This is about food and music, not Portals and KM, but it’s the weekend. Late night last week I was watching the Food Network and saw an easy way to get ribs that fall off the bone. I always wondered how they did that. I am sure there are many ways but this is an easy way we tried this weekend.
First, rub the ribs with some spices. I used brown sugar, cumin, and coriander. Wrap them in aluminum foil and refrigerate over night. Then, put them in an oven at 225 degrees for 3 hours. Now you need to finish them a bit. Take the foil off the ribs. You can either place them under the broiler for a few minutes or place them in a charcoal cooker with a low fire for about fifteen minutes, flipping them once. We did the latter.
Be careful when you take the foil off the ribs and save the liquid that has collected. Boil it down a bit to the right consistency and you have an excellent sauce to put over the finished ribs.
Roasted corn on the cob goes well with the ribs. First, soak the corn in water for a few minutes. Then, just place them in the grill over the coals. Check them every few minutes to make sure they do not burn. Cajun and zydeco music go well with the ribs and the corn.
Here are some recommendations:
Bruce Daigrepont is one of the best traditional French language Cajun musicians. In 1986 he begun his fais do do dance sessions at the original Tipitina's, corner of Napoleon and Tchoupitoulas streets, where it continues to this day, every Sunday evening from five till nine. We have heard him several times and try to make sure we include a Sunday on our visits to New Orleans to see Bruce. He will play for four hours straight with no break and the dancers range from teenagers to older couples. His CD, “Paradis,” recorded in 1999, captures the spirit of these Sunday sessions.
Boozoo Chavis was a traditional zydeco band leader. Nicknamed the "Creole Cowboy" for his signature C&W attire, he recorded zydeco's first big hit--"Paper In My Shoe" in 1955. He and Clifton Chenier were the early pioneers of zydeco. However, for the next two decades, Boozoo retired from the music business, outside of house parties, and turned his full attention to raising ponies. He made a comeback in the early 80s and toured until his death in 2002. We heard him in Jacksonville in 1998 and recommend his “Zydeco Homebrew.”
Zachary Richard offers a contemporary French language interpretation of Cajun and zydeco. My wife and I first heard him in Montreal, on the riverfront at a Confederation Day celebration in 2002. Zachary is from Louisiana and has recorded in English and French. In 1995, he returned to French language recording with “Cap Enrage,” recorded in Pairs and our recommendation. It reestablished his presence in both Canada and France. We even thought he was from Quebec when we first heard him.
If you want to hear some Cajun music live and cannot get to New Orleans, Tipitina's offers high-quality digital webcasts of selected performances, available for both high-speed and dial-up connections. Since they don’t serve ribs on site this is the only way to have their live music with your ribs. The place was created in the mid-1970's by a group of local music enthusiasts, and is home to many New Orleans rhythm and blues artists. It's patron saint is Professor Longhair and Tipitina’s is named after a woman in one of his songs.
Live music from Tipitina’s on the web. It has come full circle from when my great aunt, a telephone operator in the Oklahoma Territory in the late 1890s, left the line open to the local saloon to hear live music from their band while she worked.
After all this we listened to live Cuban music at the Peabody Museum - see below.
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