OH WELL!

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

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

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

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

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

A DAY IN THE LIFE

VOGEL