A Tale of Two Heavens Blackberry Farm is the most civilized 4,200 acres on the planet. I spent my 10th anniversary at Blackberry Farm a few years ago. I wrote about the visit at length, and continue to talk about it, today. Earlier this month, my wife and I dropped our kids off at summer [...]

Pilgrimages Pilgrimages are typically once-in-a-lifetime events. If one is lucky he orshe might get to make two or three pilgrimages over the course of theirlife. People from all over the world take religious pilgrimages to Israel, Mecca,the Vatican, or Nepal. Golfers live to go to where it all began- St. Andrewsin Scotland. Others would take [...]

Shrimp Season 2008 Mississippi’s shrimp season is open. I was eating oatmeal in my breakfast room watching WLOX’s morning show when the opening-day announcement was made. The television station cut to their on-location camera covering the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and there was one shrimp boat on the water. One boat. I can [...]

What A Wonderful World What a difference a few years make. When my daughter was born— 11 years ago— my wife and I never slowed down. We ate in the same restaurants, visited the same hotels, and flew the same airlines. Other than getting to move to the front of the line when flying Southwest, [...]

The Meat Parade For years I have been hearing about Brazilian steakhouses. I have received several emails and had many discussions with numerous friends and acquaintances about the merits of restaurants that parades protein around the dining room on large metal sticks. “They’re great,” my friends say. “They come to your table with huge skewers [...]

Mexican Cuisine Mexican is my favorite ethnic cuisine. I have vacillated through the years. As a kid, I was into Italian (if you can call spaghetti, lasagna, and pepperoni pizza Italian— and actually, you can’t). In college I was fond of Chinese food, which seemed very exotic at the time. I still like Chinese, but [...]

Ye Olde Foode and Gas-e Costs I paid $100 to fill my gas tank today. Actually, the pump stopped at $99.38, but I kept squeezing the handle, topping it off, and eking the last $.62 out of the pump just to see if our economy had actually reached a point where it takes a clean, [...]

My friends at Turn Row Books in Greenwood, MS spent the entire weekend cooking from New South Grilling. The following is swiped from their blog at http://www.turnrowbooks.typepad.com/: A Weekend of New South GrillingNothing heralds the arrival of summer like a good barbecue. In anticipation of Thursday’s event with popular Mississippi chef Robert St. John, we [...]

Table Fifty-Two CHICAGO— It’s mid May and the tulips are still blooming on Michigan Avenue. I’m up here for a book signing and making full use of my spare time eating my way through the Windy City. Art Smith opened his signature restaurant here a few months ago. Table Fifty-Two is a quaint little eating [...]

Recipe Requests I receive requests for recipes all of the time. For the first 10 years I was in business at the Purple Parrot Café and Crescent City Grill, I wouldn’t give out recipes. Early on, Bon Appetit magazine and Food & Wine magazine asked repeatedly for our Corn and Crab Bisque recipe. I wouldn’t [...]