10/24 #1
Given that we cannot "quote" from a closed thread and I'm always on here
after the winner is picked on Saturdays and thread closed, bear with me on this:
@Uncle said: Are "You" absolutely sure . . .
This was in reference to my comment about being one of those dufus rednecks from a less-than-intelligent hunting TV show that didn't seem to know the difference between a pair of binoculars that
magnify and them saying the scope
magnetized the deer (guns and booze do not mix - why did a TV show even allow drunks as their hunting representatives?). Am I absolutely sure I am not one of those? Well, Uncle, dear one, yes and no. You see, what I am depends on the mood of the day and the
need of the person(s) I am interacting with. If y
ou need me to be a redneck, that is what I will be...
for y
ou. For someone else, I will appear as a Shaman with spiritual advice. For someone else, a business man adept at electro-mechanical theory, for someone else... well, you get the picture. So if you need me to be a redneck, so be it. Now, Bubba, how do y'all want yer gumbo?
@Uncle also said:
. . . I'm from the North too, so that's no excuse . . .
Oh contare, mon ami. And you live in the South now, so maybe you have some experience I have never acquired. Any idget can get on the internet and look up a recipe for gumbo. That will not tell me "exactly what it is" or that I need to cook the sauce for seven days. And I guarantee that Rachael Ray and Alton Brown will make it differently (if either one of them makes it at all).
Roadtrip did an excellent job of telling how to make it and
Glassmanoak added a wonderful list of things that should be eaten with it. Still, if I went to a restaurant and ordered this, would I have the experience that those who eat it regularly have? I doubt it. Here's a little analogy: My mom used to make mashed potatoes with hamburger gravy a lot when I was growing up. Mom knew that I would not eat any veggies that came from a can and were heated up and plopped on the plate next to the taters, so she sliced me some fresh raw carrots to go with the meal. Now I have eaten mashed potatoes and hamburger gravy many times since mom departed, but no one has ever made it
exactly like she did, though some have been fairly close. And on the close ones, memories of childhood stirred. Can you smell the food in the kitchen air when sitting down to eat? Can you see the people you ate it with? Can you hear the conversations of yesteryear? Food can trigger many things in various people. I have heard many southerners over the years talk about gumbo and it always seems to have a special place in their hearts and minds. So what is it, exactly? They grew up eating this, right? I didn't. They had a great memory of it being cooked and the occasion always seemed to be festive... To them, is gumbo and a family eating together better than a Big Mac and Fries at the drive-thru? Yes? No? Why? What is it about this food that makes all those who talk about it do so with such fondness? ...just askin'...
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(I knew that as soon as I stopped posting that I would PIF to you--since that is all handled at the end with GMO anyway--that you would win! 
