While we were away...

Yes it's been 9 months without a blog post. And the only ones we have to blame are ourselves and Kyle Potter...always Kyle. So much blogworthy stuff happened, but with out lack of blogging we are forced to remember them only as whispers and tears. Here however are some noteworthy items and a sincere promise to start again.

I. We moved from Atlanta to Brooklyn

II. We ate a lot of donuts and found a new favorite shop: Glory Hole in Toronto

III. Finally visited Falling Water













IV. And took this picture of reading Lytard in Detroit...nuf said.

Charleston Chew

Lilly and I have started a sorta tradition of taking the weekend after New Years and heading off in search of excellent southern food. You can see me above with the soul food sign. This gives me complete credibility to talk about southern food. This tradition is only sort of a tradition because we've only done it once before when we took a trip to Savannah in 2012 and I'm a bit disingenuous because we look for good food all year.  This year, however, we went to Charleston SC. It was by far one of our best food stops to date and will be hard to top if the tradition continues. Here is a sampling of some of best bites we had. 

Here is a fantastic buttermilk fried quail and cornbread from Glass Onion just outside of downtown Charleston on the Savannah Highway. 

Local clams and house made sausage at Two Boroughs Larder near the upper king neighborhood in Charleston proper. And of course it's washed down with SC's own Blenheim ginger beer. 

The real highlight however was our dinner at Husk in downtown Charleston. We had been hearing a lot of hype about this place, but found that it even exceeded the hype. It really was the best southern-style meal we've had. Above is our sampling as it arrived at our table. Below I'll mention each plate.

Peanut glazed spare ribs.

 Fried gulf oysters with bib lettuce and heirloom tomatoes.

 Local SC blades edge oysters with creme fraiche and NC sturgeon caviar.

 Shrimp and grits with spicy pigs ear.

 Hands down the best fried green tomatoes we've ever had. Served with pimento cheese and cured ham.

We also did some touristy stuff. 

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Checked out the river!

 We heard from a lot of locals that the best bathroom in town was in City Hall. This was strange because we never asked for bathroom advice. The Charlestonians were very proud of this lavatory. So we had to go and take a picture. We'll let you be the judge.

Lilly outside the house where general Washington stayed on a visit at the end of the 18th century. 

On shore near the battle site that began the civil war. I kept reminding Lilly that Gov. Ramsay of MN after hearing that Ft. Sumter had been attacked volunteered our state to be the first union troops in the war. It felt like coming home. 

A visit to the dental history museum. It's that small box building behind me. Mostly 19th century foot powered drills and other upsetting implements. NO PICTURES ALLOWED!!!!!

 A pillar taken from the giants causeway in Ireland. Why? We don't want to know.

A fine tradition done right.

makeitrain/moneywhippin/howiroll

REFRESH TO GET FRESH

Gif courtesy of the fine craftsmanship of  friend Orlando Thompson II.  

From Hunt to Lunch

Most men would bring home the bacon, I however, brought home the mallard. 

 I tagged along on the Lampe family's Thanksgiving duck hunt.

 Here's a shot of William and Rob after a morning in the rice fields.

And Granddaddy on his way back from the river blinds.  The weather was perfect. Cloudless and in the 50's for our whole stay. 

The ducks were plentiful too.  Below Rob and William are cleaning the morning kill.

 The group shot a variety of different species, both diving river ducks and wading puddle ducks.

 Since they are wild ducks they are very lean. The amount of meat from any one duck is relatively small. The best meat is the breast and can be easily removed with a few incisions along the rib cage. Even so I still struggled to butcher them well. You can see my imperfect job.


This still yielded several very nice breasts which we brined in salt water to draw out excess blood.

 We then wrapped them in cling wrap and sous-vide them in 130 degree water for 4 minutes, then rested them for 4 minutes.

 Then we seared them for one minute a side until browned. This left them still very red, tender, and bloody.

They were very tasty, and quite unlike any farm raised duck.
We lost track of which breast came from which species of duck, but you can see they were all slightly different.  Size, species, and diet all create different qualities to the meat.

A delicious rustic meal worth all the effort.

Fall 2012 Round Up

Our fall has been obscenely busy. I've started teaching and Lilly has been writing-up a storm. She is now a proud member of the AICA a professional association for art critics, while I'm now a active member of the ASA the association for aesthetics and the philosophy of art. In contrast to all this hoity-toity artsy stuff we've also been exploring the rural south more. Somewhere in the whirlwind of art, writing, and southern living we forgot to blog. But just so everyone knows we are still eating well and having fun here is a best of Fall 2012. 

FRIENDS WORTH NOTING:

Lilly hanging with artist NikitaGale at a studio visit. 

A  hike up Stone Mountain with my sister Chloe and our friend Sarah...

...where we found this heady vandalism on the path.

Posing with my favorite photographer. Minnesota's own Alec Soth.

We were visited by a owl.  Lilly is convinced this was an omen. I'm convinced he shouldn't be parked there.

Lilly and brothers on the Atlanta Belt Line.

Looking overly concerned at a Jason Kofke show. I actually did like it I swear.

FOOD WORTH MENTIONING:

New ramen lunch menu at Miso Izakaya in Atlanta, GA. Awesome.

An obscene chimichonga at Cosmic Cantina in Durham, NC. 

Fried chicken plate at Smithfield Chicken and BBQ in Smithfield, NC.

Lilly, made the Philly Cheese Steak recipe from John T. Edge's new foodtruck cookbook. http://truckfoodcookbook.tumblr.com/

Whole hog BBQ in a field by Jim N' Nicks BBQ in Trinity, AL.

Hanger steak at One Eared Stag in Atlanta, GA.

Braised pork cheeks with grits at The National in Athens, GA.

A proper plate of eastern NC BBQ with sweet tea. Wilber's in Kinston, NC.

Nye's awesome ice cream sandwiches from Wilmington, NC, purchased at Reid's in Charlotte, NC. Above are strawberry shortcake, key lime, and chocolate coconut. 

Making the burnswick stew for Thanksgiving - a Lampe trandition. A mixture of chicken, pulled pork, venison sausage, and veggies. No TURKEY ALLOWED!

SOUTH WORTH SOUTHING:

Lilly showed those cans she meant business with her 22. Smithfield, NC. 

A visit to the Lampe Malphrus sawmill. Here boards are being dried in one of their massive kilns. Smithfield NC.

A concert from the Gees Bend Singers of Alabama. A group of quilters and spiritual singers. A really wonderful experience. At the venue Grocery on Home in Atlanta, GA.

Cotton picking with fashion designers Natalie Chanin of Alabama Chanin and Billy Reid.

Duck hunting with the Lampe cousins. Outside of Oriental, NC.  Rob and the retriever Colt heading home at dusk from a river blind.

Looks kinda like a Lands End catalog.

Lots more of course. But this at least gives a sense of the charachter and flavor of our fall.

More soon.

-A