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This is the second column in a three-part series on Chicago restaurants CHICAGO— In the 1990s one of Saturday Night Live’s most popular recurring skits was a group of “pure” Chicagoans who were superfans of the Chicago Bears football team. The characters sat around a table in a sports bar discussing Windy City sports andContinue reading “The Best Donut in Chicago”

Chicago— When lists of the top restaurant cities in America are published, Chicago is usually listed in the top five. My personal list would look something like this: 1.) New York, 2.) New Orleans, 3.) Chicago,  4.) San Francisco, 5.) Houston or Los Angeles. New York is a no-brainer. So many of the world’s topContinue reading “Best Burger On the Planet In My Kind Of Town”

Years ago someone asked me, “Where were you when JFK was shot?” My first reaction was— do I look that old? Followed by, “I have no clue. I was only two-years old.” I do remember that I was sitting on the floor of my den watching television when I heard about Martin Luther King’s assassinationContinue reading “Simply The Best”

The weather is beginning to warm and we are heading into sandwich season. Fall and winter are soup seasons. When the weather cools we look for something that will stick to our ribs, warm us, and comfort us. In the heat of Mississippi summers— the lighter the better, and— sandwiches rule the day. I haveContinue reading “Sandwich Season”

Mississippi’s greatest pastimes are football, hunting, and fishing. I love football on all levels. It’s a game I know very well, it’s a game I played, and it’s a game that I enjoy watching my son play. Football has always been, and always will be, one of the greatest joys of my life, and oneContinue reading “Sheepshead and Tripletail Beware! Turkeys and Duck, You Are Safe”

Of all of the joys and pleasures in life, the unforeseen and unplanned ones seem to ring the truest. Parenting is filled with challenges and victories mixed with alternating moments of pride and frustration. Sometimes in the middle of the fray it’s hard to see the forest for the trees. When a parent has teenagers,Continue reading “Rocking and Carpooling and Rocking Out While Carpooling”

Chefs are typically known for a signature dish. If someone mentioned boeuf bourguignon, I would immediately think of Julia Child. If I want to know how to cook a classic bucatini all’Amariciana I’ll Google Mario Batali’s recipe. For pork buns I’m going with David Chang. For biscuits, that light and airy staple of the SouthernContinue reading “Biscuit Ladies”

“Rusty, get out those sandwiches I got at the gas station. I’m so hungry I could eat a sandwich from a gas station.” – Clark Griswold, “National Lampoon’s Vacation” I spent six years of my life eating gas station sandwiches. My elementary school had a line-‘em-up-with-a-tray-and-go-through-the-line-and-get-a-room-temperature-half-pint-of-milk-and-eat-greens-on-the-day-they-mowed-the-grass type cafeteria. My junior high and high school hadContinue reading “Gas-Station Sandwiches, Cafeteria Pizza, and Grocery-Store Sushi— One Out of Three Ain’t Bad”

The pudding family tree has many cousins— summer puddings, Christmas puddings, red puddings, and white puddings. There is hog’s pudding and it’s Scottish ancestor: Haggis. I’m not sure what Cheshire Pudding is, but it reminds me of a cat, so I have always stayed away from it. Yorkshire Pudding is a hit in England, butContinue reading “Bread Puddings”