Dear Friends Thanks to everyone for your well wishes on our permanent home at 900 Camp St., New Orleans. You can help by contacting us with your stories, menus, artifacts and books. It would be great if you would join or make a donation. We are all looking forward to our opening party, terrific exhibits and great programming.
| Remembrances, Connections and Thanksgiving |  | November is a month for remembrance, for expressing thanks and reconnecting around a table. In that spirit, we'd like to honor the memories of two friends of Southern food who passed on last month.
R.W. Apple, the iconic N.Y. Times journalist who wrote lovingly about Southern food and his adventures in dining, died Oct. 4 at age 71.
Lou Giglio, the brand ambassador for Southern Comfort, travelled the globe extolling the pleasures of Southern food and beverage. Giglio passed Oct. 20 at age 57.
Meanwhile this month, you can help 89-year-old, award-winning New Orleans restaurant owner Willie Mae Seaton get back in her home for the holidays. The Southern Foodways Alliance is organizing a work party Nov. 17-19. For info, go to www.southernfoodways.com.
In other news:
We'd like to warmly welcome SoFAB's new board members Linton Hopkins, Pat Garner and Mary Jane Saunders.
SoFAB's Menu Project was recently featured on NPR's Weekend Edition. If you missed the interview, you can hear it here.
Learn about the first grape of the South, the Norton (Cynthiana) grape, at Louisiana's Pontchartrain Vineyards.
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.
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| Recipe: Tarpon Bend's Mamasita Martini | |  Fun, friendly and flavorsome are the principal words used to describe Tarpon Bend Raw Bar and Grill. Whether you visit as a couple or with a group of friends, Tarpon Bend will gratify your taste buds as well as provide a pleasant, laid-back atmosphere for your dining needs. Hearty portions of fresh seafood as well as salads, sandwiches and entrees round out the tasty menu selections. The bar menu features home-blended selections that are sure to please any mixed drink lover.
Tarpon Bend is located at 65 Miracle Mile in Coral Gables, Fla. Hours of operation are Monday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Tuesday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Wednesday and Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. with bar service until 2 a.m.; Friday 11:30 a.m. to midnight with bar service until 2 a.m.; Saturday noon to midnight with bar service until 2 a.m. and Sunday noon to 10 p.m. Phone number for the restaurant is (305) 444-3210. For a full menu or a virtual tour visit www.tarponbend.com.
The mamasita margarita is a special house drink of the Tarpon Bend. It is light and refreshing and pairs well with items from the raw bar including the seafood sampler or the ceviche trilogy. Both items are refreshing for the warm evenings that linger into November in southern Florida. Enjoy!
Mamasita Martini
Yield: One Drink
Ingredients:
5 fresh strawberries, stems removed
˝ oz. simple syrup
2 oz. Sour Apple Pucker
1.5 oz. Grey Goose vodka
1 oz. sweet and sour mix
1 cup ice
Directions
Muddle the strawberries and simply syrup then combine with other ingredients in a martini shaker. Shake and lightly strain into a chilled, sugar-lined martini glass. Garnish with a strawberry.
~ Compiled by Addie C. King |
| Review of MoonPie | | MoonPie: Biography of an Out-of-this-World Snack
by David Magee
It is so nice to realize that things that are Southern icons are often tasty. We Southerners care about eating and all of the personal values and social interaction that eating together embodies. But some things can be enjoyed individually or in a group. One of those things – icon, tasty treat – is a MoonPie.
David Magee describes all of the memories of youth and comfort and simple pleasure that this unsophisticated treat evokes. He rhapsodizes over that marshmallow filling, the graham cookies and the flavored coating. Whether in a lunch pail in a coal mine, a double decker pie in a vending machine or a modern mini-pie, Magee manages to tell the history of 20th century retailing through the MoonPie.
Besides the product itself, a central part of the story is the family owners of the Chattanooga Bakery, whose only product is the MoonPie. The warm sense of loyalty and sweet whimsy that embraces the company is a reflection of the way the South views itself. Whether this company really represents the South is open to debate, and perhaps another book.
This books is as whimsical as a banana MoonPie. I couldn’t find any irony between the lines. It is a very sweet tribute to a sweet treat.
~ Review by Liz Williams
Buy the MoonPie: Biography of an Out-of-this-World |
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