In March of 2012, my step son returned from Folly Beach with the firm held conviction that he had witnessed first hand the presence of a sea monster. It was, in truth, a dinosaur, or at least one of the closest living relatives- an Atlantic sturgeon. Sturgeon have evolved slowly in the 100 million years …
Tables of the Reconstruction
On Friday, I was excited to attend the latest meeting of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation at the Clemson Organic Research Station. Typical of the meetings I've attended in the past, much of the information was frankly over my head- I'm a cook, not a geneticist. But the mission of the CGRF seems to gear …
Sous Vide- Another Palmetto State First
Thank you Mr. Nathan Myhrvold and the Modernist Cuisine / Intellectual Ventures team for elucidating. I'm just throwing this out there: The great chefs of contemporary cuisine, those demi gods in their modernist temples of high gastronomy- Achatz, the Adrias, Aduriz, Blumenthal, Dufresne, Keller and Robuchon among many others, are all standing on the shoulders of three giants. Anderson, …
Phuong Vietnamese Restaurant
When I first returned to Charleston in 2011, one of my immediate misgivings was the lack of Vietnamese restaurants. Having lived here in the 90's, I was used to treks to Ashley Phosphate for Cha Gio (crispy spring rolls wrapped in lettuce cups with fresh herbs), Goi Cuon (fresh spring rolls wrapped in rice paper) …
Video: Mercado San Miguel
The Mercado San Miguel was featured in the Madrid episode of No Reservations. This was the first meal I ate in Spain. Galician percebes, or (gooseneck barnacles), elvers (baby eels), cockles (berbecheros) and of course the famous jamon Iberico Bellota (the black hooved, acorn fed ham from the Dehesa). If you should find yourself in …
Farmer’s Market Haul
A Soccarat for Grendel
Soccarat: the elusive and ethereal crust of rice that forms at the bottom of the paella pan. Impassioned fans of the dish will literally fight over this, much in the same way as the impassioned football fans of FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. On the particular night in question, more than 16 years ago, we …
TV is fun! http://ow.ly/l1TqO
TV is fun! http://ow.ly/l1TqO
The Grendel Sleeps Tonight. Joseph Hewett, 1977-2013
Saddened to hear this week of the passing of my friend Joseph Hewett.I met Joe as part of the Lake Gordon Mafia, when I was working as a tour guide. We'd host weekly throwdowns - Joe and I would cook, Josh Ivey would grab bread from Dinardo's, a bottle of Mendoza and pull out some …
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An Importance of Whelks
Yesterday, I finally picked up Ben Shewry's Origin book down at Heirloom Books. Wild. Foraged. Hyper-local. This is one look at the future of fine dining in the near century. Intensely inspiring. Of course, he's working with a roto vap and a few things I don't have access to - but that's technique. It's his …