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JeffC

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About JeffC

  • Birthday 06/11/1946

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    Good food and wine, Golden Retrievers, tube audio equipment, music, travel, spirituality, reading.......
  • Location
    N. Myrtle Beach, SC

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  1. Chai Pani won the 2022 James Beard award for best restaurant of the year. Congratulations to my friends Meherwan and Molly Irani, who have worked so hard to build and maintain their business. They managed to take care of their staff during the most difficult days of the pandemic and continue consider their staff to be family. Some of you may have seen Meherwan’s Cutting Chai, his culinary tour of India. I’m so happy for them!
  2. A brief update...it's been four years since I posted here. --Here's one for Tweaked. There's a good Peruvian chicken place in Calabash. Mmm...Que Rico is excellent. The flavor reminds me of El Pollo Rico in metro DC--the owner is from Peru and knows the El Pollo Rico people well. His wife makes very good empanadas and the sides are pretty standard for a Peruvian chicken joint. My wife likes it so much that she insists we make the 30-milw round trip at least once a week. ---There is finally a very good pho place. The Saigon Cafe in Myrtle Beach has the best pho in town, as well as other soups and Vietnamese dishes. The broth is very, very good. They also have pho ga, make with a very good chicken broth. There are a couple other pho houses in the area, but this one is the best. ---La Rinconcito Salvadoreno in the Windy Hill section of North Myrtle Beach has very good pupusas, as well as a large menu of other Salvadoran dishes. I stick with the pupusas. ---La Poblanita in Myrtle Beach continues to set the standard for Mexican food.
  3. Fig and Rodney Scott win 2018 James Beard awards....Fig for best wine program, Rodney Scott for best chef, Southeast region.
  4. Rodney Scott just received the James Beard award for the best chef in the Southeast: "This SC Barbecue Chef Was Just Named the Southeast's Best" by Susan Ardis on thestate.com
  5. Thanks for the link, JimCo! I haven't had Rodney Scott's barbecue in over a year, so a trip to Charleston is definitely in order. And Lewis Barbecue sounds wonderful.
  6. One of the things I missed the most when we moved was Jim Vance...so natural and unpretentious, he always felt like a friend. Geri and I were so sad to hear of his passing.
  7. Thanks for your posts on your trip! India is indeed a fascinating, confounding, but ultimately rewarding place. I haven't spent much time in northern India, but other than my beloved buffets at the Leela Mumbai, I eat at out of the way places that serve wonderful food at ridiculously low prices. The catch is that you have to do some research, asking westerners who are familiar with the restaurants about the safety of eating the food. I stay at a pilgrim retreat that charges 300 rupees--$4.50--for three vegetarian meals p/day, but a few times a week I need more protein, so it's off to various local restaurants where, after a huge meal and a Kingfisher or two, the bill comes to around 7 dollars. IMO, Indian wines are just awful...flabby and overly sweet. I do like Kingfisher--not bad at all for an Indian beer. Avoid beers like Knockout, a fortified beer that may be the most apply named drink, ever! Again, thanks for your posts. I love India, but am most happy away from the craziness of the big cities. Despite the seeming chaos, it somehow works.
  8. Here's something fun...my friend Meherwan Irani, who owns Chai Pani restaurants in Asheville and Decatur, made a six-part series called "Cutting Chai", named after one way that chai is served in India, when the order is split into two smaller cups so it can be shared. Meherwan took his two chefs and a camera man on a whirlwind tour of (mostly) street food destinations in India... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t3abfVBxfU&sns=fb
  9. Thanks, Laura! As the article you linked noted, people are really suffering, especially those who have never had bank accounts and who have only dealt in cash--farmers, small merchants, produce sellers, etc. Then there are those who, living in very remote areas, didn't even know about Modi's edict. I have friends who spend six months out of the year in India who have managed by going to local ATM's and getting their 2000+ rupees out on a daily basis, but the lines are long and the people are losing patience. You are right about the Indian people. They are, as a whole, as hospitable and wonderful as one could ever want. Over the years, I've shared many meals with people I only met in passing, but who insisted that I join their families for a meal. Many in India are suffering greatly. Modi has made one of the great blunders ever...wonder if his brand of Hindu nationalism will carry him through.
  10. Thanks for a really nice summary of your trip! I love India, having visited many times over the past 45 years. The traffic has gotten much worse, but like you said, after a few days you just fall into the new frame of reference. If people drove like this in the states, we'd go nuts...but in India, it somehow works. As for the horns, didn't you love the Indian "truck art", including "Horn Please" on the back of almost all trucks? We blow horns out of impatience and sometimes anger, but Indian drivers do it to let you know they're there. There's never a need to be offended by a horn in India. My last few times in India, I've gotten brave and rented a motor scooter. I drive it on rural roads and small villages and towns, but NEVER is a traffic-heavy city or town. I was supposed to leave for India tomorrow, but have had to postpone my trip because my wife is getting new hips soon...so it'll be the fall before I can go. How was the currency situation?
  11. My understanding is that Modi wanted demonetization to be a complete surprise. The rationale being that had the Indian government printed enough new rupee notes to replace the old ones, the word would have leaked out, thus defeating the purpose of flushing out/demonetizing "black" money. I've also wondered the same thing...why destroy so many small vendors, farmers, etc? But what do I know? Much of my attitude is a selfish one, knowing that my upcoming stay in India is going to be inconvenienced, to say the least. I would love to hear from some of the Indians on the board and how they see it.
  12. I'm leaving for India for a month. I called my hotel (Leela Mumbai) and was told that I could get $80 worth of rupees at the airport exchange, but not to count on anything from the hotel. After a couple of nights at the Leela, I'll be leaving for my ultimate destination about 200 miles away...I've been told that my driver will take dollars in lieu of rupees, but I have no idea how I'll fare otherwise for the remaining two months of my visit. I'm taking a lot of small dollar denomination instead of the more convenient hundreds and fifties. Friends who lived where I'm going assure me that'll I manage somehow...a lesson in detachment and faith, maybe? I had about 4000 rupees to use as tips and incidentals until I could exchange more...3000 are now worthless, but luckily I have nearly 100 Rs. in hundreds. And thank goodness for plastic....
  13. For the last few years, I've taken Cipro and a good painkiller...so far, no need. But it's always good to be ready!
  14. Lion, that's really good advice. The sickest I've gotten in India was after eating street food just hours before my flight home. This was 45 years ago and I've never forgotten the plane ride to Copenhagen...I'll spare the details, but it was horrible. In Mumbai, I always stay at the Leela and eat the buffets...the quality the past couple of years has been superb, some of the best Indian I've had. I always book directly with the Leela and have been quite fortunate to get excellent rates for very nice accommodations. After leaving Mumbai, I consult with Western friends about safe eats. They usually know the the quality and safety of most places. I've been really lucky for the past 25 years or so, having had no major digestive issues. (Knocking on wood...going for a two month stay in January.) I'm much more susceptible to respiratory illness and the pollution and dust make it necessary for me to wear a filtering mask when on the roads.
  15. Just returned from a few weeks in India. I stayed at the Leela Mumbai upon arrival and at the Hyatt Regency on the way out. The Leela continues to have a fabulous dinner buffet, well worth the $40 price tag. Unfortunately, the formerly 24-hour coffee shop--Citrus--now closes at 11 PM, a huge inconvenience for travelers who arrive in the wee hours and are wanting something decent to eat. The Leela must have a new Indian chef, because the Indian dishes were some of the best I've ever had...it was impossible not to go back for seconds and thirds. After leaving Mumbai, I didn't eat anywhere of note, but did have a couple of nice meals at restaurants in Ahmednagar (in Maharashtra state, about 190 miles east of Mumbai)...one was Iris, a vegetarian Italian/Indian/Chinese restaurant that served decent pizza and some nice vegetarian dishes. I am always careful to check with local westerners to see how safe a restaurant is before trying it. In the case of the Iris, many westerners frequent the place and it has a good reputation for cleanliness. I was very disappointed in the Hyatt...the food was as expensive as the Leela, but was less than mediocre. I got a great deal on my room, but won't stay there again because of the food...I had an afternoon snack--some kind of crab/tomato soup--that was expensive and bland. The evening buffet--my last meal in India--was not good at all. The choices were limited and, with one or two exceptions, the food was inexplicably bland and flavorless. After a few bites, I should have paid the check and walked down the road to the Leela for a really good meal. Live and learn.... . The best news is that I once again managed a few weeks in India without getting sick. I rented a motor scooter while there--that's as close as I'll get to taking my life in my own hands!--and was careful to wear a filtering mask when riding. One thing to remember while on the road is that in India, the "big dog" always wins, so don't try to finesse a larger vehicle...Indian drivers play by their own rules and in the many years that I've been going, have never seen a single car pulled over for a driving infraction. If you decide to rent a scooter or bike, it is imperative to wear some kind of mask to keep the dust out of your mouth and nose, lest you get a really bad respiratory infection. The roads in the vicinity of where I stayed were terrible--pot holes everywhere and dust from the many trucks that use them. But despite all this, I love India and will continue return, as long as these old bones allow....
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