Text 26081, 102 rader
Skriven 2015-04-16 14:58:27 av Ruth Haffly (1:396/45.28)
  Kommentar till text 26023 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: sad evolutions 515
==========================
Hi Michael,

 RH> Possibly there. The one bbq place in town offered free samples one
 RH> night before they actually opened. They hadn't gotten their final
 RH> kitchen inspection so couldn't charge for food but it made for good PR.
 RH> We've gone back quite often, and the food has stayed top quality. The

 ML> That's a nice story on both counts.

And if we can host a picnic here next year, we'll make sure it's a place
to either visit or get take out from so you can sample some of its
goodies. A while ago they put fried (yellow) squash on the menu as a
temporary basis; it's now on the permanent listing. Don't know where
they source it from, but it's good, even in winter.


 RH> other bbq place in town that opened a few months before, started off
 RH> with really good food, both meat and sides. Next time we went, the meat
 RH> was still good but sides had taken a big nose dive in quality. Third,

 ML> And to balance it a not nice story. Maybe once the other place
 ML> opened, this one's proprietors just decided to give up? Or
 ML> didn't realize that cutting corners is a precipitously slippery
 ML> slope.

I would guess more the latter than the former. The one that folded, was
probably too ambitious and when he wasn't getting the clientelle, cut
corners. That led to fewer customers, evenetually closing the doors.
Sad, because the meat was good.


 RH> and last time we went, the meat wasn't as good as before, sides were
 RH> still of the lesser quality. We never went back and they closed some
 RH> months later.

 ML> Sad story, but survival of the fittest and all that, what?

The only other bbq place we have in town is Smithfield Chicken and
Barbeque, a small chain (nly in eastern NC). THey're good, but other
than the old movie posters and all featuring Ava Gardner, the place
could pass for a fast food eatery. The sweet tea is tooth itching sweet;
I'd order half sweet, half unsweet to make it drinkable. Also, the one
and only time I got banana pudding, it was nothing like real southern
banana pudding, just banana flavored pudding with no bananas or vanilla
wafers and an artificial whipped cream topping istead of meraingue.

 RH> You win some, you lose some. I don't try a lot of "fancy" things, but
 RH> do a good job on basics. I got most all of my cooking mistakes out of
 RH> my system before getting married--but not all, as we found out. (G)

 ML> There's always the time and opportunity for making new and
 ML> better mistakes, as I keep being reminded.

True, but the beginner cook mistakes were all out of my system. I knew
how to do the basics and how to reheat left overs in pre microwave days.
(G)

 ML> who made it in a different and altogether better way.
 ML> People tried to pry the secret out of him, and he sort of
 ML> gave it away, only I think he lied by leaving out a crucial
 ML> secret ingredient. Forty years later I still think of that
 RH> He didn't want his version to become common and messed up, the way so
 RH> many do when the chef lets out the recipe.

 ML> Hard to say what his motivation was, if there was any: maybe
 ML> he simply assumed something (as many good cooks do) was
 ML> self-explanatory or not worth mentioning.

That could be also. As with sewing, I have to stop and think how to
write out instructions to the lowest common denominator reader can
follow them easily.

 ML> dish and how he made it. Sad to say, the dish wasn't on
 ML> the menu when I last visited his restaurant (not recently -
 ML> with Sacerdote shortly before he left the echo for good),
 ML> as he was sort of retired and had not vouchsafed the recipe
 ML> to his children; and it will, unless it is in notes left
 ML> behind when he died a year ago. I suspect that his secret
 ML> addition might have had a dab of hoisin and/or caramelized
 ML> onion.
 RH> I presume it still hasn't been found among the papers from his estate.

 ML> I wouldn't know, having known him for all these years as
 ML> an acquaintance and a customer but not having much truck
 ML> with his kids (the ones who ran the restaurant pretty hard
 ML> into the ground).

As we're wondering with a restaurant in the town I grew up in--it was
put up for sale last year. If it sells, will the recipies be sold with
it? An old Swiss gentleman is the owner and cook--he's good but will the
next owner/cook be just as good or what?

---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net  FIDO 1:396/45.28


... I am positive that a definite maybe is probably in order.

--- PPoint 3.01
 * Origin: Sew! That's My Point (1:396/45.28)