Chicken Fat Spill Shuts Down La. Highway [via torrez del.icio.us]... More

Perique tobacco, 'the 'truffle' of pipe tobacco' according to wikipedia, can only be made in Saint James Parish, Louisiana, and is currently only cultivated on the 16 acres belonging to an old-timer named Percy Martin. Jade Liquors has begun flavoring brandy with it. Never thought I'd hear the words "terroir of the Mississippi river" used in a press release, but I must admit, it's got a tasty ring to it...... More

Alan Richman is a colleague and friend. He is one of our greatest and most celebrated food writers. He is a professional curmudgeon who can be pointed and funny when he sets his sights on appropriate targets. All of that being said, Richman has written a slothful, meanspirited, and myopic piece about New Orleans food, restaurants, and culture in the November GQ. I could go on and on about Richman's shamefully skewed view of New Orleans. But another friend and colleague, Brett Anderson, has written an extremely insightful and cogent response. Please read Richman's piece and Anderson's response and decide for yourself. Chezpim also weighed in on this weighty topic.... More

Galatoire's is (or should I say used to be) one of my favorite New Orleans restaurants. I have had half a dozen meals over the last ten years, and I had never had a bad meal there until two weeks ago. I was with a bunch of restaurant critics from around the country and we just had a dreadful meal. What did we have? Mealy, dry shrimp in many forms and crab meat that tasted suspiciously like it had come from a can; Trout Almandine that was dry and tasteless; and turtle soup that tasted like Campbell's had made it. It's still a cool-looking, timeless kind of place, and it's still possible to have a great time eating there. I... More

All right, I've said what I had to say about looking at the Katrina carnage in New Orleans. Now I'll move on to the food. I made three new discoveries this year. Stanley! (1031 Decatur, 504-)s is a fabulous new breakfast and lunch spot on Decatur Street in the French Quarter. Great banana walnut pancakes topped by a scoop of decent vanilla ice cream and some optional Louisiana cane syrup, and an even better eggs benedict-like concoction with killer fried oyters on top. The fried oysters were so good I think I will do as my friend John T. Edge does when he goes to Stanley's, have a plate of fried oysters for breakfast. I had a disappointing, tasteless roast... More

In the early eighties, when NYC was in dire need of some financial help from the federal government, then President Gerald Ford turned the city down flat. The next day's tabloid headline in NY was: "Ford to NY: Drop Dead!" After spending three days in New Orleans, I have concluded that Bush is saying the same thing to New Orleans. The devastation is so much greater than what I have seen on television. Katrina turned out to be an equal opportunity destroyer. I drove through middle-class white neighborhoods and middle class Black neighborhoods, and working class neighborhoods of every color on this earth, and it was so depressing. There is no water and no electricity and no schools open in... More