Sean Brock has an amazing menu and a clear creative and critical eye for Southern Cooking. I’ve dined at Husk in Charleston, while the above image is from his new Husk in Nashville. I’m watching him on The Mind of a Chef, narrated by Anthony Bourdain. His mind clearly cooks within heirloom varieties, centuries-old traditions of cooking, and a philosophy of sustainability and taste on par with Magnus Nilsson at Fäviken and Dan Barber at Blue Hill. Enough said, let’s look at our menu items for Tuesday, August 12, 2014. First, let’s have a nice, cool glass of Blueberry Lemonade.
Blueberries by Lisa Lea Bemish. How deeply blue, beautiful, and refreshing. Maybe we can talk a bit before the waiter arrives again.
I’ve been thinking that food is more than nutrition, instead, maybe a far cheaper and more enjoyable psychoanalysis, in other words, food as therapy. Look at the smoked pork belly. Tell the smoked pork belly your problems.
I’m thinking some roasted vegetables would hit the spot right now, and Cooking with a Wallflower has just the recipe: a Roasted Vegetable Medley.
Delicious, but now I’m looking for something a bit more salty, briny, even Lovecraftian.
How about an order of oysters,
or at least Art and Oystermen in Charleston, South Carolina.
Apparently it’s “Shark Week” on The Discovery Channel, which leads to an increase in Shark Meat consumption at a time when populations are declining. So here’s a menu item that removes itself.
Have you wanted to organize your life so throughly it ran like an Escoffier-style kitchen. Picking up the therapy theme again, could a chef offer you a-more-ordered-life?
I think it’s time for the next course, how about Sean Brock of Husk making Shaved Catfish?
And now the end of the meal, the day, time to recline with a glass of Laphraoig 10 Cask Strength. Oh, you will need to add a touch of water. Here are my tasting notes. Bon Appétit
Without water
Color: The dark amber that traps long dead mosquitoes.
Nose: Dark candy, figs, lots of wood smoke, cider, oak, did I say oak, not vanilla, oak, strong alcohol hit, burning nose, spearmint.
Taste: Pain, cayenne, honey, dark roux, celery, wet leaves.
Finish: Hot cinnamon candy, long finish.
With water
Nose: Pear, green apple, vanilla, still burns the nose, less smoke, vegetal matter, molasses lurking in the back.
Taste: Melon, honey, smooth, light spice in the back, hits the front of the tongue and spreads, syrupy in the mouth, butterscotch, shrimp shells.
Finish: Still long, mild candied finish.
Empires, Cannibals, and Magic Fish Bones 