DEAR DAD

Happy Fathers day.

Do you remember throwing the football in the front yard? It was you, me and Geoff and we had already practiced at school with our team. We would be in the front yard on Chadwick dr, taking turns going out for a pass while the other played defense. We did this all the time, for hours.

Do you remember teaching me to ride a bike? On the side walk in front of the Bettencourt’s house you would get me started with a big push. After a few spills I was a bike riding fool.

Do you remember all the times I had to get stitches for cuts suffered in the line of childhood battle?

What about going with Mom to Girl Scout camp? You would have a portable radio that you were constantly trying to tune to the Alabama game.

And Mardi Gras? WOW, that was the best and you loved it as much as any kid. Peanut buttered kisses and serpentine, who could catch the most.

I could go on forever. Great memories all. Thanks. Some how you got through to me and taught me what was important in life. Now here I am living the most charmed life a man could ask for. I blame you.

Thanks and happy Fathers day

Tracy

Southern Treats

That’s what we get every time we dine at the Feed Store, our favorite south-side restaurant. The other night was no different, it was a real treat. First off we were dining with good friends we had not seen in a few years. John and Rhonda live on St. Simons Island where they own and operate Blackwater Grill. Second treat, all the amuse buse Cooper, the chef at Feed Store plies us with every time we go. Last night we were treated to Deviled Eggs with two different fillings, smoked filled bowls with a deconstructed BLT, and fake sushi. This chef, Cooper, loves to play with his food and it shows.

OK, I think the first thing he sent out was a deconstructed BLT. I remember a nice slice of pork belly, I remember it rested on a small fried green tomato with house smoked mayo. This was good and it was also totally from left field, this is how it was served. Cooper took the ingredient’s and placed them in an over-sized bowl, he then covers the bowl with plastic wrap, but before he seals it he uses a little device and blows smoke into the bowl. Cherry wood smoke I think it was. He then lets it sit in the refrig for while. When they are served, the plastic wrap is cut open and out pours the smoke and the deconstructed BLT is perfectly seasoned by the smoke.

Next he served us deviled eggs. These are popping up everywhere fine southern food is being served. These eggs had been stuffed with either duck confit or a dried tomato concoction. Both were great.

Next it was fake sushi. What he did was cut a pear to look like a piece of white fish and on that he laid a piece of Sweet Grass Dairy goat cheese and then topped that with beet pearls that looked just like roe. I think I got the beet pearls right, he may call them something else, but it was beet juice, that in some mad scientist sorta way he rendered into tiny, perfectly round pellets.

This was all really good stuff and our dinner companions were blown away with the presentations. Not to mention it all tasted great as well.

We then ordered entrees and continued to be blown away by the quality of and the imagination put into this meal. If you live in the Atlanta metro area and haven’t yet supped at the Feed Store, your stupid.

Belize, later that day.

It’s a amazing how little tequila is available in Latin America. To be honest it saddens me. In Santa Domingo we had to drink Ideal tequila. In Belize we had to settle for the bottom of the Jose Cuervo line. I think most tequila is produced in Mexico, so you would think…

IS A COCONUT GONNA HIT ME IN THE COCONUT?

Anyway we get to our condo, check in, learn to use the room safe, then we head for the nearest store to get a few provisions. There are two small stores nearby, the first doesn’t have much to offer so we head two blocks further away to visit Mr. Joe’s. Mr. Joe’s has a lot of good stuff. Fresh baked goods, hot sandwiches, cold beers, snacks, meats, fruits, etc. So Mr. Joe’s is gonna be the place to shop for the next three days.

Back to the room, then to the beach for a late afternoon walk. Wrong. Because of all the crap on the beach you can’t walk far. The bulkheads are all different sizes, there is all kinds of building materials in the water. There are tons of shells, large shells that have been removed from the beaches that front condos and resorts and dumped on the next lot over. All the “yard trimmings” collected by the gardener are dumped on the next lot over, along with anything that washes to shore. That would be logs, piles of seaweed, plastic bottles. All kinds of stuff and it makes it tough to walk the beach. We had headed one way, but couldn’t get far, so we turned around and walked the other way. There was a trail, so it was passable but still scattered with trash. We walked for about ten minutes and passed everything from a public park, to million dollar homes, to shacks. Then a restaurant/bar named Fido’s appeared right before our very eyes. A big open place with a large thatch roof. We bellied up to the bar, ordered drinks, introduced ourselves to Javiar, the barman and asked for a menu. We enjoyed some good ceviche, pibil, and grilled shrimp with a jerk sauce. The beer produced in Belize is Belikins and not my favorite, but I was able to choke it down, with shots of tequila.

We have the place to ourselves, along with the barman, Javiar and a waitress named Carmita. They are both really nice people and that’s what we found with most every local we got to speak with. Stacey and I always ask lot’s of questions of the locals we meet when traveling outside the U.S. We just want to know a little bit about their hometown we are visiting and maybe a little about them if they seem willing. These guys were great. Carmita told us all about the different ethnicity that make up Belize. She said that there were Creoles, Mestizo, Maya, and Garifuna making up the population in Belize. She even drew us a map of the country showing us the different districts.

By the time we left it had gotten dark, but the moon was out and we had on shoes so the walk back was no problem. We were tired and had laid down, flipping channels when someone taps on the door. DAMN. We haven’t been in Belize six hours and we’re not yet at ease , so this kinda startled us. We knew of the twenty six condos only a few were occupied. Who could this be? Tap, tap, tap again and then “security, please open the door”. What! Security? Coming in from Fidos, we had seen a little guy in a blue uniform, we spoke, but kept on walking to our room. About an hour later, someone was tap tap tapping at our door. So I jumped up to see who it was, sure enough, it was him, but I ain’t opening the door. “What do you want ?” I asked. He replied “Please open the door”. I said “Tell me what you want” I was not gonna open the door. Finally he told me he wanted water. WHAT ? WATER. Is this guy kiddin’ me ? I just gotta find out. So I put on my shorts and opened the door. I asked “YOU WANT WATER ?” “yes” he said. “YOU WANT WATER ?” I screamed. “yes” he said. “YOU WANT WATER ? ARE YOU KIDDING ME ? IS THIS WHAT YOU DO ? GO DOOR TO DOOR ASKING THE GUESTS FOR WATER ? IS THAT WHAT YOU ARE TELLING ME ? “yes” he said. “I DON’T BELIEVE IT, SHOW ME.”

So he did.

He walked me to a couple of units over, went up to a door and knocked on it. A lady cracked the door and a man’s head appeared over hers. The security guy asked for water and damn if they didn’t just hand over a bottle of water. No questions asked. Just handed over a bottle of water.

Maybe I over reacted…

Frogmore Stew

So the other day we had some over night guest, family who were on their way up north and stopped to rest and visit. Being the good southerners they are they showed up with gifts. 5 pounds of beautiful wild Alabama shrimp. We had planned on grilling burgers that night so we added a few kebabs to the grill. Shrimp, sausage, pineapple and sweet peppers, not bad.

The next night we ask the neighbors to join us for a shrimp boil, they are not stupid people and agreed to come over after their daughter was asleep. In the mean time I got to thinking about a low country boil, what was the difference between a shrimp boil and a low country boil? I googled low country and frogmore stew came up. I had heard of a frogmore stew, but that’s about it, had no idea what it really was. On one of the pages I pulled up there was a story of a cook who had to feed a ton of troops one day, so looking at what he had to work with he cooked what his family cooked at home. He put shrimp, sausage, corn and taters all in one pot, spiced it up real good, boiled it and served it all together. The cook was from the town of Frogmore, South Carolina so the troops referred to it as frogmore stew. From there it became a low country boil.

I was interested to know the difference because I had heard that sausage went onto a low country boil and I wanted to add sausage to my shrimp boil for the night. What I learned was that’s about the only difference, sausage. So that night along with the taters, the first thing I put in the water that was boiling away with 2 bags of Zatarain’s crab boil, was a bunch of sausage. I finished the boil as I always did and it turned out great, just look at this vision of beauty.

Belize Day One

As we are boarding the airplane in Atlanta, for Belize City, Belize, there’s a buzz going round about Jerry Jeff Walker. Seems he’s playing down there a couple times that week. I used to listen to Jerry Jeff often, but that was in the 70’s, haven’t heard much since. So we are on a plane full of JJW groupies and headed south.

We arrive in Belize City and connect on a flight to Ambergris Caye. It’s is booked as a 15 minute flight, but it’s more like 20. I know, cause we were sitting so close to the pilot on this 13 seat prop plane that I could see his digital trip clock on his control panel. Stacey loved it, she loves small aircraft. Check out these photos she took.

No problem. This pilot flies so many of these short little flights I bet for him it’s like getting in the car to go somewhere. It is hot and it is bumpy, but we get to the Ambergris Caye “airstrip” without any issues.

You get out of the airplane and it’s thirty steps to the office and then another ten steps into our cab/shuttle which is a trashed out Toyota van.

Ambergris Caye is a dirty place, as we leave the airstrip we are in town proper and there’s a little bit of everything. Lots of restaurants, bars and then everything else a city needs to survive. The road is like cobble stone and there are lots of golf carts. There are also lots of people on bikes and the locals seem to use both evenly. Most of the tourist are in a rented golf cart. There is trash everywhere. On either side of the road water stands and is full of plastic bottles, construction debris and rotten trees. Sorry to say, but much like most third world countries we have visited.

We arrive at our “resort” and it is also very much like other places we have stayed at in Panama and Santa Domingo. The place is beautiful. A total contrast to the rest of the island. Palm trees, swimming pool, cabana, no trash and a nice slice of beach.

This will do just fine, thank you very much. We check in, grab a few beers from the office and head to our room. Once we get the DVD and Stereo delivered, they were supposed come with the room, we head for the beach to catch our first rays of the summer. Oh joy!

Just O.K.

We ate at Cuerno last week. This is the place I mentioned before that is owned by the same guy that owns Fritti, Beleza and Soto Soto. We have eaten at Fritti more then once and it’s one of our favorite spots for Pizza. I read about Cuerno, the Jamón Iberico and the lady writing the article really made it sound great. I was excited to go. We went on a Monday, kinda early and before we left a fair sized crowd had gathered. That’s what a glowing review in a local magazine will do for you.

So we settled in and ordered Spanish wines and a couple tapas. We had the croquets jamon and a lobster dish that was a special of the day. Nothing special about the croquets, not bad by far, but just ok. The lobster was grilled with shrimp and served with a brown butter sauce. Once again, just ok. Could have been better, but didn’t suck.

From the entrees I ordered the Cochinillo Confitado. It was described as “confit suckling pig, roasted apple, pistachio and anise jus. Now I’m thinking confit will be like roasted pork pull from the bone. Not this, it was on the bone, it was roasted and the skin was very, very crispy. The apple had been roasted with the pig and it was good. I don’t recall the pistachio anise jus, so I guess that speaks for itself. But the pig was really good and I ate every bit of it.

Stacey had the Monk fish wrapped in Serrano ham, it was served with smoked egg plant and a caper raisin citronette. Stacey did not like the smoked eggplant at all. Other wise, it was all just ok. Didn’t suck, but just ok. The Monk-fish wrapped in the ham was beautiful, but it just didn’t blow me away and I think I was hoping to be blown away after the article I read.

Now a couple of really great things about the place. Adam, I think he is the wine guy, I can’t remember his title, but he turned us on to a white sherry that was really good. He was a nice guy and we chatted about some of his wines. I ask what he was drinking, I had noticed he had a desert glass he was sipping from. He told us it was a sherry and ask if we would like to try a little. Of course, thank you very much. So he got us a couple of glasses with a taste in each. It was good and it was dry, not sweet. It was like a “rancid” wine we had enjoyed in Spain at a winery by the name of Avinyo. We were there with a friend who sold this family’s wine in the states. He was calling on some accounts and Stacey and I got to tag along to about 3 or 4 places. I got to write about that trip one day. So, where was I? Oh yea, rancid wine. Wine that had been left in large glass bottle. These bottles were between 5 - 10 gallons, half full with a piece of cloth tied over the top. There were about a dozen of them and they were sitting in the sun “cooking” if you will and you should. I mean if you get the chance have rancid wine. Wine is controlled spoilage, this is just taking it a few steps further. The wine list is large and I saw lots of wine I was familiar with. Spanish wines, good wines, wines from some really small boutique wineries.

Oh yea, there is also a great sculpture of a bull. Click on bull, then click on Cuerno and check it out, right in the middle of the restaurant. It is beautiful and it’s worth going for a drink, just to check the bull out!

Lately

Damn, time goes so fast. I never have enough time to do all I want each day. Discipline is the main problem I’m sure, but I’m gonna blame it on something else. Writing this blog sometimes gets pushed to the back of the list and I hate that, cause I really like to write it. And I love all the positive feedback from you “dear reader”. Right now I got a butt load of stuff to share with you and I look forward putting it into words and photos here on sososouthern. So, please stay tuned.

We have eaten at Cuerno since I first mentioned it. We also had a really great night at the Feed Store with our old friends John and Rhonda. They have a restaurant on St. Simons Island I need to tell you about. The Feed Store rocks and as always it’s treat to dine there.

Belize, hell yea. Been there done that. Check out this photo, taken by yours truly, I mean taken by Stacey. Those are her toes! Nice.

More on Belize soon.

There is so much more, but it’s late Sunday night, we just did a Frogmore Stew and some tequila and I can’t seem to recall it all right this second. Please stay tuned dear reader, (thank you Holden) I got all kind of good stories and photos for ya.