THE GURGLING COD

Hey App State - did you eat yet?

Welcome, Mountaineers! Enjoy your visit. Honestly, at this point, a 2007 reboot would probably hasten along the inevitable Dabo exit, so do us a favor and win. 

As a public service, a few spots to consider if you are visiting:

First and foremost, everything will take longer. There is all kinds of construction on and off campus, and generally unchecked growth that has made College ave, Clemson's main drag, basically untenable as a thoroughfare even on regular weekdays. The flip side is that there are more good things to eat and drink outside of the immediate campus/stadium footprint. 

To the east of campus, just off of the Issaqueena exit on 123 is Patrick Square, a new residential development that seems to double in size every month. It does have a retail core, which features Kite Hill Brewing, with two Clemson alums serving up excellent traditional beers, with light fare to accompany. It's not a sports bar, but they do put Clemson games on. There is lots of outdoor seating, which is a plus these days. Also pet and kid friendly, if you are rolling with a posse. Patrick Sq. also has Rick Erwin's, a very steakhouse steakhouse, and Joe's NYC pizza, which is ok.

West of campus, and not far from Death Valley, is a new shopping center called Hartwell Village. It has a Petco and an Aldi! It also has a Five Guys, Popeye's, Starbucks, and a solid ramen spot called Iso Iso. I have not been over there on a game day, but I imagine it would be relatively manageable, and as a bonus, an ambitious park and walk to the game. If you want proof that God has a sense of humor, the Popeye's is right across a parking lot from NewSpring, a controversial megachurch. (The Jesus Chicken place is down on 123, and effectively inaccessible on game days.)

South of campus in Pendleton is Brooklyn Style Pizza on the Square in Pendleton has quite good pizza, and also a bookstore, for any Poindexters you brought with you from Boone. The Pendleton Candy Co. is indescribable.

North of campus are two excellent Mexican spots. Texana is a traditional taqueria that is more popular with local laborers than with students, which should tell you something. The Mexican is in downtown Central, and does a quesabirria that will require a nap from you. 

If you are going to the game, you will be downtown. The crucial spots for adults are Nick's Tavern and Deli, which has an extensive array of beers and decent food, and since recently, liquor drinks. Its reputation as the bar for gays/democrats/English professors tends to keep the kids named Trey puking on your shoes quotient to a minimum. Next door is Sloan St. Tap Room, a drinker's bar owned by Jimmy Howard, son of legendary Clemson coach Frank Howard. If elders drinking dollar drafts and cursing profusely is your vibe, SSTR is for you! Postgame, the late night chaos at Todaro's Pizza is worth the trip all by itself. 

In any case, don't forget to tip your bartenders and servers.

Edward Bellamy would have hated DoorDash

In 1888, Edward Bellamy published a novel called Looking Backward. As a novel it is not great. But it was popular at the time, and I have had fun teaching it over the years. It's been a few years, but a named Julian West falls asleep in 1888, and wakes up in the year 2000, to discover that the strife and discord of the late 19th century has given way to a socialist utopia. The majority of the novel is Julian's host, Dr. Leete, explaining how various things like jobs  and money work, as Julian asks various incredulous questions. It's a bit of a lot, and and it's also a weirdly neoliberal socialist utopia, as the magic of the market is what makes everything run smoothly. 

There are two moments that stick with me. First, Julian and Dr. Leete are out for a walk, and it starts raining. Immediately, an awning unfurls over the sidewalk. Julian is incredulous, but Dr. Leete explains that this way is much more efficient than everyone carrying umbrellas. Dr. Leete's finishing move here is to mention a famous painting of umbrellas in the rain from Julian's time, and to explain that in 2000, the painting reads as an allegory of the selfish individualism of the late 19th century. 

The other moment is the first time Dr. Leete takes Julian and the family to one of the neighborhood refectories. Dr. Leete explains that it is more efficient and pleasanter to enjoy meals that are centrally prepared and communally served than for each household to have to contend with cooking and cleaning meals for itself.

Like many of the expedients in Bellamy's novel, it is possible to think of objections. At the same time, he has a point. In our house, I am the one who cooks. Sometimes, I get sick of cooking. But except for pizza, and occasionally Chinese, I am not interested in takeout. I seem to be a holdout in this regard, in that DoorDash, UberEats etc seem to be one of those things that we got during the pandemic and is never going away. I am not a chef, but I do care about the food I cook. I can think of many things I cook that I would not want anyone to eat after 20 minutes in someone's car. A grilled cheese with five miles on the odometer is a hate crime, for instance. Chef can tweeze the microgreens all he wants, but after a spin in somebody's RAV4, it's not gonna matter. But it seems that many diners expect the restaurants they frequent to make their menu available to go.

From a food standpoint, all of this is bad. The economics are bad for workers, and bad for restaurants. More broadly, it also seems like a move toward an umbrella model, and away from an awning model. DoorDash, etc, mean more time by ourselves, and less time interacting with people. That seems bad. 

Chili Crisp/Chili Pride Details

The whole story is below. If you just want to get your mitts on the chili crisp, here is the link.

Sometimes, I make chili crisp at home. It's good stuff, and different from Lao Gan Ma, the only commercial brand allowed in our house, for reasons. It is a hassle to make, and messy, and involves some involved ingredient sourcing, but sometimes you just gotta. 

Our friends Spencer and Holly are fans of this product, and they just raised One Million Dollars for refugees, which is Not Bad. I made a batch, and sent them 2 jars, one of which got demolished by UPS. In the various back and forth re this catastrophe, also mentioned on the podcast they do with Ryan Nanni, Jason Kirk, and Michael "Killer Beez" Surber, the Shutdown Fullcast. Some other folks saw, and were interested in how to get a jar of chili crisp I make. I did not have an answer for them until the other day. 

My student, call her M, teaches high school, and does roller derby in rural South Carolina. She is also, wait for it, a lesbian, and joyfully so. Recently, a substitute took it upon themselves to write several notes, incl Bible verses, encouraging her to Repent, and stop loving the woman she loves, and, IDK, thrust herself into the rural SC 20-something hetero dating pool. 

Well, that got my attention. One useful thing I have learned from Evangelicals is the idea of "time, treasure, and talent," that we all have, differently distributed, and that we are differently willing or able to put to a good use. What they forget to mention is the forth side of that triangle, which is "spite." (For Charity Bowl donors, this is not news.) So I got back in the kitchen, and have six fresh jars of homemade chili crisp, for sale to good homes. This batch slaps. Milder than some, but I nailed the shallots and garlic. By "for sale," I mean "you have to make a donation to the Trevor Project." This batch is called Chili Pride, to avoid loud and litigious NYC food people. 

Most of the folks I know who are interested are internet friends, and I don't have access to their 1040s. Some of y'all could drop my mortgage payment to the Trevor Project w/o breaking a sweat; others of you would have to stretch out to cover my costs. So, there are tiers. 

2 jars are for the first folks who commit to donating $25-$50,

2 jars for folks who commit to donating $50-$250,

2 jars for folks who commit to donating "astonish me."

I will go first come/first serve at each tier. I will shut down the poll when all spots are filled. Important: I do not want to disappoint anyone, so please just for now put the number you want to donate, and if you get a jar, I will let you know. If you want to pull the trigger on a donation to the Trevor Project just because, I am not mad at that, but please understand I can't promise a jar for every donation.

Also: I am getting coached up on UPS proof packaging by the good folks at Silver Lake Syrups. You could do worse than order some of their 2024 vintage syrup from our trees before it sells out. 

Anyway, here, again, is the form. https://forms.gle/uXwGq4vPi8N77teZ7

Valentine Dinner 101

(I am teaching a large lecture class this semester, and thus have a platform to speak to a larger audience regarding important matters. These include, but are not limited to, early American literature. Recently, my spiritual guide Holly Anderson shared her wisdom regarding how to buy flowers. (tl;dr: tell an actual florist what you want, and let them cook. Subscribe to Channel 6 for more pearls of wisdom.)

I know how important this discourse is, because, living in a college town as I do, I have seen young men in Publix at 6:30 pm, fighting over whatever floral material remains. It's the thought that counts, but a pussywillow branch and a slightly deflated 49ers balloon does not say "I am a thoughtful person, and thus worthy of your affection." 

Inspired by this, I wanted to address another Valentines Pitfall, which is trying to go out to dinner on Valentines Day. Don't. As such, I was moved to consider a meal a young person might prepare for their beloved with fairly limited experience and resources. 

My solution: Steak with pan sauce and a Caesar salad. I shared this with the Youths, and welcome your thoughts. 

For the kitchen. 

You can buy an 8" chef knife at Publix for about $10. It's not an heirloom, but it will be the sharp knife you need, and may well not have. 

 

 

 

 

For the salad

Romaine (either 1 loose head or a pack of 3 hearts)

A tin of anchovies. 

1 egg

1 lemon

Extra virgin olive oil (Publix brand or similar is fine.) 

Garlic

Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce

Tabasco sauce

Whole parmesan (don't get the stuff in the can)

Pumpernickel croutons

For the steak & pan sauce

1-2 NY strips (or other steak)

1 8 oz container of sliced mushrooms (Baby Bella, or Shiitake, if you are feeling fancy)

1 shallot (or 1/2 onion)

1 box chicken stock

1/2 cup wine (if you are able to purchase legally) 

2 teaspoons of canola oil

1 tablespoons butter

Baked potatoes.

2 russet potatoes

Sour cream

Chives (optional)

Dessert: 

Ice cream sandwiches.

Cocoa powder

1) Preheat your oven for the baked potatoes. Poke the potatoes a few times with a fork. I find 40 minutes at 425 does the trick, but ovens vary a lot. If you have to microwave, start with 4 minutes or so, and check until a knife enters with no resistance. Start the potatoes, and set a timer on your phone for 40 minutes. At 40 minutes, do the knife test. Let them cook a bit longer if they need it. Don't forget to turn the oven off. 

2) Remove the steak from wrapper, and salt and pepper both sides more aggressively than you think you should. Set on counter where it is not accessible to any pet. 

3) Remove any gross looking parts from your romaine. Cut into 3/4" slices, perpendicular to the long axis. Rinse the lettuce well in a large bowl, drain, and get it as dry as possible. Steal 2 (clean) bath towels for this if you need. You don't want wet lettuce. 

4) Make the salad dressing.

• Crack the egg in a small bowl, and using your fingers, transfer the yolk to a medium bowl. It's ok if a little bit of white gets in there. If it goes horribly wrong, try again with another egg. 
• Crack the anchovy tin open, and add the oil to the bowl with the yolk. Use a fork to combine.
• Squeeze half a lemon into the bowl. Use a fork to combine.
• Mince 1-2 cloves of garlic, and add to bowl. 
• Chop the anchovies as small as you can and add to the bowl. (Some people say they don't like anchovies, but the flavor is critical to this salad. If there are objections, stop here and go to Cookout. They are open late.)
• Add about 1/3 of a cup of olive oil, stirring as you pour. The goal is to have an emulsified dressing, ie the egg and the oil are combined. This is a picture of hollandaise, but it's the same idea - you want your dressing to look like the one on the left, not the one on the right. 
• Add about a handful of grated Parmesan cheese. Ideally, you got the real Italian stuff, but domestic is ok here. Stir to combine.
• Add a few dashes of Worcestershire, and a few dashes of Tabasco, and some pepper. Taste it. It might need more lemon, or more parm, or more Worcestershire or Tabasco. Taste as you cook! 

5) Prep the pan sauce. Mince  your 1/2 onion or shallot, and chop your mushrooms into 1/4" chunks. Make sure your wine and stock are handy.  

66) Cook the steak. This part is certainly the most stressful. (This process can produce smoke, so you may want to open a window and/or disconnect your smoke detector.) The Internet is full of men (almost always men) with very strong opinions about steak. Feel free to do your own research. What works for me is getting a pan (ideally cast iron, but avoid using nonstick) as hot as it can get, adding a splash of canola oil, cooking the steak for 2 minutes, flipping it, cooking the other side for 2 minutes, then removing it to a plate, where you can check doneness a couple of ways. Turn the heat off, but leave the pan on the stove. You can cut and peek to see if the steak looks the way you want inside. There is the touch test, or you can spring for a thermometer. Cut and peek is the easiest and most reliable -- you have eaten steak before, and you know what the steak you like to eat looks like. I favor somewhere between rare and medium rare, but you can ask your sweetheart how they like their steak to be sure. Let the steak rest. It's been through a lot. 

7) Make the pan sauce. Turn the heat on your pan back up to medium. Add about 1/2 cup of stock. The pan will sizzle. As it sizzles, use a spatula to loosen the brown bits of stuff stuck to the pan. This is called fond, and it is where the flavor is. Add your shallot/onion and mushroom, and stir. Let the stock cook down, and add your wine. The idea is that the liquid will reduce and thicken slightly. When the sauce is where you want it (about 10 minutes on medium), add 2 tablespoons of butter. The French call this "monter au buerre" and it makes everything taste better. Taste your sauce-- it might need salt and/or pepper, and will definitely benefit from a squeeze of lemon. 

8) Cut the baked potatoes in 1/2 through the long axis, and fluff up the interior with a fork. You and your lover can doctor your respective potato w/sour cream, chives, etc, at the table. 

9) Assemble the salad. Put the dry greens in a big bowl, add a handful or so of croutons, and then toss with most of the dressing. Grate more parmesan directly on the salad. Check to make sure you turned the oven off, and reconnect the smoke detector. Re-toss the salad. 

9) Cut the steak. If it is a NY strip, you can slice thin slices perpendicular to the long axis at about a 45 degree angle. The nice thing about serving the steak sliced is that it will be easier for you and your beloved to enjoy your meal if you are not fussing with a steak knife at the table. 

10) Plate the meal. Layer slices of steak on the plate, put some pan sauce on top. Put salad and 1/2 potato on the other side of the plate. Enjoy. 

11) Dessert: Cut the ice cream sandwiches diagonally, stand them up on their hypotenuse on a plate, and dust with cocoa. This is the most classy dessert there is. 

This is a bit of work, and will not be free, but consider what you would pay to take your boo to a fancy dinner. Questions/concerns? Comments or open or fesser at gmail. 

 

 

Brother Jonathan's Pimento Cheese

Pimento Cheese Awareness Month is just around the corner! 

Brother Jonathan’s Pimento Cheese

2 red peppers, roasted.

1 lb Cabot Seriously Sharp Cheddar, grated on large holes of box grater.

4 oz Duke’s Mayo.

2 Tb Korean red pepper flakes (Gochujaru.)

1 tsp sweet smoked paprika.

1 tsp Tabasco

• Roast peppers in 450 oven, turning once or twice, until exteriors are blackened and blistering (20 minutes or so)

• Place roast peppers in bowl, and set bowl inside paper grocery bag, and fold down top.

Allow peppers to cool for approx. 30 mintues, and remove skin and seeds, reserving liquid from

peppers. Rinse peeled peppers if necessary. Chop peppers into approx. ¼” dice.

• Combine peppers and cheese in large bowl and combine with clean hands or mixing spoon until thoroughly combined.

• Add mayo, using just enough to bind peppers and cheese, and maybe a little more for flow.

• Add pepper flakes, paprika, Tabasco, and strained liquid from peppers. Stir to combine, and check seasoning,

Serve with mini pretzels or crostini.

Pork bun fun

I have cooked out of the Momofuku cookbook much more often than I have visited one of David Chang's restaurants. Until the homophobic hate chicken place on 123 in Clemson magically turns into a Fuku, it's likely to stay that way. One of the challenges and frustrations of living in a region that is thin on restaurants is that you -- well me, anyway -- spend a lot of time trying to recreate those fleeting tastes from rare visits to places like NYC or Charleston. I have spent more than a few weekends trying to recreate various meals I can't buy around here, with mixed results. More recently, I have reached a place in my walk with Jesus where I can let myself make a gesture in the direction of an idea of something I ate at a restaurant, but without sweating the details. This approach clicked recently with the Thai Thighs I made, vaguely following a recipe from the Pok Pok book in an effort to recapture the vibes from a recent trip to Xao Bao Biscuit.

The famous Momofuku pork buns are one of those dishes from Away I've tried to make at home -- the first time was a fiasco, and the second time was a success, but it might have been cheaper to hop the Crescent to NYC. This time, what happened was I had some pork left over from a shoulder I was turning into home made Slim Jims. I had a chunk that was about 1.5 lb. I squirted some Hoisin on it, wrapped it up w some garlic cloves in the skin from the whole shoulder, let it marinade for a while, and threw it covered in a 300f oven for maybe 4 hours. I let it rest, defatted the juices, shredded the pork, added the juices back and reheated until the liquid was mostly gone. I did not want to fuck with making buns, so I got some King's Hawaiian rolls. Meanwhile, I mandolined a couple
of cukes, let them sit in a mix of 3 parts sugar 1 part salt for an hour or so, drained them, tossed with rice vinegar and a little bit of korean hot pepper. 

I split and toasted the King's Hawaiians, hit them with some Duke's, some shredded pork w a bit of extra Hoisin, and some cukes. Am I going to put Dave Chang out of business? No. Could you call this a vaguely Asian-inflected version of the pulled pork sandwich you can find lots of places around here? Sure. But for my purposes, it was a low fuss prep that made for two solid meals out of surplus from another project. Look for my upcoming TED talk on the virtues of half-assing it. 

Try Thai Thighs

So I was at Xiao Bao CHS the other day w/ @cinetrix, and she had a banger Thai fried chicken w/ green papaya salad entree. You can't get food like that in the 864, but I like eating food like that. If you have read this blog, you have read the story of quixotic efforts to recreate various dishes that go more or less well. In general, the common denominator for those efforts is a lot of work, ingredient fuss, and some stress. 

For whatever reason - probably b/c I did not have a recipe to follow, I was much looser in my approach. I have been into chicken thighs, so I got some of those, boned them, but left the skin on, chopped into pieces and marinated w fish sauce and garlic -- which was a streamlined version of the approach for the Pok Pok wings. 

I did not have the stuff called for for the dusting, but I used 50/50 rice flour and KAF bread flour, with some salt and pepper and red pepper. I fried a little lower and slower than usual, pulled them out and let them sit, then put them all in a wok w a mix of sweet soy, rice vinegar, sambal, and maple syrup, and tossed over heat until the liquid was gone. 

Meanwhile my fake grreen papaya salad was daikon julienned w/ a mandoline, hit w/ the Chang 3parts sugar 1 part salt mix, drained and tossed w some rice vinegar, a squeeze of Meyer lemon, and chopped flesh of one mango. 

I made rice in the rice cooker. 

Was I magically transported back to Charleston? No. Was it pretty fucking good for dinner, and to take to school for lunch? Yes. It's a reminder that sometimes a few key ideas can get you pretty far, even if you don't have exactly the pantry of a Thai restaurant. 

Taco Night with the Waban Navy* was good.

 

My partner The Cinetrix is an alumna of Wellesley College. Like many northern schools, their rowing team comes to Clemson over Spring Break to train. We met the team last year, and this year we had them over for dinner. All 44 of them. I like cooking for a crowd, but this was a challenge. What follows are some thoughts and reminders I am putting here, mostly so I can find them next year. 

I learned a lot about myself. Getting a little better at asking for help helped me to understand how I need to get a lot better at asking for help. I had trusty sidekick, LG, who was able to show up about t-minus 1 hour from when the rowers arrived. It would have been great to have more help sooner. In general, when I am cooking/entertaining, I need to be much more proactive about tasks I can delegate, and asking for that help. If you have ever been in my house for a meal that I have cooked, you have probably asked "can I do anything," and I have told you no, even as I struggle to dot the Ts and cross the Is in a timely fashion.

When you delegate, things go differently than when you do them yourself. If you ask someone else to chop scallions into 1/2" sections, they might be 3/8" or 5/8" - your meal will still be fine. I got a timely text from a friend about not sweating the small stuff, which empowered me to run the 2lb of radishes through the slicer on the food processor, instead of doing them by hand. Did the Waban Navy arrive, see the irregularly cut radishes, curse my name, turn on their 44 heels and go to Taco Bell instead? They did not. 

More generally, if you are an amateur cook who likes to entertain, it is worth putting yourself in the position of your guests. You are using your time, your talent, and your treasure to make something nice for them. They get to buy a bottle of wine or something instead of plan, cook, and clean up a whole meal. If it is not perfect, that's ok. You are not a 3 Michelin star chef; you are a person having people over. 

Some random thoughts on feeding 44 hungry student-athletes- ymmv based on sport/gender composition, season, etc. 

The veggie items got hit hard and were gone soon. I made a tofu chorizo, and vegan black beans. EVERYBODY hammered the roasted sweet potatoes. I have never cooked for a crowd and had to worry about bringing home leftover sweet potatoes. When I was at Costco, I grabbed a big thing of cherry tomatoes, which just vanished. 

I had seltzer available, but some folks just want water. Should get a big thing of spring water for next year. (Not fair to ask Blue to drink the water they were rowing in all day.)

There were leftovers of both animal proteins and the non vegan pinto beans. People went light on the salsas I made, and used less Valentina, etc, than I would have guessed. I bought 8 approx 2lb packs of fresh tortillas, and used 5 1/2. At $1.49/lb and the potential of homemade tortilla chips, I am not mad about paying for that insurance. The tortilla place is about 35 minutes from my house, and I should have asked someone to pick them up, bring them ca. 30 min in advance, and include them in the meal. B/c of work schedules, I had to fetch them earlier than I would have liked, so they were not as warm as could be, and I lost an hour+ I could have been using to get ready.

I was emboldened to embark on this taco night b/c serving tacos at the elementary school international festival went well. As a process question, it's interesting to consider where control over the experience passes from the cook to the eater. In a full-service restaurant, the plate arrives in front of the diner, and the diner can determine only what order they want to eat the things on the plate. A buffet would be at the other end of the spectrum. Somewhere in the middle would be what we might call a "bar" - a baked potato bar, a Bloody Mary bar - you get the basic ingredient, and you can fix it up how you like. When I did the elementary school tacos, it was a bar. We handed the person a taco w the one protein on offer, and they added the toppings/condiments they wanted. There were a few combos that mad me say "you are wild for that," but pretty much every taco looked like I would expect, and how I would fix it for myself. The rowers really chose their own adventures, from what I could see. (W/ the caveat that I was not monitoring, or commenting on what people did or did not eat, b/c I am not the Food Police.) More generally, people will do what they want, and if they don't plate the meal like you drew it up, that's fine. If you want everyone to have exactly the plate you want them to have, open a spot like Hawthorne. 

For the carnitas, I used the same approach I used for the bo ssam tacos, which was to roast whole butts, let them cool, save the juices, skim the fat, shred the butts, and reheat w/ the juices and some salt and pepper. With more time and focus, I would have applied more of the fat to the top of the pan of shredded pork, and allowed to crisp in an oven. 

Anyway, if you ever get a chance to have Wellesley Crew over for dinner, you totally should. 10/10, no notes. Also, one of the rowers was clearly Ed Reed in disguise, b/c they left the damn place cleaner than they found it. 

*Wellesley College Crew's Home Waters are Lake Waban. 

 

Bo Ssam Tacos for all my friends

Last year, my friend Margaret invited me to the international festival at the local elementary school. I had a great time, and indeed such a good time, that I asked if I could run a table this year. The good folks at RC Edwards elementary were kind enough to let me participate, and after some deliberation, I decided to go with Bo Ssam tacos. In retrospect, it was a choice that offered a number of technical challenges, but I am pretty happy with the outcome -- people seemed to enjoy, and, critically, the Cinetrix and I will not be eating bo ssam tacos for the foreseeable future. I wanted to write a little bit about the process, both to keep a record of how I did it, and to think about what to change for next time, and also to invite the input of dads and uncles of all gender expressions and identities. 

The ask was for 150 servings. Doing some asking and some weighing of actual tacos, they come in at around 2 oz of protein. So that's just shy of 19 lb of finished bo ssam. I got 4 picnic shoulders, which added up to somewhere around 26 lb of fresh pork. The shoulders were skin-on so that's an immediate loss of mass. They are bone-in, too. I should have weighed the finished pork, but I did not have an appropriate scale. Also, I ended up with some, uh, burnt ends when I reheated, so, not all of the pork was fit to serve. 

The main aforementioned technical challenge was keeping all of that pork warm -- and at a safe temperature to serve -- in the hallway of an elementary school. The school staff was very handy with extension cords and power strips. I have two crock pots, and more pork than fit in them. I preheated the crock pots, put as much reheated pork in them as would fit, and put the rest in an enamel casserole. 

The other hot challenge was keeping 150 flour tortillas warm enough to be pliable. A little tinkering indicated that 20 flour tortillas, at 3:00 in the microwave, with wet paper towels on top and bottom and in the middle, wrapped in aluminum foil, and tucked in a small cooler with the other packs of tortillas worked like a charm, and much better than I had a right for it to work. 

The cold challenge was the keeping the sauces at safe temps. I made the sauces David Chang calls for to accompany his bo ssam recipe, plus the toppings for the Hooni Kim/Sam Sifton bulgogi sliders. If you are scoring at home, that's ssamjang, ginger scallion, kimchi and kimchi puree on the Chang side, plus scallion salsa, spicy mayo, and cuke kimchi. It is possible that seven condiments is overkill, but I am hard pressed to know which one I would drop. I pretty much quadrupled the recipes in the Momofuku book, or the NYT recipe, and I have quite a lot of leftover of some sauce, which is not such a bad problem. 8 quarts of stuff at fridge temp pretty much fills up a regular cooler. If I had had to hold it for longer, I would have put ice on the deli containers, but it was a pretty narrow window of time, and the sauces were still cold enough on the way home. 

There is a lot of great food at this festival, because there are a lot of talented and generous folks from a lot of different places. One good thing about working at a STEM school is that we get graduate students and faculty from around the world, and they bring their cooking chops and traditions with them. There were a lot of great choices, and when demand slackened, my crew (1st, 4th, and 6th graders, in shifts) and I decided to cut prices from 10 tickets to 6 tickets, or from $2.50 to $1.50. We did sell out, which was my main ambition. Based on the number of leftover tortillas, we sold about 100 tacos, so I may have been too generous, or I may have underestimated the various subtractions along the path from gross to net. 

I am not going to lie - the path I chose was a lot of work -- the closest H-Mart is 80 miles away, and I had to hit up a BJ's in another remote corner of GA for my shoulders. I am still digging out from the messes I made. But it was a lot of fun, and I can't wait to do it again. 

Hey, Syracuse

It's the late October battle of ACC undefeateds we all expected, as the Syracuse Orange leave the comfort of the 315 for a trip to Death Valley. If you are making the trip, here is some ideas about where to eat and drink.

I think about Syracuse at this time of year. My dad was a professor there for many years, and he died in October. I am a professor at Clemson. I would characterize my feelings about Clemson football as "complicated." My father's relation to Syracuse football was a simpler antipathy, in larger part b/c  Syracuse tore down a library to build the Carrier Dome. He died in 2006, before Clemson and Syracuse were in the same conference. 

But the main reason I think about Syracuse at this time of year is b/c it relates to my favorite take, which is that dogwood fall foliage>dogwood spring blossoms. What this take has to do with Syracuse is that Jim Brown, the best football player in Syracuse history, was even better at lacrosse. So, when the dogwoods start turning red, I think of Jim Brown, even as I remember that he has also done some really shitty things. 

Anyway, if you're in town, enjoy!