Fried Brain Sandwich

It's been about two months since I started this blog and I thought I should take a moment to see what I've done and to perhaps say something about what I'm trying to do.

According to my blogging software I've posted eighteen articles (this one will be the nineteenth). Most have been substantial; either recipes, commentaries, or reviews. A minority have been shorter pieces; food news or plugs for upcoming events. This is about right. It is not one of my goals to be a food news relay. Ian Froeb's blog Gut Check at the Riverfront Times is doing a good job of that (along with many other things).

I am surprised that I have only done three recipes so far. I started off thinking that it would be the main focus. The twin punches of summer heat and vacation have kept me out of the kitchen, so I think the balance will shift. The flip side is that I have done more review articles. St. Louis already has a number of review alternatives. Ian puts out one a week at the RFT as does Joe Bonwich in the Post Dispatch. Joe and Ann Pollack do a sort of dinning journal on their blog. And Sauce Magazine has any number of features promoting restaurants. I don't feel compelled to offer a regular review. But when I get excited about places I visit (new or old) I will share it.

A couple of friends have asked why I have written so much about Hispanic food in the first two months. That's easy. I got excited. I found El Scorcho, for example, to be innovative, imaginative, and fun. The place has a clear conception of what it wants to be and executes that conception well. The fact that it also happens to be a hole-in-the-wall taqueria shouldn't get in the way of it being a really good restaurant. The vision thing (as Bush the Elder use to say) in particular is something that I think is under-represented in restaurant evaluation. The best restaurants without exception embody a clear and compelling vision that can be seen in details at every level. And of course the very best restaurants execute those details to perfection. On the other hand, I have the most disconcerting experiences were the vision is confused, faded, farmed out, or simply missing. I have eaten in more places that I care to think about where the simple act of pairing an appetizer with an entree is best done by throwing two darts at the menu.

So a clear vision of what you are combined with good execution gets me excited about a restaurant. A great example is my piece on Archibald's Bar B. Q. in Tuscaloosa. But of course not all visions are the same, so there are bonus points to be awarded for the quality of the vision -- the equivalent in diving to the degree-of-difficulty multiplier.

Going forward, I have a number of pieces in different stages of completeness -- an article on why you think more broadly about food brands, some thoughts about the movie Ratatouille, and some troubling news about food in New Orleans. I have a recipe I'm working on for an Oyster and Jerusalem Artichoke Bisque. There are plenty of notes on the "fancy" places we ate at in Columbia and Birmingham. And I also want to write about the Australian Wine meal I had at the Ritz.

Finally, some background about me. When I wrote to Alanna Kellogg asking her to include me on her blog A Veggie Venture, she wrote back a sweet note asking, "Um, who are you?" I am from New Orleans. I came to St. Louis in 1992 to attend graduate school at Washington University and have lived here since. I started in the restaurant business out of high school at the elegant Pontchartrain Hotel. I moved on to a restaurant in the French Quarter called Cafe Sbisa and became the head chef there when I was 21. My mother and I opened a restaurant together in uptown New Orleans called The Upperline. It will celebrate its 25th anniversary in January 2008. I left the restaurant business to return to school and because I think it is for the young of knee and back.