2 inches. Some I cut into pieces about twice that size. I then glued each piece down to plywood.

This is what they are looking like right now. Stand by for the finished product.

DON'T MESS WITH LIL' LADY aka STACEY

2011-03-19T16:47:00.000-07:00

You can tell by the timing of my last two post Mardi Gras is long gone for 2011. It was a great year. All the right people came to town, except one Chef who was really missed. All went well, we had some folks march with the Fish for their first time, we had some guy from Hawaii show up with his dog. Everyone fell in love with Kola and his handler. Hope they come back next year.

Next year? It's gonna be our 20th parade. It's gonna be special and I'm sure painless. We expelled all the pain this year.

Expelling pain, that's the last thing I remember.

Last thing I remember Stacey was chasing some guy out the back door of our cottage.
The guy just walked in the back door looked around, called out "HELLO" and helped himself to my bottle of Ketel One. Stacey caught him on the back stoop and he was lucky I was there to stop her from beating his ass. She was mad. And scared. Don't mess with mad and scared.

That's the last thing I remember.

No wait, the last thing I remember is falling in my moms backyard and landing on my nose. Nothing but my face and the pea gravel walkway. That sucked. And it hurt. You don't want to mess with sucked and hurt.

That's the last thing I remember.

No wait, the last thing I remember is riding on a KOR float on Mardi Gras day wondering where the hell Jeff was.

That's the last thing I remember.

BUILDING THE 2011 MYSTIC FISH

2011-03-17T12:13:00.001-07:00

This year Stacey and I trimmed off parts of last years fish and built off of the remainder.
You can see the side fins are from last year by the left over paint job. A good part of the body was left in tact to build off of. This years idea was just to build a pretty, symmetrical fish.
The symmetrical part went well til I got to the ass end of the fish and then......
Oh well, this years fish had a big fat ass. But, she was pretty. And yes, those are nerf footballs cut in half for the eyes.

MARDI GRAS 2011

2011-02-22T12:01:00.000-08:00

The 2011 Mardi Gras season is underway. It began for Stacey and me Feb. 11 at the Osirus Ball where I was elected President of the U.S.
It was their 30th. 30 and Dirty was their theme this year. The Osirus Ball is the best. Always fun and entertaining. We had a table right up front and that give one a really good view of the tableau. Of coarse it was all about Dirty. Dirty Laundry, Dirty Martini, Dirty Politics ect.

We have also enjoyed a few parades and the Juno Ball. The Juno was good fun also. Lots of dancing. They had two good bands, one old school and one playing the latest dance hits.

The Mystic Fish are set to roll out their 19th parade. The float committee has been hard at work.
The food committee has been hard at work. Everything is in order and it's sure to be another great weekend for the Fish. The Mystic Fish are a very eclectic group with folks coming from all over the United States to participate. The Mystic Fish are by far the greatest Mardi Gras Krewe in the world. Here's a peek at this years Fish Float.

GETTING TO KNOW YOU

2011-02-15T05:42:00.000-08:00

If you really want to get to know someone there are a few ways to go about it.
You can play golf with said person, travel to a foreign country with that person, or donate art to said persons fav charity. I have used all three ways to learn about a person and all three ways work.

Recently I had a lady ask me to donate a painting to an organization she is part of for a fund raiser. She even ask me to paint a particular subject for the event. She even went so far as to give me photos of veggies to work from. I told her I would try and paint a picture of vegetables as she wished, but I told her I did not think veggies would work so well with my painting style. I also told her not to worry I would have a painting ready and I would make sure it got them in time for her event as I had for the last 4 years.

Well I must say the veggies worked out well and I really like the painting. This is it.

So I took the veggie painting and a pig painting to the event site and let them pick which painting they would want for their fund raiser. Of course they picked the pig painting cause everyone in Atlanta is watching Kevin Gillespie cook pork all the way to a TOP CHEF championship. Pig is really hot right now and I knew they would want the pig. Here is a photo of said pig. Called it SOUTHSIDE. Clever huh.

Then I sent an email asking the nice lady who ask me to donate a painting for fund raiser if I would be comped 2 tickets to fund raiser event as I had been for the last 4 years. Here is where I learned what this nice lady who ask me to donate painting really thought of me and my art work.

In the nice ladies attempt to find out if I would be comped two tickets to the fund raiser I was cc'd in, I'm sure by accident, on an very insightful exchange of emails.

Did you decide on this? How should we respond….either way is fine. He really delayed on all this and the painting will probably not bring in much so if we say we are sold out at this time I am just fine with that.

Sorry…thought you got this…each artist gets 1 comp ticket and one ticket to buy for $50, but we are sold out, so he can only get his one comp ticket at this point.?

Some nice lady huh?
As Mr. Janky would say "OH WELL"

HOW TO BE HAPPY

2011-02-14T06:20:00.000-08:00

NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Published: January 16, 2010

Want to be happier in 2010? Then try this simple experiment, inspired by recent scholarship in psychology and neurology. Which person would you rather be:

Richard is an ambitious 36-year-old white commodities trader in Florida. He’s healthy and drop-dead handsome, lives alone in a house with a pool, and has worked his way through a series of gorgeous women. Richard’s job is stressful, but he spent Christmas in Tahiti. Unencumbered, he also has time to indulge such passions as reading (right now he’s finishing a book called “Half the Sky”), marathon running and writing poetry. In the last few days, he has been composing an elegy about the Haiti earthquake.

Lorna is a 64-year-old black woman in Boston. She’s overweight and unattractive, even after a recent nose job. Lorna is on regular dialysis, but that doesn’t impede her active social life or babysitting her grandchildren. A retired school assistant, she is close to her 67-year-old husband and is much respected in her church for directing the music committee and the semiannual blood drive. Lorna believes in tithing (giving 10 percent of her income to charity or the church) and in the last few days has organized a church drive to raise $10,000 for earthquake relief in Haiti.

I adapted those examples from ones that Jonathan Haidt, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, develops in his fascinating book, “The Happiness Hypothesis.” His point is that while most of us might prefer to trade places with Richard, Lorna is probably happier.

Men are no happier than women, and people in sunny areas no happier than people in chillier climates. The evidence on health is complex, but even chronic health problems (like those requiring dialysis) may have surprisingly little long-term effect on happiness, because we adjust to them. Beautiful people aren’t happier than ugly people, although cosmetic surgery does seem to leave patients feeling brighter. Whites are happier than blacks, but only very slightly. And young people are actually a bit less happy than older folks, at least up to age 65.

Lorna has a few advantages over Richard. She has less stress and is respected by her peers — factors that make us feel good. Happiness is tied to volunteering and to giving blood, and people with religious faith tend to be happier than those without. A solid marriage is linked to happiness, as is participation in social networks. And one study found that people who focus on achieving wealth and career advancement are less happy than those who focus on good works, religion or spirituality, or friends and family.

“Human beings are in some ways like bees,” Professor Haidt said. “We evolved to live in intensely social groups, and we don’t do as well when freed from hives.”

Happiness is, of course, a complex concept and difficult to measure, and John Stuart Mill had a point when he suggested: “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.”

But in any case, nobility can lead to happiness. Professor Haidt notes that one thing that can make a lasting difference to your contentment is to work with others on a cause larger than yourself.

I see that all the time. I interview people who were busy but reluctantly undertook some good cause because (sigh!) it was the right thing to do. Then they found that this “sacrifice” became a huge source of fulfillment and satisfaction.

Brain scans by neuroscientists confirm that altruism carries its own rewards. A team including Dr. Jorge Moll of the National Institutes of Health found that when a research subject was encouraged to think of giving money to a charity, parts of the brain lit up that are normally associated with selfish pleasures like eating or sex.

The implication is that we are hard-wired to be altruistic. To put it another way, it’s difficult for humans to be truly selfless, for generosity feels so good.

“The most selfish thing you can do is to help other people,” says Brian Mullaney, co-founder of Smile Train, which helps tens of thousands of children each year who are born with cleft lips and cleft palates. Mr. Mullaney was a successful advertising executive, driving a Porsche and taking dates to the Four Seasons, when he felt something was missing and began volunteering for good causes. He ended up leaving the business world to help kids smile again — and all that makes him smile, too.

So at a time of vast needs, from Haiti to our own cities, here’s a nice opportunity for symbiosis: so many afflicted people, and so much benefit to us if we try to help them. Let’s remember that while charity has a mixed record helping others, it has an almost perfect record of helping ourselves. Helping others may be as primal a human pleasure as food or sex.

I'M GETTING OLD

2011-02-10T13:07:00.000-08:00

I PURCHASED THIS TODAY. YES, IT'S FOR ME.
DAMN DAMN DAMN

RECENTLY.....

2011-02-09T10:14:00.000-08:00

LOCAL THREE KITCHEN AND BAR OFFERS OVER ONE HUNDRED DIFFERENT BOURBONS. IT'S AN ACTUAL WALL OF THE BROWN STUFF. THE BOYS AT L3 WANTED A PAINTING FOR THE WALL OF BOURBON AND THEIR ONLY INSTRUCTION WAS THAT IT NEEDED TO SAY BROWN TOWN SOMEWHERE ON THE PAINTING. THIS IS WHAT I CAME UP WITH.
I HUNG IT THIS MORNING. CLICK ON IT AND IT GETS BIG!

THESE ARE VINES AND TREE LIMBS I FOUND IN MY YARD AND FASHIONED INTO TAP HANDLES FOR THE MANY DRAFT BEERS AT LOCAL 3.

TABLE AND BENCH FROM ANTIQUE PINE. I BOUGHT THE LEGS CAUSE I DON'T TURN WOOD. THESE WILL BE DELIVERED TONIGHT TO PETER AND STACI. NICE STUFF.

THESE 9 TOPS ARE FOR A COFFEE SHOP IN TENNESSEE. ANTIQUE PINE WITH EBONY STAIN. THEY WERE PICKED UP MONDAY.

DIM SUM BITCHES

2011-02-08T05:55:00.000-08:00

Riddle me this Fat man. Where can one get shark fin, chicken feet and jelly fish off the same menu?
The Answer: CANTON HOUSE RESTAURANT.

And I love this restaurant. But, you can have the chicken feet and the jelly fish. The shark fin? Well, it is cooked in a dumpling, very little shark fin is used cause it cost so much and it taste good. Although I'm not sure you really taste the fin, as it is in the middle of this dumpling.

So were talking DIM SUM here. What is this Dim Sum you may ask. Let's check in with the All Mighty GOOGLE,

The unique culinary art of dim sum originated with the Cantonese in southern China, who over the centuries transformed yum cha ( tea tasting ) from a relaxing respite to a loud and happy dining experience.
Travellers on the ancient Silk Road needed a place to rest. Thus teahouses were established along the roadside. Rural farmers, exhausted after working hard in the fields, would go to teahouses for a relaxing afternoon of tea. At first, it was considered inappropriate to combine tea with food, because people believed it would lead to excessive weight gain. People later discovered that tea can aid in digestion, so teahouse owners began adding various snacks.

Two things from the quote above really describe my dim sum experiences, which I have enjoyed the last three Saturdays in a row. First it is a loud and joyful dinning experince in a large dinning room full of hungry people and the last two words "various snacks". What an understatement. Further down the page is a list of some of the "various snacks" one can enjoy at the Canton House Dim Sum every Saturday and Sunday late morning to early afternoon.

Our friend Kim Trent turned us on to dim sum over 15 years ago. Lil Lady and I fell in love with this meal the minute the first tea cart arrived. This is how dim sum is served. You are seated and ask if you want tea. We usually have Chrysanthemum, but you can have Oolong, Green or Pu-erh. This is also the time to tell you server you want all the condiments. Hot mustard, sweet and sour, chili oil and soy sauce are common at dim sum. And before your tea and condiments get to you table the first tea cart is pushed up to your table and the server ask if you would like some .......... from here on it is nonstop, one cart after another. And the variety is awesome.
One cart will have shrimp cooked many different ways. Butterflied and fried, wrapped in bacon, skewered with a small stalk of sugarcane and fried or with eggplant and black bean sauce and on and on. See the list below for more details. But, I swear it's endless. There is duck, you can get a plate of greens and the sticky rice. I love the sticky rice. It comes a few different ways. It can be cooked in a small crock or it can be steamed in a large lotus leaf, my fav. Inside is a sweet sticky rice with little tidbits of Chinese sausage, mushrooms, pork ribs ect.

Lo mai gai wrapped in lotus leaf

There are more dishes available then I would ever be able to describe and there is always something new. Dim Sum can be found in most cities these days. If I were you I would find my local Dim Sum restaurant and try it out.

Gao / Jiao (餃, Dumpling; 餃子 jiao zi): Jiao zi is a standard in most teahouses. They are made of ingredients wrapped in a translucent rice flour or wheat starch skin, and are different from jiaozi found in other parts of China. Though common, steamed rice-flour skins are quite difficult to make. Thus, it is a good demonstration of the chef's artistry to make these translucent dumplings. There are also dumplings with vegetarian ingredients, such as tofu and pickled cabbage.
- Shrimp Dumpling (蝦餃 har gau): A delicate steamed dumpling with whole or chopped-up shrimp filling and thin wheat starch skin.
- Chiu-chao style dumplings (潮州粉果 chiu-chau fun guo): A dumpling said to have originated from the Chaozhou prefecture of eastern Guangdong province, it contains peanuts, garlic, chives, pork, dried shrimp, Chinese mushrooms in a thick dumpling wrapper made from glutinous rice flour or Tang flour. It is usually served with a small dish of chili oil.
- Potsticker (鍋貼, gwoh tip / guo tee-yeh [guo tie]): Northern Chinese style of dumpling (steamed and then pan-fried jiaozi), usually with meat and cabbage filling. Note that although potstickers are sometimes served in dim sum restaurants, they are not considered traditional Cantonese dim sum.
- Shaomai (燒賣 siu mai): Small steamed dumplings with either pork, prawns or both inside a thin wheat flour wrapper. Usually topped off with crab roe and mushroom.
- Haam Sui Gaau (鹹水餃, salt-water (i.e. savoury) stuffed-dumpling, alternatively 鹹水角 (haam Sui Gok): deep fried oval-shaped dumpling made with rice-flour and filled with pork and chopped vegetables. The rice-flour surrounding is sweet and sticky, while the inside is slightly salty.
Bau (包 bau or 包子 bao zi): Baked or steamed, these fluffy buns made from wheat flour are filled with food items ranging from meat to vegetables to sweet bean pastes.
- Char siu baau (叉燒包, char siu baau): the most popular bun with a Cantonese barbecued pork filling. It can be either steamed to be fluffy and white or baked with a light sugar glaze to produce a smooth golden-brown crust.
- Shanghai steamed buns (上海小籠包 seong hoi siu lung bau): These dumplings are filled with meat or seafood and are famous for their flavor and rich broth inside. These dumplings are originally Shanghainese so they are not considered traditional Cantonese dim sum. They are typically sold with pork as a filling.
Rice noodle rolls or cheong fun (腸粉 cheong fun): These are wide rice noodles that are steamed and then rolled. They are often filled with different types of meats or vegetables inside but can be served without any filling. Rice noodle rolls are fried after they are steamed and then sprinkled with sesame seeds. Popular fillings include beef, dough fritter, shrimp, and barbecued pork. Often topped with a sweetened soy sauce.
Phoenix talons (鳳爪 fung zao): These are chicken feet, deep fried, boiled, marinated in a black bean sauce and then steamed. This results in a texture that is light and fluffy (due to the frying), while moist and tender. Fung zau are typically dark red in color. One may also sometimes find plain steamed chicken feet served with a vinegar dipping sauce. This version is known as "White Cloud Phoenix Talons" (白雲鳳爪, bak wun fung jau).
Steamed meatball (牛肉球 ngau4 juk6 kau4): Finely-ground beef is shaped into balls and then steamed with preserved orange peel and served on top of a thin bean-curd skin.
Spare ribs: In the west, it is mostly known as spare ribs collectively. In the east, it is Char siu when roasted red, or (排骨 paai4 gwat1, páigǔ) when roasted black. It is typically steamed with douchi or fermented black beans and sometimes sliced chilli.
Lotus leaf rice (糯米雞 lou mai gai): Glutinous rice is wrapped in a lotus leaf into a triangular or rectangular shape. It contains egg yolk, dried scallop, mushroom, water chestnut and meat (usually pork and chicken). These ingredients are steamed with the rice and although the leaf is not eaten, its flavour is infused during the steaming. Lo mai gai is a kind of rice dumpling. A similar but lighter variant is known as "Pearl Chicken" (珍珠雞 jan jyu gai).
Congee (粥 juk1): Thick, sticky rice porridge served with different savory items. The porridge one will see most often is "Duck Egg and Pork Porridge" (皮蛋瘦肉粥 "pei daan sau ruk juk")
Sou (酥 sou): A type of flaky pastry. Char siu is one of the most common ingredient used in dim sum style sou. Another common pastry seen in restaurants are called "Salty Pastry" (鹹水角 "haam sui gok") which is made with flour and seasoned pork.
Taro dumpling (芋角 wu gok): This is made with mashed taro, stuffed with diced shiitake mushrooms, shrimp and pork, deep-fried in crispy batter.
Crispy fried squid (魷魚鬚 yau yu sou): Similar to fried calamari, the battered squid is deep-fried. A variation of this dish may be prepared with a salt and pepper mix. In some dim sum restaurants, octopus is used instead of squid.
Rolls (捲)
- Spring roll (春捲 cheun gyun): a roll consisting of various types of vegetables — such as sliced carrot, cabbage, mushroom and wood ear fungus — and sometimes meat are rolled inside a thin flour skin and deep fried.
- Tofu skin roll (腐皮捲 fu pei guen): a roll made of Tofu skin
Cakes (糕)
- Turnip cake (蘿蔔糕 lo bak go): cakes are made from mashed daikon radish mixed with bits of dried shrimp and pork sausage that are steamed and then cut into slices and pan-fried.
- Taro cake (芋頭糕 wu tao go): cakes made of taro.
- Water chestnut cake (馬蹄糕 maa tai gow): cakes made of water chestnut. It is mostly see-through and clear. Some restaurants also serve a variation of water chestnut cake made with bamboo juice.
Chien chang go (千層糕 cin cang gou): "Thousand-layer cake", a dim sum dessert made up of many layers of sweet egg dough.

2011-02-03T11:53:00.000-08:00

DELECTABLE DISHES FROM TERMITE HALL

2011-02-03T07:01:00.000-08:00

I WAS LOOKING THROUGH A COPY OF THIS BOOK, WENT ON LINE TO LEARN MORE AND THIS IS ONE OF THE ARTICLES I FOUND ON THE BLOG COOKBOOK OF THE DAY. I LOVE THIS COOKBOOK. IT IS INTERNATIONAL AND SOUTHERN AT THE SAME TIME. WALTERS TRAVELED THE WORLD AND LIVED ABROAD FOR AN EXTENSIVE TIME. YOU CAN BUY THIS BOOK AT AMAZON.COM COOKBOOK OF THE DAY

COOKBOOK OF THE DAY

23 January 2010

Delectable Dishes From Termite Hall

Originally, Termite Hall was coaching inn located halfway between the Mobile, Alabama courthouse and Spring Hill College. It was known appropriately as the Halfway House. It was a place Eugene Walter knew well. The house came to its name honestly. There are several stories all a means to the same end. One has it that Mrs. Marston, the lady of the house, was walking through the house when the parlor floor gave way because of the termites. Another has the children sitting on a balustrade on the porch. When they got up, it collapsed, eaten away by the termites. Either termite story was sufficient for the house to become Termite Hall.

Eugene Walter was a consummate cook and food writer on a par with M.F.K. Fisher. He was a consultant on the Time Life Series, writing American Cooking –- Southern Style. He was also an award winning novelist and poet, a singe, actor and composer, and a general bon vivant of colossal proportion. For more on Eugene Walter, check out our post at Lucindaville. For more on his cookbooks, stay here.

Delectable Dishes From Termite Hall takes its title from the fine old three-story building seen above. Eugene Walter was not the kind of man to walk away from a good tale and falling through the floor at Termite Hall was a great tale.

Since he was a boy, Walter collected recipes the same way some kids collected stamps. As an adult, he compiled many of these recipes into a several cookbooks. In an introduction to this edition, novelist Pat Conroy writes,

“I have not come across a bad recipe in the book, and certainly, not a dull one. It was Eugene who told me that as a cookbook writer he was always trying to disguise the fact that “my real job is to be a philosopher king and prince of elves.””

Here is Eugene Walter at his elfish best on the subject of Jerusalem artichokes, grown everywhere in the South.

“Twenty-five lashes with a dead flounder to whichever publicity genius dreamed up the name Sun Choke. The plant has been known since the early 1600’s as Helianthus tuberosus, topinamber, and Jerusalem artichoke. …I love the French topinambour: I’ve always felt that if Rumpelstiltskin or Pinocchio had a little sister her name would be Topinambour.

Here is an old recipe for an even older vegetable.

Stewed Topinambour – Old Mobile Style

Melt some butter and bacon fat in the skillet and brown a thinly sliced onion, sprinkle in a tablespoon of flour, stir until nicely colored, not dark. Add a small glass of dry white wine, mix and let simmer a minute then put in a crushed toe of garlic, some freshly-ground black pepper, a dash of nutmeg, and a pound or so of small peeled Jerusalem artichokes. Simmer until the vegetable is cooked but not mushy. Before serving add more butter, salt to taste, and a sprinkling of chopped parsley or chives.

If you have never tasted Jerusalem artichokes, give this recipe a try. And please, please, read Eugene Walter.

A SCIENTIFIC FOOD STUDY

2011-01-28T04:56:00.000-08:00

Stacey and I have been having this conversation/conducting this scientific study for about two months now. It is a very complex and intricate food study. It required some really deep thinking on our part. It also required us to eat a lot. Because of the complicated manner in which we came to our conclusions we don't expect the average person to completely grasp the results of our study.
But, we will try to explain it to you.

About 4 years ago Stacey and I were at a food event and ran into the the guys who ran the kitchen at The Feed Store. The Feed Store is in our south side neighborhood and has been open for 5 or 6 of years at that point. So when Stacey and I came across The Feed Store booth at this event we were kinda surprised as we never saw them at other food events.

We had been at this event for hours and had had our fill of food and drink by the time we came across The Feed Store booth. We were on our way out, but we had to stop to say howdy and confirm it was in fact the same restaurant in our neighborhood.
There were two chefs manning the booth. Peter was the Executive Chef and Cooper was the Sous-Chef de Cuisine. We ask if they were in fact the Feed Store in Collage Park ? "yes" they were. Pete quickly added that they were the new chefs. He said he knew that the old Feed Store sucked and told us he and Cooper had fixed that. We told them we never thought it sucked, told them it was hit or miss, but it never really sucked They told us about some of the dishes they were cooking, they seemed pretty excited, which made Stacey and I excited about trying the Feed Store again.

So we did. It wasn't long before we bellied up to some really good food It was like having a new restaurant in the neighborhood. And we hit it hard for a long time. Most times we didn't even see a menu. Usually Cooper came out and told us not to order that he would cook for us. I bet every time Cooper saw us walk in he thought to himself let's see what I can get the Hartleys to eat this time.

So that's how it was for a long time. Then Cooper left the Feed Store for Restaurant Eugene. Being considered the best restaurant in town by many, this was a good move for Cooper. But, Cooper wanted to cook. On line, in the kitchen, in the middle of all the chaos from a slammed front house. And he wasn't getting to do that at Restaurant Eugene. So his next move was Livingston. Not sure how long he was there, but not long ago, four or five months ago, Peter went to work as the executive Chef for a huge wing and beer chain. So along comes Cooper, back to the Feed Store. Top Dog. Head Chef. With a big ole new tattoo.

So, Cooper has just come out with a new menu there at The Feed Store. It is not completely new, there was lot's of good stuff left from Peters menu. But, I'm sure Cooper was eager to get his own menu out. It's a good menu and it was a important part of data for our Scientific Food Study.

So this is how our food study went. It's complicated so try and follow. What happened was this. I had a hundred dollar gift card for Rathburns. Everybody knows Rathburns. One of the hottest restaurants in town. He actually has three restaurants in Atlanta. Anyway we had that and we had another gift card for about the same amount at another one of Atlantas best restaurants, Holman & Finch. So this is what we did. Read carefully, it gets complicated.
What we did was one night we went to Rathburns for dinner, the next night we went to Holman Finch for dinner and on the third night we rose form the dead. Just kiddin we didn't rise from the dead we went to The Feed Store for dinner. This is where we came to the startling conclusion of our food study. We concluded that the meal at The Feed Store was as good as and in some cases better than both Rathburns and Holman & Finch.

Which led me to the conclusion that if you have yet to dine at The Feed Store your stupid.

LOCAL THREE

2011-01-24T12:53:00.000-08:00

BACK IN OCTOBER I WAS INTRODUCED TO THE GUYS AT LOCAL THREE KITCHEN AND BAR. A VERY NICE LADY WORKING WITH LOCAL THREE THOUGHT MY PAINTINGS WOULD BE A GOOD FIT FOR THE IDEA BEHIND THE REHABBED DINNING ROOM. WELL ONE THING LED TO ANOTHER AND I ENDED UP BUILDING TONS OF STUFF FOR THEM.

THIS HERE BAR WAS AN OAK TREE THAT FELL IN THE ATLANTA AREA. WE HAD A GUY SLICE US TWO PIECES THAT WERE EACH 4" THICK, 12' LONG AND ABOUT 40" WIDE. WE CUT OFF A PIECE ABOUT 14" WIDE FROM EACH AND I JOINED THEM TO MAKE A THIRD PIECE. I FINISHED THEM AND NOW THEY ARE THE BAR AT L3.

THE THREE PIG PAINTINGS ARE MY WORK AS WELL AS ALL THE TABLE TOPS YOU CAN SEE. THERE ARE MORE YOU DON'T SEE. I DID ABOUT 30 TOPS FROM ANTIQUE PINE FOR L3.

LOCAL THREE WAS RESTAURANT JOEL IN SEPTEMBER 2010. NEXT THING YA KNOW IT IS L3 AND THE ORANGE GLASS TILE WALL JOEL HAD INSTALLED HAD TO GO. THE ORANGE TILE WAS BEAUTIFUL, BUT IT WAS THE SIGNATURE PIECE OF THE JOEL DINNING ROOM. SO I COVERED IT WITH SALVAGED MATERIALS. SHUTTERS, ROOFING TIN, OLD LUMBER ECT. AND MADE IT THE SIGNATURE PIECE OF THE LOCAL THREE DINNING ROOM.

A BAR CRAWL IN OLD SAN JUAN

2011-01-23T06:11:00.000-08:00

Stacey and I have been to San Juan, Puerto Rico. maybe a half dozen times. We like it there. The rooms are cheap, the beach is always nearby and the restaurants are good.

Last time there, we took a taxi to Old San Juan and did a little "bar" crawl.

Stacey and I had mapped out some spots to visit in Old San Juan for our latest trip. We had rented a studio cond across the street from the beach and only about 15 minutes from Old San Juan. We were there for a wedding, but Monday we were free and we wanted to find a few places we had read about. Places to eat and or drink. Old restaurants and hotels we found in magazines and travel books. Places we hoped would not be full of tourist.

We were to meet up with niece and husband Monday a.m. but we had no luck getting them on the phone. Not being able to reach niece on the phone and knowing that niece had danced with the label of "BLACK" the night before at her brothers wedding, we thought she might be hurtin.
So we headed off to a near by spot for a Bloody Mary. It was the worst restaurant and the worst BM I have ever had in my life. The reason we went to this place is cause the day before I looked in the front door when we walked by and thought it might have a nice view. This is what we got for a view. We were able to sit in that window and have a bad drink. With that view. Not bad.

We continued to reach out to niece and husband and finally they called and said "where are you?". We said "at the Hotel El Convento in Old San Juan come on and meet us". And they did. Good times.

Stacey and I were walking through Old San Juan trying to find a tapas bar we had read about. We had read how good and authentic the food was. Just like a tapas bar in Barcelona. When we found the address it was at the Hotel El Convento. When we ask about the tapas bar we were informed it was not open until 5 p.m. It was about 1 p.m. so we ask where we might get a drink and the bellmen told us the bar in the court yard was open and he showed us the way.

This was an awesome place. To start with some guy was playing a classical music on a piano.

We looked around and saw no one. Just the guy playing piano. We walked toward the bar as the bar tender showed up. We ask if he was open, he said he was, we ordered drinks and ask about the hotel we were in. Bar tender handed us a pamphlet, told us to go sit and he would bring our drinks.

Looking through the pamphlet we learned that Hotel El Convento was once a convent.Built in 1651. In 1995 15 million dollars were spent on a renovation. It still looked old to me. Which was a good thing. It had been beautiful restored. Click here and read about all the changes the place went through Between 1651 and 1995. We sat in the bar in the courtyard surround by balconies about 4 stories tall. There were trees in the court and tons of vegetation. We actually met the lady who's job was to take of the plants. She was very proud. The 4 stories of balconies accommodated the guest rooms. Outside each guest door were 4 chairs and a table. Looked like a nice place to have a morning coffee or afternoon cocktail. I really want to go back and spend a couple nights in this hotel. I bet is it haunted with old nuns.

After a couple beers in the courtyard bar we headed out to find La Mallorquina. Founded in 1848 La Mallorquina is advertised at the oldest restaurant to operate nonstop in the same spot in America. Some how we knew we wanted to have a drink here. We had read about it some where. We were greeted by a lovely man who was about 90 years old and 4' tall. He invited us in and he told us about the two lunch specials. We sat at the bar took in the oldness of this place. Straight out of a Humphrey Bogart movie. We had a drink and decided to split one of the lunch specials just to check out the food. It was good. Rice and pork wrapped in a banana leaf. With black beans of course. We had another drink.

We learned the third spot we wanted to visit was no longer open so we though we would walk a while. Old San Juan is great to look at, but soon one feels crowded by all the tourist. So we ducked into the local brew pub.

Thank you, I know smart move. But, a totally different atmosphere. Everything was new. Big open kitchen and they were getting ready for a busy night. There were 3 chefs and they were all hard at work. We did a tasting of about 5 beers. Good stuff. We then left for a meal at Varita.

Varita is one of three restaurants owned by Chef Wilo Benet. I did not know this, but he was on one of the Top Chef series. The place was real cool to look at and the food was good. I had a huge piece of roasted pig. We had lot's of different food and it was all good.
check it out here.

Here are some photos Stacey took. It was a good trip and I can't wait to get back and check out those restaurants on the beach.

A WEDDING IN SAN JUAN

2011-01-19T05:36:00.000-08:00

Ah, beautiful San Juan. Well kinda of beautiful if you don't look to close. It's the same so many places we go, someone needs to pick up the damn trash. Santa Domingo, Belize, Panama, St. John USVI and San Juan all suffer the same problem. At the resorts and hotels and all, things are nice, but once you leave those grounds usually you see trash everywhere. I don't get it???

Anyway we are there for a reason. Nephew is getting married. Their plans were for those invited and willing to fly to San Juan, meet at their hotel Sunday at 2 pm, where we would all board a small bus and drive about an hour, up into the rain forest. And that is what we did. It was by far the coolest wedding I have ever attended.

The drive was nice and it gave us a chance to see parts of San Juan we never get to see. As we drove down the coast we pasted hundreds of outdoor restaurants. Most were just four post, a tin roof and a big fire. Looked like all the food was cooked over this open fire and it looked like the offered BBQ and seafood. If I ever go back and have a car I will drive there and eat like a crazy man. I will try everyone of those restaurants.

We then were driven up into a rain forest. It is a national park. It was easy to tell we were in a different environ. It was wet, and green and lush and cool. The wedding was held on a stone bridge at the Grand Bath which was the large pool of spring water from the mountain top.

The Bride and Groom wrote their vows and I wish I could have heard them, but the water coming down the mountain was loud. It drowned them out. But, it was still a beautiful wedding.
The reception was fun as well. We ended up back at the beach near those shacks/restaurants I mentioned above. We had been on the bus awhile and everyone was ready for food. When we hit the restaurant snacks were laid out and I consumed about 15 of the best fried shrimp I have ever had in my life. We also had dinner and it was very good. Who ever picked this place did a great job. We drank, danced and party til dawn.

Still kickin

2011-01-14T06:36:00.000-08:00

Stacey, aka Lil'Lady, keeps a calendar at work where she writes down what we do each week. Not a lot of detail, but the date, where, what and with whom. Since I have not been very good at posting blogs for the last few months I ask Lil Lady if she would send an email with what we have been up to for the last few months. I want to catch up and start posting a few times a week. I'm not sure too many folks read my blog regularly, but looking back on past post I realize how glad I am that I have written a lot over the last three years. It's a great way to look back and remember what we've been up to. I think I realized I'm writing for myself and Lil Lady most of all. I've keep journals for years and I now know this is just another journal. If others read and enjoy that's great, I love to share, but I'm writing no matter what. It's so much fun looking back at our busy lives. I look forward to 20 years down the road and looking back at all the fun we have had. And if you do read this blog you know we have fun. Whatever our short comings you can't say Lil Lady and I have not had a good time living life.

Now I need to decide if I want to go back and catch up. Do I want to go into detail about all we have done in the past three months or do I just want to touch on each event and move on to current events. These are some of the dates and things we have done lately.

9/10 = dinner at pratt and steve------ Pratt and Steve are our friends that live near us here in Atlanta. Our connections go back to Mobile. Stacey and I bought our house in Mobile from Pratts Mom and Dad. Over the years we have gotten to be good friends with all four. We see P and S a good bit here in the ATL. We eat at each others house and at restaurants often. They love to try new restaurants as much as we do. Further down this list you see we dined in Mobile with them. It's noted because P and S had a few bottles of special wine and want us to join them in cooking a meal to match the wines. It ended up we did it in Mobile at our cottage. It was fun, like I said we always have fun with Pratt and Steve.

So this is it for now. I have been stuck in this house for about a week now. It snowed very heavy and then with the temps staying below 30 all week it's been inpossible to drive. Tomorrow is Saturday and I'm getting out no matter what. Later I will touch on some of the things we have done on the list below. I will also try and stay current with my post.

9/11 = livingston for lunch, con fed of dunces

9/17 = party at feed store for peter leaving

9/25 = roller derby, pura vida dinner

10/7 = streak o lean

10/9 - dinner at keith and mikey

10/14= dinner at Muss Turner

10/16 = beekeeping class

10/17 - dinner at our house - butch, shawn, katie, marsha

10/23 = dinner in Mobile with Pratt and Steve - wine

11/6 - 11/9/ = san juan - jeff and emily wedding

11/10 - dinner at feed store for commercial

11/19 - dinner holman finch

11/20 - dinner rathburns

11/25 = thanksgiving in bham

12/1 - L3 party

12/7= tsh epgtc - walked to tavern for beers

12/4= high mus - salvadore

12/9 = dinner L3 peter/wife

12/17 = Jeffery 40th at Feed store

12/24-12/27 = Mobile Christmas

WHY I WANT A SMART PHONE

2010-12-08T05:31:00.001-08:00

In Paris, A Display From Hockney's Pixelated Period

by Susan Stamberg

December 7, 2010

Enlarge David Hockney

From the exhibition "Fresh Flowers," a drawing created by artist David Hockney with the creative tool that's been fascinating him lately — the iPad. Untitled, 10 July 2010 is one of hundreds of digital works showing on 40 screens in the Paris exhibition, which runs through Jan. 30.

David Hockney thinks his current exhibition may be the first one that's ever been 100 percent e-mailed to a gallery. The 73-year-old artist is standing in the space in question — the Pierre Berge-Yves St. Laurent Foundation in Paris — trying to talk about the works, when his iPhone rings.

"I'm right in the middle of an interview," he says, laughing. "I'm sorry — wait a minute — I am, actually." Then, to the reporter: "I'll turn it off."

And he does, though it might have been more fun if he hadn't: He might have made us a new artwork right on the phone — a little vase of flowers, or a face, or a landscape.

When Hockney first got the device about two years ago, he immediately realized it was a new medium for creativity.

"Incredible little thing, really, because it was like a sketchbook and a paintbox all in one," the artist says. Better, even: "No cleaning up. No mess."

That's because he's painting with an app called Brushes — a small virtual paintbox on the phone's screen, into which Hockney dips a finger — or 10 — and makes pictures.

"He started out sending out these images — little images that he would make on his iPhone — to his friends," says installation designer Ali Tayar. "You wake up at 4 o'clock in the morning, and you're trying to go back to sleep, but on your computer is one of his images," Tayar says. "That is a treat — a 'Hi,' a little flower."

Capturing The Morning, With Light Instead Of Inks

Hockney started making these vibrant digital "paintings" early in the morning at his home in Yorkshire, England.

Enlarge David Hockney

Untitled, 8 July 2010

"From about late April to July, the sunrise would hit me in bed," he explains. But "if I'd [only] had a pencil and paper by the bed, I wouldn't have drawn a sunrise."

Black lead, white paper; not that much to get up for, really. But Hockney had his iPhone by the bed, so he could draw the sunrise on the phone, in color.

Then the sun hit a vase of flowers near the bed. Hockney painted that, too. More mornings, more paintings, until he'd made hundreds and hundreds.

"Some were drawn quite quickly," he says, "Some were drawn over two or three mornings, meaning I'd go back to them. And I sent them out — lovely thing was, I could send them out to my friends. ... Often they were getting the sunrise that they'd missed."

As you might guess, the people on his list — a couple of dozen or so — said they loved receiving those early-morning e-mails.

For A Few Weeks, 'Fresh Flowers,' And Then A Sudden Fade

Then Hockney heard about the larger iPad. The artist has always carried a small sketchbook with him. Now he carries the electronic equivalent. The creative experience is different on the bigger device, he says.

"On the iPhone I tended to draw with my thumb," he says. "Whereas the moment I got to the iPad, I found myself using every finger."

And he really gets into it, reports curator Charlie Scheips.

"He says he sometimes gets so obsessed that when he's going, he rubs his finger on his clothes to, like, clean his finger — as if he was using real paint."

Scheips coordinated the Paris show, a riot of non-paint paintings on luminous digital screens. One wall at the gallery is hung with 20 iPhones; a second wall carries 20 iPads. (The Berge-St. Laurent Foundation paid for all the devices — it's not an Apple-backed effort, it says.)

All the gadgets are turned on 24 hours a day, and from time to time Hockney e-mails a new work to one of them — a kind of artistic status update.

The show, called "Fresh Flowers," closes at the end of January. And then, installation designer Ali Tayar says, all the art will disappear.

"It's not the traditional painting," he muses. "It really doesn't exist. It's just light on a screen."

Enlarge David Hockney

Untitled, 16 April 2010

You could print a Hockney e-mail, if you were lucky enough to get one, but it would lose something in translation without that brilliant backlighting. The work only lives on these gadgets.

There's another hurdle, of course.

"We haven't figured out how to get paid," Hockney says. "At the moment it doesn't matter, but I will have to figure it out like everybody else."

Meantime, he's having fun making art with this newfangled but basically old-fashioned instrument. So are loads of other artists who are bringing back drawing this way, making works on digital devices.

Curator Scheips says Hockney has always been forward-looking — years ago he made collages with Polaroid pictures, and used home copying machines for other works. This new phase, Scheips thinks, is just the logical next step.

But it's a big step, artistically.

"These things are all about surfaces," Scheips says. "It's all about mark-making. ... These drawings — they may be small physically, but they're big and important in terms of his total oeuvre. And he thinks that this medium is gonna change the world."

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD

2010-11-17T05:29:00.000-08:00

I woke up this a.m. and as usual started my espresso then checked emails. Like always the N Y Times was there. I found an article critiquing this guys show at the Beacon Theater last night. I had never heard of Mr. Stevens, but liked what I read. Stacey came in and glanced at what I was reading and inquired. Don't know I told her, but check this out. I showed her how in less the a minute we could hear samples of his songs on Amazon.com and purchase them if we like. 99 cents and they are downloaded to your itunes page right away. The article about the show talked about images projected on a large screen throughout the show. It mention some of the images were from an outsider artist, Royal Robertson, a Louisiana sign painter. So of course I needed to know about him. When I googled Royal Robertson I found, among other things, the article I have copied below. I love being able to do this.

Sufjan Stevens' musical 'Age' is still maturing

by Taylor Baker
Contributing Writer

Arts | 10/19/10
Posted online at 1:46 AM EST on 10/19/10

Media Credit: Marzuki Stevens/Asthmatic Kitty

Many songs on 'Adz' were inspired by Royal Robertson.

It's funny that no matter how much someone changes, they still stay the same. That's what first comes to mind when thinking of Sufjan Stevens' new album, The Age of Adz. In his most recent album, Stevens lays on the electronica to his usual combination of intricately layered vocals, soaring choruses, orchestral arrangements and a slew of other instruments that all add up to his unique sound. For anyone familiar with Stevens, his new album will be a bit of a departure, despite the fact that he released an electronic album in 2001, which, in my opinion, was not enjoyable at all. Unfortunately, it seems that his 2001 album was a precursor to his new one.

After abandoning his 50 States project-Stevens planned on releasing one album for every state of the Union but later revealed the attempt was a gimmick-Stevens released several other albums. One album consisted of B-sides, another was a compilation of Christmas songs, the third was an instrumental album inspired by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in New York City and he also released EP that was a prelude of sorts to Adz. The Age of Adz is Stevens' first full-length album without an overarching theme of a state, like his previous two Michigan and Illinois. Instead of providing narratives of being bitten by a wasp in Palisades Park or of a man living in Michigan slowly losing the grip on his life, Stevens indulges listeners with much more personal, romantic and apocalyptic narratives.

Now, don't get me wrong. The Age of Adz is not a terrible album-there are some really great songs and there are certain parts I could listen to over and over again. Moreover, I'd say the introduction of electronic elements to Stevens' sound is not a horrible idea; however, there are some points where the screwy sound effects bear down on the music and the listener.

Adz starts off with "Futile Devices," a song that could have easily been on any of Stevens' previous albums. The song consists of a simple melody, a guitar and Stevens' timid, somewhat haunting voice. Then, as if to say, "That was then, this is now," the next song, "Too Much," comes to life with an aquatic, electronic beat. In "Too Much," Stevens melds the relatively new, electronic sound with his usual intricate orchestral sound. This is one of the standout songs of Stevens' album-it's an introduction to how personal the album will be. Also, at certain points, this song is very cinematic. It reminded me of an intergalactic space war, which is most likely an homage to Royal Robertson, a paranoid schizophrenic painter whose art often depicted futuristic space scenes of the End of Days. Stevens' website confirms that The Age of Adz is partly inspired by Robertson's art.

There is also a futuristic, cinematic sound in the next song bearing the same name as the album. Age of Adz is familiar in that it soars in some places with compounds of sleigh bells, trumpets and choirs and then quiets down in others with only Sufjan's melancholic voice and guitar. It is in this song that Stevens introduces his apocalyptic and Biblical allusions, a trademark of sorts in his music: He includes everything from the glory of God being in everyone to the prospect of eternity and the Earth's breaking apart. All of these images aside, Stevens finishes the song apologizing for his selfishness, shortcomings and inability to persevere.

Other high points on Stevens' album are: "Get Real Get Right," another song with vivid imagery, trippy, electronic beats and backing choirs echoing the haunting message of the song and "I Want to Be Well." The latter song is the most honest and aggressive one on the album. The explicit despair over a messed-up relationship and desperate search for peace yield an exquisite, heartbreaking, haywire vocal bridge.

I think The Age of Adz can be summed up in its last song, "Impossible Soul," the album's 25-minute opus. The song, like the album, can drag at times and get a bit overbearing with the electronic samples but is redeemed by some truly magnificent parts. The third part-I broke up the song into four parts in order to better digest it-which starts at around the 14 minute mark, proves to be the best. It is upbeat and expressive, and the electronic effects meld perfectly with the layered vocals and instruments.

For the most part, The Age of Adz works. It's exciting to see Sufjan Stevens' sound evolve: We just might need to wait a bit longer for that evolution to reach a less awkward stage.

GOT WOOD?

2010-11-04T13:00:00.000-07:00

I got big wood.

My current commission is to basically build out the bar and tables for the dinning room for a new restaurant here in Atlanta. I am also gonna cover a 11" tall x 19" wide wall with assorted found materials. I also get to do three large paintings for the dining room.

Big wood? That's right, 37' of bar top made form live edge slabs of an oak tree. Three pieces make up this bar. Each piece is about 12' long by 27" wide and 4" thick. I bet each piece weighs about 500 lb's. Three table tops are gonna be made from live edge slabs of oak each about 6' by 3' x 2" thick. Also I am making 23 table tops from antique pine 2" x 6" material.

Above are some photos of the raw materials. As you can see some of it is very rough stuff. It's a dead tree for god sakes just relax, I can handle it. No I have never done work like this before, but hell I'm to stupid to say no or to be scared.

Now look what I did with these dead trees.

from an article in the Atlantic Magazine

2010-11-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

The Dark Side of Benefit Dinners: A Chef's Perspective

Oct 25 2010, 8:44 AM ET 8

Porchetta

To try Sara's recipe for cold cauliflower soup with curried crabmeat, click here.

As people in the food business, we get bombarded with requests to donate our time and food to benefits. Benefits for cancer, benefits for the homeless, benefits for three legged dogs in China, benefits for the hungry (I always think it's weird to gorge yourself to help the hungry but hey, whatever it takes right?). It goes on and on. And fall is the height of benefit season, and it seems to have gotten excessive.

The idea used to be to throw a party, get some press for the cause, some press for the participating chefs and industry people, and raise some money. But there are some very dubious causes receiving money out there, and it's never clear how large a percentage of funds raised actually go to the cause being featured. Recently I was asked to do a benefit for Slow Food (really?). I am all for Slow Food, but I am not sure they need money as much as victims of natural disasters or terminal disease.

For me to participate in an event, I have to come up with amazing finger food that can be served in a setting with no running water, no heating devices, and no storage area.

I was raised to believe in giving back to my community and to the general world community, and I believe in doing so. Some events I wholeheartedly endorse. Every year for the past six years I have participated in a great all-female event to support an organization called SHARE, which helps women with ovarian and breast cancer. The money really does go directly to the cause, plus I love that there's one night every year when most of the famously rare female chefs in New York gather under one roof. In the spring, I do the Taste of the Lower East Side, which benefits the Grand Street Settlement house, an organization that has been helping economically challenged residents of the Lower East Side since 1916. I love supporting the community I work in so directly.

Some of the so-called "benefits" I have participated in seem to be more about throwing giant, self-congratulatory parties. It seems like every time some terrible event happens, everyone gets busy setting up a benefit for the victims and at the same time making sure they get more press themselves. Before you know it, rather than talking about the awful situation in Haiti or Pakistan we are talking about what delicacies such and such restaurant is serving. I also question whether it is really the best thing for my restaurant and me to be a small line on some press release. Isn't it better for my customers and for me if I stay in the restaurant and cook? Isn't that what my business is about?

For me to participate in an event, I have to come up with amazing finger food that can be served in a setting with no running water, no heating devices, and no storage area. Increasingly I am being asked to bring 700 to 2000 portions of said food, which should also represent my restaurant, me as a chef, and maybe the democratic ideal as a whole. I have to prepare it in my restaurant (taking away resources from the day's normal activity), pack it up, haul it over to the venue, stash it under a table, and then reassemble it so it looks beautiful. In order to do this I need to bring one or two cooks with me (who need to be paid because they are not getting anything out of it) so I can stand there and smile and interact with people who have paid a lot of money to be there. One thing I learned early on was that however long it takes you to make the dish, the dish better be easy to serve.

At one of the first events I participated in, I made vitello tonnato, the Italian classic of poached veal layered in tuna mayonnaise. It was great in terms of the ease with which we plated it, but it looked absolutely hideous on the plate, even when artfully garnished with sprigs of parsley. Sometimes I do sfomato, a savory Italian custard that can be served room-temperature, made with whatever vegetables are seasonal. It is easily plated plus very elegant. One year I made ramp sformato. For three days my cooks and I sautéed mounds of pungent ramps and pureed them, mixing in cream and egg yolks and baked them off in rounds late at night when the kitchen wasn't being used. Needless to say after, three days of being smothered in the smell of ramps I have not really ever looked at one again.

For a while I did cold soup at summer events, which was perfect, refreshing, easy to make, and could get jazzed up with an elegant topping of lobster or crabmeat salad if need be. With the opening of Porchetta in 2008, though, all anybody wanted was for me to bring a giant roast of porchetta and make sandwiches at the table. It's pretty easy to assemble, but it's a huge amount of expensive product to give away. Which means I really need to pick and choose where I want to expend my energy. It better really benefit the charity and not just the organizers.

Recently I have been asked to show up with more and more portions, and then only half the portions I have been asked to provide are consumed. This leaves me with excess product that I often cannot reuse. That makes me really sad, and it makes me wonder why I don't just donate the money straight to the charity and cut out all the silliness along the way. I'd rather be in my kitchen making food in an environment designed for it and interacting with the customers, some of whom are there to see me. Making sure the people in my dining room feel warm and taken care of and want to come back rather than chasing some press that might net me a few new customers and might benefit a worthy cause (and they are all worthy—even the three legged dogs in China). And with the exception of SHARE and Taste of the Lower East Side, that is what I am going to do.

2010-11-01T11:12:00.000-07:00

ATLANTA BOTANTICAL GARDENS

2010-10-22T08:49:00.000-07:00

A few nights ago the botanical gardens here in Atlanta invited it's members to be the first to see and use the new pedestrian bridge that snakes it way through the tree tops of the garden. This project had a sad history before it even opened. About a year ago one man died and many were injured in a construction accident while the bridge was being built. We joined some friends to check out this beautiful work of architecture and then for dinner at the restaurant Social located in downtown Atlanta.
The bridge is amazing. The meal at Social not so much. Like I said this bridge is a great piece of architecture. I hope some how the fellow that died in the accident knows how much pleasure it is going to bring people.
Our friend Pratt took the photos.

2010-10-20T14:40:00.001-07:00

LOBSTER BOY

2010-10-05T11:38:00.001-07:00

When I was a kid my Mom would find all kinds of things for my brother and I do. On those long summer days when Mom needed a "babysitter" she would often drop us at the multiplex. She instructed us to watch a movie and then move to the next theater and watch another. She would pick us up about 4 or 5 hours later. Everyone in a better mood.

If the State Fair was in town she sometimes dropped us off there. I remember the midway at the fair. The huge ferris wheel, cotton candy tons of lights and my favorite, the air guns that were used to shoot targets.

This was the late 60's early 70's. This was Mobile, Alabama. Things were different. What was different you ask? Well to start with blind faith wasn't just a rock band, but a way of life. Drugs, pedophiles, child slave labor, who knew? And if we did know we had to tell ourselves "not in Mobile, this couldn't happen here". And it didn't happen here. No one ever bothered us, no one ever tried to get us to try drugs or tried to get us to get in their van with the offer a cute puppy or candy. Good thing cause I would have gone for it.

Just like I went for Lobster Boy, god bless his soul.

See my little brother and I are at the fair. Alone. We must have been 9 or 10 years old, so no big deal. It wasn't like it was night time or anything. Back then "freaks" were a big part of these traveling carnivals. You know the bearded lady, the fattest man in the world, the 2 headed cat and so on.
The one that attracted us was a sign for Lobster Boy. Pincher's for hands and feet. Step right up ladies and gentlemen and little kids to see the freakiest freak on earth. Little brother stubbed out his cigarette and said "hell yes" that's for us. So we bought our ticket and entered the tent. I'm am 48 years old now and still remember how weird this was. Just me, my brother and Lobster Boy. He was in a cage like the ones on wagon wheels. He was about 3'tall and was no boy. He was a full grown, 3' tall man with what looked like the meat of lobster claws for hands and feet. They were the shape of pincher's, but all flesh. He was sitting cause who could stand on feet like that? He was smoking a cigarette and told us to come closer. I remember us standing right in front of the glass panel between him and us and my jaw was just hanging. So was little brothers. He spoke through a microphone and it gave his voice a crackly, scary sound. He smoked and told us of his condition. He ask us if we wanted to buy photos of Lobster Boy. I bet we didn't say shit. I bet we just looked at him as if he was some kind of freak. He probably had to tell us to leave cause I'm sure we were to stunned to do anything. Some of you are now saying to yourselves "that explains a lot about those Hartley boys".

The reason I'm telling you this is cause the other day the fair was in East Point, just around the corner from where my wife and I live. It is in town often and often we go for a walk just to check it out. The other night Stacey and walked through the midway at night. I wanted Stacey to get some photos. It reminded me of Lobster Boy. I told Stacey all about it and how much these traveling fairs have changed. No freaks. But, Stacey did get some cool photos.

2010-10-05T06:03:00.000-07:00

I remember reading Confederacy of Dunces not long after it was published. I remember the story of how the authors mother talked Percy Walker into reading it which led to Tulane Press publishing it. Dunces won a Pulitzer Prize. This all happened years after John Kennedy Toole, the author, had committed suicide after being rejected by publishers.

The novel was an instant classic and it was passed around among my friends. This was 1980-81. I think about Confederacy of Dunces and Ignatius J. Riley, the main charter in the story, when I'm in NOLA and I come come across a Lucky Dog Vendor. And I laugh out loud. There are lot's of laugh out loud parts of this book. It is such a well written book. It is full of very unique characters. And the dialect of each is perfect. From the well educated , pompous tones of Ignatius to the hip, jive, soul brother talk of Jones the floor sweeper at the local bar. There's the cop, and the mother and her friend and the stripper and the lady bar owner and many others. They each have a very distinct way of talking and it came through in the book. And it is a big part of what makes this such a good read.

So my moms calls and tells me she read that Confederacy of Dunces was being offer as live stage production put on by The Theatrical Outfit. The Theatrical Outfit is in downtown Atlanta, on Luckie St. We caught one of the last shows and enjoyed very much. If you have read the book you would know why I worried if they could pull it off. To start with the characters in the book are so distinct I thought no way they could do them justice. Well they did. All except the jive talking Jones, the "flo sweeper". It was still a great show.

The actors would sometimes bring the stage set with them as they came on stage for their scene. While on the other side the stage was being set for the next scene. It was a brillant way to handle scene changes. The play was in two acts. The background, a New Orleans cityscape with the D. H. Holmes clock in the center, never changed. Like I said some of the set pieces were carried or pushed on stage by the actors in a particular scene. When that scene was finished actors came from another part of the stage with other set pieces, put them in place and started acting. The set pieces were simple. Like a small kitchen table with 2 chairs and maybe a phone, a bottle of booze and and a candle on the table. Just enough to get the setting across. Then the actors grabbed the chairs and pushed the table away when they were done. I thought it was a great way to present a play.

You should go to this link and read a review of the book. It will give you an idea of what Ignatius was like. http://www.spikemagazine.com/1104johnkennedytoole.php

I read the next day in the paper that there is a effort to get the play to NYC. Hope that happens.

WHO KNEW?

2010-09-28T13:39:00.000-07:00

By Mitchell Landsberg, Los Angeles Times

September 28, 2010

If you want to know about God, you might want to talk to an atheist.

Heresy? Perhaps. But a survey that measured Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists and agnostics knew more, on average, than followers of most major faiths. In fact, the gaps in knowledge among some of the faithful may give new meaning to the term "blind faith."

A majority of Protestants, for instance, couldn't identify Martin Luther as the driving force behind the Protestant Reformation, according to the survey, released Tuesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Four in 10 Catholics misunderstood the meaning of their church's central ritual, incorrectly saying that the bread and wine used in Holy Communion are intended to merely symbolize the body and blood of Christ, not actually become them.

Atheists and agnostics — those who believe there is no God or who aren't sure — were more likely to answer the survey's questions correctly. Jews and Mormons ranked just below them in the survey's measurement of religious knowledge — so close as to be statistically tied.

So why would an atheist know more about religion than a Christian?

American atheists and agnostics tend to be people who grew up in a religious tradition and consciously gave it up, often after a great deal of reflection and study, said Alan Cooperman, associate director for research at the Pew Forum.

"These are people who thought a lot about religion," he said. "They're not indifferent. They care about it."

Atheists and agnostics also tend to be relatively well educated, and the survey found, not surprisingly, that the most knowledgeable people were also the best educated. However, it said that atheists and agnostics also outperformed believers who had a similar level of education.

The groups at the top of the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey were followed, in order, by white evangelical Protestants, white Catholics, white mainline Protestants, people who were unaffiliated with any faith (but not atheist or agnostic), black Protestants and Latino Catholics.

Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists were included in the survey, but their numbers were too small to be broken out as statistically significant groups.

Stephen Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University and author of "Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know — And Doesn't," served as an advisor on the survey. "I think in general the survey confirms what I argued in the book, which is that we know almost nothing about our own religions and even less about the religions of other people," he said.

He said he found it significant that Mormons, who are not considered Christians by many fundamentalists, showed greater knowledge of the Bible than evangelical Christians.

The Rev. Adam Hamilton, a Methodist minister from Leawood, Kan., and the author of "When Christians Get it Wrong," said the survey's results may reflect a reluctance by many people to dig deeply into their own beliefs and especially into those of others.

"I think that what happens for many Christians is, they accept their particular faith, they accept it to be true and they stop examining it. Consequently, because it's already accepted to be true, they don't examine other people's faiths. … That, I think, is not healthy for a person of any faith," he said.

The Pew survey was not without its bright spots for the devout. Eight in 10 people surveyed knew that Mother Teresa was Catholic. Seven in 10 knew that, according to the Bible, Moses led the exodus from Egypt and that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

The question that elicited the most correct responses concerned whether public school teachers are allowed to lead their classes in prayer. Eighty-nine percent of the respondents correctly said no. However, 67% also said that such teachers are not permitted to read from the Bible as an example of literature, something the law clearly allows.

For comparison purposes, the survey also asked some questions about general knowledge, which yielded the scariest finding: 4% of Americans believe that Stephen King, not Herman Melville, wrote "Moby Dick."

ROLLER DERBY, PORK AND CIGARETTE SMOKE

2010-09-26T10:30:00.000-07:00

Poster Art by Dave Cook, 2010 /idrawmonsters.com

These are a few of my favorite things. Maybe not the smoke so much. But, I like Roller Derby and I like pork. I like them together or alone.

Last night we attended the final matches of the 2010 season for the Atlanta Roller Girls. First was a grudge match next was the championship bout. The event took place at the Yaaraba Temple on Ponce de Leon Ave. I haven't seen Roller Derby since the 70's when I watched it on tv with my Grandma Hartley. Back then I didn't know the rules or how to score so it took a while to follow it. But, Saturday night was great fun and a really well run event with a few artist selling paintings, tee shirts, posters and all kinds of ARG paraphernalia. There was a band playing out doors in the court yard and lot's of folks were tailgating with ice chest and barbecue grills all over the place.

Here is a link to all the excitement. http://www.atlantarollergirls.com/site_admin/

We had a mini keg of home brew, chviche, brisket sliders and popcicles for our tailgate party. We had fun and plan on doing it again next season.

We went from there just up the street to the Righteous Room. The name is correct, it is indeed a righteous room. Great beer list, good bar food and to much smoke. That's the only problem, which isn't a problem for everyone else there so what ya gonna do? Anyway we had a beer and caught up on some football scores and headed around the corner to Pura Vida Tapas Restaurant.

Hector Santiago is the chef at Pura Vida Tapas and he has been putting out great food at the corner Blue Ridge and Highland for a long time. He was also on Top Chef a couple seasons ago. He also recently opened a sandwich shop next door to Pura Vida Tapas and it's a huge hit. We ate well. Here's what we ate. Oh, the sandwich shop is Super Pan Latino Sandwich Shop. Click for link.

Beers, vodka and red wine.

Ga. Trout ceviche con leche
lemon-lime marinated trout loin
aji mixto jelly, celery juice, milk & canchita corn

Mussels in white wine and lot's of garlic. It was served in a small cast iron skillet and the dish had herring in it.

Tuna Poke, Porque No?!
charred mushrooms, soy cassarep marinated tuna loin, sizzling in chipotle garlic butter
coffee nibs, pickled garlic & ginger,
scallions, red habanero
sour orange "caviar" & tapioca flakes

Mofongo con "carne frita"
green banana mash with pork cracklings
berkshire pork carnitas and pork jus espuma

Steamed Coconut Buns
Smoked pilón pork belly, tamarind sauce, shaved cabbage,
chives, cilantro & pickled chilies.

BBQ Beef Rib
Adobo rub beef short rib,
slow cooked, served with carrot slaw & orange
chipotle BBQ sauce.

Mayan Tostones
Fried green mayan plantains, cilantro & peanuts. chipotle honey

Sierra & Longaniza Pinchos
Wahoo & house made longaniza sausage
skewers with baby banana mustard

Damn, damn, damn this was a good meal.
The whole night was good.

IKHLAS

2010-09-18T16:09:00.000-07:00

Al-Ikhlas (Arabic: سورة الإخلاص‎) Qur'an. It is a short declaration of God's absolute unity. Al-Ikhlas means "the purity" or "the refining", meaning to remain pure and faithful or a state of purging one's soul of non-Islamic beliefs.

It also means good fried chicken and apple pie to die for.

I do believe that if this dumb ass preacher man down yonder there in Florida was to eat up on some of these peoples food he may have second thought about burning their holy book.

Sometimes, like once a week, I call the gal working the counter at Ikhlas and tell her I want 15 fried whole chicken wings. They are slow so Stacey and I usually start some food at home to go with the fried chicken and then go pick up our order. Sometimes we get an apple pie.

Ikhlas is truly a hole in the wall. But they put out some really good food. The fried chicken is like grandmas. Only problem is they only do wings. I don't know why. Also every time we eat their fired chicken or pie, it is just the same as last time. Always good. The apple pie is so ugly it is beautiful, kinda like Tom Waits. The crust is haphazardly folded over the top. It has cinnamon in it. We have shared this pie with lot's of different people and they often claim it the best apple pie they have ever had.

Ikhlas is at the corner of Cleveland Ave. and Sylvan Rd. in East Point, Georgia. Wings are sold in multipules of 3, can't remember what the cost. The pie is full size and cost $8.50. They do sell out of the apple pies. The do have other pies. You don't need to call ahead for a pie, but I would for wings. PH# 404 766 2808

FLY ME TO THE MOON

2010-09-18T08:36:00.000-07:00

Friday was August the 13th. Supposed to be a unlucky day. Didn't scare us. Us as in me, Lil Lady and our friends Mikey and Keith. Keith and I had just celebrated our oldness and Lil Lady was due up soon so we usually get together around this time and do something fun. This year we decided to fly an airplane. A Boeing 767 was our plane of choice.
You can see I had my hair cut like a Pilot for the occasion.

It was a lot of fun flying around for the day and we each got a chance take off, fly and land at different airports. I chose Atlanta, Keith chose San Diego, Lil Lady Boston and Mikey landed at LaGuardia.

We were actually in a flight simulator at the Delta headquarters. Stacey won a 2 hour session for four at a silent auction. This was a rare event as these simulators are booked solid for training and testing Delta pilots. Other airlines pay Delta to test and train their pilots. It took us almost a year to get a reservation.

I have never flown an air plane, but from what we were told this was as close as you can get and still be on the ground. Delta has about a dozen simulators and the guy who "took us up" told us they cost about 20 million each. Taking off was easy the plane kind of does all the work on take off. Flying is easy. Landing is a bitch. I was the only one of us who crashed. The ladies did best. Mikey nailed her landing and the tech ask if she wanted to do another landing? She said no way.

2010-09-09T08:25:00.001-07:00

Atlantic bluefin tuna's fate in the Gulf of Mexico explored a timely book

Published: Wednesday, September 08, 2010, 10:50 AM Updated: Wednesday, September 08, 2010, 1:58 PM

Brett Anderson, The Times-Picayune
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The journalist Paul Greenberg has, with a little help from The New York Times, been remarkably successful injecting the plight of the endangered – and perhaps fatally delicious -- bluefin tuna into our national discourse.

His timing could not have been better. Back in June, when coverage of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was at a fever pitch, his book, “Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Fish,” was excerpted on the cover of The New York Times Magazine.

A few of its more salient points:

* The Atlantic bluefin tuna “is a fish that when prepared as sushi is one of the most valuable forms of seafood in the world. It’s also a fish that regularly journeys between America and Europe and whose two populations, or “stocks,” have both been catastrophically overexploited. The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, one of only two known Atlantic bluefin spawning grounds, has only intensified the crisis.”

* “The United States continues to allow bluefin fishing in its waters even though the Gulf of Mexico-spawned stock is considered by many scientists to have entered into full-scale collapse.”

* “BP’s Horizon Deepwater oil rig collapsed into the sea and spewed oil into the only bluefin spawning ground in the Americas just as the few remaining North American stock giant bluefin were preparing to mate in the Gulf of Mexico. Though the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has been deeply critical of the Mediterranean bluefin catch — in 2007, it went so far as to call for a moratorium — it has been noncommittal about the American fishery.”

In August, a laudatory review of “Four Fish” appeared on the cover of the Times Sunday Book Review. It was authored by the paper’s restaurant critic, Sam Sifton, who wrote:

“The point of the book comes down to the push and pull of our desire to eat wild fish, and the promise and fear of consuming the farmed variety. As Greenberg follows his four species, and our pursuit of them, farther and farther out into the ocean, he posits the sense of privilege we should feel in consuming wild fish, along with the necessity of aquaculture.

“Along the way, Greenberg raises real-life ethical questions of the sort to haunt a diner’s dreams, the kind of questions that will not be easily answered by looking at the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s seafood-watch card. In truth, he shows, there is rarely such a thing as a good wild fish for any of us to eat, at least not if all of us eat it.”

I have not yet read “Four Fish” – it’s next on my list -- only the excerpt and subsequent coverage of the book, which suggests that Greenberg’s work should be on the radar of those charged with rebuilding Louisiana’s fishing industry following the oil spill.

While they’re at it, they should grab a copy of Carl Safina’s “Song for the Blue Ocean,” which takes a scalpel and tweezer to the political struggle surrounding the bluefin’s fate. Safina, a celebrated ecologist and conservationist, has written extensively about the environmental ramifications of the oil spill.

Finally, a Greenberg editorial appeared in last Sunday’s Times. It was keyed to the announcement that aquaculture scientists “had succeeded in spawning the Atlantic bluefin in captivity without hormonal intervention” -- and what that could spell for the bluefin’s future.

LATEST EATS

2010-08-30T16:15:00.000-07:00

Like I wrote some time ago we have been trying to eat at less expensive restaurants than normal. Normal went from $100 plus a meal to $60 plus a meal to under $30 a meal. For two with tip.

Stacey took this photo when we were in Bangkok.

These are some of the spots we have been getting these under $30 meals at.

Righteous Room, Q's Southern Food, Taqueria La Oaxaquena, Rio Grande, Five Guys Burgers and Taco Rancho.

Most of these spots have been around awhile. Taco Rancho is new. It is almost a full menu, full on Mexican restaurant. Five Guys is a real good burger, lots of fries for $2.60. Fresh stuff and a well run franchises.

Oaxaquena and Rio Grande are hole in the wall joints on the south side of Atlanta and they both rock and they are both very cheap and they are both real Mexican food. The folks running each of these spots are not locals and when we eat there we are usually the only gringos in the place. Our bill is usually $20 with a tip. Check out the tamales at Oaxaquena.

Q's is in East Point. A few blocks from our house. They have good food. Meat and threes. Really it's meat and two. With cornbread. Everybody has got a favorite meat and three and lot's of them are pretty good. Q's is a little better than "pretty good". I love their oxtails. I love their chicken fried steak. I like their Mac and Chz a lot. Their dressing is good. Their fried chicken does not suck. Lil' Lady loves their rutabagas. She gets some every time.

Righteous Room has been in the Plaza Shopping Center at Ponce and Highland Ave in midtown Atl. for the last 15 years. Bare bones, good beer cheap. Always good bar food and cool service.
They have a choice list of beers and a hand full are $3-4 a pint/bottle. Wish it was closer to East Point.

So there!

EDWARD HOPPER

2010-08-14T08:51:00.000-07:00

http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/1779/1/?newsmaker=80&redirectURL=http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsmaker/art-and-photography/?cid=topic:topnav:artb

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

2010-08-08T18:09:00.000-07:00

I got a call the other day from a guy named Michael. He said he was calling from Emory Hospital and wished to speak with Tracy Hartley. I'm me I informed him, how could I help him? He told me this was a follow up call concerning my bone marrow transplant. Shit, I had forgotten all about that small medical procedure I had received, what was it, 14 years ago? "It's been 14 years whata ya wanta know" I ask him? "You haven't spoken to anyone from Emory since then" he ask? "No one" I told him.

It was July 30th. It was my 48th birthday and here was some guy calling 14 years later to check on me. So I went into this very long winded, detailed description of every aliment I had suffered in the last 14 years. Michael keep trying to interrupt, but I plowed forward. I told him about my back problems. I told him about the poison ivy rash I had suffered. I told him how bad the headaches were when Stacey and I went on a cleansing diet and cold turkey quit caffeine. I told him about the different times I cut myself and had to be stitched up in the emergency room. I told him how I thought I was dying after taking penicillin, which I had obviously become allergic too. I told him about how my blood pressure was giving me trouble. I told him about the time all the bees stung me. I told him about busting my toe and how it took a year for toe nail to fall off and another year to grow back. Hell I even made stuff up just to make it sound really good.

Finally I took a breath and he jumped at the chance to say something. He ask "what about the transplant, what about the cancer any problems with that"? "Oh that" I said, "no problem, no problem at all, check back in 14 years" I told him.

Bigotry Takes a Hit

2010-08-05T07:24:00.000-07:00

Info

by Michelle Goldberg
The Daily Beast.

Most people who followed the Proposition 8 trial expected Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker to overturn California’s same-sex marriage ban. Still, the scope and breadth of the decision is thrilling. In clear, cogent prose, Walker systematically eviscerated every hackneyed canard and bad-faith assertion offered by religious conservatives to justify rank bigotry against gays and lesbians.

“Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license,” Walker wrote. “Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples. Because California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians, and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis, the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional,” the judge ruled.

read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-08-04/prop-8-overturned-vaughn-walkers-ruling-on-gay-marriage/?om_rid=NE2jGV&om_mid=_BMWq3ZB8RQ-ysj&

Becherovka

2010-07-21T18:10:00.000-07:00

The other day Stacey was gifted a bottle of this elixir. BECHEROVKA.
Read some of the stuff I dug up. Sounds like things could get strange?

So what is the big fuss about? Many people will tell you that the presence of thujone from wormwood gives the drink psychoactive properties, but they may well be mistaken. Laboratory testing has shown that the amount of the substance needed to produce any effect is 8.5 mg, equivalent to an entire bottle of Hills (for example), but by the time you've drunk that much, you may well be either dead or passed out under a bar. Absinth purists will tell you that the pleasant effects are due to a "delicate balance of herbs" though they will also tell you Czech absinth "strays furthest from the original recipe" or even "isn't absinth at all."

Becherovka was created around the same time as absinth and also as a health tonic, but this time by a pharmacist from Karlový Vary named Josef Becher. The herb-based tonic was called the "English Bitter" and was sold as a remedy for stomach ailments, much like every other famous alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink. Becher soon started selling his "drops" in half-liter bottles and the "blend of fifty herbs and spices" became an immediate marketing success when the Austrian emperor took a fancy to it and the court in Vienna began ordering 50 liters of Becherovka monthly. Competing alcoholics boosted the sales and it soon became the Czech Republic's most successful and individually recognizable spirit. The taste is a little like Jagermeister but with a much more cinnamon-based flavor, more delicate and less sweet. Even though the drink is as strong as most vodka at 38% alcohol, Becherovka is a sipping drink and should not be downed, but instead taken in a double shot with your beer and savored, though the aftertaste may be a little too strong for some. On a side note, Becherovka is also reputed to have aphrodisiac qualities, though you would be hard pressed to find a traditional spirit anywhere in Europe that isn't. Whatever other qualities it may have, most agree that it is the best spirit the Czech republic has to offer, in terms of taste at least. Recently bartenders have been preparing a drink called a 'beton', which comprises a shot of Becherovka with tonic and lemon, for those who like their drinks long. The success of the first Becherovka cocktail has led the company to publicize a whole range including the popular Red Moon, which combines the spirit with blackcurrant juice. Radost FX has several becherovka based cocktails on its menu

O P TEES

2010-07-20T09:42:00.000-07:00

I have launched my own line of Tee shirts

O P TEES, as in other peoples tee shirts.

I buy 2nd hand shirts and tag them with my custom graphics. To apply my designs

I make a template from cardboard and when it wears out I will replace with new design. I will

make about 20 shirts per template.

I look for shirts with text that I think will go well with current template. I hand print

each shirt then wash before the ink completely dries. This gives me a worn look to match the

2nd hand tee shirt..

O P TEES are $20 ea. that includes s/h

Stayed tuned for photos of all available shirts coming soon.

MOTO BENE

2010-07-18T18:34:00.000-07:00

This is what I have spent the morning looking at the last two times I've had a space at the Peachtree Road Farmers Market. I set up my tent and my art and this guy sets up an outdoor kitchen. With a portable pizza oven in tow. These are truly beautiful pies and they taste as good as they look.

Moto Bene for the time being is oven-craft street pizza. It says so right there on his business card. It also reads "Have Fire Will Travel". And they will. Currently if you wish to have a taste of these awesome pies you got to catch Moto Bene at one of the local green markets they set up at weekly. The principle of the operation tells me this is the design. Work the markets for about a year, get the word out and then go bricks and mortar.

It's working. Moto Bene is moving 50-70 pies every Saturday between the hours of 8:30 til 12:30 or til sold out, whichever comes first. $3 a slice $12 a pie. Folks line up steady most of the morning because this guy, the pizza dude, the one running the show knows what he doing and more importantly he knows what going on around him. Once he has his fire going he starts hitting the vendors. All vendors at the Peachtree Road Market are local and produce their own product. So pizza dude is walking around grabbing fresh basil, chorizo, mozzarella cheese, tomato's, eggs all kinds of food stuff. Hell he used pink eyed peas on some pies last Saturday. Usually his first couple pies each morning have a nice, farm fresh egg that has been wood oven poached in it's center. Some of the produce he uses was harvested only 6-8 hours earlier. The meats and cheeses are all handmade, all natural and very fresh. All produced by people whom pizza dude knows by name. That's why it's so damn good. Cause pizza dude knows that by using simple methods and the very, very best ingredients you can not go wrong

You can find Moto Bene Saturday morning at the Peachtree Road Market, Tuesday at the East Atlanta Market every Thursday May thru November from 4:00PM to Dusk. Or at the Dunwoody Market. 1551 Dunwoody Village Parkway
Dunwoody, GA 30338
Wednesday, 8am-12:00noon

St. John day 2

2010-07-13T16:03:00.000-07:00

Got busy here in Atlanta lately. Drunk and infested with poison ivy. Haven't felt like sitting up much, less trying to write, but I did want to tell you more about our trip to St. John Island a few weeks ago.

One of our traveling companions, Stacey and myself got to the island Friday.

We get up Saturday morning and don't do much. I know we mixed bloodies and spent time on the balcony. We are all three multi tasking. Reading, eating, drinking and conversing.

Around 3 p.m. we become a party of 5. Companions wife and 2 kids arrive the same way Stacey did the night before. Since the weather is dank and wet we decide to stay close to the condo. I stay real close as in on the balcony. The balcony is one floor off the street which is directly below. The beach is directly on the other side of the street. We are in the perfect spot. I sit and read and watch people walk by. The others head up to the pool and hot tub with a very expensive bottle of champagne. Everybody is happy!!

For dinner it's the Lime Inn. Our "host/traveling companions", if you will and you should, have been to St John about 20 times. They know all the spots. Beaches, bars, restaurants they know them all. This is one of their favorite spots. The Lime Inn is owned and operated by a young lady we had read about and happened to meet earlier in the day. St. John really is a small Island. I ate a whole fish roasted. It was wonderful. Bone in, head on and caught a few hours ago. It had a jerk glaze.

We walk back to our condo, you can walk everywhere. We grab drinks and take a walk up and down the beach. It's really nice. Nightspots on one side and the Caribbean Sea on the other.
We plan to rent a car for a day and drive to some favorite beaches, bars and restaurant.
For now we all going to bed.

the aura of the far Northland

2010-07-07T06:12:00.000-07:00

Again, why I love this guy. You can't own him.
Auburn University thought they owned him for a couple years. WRONG.
The latest on the good Dr. John.

"I can get this project done in 2 years but I have a contract to work at
Northern Tier for 10 weeks this summer." jd

"Can't let you do that." auburn guy

"And I can't let you own me for 12 months on a $15,000 salary." jd

"Sorry" auburn guy

"So am I. I'm flying to Minnesota on May 27." jd

That's basically how it went with my major professor at Auburn. And he
basically said, "Don't come back."

The pull of the lake country where I teach a history program in a
fashion that allows me to practice the arts of music and theater is
overwhelming. And they pay me to do it.

When I got here, I saw Jay Timmerman.
"Hey Jay! What number is this for you?"
"Its my 13th or 14th season. Can't remember."

I'm sitting at the table with the chef one day and I say, "Hey
Christian, have you ever been here before?"
"Yeah, I was a youth participant in 1988."

"Really? That was the first year that I was a guide here."
Christian goes home and checks his map and low and behold there is a
signature on it that says, "6 August, 1988. John Duke."
I was his guide! But I don't remember him - he was 14 and I was 21 at
the time. There are roughly 350 crews that go through here in a summer
and there are about 60 guides. I could explain the math if you wanted
but the chances of one guide getting a particular crew is about 6 out of
350 or about 2%.

To get here this summer, I left my car in ATL and bought a 500 dollar
Geo Metro in Minneapolis. I met this guy in the hood by taking the bus
from the airport. It doesn't look pretty but he was a damn good
mechanic and the car runs like its made for the race track. Its peppy
and gets about 40 miles a gallon. We became good friends and I drank
beer with him for about 2 hours while he put a side view mirror on the
driver's side.

This is my last summer. I swear as God is my witness! At least for a
while. Can't wait to get back to my own hood.

Over and out.
jd

--
John E. Duke
quetico@mailcan.com

PLANES, TRAINS, AUTOMOBILES AND FERRIES

2010-07-01T13:26:00.000-07:00

Last week I caught the MARTA train to the airport, where I caught up with a friend and we caught a plane to St. Thomas, USVI.

In St. Thomas we grabbed a bottle of vodka, a bottle of tequila and a taxi. The taxi took us on a 30 minute ride through St. Thomas to the Red Hook Pier. At the Red Hook Pier we had a margarita then caught the ferry to St. John Island. In St. John we got a ride to our condo from the nice lady who handled the property. She actually took us by the grocery store which was huge.
We settled into our condo with this awesome view.

We are staying on Cruz Bay. Cruz Bay is a small inlet compared to the bay I grew up on. But it's much cooler than the bay I grew up on. The ferry comes and goes from Cruz Bay. It's just a 5 minute walk from our end of the beach to the other end where the ferry docks. The water is clear and blue. There are bars and shops everywhere. There is a street market and tons of restaurants. Here is a view from the other side of Cruz Bay. Looking towards our condo.

Later that night Stacey followed our tracks and we met her ferry about midnight. It was fun to sit on our balcony waiting to for the first sight of Stacey's ferry coming across the Caribbean Sea. When we did see it we grabbed a drink for Stacey and walked up the beach to meet her. As we walked up the beach Stacey walked down the pier towards us and the beach. Perfect timing! I handed Stacey her drink and she handed me her suitcase. I slung her suitcase over my head and we headed back up the beach. What a way to receive and be received on St. John Island.

LONG JOHN SILVER MUST BE STOPPED

2010-07-01T09:09:00.000-07:00

HOME PRESS PHOTOS DOWNLOADS ABOUT LINKS

God Hates Shrimp

Shrimp, crab, lobster, clams, mussels, all these are an abomination before the Lord, just as gays are an abomination. Why stop at protesting gay marriage? Bring all of God's law unto the heathens and the sodomites. We call upon all Christians to join the crusade against Long John Silver's and Red Lobster. Yea, even Popeye's shall be cleansed. The name of Bubba shall be anathema. We must stop the unbelievers from destroying the sanctity of our restaurants.

Leviticus 11:9-12 says:
⁹ These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat.
¹⁰ And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you:
¹¹ They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination.
¹² Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you.

Deuteronomy 14:9-10 says:
⁹ These ye shall eat of all that are in the waters: all that have fins and scales shall ye eat:
¹⁰ And whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat; it is unclean unto you.

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ME AND MY TWIN, THE SKILLET LICKER

2010-06-28T07:48:00.000-07:00

ST. JOHN USVI

2010-06-27T15:42:00.000-07:00

Stacey and I spent the last week at St. John Island. We went with friends who have been 21 times. It was a busy week. It was a fun week. We ate and drank like kings and Queens. We spent a day island hoping on a 56" catamaran. We rented a jeep one day and drove from beach to beach, bar to bar, from one side of the island to the other. Here are a few photos. More photos and details in the coming days.

Some Recent paintings

2010-06-14T17:08:00.001-07:00

MOBILE, ALABAMA. END OF MAY.

2010-06-11T18:41:00.000-07:00

George, the mixed up basset hound, and I drove to Mobile the Friday of Memorial Day weekend.
Stacey worked half a day, got on a Delta Jet and beat us there. Damn, damn, damn.

Anyway we were gonna spend the weekend in beautiful downtown Mobile, eating and drinking. And I must say we did a very good job doing both.

Everyone was there. Sisters Kim and Pam and Kim's boy Scottie. Our brother Jeff was around all weekend as was our cousin Cheril and her two boy Nathan and Cole.

We spent most of our time at Roper St. Like I said eating and Drinking.

To start with Stacey mixed up a couple batches of a Strawberry, black pepper, tequila drinks. Yes, you read that correctly. Strawberries, black pepper corns cooked down in simple syrup, strained into a strawberry tequila mixture.

This was Saturday night. If you weren't drinking the strawberry/tequila drinks then you were having Vodka Martinis. Either way it was not pretty.

We cooked about 75 oysters on the half shell that night. Half of them we covered with spinach, bread crumbs, cheese and baked them for bout 15 minutes. You know Roc-a-fella style. We baked the other half as well, but we covered these with bacon, That's right bacon, shallots and a white wine sauce. Both ways tasted great.

We also has some jalapeno peppers, stuffed with cheese and onions. They were served in a puddle of Grilled Red Pepper–Tomato sauce. Nice.

MFH had read about these dishes in parade magazine. A Bobby Flay article about grilling everything. Which is a concept I'm totally into.

Desert. Peaches. Sliced into bite size pieces, wrapped in foil, along with, butter, Cinnamon and brown sugar. Grill for about 5 minutes, longer if your coals are old. Then serve with vanilla ice cream and Carmel sauce. DAMN DAMN DAMN!!

That was Saturday night. Mom and Dad wanted to do ribs and stuff on the grill Sunday so we did.

Standby.

104 PERRY ST. DAY 5

2010-06-09T15:47:00.000-07:00

We are leaving. Going home. And the nice young lady, AD2, who has been so nice to let us stay here, is leaving as well. We are going back to Atlanta and AD2 is going to Hawaii. Boo Hoo.

We get up Friday morning and go looking for fried chicken. Those sons a bitches at the Dirty Bird still have not opened. Stacey's pissed. What ya gonna do? We walk a few blocks to the Meat Packing District and check out the Apple Store. Cool place. It is differently the future of retail. You would think you are in a library not a place to buy notebooks, Ipods, laptops ect.. Everything is clear. All glass or Lucite as in the spiral staircase with clear steps going from the ground to the 4th floor. Very nice place.

We walk back and still no Dirty Bird. So we walk across the street to an old school doughnut shop and grab a bite to eat. We walk around for a while, then we decide to head home. Atlanta.

It' Saturday, we get back from NYC around 4 p.m. and head straight out to Ikhlas for fried chicken. The best fried chicken in East Point!!!

104 PERRY ST. DAY 4

2010-06-03T17:08:00.000-07:00

We don't get up very early Friday. It's quieter then usual next door. We are headed to MOMA today. Admission is free every Friday 4 til 8 p.m. I should know better.
First it's sushi. We have read about a place not far from Perry St. Koo Sushi is the name. Koo is on West Houston. I'm not sure exactly what time we got there, it was around lunch time. Koo was not busy. We sat and had water. We ordered a salad and a couple rolls that were recommended in the article we had read about Koo. We also ordered two pieces of Unagi, freshwater eel. I love Unagi, especially warm. This was warm and was pretty good. Not great. Same with entire meal. Good not great.

We walk and end up at Union Square. The market is wide open. There are hundreds of vendors. Selling everything from art to fresh rabbit meat. There is produce, milk, cheese, bread, plants, honey, juice, cloths, fish, meat, and grits. And more. The guy selling the grits had them labeled as Hudson Valley Stone Ground Polenta. They were grit. I bought a bag and have made a batch and they were good. I made them with a strong chicken stock, I need to try them with butter, cheese and two fried eggs.

We talked to the guy who runs the farm this polenta comes from. His name is Don Larsen and his farm is Wild Hive. I ask Don if indeed his polenta was grits. He confirmed it was. We talked grits a bit and he ask where we were from. I mentioned Atlanta and he mentioned Anson Mill. Anson Mill is in South Carolina and a big deal with all the hot shot chefs through out the southeast. I told him about Jenny Jack Grits, the best in the world as far as I'm concerned. He wrote down the name and said he'd look up Jenny Jack Farm.

We walked. And we walked, on and on. We stopped some where for a beer.

We got to MOMA about 3. Free started at 4 and the line was around the block. We almost left right then. Instead we went in and sat on the huge plush couch. I ask a volunteer dude if the line moved fast. He said it did. He said this was a rather light day. So we waited. About 15 minutes after the line opened we walked around the corner, got in the line and we were in the museum in another 15 minutes. We had to check our backpack, that looked like it could take days and cost lives. It wasn't bad at all. This is a well oiled machine this MOMA.

Things got tougher from there. The main exhibit is performance art. I just don't usually dig performance art. And this did not disappoint. I just don't get it. The "star artist" of the show is a lady who has been at it since the sixties. This exhibit consisted of her preforming her latest "piece". Her assistants were in other galleries repreforming older "pieces".

The Star Artist is Marina Abramović. Marina Abramović is sitting in a huge gallery, across form someone from the public. You come in, sign up and sit on the floor and wait. Watch and wait. And what you watch is Marina Aramović stare at whoever is next on the list..

After signing up to stare at MA and after your wait, you get your turn. You can sit and stare as long as you wish. The longest someone has sat and stared at MA was the whole day. Some lady was the first one that day and the only one that day. The Museum is open from 10 a.m. til 8 p.m. six days a week. MA does this everyday for over a month. Click here and you can read an interview with Marina Abramović. I found the interview more interesting than the performance.

The remainder of the exhibit is upstairs in other galleries. Lot's of naked people. I just don't get it. I always think "shock factor" when I see exhibits like this. To bad, maybe back in the sixties it was shocking, I find it boring.

A lot of the art on display we looked at last time we were here. Just a couple months ago. Not that it's not great stuff. There is a little bit of art from many different artist. But, the crowds are so large it is impossible to enjoy. We collect our backpack hit the nearest subway station. We don't use the subway system much in NYC, but today we use it to get us back to the west village. We head straight to Murray's Cheese Shop. We get bread, blue cheese, and some fancy crackers. Then we get six pack and a bag of chips. Then we head to 104 Perry St. We have a beer and snacks and watch the news. And take our shoes off.

Friday night we don't do much. We walk around the neighborhood. We are looking for fried chicken at the Dirty Bird. The Dirty Bird is just a few blocks from Perry St. We walk that way and find it closed for the night. It's about 8 p.m. on their website they say open til 11. WTF.

So we grab a slice and then head for POPBAR. They sell Popsicle's. Gelato on a stick. The have a few different flavors and you pick nuts to roll it in and chocolate to dip it in. Check their website for details. These things were good. I hear Popsicle's are the next big food thing. POPBAR was one of the best things about this trip.

Across the very busy 7th Ave. from the POPBAR was a large food truck. Food trucks are the thing right now. Hell people are doing books about food trucks these days. There are websites dedicated. Food trucks have always been a part of most of the older, larger cities. New York, Chicago, Philly, ect all have a huge food truck scene. Taco trucks are big in California and out west. Pork is popular everywhere. I bet there is a gourmet Popsicle truck soon. Anyway this is a taco truck, we got to check it out. So we cross over, it's about 10 p.m. and he's just getting set up. This is a nice truck. It is huge and stainless steel. There is a big menu. I order flatus. One of my favorite. I don't remember which meat. The flatus were OK. I was hoping for a little better from such a nice truck. Oh well.

We take a long walk back to Perry St. Using side streets the entire way. If you walk around Manhattan much you soon get tired of all the people you have to dodge. The side streets are nice and you can usually find some cool little bar or shop or something.

35$ sushi

4.50$ subway

4.50$ polenta

13.50$ bread, chz, Murray's

7$ chips & beer

9$ beer at bar

10$ 2 popbar pops

12$ fruit, cream, water

4$ slice

5$ truck food

104.50$ total day 4

DEVIL ON HORSEBACK

2010-06-03T16:19:00.000-07:00

I had never heard of Devil On Horseback before.

Devil On Horseback is a dish offered at Freemans. Freemans is the restaurant at the end of Freeman Alley at Rivington, between The Bowey and Chrystie. NYC.

We didn't have it , but the waitron told us what is was.

A date stuffed blue cheese wrapped in bacon.

I'm gonna cook my bacon half way, let it cool then wrap the date and put it on the grill. By the time the bacon finishes the date and cheese should be just right.

104 Perry St, Day 3

2010-06-01T08:36:00.001-07:00

Thursday we wake to the sounds of walls crashing down. The apartment next to ours, we share a wall, is being gutted and prepped for renovation. It is 7:15 and it is loud. Same thing happened Wednesday morning. This morning they are beating on the wall between us and the art is about to fall off the wall. I have to remove the art from the wall. We sleep on and off til about 9:30. We have coffee and hit the streets. We are gonna go to the High Line and find a big chase lounge and sit in the sun for awhile. The photo above is of an art installation at the High Line. The High Line is a raised park 0n the lower west side of Manhattan. Currently it is about a mile long and runs along old, unused train tracks built above roadways. It starts in the Meat Packing District and runs north to 20th street. It runs between 9th and 10th ave. When completed it will run up to 34th street. It runs above buildings, under buildings and between buildings. Some parts have great views of the East River, some parts have views of the traffic on 1oth street. There are gardens, cafe style chairs, tables and huge chase lounges resting on the old railroad tracks.

104 Perry is about 4-5 blocks from the Meat Packing District entrance to the High Line. On the way we stop at a deli and get water, toasted bagels, cream cheese and magazines. We are early enough to get a couple of lounge chairs, we spread out and eat our food. We listen to the portable radio and read. We read about places to go in NYC among other things. We sit back and enjoy the sun, getting a little burn. Hell, we probably nap a little I can't remember. I do know we spend about 2-3 hours on the lounge chairs, on the High Line just chillin like Tracy Morgan.

We leave wanting to find a cold beer. I had just read about Bill's Bar & Burgers, neighborhood type place with a hamburger / hot dog menu. Bills Bar & Burgers also have good beers on tap. Bill's Bar & Burgers is about three blocks from where we exit the High Line. When we arrive it's about 2 p.m. so it's not real busy. We have a couple of beers and I have a hot dog. Chili cheese. The dog was split and grilled and perfect. Simple, not so much shit on top that it's a mess. Just right. We left very happy.

We didn't go far when we come across The Spotted Pig. It's a famous gastropub. One of the first in NYC. It's very popular. It's a funky building with tons of plants out front. Lot's of herbs, I'm sure used in the kitchen and bar. The young lady who is the chef/owner once cooked at the legendary Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif. She opened the Spotted Pig in 2005 and was an instant hit. She has also earned a Michelin Star at the Pig. We only had a drink, as this was the kinda of place we did not want to pay for. We had two drinks for $22 before tip. $25 for two drinks. That's stupid and I'm tired of. I wish we had not stopped there. I should have know better.

Back to the apartment for a while to rest our feet. Drink some beer and tequila. We then decide to go out and get a falafa sandwich. We go back to Taim, the falafa there were so good the first time we had to have more. So we did.

Later that night we head out to get a couple Bao sandwich's at BaoHaus and then to Nurse Bettie for the show. Like I said before click on BaoHaus and read this guys neat story. Eat there if you ever find yourself in the hood. 137 Rivington Street (near Norfolk), NY, NY 10002 the lower east side.

Around the corner on Norfolk St is Nurse Bettie. Nurse Bettie is a cool little bar where you can eat you BaoHaus if you want to. We did and we also wanted to see the burlesque show we had read about. So we sat at the bar and the young lady tending bar remembered us from last time cause we brought her a BaoHaus. Later we grabbed some seats that looked like they would have a good view. The place was starting to get crowed. The ladies in the show were in a corner getting ready. One danced in the window to get thinks going. It was a pretty good show, the best act was a young lady singing a sassy song accompanied by a saxophone player. There was about 5 or six little shows. It was cool and the crowd was into it. Seemed lot's were regulars for this show.

Then day 3 was done. The bar tender chick treated us to our last round and sent us on our way. We walked back to Perry St. in no time and crashed.

10.90$ Bagels, fruit & water

23$ Bills bar & burger

25$ Spotted Pig 2 stupid cocktails

12.50$ 2 falafa and 1 drink at Taim this was such a awesome deal compared to Stupid Pig

18.51$ 4 bao sandwich at BaoHaus

66$ Nurse Bettie drinks and a girly show

155.91$ total

104 PERRY ST, DAY 2

2010-05-27T00:38:00.000-07:00

So we get up Wednesday have coffee and hit the streets about 10:30 a.m. We are going round the corner to pick up a package we sent Fed Ex to ourselves. Sheets and towels and a few other things.
After that our plan is to go to the New Museum. It's a new museum of contemporary art on the Bowery. We are gonna walk, it's not to far and we enjoy NYC best on foot. You can take your time and stop if you want. You miss a lot in a cab. If we had not walked we never would have been able to stop at Murray Cheese Shop. Where we grabbed a small flat bread with cheese and meat. Murray's is a great shop and we didn't need to know what kind of cheese or meat was used, we new it would be good. The monger threw it on the grill for a moment and that made it even better.

We get to the New Museum, it's not hard to find. The Bowery is not surrounded by giant skyscrapers so it's easy to pick out the shiny new 7 story museum. We go to pay our $12 each fee and the guy tells us they have just been awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize for their shiny new building and to celebrate admission was free for the day. I thanked the man and ask how he new we were broke and on a tight budget. He said everybody was and also gave us two passes to join a tour of the building with one of the award winning architects. The tour was to start in a few minutes. Hell yeah, our lucky day.

The tour was the best part of our visit to the New Museum. The art on display was ok. Maybe we looked a few pieces that were interesting, but the tour with one of the guys who helped design this building was the best. This building that just won the Pritzker Architecture Prize. I think this is a huge deal. This is what I found on wikipedia.

The Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded annually by the Hyatt Foundation to honor "a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture"

Above is a photo Stacey took. It shows the screen used on top of the sheet metal that was used to clad the exterior of this building. Like I said it was a seven story building and each floor is a cube set on top of, but not directly on top of, the cube below. From what we learned it was quite a feat of engineering. Lot's of weight that needed to be distributed all over the place.

Like I said, our lucky day. After the tour Stacey and I decide to go around the corner and eat, come back and take a second look around the New Museum. We knew Rivington St. was just a block up the Bowery and BaoHaus came to mind. BaoHaus is a small sandwich shop that sells nothing but Bao. A Bao is a small sandwich. You can choose from pork or beef. In this case the best pork or beef available. You should really click to their sight and read up on the product and Eddie, the guy behind it. Neat story.

Any way we are making our way to BaoHaus and come across Freeman Alley. I know don't shit about Freeman Alley except a thing I read in Gun And Garden Magazine about southern spots in NYC. Freeman's at the end of Freeman Alley at Rivington. Here is what I read in the magazine.

Freemans At the end of a nondescript alley on the Lower East Side, a mix of glam and hipster diners feast on Southern-skewed specialties like shrimp and grits and creamy corn pudding. The decor is part Victorian, part Southern sportsman, part colonial tavern, with taxidermy and antique regimental paintings given equal billing. Plus, it’s one of the only places in town that serve juleps in real silver cups. Try the seasonal blackberry variety. End of Freeman Alley; freemansrestaurant.com

This happened a few time this trip. We have a place on our list to find and all the sudden we are standing right in front of the place. That's how we came across Freemans.

So we had a beer and a little food at Freeman's instead of going on to BaoHaus. We had plans to eat at BaoHaus and see a burlesque show at Nurse Betties the next night any way.

We had a soup, Leek with a lemon zest. We had 3 cheese macaroni. With toasted bread crumbs on top. Good food, and a really cool room. I also enjoyed 2 Victory, Hop Devil beers. Good beer, gonna try and find it in Atlanta.

We return to the New Museum, we go up to the 7th floor and take pictures. We then walk down checking the art as we go. The tile in the men's bathroom was awesome. Take a look.

We head back to 104 Perry and rest for a while. We have a beer and drink some of the tequila left over from our last trip. Than it's back out. We are gonna go do a falafel comparison.

Mamouns is known as the falafel King of the West Village. We have enjoyed a falafel sandwich from Mamouns many, many times. They are deliouis and only cost $2.50. It's a walk up, small spot with a few seats. Most get it to go. You don't wait but a minute or two and they are open 11 a.m. til 5 a.m. every day.

The other falafel shop in our comparision was Taim. The lady who own's this spot worked for Bobby Flay, so I figure she's gonna do good stuff. Also, I have read good things about Taim.

Both Mamouns and Taim are in our hood. So we take a walk, get a falafel at Taim and eat it as we walk to MacDougal St for Manouns. After eating Mamouns falafel we decide Taim is best. It is also more expensive at $4.50 to Mamouns $2.50. But, Mamouns is good and open late/early.

There is a lot more to Taim other then falafel. They have no web site right now. You can read a bit about them here. I had a ginger lemonade that rocked. I'm gonna make some at home.

After falafels we walked around for about an hour and then crashed.

18$ Fed Ex Package

4$ flatbread Murray cheese

37$ Freemans

8$ six pac beer and 2 limes

4.50$ Taim falafel

2.50$ Manouns

74$ total spent on Wednesday.

GOODNIGHT MOON

2010-05-26T18:09:00.000-07:00

This is a photo of a painting I was commissioned to do. Click on photo and it gets big.

I had never heard of the children's story, Goodnight Moon. After looking at the book online and speaking with my client this is what I came up with.

He liked it.

104 PERRY ST

2010-05-22T19:38:00.000-07:00

Stacey and I have been all over the place this year.

After Mardi Gras we went to Hot Springs, Arkansas. Next we went to New Orleans. We also went to NYC. Then back to Mobile for Easter. Then back to New York last week.

On our last visit to Manhattan our host, AD2, informed us she was done. Kaput. Enough. She was moving to L. A. So as we departed 104 Perry St. a few weeks ago, AD2 tossed us the keys and told us we better do it while we can. She was gonna be in Hawaii for the month of May and if we wanted to use her West Village apt. now was the time.

So last Tuesday we head back to NYC. Can't afford it, but we got to use the apt. on Perry st one last time, before AD2 moves west.
Stacey and I have decided to see how much money we spend on this trip. We fly for free and sometimes we have a place to stay for free, but we still seem to spend a lot. Most folks, upon learning Stacey works for a major airline, say "hey, cool you fly for free you must travel all the time". I wish. It's expensive to travel, just check this out.

$9. That's a round trip for two on MARTA to and from airport.
$3. We get to the depart gate and need food. Two chocolate chip cookies.
$2. Cookies make ya thirsty. 7.7 o.z. H2O
Haven't got out of Atlanta yet and were at $14

Around midnight we get to LGA international airport. We get a cab. We tell cabbie 104 perry st. and step on it. Cabbie gets going and ask "Williamsberg"? "What" I ask. "Williamsberg Bridge?" he ask. "Sure, sure" I say "Williamsberg".

This guy drives like a mad man. FAST. We get to Perry St. and the meter reads $28. Cool, that's cheapest ride from LGA to Manhattan, ever.

So we arrived back at 104 Perry St. around midnight last Tuesday. We drop off our bags, put on shorts and head right back out for a walk around the neighborhood and to pick up a few provisions. Our Apt is a half block off Bleeker St. One of the most popular streets in NYC. So we head the other way, towards Hudson. We find a place to buy water and half and half for coffee. We head back to 104 Perry St. and crash.

$35. Cab ride with tip.
$ 5 half and half and a bottle of water

Total spent day one - arriving in NYC $ 54
Wait a minute, the dog sitter! $80 for 8 visits. So we are actually at $134.
DAMN DAMN DAMN

OH WELL!

2010-05-21T06:56:00.000-07:00

I was just turned down for a $3000 job. I've been hungover for two days now, how much did I drink and what was it? I got a busted finger and have no idea how that happened. I'm broke and not motivated. Fuck it. I'm going to NYC for a few days to get things straightened out. Whatever that means.

jubliee

2010-05-19T15:29:00.001-07:00

Today the very sad news of the oil getting in to the grass of the wetlands of lower Louisiana was broadcast. BP has really done something bad. Like a chef ask me the other day "what are they doing to our gulf coast?". The only thing to fix this will be time, many, many years.

I have been lucky enough to be present for a few jubilee's. It truly is a phenomenon that only happens in Mobile Bay and somewhere in Africa. I have tried to find out about it occurring else where and have had no luck. Check out this piece Stacey found. I guess this is the end of the jubilee's also.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/17/alabama.jubilee.oil/index.html?hpt=C

BLESSING OF THE FLEET

2010-05-14T07:18:00.000-07:00

I grew up about 40 miles from Bayou La Batre. My wife spent most summers as a kid there. Her Moms family were all connected to the seafood indursty there. I remember going with my Grandfather to the Blessing of the Fleet many times. This little video will be part of a larger movie about southern food to come out in 2011. I'm sure the oil spill has put a new spin on this project.

http://vimeo.com/11698068

SOFT SHELLS FROM HELL

2010-05-12T10:28:00.000-07:00

Friday I found the latest edition of New Orleans Magazine in my mail box. The cover was graced with a beautiful soft shell crab. I drooled. Then I immediately picked up the phone and called Stacey's cousin - Matt - executive chef at Valenza. This was Friday about Noon.

By Four, Matt had called back and said he had 36 soft shells coming Saturday afternoon. Sunday about 11 a.m. we met Matt at Valenza. We followed Matt back to the kitchen, where he had 2 of the soft shells laid out. He had already cleaned the other 22. He had those 2 out to show us how to clean them and how to determine the sex. He showed us how to cut the face off, cut the ass out and cut the gills (lady fingers). He packed those 2 away with the others and asked us who was going to help us eat these. I told him I had no plans, but thought I would freeze some. Matt made a funny face and I knew something was up. He said you should not freeze them once you clean them. By the look on his face I could tell he was serious.

So we are heading South on I-85 and I am going through my mental Rolodex. Who would want to eat some soft shells ? Who would want to spend the afternoon cooking them four different ways ? Who has a wife that would also want too? Who lives near by and brews his own beer? Good Beer? So I called Jamey. He said he was in. Bringing the home brew. But right now he was under the house doing plumbing and he would be a couple of hours. His wife Sydnee would join us later.

So, Stacey and I got home and immediately pan fried two soft shells. Stacey boiled about a pound of shrimp we had in the fridge. We sat on the front porch and enjoyed them both with a ginger remoulade sauce.This is a very good sauce for all kinds of seafood.

So, Stacey and I are playing boccie ball in the yard when Jamey showed up - with home brew. So we immediately got some charcoal going and barbecued 5 soft shells. That's right, we cooked 5 soft shells on the BBQ. We slathered them in olive oil, salt and pepper and grilled them on each side for about 4 minutes. Matt told us how to do this.

We devoured those with some of the Ginger Remoulade sauce. After a couple of games of boccie ball, it was time to cook some oysters that we had in the refrigerator. Are you starting to see a theme here? Seafood. Lots of it. Gulf Coast. Get it while you can.

So as I was saying we cooked oysters. We cooked Oysters Rockefeller on the BBQ. We got the dish all ready and laid the oysters on a couple sheets of tin foil and laid that smack dab on the coals. I closed the lid and played a game of boccie. About 15 minutes later the three of us split a dozen oysters. Everything is better cooked on a live fire.

Next up fried soft shells. Jamey's wife Sydnee showed up with a couple beautiful pieces of salmon. We soaked 2 pieces of cedar wood in water while the BBQ was fired up again. We have a portable stove on the front porch and that's where we do our fried foods. Actually we cook a lot on that little burner. Anyway, we heated oil in a deep cast iron pot and cooked 6 soft shells. 3 at a time. I must say we did a good. Jamey put each piece of fish on a piece of cedar and put that on the grill. Thy cooked perfectly using this method. You could really taste the cedar. We enjoyed the crabs and fish with a corn a pea salad. Lot's of home brew and probably something I'm forgetting. Because, as has happened before, soon after eating all this food i slipped into a food coma. I was in this coma until late the next afternoon. I woke up wearing a sear sucker suit and white bucks. So I grabbed Stacey and went for cocktails.

HISTORY OF THE PO' BOY

2010-05-11T13:32:00.000-07:00

The po'-boy sandwich, seen here nice and sloppy and, in the parlance, "fully dressed," had its origins with a streetcar strike in New Orleans, according to a society dedicated to the po'-boy's preservation.

In honor of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, we figured we'd pass along news of an interesting article in Salon.com about the history of the po'-boy sandwich.

This 1929 letter in the archives of the Po'Boy Preservation Festival states:

"Dear Friends: We are with you heart and Soul, at any time you are around the French Market, don't forget to drop in at Martin's Coffee Stand and Restaurant, Cor(ner) Ursuline & North Peters Sts. Our meal is free to any members of Division I94. We have thirty nine employees, all riding Jitneys to help win the strike. We are with you until h--l freezes, and when it does, we will furnish blankets to keep you warm. With best wishes to your cause, we are, Your friends and former members of Division I94, Clovis J. & Bennie Martin."

Turns out, the sandwich iconic in New Orleans but eaten around the South (and known around the country by different names, including sub, hero, hoagie, etc.) has some leftist roots.

While there are differences of opinion about just about any piece of history, people seem to agree that the po' boy was invented by the Martin brothers, Clovis and Bennie, who owned a restaurant and coffee stand in the French Quarter in the 1920s, the Salon.com report states.

The article further states:

When the city's streetcar conductors organized a strike in 1929, the Martins, former conductors themselves, offered to feed any hungry strikers who came their way for free. To do so, they contracted with a baker, John Gendusa, to make exceptionally large, rectangular-shaped loaves of bread that they could fill quickly and cut into sandwiches big enough to feed the strikers and their families.

The strike turned violent and lasted for months, and as more and more streetcar workers came to the Martins' shop, they would call out to each other, "Here comes another poor boy." In hilarious New Orleans fashion, the phrase stuck to the sandwiches.

The po'-boy is iconic enough in New Orleans that for three years now the city has held an annual Po-Boy Preservation Festival. Created to help drive business to merchants on Oak Street, has been an undeniable hit, attracting thousands of foodies who cram the narrow corridor for a fried oyster loaf or debris on French, The Times-Picayune of New Orleans reports.

Ma and Pa

2010-05-06T11:27:00.001-07:00

A DAY IN THE LIFE

2010-05-04T18:03:00.000-07:00

VOGEL

Get em while ya can

2010-05-02T12:02:00.000-07:00

I'm worried. It's a fear in my gut I have never felt before. It's a fear that I won't be able to fill my gut with Gulf Coast seafood in the near future.
I have just returned from my local seafood shack. Usually I am getting fried shrimp po boys. I have mentioned these $4.29 works of edible art on this blog more then once. Today I spent about $200 on fresh oysters and shrimp. The folks that run my local seafood shack are from Bayou La Batre , Alabama. They get their seafood as fresh as can be in landlocked Atlanta. The oysters are from East Point, Fl. The shrimp are Alabama wild shrimp.

Watching the talking heads you get no idea the extent of damage to expect from the oil rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico the other day. I expect the worst. I expect the gulf coast fresh seafood industry to disappear for 2 to three years.

The seafood I've been getting at my local seafood shack lately has been beautiful. The oysters, the shrimp and the blue crabs, all beautiful.

So I've been working on my Oysters Rockefeller recipe. I don't eat the raw oysters in Atlanta. If I buy them in the shell or at a oyster bar down on the coast I will eat dozens raw. Here in Atlanta I usually fry them. It's easy and most times I have put the fried oysters on a salad with a heavy duty dressing that goes well with both the oysters and the salad. Lately that's been Sriracha, a.k.a Rooster sauce and mayo. Just about equal amounts of each. Maybe a tad more mayo than Sriracha. It's good stuff.

Soooooo, I spotted the oysters when picking up a po boy. They were really fresh so I bought a pint and right away decided to do Rockefeller. Everybody like Oysters Rockefeller. I got a recipe off the Food network website. It's a good recipe because you don't have to be exact. I use vodka in the place of Pernod. I use a lot more cheese than called for. And different cheeses, not just the cheese this recipe calls for. Above is a photo Stacey took of some oysters we cooked. Her's a recipe on how ya do it. Really it's easy. Ya don't have to be exact and you can leave out or change the ingredients.
CHOW BABY!!

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/3 cup bread crumbs, Panko preferred
2 shallots, chopped
2 cups chopped fresh spinach
1/4 cup Pernod
Salt and pepper, to taste
Dash red pepper sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1 tablespoon chopped chervil or parsley
2 dozen oysters, on the half shell
Rock salt
Lemon wedges, for garnish

Directions

Melt butter in a skillet. Saute the garlic for 2 minutes to infuse the butter. Place the bread crumbs in a mixing bowl and add half the garlic butter, set aside. To the remaining garlic butter in the skillet, add shallots and spinach, cook for 3 minutes until the spinach wilts. Deglaze the pan with Pernod. Season with salt and pepper, add a dash of red pepper sauce. Allow the mixture to cook down for a few minutes. Finish off the bread crumbs by mixing in olive oil, Parmesan and chervil, season with salt and pepper. Spoon 1 heaping teaspoon of the spinach mixture on each oyster followed by a spoonful of the bread crumb mixture. Sprinkle a baking pan amply with rock salt. Arrange the oysters in the salt to steady them. Bake in a preheated 450 degree F oven for 10 to 15 minutes until golden. Serve with lemon wedges

FRENCH QUARTER FESTIVAL SUNDAY APRIL 11TH

2010-04-28T16:41:00.000-07:00

We force ourselves out of the king sized bed in the cool, dark hotel room made for sleeping. Stacey shuts off the noise machine and I make bad coffee, one cup at a time, in the bathroom.

We head straight to Canal Street, look right, look left, look right again and then turn left towards Duffys. We don't know this restaurant, but the sign tells us we can have breakfast and that's what we need. We have eggs and potatoes, coffee, juice and toast. We consume this meal quickly ready to get to Preservation Hall which is only about five blocks away.

We decided the day before to start our day at Preservation Hall. It was one of the "stages" for the FQF and like all the other shows it was free. When we arrived we took a quick look around and then looked for a seat. Ended up standing in the back which gave us a good view of the room. That's what it was, a room. A room, in a house, in the French Quarter. It was a house that could only look the way it did because of time. There is no way you could replicate this place. It was old and dusty. It was faded and worn. It was dark and cool. And it seemed kind of religious. It was my kind of religion.

We Stood back and watched while five guys made beautiful music. These guys were old and young. They were fat, they were skinny, they were black and they were white. These men were into their job. They smiled, they sang, they blew their horns and tapped their drums and told us stories. They talked about the musicians that worked this room before them and pointed some of them out in the large, old oil paintings handing on the walls. It was a treat to be in Preservation Hall for the first time.

The night before we had talked with Harry about seeing a gospel show this morning. Right on time as we are leaving Preservation Hall the cell rings and Harry tells us to meet him at the Royal Sonesta Hotel for said gospel show. We get to the hotel which is a short walk and are directed to the one of the many bars in this old hotel. There are so many people trying to see this show they are spilling out the door into the hotels hallway. On my tippy toes I can see across the room and notice a back door right next to the band stand. I don't see Harry. No worries, Harry is the kinda guy you like doing things like musical festivals with. Harry can take of himself and I know he will be there any minute. So we walk around the side through a restaurant, through a court yard and find the back door to the bar. Damn it's lock. But just then it opens, the band walks out and Stacey and I walk in. The band is just taking a break and the room is packed fairly tight. We grab a spot on the wall next to the bar. As soon as I get the bar chefs attention I order 3 bloodies, knowing Harry will want one. The band returns to the room, but they head straight to the bar. One of the guys in the band, turns out to be the head man, orders a drink, turns my way, smiles, shakes my hand and says thanks for coming. He proceeds to do this to anyone within reach. Harry walks up and the guys shakes Harry's hand, tells him thanks and heads for the stage. Harry tells us that he is Glen David Andrews and it's his gospel show. He said there is also a drummer, a tuba player and a piano.

What?

This is the gospel show?

Where is the choir?

Harry assures me these guys can handle it.

So this small skinny guy plays the tuba. He sports a Kangol and sunglasses the whole time. He smiles a lot, did a good job and twice turned his back to the room and shot down the contents of a brandy snifter.

The drummer was wearing a nice suit and drinking Bud Lite. I was standing just about 2 feet away from him. He was introduced as also being a member of the Lil Rascals.

The piano player was an older white guy in a tux. Everyone knew him and he got a big cheer when introduced.

Glen David Andrews wore a dark suit, sunglasses, played the trombone and was drinking champagne. It was clear most in the room knew of him and his act. And boy did he have an act. He sang, he preached, he wept, he drank, he blew his horn. At one point in a song he went out the backdoor with his trombone only to reappear in the front hall way where he entertained the overflowing crowd of fans. He made his way back through the crowd to the stage having fun with the crowd as he went. He had them singing. He had them dancing. He had them clapping. The whole room would have walked right out of the Royal Sonesta, into the street and followed Glen David Andrews wherever he went. He was quite a Showman. This was one of the best shows of the weekend.

Next we met up with Amy at Harry's Bar. Had a drink and headed to the huge stage on the Riverfront Park. We were going to see Trombone Shorty. We were way early and that was very lucky for us. We walked up right as the Treme Brass Band was just getting started. The Treme Brass Band is as New Orleans as anything in this world is.
I think you need to know a little history to really appreciate these guys. You need to know a little about Treme, the neighborhood in New Orleans this band reps.

The Treme Brass Band is a marching brass band from New Orleans. They are led by snare drummer Benny Jones, Sr. Kermit Ruffins played trumpet with them a few years back. Treme has a reputatuion as a dangerous place. It should be known as well for the music. It comes blasting out of every front door. It is the life blood of this community. The Treme Brass Band plays for parties, parades, funerals, or any occasion that called for music to accompany the Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs. The street parades, which often go on for hours and miles, developed their own unique style that is carried on by the Tereme Brass Band today. Click here to listen to the Treme Brass Band. They were really fun to see. Horns, horns, horns.

After the Treme Brass Band played we walked back to the Chart Room for drinks and a bathroom. The Chart Room is a cool bar in the Quarter with cheap drinks and funny bartenders. That was a really good thing about this festival. A bar or some place to use the bathroom and get a drink was never to far away. As you can see, we just walked around the Quarter having cocktails and listening to great music.

After the Chart Room we walked back to Riverfront Park, only 3 or 4 blocks, to hear Trombone Shorty and his band, Orleans Avenue. We have been hearing about Mr. Shorty and his music for a few years now. This was a rock and roll band. Some songs were great, but most of Trombone Shortys act was too much noise for me. There was a guy playing a Gold Top Les Paul, kinda Hendrix like. There was a heavy duty bass player and there were back up singers. Like I said a little too rock and roll for me.

It was about 5 p.m. and we were tired. We had been in the sun for two days now, drinking most of the time. We bid Harry farwell and headed to the Barone Plaza Hotel. We pull the curtians shut, turned up the white noise machine, we showered and slept.

When we woke around midnight we wanted food. We dressed and walked to the Lowes Hotel and ate in the bar at Cafe Adaliade. We ate there last year and loved it. This year was good, but just a bit less then last year.

MIDNIGHT COWBOY

2010-04-28T10:12:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite movies of all time. Take 3 minutes and check out this clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGORPUzLxtU&a=1evxKHa4VZw&playnext_from=ML

2010-04-27T07:46:00.000-07:00

Chef continues his legacy to Southern food with a film

By Meridith Ford Goldman

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Scott Peacock met Edna Lewis when he finagled his way into an American Institute of Food & Wine cocktail party. It was the late ’80s, and the young chef, then the executive chef of the Georgia governor’s mansion, had heard of the graceful lady who had come to be known as the grand dame of Southern cooking. He wanted to meet her.

Louie Favorite, AJC file photo Under Scott Peacock's stewardship in the kitchen, Watershed became a treasure of Southern comfort and cooking, garnering national accolades including a James Beard Award for Peacock in 2007.

This deliberate encounter would dramatically change both their lives.

“We saw each other as who we really were,” Peacock said of the mentor he eventually co-wrote a cookbook with and cared for until her death in 2006. “She taught me to pay attention and listen to my heart.”

Words the former Watershed chef takes more seriously now than ever. He left the famed Decatur restaurant in February to pursue a film project that chronicles the lives of seniors from his home state of Alabama, focusing on what was most important to Lewis, and what’s now most important to him: their food memories.

Under his stewardship in the kitchen, Watershed became a treasure of Southern comfort and cooking, garnering national accolades including a James Beard Award for Peacock in 2007. He co-wrote “The Gift of Southern Cooking” (Knopf) with Edna Lewis in 2003.

The restaurant, co-owned by Indigo Girl Emily Saliers, is known for its classic approach to the cuisine of the South, including its famed Tuesday “fried chicken night” that heralds a recipe from the two chefs that is a two-day process ending with ham-laced lard for frying. Two of Peacock’s chefs de cuisine, Billy Allin and Steven Satterfield, have gone on to open acclaimed restaurants in the Atlanta area that focus on farm-to-table cooking, and it’s clear that Peacock and Lewis influenced their styles.

“I’m very proud of fried chicken night,” Peacock said, “and Miss Lewis loved it.”

Someone who obviously knew and respected Lewis for most of his adult life including being her caretaker for six years, the soft-spoken, affable Peacock always refers to her as "Miss Lewis."

His yet unnamed narrative film project is something he felt compelled to do. “It’s all Miss Lewis’ fault, actually,” Peacock laughs. “She is who taught me the importance of pathways and the connection we all have to food. It’s so important for us as Southerners to preserve our ways of cooking and eating – something we need to record for the generations to come. Our rituals and traditions are as important as technique and training.”

Watershed didn’t open originally as a restaurant, Peacock recalls, but more of a general store with food, similar to Sawicki’s, a gourmet food spot now just up the street from Watershed’s doors in Decatur. “People wanted to stay and eat, and eventually the concept painfully morphed into a restaurant,” Peacock said. Within the first year, it was obvious that the restaurant needed to be the focus.

Now that he's left, Peacock says he'll miss Watershed's kitchen, “but it’s the people I will miss the most – we had regulars who came in for fried chicken night every Tuesday. And it’s pretty cool when Yo-Yo Ma comes to Atlanta and wants to eat your food.”

But it’s the film that is his focus now – a legacy to honor a lady who helped shape his view of the world, and himself.

“Miss Lewis helped me understand that how you see yourself helps you understand how you see the world," he said. "Like her, this film helps me understand myself better.”

FRENCH QUARTER FESTIVAL

2010-04-16T05:39:00.000-07:00

The French Quart Festival uses 17 stages and has somewhere around 200 different acts. Each
act is from the Louisiana area and each is free to see and hear. There were stages on Bourbon Street, the old U. S. Mint, Jackson Square, Royal Street, The French Market, Riverfront Park, ect, ect, ect.

The last couple of years Stacey and I have gone to New Orleans to see the Indians Parade. They are kind of the last Mardi Gras Parade of the year in NOLA. It was fun to do, but once I heard about the FQF I signed up. The FQF was April 9-11 this year. Friday the 9th was the first day, we got there the next day.

We could only check our bags at the Barrone Plaza Hotel when we arrived Saturday a.m. our rooms not yet available. No problem. This hotel is 2 blocks from the Quarter so we hit the streets. About 3 blocks in we stop for a beer and a shot. 3 blocks later we stop at a stage on Bourbon Street and listen to Lisa Lynn. She is a sassy Jazz singer backed up by traditional New Orleans Jazz Band. They had the upright piano, the clarinet, the stand up bass and they each dress the part. Later that day we were introduced to Lisa Lynn while she was tending the bar at Harry's.

We moved on down Bourbon Street to the next stage and listened to SOME LIKE IT HOT another traditional New Orleans Jazz Band. SLIH was started as an all girl band, but now it's about 50/50. But the ladies are the boss in this band. They played straight up New Orleans Jazz. The ladies played trumpet, trombone and drums rounded out with a tenor sax and a banjo.

Next we got food. In the Quarter there are lot's of small convenience stores. You can get everything from beer too cat food. We stopped at one and got fried shrimp, shrimp and noodles and a couple beers. We sat on a stoop across the street and ate and drank while our friend, Harold, from Mobile tracked us down.

Next the three of us headed around the corner to the U S Mint stage. There we enjoyed Abita beers and listened to PO BOY LOS CITAS. They were more rockin then jazz, but good and local none the less.

Next it was Kermit Ruffins and the Barbecue Swingers at the Riverfront. Til now we had been at small venues. The Riverfront had two stages and room for a thousand people or so at each. We worked our way towards the stage front as Harold filled us in on Kermit Ruffins.
Ruffins was the new old school New Orleans. He was born there in 1964 and spent his whole life barbecuing and blowing trumpet. He talked a lot in between songs and you could tell he was a cool guy. His band was good and they had a real swing style about them. Ruffins sang on most songs which was another good thing about his act.

We had yet to check into our hotel and we had been at it a while now. We made plans to meet up with Harry in a couple hours and parted ways.
Stacey and I headed to Baroone Plaza Hotel, checked in and were happy with our hotel room.
We cleaned up, rested a while and called Harry. He told us to met him at his office. He explained his "office" was a bar named Harry's in the French Quarter.

We did as we were told and when we find Harry at Harry's he introduces us to Amy. Amy is the girlfriend of Paul who is a bartender at Harry's. Paul is a old college friend of Harry's. Paul and Amy have an apartment a block off the Quarter. Harry is staying with Paul and Amy this weekend. So we have a drink or three at Harry's and head out to see BONEARAMA.

It took me a minute, but after looking at a band fronted by three trombone players it hit me. BONERAMA. These guys were great. Besides trombones there was a guitar player and a drummer. Maybe more, but I can't remember, it was late. We had flown into NOLA around 10 a.m. It was now about 9 p.m. and BONERAMA was finishing up. There was a guest drummer and he was singing "maybe I'm crazy, maybe I'm crazy, maybe I'm crazy to stay". Being a reference to Katrina that got a big cheer. But it was correct, the musicians did stay. Maybe they were crazy, but they did stay in New Orleans after the storm. Next the whole band starts the chant "WHO DAT"and a thousand fans answered "WHO DAT SAY THEY GONNA BEAT THOSE SAINTS"

We walked back across the Quarter to the apartment Harry was staying at on Esplanade, met up with Paul, had a drink and again hit the streets. Esplanade is between the Quarter and Faubourg Marigny. Faubroug Marigny is a neighborhood locals live and play in. As we made our way into the neighborhood we could see lot's of folks were out and about. We noticed a large crowd a few blocks up and the sound of drums. As we got closer we heard drums and horns. A little closer and we could hear voices. A kind of call out. A kind of cadence to match the music. Harry told us it was a battle of the bands. He said these guys made their way around town doing this thing they do. There were two bands, one on each corner. Each band played in a furious manner for a few minutes and then the other band answered. This went on for a while and it was really something to see. I never did figure out why they did this. I never saw anyone pass a hat to collect money and some of the musician switched sides a couple times.

So this was our day and part of our night. We had been out in the sun most of the day and drinking a good bit. W e were tired. Paul and Amy were not to be found so we told Harry goodnight and once again headed back across the Quarter to sleep it off and get set for tomorrow.

passion

2010-04-12T13:40:00.000-07:00

Just got back from New Orleans. Usually a trip to NOLA means food. And food in New Orleans means passion. These people live and breath it. Last night we ate in a restaurant and our waiter was one of those people. He was so good at his job and so sure about what he was selling us and so sure of the food that came out of that kitchen that it made for a wonderful meal and we were only have appetizers. Got me to thinking about a article I read in the New Yorker, about a chef named David Chang. Talk about passion, check this part of the article and if you want to read the complete article

follow the link.

At Noodle Bar, a junior line cook had been cooking chicken for family meal—lunch for the staff—and although he had to cook something like seventy-five chicken pieces and the stoves were mostly empty, he’d been cooking them in only two pans, which meant that he was wasting time he could have spent helping to prep for dinner. Also, he was cooking with tongs, which was bad technique, it ripped the food apart, it was how you cooked at T.G.I. Friday’s—he should have been using a spoon or a spatula. Cooking with tongs showed disrespect for the chicken, disrespect for family meal, and, by extension, disrespect for the entire restaurant. But the guy cooking family meal was just the beginning of it. Walking down the line, Chang had spotted another cook cutting fish cake into slices that were totally uneven and looked like hell. Someone else was handling ice-cream cones with her bare hands, touching the end that wasn’t covered in paper. None of these mistakes was egregious in itself, but all of them together made Chang feel that Noodle Bar’s kitchen was degenerating into decadence and anarchy. He had screamed and yelled until a friend showed up and dragged him out of the restaurant, and his head still hurt nearly twenty-four hours later.

The following afternoon, Chang called an emergency meeting for the staff. Something was rotten in Noodle Bar, and he meant to cut it out and destroy it before it was too late.

“I haven’t been spending that much time in this restaurant because of all the shit that’s been going on,” he began, “but the past two days I’ve had aneurisms because I’ve been so upset at the kitchen. On the cooks’ end, I question your integrity. Are you willing to fucking sacrifice yourself for the food? Yesterday, we had an incident with fish cakes: they weren’t properly cut. Does it really matter in the bowl of ramen? No. But for personal integrity as a cook, this is what we do, and I don’t think you guys fucking care enough. It takes those little things, the properly cut scallions, to set us apart from Uno’s and McDonald’s. If we don’t step up our game, we’re headed toward the middle, and I don’t want to fucking work there.

“We’re not the best cooks, we’re not the best restaurant—if you were a really good cook you wouldn’t be working here, because really good cooks are assholes. But we’re gonna try our best, and that’s as a team. Recently, over at Ssäm Bar, a sous-chef closed improperly, there were a lot of mistakes, and I was livid and I let this guy have it. About a week later, I found out that it wasn’t him, he wasn’t even at the restaurant that night. But what he said was ‘I’m sorry, it will never happen again.’ And you know what? I felt like an asshole for yelling at him, but, more important, I felt like, Wow, this is what we want to build our company around: guys that have this level of integrity. Just because we’re not Per Se, just because we’re not Daniel, just because we’re not a four-star restaurant, why can’t we have the same fucking standards? If we start being accountable not only for our own actions but for everyone else’s actions, we’re gonna do some awesome shit.”

“You guys have to ask yourself as cooks, how bad do you want this?” Chang declared at the meeting, warming up to his finale. “Life and death is what it means to me. And next time I see something that is not up to my standards I’m gonna let you fucking go. What we want are people with high character that are gonna look each other in the eye and be like, I gave you my best effort today. We want the person who fucked up not to be able to sleep at night because he’s so embarrassed, and the next day to be like, I’m gonna get better, I’m gonna get better.

for the whole article
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/24/080324fa_fact_macfarquhar?currentPage=1

FEED STORE COLLEGE PARK, GA.

2010-04-08T11:57:00.000-07:00

A week or so ago I was invited to attend a dinner with a men's club at the Feed Store. It was awesome. We were welcomed in earnest by the Chef and the manager. They had even printed a special menu for us and comped us many, many beers. This is what we ate.

1st course
Mayhaw barbequed calamari
Suckling pig gyros with tzatziki sauce

2nd
Beef tartate with lemon sweet tater fries

3rd
Dill pickle soup with smoked paprika oil

4th
Arugula/pineapple/bacon salad with pecan vinaigrette

5th
Fried talapia with a deviled egg and bacon tartar sauce
Pork osso bucco with chipotle jus
Georgia english pea risotto
White asparagus with house preserve meyer lemons
Mushrooms

6th
The shit that killed Elvis (banana waffle-toasted banana chip covered peanut butter ice cream and local honey)
Red velvet cake with macerated strawberries.

The chef at the Feed Store is Peter Golaszewski. I have written about the Feed Store a lot over the last year or so. I always tell you the same thing, if you haven't eaten there yet then your stupid.

DON'T PISS ME OFF!

2010-03-30T05:15:00.000-07:00

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU BULLY KIDS AT SCHOOL. THEY GROW UP TO BE MILITIA AND JOIN THE HUTAREE. THE FIRST GUY IN THIS LINE UP IS THE LEADER AND HE INVENTED THE WORD HUTAREE. HUTAREE MEANS "CHRISTIAN SOLDIER". THE MEMBERS SAY THEY WERE PREPARING FOR BATTLE WITH THE ANTI CHRIST. AREN'T WE ALL?

NYC

2010-03-27T16:22:00.000-07:00

Stacey and I spent a little more then 24 hours in New York not long ago, this is what we did.

We walked across the Brooklyn bridge. We ate at a new place named BAO HAUS. We drank at Nurse Betty . We ate at a true Tapas Bar. We had some really good street food and walked the High Line.

BOA HAUS, in the lower east side, serves authentic Taiwanese Gau Boa, or Steamed Buns. These buns have a distinct texture. It's a thick, floury feel. These buns are filled with you choice of either pork or steak. Topped with crushed peanuts, cilantro, Haus relish and Taiwanese red sugar. Oh yeah, the meat is all Niman Ranch. The buns are $4-4.50 each. About the size of a mans fist. A good deal and delicious.

BOA HAUS is a tiny place with very limited seating, just around the corner is Nurse Bettie. Nurse Bettie was just the spot for us to consume our gua boa's and have some beer and tequila. Nurse Bettie is a tiny little bar with a couple of great paintings of 50's style pin up girls. They had no problem with us eating in their bar while enjoying their booze.

We also ate at Tia Pol on Tenth Ave. between 22 and 23rd. I had read about this place a couple different times and then all the sudden we happened to walk right by the place. That might be because there is no sign out front. We were not all that hungry , but hell we had to try something. It is supposed to be a really good Spanish tapas bar. And it was. It had a small, but good wine list. The food was what you might find in Spain. Jamon folded around manchego cheese and artichoke hearts, potato's roasted in a thick garlic aoili and what Stacey claimed to be a delicious roasted cauliflower soup with chorizo. The last dish we tried was Chorizo with Chocolate. That was a thin slice of aged chorizo on a toast point with a smear of dark, bitter chocolate. Not bad, kinda mole if you will.

We also walked the High Line. The High Line is located on Manhattan's West Side. It runs from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to 34th Street, between 10th & 11th Avenues. Section 1 of the High Line, which is the only part open now, runs from Gansevoort Street to 20th Street. The High Line is a very cool park. That's what it is, a park. The High Line was originally constructed in the 1930s, to route dangerous freight trains above Manhattan's streets. Today it is a really cool, large footpath on an elevated rail line. It's very user friendly and has a great view of the East River. There are also quite a few places to sit, relax and eat lunch.

Coming off the High Line at 14th street in the Meatpacking District we found a food truck pushing Aisian Hotdogs. This truck offered 4 dogs. They had a Vietnamese banh-mi style:aioli + pate + cucumbers + pickledcarrot and daikon + cilantro + jalapeno. That was my favorite. I also tried the dog with asian BBQ pork bellies and grilled onion relish. They also offered a Thai style dog with mango relish + cucumber + red onion +cilantro + crushed peanuts + fish sauce and a Japanese dog with kinchi apples. We decided to save those for next time.

2010-03-24T08:17:00.001-07:00

SOSOSOUTHERN

THANK GOD FOR THE UNIBROW

BONEHEAD

ROAD FOOD

BOB

PERRY IN PEORIA

GULF SHORES THANKSGIVING

CAN'T BEAT THIS LADIES MEAT

LOCAL THREE PART II

CHICAGO SEPT 30 -- QCT 3

A FEW GOOD COCKS

NASHVILLE AND ELVIS

mardi gras 2010

SLEW OF PIGS

AIRPLANE WINGS AND COCKTAILS

MELLOW MUSHROOM FYETTEVILLE N.C.

WHOLE FOODS MARKET

EL BANO

AS OF LATE

WHATS NEW PUSSYCAT

ST. PETE SUNSET

TO BEGIN WITH

WHERE YA AT

RUNNING

GENKI GRAND OPENING

SOME OTHER MUTHERS DAY

B.I.G. T.I.M.E.

GENKI

SHOYA VS MISO

BENEFITS OF BIKING

FROM MOBILES LAGNIAPPE NEWSPAPER

my office

DON'T MESS WITH LIL' LADY aka STACEY

BUILDING THE 2011 MYSTIC FISH

MARDI GRAS 2011

GETTING TO KNOW YOU

HOW TO BE HAPPY

I'M GETTING OLD

RECENTLY.....

DIM SUM BITCHES

DELECTABLE DISHES FROM TERMITE HALL

COOKBOOK OF THE DAY

23 January 2010

Delectable Dishes From Termite Hall

A SCIENTIFIC FOOD STUDY

LOCAL THREE

A BAR CRAWL IN OLD SAN JUAN

A WEDDING IN SAN JUAN

Still kickin

WHY I WANT A SMART PHONE

In Paris, A Display From Hockney's Pixelated Period

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD

Sufjan Stevens' musical 'Age' is still maturing

by Taylor BakerContributing Writer

GOT WOOD?

from an article in the Atlantic Magazine

The Dark Side of Benefit Dinners: A Chef's Perspective

ATLANTA BOTANTICAL GARDENS

LOBSTER BOY

WHO KNEW?

ROLLER DERBY, PORK AND CIGARETTE SMOKE

IKHLAS

FLY ME TO THE MOON

Atlantic bluefin tuna's fate in the Gulf of Mexico explored a timely book

Published: Wednesday, September 08, 2010, 10:50 AM Updated: Wednesday, September 08, 2010, 1:58 PM

LATEST EATS

EDWARD HOPPER

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

Bigotry Takes a Hit

Becherovka

O P TEES

MOTO BENE

St. John day 2

the aura of the far Northland

PLANES, TRAINS, AUTOMOBILES AND FERRIES

LONG JOHN SILVER MUST BE STOPPED

God Hates Shrimp

ME AND MY TWIN, THE SKILLET LICKER

ST. JOHN USVI

Some Recent paintings

by Taylor Baker
Contributing Writer