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Monday, October 29, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
RESTLESS & DISTRACTED? GOOD FOR YOU!
“We now consume about 100,000 words each day from various media, which is a whopping 350 percent increase, measured in bytes, over what we handled back in 1980,” Ms. Gallagher says. “Neophilia spurs us to adjust and explore and create technology and art, but at the extreme it can fuel a chronic restlessness and distraction.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/science/novelty-seeking-neophilia-can-be-a-predictor-of-well-being.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha210
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/science/novelty-seeking-neophilia-can-be-a-predictor-of-well-being.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha210
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
THEY TALK LIKE ME
ALABAMA SHAKES ARE SOUTHERN. JUST LISTEN TO EM TALK. AND YA CAN RIGHT HERE.
http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/mb/mb120124alabama_shakes
I HAVE BEEN HEARING A BUZZ ABOUT THIS BAND FOR A WHILE NOW. I HAD NO IDEA THEY WERE BLOWING UP LIKE THEY ARE, BUT IF YA LISTEN YOU'LL SEE WHY. THE YOUNG LADY,
BRITTANY HOWARD HAS GOT A VOICE THAT IS SOMETIMES LIKE A HURRICANE AND OTHER TIMES LIKE ARMS WRAPPING AROUND YOU. SHE PLAYS A MEAN GUITAR AS WELL. THEY HAVE A EP OUT RIGHT NOW WHICH THEY RECORDED AND MIXED THEMSELVES IN A NASHVILLE STUDIO. I BET THAT'S WHEN JACK WHITE HEARD ABOUT THEM. NEXT UP IS A SERIES OF 7" VINYL SINGLES PRODUCED BY MR. WHITE HIMSELF.
MYSELF, I'M GONNA GET ON AN AIRPLANE IN MARCH AND GO SEE THEM SOME WHERE.
THAT IS UNLESS THE COME TO ATLANTA, BUT I DON'T SEE A DATE FOR ATLANTA ON THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
THANK GOD FOR THE UNIBROW
THIS ARTICLE WAS FOUND ON Eatocracy
HUGH IS THE MAN RIGHT NOW, COME TO ATLANTA AND WE CAN GO EAT AT HIS
NEW RESTAURANT.
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.
HUGH IS THE MAN RIGHT NOW, COME TO ATLANTA AND WE CAN GO EAT AT HIS
NEW RESTAURANT.
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.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
ROAD FOOD
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.
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.
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