…especially when free snacks are involved!

Creating week-long volunteer trips to New Orleans for culinary students and professionals, CulinaryCorps brings support to the rebuilding efforts through the kitchen door.  Join us at Acme Bar and Grill on Monday, March 12th to help launch our upcoming inaugural service trip to NOLA.

See you there!  Bring your beads…

WHEN:         Monday, March 12th, 2007

TIME:            6-8pm

WHERE:       Acme Bar and Grill, NYC, 9 Great Jones St.

COST:           $20 tax-deductible donation requested per person (includes 1 free drink and bar snacks courtesy of Acme plus a chance to win a dinner for two with wine at L’Ecole, cookbooks, t-shirts and more!)

WHY:             To raise funds for CulinaryCorps’ week-long service trip to New Orleans, LA departing March 23rd, 2007.  Proceeds will go towards our project partners’ “wish-list” items including:
 
  * A set of professional knives for Emergency Communities
  * Cooking equipment for NOLA Edible Schoolyard
  * A cooking demo. sound system for the Farmers Market

Invite a friend. Or two!

As much as we love the food on the plate, we are equally intrigued by the personalities behind the stove (or the bar/taco truck/computer for that matter). 

New Orleans residents and local “food gods” Lorin Gaudin and Todd Price recently co-wrote a piece collating New Orleans’ “Best in Dining” from a uniquely biographical perspective.  We adore the diverse mix of people and places they have chosen to highlight and appreciate their nod to the most recent splash on the NOLA food scene, torta slinging taco trucks.

To keep us up to date on all things edible in New Orleans throughout the year, we have added Robert Peyton’s blog, Appetites.US, to our rapidly expanding “must read” folder.

Have a “Best of NOLA” that failed to make the shortlist?  Let us know!

CCorps

From the American Heritage Dictionary:

“Lagniappe derives from New World Spanish la ñapa, “the gift.” It is still used in the Gulf states, especially southern Louisiana, to denote a little bonus that a friendly shopkeeper might add to a purchase. By extension, it may mean “an extra or unexpected gift or benefit.” ”

On this space, the lagniappe tag will denote posts that share links to New Orleans rich culinary culture - certainly an “unexpected benefit” for those who visit to culinarycorps.org on a regular basis.

From our dear friend Gerald at foodite.com comes news of a current New Orleans blog by New Yorker staff journalist Dan Baum.  Although not specifically focused on food, his writings on daily life in New Orleans are generously peppered with culinary anecdotes, oftentimes offering tasty relief from the grim realities citizens continue to face.

Amy T., a member of our March CCorps team, informed us about the documentary “New Orleans” that recently aired as part of the PBS American Experience series.  Disappointed to have missed our state’s air date we were pleased to discover that the entire show can be viewed online.  Plus we got a kick out of their clever (and interactive) deconstruction of gumbo.

So thanks Gerald and Amy.  And for the rest of our readers, keep the links coming in and we promise to hand them back out as quickly as you can say “bakers dozen.”

Who will you bestow a “lagniappe” upon today?

 CCorps