THINKING OUT LOUD...

RESTAURANT TEN, UZES: RESTAURANT REVIEW

Ten sits just off the market square in Uzes, one of the prettiest villages in southern France. The newly renovated space is airy and comfortable with tables of sufficient size and sufficiently spaced to provide for a pleasant dining experience. Service was cheerful, fully bilingual, and attentive without being overbearing. The food presented well to both eye and tongue. And the rate of approximately 30 € per person for a party of five included starters, mains, a dessert or two, two bottles of local wine, and coffees at the finish. Reasonable if not cheap eats. So why am I hesitant to give an unqualified thumbs up? It took me a while to figure it out. Uzes is a quintessentially French village in a quintessentially French region of southern France. There are those who will say that the Languedoc is just as beautiful but less crowded and less expensive than its eastern neighbors. I know. I'm one of those people. But the fact remains that for many people, villages like Uzes are t

Kreuz Market vs. Smitty’s Market: Texas Barbecue in Lockhart

I was born and raised in New Jersey. I didn’t taste Texas barbecue until I was twenty-two years old. What the hell do I know about barbecue? And what could I add to the millions of words that have been written on the subject? Well, I know a bit about food. I’ve managed to check out a few of the finer joints in Texas – Sonny Bryan’s Smokehouse in Dallas, Joe Cotton’s in Robstown before the fire, the dear departed Williams Smokehouse in Houston, and the incomparable New Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Huntsville . So I can speak from a reasonably wide experience. This will not be a comprehensive discussion of the relative merits of Texas barbecue as opposed to the fare available in places like Memphis or the Carolinas. It’s simply a take on our recent visits to Lockhart and the relative merits of Smitty’s versus Kreuz from our point of view. I’ll get all over academic in a later post. On our way out to the ranch in Crystal City, we stopped at Smitty’s. You have to look

CLARITY AGAINST TREASON

This is a message to the alt-right, or whatever you choose to call yourselves these days, and those who would defend them. Let me be clear. Crystal clear. There is no place in America for swastikas, Nazi salutes, or chants of "Blood and Soil". If you are marching next to a Nazi and you realize that you are and you do not run in the other direction, you are either a Nazi or an idiot. There are no value judgements to make. There are no nice Nazis. They are traitors to America, pure and simple. If you are marching next to someone brandishing a Confederate battle flag, go right ahead. Freedom of speech includes the freedom to advocate secession. But if you want to break up our great Union because you are unable to deal with modern reality, you are a traitor to America, pure and simple. I'm not saying: Love it or leave it. I'm saying: If you want to leave, you can't take pieces of my country away with you. And don't hand me that crap about the Civil War b

France, Food, Scooters and More

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