Bone Man

Favorite Foods

No question as to my favorite dishes -- seafood; however, my cooking specialty is Native Appalchian dishes and techniques.

I also specialize in outdoor and camp cooking, only in a gourmet sort of way. I have experimented with about 30 different woods for smoking meat dishes outdoors and I'm always happy to advise newcomers to these outdoor methods.

I also like to use the Dutch Oven and the wok quite a bit. Some day, I hope to be able to spend more time studying (East) Indian and Persian cooking ingredients and techniques. I think that doing them over an open fire could lead to some wonderful results.

I have accumulated quite a collection of "cooking devices," from yard sales, antique stores, flea markets and similar venues. I utilize my unique collection at least once a week, summer and winter, in my outdoor cooking adventures. I have mashers, skewers, grills, dippers, unusual knives, huge stainless pots and the list goes on -- about a hundred items in all. Pots excepted, they hang on the wall of my back porch so I have to rinse them good before each use. My dearest prize is a tall stainless pot (about 36" tall and about 14" across), that I drop into another big pot (filled with water) to make a giant-sized double boiler. I use this over a large campfire to make the very best potato soup, using 10 pounds of potatoes and a bag of white onions (and LOTS of butter). It's a joy to not have to worry about scorching the soup and it comes out perfect every time! The pot originally came from an old dairy farm (I dug it out from under a mountain of straw-covered junk) and was used to hand-carry the fresh milk from the barn to the dairy-room.

I do wish that I could find some good recipes from India for traditional roti bread and also for curried cabbage dishes. I'm interested in the practice of eating such dishes communally which I believe enhances a meal and one's family life as well. It's hard, these days, to recognize what recipes are actually straight from India and what ones have been tweaked. I'm especially interested in knowing about what specific region these respective recipes come from and some first-hand information about each of these areas. And, some day, I'm going to discover the very best curry spice recipe.... I hope!

Oh, yeah..... my top-rated restaurant? "The Three Crabs" out on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington. Heavenly.

A revision! I have since been told that "The Three Crabs" has gone downhill since my last visit in '94. Very sad! (Change of ownership they say).

So, my next favorite is "The Emmitt House" in Waverly, Ohio. They have a great prime rib as well as a shrimp fettucine in Mornay sauce. Yum!!!

http://www.emmitthouse.com/

Another revision: The Emmitt House closed, re-opened, and now isn't as good [sigh...] -- So I'm not visiting restaurants so much these days.
There IS a superb Mexican Restaurant in Waverly, Ohio (family owned and run, not a chain) these days (*not* Toro Loco, which has gone downhill) but I cannot recall it's name -- but it won't be hard for you to find since there are only two Mexican restaurants in Waverly. :) Try their Chilis Rellenos (or try mine) -- they're terrific!