_DSC0321
Mendes
What is a food you can’t live without?
A good brown roux: stir ½ cup of flour into ½ cup of oil (I like safflower; peanut oil is good, too) over a medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes until your roux is the color of roasted peanuts; add diced onion, garlic and green pepper and cook for 10 more minutes, then add two or three cups of water and you’re on your way to a gumbo, an etouffee, a creole or a gravy for a griods and grits.
What’s the best concert you ever saw?
Janis Joplin at the Music Hall, Cincinnati, 1968
What is a major inspiration to you?
Nature’s flora and fauna, including a good many of the two-legged opposable-thumb types
What is a favorite high school memory?
Driving--my father’s three-on-the-floor ’66 Mustang, and a little Ford Falcon that served as the delivery vehicle for the O.J. Reese Coffee Company. I drove it to the docks to pick up big round tins of freshly roasted coffee & chicory. That little car smelled really good.
What is your dream vacation spot?
Cumberland Island, Georgia
What four people no longer on this earth would you most like to have dinner and conversation with?
My mother and father, Gene Meatyard and Jonathan Williams