Captain, O Captain (and Commander)

August is a month full of remembering and celebrating my foodie father, who was born in August and died in August, just shy of his 70th birthday.

One of his favorite birthdays was with his best friend (a man who also loves food and just happens to have been born on the same day in the same year as dad - they always thought that was fun) when they celebrated at the chef's table at Commander's Palace in New Orleans. The four of them, mom and dad and their friends, had a wonderful time but for dad it was a real dream come true. Check out the current menu at CP.

Even More Manly

Way back when, I wrote about Manish Water, soup from Jamaica designed to make a man outta ya.

For some reason, I seem to be on a strange roll here, leaning towards the masculine. Here is the manish breakfast, London cafe style. It was me, several men of the construction world, and a business man or two going back to their blue collar roots. The place was steamy on a cold, rainy summer's day. I read a whodunnit that would have made my dad proud - the whole breakfast was in honor of him, a working man if there ever was one, though by late in life he had reached his aspiration: to feel wealthy enough to not wear socks with his deck shoes. Hey, everybody has their thing, right? Anyway, this breakfast and this post are dedicated to Carl George Norman, Jr. a fabulous cook who nevertheless enjoyed a greasy spoon or two in his all-too-short life. August 26, 1935 - August 5, 2005. I raise a fork to ya, dad.

19.7.08 Manish Water

What is manish water, you ask?

For full details and a picture you can go here. But I'm warning you...it's graphic and no ethical vegetarians need apply.

I didn't have the manish water when we went to get some take-away from the Jamaican place on the main street near the house. As you'll read in the article, I really have no need of it. Probably tasty, but I'm not convinced. The "stew beef" and rice was very tasty indeed and although it did nothing for my libido, it was a fun food foray into a new cuisine. The only downside is that the flavor in Jamaican food often comes from lashing of MSG, which always makes me feel like I'm this close to losing control of my limbs and makes my brain wobbly as well.

The borough of Hackney in London where we live is well populated with multi-generation Jamaican immigrants. Theirs is a fascinating history, which we just learned more about at the Hackney Museum.