gourmet hot dogs

I worked up an appetite browsing the booths at the Telfair Art Show---especially the artful chocolates (http://telfair.org/museum-events/specialevents/art-fair/), so I headed out looking for something 
new.

 I found SubDogs HotDoggery at 5 West Broughton.

http://www.subdogshotdoggery.com/

Now Closed!

As you can see from the menu pictured above, SubDogs has something for anyone who has the occasional craving for a hot dog.  I was overwhelmed by the choices, but the friendly waitress at the bar helped by checking all the "favorites" on a menu:  The Godfather, The Scooter, The Wingdinger, The Fist Pump, The Super Brah, and The Drunken Dog.

That narrowed it down a bit.  I finally settled on the "killer brat topped with Jack Daniels sauteed onions and champagne Dijon aioli"...yep, The Drunken Dog.  The cook delivered it to me before I even had time to fill my cup with Diet Coke.  Listed at $8.50 for the MD (meal deal includes regular fries and a fountain drink), the dog was tucked inside a poppy seed sub roll and covered with the onions and aioli.  Yummy!  The fries were regular fries with the addition of sea salt.

The music in the SubDoggery, a radio station tuned to what billed itself as "rap and r and b," was appalling to me but had the lady next me up and dancing while she waited for her dog.

The SubDoggery:  just average

music:  appalling

The Telfair Art Fair:  excellent
music:  outstanding

Bottles 'n' Cans
http://bottlesncans.com/about_us.html
photos by ME


Georgia Kyle
http://www.georgiakyle.com/index


The Trainwrecks
http://thetrainwrecksband.com/

teachers on tequila

Turn the teachers loose with a few gallons of Margaritas on the night before a holiday and watch out!  Our "book club"  gathered at Rancho Alegre, the Cuban restaurant that is one of our favorites and the tequila began to flow.  Our group included a Minnesotan, a Hawaiian, a New Yorker, and good ole Southern gals.  It had been a stressful four-day week leading up to the Veterans Day day off from school.  We needed to relax.  And we did for a while...

This is the fried whole Tilapia, with lime, rice, plantains, and black beans.  Just the right amount of crunch in the skin and juicy meat just below.

The only drawback to Rancho Alegre:  this building has concrete walls and floors and high ceilings that make things very loud. In addition, there were six children there whose parents were on cell phones and otherwise too preoccupied to realize that the little urchins were running around between tables and stomping on the stage with their tiny boot heels.

The book clubbers mentioned quietly to each other that the children should stay at their tables.  They needed to be under the direct supervision of parents who were not so preoccupied that they were oblivious to the havoc being wreaked by their precious little ones.  We stood it as long as we could and then suddenly one of our group (guess which one) stepped up to the mother (who by this time was laughing and clapping gleefully at her children's antics) and asked her very politely to take them back to their table.  The mother meekly complied with the request.

Behind us was a young man who had been talking on a cell phone the entire time he had been in the restaurant.  He turned out to be the father of the two little boys who were still on the stage creating a ruckus.  When his order came, he walked up to our table and announced:  You must be Republicans!  We were  caught off-guard and didn't really know how to reply to this statement.  He never realized that he was talking to a bunch of teachers who were just plain tired of disciplining KIDS!

When we left, the owner (who had been looking aghast throughout the antics of the badly-behaved children) thanked us for taking the discipline into our own hands.  I'm sure he'd been having visions of broken windows, broken crockery, and a lawsuit or two as the kids tore around and around through the restaurant.

http://www.ranchoalegrecuban.com/

Note:  The book club may or may not have read a book when we get together.  Even if we have assigned ourselves a book to read, after a few Margaritas we sometimes forget that there is a book to discuss.




Great food/bad behavior

who is NOT aware?

November has been declared Pimento Cheese Awareness Month:
http://gardenandgun.com/blog/pimento-cheese




I was under the assumption that everyone on earth was already aware that this is a delicacy that should have its own food group.  Growning up, I never knew that pimento cheese *gasp* could be bought in a store.  My mother made ours by hand, mixed only with her famous homemade mayonnaise.

She used a twenty pound grinder that we attached to the wooden kitchen table with metal screws that we turned and turned until they were tight enough to hold the grinder upright.  She'd slice from a huge wedge of red rind (hoop) cheese she bought from the butcher at Bennett's Grocery Store.  We were not allowed to squeeze these slices into the grinder, for fear we'd squeeze our own fingers right on to the sharp edges of the grater.



We were allowed to turn the handle round and round, watching with excitement as the grated cheese wound its way out the spout of the grater into my grandmother's heavy 1940's Depression glass bowl used only for cheese grating.

I may not cook, but I still make my pimento and cheese the old-fashioned way.  Minus the 20 lb. grater.




http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6877304