Midwestern USA and food

When TPP first moved to the midwest in the fall of 1970, nobody knew what a bagel was. To a kid even one from upstate NY, no bagels was an indication of a lack of civilization, and even if they had been around, no one would have eaten them with lox. Bagels are now fairly common although they still do not seem as good as the ones from NYC bagel shops. So grad school, then a post-doc, and then a job all within an adjacent 4 state area of the midwest means TPP has spent 2/3s of his life in this area. Things have gotten a lot more sophisticated in terms of food even in small college cities such as ours, but a couple of general trends persist. People in this area are generally not big fans of seafood, or even fresh-water fish, and they don't like their food spicy. So when you put the two together, well, you can sort the "natives" from the "fureners" real easy. The graduate students are in charge of a fall grad student & faculty picnic, and they decided that having a crayfish (crawdad) boil would be a good idea. So they got them some Cajun spices and borrowed TPP's cooker and they went to town: potatoes, chicken, sausage, sweet corn, and crawfish, not necessarily in that order, but boiled to a nice spicy perfection! There was even some shrimp butter for the corn, an authentic southern LA recipe. Plenty of other food existed, and let me say, some of the Indian grad students bring the best items to pot-lucks like this, so you could easily see who had a pile of shells and who didn't ("natives"). Of course this just meant there were more for the more adventurous eaters. TPP used to bring a load (50-60) pounds of crawfish back from Baton Rouge each spring break having used collaborative research as an excuse to travel south. But it has been awhile since having had crawfish aplenty. So it was sort of fun. You could also tell the adventurous but inexperienced eaters who needed some technique lessons. The students only made one mistake, they waited too late to make their hush puppies and everone was filled up by the time those goodies made their appearance. The lesson is this: embrace new experiences, especially food.

A day late and a maragarita short

It's been a long, busy weekend for the Phactors.  Cinco de Mayo just disappeared while we were being wined and dined, semi-feted as alumni, as TPP gave a lecture on behalf of a retiring mentor, curiously, a dual last official lecture for both of us. So here the Phactors be, sitting in the Syracuse airport drinking margaritas, a day late, waiting for transport back to the mid-west. Spring here is at least 8 days behind our very late mid-west spring. You notice other differences as well. Steamed clams. Yes, this area is close enough to salt water that people eat steamed clams, nice, plump, sweet ones, and washed down with a Genesee cream ale, sort of a nostalgic beverage from our college years.  Seafood is a lot more common and diverse. So is the Italian food. A favorite Italian deli was totally unchanged from our college days over 45 years ago, as was a candy store, and a submarine sandwich shop, and the two best Italian restaurants in town (we ate in both). The student body is more diverse than the mid-west too; this is New York State. Sunday night there was a spectacular sunset over Lake Ontario to the west and a massive rainbow to the east. As always our college and college town, Oswego, New York, was a combination of some things never change and new things, both good and bad. Oswego is a bit more of some things never change than lots of places it seems. A favorite lakeside food stand must be in a time warp. It was wonderful. New science facilities had TPP completely disoriented, but the college has a new greenhouse that needs his help; a care package will be forth coming. And the lecture was well received, so mission accomplished.  

New Orleans restaurant limited time review

New Orleans is one of those cities for eating out; lots of very good restaurants and lots of seafood.   So TPP has done his best, mostly with the help of Mrs. Phactor and the recommendations of others, to sample several restaurants that are well above average.  Our choices included two well established classics and two up and coming restaurants: Mulates, NOLA, SoBou, and Kingfish. Take these comments for what they are worth; but TPP would not steer you wrong.
Mulates is old New Orleans, Cajun home cooking and live Cajun music.  Definitely family friendly and a reasonable value; you will not leave hungry; the portions are big, too big really.  But it is a classic.  You can't get a better value on food and music especially if you have kids.  Who's in the kitchen?  Someone's Cajun mother.  Here's the near perfect red beans and rice with Andouille sausage.  NOLA - This is Emeril Lagasse's casual restaurant, and it too is now a classic.  This is a good as Cajun food can get.  A few more progressive elements do sneak onto the menu like blueberry-lavender sorbet (quite memorable).  Without question this is fine dining based on Cajun classics.  TPP had a garlic-parmesan cheese crusted filet of drum.  Wonderful, although two decades ago no one would have thought of eating drum, but so it goes in a world of overfishing.  Mrs. Phactor had smoked duck, a very rich dish.  SoBou (south of Bourbon) is a relatively young restaurant that in terms of ambiance seems a bit out of place in the French Quarter.  It's décor would be more at home in New York.  The menu is sort of a New Orleans fusion.  The BBQ pork ribs came with a habanero infused cotton candy that was pretty funky, but very good.  TPP had an heirloom tomato salad with beans and corn that was excellent.  Also his Old Fashioned cocktail was the best he's ever been served, although Stephanie Izzard's (Girl and a Goat) was a close second.  Last, but not least, Kingfish is only 4 months in business, but you would never know; it was running on all cylinders. TPP would call this modern New Orleans from the nicely renovated but period décor, the Huey Long memorabilia, and an up-dated menu.  Rather than sports, the TV over the bar was playing old Doris Day movies.  Go figure, but a nice change of pace.  TPP got the best mint julep ever.  All four of us rated our meals superior, flavorful, attractive, nicely presented, and just plain excellent.  It was impossible to pick the best dish.  A warm loaf of fresh bread came to the table in its paper wrapper along with a zesty pimento cheese spread.  This was a thoroughly enjoyable dining experience.  The heat and humidity this week have been a might oppressive, but NO remains irrepressible.  Love this place.  TPP should mention that the waiters and waitresses here are the most personable, friendly, and professional you will ever experience, and it seems quite genuine, not just smoozing for tips.  Let TPP know if you've been in any of these places.

Too busy to blog

Yes, when in high vacation mode the Phactor has too little time to blog, much. Some of the reasons include: steamed mussels, boiled lobster, fried clams, lobster omelet, scallops, and, well you get the idea, because when you live in the great Midwest for very long, unless you were born and bred in the great Midwest, you build up a seafood deficit that takes quite a bit of effort to erase. And of course sun, sand, and seawater can add greatly to your appetite, and thirst. So you take advantage of the local catch, and brews, that didn’t have to walk, hitch a ride, or fly on a plane, or worse yet, be frozen and thawed, to get to the great Midwest. So the whole point is to eat fresh seafood until it comes out your ears. So dear readers do forgive my limited sharing while my R&R continues. It's a big deficit.