I swear there was an “and” between the names of those two books.

CaroleH: I have a batch of JT’s granny’s blueberry crunch cake on my counter right now…a request from my son for his b’day dinner dessert. Have you made/tried it yet? If not, it’s WONDERFUL, and I’m sure as you say will be a hit in his new restaurant.

Gael Greene, is a self-advertised sexual adventurer with music and film stars. Her notches include a one-night stand with Elvis (she does describe his room-service order). At JT’s, she is in this element, and her restaurant reviewing cred is rendered subterranean. She LIKES stuff that, in her own words, sounds disgusting. Don’t be concerned about the misrepresentation of local cuisine, Jennifer. As Carole H points out, food is incidental to the flocks, and GG represents them perfectly.

I don’t think I am in any danger of visiting Justin’s restaurant as it violates one of my “Restaurant Rules” - Never eat at a restaurant whose reputation is about something other than the food (celebrity owner, view, musical instruments on the wall, virgin mary image on kitchen door, etc.) I developed this rule after being lured to eat at the “Oldest Italian Restaurant in San Francisco.”

It is one of many rules that have served me well over the years, like “Don’t eat at a restaurant with bus parking,” “Approach buffet with caution,” and “Avoid restaurants with gift shops.”

And here I go again, Brenda! I concur with chitlins, but I tried them. I would also never eat brains (which I have not tried) although apparently my mother loved squirrel brains when she was a child. They grew up in the country. (I guess this is a good place for a “duh.”)

Never met a hushpuppy I liked, either, but I’ve got nothing against trying them. In fact, that seems like something that I should work on, come up with a good one.

Another one: Red-eye gravy.

The truth is I have pretty strong, um, ideas about the edibility or more precisely, the desirability, of foods. I’m only listing the Southern ones here. If my mother-in-law or friend and former CA food writer Chris Gang read this, they will have their two cents to add (Chris whacked me on the head with a magazine once!). Let me pre-defend myself: Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE plenty of foods. In comparison, the list of forbidden foods (generally it’s inappropriate food combinations) is very small.

I’ll give you that it doesn’t rise to the level of squirrel brains, but coffee in gravy??? I’ve tried it twice and both times it tasted like someone poured ham grease in my coffee. Once someone made it (I don’t remember who) and once I had it in a restaurant.

Hey Jennifer, you like what you like. I’ve enjoyed a few BBQ nachos from time to time, but it’s not something I’d order regularly. I grew up eating brains and eggs (on occasion), and I grew up in Cleveland, OH…that dish was prepared by my maternal grandmother from West Virginia. Probably wouldn’t touch them now, tho LOL!! Typical “Southern” eats I wont touch: chitlins, most gravies, pig feet, hocks, ears,snouts, tails,tripe/menudo, okra in anything.

Guess I’m not the only chitlins hater in the bunch! I did eat a fried chitlin once just to say I did & to get my co-workers off my case. But it mostly just tasted like breading, so I was safe. The smell of boiled ones is so overwhelmingly gross that I never got past the lid of the crockpot at the soul food day luncheon. Ewwwww! I love okra, boiled or otherwise, & my dad used to eat brains & eggs. But I wouldn’t touch that or squirrel or any of the other things people snatch up out of the woods that wind up in cauldrons of mystery meat. The only kind of liver I like is liverwurst or liver cheese. And yes, like Jennifer, I enjoy so many other things that I don’t even miss liver & onions.

I don’t like coffee…there, I said it. There are too many other things I do like to make myself like that. I’m a tea drinker, be it hot or cold, & proud of it. I think red eye gravy is pretty disgusting, if not downright weird. I also don’t like cantaloupe but I do like honeydew. Other than those things, you can put just about anything in front of me & I’ll try it once. I think beef neckbones are one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. The meat is tender & it’s just like pot roast, honest. I used to buy a neck cut roast at the old Fred Montesi grocery store that predated Piggly Wiggly, but I haven’t seen that cut anywhere since, sad to say.

Cynthia, your family’s meat & two vegetables regimen reminded me of a friend whose mother insisted that it had to be a green vegetable & a yellow one. I imagine they ate a lot of carrots, corn & summer squash at their house.

I don’t know that I would have eaten brains anyway, but prions will pretty much keep me away from them from here on out.

I’ll keep Jennifer’s food combination aversions a secret until she is ready to reveal them. I do confess to hitting her with a magazine because they strike me as totally irrational. (Now you are going to have to confess, Jen)
But I will weigh in on brains. I never ate them as a child even though fried brain sandwiches are staples in the taverns in the South St. Louis neighborhood where I grew up.
My mother told me about an article on the “best brain sandwich” in the St. Louis Post Dispatch and it turned out the tavern that won the distinction was only blocks from our old house. So on my next visit, we went and I ate one.
It was very good. I think the brains are from calves instead of pigs but I couldn’t swear to it.
They are sliced, battered and fried and then served on rye bread with a raw onion slice and dill pickle chips.
I say don’t knock it until …….
I tried boiled chitlins’ once and don’t care to have them again. Fried chitlins might be another story but I’m not anxious to seek them out.
I did try lamb guts in Provence once and also rabbit braised in its own blood. I wasn’t wild about either.

Brains aren’t safe to eat anymore, and I’m pretty sure they are illegal to sell. Still, I love some homemade hog’s head cheese. I’ll risk disease for it.

OH! Add buttermilk in any form to my list! My sweet beloved pours buttermilk over his cereal. I can’t even eat in the same room with him. Just the thought makes my stomach turn…ewwww.

Ah, I’d always heard offal used synonymously with the intestines rather than just non-muscle organ meat. I draw the line at eating something that the animal’s waste has to be boiled or otherwise cleaned out of, though I’m fond of livers and am at least only disgusted by brains for reasons of texture rather than prior function.

I still remember the old joke about how the Frenchman sneaked out of the dude ranch in the middle of the night when the cook had been serving various “fries” all wk. & announced French fries were going to be on the next day’s menu. Michael Ruhlman was on the Anthony Bourdain “No Reservations” segment from Cleveland this week, so now I know who he is. Someone mentioned him in Fredric’s post about offal meats.

Cynthia, my dad had a disgusting snack consisting of popcorn in buttermilk. I have heard of cornbread crumbled in buttermilk, & I think Jennifer even mentioned it at some point. But the sight of popcorn satured w/it is NOT a pretty one. Jennifer, I have one friend who won’t eat cooked apples, but she does enjoy peach, strawberry, & some of the other fruit cobbler & pie flavors. It’s all a matter of taste. I have to admit I’m trying to figure out the sweet potato aversion you have, tho. Maybe it’s the “stringy” part? My mother always made mashed sweet potatoes w/melted marshmallows on top (which some people run from!) & she would use a hand mixer to get them to the consistency she wanted. She claimed it got rid of the strings, which I would indeed she her lifting from the bowl, & made the pulp into a smooth puree.

How much thinking does a squirrel do? Anyway, Kristi, that’s an interesting list of food phobias, drawing on pretty much all the food groups. Glad yer ecumenical.
Carole H: My father used to eat a big bowl of puffed wheat or puffed rice in the morning, never my favorite kind of cereal. But he would rummage through the kitchen finding things like stale cookies or the last piece of cake slowly getting stale or old donuts, ANYTHING, and then a few bananas and then he would crumble them all up in his cereal, add milk and that was his breakfast. It was a process guaranteed to have me saying “GACK!” and running from the table.

No, it’s not all mixed together. Handful of hot popcorn, slurp of ice cold milk. Lather, rinse, repeat.