Regional Goodness
Monday, July 19th, 2010 | daily
Back home in Louisiana where I am for a couple of weeks, I dragged my mother to the farmers’ market where we found, amongst other beauties, an abundance of eggplant of various colors. “I went to Carrabba’s and they told me eggplant parmesan was off the menu because they couldn’t get it,” my mother told me. (And yes, she did feel the need to explain to her locavore daughter why she was even in a Carrabba’s when she lives in one of the most unique food-centric parts of the country.) This is why no one should eat at a chain restaurant. Ever. Because the fact that gorgeous fat eggplants are gushing out of the ground a few feet away is completely irrelevant to a corporation wedded to a cheap national distribution model. I get deeply discouraged at times, until I read articles like this one from the New Orleans Times Picayune about one great effort to revolutionize one small school’s food: http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2010/07/local_school_will_get_fresh_lo.html Or when one of my guys shows me some part of my passionate advocacy had an impact. The last time I heard from Badley it was through a text he sent me: “I’m at a fish market on the Potomac River buying a bushel of Maryland blue crab and a couple of pounds of shrimp from the Gulf. It’s so wild here. Happy 4th.” Happy indeed.
3 Comments to Regional Goodness
wow, look at that produce. I can almost smell the gumbo.
BlairJuly 21, 2010
okra! Fried okra, one of my favorite appetizers of all time.
Speaking of which, reminds me of a recent visit to an amazing Cajun restaurant in Portland called Le Bistro Montage that I think you would absolutely love. Their dinner menu: http://www.montageportland.com/pageContent.aspx?id=5 Last time I went, I decided to get the mixed green salad with their Cajun Caesar dressing and was so pleasantly surprised I’ve been searching for a good recipe all week.
Back to the okra, though: My friend was positive that his jambalaya had “disgusting looking green peppers” that he refused to try. I couldn’t help but imagine what kind of hilariously sarcastic response you could conjure up for this poor unadventurous, food phobic boy.
Still Learning,
Blair
Your photo has me pining for fresh, flavorful, local produce. We’re feasting on seafood just minutes-from-the-sea, paired with produce that is (slowly) barged north to Sitka from Seattle. A big local event is the twice-a-month refrigerated truck that arrives via Alaskan State ferry carrying produce from Chelan, WA. Foraging for fresh berries and sea asparagus is fun, but I miss the easy access to Seattle’s farmers markets. Complaining? not really. I wouldn’t give up the seafood, the cruising, the scenery, the wildlife viewing for anything!
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July 20, 2010