THE GURGLING COD

Comin' To Our City? 2022 Clemson food and drink.

Somewhat to my surprise, College GameDay is coming to Clemson this weekend. It's the first appearance for Clemson on GameDay in a minute, and a lot of things have changed around Little Ol Clemson recently. 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 brand new 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 the Pendleton Brewing Co., another very solid brewery that often has food trucks on the weekends. Failing that, Brooklyn Style Pizza on the Square in Pendleton has quite good pizza. 

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 general, in spite of the pandemic, eating and drinking options in Clemson are improving, even as distinctive locally owned spots remain thin on the ground. In any case, don't forget to tip your bartenders and servers.

Rao's Eye For the "Recipe?" Guy

 

I kind of rolled my eyes when I saw the lede for @tejalrao 's Recipe Guy piece. Spending some time w/ the article, I get it, I think - here are grafs 3 & 4. 

You could say that recipe guys represent a major area of growth for reply guys. And anyone can become a recipe guy: You just have to believe that every time you see an image of food, you’re also owed a recipe, then insist on it.

Cooks and recipe developers who share their food on social media can ignore it, or at least try to, but the nagging chorus of “recipe?!” is present, and it’s reshaping social content in real time.

This dynamic makes me think about a few aspects of online culture and intellectual property, and maybe a more enduring question about what a recipe is. 

Two of three of Rao's sources for the article are professionals, for whom social media is part of their marketing and branding. If you're posting pictures of stuff in progress for a forthcoming cookbook, demanding the recipe is asking for free shit, and a jerk move. IE, If Big Bud Press posted a pic of a prototype of a new garment, it would be twerpy to ask them to send you one for free, w/ the comment "Coverall?" Because recipes are made out of IP, and not handsome fabrics, and can in theory be reproduced, more or less effortlessly, by cutting and pasting, it can be hard for some people to understand why someone won't just give away their work. It's possibly easier to understand if you can see why it would not be cool to walk into your local bookstore, tear the buttermilk chicken recipe out of a copy of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, and put it in your pocket. 

A second aspect of online culture Rao's piece brings up is the way that Instagram occludes the distinction between professional and amateur. The 'gram is an important marketing tool for some, and a way to share stuff in their lives for others. It's easy to treat amateurs like professionals, and vice versa. For instance, if you are a young woman and you share pictures of yourself at the beach, sketchy swimwear brands will be in your mentions with "Collab?" "Collab?" faster than you can say "ew." (I imagine the DMs get a lot worse.) I post pictures of stuff I cook on my gram pretty often, and on the infrequent occasions that it comes up, I am usually happy to help someone who wants try making whatever I posted. But the final source for Rao's article is an interesting hybrid case - Lucia Lee is a very skilled home cook with over 125k followers, but also has a day job as a school teacher, and as Rao's article details, some of her followers feel like they are entitled to eat whatever she cooks. That sucks. 

Beyond online culture, Rao's piece reiterates a truth I spent a fair amount of time exploring back in the day -- people are weird about recipes. One of several things that surprised me when I moved to the South, is how some folks treated recipes like -- once I would have said nuclear launch codes -- treasured property in themselves, often guarded as a secret. I remember a friend asking for a recipe for something I'd cooked, and clarifying that they would share one of their recipes in exchange. 

But here is the thing about recipes. If you have a recipe, you have the recipe. You sure don't have the meal on a plate in front of you. Sure, recipes are important, but technique, experience, ingredients, and equipment are equally important. You can have the greatest pizza dough recipe in the world, but if you have a crappy oven that does not go over 450, you will have crappy pizza. I have the Mei Mei cookbook. You should too. I can make decent dumplings if I follow their recipes, but they will never be as nice as the ones they make.

Anyway, 600 words later, my tl;dr summary would be don't be a jerk on the internet. And why is the Cod back musing on NYT cooking pieces like it's 2007? Who knows? 

I kind of rolled my eyes when I saw the lede for @tejalrao 's Recipe Guy piece. Spending some time w/ the article, I get it, I think - here are grafs 3 & 4. 

You could say that recipe guys represent a major area of growth for reply guys. And anyone can become a recipe guy: You just have to believe that every time you see an image of food, you’re also owed a recipe, then insist on it.

Cooks and recipe developers who share their food on social media can ignore it, or at least try to, but the nagging chorus of “recipe?!” is present, and it’s reshaping social content in real time.

This dynamic makes me think about a few aspects of online culture and intellectual property, and maybe a more enduring question about what a recipe is. 

Two of three of Rao's sources for the article are professionals, for whom social media is part of their marketing and branding. If you're posting pictures of stuff in progress for a forthcoming cookbook, demanding the recipe is asking for free shit, and a jerk move. IE, If Big Bud Press posted a pic of a prototype of a new garment, it would be twerpy to ask them to send you one for free, w/ the comment "Coverall?" Because recipes are made out of IP, and not handsome fabrics, and can in theory be reproduced, more or less effortlessly, by cutting and pasting, it can be hard for some people to understand why someone won't just give away their work. It's possibly easier to understand if you can see why it would not be cool to walk into your local bookstore, tear the buttermilk chicken recipe out of a copy of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, and put it in your pocket. 

A second aspect of online culture Rao's piece brings up is the way that Instagram occludes the distinction between professional and amateur. The 'gram is an important marketing tool for some, and a way to share stuff in their lives for others. It's easy to treat amateurs like professionals, and vice versa. For instance, if you are a young woman and you share pictures of yourself at the beach, sketchy swimwear brands will be in your mentions with "Collab?" "Collab?" faster than you can say "ew." (I imagine the DMs get a lot worse.) I post pictures of stuff I cook on my gram pretty often, and on the infrequent occasions that it comes up, I am usually happy to help someone who wants try making whatever I posted. But the final source for Rao's article is an interesting hybrid case - Lucia Lee is a very skilled home cook with over 125k followers, but also has a day job as a school teacher, and as Rao's article details, some of her followers feel like they are entitled to eat whatever she cooks. That sucks. 

Beyond online culture, Rao's piece reiterates a truth I spent a fair amount of time exploring back in the day -- people are weird about recipes. One of several things that surprised me when I moved to the South, is how some folks treated recipes like -- once I would have said nuclear launch codes -- treasured property in themselves, often guarded as a secret. I remember a friend asking for a recipe for something I'd cooked, and clarifying that they would share one of their recipes in exchange. 

But here is the thing about recipes. If you have a recipe, you have the recipe. You sure don't have the meal on a plate in front of you. Sure, recipes are important, but technique, experience, ingredients, and equipment are equally important. You can have the greatest pizza dough recipe in the world, but if you have a crappy oven that does not go over 450, you will have crappy pizza. I have the Mei Mei cookbook. You should too. I can make decent dumplings if I follow their recipes, but they will never be as nice as the ones they make.

Anyway, 600 words later, my tl;dr summary would be don't be a jerk on the internet. And why is the Cod back musing on NYT cooking pieces like it's 2007? Who knows?