FoodBanter.com - View Single Post - $40 A DAY in NC

wrote:

>
>I watched in horror Rachel Ray's $40 A Day show in my hometown of Chapel
>Hill, NC.
>
>I know they do research, that she just doesn't walk around town in one day
>and find all these neat places to eat. That lame bit about her checking a
>local bookstore and happening upon Mama Dip's book was just so staged.
>Anyway her staff should be shot because they are total idiots for their
>menu selections. She goes to Mama Dip's and gets freaking gumbo? Holy shit
>that's like going to Louisiana and getting BBQ. No one native to NC eats
>gumbo. Isn't the point of the show to eat the local fare? I mean, this is
>NC and Mama Dip's is famous for traditional black and southern cuisine.
>That includes fried chicken, chitlins, chicken and dumplins, not friggin'
>gumbo!
>
>Then the real kicker was her going to the BBQ Joint. Look, if you have
>never been to eastern NC you don't understand what BBQ is and how to eat
>it. It's slow cooked pork that is usually chopped and mixed with a spicey
>vinegar sauce. That's simple enough. It's what she didn't get with it that
>totally blew my mind. The *traditional* side dishes are cole slaw, which
>she got by default. Another traditional side side and a real must have
>when eating BBQ is brunswick stew. Hushpuppies are also traditional. What
>does that idiot Rachel Ray get? Well, she didn't actually order it, she
>let one of the owners recommend it (obviously that was totally setup,
>too). Now get this, he recommends BRUSSEL SPROUTS!!!!!! LAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
>OMG, me and my friends who watched the show almost went completely
>bonkers. I can't even tell you how damn stupid that is. I mean, I can't
>tell you what a let down that was. That is NOT traditional and maybe 1 in
>1000 would order the damn things. Hell, most people hate the stupid things
>as it is. I have worked in and eaten in BBQ restraurants for 40 years.
>Brussel sprouts are so far down on the scale of what to eat it's not even
>funny. My 90 year grandmother might eat them, then again seeing how they
>cooked them in garlic she might not. It looked like they were going for
>that high brow NY style of cooking instead of traditional eat with your
>hands BBQ style. On top of that she got cornbread instead of hushpuppies.
>That is just wrong. I can not believe anyone serious would come to
>central/eastern NC, go eat BBQ and NOT order brunswick stew and
>hushpuppies. It's just mindboggling. It makes no sense. She and her effete
>staff totally blew it.
>

My husband and I had the same reaction. Makes you wonder about the
other "traditional" food on her travels.

--
Susan N.

"Moral indignation is in most cases two percent moral, 48 percent indignation, and 50 percent envy."
Vittorio De Sica, Italian movie director (1901-1974)