Why Not An Ostrich For Thanksgiving?

What's that David Grohl?

Keep you in the dark
You know they all pretend
Keep you in the dark
And so it all began


Oh, okay. So let me ask The Foo Fighters and yourself, what do you get when you cross Geena Davis...



...with Madchen Amick?


That's right, Ostrich Egg Girl!



I'm gonna miss Jill and not just because she's easy on the eyes, but because she might've tried to cook ostrich for the Foo Fighters Thanksgiving dinner and that would've been great TV!

I'm the voice inside your head

No, Dave, that would be The Missus, telling me to help her with the desserts for tomorrow.

You refuse to hear

Once again, that would be The Missus.

I'm the face that you have to face

I don't have to face you, the Top Chef contestants do.

Mirrored in your stare

Uh, we look nothing alike.

I'm what's left, I'm what's right

Wha, which are you? I thought you voted for Obama like I did.

I'm the enemy

I'm a little tired of listening to Nirvana on the radio, but I don't hate you man.

I'm the hand that will take you down

Bring you to your knees

Once again, incorrect, because that would be The Missus.

So who are you?

Cormac Brown.

Yeah, who are you?

Uh, Cormac Brown.

Yeah, who are you?

I just told you.

Yeah, who are you?

You've spent too many years standing next to the P.A. speakers or you just don't listen.

Speaking of not listening, you didn't listen to your tasted buds and your stomach, because Team Cougar should've won. They had the better turkey (all right, Ariane!) and the better flavor profiles. Though their execution was lacking a bit and...what am I saying? Jaime was on Team Sexy Pants! So go on, Jaime, and represent the Bay Area!

P.S. Danny is kind of turning into a bastard, will he be this season's villain? Because the show is really lacking a Marcel.

Is The Money On Radhika?

The Missus has picked Radhika and hey, maybe she knows something, because her instincts are dead-on. She picked Obama to go all the way, before anybody else that I knew did.


I do know this, Ariane has pictures of somebody doing something that's illegal somewhere, 'cause she might be a good cook, but she's not a Top Chef.


I also know that Carla...





...looks just like Tracy Ellis Ross.




Is Carla, Diana Ross's secret love child?


Naw, kidding. At any rate, when I root, I'm a homer and I root for the home team-





Jaime? Get your spatula out and toss them like so much mango salsa!

Nigella, Just Because

Nigella Lawson.

Not just as a contrast to the Padma post down below and not just because Gifted Typist brought her up, but just because...



Lucky pasta.

Who says the English are bland?

The shirt that says it all.

Should I Change The Blog's Slogan?

My current slogan is "I travel, I eat and you get your daily serving of ellipses. What could be better?" Meh, not so hot. So I'm thinking of revamping it and you the reader, get to decide between-

A) "While the world unravels, Cormac Travels."

B) "The question asked on both sides of The Pond, 'is Cormac a "gourmet" or a "gourmand?"

C) "You can't spell 'cormorant' macaroni sculpture without "c-o-r-m-a-c," but why would you want to spell 'cormorant macaroni sculpture, anyway?"

D) "Cormac Travels and I didn't even get a lousy T-shirt."

E) "Cormac used to be young, fun and in no need of Tums. Now he's old, sick and he carries a box of Pocky sticks."



F) Or, do I stay with "I travel, I eat and you get your daily serving of ellipses. What could be better?"

*Sigh*, Anthony, Anthony

Courtesy of Eater SF via the Broward Palm Beach blog Short Order, great quotes of Anthony Bourdain from the Miami Book Fair.

Bourdain to Mario Batali about Gwyenth Paltrow-

“Why would you take a trip through Spain with someone who clearly doesn’t eat?”

Mario replied-

“You weren’t available and she’s much cuter.”

Uh, yeah, Anthony? Gwyenth eats, she just doesn't necessarily "keep the food down." And after the birth of "Pear," er, "Tangelo," er, "Pomelo?" Whatever the kid's name is, she actually looks even healthy at times.

Short Order also says of Tony-

Bourdain also takes a stab at the Food Network’s very skinny Robin Miller, claiming that every time she reaches for the refrigerator door, he’s afraid that her frail wrists will snap….and that his daughter cries whenever she hears Robin’s voice.

Tony on Padma-

When asked about most foodies’ favorite cooking competition, Bravo’s Top Chef (his blog for Season 3 was nominated for a Webby), Bourdain said he was a huge fan of host and fellow chef Tom Colicchio but snubbed co-host and former wife of Salman Rushdie (?!?), Padma Lakshmi. Jabbing at the beauty’s intelligence, he said she wouldn’t be his first choice for Barack Obama’s cabinet…or to host a show.

'kay, do I actually have to explain this?

I value intelligence in women and I've never been with a woman that if she wasn't at least smarter than me by thirty IQ points, she was at least more clever than me.

But when it comes to TV shows, sometimes that just goes out the window. Other than the obvious, I didn't like Padma, yet she grew on me...and I honestly can't argue this out. Just look at the pictures, Tony. She's part of the set, ya dig?

Then Signore Bourdain really steps in it with-

"Spanish ham is far superior to Italian ham."

To wit, I reply, stronzo, che cazzo stai dicendo?!

(sh*th**d, what the f**k are you saying?!)

As usual, he always redeems himself in my eyes-

At the Food & Wine Festival and while a photo was being snapped for the Miami Herald, Bourdain, while standing near a picture of his beloved Rachael Ray, wrote the numbers 666 on his hand and placed it in front of Ray’s forehead.

Kids, Don't Park In Front Of The N-Judah

So it's unseasonably hot tonight. Call it mild for a summer's night, Shakespeare, but warm for a night in autumn. The Missus, The Kid and I trekked down to Tart to Tart, only it was too crowded to stay. So we got our food and drinks to go, then we schlepped back home and we saw police cars speeding up Irving Street. What the?...

There was an N-Judah Streetcar stuck in front of the stop in front at UCSF and a police car was behind it. Another police car pulled in between the two vehicles and traffic was at a crawl in both directions. There were another two streetcars waiting behind this one and that is saying something, because they usually run about seventeen to twenty minutes apart.

The 71, the bus that runs parallel to the N was already running slow because of construction on Lincoln Way, so no one is heading Downtown any time soon. So what happened? Did someone have a heart attack? Was someone run over by the N, again?

Naw...



Someone parked their SUV just barely in the right of way of the streetcar. Munch and crunch. Note the dash-painted lines that show which side you should be parking or standing on. I've almost been hit by a streetcar a couple of times in my life, because I was dumb enough to forget that the trucks of the street car go one way, and the chassis can travel another.



A Muni track worker or Inspector is pulling the vehicle's body upward here, they had to get it off the tire. It was difficult to get a good shot, because the police and Muni workers kept walking in front of the camera. Hey, it's not like I can say "hey, forget about the emergency for a second, get out of the way and stop screwing up the shots for my blog!"

Kudos to everyone that helped to clear the area relatively quick, considering all the traffic that was already there from the Lincoln Way construction.

And dang, as of 11:18 PM, I scooped Greg Dewar! Excellent!

Uh, not like that will ever happen again.

Barbecuing...

My Brother-in-law "J" turned me on to a new kick, dig it. I'm sure you've had a barbecued oyster, but have you ever tried a barbecue clam?


This past August over at his house, before he threw on a marinated London broil for us, he put some medium cherry stone clams on the grill. You just put them on the grill until they open up about a quarter-inch and you take them off the grill with some tongs. Now here is the important part, you have to let them cool for at least two minutes and please be careful, because they are hot!


Give them a dash of Tabasco, and you have an outstanding appetizer. "J" had regular Tabasco and Chipotle Tabasco.









To me regular Tabasco works the best, as it doesn't overwhelm it, but adds the flavor profile.

Who Will Think Of The Vegetables?

Anyone who knows me well, will be the first to tell you that I am not one to judge others. I'm pretty much a live and let live type of person.

So when I say that Sylvester? You can do your bird role-playing all day long and I won't say anything disparaging about that...




...but when you make succotash suffer? Buddy, you are all wrong and you've got problems!




I'm not even getting into you tormenting that poor little yellow bird, because that's what cats do and I guess I will just have to live with that. No, pal, I'm talking about making vegetables suffer more than they already have to.

I mean look at "succotash," it's replete with lima beans and that in itself, already makes it one of the least desired vegetable dishes ever. Then look at that name, "succotash." The first phonetic of the word is the Algonquian synonym for the same word in English. And the "otash" in Algonquian means "I'm not eating this, let's give it to those asshat pilgrims and maybe they'll go back home to England."

In closing Sylvester The Cat, reasses your priorities and what you direct your frustrations on. Get help or it won't be the succotash that will be suffering, but you.