Keeping in line with the Southern Food mission, I will talk about food, but in a very different manner.  This topic of discussion is completely self -centered, has nothing to do with history and is purely self- indulgent.

Wondering what it is?  They are red when cooked, look like a lobster and go by the alternative name of mudbugs.  CRAWFISH!!!!!! I love CRAWFISH!  I love their color, their taste and the way they bring people together as you put off their little heads.

I had never eaten crawfish before coming to New Orleans. I heard people try to explain how to eat them and how to avoid choking on their shells if you peel them wrong.  But I put those stories aside as I walked up to 2 large rowboats full of crawfish at a Tulane Grad School party.  I was stunned.

Me: “A boat!? You actually put them in a boat?”

Crawfish lady: “Yes, a boat, it’s the best way to feed a crowd and always get a laugh.”

As I look into the boats I see sausages AND potatoes. I’m in Heaven. I tell the lady I’ll take some of everything.  I guess she could see the excitement (and fear) in my eyes as I looked at the crawfish.  As she put my scoop full on my plate, she kindly asked if I had ever eaten them. I replied “no” and then got myself a lesson on how to eat the little guys. I sat down with my plate and dug in.   The sausages and potatoes were great and then I moved on to the big pile of red things on my plate.  I hesitated.  It felt a bit barbaric to rip the heads off and twist their bodies to get the shell off, but after that first bite….. WHOA!  After that I was ripping crawfish heads off right and left! By the end, my fingers were covered with little pieces of shell and crawfish “stuff” that wet wipes could not take off.  I was a happy camper after that.  I was still hungry after peeling for an hour, so I got a big chocolate ice cream cone and finished it all.  Bottom line- I love crawfish and chocolate ice cream.  The End.

Told you it was self-indulgent.

- Meaghan Reid, Tulane AmeriCorps VISTA. For more information on history, exhibits, and volunteer opportunities, please visit the Southern Food and Beverage Museum’ s website.

The Southern Food and Beverage Museum is preparing for the upcoming kids culinary camp this summer. Instead of holding the daily camp at the museum, we are going out into the community to teach kids healthy eating habits and recipes. This year we will be having the camp at the Sojouner Truth Community Center. In addition to working with the community center we are partnering with Share Our Strength. Share Our Strength devotes their time to making the issue of feeding children their priority. The camp is conveniently located near several neighborhoods, which allows children greater access to the activities. As always the kids culinary camp is free to all children 2nd- 5th grade. By having the camp in a residential area and be free of charge we are opening ourselves to a larger audience. Each day the kids will be making tasty dishes that are prepared by a public health intern. They will learn how to read recipes to prepare a healthy dish correctly. After the classes are done for the day we are going to have extra food to feed to neighborhood children who did not participate in the camp. This is a great way to show our connection and care to the community. We feel very fortunate to be able to host the camp at the community center and look forward to hopefully having the camp there in the future. I am currently reading over resumes sent to me by public health graduate students interested in being the intern for the job (Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine). We are also having interns from across the country come to help us out this summer. I feel that the children will truly benefit from attending the culinary camp and being able to share the healthy food information with their family.

- Meaghan Reid, Tulane AmeriCorps VISTA. For more information on history, exhibits, and volunteer opportunities, please visit the Southern Food and Beverage Museum’ s website.

We had full intentions of going to Mother’s after checking into our hotel, the Inn on Bourbon, but after seeing the line around the block, we decided to try to get to the Southern Food and Beverage Museum and eat around there. We ended up eating at some sports grill in the Riverwalk Mall which was grossly overpriced for the bar food that it was (although my broccoli bites were awesome…but that’s probably just because I love cheese and broccoli). And I swear, if that waitress had made one more little comment about me not being allowed to sip on my friends’ drinks, I was about to chug Kelundra’s Blue Sunset Whatever drink just to spite her. I GET IT. I CAN’T DRINK. I ALSO DON’T. CHILL OUT.

We then made our way across the mall to the Museum, with a few stops to buy souvenirs for family members. All I have to say is that I’m wicked glad that the admission was only $4 for us because the Museum was a ripoff. A lot of reading and some not-so-impressive displays. Maybe if they got a few more things? I don’t know. Their website designer deserves some major kudos because he/she made it look way more legit.

After I got the obligatory Snoball, we headed over towards Jackson Square to check out Le Petit Theatre, the oldest community theatre in the world (?). They’re still doing shows! We got to get a peak inside the theatre – I think the guy said it was a 250-seat house. It just looked like an old theatre, nothing special. But it felt SO COOL to be inside of. A little piece of history.

We made our way back to the hotel for a super sneaky check-in (so as not to have to pay the additional $35 per every extra guest past the second) and got ready to meet Auntie for dinner at Port of Call.

We had a blast with Auntie & Uncle Vincent; my cousins, Anthony and Jacob; and Anthony’s wife, Mandy. Awesome, awesome people. And not to mention awesome, awesome drinks – the Huma Huma, the Monsoon, the Goombay Punch, etc. – that knocked a few people off their feet.

Conversation included a ton of love advice from my sassy Auntie. We recounted some awesome advice from her best friend, Jan (I call her Nan); when asked if she knew how to change a tire, she gestured to her breastesses and said, “I’ll never have to know how to do anything with these.” Auntie then told us the story of how the t-shirt/underwear PJ combo was what won her her man and they’ve been happily married ever since she was 18.

Swimming in giggles (oh, the poetry!) we vacated the restaurant for fear of being too obnoxious and loud (ok, not reall), and headed down Bourbon for the real fun. My family stayed with us for a while before they had to go home and go to sleep. They all work for Boh Bros., a huge New Orleans construction company, and have to be on site at like 4 AM. (How big? My uncle was one of the first people back after “the Storm” – what they all call Hurricane Katrina. He spent those first few days walking along the broken levee in the dark with a flashlight to see where it had broken, navigating debris, dead animals, and human corpses. Their still working on the huge project to reinforce and strengthen the levees all along the Mississippi in the city.)

But, before everyone left, we had a ton of fun at a Karaoke bar. After the Saladinos left, we spent about another hour there – we danced and then Rachel and Pam sang “Just a Girl” (No Doubt) in front of a ton of strangers.

…We decided to leave the events of the night to the knowledge of our alter-egos – Alice, Rachel, Kathy, and Pam. They know what happened, but, as far as we know, Adetinpo, Rebecca, Kelundra, and Paige have never been to Bourbon Street. But there were Grenades, Hurricanes, and an awesome cover band at Razzoo’s involved.

Quotes of the night:

“Excuse me sir, could you take your penis out of my friend?”

“Some of us have breastesses and some of us have assesses.”

Not to worry, the staff at SoFAB has it covered!  While our President Liz is busy making the decisions, Joe running the store, and Kelsey keeping the museum’s technology up to date- I have been working on a very large grant.

The Big Read Grant of 2011- 2012 is due on February 1 at 4 pm sharp.  The Big Read will give us a grant to go about the community and reach reluctant readers. We will show them why reading is so important in today’s word. The book we have picked is The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers.  I have finished writing 10 pages of facts, plans, programming and why we are a good fit for the grant.  To add a special touch, SoFAB will connect the food and table traditions in the book to the traditions of today’s South.   And what a better way to reach readers that in a city that revolves around the culture of food?

In addition to the grant, I have been working with the city of Gretna to table at the Child Safety Day in April.  I will be teaching kids to stay away from the fast food, candy bars and fried foods.  I’ll be teaching the children the necessary nutritional facts about the foods they need to be eating.  They will also be learning how to make whole wheat pasta.  The kids will have to learn to write the recipe and then learn how to roll the dough and form the pasta.  We are molding little Emeril Lagasse’s by the day here!  Hopefully the next generation of chefs will have healthy foods on the mind.  And the future chefs that were in my events, they better thank me .

In addition to all the work that the staff has been doing, I have to give a shout out to the interns! They are wonderful and love to work at the museum. We have two interns working with our collections and archives and one intern making her own BBQ exhibit!

It’s been a very busy start to the New Year.  We are paving the way for the year to come and it looks awesome.

PS- If I get the Big Read Grant… I would like everyone to start calling me Big Reid (get it) because I’m pretty cool.

- Meaghan Reid, Tulane AmeriCorps VISTA.

For more information on history, exhibits, and volunteer opportunities, please visit the Southern Food and Beverage Museum’ s website.

My time at Southern Food and Beverage Museum has been amazing!  Being the first VISTA for the museum is a challenge, but a rewarding challenge. I have had to not only “learn the ropes,” but I had to make the “ropes.”  I continue everyday to make new connections, teach people our mission and help the museum grow and expand. The days here at SoFAB are filled with everything food and drink!

Which isn’t a bad thing right?

Cookbooks, recipes, absinthe (we don’t drink it here), seafood, beignets, po boys, and oysters.. oh my! We strive to teach people the importance of these foods and the culture that revolves around them.  New Orleans is a food mecca and there is no better place to have a museum dedicated to its tasty treats.

One of the major projects I ‘ve been working on is our children’s programming. We have monthly classes where Girl Scouts come in and make things like bread dough, pasta dough, gingerbread houses and the art of pickling.  Things get chaotic but its fun.  Yes, dough gets thrown and you have to watch kids with big knives but in the end they learn the skills to cook for themselves and how to be healthy. Being a wonderful cook myself makes it easy to teach kids the importance of the life skill.

I have loved to cook since my early days in St. Louis.  Making gooey butter cake, pork steak and killer mostacholi is a St. Louis staple and a must in the Reid household.  My mother, also a wonderful cook, taught me well.   Thus, SoFAB has been a perfect fit for me, although the food is much different!

I still miss the St. Louis classics but hearing the steamboats and seeing the Mississippi River keeps me close to home.

- Meaghan Reid, Tulane AmeriCorps VISTA.

For more information on history, exhibits, and volunteer opportunities, please visit the Southern Food and Beverage Museum’ s website.

The Words in Food Symposium is the 2nd annual event of this sort.  I attended the first one, which was small and intellectually invigorating.  It also featured some outstanding food.  The next one promises to be even better.  Slightly bigger, but still small enough for good discussions.  As the CFP below indicates, my department at UNO is helping organize this symposium.  The Southern Food and Beverage Museum is a growing and vigorous institution (with internships, if you have interested students), with rapidly expanding collections from all over the south.  They even restored a vintage bar from Bruning’s Restaurant here in New Orleans, a famous seafood establishment on Lake Ponchartrain that did not survive Katrina.  Check out their web site to learn more about their growing collections and other events.

And consider coming to New Orleans for the symposium.  Details below.

Call for Papers

Words in Food Symposium

Eating in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Basin

Southern Food and Beverage Museum, New Orleans

The Southern Food and Beverage Museum, New Orleans, in partnership with the Department of Anthropology at the University of New Orleans and the Institute for the Study of Culinary Cultures at Dillard University is extending a call for papers for its second annual Words in Food Symposium. The symposium will occur on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, 2010.

The theme of the 2010 symposium is Eating in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Basin. Scholars, researchers, food writers and others will present information about the cross influences in the region, the ecology and cultural exchanges, as well as other issues and ideas. Presentations will focus primarily on the countries that have a coast on the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Participation in the symposium is open to all. We intend to include food presentations as well as oral presentations at this event.

The purpose of these conference presentations is to provide high-quality, innovative education and idea sharing for professionals. Our multiple day, multiple track format offers a self-directed, facilitated learning environment with education sessions, interactive forums, and panel discussions. Presentation sessions, designed to transcend all industry sectors, focus on current and emerging issues, best practices, and challenges about food and food-related issues.

Due to the number of proposals expected, we will not be able to accept every proposal, and we may combine individual proposals with similar topics to create a Panel Session. We anticipate numerous presenters. We hope you understand with these numbers, we are unable to cover expenses, so speakers are expected to pay travel expenses. We encourage innovative panels and presentations.

Please provide a description of your idea for a presentation or a 90-minute panel discussion in 250 words or less. There are no fees required to submit a proposal.

• Please provide contact information: Name; Title; Affiliation/Organization; Address; Phone Number; Fax Number; Email Address; Website Address (if applicable for your topic or organization). If you are proposing a Panel Presentation, please provide the same contact information for each speaker and the moderator.
• At the present time, proposals must be in English only.

• Proposals should describe original work.
• All proposals must be non-sales or marketing orientated.
• Please list any anticipated AV equipment needs.
• Proposals are due July 15, 2010.

If accepted, expect to provide a full paper for publication in the Conference Proceedings. If PowerPoint for slide presentations are submitted for inclusion in the Proceedings, a narrative description must accompany them. Proceeding papers are due in electronic form during or immediately following the conference.

To submit by email, send your proposal and any electronic attachments to Chris Smith, chris@southernfood.org.

Posted by David Beriss