A Good Egg/Restaurant Ramblings

Yesterday was Easter.  Great day.  The weather was perfect in Chuck-town, and I got my once-a-year chance to wear the seersucker (although I have been invited to a Kentucky Derby party being thrown by a Kentucky native.  Maybe we'll see some seersucker again there...).  I had dinner at an amazing place called Slighty North of Broad, known by the acronym SNOB to the locals.  One of my favorite places of all time, and easily the best charcuterie in town.  Head cheese rules.

I do have to bemoan the general state of dress that I saw yesterday.  Come on, people.  It's Sunday, it's Easter, and you're in the South.  You need to be dressed well.  For the guys, that means you need to be wearing seersucker, a bow-tie, and the white nubuck shoes, not some ratty-ass flip-flops.  For the girls, that means you need to be in a white or pastel colored dress with some cute strappy heels, again, not f---ing flip flops.  I only saw one other guy wearing seersucker, he was the doorman at another downtown restaurant I went to for my after-dinner bourbon.  I saw several women wearing black.  Who wears black on Easter?  Why don't more women like to wear dresses and skirts anymore?  I should also mention that I HATE, HATE, HATE seeing people downtown, at night, in restaurants, dining, wearing flip-flops.  Flip-flops are not evening wear, and they are not appropriate for most restaurant situations.  I f---ing HATE them.  They are the absolute epitome of laziness.  "Oh my gosh, I just put on my shirt and some pants.  I'm exhausted.  Now you expect me to put on SHOES too, after all that?"  Yes I do.  I dress myself in the morning, and you have to as well.  Be a Good Egg.  If you're wearing flip flops anywhere other than the beach, you're a lazy ass.  Sorry this has turned into such a rant.  End of sermon.

The state of the restaurant scene continues to be fantastic here in Charleston.  We really do have it all.  I had lunch during the weekend at a roadside fish shack called Fishnet Seafood, where all they do is deep-fried items in styrofoam takeout boxes with plastic forks.  They have a specialty there called "Jesus Crabs", which are like deviled crabs, but the business is owned by a Christian family, and they don't like the word devil.  They're good.  You can go from a place like that, out in the sticks, to any number of high-end fine-dining places offering what I like to call New Southern cuisine, and you can do it all in one day.  I've mentioned SNOB already, and there are plenty more.  HUSK is next on my list to try.  That place is getting all the buzz right now, and several of my foodie friends that have tried it are raving. I'm sure it's good, I'll have a report soon.

Enjoy your week, and take my advice.  Have a go at getting dressed up to go out every now and again.  It'll make ya feel better.  See y'all...

Sweet booze, ease the pain

Bourbon.

One of life's simple pleasures.  It's the Cognac of the South.  Bourbon is good when you mix it with soda water.  It's good when you mix it with Coca-Cola.  You can cook with it.  It's good on it's own in a snifter after dinner.  In short, Bourbon is just some good sh--!

All Bourbon is whiskey, but only a select bit of whiskey is Bourbon.  There are strict rules to determine what can be called Bourbon.  The mash must be at least 51% corn with other grains added for different flavors, although most Bourbon is more than 2/3rds corn.  There is no minimum aging requirement, but most Bourbon is aged for at least 4 years, in new, charred, American oak barrels.  The proof (alcohol content) ranges from a minimum of 80 to a max of around 160 (40 to 80% alcohol), but anything above about 100 is too "hot" for my taste.  Bourbon can be made anywhere in the US, but is most strongly associated with Bourbon county, Kentucky.

Jim Beam is the biggest name in Bourbon, and they make a range of premium spirits that are a good starting place to sample.  Basil Hayden, Knob Creek, Baker's and Bookers are all good.  My personal favorite right now is another brand, 1792.  Two fingers of this stuff in a snifter is all you need, no mixers required.  Check it out

HERE

and

HERE

A few nights ago I stopped in at one of my favorite restaurants, 39 Rue de Jean, for an after-dinner snifter.  My buddy Junior was working.  I told him I wanted some Bourbon.  He says to me, "Would you like a nice Bourbon, being that it's later in the day?"  I said "Of course".  I had some Knob Creek.  I didn't think anything about it at the time, but later I thought it was kind of quaint that Junior could entertain the notion that the quality of what you're drinking should be determined by what time of day it is.  It helps to understand that Junior, to quote Roy Blount, is the Redneck equivalent of whatever "more Catholic than the Pope" is.  I love him.  His philosophy makes a kind of perverted sense.  If you need to start guzzling Bourbon early in the morning, that's when you want the cheap stuff.

Bringin' home the bacon

Hey y’all!  I am Southern Food Boy.  I wanted to create this blog to have somewhere to share my thoughts and ciphering about one of the greatest cuisines in the world.  Some info about me:  I’m from South Carolina, I live in Charleston, and I had a Southern grandmother that made the best biscuits you could ever taste.  Looking back, I guess my love of Southern food came early on from her.  She’s gone now, and it’s only after growing up and traveling the world that I’ve developed the perspective and the appreciation for what she did.

I drink sweet tea out of a Mason jar, I’m picky about the consistency of pimiento cheese and a fierce advocate for using Duke’s mayonnaise in it, and I’m perfectly comfortable with the concept of using bacon as a “seasoning”.  I like Mountain Dew and boiled peanuts, and I’m happy to know that you can get boiled peanuts at McCrady’s in Charleston, which is not a roadside shack but one of the top fine dining restaurants in town.  I like the Gamecocks, I went to school there.  Catfish is one of my favorite things in the world.  I cook like a big dog.  I have some cred as a Southerner.

I got to see John Edge from Southern Foodways Alliance talk at the Charleston Wine and Food Festival a few years ago.  To paraphrase what he said, Southern Food is not necessarily about recipes, it’s about the stories, the people, the events, and the times that families and friends spend together creating them.  That’s what I’d like to celebrate here.

I’m fortunate to be able to travel the world (quite extensively) with my job, so I’ll be posting about that too.  I always try to make time to seek out the best food wherever I go.  Studying and sampling food is probably one of the most profound ways to gain perspective about another culture, and about your own.  I always bring back some new ideas and influences to spice up my own cooking.

I just got back from a seven-week trip throughout South and Central America and Mexico.  I was dreaming about what I was going to cook when I got back, because the food on that trip was truthfully kind of hit-and-miss.  You have to be very careful about what you eat and drink down there.  I did get to sample some amazing ceviche, and the beef and Malbec in Argentina were both out of this world.  When I came back I picked up a copy of Donald Link’s book Real Cajun, and the first thing I cooked was some seafood gumbo.  I’m pretty excited about the book and that gumbo!  

Click HERE for Real Cajun 

I’ve got some organizing to do, but I’m ready to contribute.  Keep checking back for more.

Y’all take care.