FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
Sip and Chew w/Mike & Stu 9.22.2024 Random Foodness
(upbeat music) - Mike Bailey, a pioneer of the Gulf Coast wine scene, and award-winning food entrepreneur. - I know a lot of you wonder what to do with your moon pass, but I've got some wine suggestions for you. Lemon moon pass, suvyeon blot, shinny blot, or peanut grease show. - Stewart Reb Donald, a claim food and travel writer, and world-class chef. - I was the chef de casserole. I made de casseroles in the frozen food department. - For more than a decade, they've combined their expertise to answer your questions and introduce you to the culinary movers and shakers you want, or ought to know, four-time taste award finalists. - 12-time Nappy Award losers. - They are the dynamic duo of dining. - Drop, drop, keep screaming before-- - Mike and Stu, on FM Talk 1065. - Wow. - Hey, that's right. - Wow. - On this funny, beautiful. - First day of fall morning. And our first day of fall super chew show. - No, it's not. It is not the-- - On the calendar, right. - On the calendar. - And that doesn't count. That doesn't count. What we had was an autumnal equinox. How was your autumnal equinox, Michael? - Same as it always was. Same as it ever was. - 12 hours of daylight, 12 hours of darkness? - Yeah. - Okay, perfect. - I guess I didn't really look. - Yeah, that's actually, that's what happens on the equinoxes, the autumnal or, just drew a blank to the other one. But the one in spring is it's exactly 12 hours daylight, 12 hours, darkness. That's what it means. - No, it's not. - Any season is changing. - Yeah, it's a vernal. - Yeah, vernal equinox, thank you. That's all that that means. - Do you know what I mean? - Yeah, 'cause when our highs are in the '90s, it's not fall. - Yeah. - It's a temperature-determined season. I learned that for my buddy Bill. I guess he was just down now. He talks about that stuff all the time. - Yep. - But he who? - Welcome to the Sip-a-Choo show. We are a food and wine show, or beverage show, or all of that. - Drink. - Above. - Huh? - Drink. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Right. - The grubbin' drink show. That's what we should rebrand it right now to a grubbin' drink show. - There you go, yeah. Eat, eat, eat here. (laughs) So anyway, how was your week this week? - Ah, not too bad, not too bad. Not too good, not too bad. - Okay. - Okay. - No hurricanes can't see that about next week. - Yeah, that's true. Just some rain, it's not gonna be... It just depends on, you know, they're talking about that. - Right now we're dead front. - We're center of the cone of uncertainty, but it's tracking further to the east. So hopefully by the time we actually have a category four floating around out there, that we will be outside the cone of uncertainty. I live my life outside the cone of uncertainty. (laughs) - I just look at it, it's nothing I can do for it, but prepare, that's all I can do. You know, I've been through a many of them, like all of us that live here have, and they just don't worry me unless they get three or above. - Yeah. - Then I worry. - Yeah. Well, I don't have to worry about flooding where I live, because I'm on the top of a hill, and the bottom of the hill is about 75 feet. For us to get a storm surge that floods my house, we're talking Noah. So, you know, that's far inland and that far above sea level. - I live downtown, as you know, and-- - Now you're gonna flood. - I don't think it's the sun of the streets, but it's not, you know, like, not coming into your house, flooding. - Right. - But most all the houses there are off the ground. Anyway, a foot or two. So, as far as I know, that hasn't been, or on my street, there hasn't been any flooding there, but I've only lived there nine and a half years, so. - Yeah. - And that spot's been there for 4.65 billion, so. - I'm sure, so. Anywho, that's one of the French were smart when they went to New Orleans, and founded the French Quarter, it was like the highest part. (laughing) - Three feet? (laughing) - That's in a basin. How do you figure that one? They just found an island in the middle. - No, they built it up. That was just a swamp there. - Yeah. - I mean, and the river has tried to change course, I think three times since it's built there. Eventually, it's gonna change course, there's nothing to do about it, it's gonna be right through the middle of the city. - Yeah. - But we didn't know as much. - Or front property. - We did not know as much back in those days. - Well, they didn't have the foresight, like you were saying here, to keep the houses cool, they built them up on, you know, but that was for Eric and the city. They weren't thinking about any flooding in the middle. - Yeah. - Now, we even have the, quote, Army Corps of Engineers ideas of sewage drainage, but that didn't get backs up so fast. - Yeah. - It's just amazing here. - Well, if that does happen, all the beignets are gonna get soaked. - Soggy beignets. - Yeah, soggy, yeah. I gotta be good. - You think you come up with an idea like to float that, you know, just put them on pontoons, everything over there. - There you go. There you go, like a dock, you know, the dock. - The soggy beignet sounds like a blue song. - Oh, that would be a good song. Yeah, I'll write it. That could be your hit. - Soggy beignet. (laughing) - You know how Roy plays blues. - Mad. - Butch Cassidy's Cafe. In the heart of the Flushill Entertainment District. (laughing) The young kids there cannot stand the music that worked there. - Really? - Drives them up the wall. And they're like, it's the same song over and over. Well, you are absolutely right. Blues is exactly that. It is, there's nothing creative to the blues. - Kind of like a Hallmark Christmas movie, kind of like a Britney Spears song. - That's what the blues are. It is a set chord structure. There's a set subject matter, broken heart, out of money, something that gives you the blues. - Oh, country. - And country. - But they've got dogs, trains and mama going to prison. - Well, they've added in their little business. - And they have different chords. And they have different chord structures too. If you ever look at the chord structure between my homes in Alabama by Alabama, there's like 11 different chords in that song. I was, first time I looked at it, I was a holy cow, those guys were good. But blues, it's, you know, three chords. - Yeah, three chords, pentatonic scale. It's not about coming up with something new. - Yeah. - It's subject matter. - It's about your emotional response. So I listened to it for great vocal performances. I don't care what they're talking about 'cause it's the same thing. My baby doesn't left me and all day long I got the blues. That's it, that's the theme of every song. And the instrumental performances. 'Cause the saxo, guitar solo, that's what the blues is about. The actual arrangement, the improvisation, the emotional thing. It is so hard for these young kids to get it because they're, and what kills me is, you're talking about cookie cutter stuff. I mean, they talk about, well, this new AI, it's gonna put musicians out of business. Folks, musicians hadn't been in business for years. In decades. I mean, look at all the popular music now. It's the same thing. Who was it? Gosh, she was this Australian rapper. But they just found out she didn't do anything on any of her albums. And that's why she's going away. See, I can't even remember her name. - So memorable. - Yeah, and there's so many of them. And they've had people come up going, that's me singing on that. - Well, the good thing about AI and what you're on this, so it doesn't have a thing to do with cooks. How's that gonna work? - Yeah. - You know, or-- - I was just thinking of that. - That's called fast food. (laughing) No, seriously, there's no cooking in a fast food. - So you're talking machinery. - Right, right. They have human beings that put the meat in place, put the bread in place. Machines take care of the rest. - The robotics. - Yeah. - Yeah, through robotics. - Yeah, so fast food has been AI for a very long time. - Yeah. - Thank you, Ray Craft. - Well, Ray Craft, I don't think that was his intent originally, but I think, you know, like most good ideas, we were talking about that off Mike earlier, about like co-ops and so forth. Just amazing how it's a great idea for local, and then all of a sudden, it's not, because of interventions. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Wow. - Which brings us back to local. (laughing) We've all bought steaks and stuff at the grocery store, right? Well, last week I had the chance to try some brisket, smoked, already smoked, taken care of, that the cow was raised in Mobile County. - Really? - Broken down in Mobile County, and the guy who smoked it owned the cow. And it was some of the best brisket I've ever had in my life. - Wow. - Even over Texas. And that was Mason Hill Farms. I got to talk with Joey Mason last week. I went to the outdoor show at the grounds, and Joey was there cooking up burgers and doing brisket so people could try his product. By the way, you can buy that brisket already smoked, Mike. - Well, that's cool. - I don't know what the price is, but he had him vacuum sealed, ready to go. - Cool. - I'm sure it ain't cheap. 'Cause it ain't cheap to get a whole brisket. - It's not even right now anywhere. - Right. But my gosh, that brisket was good. - Yeah. - You did it all local. - Yeah, it was a cow who lived in Grand Bay, Alabama, and died in Grand Bay, Alabama, got consumed in West Mobile. - Locals always better. - Yeah, but Joey says they've got their own fabrication plant right there on the property. - Yeah. - So, you know, they handle the raising, the slaughter, the fabrication, which fabrication is technical talk for what they cut the meat up, and then packaging. All of it handled right there in Grand Bay, and it was noticeably different. And then you've gotten a chance to try the Tomahawk rib eye of that, that's what we have in the mall, right? But I think we're going out there in a couple weeks. - Le Mans? - Let's go to Mason Hill. - We're going to Mason Hill. - Give 'em a number, all right. - 2513430106 is a Call of Hands, our social club, call and text in line. ♪ In Georgia, they can't pick up their mind ♪ ♪ You can get it to a sweet or spicy ♪ ♪ And they'll say that taste all right ♪ - To get on the line, call 3430106. Now, back to Mike and Stu. - Hey everybody, we want to thank a few people. - Thank you. - We want to thank Bob's downtown down down on the corner. - That happy. - Always got something going on there and it's over seven days a week, it's up Christmas and Easter. - Meatloaf omelet, huh? - Meatloaf omelet. - Meatloaf omelet. - Yeah, meatloaf omelet. Yeah, that's right, go get that meatloaf omelet there. I want them to do a bologna. - I'm gonna do a bologna. - If they'll ever do a bologna omelet. - Yeah. - It'd be just as good as a fried spam omelet. - Spam omelet, yeah. - I don't like either one. - Have you ever had an oyster omelet, Steve? - Nah, I can deal with that. It's taking me a long while to get with it. - Because they let off a good deal of a water in them, they're not as firm as regular omelets. They're a little runny, no matter what you do. - Sure. - Oh boy, they're good. And if oyster's a bit much for you, try crab omelet. - Ooh, no, that sounds good. - In fact, Wences, I don't know if they still do, 'cause they hadn't been in a while, but they had a crab omelet po-boiled in their menu for many years. - That sounds good. - Anyway. - So anyway, if you like seafood, like we were saying, even though it's a hamburger place, you can get seafood there at Butch Cassidy's there in Florida in O'Shell. We finally call Flushill. He does have really good crab claws, and there, and I've had 'em, and they're always big, and they're really good. - And I'm convinced Roy does not like me. - Do they have onions on them? - Why? - 'Cause he was, huh? - I was gonna ask, does Butch have, onion rings on his menu? - Oh yeah, they go on yours. - Yeah, hand cut every day. He clearly doesn't like me because he's, Fox 10 came in the other day, did some shooting in the kitchen. (laughing) And then he went on Studio 10 the next day. He said, "Stoo, what should I feature on the menu?" I said, "How 'bout something fried, Roy?" 'Cause I worked the griddle. (laughing) Oh no, it's hard to do anything fried on there. Well, take a salad. - Nah, so he did all burgers, so I'll be getting good. (laughing) - Nice. - Yeah, yeah. And we wanna thank Hall of Sausage and Wholesale Meeks, now available at the Peak of the Wiggles in Foley and, well, in Baldwin County, rather, and all the Greer stores as well. So get over there and ask for it. And if you don't see it, and ask for it. By the name. - Axum. - Ask for it, so. So any who, you know, that's that is strange. I've gone to seafood places and had one heck of a steak or hamburger, and then I've gone to hamburger places and had great seafood. - Every time I hear something like that, I hear my son. Okay, all those years. - Yeah. - He doesn't like cheese. You know, kind of figured out why I think he's got lactose sensitivity. But for years, we'd take him to, you know, a Ruth Chris or someplace. Can you chicken fingers? - It was always, you know, that was his mainstay. He always just kind of was funny. - Where's part of the chicken? - What Bob's saying is, you know, you go to a nice place, you get a nice-- - He's crazy about chicken tenders, and I'm like, it has no flavor. I get that it's tender, I get that, but it's no flavor. I don't see the fascination. And people will have these arguments. What's the best chicken tender? There's no such thing as a best chicken tender. There's slightly better or slightly worse, but they're all pretty much the same. - Yeah. - Sothations isn't any better than any other-- - No, I mean, the chicken tender restaurants. That comes down to who sauce do you like better? - Yeah. - Yeah. - What are your favorite sauce? - What, for chicken tenders? I'll be honest, the food sauce is really good. - Yeah, it is. - Yeah, and it's a glorified thousand island. - Yeah, yeah. - It's a little spotty restaurant. - Same thing as a, like a blossom sauce. They're all pretty much mayonnaise, a little ketchup, some horseradish, some chili powder, a little other stuff. - Well, sure, Steve. - I like an oriental, has a sweet and sour. - Yeah. - Oh, man, that's good. - Yeah, yeah. - But see, that's the problem with chicken tenders. You need a sauce. - You're right, you're right. And I tell you what I like, and it is a chain. Popeyes, they do, I like their chicken every now and then. - And their breading is different. - Oh, absolutely. - Oh, absolutely. But they have these things called Cajun sprinkles. - Yeah. - It's a little pack, you just sprinkle it on your chicken or whatever. - It's like red hots or red peppers, rather. - It's amazing. - Yeah, it's a big season. - Yeah. - Okay. - Essentially, it's a really good Cajun season. - But it's, they don't tell you about it. You have to ask for it by name. - Well, the secret menu item? - You gotta ask them. - You gotta ask them. And yeah, it's just, it's called Cajun sprinkles. And I had never heard about it. And one night at a fine establishment downtown, somebody mentioned, "Have you had the Cajun sprinkles?" So I went to the Popeyes there and got, I said, "You got those Cajun sprinkles?" So she gave me about five or six. I'm addicted. Sometimes I go get a piece of chicken, just to get-- - Just to get the sprinkles. - Yeah, I got a pile of them on my counter at the house in a bowl. - I think the south is the only place we do that. It's like, okay, hey, look at my club department and get an afternoon. I can't stand, I can't stand, it just irritates me to look at an refrigerator and see the little packs of soy sauce and mayonnaise and-- - Why do they put them in the refrigerator? - I don't know. - Y'all see them, I see them like a cup in the door and they got all their little sauces they collected. Should I throw those away? Nah. And then they're on the counter in the way and I said, I'll put them in refrigerator. - We had them in a box. I mean, everything from Arby's sauce, to Tyra Bell's sauce. - Oh, that's Tyra Bell's sauce. - Arby's sauce is terrible. - Oh, I love Arby's sauce. - Now I love the horseshoe sauce. - Yeah, I love the horseshoe sauce. - That Arby's sauce, I think, is one of the worst versions of barbecue and that's what it is. That's their version of barbecue? - Yeah, Arby's. - Yeah, barbecue. - They have a brisket. They do a pretty good job with their brisket sandwich but-- - Slice it to you then. - I make sure before I pull, I make sure before I pull out the parking lot that I got my horseshoe sauce 'cause I've gotten somewhere and they put something else in there and not the horseshoe sauce and I'm so mad. - Well, they ask and most of the cases they'll ask. I'll say, you know, what do you want? I want them each, please. - So if we're talking about fast food and what you got to get there, cat and bees, don't eat that. - They still exist? - Oh, yeah, that's one of them. - I know I'm just saying. - I go there twice a year. I get a craving for that about once every six months but I got to have all the malt vinegar in the building. That's the purpose of fish and chips. If you're not using malt vinegar, you're not eating fish and chips and I want every fry and that's usually what it's for. It's for the fries. - How do you know that? - And then the fish as well. That's why they have malt vinegar. - It turns out. - The batter. - It turns out. - Five guys has malt vinegar. They don't serve fish. - Really? - The batter is different on the fish. - Yeah, it's flour, it's more of a tempura style or beer batter style only without the beer. They add some beer too, they'd be much better. But like I say, I grew up on cornmeal fried fish. So the flour thing is just, I want something different. So about every six months, I'm heading up to Captain D's. - 'Cause I go, I went somewhere. - Their southern catfish is terrible. - It's not really southern, is it? - No, I'm fairly certain it's why. - Where was that? - It's just, or it's-- - A lot of 'em, they pull in tilapia. - They try to pass it off. - That's not catfish. - I know, but I'm just saying this is how I try to pass it off. - Now we're back to chicken tender again, we're talking about tilapia. I have learned some different medical things about tilapia, it's not healthy when it's farm raised because the feed they give it gives it so much cholesterol, you're better off eating bacon, which defeats the whole purpose of eating fish. - You're always better off when you eat bacon. - Not health-wise. It's very low in omega-6 fatty acids, which is what you eat fish for. - Exactly. - But it's super high on protein. It's a really good source of lean protein. - It's mostly very lean. - So there's kind of some balance into it like that, but if you had it wild carat, it changes everything. Now it's a very healthy fish, the cholesterol goes down, they'll have a few more omega-6s, it's still not high on omega-6s. The, you know what, the healthiest fish, I say fish in quotes, 'cause it's not technically fish, whale. - Whale, really? - Whale is the healthiest meat protein you can eat on the planet, but it's a mammal, so technically it's not a fish, but it's illegal to eat except in Japan, so, because of the scarcity of whales. I mean, we've all started eating whale that wouldn't be any. - We're gonna be done, yeah. - We're not eating them now and there's almost none, so. That's why, you know, Kirk-- - You think we're the best. - That's why Kirk and Spock had to come back and grab if you take them back to the future. (laughing) - Start trick riffs, folks. - Man, if they don't know what that was, we can't help 'em. - That's what I was gonna say. It's creepy. - Nothing we can do here on this show that can help them in life. They don't know who Kirk and Spock are. - That's right. - And you know, when they came out with the revised, the new Star Trek movie. - Next generation. - No, no, no, no, the new one, the J.A.A.s. one. When I went to see it, there was an old fella in overalls behind me, a whole family together. And he, it started out in it's Kirk's dad as a lieutenant. Who, by the way, Thor played him, you know what I remember? Chris Hemsworth. And he goes, "Wait, I thought Kirk was the captain." And he was lost the rest of the movie. Grandma went to the bathroom, one of the kids came back and he went, "What did I miss?" They threw Kirk off the boat. He got caught up at the end when you hear little Nimoy go space. The fine, and he goes, "The final frontier." - Oh my goodness. - I hated having that family behind me because, I mean, they shouted at the top of their lungs everything. But now it's a great story. - Yeah. - It's what they call type two fun. At the time it was miserable, but looking back, it's pretty cool. So I got to tell, tell brides. Your wedding's not going to be perfect. And chances are, whatever goes wrong, it's going to be your favorite memory, 10 years. - There you go. - Type two falling. (laughing) - We were sitting at a-- - Hey, did we think all sausage and wholesale meats, by the way? - I don't think we did. - Oh, okay, I missed it. - I was sitting at a fine establishment downtown, late yesterday afternoon. And here comes two big golf carts, pull it up like eight, carry eight or nine people each. And there was a bride and her wedding gown in there. And I mean, it was, you know, had a big train. She come there. And I said, "That thing's going to be filthy." (laughing) 2513430106 is the Callahan Irish Social Club, Colin Texan. (singing) - Mike Bailey, Stuart Reb Donald, devoted to the complete gastronomic experience. ♪ I want a big butter and egg man ♪ - Mike and Stu, on FM Talk 1065. - We got great, proper music. - Yeah, we did thank you, Steve, for setting up all of this. - Yeah. - It's amazing. - And we don't have the same four songs that play every week. - Yeah. - It actually rotates the list of about 100 songs that we haven't met. - Thank you, Steve. - But we need to indoctrinate Steve, and I will send him the link so that next week, he can get fully indoctrinated in some things that have been a tradition on here. - Uh-oh. - He needs to hear the fried chicken song. - Yeah. - Chicken song. - The kids ordering with a guitar at Sonic. And then the two fellows that were ordered by song at Taco Bell. - Taco Bell. - That's a classic. - The one at Sonic is a carload of like college age kids and the guy in the passenger seats got a guitar, and he is improvising everything. Please, please, don't forget the extra cheese. (laughing) It's really good. - And then the guy worked at the window. - Oh yeah, at the Taco Bell. - He did not miss a theme when he read it back to him. - Yeah, it was a more impressive than there. And these guys had worked on this song to do this order you could tell for a long time because it had harmonies, it was very long. It was very, in fact-- - You mean it wasn't that lived? - Oh. - No way it could have been. - Yeah, yeah. - That the order when they were done was enough to feed like 20 people. - So many times I've had so many people come up to me. Is that all you do? I mean, it must be a really easy job what you do. Come on in, have a seat. Let's show you what we do. Oh, I could do that. Okay, and that's like me coming into your business saying, hey, dude, you know, yeah, I could do that. Don't take away the credit or the value or the-- - Yeah, when I've, whenever you've had carons in the restaurant industry and they're complaining about service and they always wanna go, how hard is it to do? And I always stop myself just short of saying, well, I guarantee you from this conversation, it's more than you can handle. - Right, right. - That's you. - That's you. - Yeah, you are not displaying a whole lot of mental acumen at the moment. - I just don't understand people walking to restaurants, you know, and some of these are worse, by the way. Some of these are worse for tipping. - Oh, and for people looking to pick a fight. - I don't understand that, I just don't get it. You know, people, and it's a equally mobile thing. - Is it, really? - The church crowds that we got in Nashville were great, Pensacola, they're great, but there are just some crowds. When I was working for Crap Elise, the very first lady that walked in the door on a Sunday morning walked in and said, "You're gonna have to turn this rock and roll music off." - Wow. - And I said, and I said, "Ma'am, this is Applebee's bar and grill." - You're leaving a bar? - You leave this in much? - Yeah, our corporate mandate is we play rock and roll music. Well, you're gonna have to turn it down. Ma'am, our corporate mandate is we are a bar and grill. We play rock and roll music and we play it loud. - So did you get into it? - Well, I think I'll go to Morrison's and I said, "No, no, they didn't eat." She said, "Well, maybe I should go to Morrison's." I said, "Ma'am, I really think that's what you're looking for." I mean, I don't think this is, this is not the experience that you're looking for. So right next door is Morrison's. So she went there and I'm sure she was as pleasant with him as she was with us. - There you go. - Yeah, a lot of times that's triggered by their blood sugar being too low. They waited too long to eat. It really is 'cause I turned the table around one time. - I know where you're going with this, man. - Give Ma'am out. - No, I'm being serious. When you don't eat, your blood sugar drops and that leads to irritability. - Sure. - And... - That's why I eat. - Cards that you don't eat are irritable? (laughing) - But I had a lady... - That's still good irritable. - Years ago when I was riding for Zalia and current, I waited tables at Olive Garden just to fill in holes when I had a bad month. And these three ladies came in and two of them were just as pleasant as they could be and the other one said, "I wanted to go to Wences, but I got out voted." - Wow. - Okay. - Stand the car. - You know, let's see what we can do for you here. She goes, "I wanted catfish," and y'all took catfish off the menus. And Olive Garden only had catfish on the menu for two years out of their 40-year history. And she goes, "Well, that's what I wanted." And I said, "I've got a plan for you." I said, "Get the chicken parmesan, "prefend its fried chicken with tomato gravy." Well, okay, I'll try that. Came back after they'd eaten. How was everything? She goes, "That's the best fried chicken tomato gravy I'd ever had." Her blood sugar was low and it made her irritable. - Yeah. - She got some bread sticks in her. She started mellow out by the time she ate her lunch. - Frisk sticks ought to make anybody happy. - Yeah. - They do it Texas Roadhouse. - Yeah. (laughing) - Just bring out the loaf for me. - So, yeah, so for a lot of people that irritability in them and first walk in is because they're hungry. - That's probably why they make skin restaurants. They give you those chips and salsa to start out with. I went to speaking, though, which I went to Tulum the other day in Spanish Fort. - I saw that open. - Brand new restaurant, and it's owned by the Don Ruben and Armando and all that family. So they got a lot going on. They just opened that one. They got one they're building right here where the old old old Charlie's was. - Shea Chucks. - Mm-hmm. - And then, I forgot what they're going to turn Officer Charles into, but they're opening up a restaurant on Dauphin Street, where the old Southern National used to be. And it's a taqueria, actually. - Okay, I saw that there was one coming out. I wonder how Frankie feels about that. - Well, I mean, Frankie's Central American, isn't he? - Frankie does what Frankie wants. - Yeah. - And he's not constrained, but it's anything Latin American that Frankie wants to do. - Yeah, he does something. - And I'm okay with that. - A genre of everything. - Yeah, 'cause when you're a chef, you don't do the menu people want, you do the menu you want, and you hope you're good enough that people want your menu. - Yeah. - Restaurants that are chef driven, you do what the customer wants. - Yeah. - That makes sense. - Yeah, I wonder about that. - And I've made this argument, I understand that at the crux of this, you come in, you pay me for food and I give you food. But if I don't have a creative outlet for this, I'm not going to give you any food. I'm going to go find another career. - Yeah. - It's like we talked last week about Avichu, you know, opening and a group by there, and that is, you know, it's a niche market, but at the same time, once it latches on, man, you know, that's good, that's the variety. I like that personally. - Yeah. Well, I mean, you can only do so much cookie cutter. - Mobile has done so much growth in the type of cuisines you can find here, because Mike knows, when I was lucky, I was ready to move back to Nashville or to New Orleans, because I was so frustrated with this town wanting every restaurant to be cracker barrel. They didn't want to go to different restaurants and get different food. They wanted the same dad come food at every, and that, you know, that makes anyone who's creative, which culinary arts is an art form that makes them want to go someplace else. - In the wine business, I dealt with a lot of people who moved to Mobile to open a restaurant, and they did, and it didn't matter what their cuisine was, people wanted something fried. - Yeah. - You know? They wanted a fried. - Yeah. - And when Pete opened Sunset Point, he did not want to do fried seafood, and they said, why not? That's what everyone is. He goes, every restaurant in town does fried seafood, and they do a great job. I've been all over the world. There's other ways to do seafood. Now, he has since kind of backed off a little in the snapper throats, you can get grilled or fried. You're an idiot to get them fried. They're so good grilled. That's one of the best fish dishes you will ever eat as a snapper throat. - When no-based steamer was around, they didn't do fried. - Right. - It was all steams. All steams, seafood, it was great. - Now, the upside of the frying thing is it's hard to screw up fried seafood, unless you're using bad product. - Oh, yeah. But as long as you're using fresh seafood, no matter what your recipe is, it's pretty much going to taste the same. And I used to have some friends, everywhere they went, they wanted to try to best fry shrimp on the golf cuffs. Well, it's the same at every restaurant. Made me slightly different, but everybody's fried shrimp is pretty much fabulous, right? And then they came back and they said, flounders is different. So when I went to Pensacola, I got to fry shredded flounders, and it is different. It is significantly better than any place else on the golf cuffs, and I figured it out. They add some fresh bread crumbs into the flour, and it makes it extra crispy on the outside. Flavor-wise, tastes like everybody else's. Pretty much everybody's fried shrimp tastes the same. - Yeah. - Good, really, really good. But that flounder's breading was different enough to go, okay, this is better than what I'm used to. - Okay. - But for the most part, all fried shrimp at all restaurants that are locally-owned, producing local seafood tastes pretty much the same, and it's all good. - I was gonna say, hey, Wednesday at Crapers. - Yeah. - So we mentioned, that is the best gumbo I have ever, ever. As they say down here, ever, EVA, ever have. - And you know, that's another seafood item, a food item that's offered that can be debated. - Gumbo. - You know, it's your own personal preference. - Right. - 'Cause I judged a gumbo competition once, few years ago, and the guy who submitted this one particular gumbo had pickled red onions and pickled okra in it. - Interesting. - It was delicious. - Just the pickled itself. - But when the baker was around, they used to put their gumbo over wild rice. - Delicious. - I like that idea. - Delicious. - I like that idea. - That's too kind. - Two kinds of grass. - Two kinds of grass you're eating with. - Mm-hmm. - All rice is grass. - You know what I do know. 'Cause I remember when people go, you know that wild rice is actually grass? - Mm-hmm. - You know it, regular rice is actually grass? You know that corn is actually grass? - I still say wheat. - You know that wheat, rye, and buckwheat, they're all grass. We eat a lot of grass. - We're like cows. - We eat a lot of cows before we eat a lot of grass, right? - There you go. - And depends on what the cows eating in this grass, how good he is. (laughing) - Well, I hear Mason Hill Farms is for you. (laughing) Here, you know. - You've tried that tomahawk river. - Oh yeah, and I had some samples at the Alabama Dixie Fisher-Odeo Liars competition. That night, they had a tent set up. Enjoyed, was in there, serving. And it was, I got a little bit of everything. It was just delicious. - So if it was a Liars competition where they're trying to pass off the beef, it was fish, what was it? (laughing) - Oh, yeah, it was. - The Liars competition is. It is a-- - Ain't no but a bunch of lies. And fish lives-- - They're not even funny or more, man, they're just like here. - It's this long. - I've been to a few of the Liars contest and they're just like, this is so boring. It's just a string of ridiculous. There's no actual story to the lie. It's just, let's put a bunch out win. - It's all about win. - It's all about win. - Yeah, and I guess the person who wins is the least boring. - Although, one year it was like a 11 year old girl and she nailed it. She was great, but there have been a few of those Liars contest like, oh God, wish I didn't have to. - I didn't go for the lion. I went for the food and the-- - And the drink. - And the beverage. - The grub and the drink. (laughing) - Hey man. - Speaking of dal nal and I went fishing, Wednesday night. I'm down, met my brother down at Cedar Point. - I didn't see any photos. - Oops. - No, it's a short on Delta's far. Yeah, nothing great. I caught one 12 inch saltwater cat fish and 10 white drow. We just threw on the deck and used his cut bait. But one of the guys fishing with has caught about a seven pound saltwater cat. - Wow. - And another dude caught a stingray. - Oh wow. The saltwater cat, they're a little more hard-headed, aren't they? I've always heard them call hard heads. - A hard head is actually your yellow cat, but some people call the saltwater cats hard heads as well. They're also called gaff tail 'cause they have a huge fan on the back and you don't want any part of that. It will go through your foot if it's a big enough cat. - Yeah. - All the way through it. But the stingray is far more dangerous than the catfish on. So the guy that was helping the other dude with the stingray was like trying to hold the skate, the wings, and keep away from the bar 'cause naturally, it's in defense mode. And we was able to get, I mean, I've got footage of it. - Well, wow. - Ask Steve Irvine. - We can't. - I know. - To be good. - Yeah. - But it is a good night. If you're a white trout fisherman, it was a great night. - Well, two five, one, three, four, three, oh, one of six is the Calans Irish social club. - Oh. - And text it up. - Then he got it up. ♪ And eggman ♪ ♪ From where I'm in the way ♪ - For more than a decade, sip and chew with Mike and Stu on FM Talk 1065. ♪ I don't smoke, I don't shoot smack ♪ ♪ But I got a spicy bouquet ♪ ♪ Put it on my back ♪ ♪ Don't be bent against you ♪ ♪ Sugar and toast ♪ ♪ I will paint the gumball ♪ ♪ I will paint the gumball ♪ - I'd play for gumball. - Pray. - Oh, and for that, too. (laughing) - Play and pray. - I can't play, but I can pray. - Hey, we want to thank P-R-A-Y, Mike, not P-R-E-Y. - Same thing. Hey, we want to thank our friends over there at Bob's downtown down on the corner, Fat and Happy, which is North Jackson and St. Francis Street. I bet a lot of people are sitting outside right now, enjoying Marcus, Elizondo music, and the fine food. A Bailey's breakfast? Maybe that. Maybe a meatloaf. (laughing) There's that. Hey, and we want to thank Hall of Sausage and Wholesale Meats. If you're in Baltimore County, you're looking for it. Get it to your favorite grocery store, asked for it by name. - Axum. - But it's already in the pig of the weeklies over there. - Pig of the weeklies. - And some of the rare stores. And we want to thank Butch Cassidy's over on O'Shel Road, Mighty Fine hamburgers, and Sea Food. It's got it all right there. - Taco salad. - There you go. He's got good salads, period. Good salads, period. If you're not feeling it, you know, but he is closed on Sunday. So anyway, what do you have to talk about? You got anything to talk about? - Well, go ahead. - I was just saying, you celebrated the first day of fall. I was just going to ask you what you guys would suggest for fall dishes. - Well, in six weeks when it gets here, I'll tell you. (laughing) - We're good six weeks away from fall right now. - Yeah, our fall for sure. - I do love a butter squash, your winter squashes, which are butternut, acorn, and pumpkin. That's just the whole pumpkin spice thing. - I'm about to add, yeah, here we go, yeah. - But try a butter nuts squash soup with some Italian sausage ground up in it. Ooh, and then you'll wanna, hey, Mike, turn the volume down. - I'm just saying what was going on. - 'Cause we're on live radio. - I was checking to see what was going on with the show. (laughing) - He saw a notification he couldn't resist, and it's just letting him know what I'm saying. - What was this about? - Oh, that's us. (laughing) Butternut squash soup, you roast the butternut, puree it, and a little cream, maybe a little chicken stock, salt and pepper, garlic to taste, crumble up some Italian sausage, sprinkle that in it, and then I generally will drizzle it with a little creme fraiche. - What, a little what? - Creme fraiche. But if you wanna fresh cream and-- - Oh, fresh cream. - But it's actually cultured. If you wanna fake creme fraiche instead of paying the ridiculous price that it is, take some sour cream and add just a touch of heavy cream to it so that it thins a little. - Okay, okay, that's so creme fraiche. And usually a balsamic drizzle as well. - What would you think of like, maybe a butternut pasta or alfredo pasta, things like that, would that go on with the show? - I would like to try a, and a lot of people do, basically if you've got a heavy cream soup, you've also got a sauce. Cheese soup is cheese sauce, kind of thing. But just make the butternut squash soup and put it over pasta. And then they've got basically a butternut alfredo if you wanna look at it. - Why don't we shine on top? - Sure, I think anything with pasta should have parmesan on top, whether it's Italian or not. I have a friend that makes this dish called Mike's gonna love it, flitch key. - Flitch key. - Flitch key. - Flitch key. - Flitch key. It is a Bavarian, I believe. It's essentially fettuccine with ham, butter, cooking all together. And I was over there and I said, "Can I get some parmesan on cheese?" She goes, "For what?" And I said, "Pasta, naturally." And on there, she tried to say, "Oh my gosh, that's what this dish has been missing." - Wow. - Yeah. But yeah, it's just like chipped up ham, butter, and pasta. Put parmesan on top of it, it really sucks. - Sounds good. - Fall fruits. - You used to talk about butternut squash. I was looking at a video where people are making like a pasta from the butternut squash. And that looks interesting. I have not had that yet, but that looks interesting. - For the stringiness of the inside, yeah, you do. - Oh, you're talking about spaghetti squash. - Yes, spaghetti squash. - Yeah, and it's because it's very fibrous. And when you open it up, it just pulls apart and looks like spaghetti. - Yeah, yeah. - But I think it tastes very similar to like a acorn or a butternut squash, maybe not quite as strong that pumpkin-y flavor. - Yeah. - More butter. Again, you add more a lot butter with that. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah. - If you've got a vessel to hold butter, you put butter on. - That sounds like a Paula Dean answer. - Yeah, that'll kind of an obvious, you know, rhetorical question, okay. - But I did, I just saw that video earlier this weekend and said, might look interesting, I need to try that. I should try that. - It was interesting, he was talking about chicken fingers and the taste of nothing, you know. Is there, and I wanted to ask earlier, if there's like, you know, bracing chicken or roasting chicken is, that's a difference obviously. - Right, and your chicken needs a lot of health, American chicken needs a lot of health the way. We raise it, devoid to the most of the flavor. 'Cause I've had a lot of people that go to Mexico and they go, I had just plain chicken down there, it was so much better than it is here. Well, it's, you know, it's been outside, it's seen sunlight, it's eaten worms and insects like it's supposed to instead of spending its entire life in a garage, being fed corn, something that doesn't eat. - Right. - And, but, so chicken needs a lot of health. - You put batter on chicken and fry it because it needs the batter to be interesting. You, when you roast it, you're slow roasting it, you're getting out that excess moisture it's in in. If you're buying it at a grocery store, there's a lot of extra stress moisture in it 'cause that's how they get the price up. You're paying for, when you buy at a grocery store, buying proteins at a grocery store, meat, pork, chicken, 30% of what you're buying is water, they added to it so they could charge you more money. - Wow. - Pure and simple. And that's, if you go to a slaughterhouse, a butcher shop, something like that, that's why it's different. 'Cause they don't pump it up with bromide. - Well, those schmucks. - Yeah. But, you roast that chicken, the main thing where you're getting flavor from, is the skin. - Yeah. - And the bones being inside of it. - My favorite bones. - You take the bone out of meat, you take most of the flavor out of the meat. That's why the tenderloin doesn't have that much flavor because it's not on a bone and it doesn't have any fat. So it's just a muscle that doesn't get worked much. Working it makes it tougher, but it also gives it flavor. The brisket gets a lot of work on a cow's chest, but it's never tender. You don't have to slowly cook it and bite it. - Pork chop's why they have more. - Yeah, the bone. - Bone. - You get boneless pork chops. They're easier to eat, but they don't have as much flavor. A lot of that flavor is absorbed in the cooking process from the bone. You've got marrow going on in there. It keeps you from overcooking the meat or cooking it too fast, and this whole debate on it, you like regular wings or boneless wings. There's no such thing as a boneless wing. If you want McNuggets, go see the clown. - Right. - If you want wings, you deal with bones, but don't call them boneless wings. Call them what they are, chicken nuggets. They're on the kids' menu, where they belong. And the don't wants to gnaw that bone, son. - What's your favorite pork chop, Mike? - I like the thin. - Ooh, no. - Boiled? - Boiled? - Boiled. - What kind of a Kansas thing is that? - Yeah, I would exactly. I don't like pork chops personally. - I like the name of Gail Sayers that you talking about. I like the bone, I like the regular cut pork chop, but thin, and when you're from, they're, you know, eat them with your fingers, and they're, it's just all I can like that. - I want mine an inch thick, on a grill cooked medium. - Okay. - Pork can be cooked to medium safely. Beyond medium well, pork chops are inevitable to me. They are so dry, they're just griss especially the thin ones. See, that's why I don't like the thin ones. Man, it's like eating pork jerky. You're just eating a bunch of gristle and gnawing on a bone. - I don't know. - It's meat on it. - Except in Butch Cassidy's. Is that fell on the grill, and that's how to cook that. Folks, thank you for tuning in today. I hope you learned something. I learned every day, I come here. Get out there, support local be local by local. Tips and servers, servers on your tips. And what else? Mike, we gotta go. Just say Provalo, yeah, Provalo, yeah. ♪ There you want ♪ ♪ And Alice's restaurant ♪ ♪ Walk right in his round the back ♪ ♪ Just a half a mile from the railroad track ♪