Dear Friends  We have exciting news to report this month. The Southern Food and Beverage Museum and the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in New Orleans have reached an agreement in principle that SoFAB will open its permanent location of exhibits celebrating the food, drink and cultural foodways of the American South at the CAC. SoFAB will be opening on the third floor of the CAC and also operating a soda fountain/gift shop on the ground floor. There are still renovations and planning to be completed before SoFAB can open.
"We are extremely excited about this unique opportunity to collaborate with the CAC to promote and preserve the foodways and culture of the South," said SoFab president Elizabeth Williams. SoFAB has been seeking a permanent home for 2 1/2 years. In the meantime, it has been operating as a moveable feast, producing a number of acclaimed exhibits.
The CAC, which occupies the ground and second floors of the K & B building at 900 Camp St., is a multidimensional art space that includes galleries, dance studio, meeting rooms and auditorium. “The addition of SoFAB to the building will add another cultural layer to what we do at the CAC,” says Jay Weigel, director of the CAC. As the city continues to recover from the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, the Southern Food and Beverage Museum and the Contemporary Arts Center are forming a partnership that not only represents economic development because it will create new jobs, but because the exhibits will be an opportunity to showcase New Orleans and Louisiana through its foodways and special products."
Read all about it in the New Orleans Times- Picayune.
Learn more about the CAC.
| Fall Brings New Flavors, Beginnings |  | October is a great month for beginnings – a new school year has recently arrived and the beginning of autumn foods. It is a terrific time to renew our appreciation for Southern food.
It’s time to plan to attend the annual symposium of the Southern Foodways Alliance in Oxford, Mississippi.
It’s time to listen to the Lee Brothers Boiled Peanut Hour live every Friday at 10 a.m. Eastern on Martha Stewart Living Radio (Sirius Satellite Radio channel 112).
There is still time to buy a copy of Christopher Blake’s book, Red Beans and Rice-ly Yours. You can purchase a copy online.
Explore the new food website, Bitegeist: The Culinary Spirit of Our Time |
| Recipe: Pan Seared Gulf Shrimp tossed with Penne | |  Nestled inside the Arkansas Arts Center, Best Impressions Restaurant is dishing up New World fusion cuisine for art and food lovers alike. Executive Chef Mark Elliotte, C.C., enjoys bringing together ingredients of different cultures and cuisines to achieve his unique style of food. With a menu that represents European, Asian and American flavors, Chef Elliotte carefully crafts and skillfully prepares his cuisine to please palates of all types.
Chef Elliotte’s cuisine is exemplified in this pan-seared Gulf shrimp pasta recipe. The fusion of southern ingredients with French influences brings together the refreshing tastes of the summer season.
Best Impressions is open for lunch only from Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. It is open for dinner only for special events. Best Impressions is located in the Arkansas Arts Center at 501 East Ninth Street in Little Rock. Free parking is available on MacArthur Circle or in the museum’s parking lot. Reservations are not required. For additional information, call (501) 907-5946 or visit www.bestimpressionsrestaurant.com. Best Impressions also hosts on- and off-site catering events, wine dinners and special events.
Pan Seared Gulf Shrimp tossed with Penne Pasta, Portobello Mushrooms, Fresh Asparagus, Caramelized Red Onions, and Sun-dried Tomatoes in a Cognac Cream Sauce
Serves 4
Ingredients:
16 large shrimp, peeled and de-veined
1-tablespoon olive oil
1-teaspoon sliced garlic
16 oz cooked penne pasta
2 large Portobello caps diced
1 bunch fresh asparagus cut into ½ inch slices
1 medium red onion thinly sliced, cooked down and caramelized
½ cup oil packed sun-dried tomatoes, pureed
1-pint heavy cream
¼ cup cognac
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preparations:
Season shrimp with salt and pepper
Cook with the olive oil in a hot sauté pan over medium-high heat for 2 or 3 minutes
Add garlic and cook for 1 minute
Add mushrooms, asparagus and onions and cook for 1 minute
Add cream, sun-dried tomato puree, and pasta. Cook until sauce thickens,
Then add the cognac and cook for a few minutes more.
~ Compiled by Addie C. King |
| Review of Ruby Slippers Cookbook | | Ruby Slippers Cookbook: Life, Culture, Family and Food after Katrina
by Amy Cyrex Sins
Ruby Slippers Cookbook is an important book. It is a reflection of one person and her family and friends and their experience of Hurricane Katrina. It is not a book written by a journalist, an historian or other professional commentator. It is a personal story. It makes no attempt to represent a global view of the experience of the hurricane. It is a document that preserves the family’s story.
Sins wanted to knock together the heels of ruby slippers in the manner of Dorothy and just come home after the storm and the flood. She shares the journey with us, especially the meals, food and food memories with the reader. She does this through narrative, pictures and recipes in a very attractive and easy to read book. Beginning with dinner in Chicago at Moto, complete with pictures from the restaurant, and ending with the plea to restore coastal Louisiana, Sins reconstructs the yearnings, the tragedies and the hopes of her family and friends. Food helped them through their struggles, serving as the glue that made life seem normal. This self-published book is a fundraising effort for the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana.
One of the charming aspects of this book is the way that Sins captures the personal twist on general traditions. There is nothing generic about this book. It is full of FEMA trailers, food traditions that are adapted during the diaspora that provided identity and comfort. It demonstrates the way in which food restores family and will restore New Orleans.
~ Review by Liz Williams
Buy the Ruby Slippers Cookbook |
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