Text 15262, 94 rader
Skriven 2008-10-19 08:29:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av MANNY ROTHSTEIN
Ärende: picnic stuff 74
=======================
 -=> Manny Rothstein said to Jim Weller <=-

 ->  MR> I guess we are just going to have to have a winter picnic on 
 ->  MR> the east coast just for when you can travel. Or maybe a nice 
 ->  MR> warm southern state with good BBQ and live fish market bugs.
 -> Both are tempting. Actually I'd like to take a month or so and do a
 -> coastal crawl from Maine to Atlanta, tasting regional specialties
 -> as I went. And I would get a couple of extra Echo picnics going
 -> (combined with Foodwine foodstocks and a Chile-Head hot lucks).
 -> But it won't be this year; I can't afford to take that long off work
 -> and I haven't even applied for a passport yet.

Question: has Weller never had a passport? Of course, until
recently, it was easy to travel the Americas without one.
People bemoan the change, but it's all part and parcel with
the overall changes in this hemisphere (which are mirrored
upside-down in Europe and, to some extent, in the ASEAN
countries).

 MR> I would like to see some, not all, future picnics devoted to
 MR> peak food experiences.

I'd be inclined not to plan around any such, though if
there were one within striking distance of a candidate
home base, it would be a point in its favor. I'm still
leery of picnics in locations that nobody has roots in,
especially as there are budgetary factors for many of
the posters here. The Vegas idea might have worked a
few years ago when prices there were more reasonable,
but it seemed way too homeless for me. That being said,
my high school reunion is coming up, and there are two
camps - one advocating Vegas, the other hoping to build
a house for Habitat for Humanity (I'd be good with either
option, despite my high school having no ties to either).

 Like meeting at worthy food events
 MR> like the Gilroy Garlic Festival here in California, maybe

Having been to dozens of these events, I don't see any of
them as peak experiences. People might be tickled by going
to one, and if there were a consensus in favor of visiting
Gilroy (I hate Gilroy from the one day I spent there) or
some other Food TV destination I'd not stand in the way.
A major commercial food expo might also be interesting.

 MR> having a picnic at a state fair someplace where the food is
 MR> outstanding,

If one could find such. The state fare, if you will, tends to
be uninspired, from what I've seen (5 or 6 in the last decade).
I'm guessing that more out-of-the-way states might have more
out-of-the-way food, but then getting there would be the problem.

 doing a great BBQ crawl in a good BBQ state or
 MR> a fried chicken crawl someplace famous for great competing
 MR> chicken places.

Now you're talking. The late great Dinner Table group, being
largely deep south-oriented, had events in places like New
Orleans, a great chicken city, Atlanta, and Chattanooga. I
could see hitting Memphis or the Austin area for the Q -
manageable in distance for many of the people here and in
cost for others (thank you, the hated Southwest Airlines).

 Cities famous for great restaurants like
 MR> Montreal, or maybe a picnic based on the CIA in NY or 
 MR> California. Maybe we could prearrange tours or auditing
 MR> some cooking classes.

This may be good for some of the folks, and FloTho's picnic
in the late '90s was a lot of fun. But we have budget issues
here, too. "Great" restaurants are more often than not
costly experiences.

 Of course, the socializing is the most
 MR> important part of a picnic, but that is the easiest thing
 MR> to achieve. Staying in a group, eating together and 
 MR> scheduling shmoozing time guarantees the socializing.
 MR> I see no conflict between eating really well and having a 
 MR> good visit. I wonder how others feel about this idea?

The past picnics have provided some really good eating.
The Dungeness jacuzzis, the suckling pig in Hemmingford,
the various Lobsterfests and Clam Crawls, the Forges
experience, including some amazing wines and some really
good tamales as I recall - I don't think that these would
have been exceeded at a festival or state fair, or at a
restaurant within an order of magnitude of my price range.
And I've never, he said modestly, had better shish kebab
than from avoiding the spiedie fest in Binghamton this year.

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