The Southern Food & Beverage Museum will be celebrating their very grand opening this week. Thursday evening there will be the opening gala and Saturday morning will be the ribbon cutting ceremony.
These are good people who are working to preserve our Southern culinary heritage. I’ll be honest, when I first met Liz Williams, president of SOFAB, and she was explaining the project to me, the only Southern thing I could think of was putting peanuts into a bottle of Coke. I have no idea why that image popped into my brain, but after spending time in New Orleans, and tasting and observing the endless variations of roux and the value of the trinity, I now have a tiny inkling of what it is that this foundation is trying to preserve.
A roux in its simplest form is fried flour, but you can fry it with butter, or with oil, light caramel color or cocoa color; it’s the foundation of Creole cooking. And the trinity is chopped peppers, onions and celery.
I could kick myself for not figuring out a way to get into some southern kitchens so that I could watch and learn more about Southern style cooking.
As the world becomes smaller and smaller, it becomes more and more important to honor and preserve our regional cuisines, whether it’s a Maine clambake, jambalaya, Sardinian carta da musica, or dim sum, they all make the world a much tastier place.
So Liz, it’s been an honor to meet you and a great pleasure for me to watch this project develop. Congratulations!! And ‘in bocca al lupo’!! (That’s a traditional Italian saying when you want to wish someone good luck and I wish Liz and her crew the very best of luck.)
New Orleans Update
Warning: this is not at all about food; it’s about what’s going on in NOLA right now.
After my trip to New Orleans, where I fell in love with this wacky city, I’ve been staying in touch with bloggers from NOLA, and in particular with Bruce from New Orleans Ladder.
Here’s the deal: Hurricane season is coming up and the New Orleans levees are leaking and rotted and no one is doing a damn thing about it. In fact, they are spending time and resources on media spin to make everyone thing it’s all ok. Last week, it was all over the news that Donald Jolissaint, the chief engineer for US Army Corps of Engineers; declared that the city of New Orleans had nothing to worry about, don’t fret about those wet spots on the levee. Mr. Jolissaint is NOT the chief engineer; he is a rank and file guy in the technical support office. All the news agencies recycled the same story, and apparently no one vetted Mr. Jolissaint’s credentials. All I did was pick up the phone and make a simple phone call to the New Orleans office of the US Army Corps of Engineers, but I guess that was too much trouble for the syndicated news outlets.
Please read Bruce’s account of his visit to the levees. Be aware, Bruce calls it like he sees it and does not curb his language. In fact, his language is incredibly colorful and inventive. Bruce sent me an e-mail that he has asked that I do not share, but let me tell you, this is a concerned citizen who is quaking. He has no hidden agenda, he’s not going to make a dime, he's not out to cover up or promote, he just loves New Orleans and is scared for his city.
Scroll down to Lee Iacocca’s quote, which begins, “"Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina.
One of the most telling photographs of how the US Government responded to Katrina wasn’t the one of the Bush flyover, it’s a photo inside the Convention Center, which had been turned into the refugee center. The photo shows the main, central escalator bank and on each and every step, going up, going down, is a National Guardsman with a rifle aimed at the refugees. Traumatized, mourning, shocked refugees with hundreds of guns pointed at them as if they were rabid animals. It’s a horrifying picture.
This is a news story that needs to get out, needs to get told. Let’s harness some internet power and get NOLA the attention that it needs and deserves.
This is an excerpt from an e-mail from Bruce at NoLAdder that I had to share with you. Doesn't this sound and smell about as good as it get?? Bruce is trying to explain to me about cooking fish on a plank. But, I don't know nuthin' about fish and planks!
I was walking in da'ByWater on one of my visits to town, maybe even
Christmas, down Royal around Piety, and there was a pack of gay boys
having a soiree in their back yard and really throwing down the food. I
mean I could smell it for a couple of blocks before I found them. I say
gay boys but you know everyone was there from within a few blocks...the
St Ann crowd. They had 3 (THREE) 55gal cookers going, 2 shrimp boilers
and a ton of other stuff going on at the table. Really these cats were
swingin. I just stood there thinking that this is of course what it
means to miss New Orleans...when they opened one of the cookers and
started pulling out these plank fish: Salmon, Red Fish, Mahi (each mahi
with its own portabella mushroom on top), catfish, a pile of crawfish
mixed with...hmmm...peppers and maybe chow chow (that one was to
absolutely die for but I can't even begin to say what was in it. I do
remember corn and the peppers which had been grown right there beside
the cooker:), so where was I...Judith, they pulled out about ten
planks. Rockin. So the wood, guy told me he might get 4 good cookings
with one plank but sometimes he'll use a thick piece of particularly
good pecan and try to make it last and soak it all up don't'cha know.
They said that it really did not take long for the fish to cook on the
planks. Now as for the heat? They had one of those side fire bins, you
know connected at the bottom of the cooker, for the heat and smoking.
Dude was good with the wood fueling too to whip that many fish.
Now in one of the other cookers they had a whole hog with a pomegranate
in its mouth and truffles for eyes and total mystery stuffing. The 3rd
cooker was all veggies and only smoked...or roasted peppers in the
bottom?
So there, just another Sunday afternoon in da'bywata.
Last year at the IACP conference, the food writer’s section was given the challenge to raise awareness about New Orleans. We were asked to spread the word, to not let people forget. The powers that be in the US government didn’t step up to the plate, so it’s up to us. There are groups going there to help rebuild housing, and that’s a very good thing; but just visiting and being there also helps.
In my sidebar, there is a page that is linking to others that are blogging about New Orleans. If you are posting about New Orleans, send me your link and I’ll give you a link to all these other bloggers. It’s a little thing, but little things add up.
I can’t make houses for the people still sleeping under the bridges, I can’t buy a new schoolhouse, but I can make some noise. Join me.
Check out the new blog additions of Tripe Soup and Ruth in Condechi.
What happens when gazillions of food obsessed people (oh, excuse me, I mean Culinary Professionals) descend on New Orleans? They all start writing about it!
The Food Writers section of IACP was given the task of spreading the word about what's going on in New Orleans, and the bloggers are doing their bit to contribute to NOLA Giveback. New Orleans is coming back, bit by bit, they are pulling themselves together and they need us to visit, plain and simple.
Here's a partial list of what's been going on.
Please, if you have a blog and are writing about NOLA, send me the link. Let's do our bit to spread the good word about New Orleans.
Rancho Gordo: loving beignets, disclaimer: I swear I didn't pay Steve....
Chez Pim more beignet love
Voice of Reason great food round up
Mon Appetit Muffuletta
Serious Eats Wille Mae's fried chicken
The Wednesday Chef Cochon and Crescent Market
Appetites Excellent New Orleans based blogger
No Ladder Tells it like it is
Thank y’all for coming. Thank y’all for being here. 
I heard this over and over in New Orleans.
I’m so glad I went that now I’m spending my time figuring out how and when I can get back there. 
New Orleans is a banquet for the senses; wafts of music and the smells of good food mingle in front of open doorways. The magnolia trees were in blossom, it was crazy to see local Louisiana strawberries are already in season, po’boys are bursting with friend oysters, crawfish are boiling in their spicy bath. The city may have had its heart ripped out, but its soul is alive and well.
There is raw, vibrant energy blowing in the wind. If you take the time to ask, people will tell you their stories, what it was like after Katrina, what it took to come back and what it’s taking to stay. We met a woman who is a marketing director for a hotel during the day, and driving a cab at night. She told us everyone is doing it, working 2 or 3 jobs to make ends meet. Aunt Frieda works the crab boil pot at her nephew’s new restaurant. She offered to help, and he stuck her over a hot pot all day, but she’s happy to be there and to be helping her family.
I was excited to be going to New Orleans, but I didn’t expect to fall in love. I was nervous and uncertain. I wanted to see as much as I could: the ruins and the restorations. It’s easy to stay in the Central Business District and think everything is ok, but on a Tuesday night, it’s like they gave a party and no one came. Less than half of the original residents have returned to New Orleans, school age kids are scarce, and the people that are there are paving the way for the new, New Orleans.
The IACP conference was great; I met the most amazing people and learned all sorts of different things. More about that later, but right now, the message is: put New Orleans in your travel plans.
If you like:
Strawberries
Oysters
Crawfish
Shrimp
Pickled green tomatoes
Fired green tomatoes
Pork belly
Crunchy strips of fried pig ear
Cracklins with molasses
Gentle breezes
Flowering trees
Squares, Parks, Statues, Fountains
Architecture
Palm trees
Music
Music
Music
Beignets
Sazerac cocktails
Quality moonshine
If you like any of these things, you’ll find them in abundance in New Orleans.
