I think of Gulf oysters now and start to fret and crave them more than ever before. For someone who would get nausea on the mere mention of fish and shellfish as a child, raw oysters with hot sauce and fried oyster po’ boys are now a sublime delicacy and this is thanks to the sheer wholesome marvelousness of the Gulf oyster. D and I are heading to New Orleans in August for Rising Tide V and I was hoping to hit Elizabeth’s for one of my favorite dishes: Eggs Florentine with fried oysters. In the immortal words of Bender the robot, “Me thinks we be boned.”
… his four companies went bankrupt during the 1980s oil bust and he moved from Houston to Louisiana and started a potato chip business.
… Mr. Zappe bought the former Faucheux Chevrolet dealership in Gramercy where he began making a thicker-cut, kettle-fried potato chip cooked in peanut oil.
I’m sure there’ s a moral in there somewhere, but I’m too busy stuffing my face with Cajun Crawtators, readily available in this small Ohio town by the way, to figure it out. (Have I ever told you about the time someone said these chips tasted like kettle chips with barbeque sauce and some old bay seasoning thrown in and I confiscated their bag? Heresy.)
The latest release from the murky head of Michael Homan (not to be confused with Tête d’Adrastos): GEAUXJIRA!
Director’s note: “As we made our movie, thousands of barrels of oil leaked every day on the Gulf of Mexico’s floor, causing the biggest environmental disaster in our lifetime. Moreover, we’re terrified about the ramifications the oil will have on our economy and lives. In making a parody there is a danger of giving the impression that we find this calamity to be funny. In fact, the opposite is true. We’re angry and frightened about the uncertain impact of this disaster.”
It’s an instant classic: god bless the Jurassic age of 2 million years ago, the Who Dat Boom, Pirate Persephone and the firing of the Crystal Cannons. Beyond priceless, indeed.
The Chaister will be visiting New Orleans two times in the next six weeks. Yes, I am so incredibly jealous!
As a very strict vegan, she wants to know where to eat. Omnivore here doesn’t have this problem, but I do recall it was very hard to find restaurants in NOLA for my fanatically vegetarian mother, brother and sister-in-law. At least back in 2004.
Any NOLA dining recommendations for vegetarians and vegans?
1. Finally, Wisconsin is recognized for something we’re really, really good at. Thanks to Nathan at Flowing Data for posting this FloatingSheep gem.
Flowing Data | Where Bars Trump Grocery Stores: “Red dots represent locations where there are more bars than grocery stores, based on results from the Google Maps API. The Midwest takes their drinking seriously.” Actually, it’s just Wisconsin that does. Central Minnesota, Chicago and southeast Illinois lightweights need not apply.
Dubbed MORVEL, for Mid-Ocean Ridge VELocity (because much of the data comes from the mid-ocean ridges) it was created by University of Wisconsin-Madison geophysicist Chuck DeMets and collaborators Richard Gordon of Rice University and Donald Argus of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
MORVEL lets allows users model the relative movements of 25 interlocking tectonic plates that account for 97 percent of the Earth’s surface. It’s being presented in the April issue of Geophysical Journal International and is based on work the scientists have been doing for the past 20 years.
A dynamic three-dimensional puzzle of planetary proportions! Chuck was on my MS thesis committee and we used older versions of MORVEL in our graduate geophysics classes. Glad to see this great research and teaching aid get the attention it deserves.
Yeah, I’m on a bit of a food tear today. Fellow Vatul and multiple-award-winning film producer, Harini, reminded me in a series of tweets that today is Rama Navami, or what Hindus celebrate as the birthday of Lord Rama, the seventh incarnation of Vishnu the Preserver. New Orleanians get this and some others don’t: Hindus eat certain, special foods on special religious occasions. On Rama Navami, the food of choice is kosumalli and drinks are panakam and neer moru. Who knows, maybe Rama favored these items, I’ll have to consult my mother. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure northern Wisconsinites think Jesus liked Tom ‘n’ Jerrys because we sure drink a lot of them come Christmas time.
Nandita Iyer has a culturally insightful post up about Rama Navami foods and their recipes. Her cucumber kosumalli recipe sounds delicious and easy to make, so I hope she doesn’t mind if I reproduce it here. The 1/2 cup of moong dal is chock full of protein and so tasty with the cucumber and spices. Here is Nandita Iyer’s Cucumber Kosumalli for your Rama Navami:
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup moong dal
1 large or 2 medium cucumbers, peeled, finely diced
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp salt
Few sprigs of coriander leaves, washed and finely chopped
1 tsp oil or ghee
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
pinch of asafoetida granules
1-2 tbsp of fresh coconut scrapings for garnishing
INSTRUCTIONS
Wash and soak 1/2 cup yellow moong dal (husked and split moong) in 2-3 cups of water for 1 hour. Drain in a mesh strainer for 15 minutes or so.
In a medium bowl, mix the chopped cucumber, lemon juice, salt, coriander leaves and toss well.
In a small tempering ladle, heat 1 tsp ghee or oil – splutter the mustard seeds, add the asafoetida, stir for a few seconds and toss this on the kosumalli.
Garnish with fresh coconut scrapings.
Please help some innocent living things by supporting the efforts of The International Bird Rescue Center in locating, rescuing, and cleaning wildlife affected by the ongoing oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Click on the pelican to donate.
About
Maitri is a geoscientist, technologist and blogger who believes science education, the Green Bay Packers, New Orleans, Project Gutenberg, the power of story, honoring the past while tinkering on the future and pie will save the world.
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