I recently went to lunch with a group of friends. It was lots of fun, and almost all of us ordered Pommes Frites as a part of lunch. And every one of us received overcooked fries that were cold and greasy. This was a rather lovely restaurant, well appointed, with good service. We were all disappointed by our fries.

I can eat pommes frites without anything except a sprinkle of salt, when they are good. That is the way I prefer them. But when they begin to cool or are not perfect, I will cover up that off taste with catsup. The waiter asked if I wanted some. I said that I did. It was the kind of restaurant that gives you your own small bottle of catsup.

Pommes Frites are a simple food. To prepare them for a table of orders, they can be precooked to a certain stage and removed from the oil. Then when they are ordered, they are returned to the hot oil and finished off. They become golden and crispy and hot. It must have been the third dunk in the hot oil for this batch of fries. They were dark and just a bit burned tasting, hard, oily, and cold. They must have been sitting, draining in the basket, while the rest of the food was assembled. Long enough for the fries to get cold. It was a real disappointment.

So what do you do? No one at the table complained to the waiter. We were all disappointed, but mere talked about it among ourselves. We really didn’t want more fries, so there was no point in telling the waiter. But having those sorry fries on the table kept the meal from being as festive as it was supposed to be.

It made me think about complaining about disappointing food vs sending back the wrong order. I almost never complain about disappointing food. I may push it aside. When the waiter asks, “Did you not like the __________,” I say, “No, I didn’t.“ But usually that question only comes up when the plate is removed at the end of the meal. There is no possibility of correcting the problem. Usually the problem is uncorrectable without starting over and there is no point in asking for that.

What does happen is that I am reluctant to return to that restaurant. Too salty food, burned food, cold food, dried out food - these are the sign of a poor kitchen. Dissatisfaction with those problems in not a matter of not liking a dish. Not liking something is a matter of taste. But when a restaurant brings food to the table that is not fit for serving, it shows a lack of respect for the customer or a failure on the part of the restaurant to know what is good. In either case, why return?

When this happens at a restaurant that usually serves excellent food, I tend to be forgiving of the occasional gaffe. But when it happens a second time, there is no excuse.

The fries that I had earlier this week were bad. I think I could go back to the restaurant and try again. But I will not order Pommes Frites. And I can decide whether to return after the second try.

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Darra is an award-winning author, educator, speaker, and consultant. She has written 17 books and she is an international speaker.

We talked about fermentation and the fun of it. Read this beautiful book with fabulous recipes, the brined watermelon is better than stellar, and be sure to cook from it.

Listen, it’s on Tip of the Tongue!

Here is one of her wonderful recipes to enjoy:

ZIRAN DOUFU

Uyghur Cumin Tofu From Silk Roads

Serves 2–4

Though widely used in cuisines across Asia, cumiis rarely found on the Western European or American table. And that is a true shame. I love cumin. AC entral Asian spice so ancient it was once used as a mummification ingredient for Egyptian pharaohs and is mentioned in the Old Testament, cumin has an earthy pungency that is warm and deeply flavourfuwithout being hot and spicy – and, as you may notice, it is the third most utilized seasoning in this book after salt and black pepper.

Known in both Farsi and Uzbek as zira, I also know cumin as ziran, the Mandarin Chinese phoneticization of the Uyghur word for cumin. Ziran is a word most closely connected to a dish found at every Uyghur restaurant within and outside China (and, for better and worse, increasingly at non-Uyghur Chinese restaurants as well): ziran yangrou, cumin lamb.

Right now, I know what you’re thinking: this looks like a LOT of cumin. Maybe even too much cumin. I hear you. But hear me out – the cumin is the whole point of this dish. It’s the name of the dish. Ziran. It should look like a lot of cumin. It is a lot – but it’s not too much. You may even find that you want more cumin than I’ve suggested the next time you cook this.

INGREDIENTS:

280g (9½oz) extra-firm tofu, cut into 4–5cm (1.–2in) squares or rectangles, 2–3cm (¾–1¼in) thick

200ml (scant 1 cup/7fl oz) vegetable oil

½ onion, thinly sliced into half-moons

4 small dried red chiies (e.g. bird’s-eye chiles)

3 tbsp cumin seeds, toasted

1 tsp ground cumin

1½ tsp ground Sichuan peppercorns

¼ tsp chilli powder

½ tsp caster sugar

¾ tsp fine sea salt

½ tsp MSG

handful of fresh cilantro leaves

For the marinade:

1 tsp potato flour or cornflour

1 tbsp ground cumin

1 tbsp neutral oil

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp Shaoxing wine

½ tsp ground white pepper

METHOD:

In a medium bowl, combine the marinade ingredients with 1 tablespoon water. Mix well, then add the tofu and turn to coat. Set aside and let the magic happen (or as much magic as can happen in 20 minutes). When you’re ready to cook, line a plate with paper towels and heat the oil in a wok or large sauté pan over a high heat for 1 minute – you want it hot, almost (but not!) smoking.

Drain your tofu and add it to the pan. Fry for 2–3 minutes, or until golden on all sides. You will need to turn and flip your tofu to achieve an even cook, which means you need to be careful not to let the wok oil spurt out and burn you! Remove your golden tofu to the paper towel-lined plate and set aside for now.

Carefully drain all but 3 tablespoons of the oil from your wok. Reduce the heat to medium and add the onion to the pan. Continue to be alert for oil splatters! Stir-fry the onion for 1 minute, then return the tofu to the wok, along with the dried chilies. Stir-fry for another 3 minutes, being careful not to let things burn. Once the tofu is nicely browned, reduce the heat to low.

Add the cumin seeds, ground cumin, ground Sichuan peppercorns, chilli powder, sugar, salt, and MSG. Mix everything together and cook for a final minute.

Serve your tofu topped with fresh cilantro. Take a bite. Pretend you’re eating lamb – or be thankful you’re not. To each their own.

And watch a replay of the live event.

Dinner Party with Anna Ansari

On Sunday there is always this free newsletter, The ComplEAT Kitchen, about what is going on in my food and drink world, at the SoFAB Research Center at Nunez Community College, and out in the world. Tip of the Tongue, my podcast, appears on Mondays. This Monday I air the interview with Darra Goldstein, author of the new book, Cultured . You can listen on substack or wherever you listen to podcasts. And one or two more print issues appear during the week for paid subscribers.

Cooking: I have been cooking like a maniac this week. We have gone through pounds of coffee, pounds of shrimp, pounds of everything. Sometimes there is isn’t time to do what truly needs to be done for the food to be its best. But I am most excited about the pizza that we made.

I have 00 flour, which I save for pizza. It is perfect for the dough to develop the right chew and crispiness. And yet, there wasn’t time for optimal development of the dough. So I kept the dough in the refrigerator for about 2 hours and then let it rise outside - where it was 90 plus degrees. I put it in the shade and gave it an hour outside. Then I tested it. It was very pliable and stretchy.

I put it on a pan after I had stretched it, heated the oven to 500F and painted the dough with a very light coating of garlic infused olive oil. I added a very thin coating of crushed tomato, added a bit of the wild oregano that I had collected, added well-drained artichoke quarters, added strips of red bell pepper, added well-drained olive salad. Then a minimalist coating of cheese. Into the oven for 10 minutes and it was really good. We ate it all up. It was not overloaded.

Reading: I have been rereading Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain. There is lots of Bourdain fever right now and I am preparing myself. I particularly have enjoyed the specificity and granularity of his analysis of restaurant meals and what they should mean.

He gives the meals and the experience the same degree of analysis that is found in reviews of art or movies.

I am also beginning to read Mathematica: A Secret World of Intuition and Curiosity by David Bessis. It was recommended to me by my son. I am only just beginning it, so I have no comments on it. But it seems to be full of interesting ideas about intuition and mathematics.

Watching: My watching has been very cartoon focused this week. Lots of superheroes. Lots of dragons. All of this dictated by my granddaughters. I will be happy when this phase has passed. When they leave I will probably have to watch horror movies and very sad movies to reset my brain.

Gardening: There has been very little time for gardening. Much more grocery shopping, going to the park, and playing than usual. That has been delightful. The garden will be grateful for attention this coming week.

Nunez Culinary Research Center: Unpacking a box of donated books at the Nunez Culinary Research Center we found a real treasure. The Mount Vernon Cookbook: A Selection of Tested Recipes prepared by the Ladies of The First Baptist Church. The book is from Mount Vernon, Missouri and it is dated 1895. It is lovely to thumb through the pages of this book. The penmanship of the owners is beautiful and memorializes part of the history of the book. It is the oldest community cookbook that we have. It is beautifully bound in leather. And it is easy to see that it was a treasured book that was passed down to several generations with loving and careful inscriptions.

Somehow this book came into the possession of Mr. and Mrs. A.S. Hurley in Sage, Wyoming. Their names are signed on a blank front page of the book. Their signatures are dated 1903. Yet another signature, also from Sage, Wyoming, is from Annie Whalen. On yet another blank page is the inscription, “Compliments of Sister Ruth Sedwick to Lottie Lee. Wishing you a long life of prosperity and happiness.” This inscription is undated.

It is exciting to read this book. It tells us so much about mores, what was considered important, and even how people wrote in the late 19^th century. As we go about our lives in the 21^st century, the book is a veritable time machine. Interestingly the names of the women who contributed are actually stated. For example Mrs. Dora Boyd is listed instead of Mrs. John Boyd. It makes me wonder when Mrs. John Boyd came into use, because early 20^th century community cookbooks list the names of women contributors under their husband’s names. It is an obstacle to research.

Here is a contribution from Mrs. Anna Case. As with all of the recipes in the book, there is no ingredient list. The recipes are written in the old style, assuming that the reader already knows how to cook. The recipes are just intended to inspire the imagination. I hope that it inspires you.

Stuffed Eggs

Boil six fresh eggs fifteen minutes, remove the shells, cut them into halves, lengthwise. Take out the yolks, mash them fine and add a tablespoonful of finely chopped ham, a dash of cayenne, and a tablespoon of melted butter. Mix all well together and fill back into the whites. Press the two halves together firmly, but gently. Dip into eggs, then into bread crumbs: then again quickly into the eggs, then back into the crumbs and then fry in smoking hot fat.

Sounds like a Scotch egg, doesn’t it?

If you or relatives or friends have cookbooks, pamphlets, old menus, or other remnants of our food culture, please consider donating those things to the Nunez Culinary Research Center when you clean house or do a purge. Our goal is to amass the largest and best culinary research center in the country right here in St. Bernard Parish. Help us grow this unique resource. We currently have almost 3000 community cookbooks in our database from every state in the US, from the US Territories, and even international cookbooks from places like Canada.

But don’t limit yourself to sending us only cookbooks. Do you have a menu collection in your desk drawer that you use to order lunch? Is that collection getting out of date? Well, don’t toss it out. Send it to us. Our menu collection is growing quickly too. We have thousands of menus. Some are handwritten.

Want to join us in the quest? Just get in touch with me and we’ll find a way for you to participate. Write to me at lizwillia@gmail.com. Make sure that your state is well-represented in our collection. Help us leave a legacy for future researchers. What you send us does not have to be old. It will get old, as time passes.

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Our next Dinner Party With Micki and Liz welcomes Anna Ansari

Aug 26, 2026

Dinner Party With Micki and Liz returns Thursday night with our special guest Anna Ansari. She’s the author of Silk Roads: A Flavor Odyssey With Recipes From Baku to Beijing.

Tune in at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT/5 p.m. PT. Just log into Substack and you’ll see the notification for Substack Live.

Anna will be joining us from London, where she was recently named the Food Writer of the Year by the Guild of Food Writers. Yes, she’s staying up late to be on our broadcast!

She’ll be talking with me and Micki Maynard about her cookbook, her recent activities, and share a recipe that’s one of my favorites.

Feel free to let your friends know that Anna is joining us. See you Thursday night!

Rachel Waugh

Learn more about the Museum of Food & Culture

Here is an earlier interview with Rachel about the Museum of Food & Culbure.

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On Sunday there is always this free newsletter, The ComplEAT Kitchen, about what is going on in my food and drink world, at the SoFAB Research Center at Nunez Community College, and out in the world. Tip of the Tongue, my podcast, appears on Monday. This Monday I air the interview with Rachel Waugh of the Museum of Food & Culture in Denver, Colorado. You can listen on substack or wherever you listen to podcasts. And one or two more print issues appear during the week for paid subscribers.

Cooking: This past week we had a dinner for friends who have had some major life changes. There was my Savory Fruit Salad with a Tahini Dressing. I didn’t have a pomagranite so I made a pickle of red onion and used some of the fig pickles that I had made.

The main dish was the Creole Coq au Vin, which is made with andouille. The recipe is below. There was broccoli, homemade bread, and dessert brought by one of the guests.

Creole Coq au Vin

Makes 6 to 8 servings

This recipe is Coq au Vin at its most basic, but with Creole rather than French flavors. Instead of lardon, the pork element is andouille sausage. And the herbs and spices are Creole.

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 teaspoon cayenne

8 chicken thighs, with skin and bone-in

1 pound andouille, sliced into rounds

¼ olive oil

1 large yellow onion, diced

1 cup celery, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

5 garlic cloves, minced

3 cups red wine

¼ cup brandy or cognac

3 tablespoons tomato paste

Salt and pepper

1 teaspoon cayenne

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon thyme

1 bunch parsley, chopped

1. Make the dredge for the chicken by mixing the flour, salt, pepper, and cayenne. Place the mixture in a large plate or pie plate. One at a time place the chicken thighs in the dredge and coat the thighs in the flour mixture. Set aside until they are all coated.

2. Place the oil into a deep pan and heat. Brown the coated thighs on both sides. Discard the leftover dredge. Set the cooked thighs aside until all of them are cooked. Brown the sliced andouille and remove from the pot. Add the onions to the pot and cook, until they are soft. Add the celery, garlic, and bell pepper. Cook another 5 minutes.

3. Return the chicken and the andouille to the pan, including any juices that have pooled in the dish. Add the wine, brandy, tomato paste, and seasonings. Cover and simmer for about 2 hours. Remove lid and simmer an additional 30 minutes.

4. Serve over rice, grits, or roasted potatoes. Garnish with chopped parsley.

And I have been preparing for a week of granddaughters. They arrive tomorrow. I have made a birthday cake, gone grocery shopping to prepare for the food assault, and otherwise make everyone feel welcome and comfortable.

Gardening: Not much has happened is the garden besides watching the squirrels and the hawk that circles on air currents above the yard. It has been brutally hot, with not much rain.

I did harvest the elderberries that are ripe. I have put them in the freezer to make it easier to remove them from their stems. And when the girls are here, we can make a syrup together. We can flavor sparkling water with it.

Reading: I have really enjoyed reading Gary Paul Nabhan’s memoir Water in the Desert: A Pilgrimage. His joy in the environment, in the animals, the plants, the water, the interplay among the parts is inspiring. As he became more professional and more aware, what he wanted to study became more apparent to him.

Nabhan’s writing is intoxicating. There is an element of dreamworld to it, as well as stark realism. The connection between food and the environment is strong.

Watching: Join Micki Maynard and me for Dinner with Micki & Liz - a substack live - this Thursday at 7 pm central.

News from the Nunez Culinary Research Center: It is a bit early to think about Mardi Gras, but the New Orleans Carnival Cook Book, assembled by the Women’s Republican Club of Louisiana, just crossed my desk. It was published in 1951 and Mrs. John Minor Wisdom, wife of the famous federal judge, is listed as the first compiler and editor. She was also the treasurer of the organization.

The recipes in this book are interspersed with short essays about the practices of the carnival season, as well as other celebratory times. For example, there is a discussion of New Year’s Day practices of the past, when open houses that were held all over the city. There is a discussion of the present (that is, 1951) of going to the Sugar Bowl game and other sporting events that mark the beginning of the year such a tennis tournaments and regattas. The writers suggest that a hearty breakfast is in order that begins with an absinthe frappé and should be followed by Duck Hash.

Of course, reference is made to the carnival season opening on January 6. A recipe for King Cake is included, as well as a description of the traditions that surround eating king cake. The book talks about people who still speak nostalgically about the balls that were held at the French Opera House in New Orleans. It reminds readers that the building burned in 1920 - 30 years before the booklet was written - and that the Municipal Auditorium, opened in 1930, had become the new home for the balls. All of the festivities end on Mardi Gras day, with general quiet reigning on Ash Wednesday, when Hot Cross Buns are eaten.

My mother’s grandfather was a butcher, and she was not afraid of eating things that are seldom eaten today. The booklet contains recipes for calf brains, tongue, sweetbreads, and other innards, many of which are similar to things I remember my mother serving us. It is quite charming to me to see these recipes presented as the ordinary food of the day.

An essay on the street vendors is also very revealing of what people could buy on the street during Mardi Gras parades. There are also suggestions for what to serve to guests who stop in during a parade when you live on a parade route. The similarities and the differences in practice are wonderful to read about.

All of this brings to mind the importance of saving these pamphlets. They are a form of living history. They tell us a story of a place, not as history, not looking backward. These pamphlets reflect the everyday life of the time and place that they are written. That is why they are important. This particular pamphlet contains the ads that paid for the printing of the book. We therefore know the names of businesses active during 1951. And the booklet also does not name the person who has contributed any particular recipe. That is an unusual aspect of the pamphlet.

The booklet ends with a recipe for Café Brulot. I thought that it would make a great recipe to share in this column.

Café Brulôt

Place 5 lumps of sugar, 12 cloves, 2 1-inch pieces stick cinnamon, sliver peel of 1 lemon and 1 orange in Brulôt Bowl or chafing dish. Heat over low flame and when hot, pour 5 jiggers Cognac into ladle. Heat bottom of ladle with matches. When Cognac is hot, ignite and pour carefully over ingredients in bowl, keeping it atop mixture. Pour 5 cups coffee into bowl slowly and ladle up and down until flame dies.

A Café Brulôt is the perfect finale to a perfect meal. Usually, only the most skilled waiters prepare it. At one of the restaurants some years ago, there was an elderly head waiter with great bushy eyebrows who would become so carried away with his work that, frowning fiercely, he would sing Mephistophiles’ song from Faust as he presided over the flaming bowl. It was quite an act.

If you or relatives or friends have cookbooks, pamphlets, old menus, or other remnants of our food culture, please consider donating those things to the Nunez Culinary Research Center when you clean house or do a purge. Our goal is to amass the largest and best culinary research center in the country right here in St. Bernard Parish. Help us grow this unique resource in St. Bernard Parish. We currently have over 2000 community cookbooks in our database from all over the country.

Want to join us in the quest? Just get in touch with me and we’ll find a way for you to participate. Write to me at lizwillia@gmail.com

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This book is a travelog as well as history of boudin. I plan on keeping the book in my glove compartment so that I won’t pass up any great boudin stops when I am on the highways of south Louisiana. Wells’ other books about Louisiana include, The Good Pirates of the Forgotten Bayous: Fighting to Save a Way of Life in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina and Gumbo Life: A Journey down the Roux Bayou.

Ken Wells

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On Sunday there is always this free newsletter, The ComplEAT Kitchen, about what is going on in my food and drink world, at the SoFAB Research Center at Nunez Community College, and out in the world. Tip of the Tongue, my podcast, appears on Monday. This Monday I air the interview with journalist Ken Wells about his new book, Boudin. You can listen on substack or wherever you listen to podcasts. And one or two more print issues appear during the week for paid subscribers.

Cooking: This will be a busy week. We are having guests for dinner this week, a combination of people we want to see who live in town and a visiting friend. And it is Rick’s birthday this week. An…

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From Lisa’s Website

We talk about her career, her goals, and how she wants to reach people. I love that all of her books, even the one about raising and keeping chickens and ducks, are beautiful.

Listen as we talk about recipes, the state of cooking shows, cooking her recipes, and her future. It’s on Tip of the Tongue: On Food & Culture.

Listen to Tip of the Tongue on Substack, on the Heritage Radio Network, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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On Sunday there is always this free newsletter , The ComplEAT Kitchen, about what is going on in my food and drink world, at SoFAB, at the SoFAB Research Center at Nunez Community College, and out in the world. Tip of the Tongue, my podcast, appears on Monday. This Monday I air the interview with Lisa Steele about her new ccokbook In Season. And one or two more print issues appear during the week for paid subscribers.

Cooking: Today I made our house Carob bars and our house brown bread. Since returning home from our trip, I have been relying on bought bread to get us through because I have been trying to catch up after putting all work on the back burner for 19 day…

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In our three courses, Micki Maynard - Culinary Woman - and I will get you caught up on things happening this summer.

Micki will talk about the bounty at the farmer’s markets and farm carts around Ann Arbor (sweet corn is everywhere).

Micki and I will talk about Emeril Lagasse and recent coverage of him and his legacy, his early career at Commander’s Palace in New Orleans, and his programs now on Netflix? Have you eaten in his restaurants or do you own his cookbooks?

We’d love you to share your Emeril-related memories.

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And, I will fill you in on my trip to Wisconsin and spending time with my grandchildren, who have definite opinions about food.

Get ready to pull up a chair and join us at the table! See you on Thur…

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Picayune

The Hummingbird Club is for our community to revel in. Comfortable vibes, offered again and again. Created as a place for all people by a New Orleans family to share the love with you and yours. We all deserve some southern hospitality & homestyle Creole food in the Foothills. We are named after the historic Hummingbird Hotel & Grill in New Orleans, which was a cornerstone for all people, a place that went beyond the southern norms. During the Civil Rights movement the Hummingbird was a place where all walks
of life could sit down together.
Thanks for being at our table!

–Sarah & Josh

On Sunday there is always this free newsletter , The ComplEAT Kitchen, about what is going on in my food and drink world, at SoFAB, at the SoFAB Research Center at Nunez Community College, and out in the world. Tip of the Tongue, my podcast, appears on Monday. This Monday I air the 3rd installment of our series about the development of the Hummingbird Cafe. And one or two more print issues appear during the week for paid subscribers.

Cooking: We are back home, and the cupboards are empty. We actually arrived through the door at 12:30 am this morning. We had eaten down the last morsel in the fridge and had relied on canned things to get through the last few days bef…

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