b.rox

Fay was a killer storm. Yet now she’s disintegrating over land somewhere to the north and east of here, and we’re being gently lashed by cool breezes and mild drizzling rain.
It doesn’t feel like August in New Orleans, not by a long shot.
This is a dark time of the year here. August used to be [...]

For the last few days I’ve been mildly obsessed with locating some superfine sugar, also known as bar sugar or castor sugar. This stuff is often called for in drink recipes. It dissolves faster than common granulated sugar — which, incidentally, is often labeled “extra fine,” but don’t get confused. Superfine is finer than extra [...]

The “Eat-Well Food Mart” has been under construction at the corner of Canal and Broad for some months. Google knows nothing about “Eat-Well Food Mart” so I was intrigued. Today, I saw that it was open, so I stopped in. Could this be some kind of health food store in my neighborhood? Wouldn’t that be [...]

Some friends have suggested posting old ROX videos on YouTube.

I wonder if this is a good idea?

Sawing into the baby in this king cake made me feel kind of like Solomon Gone Mad.

Since the baby isn’t actually contained in my slice, but has remained embedded in the adjacent cakery, does it even count? Am I nonetheless subject to the obligations of “getting the baby”?
Does my twisted ankle curry no sympathy?

We’re having a holiday open house at the office today, and we all brought cookies and other sweets. I thought it would be fun and unique to bring brandy balls. So I made them last night and brought them in this morning, and placed them on the table with a sign.

But Boss Lady’s husband (Elliott, [...]

Jaylene and her friend Tom came down from Indy for a quick visit this weekend. Saturday night we had dinner at Jacques-Imo’s, with just a bit of trepidation since we kinda thought they were slipping a while back, plus Xy had a major meltdown last time we visited. I’m happy to report we found Jacques-Imo’s [...]

After the culinary fiasco of 2004, I approached this year’s Thanksgiving with some trepidation. My confidence was not bolstered when Xy finally read the creme bruleé recipe and asked the following immortal question:
What’s an egg yolk?
I couldn’t believe she was serious, but it turns out she’s never separated an egg before and couldn’t remember [...]

Problem: You’re winding down a long day and would like to enjoy a nightcap. But when you get to the liquor cabinet you are confronted with an alarming situation: All the liquor is gone. No bourbon, no scotch, no vodka, no gin, no cognac, no tequila. (Apparently you drank all those.) It’s too late to [...]

Note to self: Laphroaig is too peaty for my palate. Ugh.

Xy and I always enjoy a good hearty squash soup in the winter.
Unfortunately, winter seems to have ended here before we could use the squash we’d picked up at the grocery. The weather has been positively springlike and lovely since Lundi Gras, and I even heard a weather guy on TV say the “meteorological winter” [...]

I’m proud — no, scratch that — I’m chagrined to announce the debut of Boozocracy, a new online fundraising campaign.
Michael Homan and I are letting people vote on our drinking habits in order to raise money for a library our neighborhood. It’s kind of like the intersection of literary culture and drinking culture and democracy. [...]

Last night I went to a party for a friend’s 40th birthday. There was a giant screen in the yard upon which were projected videos from the early days of MTV. It was also a karaoke system. I’ve always been skeptical of karaoke as a concept, but come to think of it I don’t think [...]

After reading this, I think I’ll make my tea in the fridge.

The folks at Minnie’s Catfish Corner figured out that I was the guy who posted about them to the MCNO website, and so they gave me a serving of their new bread pudding gratis. It was delish.

Slowly, all too slowly, Mid-City restaurants are re-opening.
We went to Katie’s for a Cinco de Mayo party last Friday…

It was a one-time affair, but they’ll re-open soon, I hope.
Liuzza’s on Bienville also did a one-night stand last week, but now their bar is open. We went there yesterday afternoon with the Homan’s.

And then for lunch [...]

Ahhh… tea, just the way I like it.

(Back on the caffeine again after almost a month.)

I haven’t consumed an alcoholic beverage since Mardi Gras. A number of my friends “kinda sorta” gave up alcohol for Lent, but they all gave up on giving up some weeks ago, and they look at me with a mixture of amazement and annoyance.
Instead of alcohol, I’ve mostly been drinking mineral water. After sampling a [...]

Last night I tended bar at a party for about 20 minutes, having been conscripted by the host. I thought that was noteworthy since I’ve produced a television series, ostensibly about mixed drinks, for over a dozen years now, but I’ve never tended bar before.
It was fun. And not nearly as hard as Bartender J [...]

A tip of the hat to Joe Backwards-7. He came all the way from Boise, Idaho to do some massive re-plumbing work on the central post office here in New Orleans. He’s also a long-time fan of the show, and so he took Xy and David and I out for dinner at Tommy’s last night. [...]