Willie's Chicken Shack, French Quarter

In contrast to the gentility of the 2 Sisters there is Willie's Chicken Shack. It might be only a couple of minutes walk between the two places, but in cultural terms Willie's in party central of Bourbon Street is culturally a million miles away. 

Shrimp Basket, Homestyle Catfish and Cajun Tenders all with fries and biscuit provide fried stock to mop up the mega size offerings of beer, Voodoo Juice, Hypnotiq and Hurricane, before you go on to party hard. The drink comes in plastic bottles / glasses so you can drift off down the street and keep sippin. Everything comes with a pounding misogynist hip hop sound track. The staff just like the 2 Sisters are all Afro American, but with a younger and more mixed clientele (in the 2 Sisters the clientele was generally older and when I was there all white).

Apparently, the chicken is so good you will want to go home and slap your Mama for feeding you rubbish food all these years. Given what the Hip Hop sound track is suggesting you do to your woman this is presumably seen as funny.

(Slap Ya Mama, along with Punch Ya Daddy, is a local seasoning product. Now banned by the NFL as promoting domestic violence)

Courtyard of the 2 Sisters, New Orleans

Sunday and it is time for a Jazz Brunch, and why not? The Courtyard is a famous new Orleans venue that comes at a bit of a price ($29) for a buffet brunch. Service is very attentive, food is excellent, the venue is charming and cool despite the real feel 100 degrees outside. All very pleasant if you have the income to spare and can make the change from the hard core drinking / partying side of the French Quarter. It is very easy to pass by places such as this, diverted by the brashness on the street.

Of course such places have a history that used to set the ambiance of the current business. The website describes it thus:

Though 613 Rue Royale is named for Emma and Bertha Camors, sisters who once owned a notions and fancies shop here, the Court of the Two Sisters has a long and interesting history. 

The lovely three-story building sits on “Governor’s Row,” the 600 block of Royal Street that was once home to five governors, two state Supreme Court justices, a future justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and a future President of the United States. 613’s own resident was Sieur Etienne de Perier, the royal governor of colonial Louisiana between 1726 and 1733. Such a famous block lent itself to rumors, and it’s said that the outrageous Marquis de Vaudreuil--the colonial governor who turned New Orleans from marshland into a “petit Paris”--also once lived here. 

Emma and Bertha belonged to a proud, aristocratic Creole family; their “rabais,” or notions, outfitted many of New Orleans’ high society women in formal gowns, lace, and perfumes imported from Paris. With a larger courtyard than its neighbors, the residence lent itself to visitors, and the sisters’ shop received many.

Finn McCool's Irish Pub, New Orleans

Finn McCool's is set in a long single story wooden building in the heart of the Mid City residential neighbourhood of New Orleans, a couple of miles from the tourist hive of the French Quarter. The walls are covered in random pieces of Irish memorabilia and related paraphernalia. However, it's main claim to fame is that it is the premier pub in the city for English and Scottish football and home venue for local Celtic fans. McCool's also offers darts and scrabble nights, and a range of Irish beers and ciders (Pear Magners anyone?)

We visited on a Wednesday afternoon for a Celtic Champions league qualifying match. Only 12 people in the bar as everyone else who might have come was working. It didn't feel like we were in Ireland, but it didn't feel like we were in the USA either: rather some undefined location of postmodern sampling, both familiar and disconnecting at the same time.

Their website describe the history of the bar: 

We were born in Belfast and arrived in New Orleans in the ’90’s. The culture of New Orleans, with it’s love of food, music and family, really welcomed us and reminded us of home. In 2002 we took the plunge, bought a worn-out old bar and turned it into Finn McCool’s Irish Pub. We were slowly building a neglected part of Mid City when Hurricane Katrina hit. After returning from evacuation and taking 6 months to rebuild, with the help of our customers and friends, we reopened the doors on St Patrick’s Day 2006. Since then, the bar has become a major part of the Mid City community and won awards for “Best Bartender in New Orleans” every year since re-opening along with“Best Neighborhood Bar.” We host a variety of fund raising activities and sponsor many sports teams, including the world famous Finn McCool’s FC.

We named the Pub after Finn McCool, the legendary giant of Irish folklore, so no matter what part of the world you’re from, you’ll always find a warm welcome at Finn McCool’s

Cafe Dialogues: Sesemae, Chinese Takeaway, Glasgow

A further strand we are developing is a listening survey of conversations from various settings. What do these snapshot conversations tell us about the nature of modern life

Conversation between two men

Ordered one large chips.....

This was a coincidental meeting of two men with similar experiences. The first was on a zero hours contact as a delivery driver during the day and delivered food for a Chinese Takeaway food store at night. The second man was ordering his large chips. The conversation started because the first man was yawning and saying how he was looking forward to the end of his shift. As the conversation progressed, it became clear that the second man who was older, had had similar experiences and in fact knew the company the first man worked for.

The first theme of the conversation was the need for men to do what you had to to make a living when you were just married and had small children. In this the older man affirmed the behaviour of the younger and assured him that the hard work paid off. The second theme was the desire for security, the younger man on a zero hours contract had plenty of work this week but not guarantee for the following weeks. Again the older man was supportive suggesting that the company were decent, the owner is brand new, he started with a wee escort van and now has lorries going to every island in Scotland. Again, the message is that hard work is rewarded and the future was positive.

This dialogue was a snapshot of some aspects of the experience of working class males in 21st Century Scotland. Although economic and employment stability is a thing of the past, the expectation is that the male is the provider. This role is accepted with humour and resignation, it's just what you have to do....even though we got divorced a few years later, said the older man.

It was also an example of how men informally support each other in their maleness. Other was a sense of care and the passing on of folk wisdom from the elder to the younger. This process of socialization which might have happened in the shipyards of the old Clydeside, informally and through apprenticeship relationships, continues in chance conversations in Chinese takeaways.

It reveals the need to support and be supported.

It could also be seen as an example of how hegemony works through every level of society. Socialized gender roles, an acceptance of exploitative employment and a belief in the fairness of the world - work hard and prosper - are all strengthened and internalized. No question of why some people have to work two jobs to survive, no question of how the world could be different.

The challenge for community educators is, how how we either get involved in these conversations or set up situations where these issues are explored. Maybe with a more historical or wider social analysis, these conversations might go in very different directions.

Take a Break Cafe

Local cafe in West London selling the usual breakfasts and fried lunches. Sometimes this is all you want. Clean, bright, friendly and relaxing. Regulars dropping in for random chats, passing trade reading the paper, txting, chatting on the phone, or just hanging out for a bit. Cheap, cheerful community resources in its own way. It is my local lunch stop on route to the football on a Saturday, and has become part of that ritualised experience.

The USP is the far too many to count cheap reproduction of film stars photos, which gives the place a cosmopolitan feel that is surprising given its very mediocre suburban location.

Mel's Drive-In, San Francisco

According to the official web site Mel's was founded in 1947 by Mel Weiss and Harold Dobbs in San Francisco, California. It serves the standard diner food, but that is not the reason to go there. Mel's has entered Californian culture as an iconic venue. The diners reflect a pastiche of 1950's USA complete with table based juke boxes  which for 25c will play tributes to Johnny Cash, the Coasters, et al. 

Mel’s was used as a location in the 1967 film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn are out for a drive and Tracy pulls into Mel’s and orders Oregon Boysenberry ice cream, then has a minor traffic altercation with an African American. The Mel’s was located in the Excelsior district of San Francisco. Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy never actually visited the location.

Mel's real claim to fame is that in 1972, the restaurant was selected as a feature location by George Lucas for his 1973 film American Graffiti. The Mel's used was located at 140 South Van Ness in San Francisco and was demolished after the film. Mel’s restaurants have since been featured in other media, such as Melrose Place (1996, Season 5, episode 1), Doonesbury comics (December 18, 1989), and the book The American Drive-in by Mike Witzel.

There is also a seedier side. Wikipedia reports that in October 1963, the Mel’s Drive-In chain was picketed and subjected to a sit-in by the Ad Hoc Committee to End Discrimination over the fact that while the restaurant would serve food to African Americans and hired them as cooks, they were not allowed to work "up front" where they could be seen by white customers. More than 100 protesters were arrested. The picketing ended when Harold Dobbs, a San Francisco City Supervisor who had run for Mayor and lost, settled with the protesters and began to allow black workers 'up front'. 

If you are in San Francisco drop in and consume some mythic American history. The food is secondary. However our recommendation is that the classic American breakfasts are the best option.

Mel's Club Breakfast
	Country Fresh Eggs2 any style, with our special grilled potatoes, toast, and jelly. Add ham, bacon, or sausage.
	Diced Ham & Eggsgreen onions, grilled potatoes, and toast.
	Short Stack or Wafflewith one egg and two slices of bacon or sausage
	Short Stack with Hamwith one egg
	Sirloin Steak and Egss three country eggs, potatoes and toast
	Homemade Corned Beef Hashwith two eggs
	Hight Protein Breakfastwith egg whites grilled chicken breast topped with mushrooms, asparagus and tomato slices
	Sunrise Breakfast organic eggs with local grass fed beef patties and fried potatoes with fresh fruit

Cup of tea and a sandwich

Drinking tea accompanied by a nice sandwich, what could be more British? But then it gets more difficult. What kind of tea? The regular working class brew in mug, cup of splosh, or Lady Grey in a bone china cup? And the sandwich? Cucumber, ham and cheese, brie and cranberry, sausage or peanut butter? How you take your tea and what you have with it starts to explore another food and identity link. For example, according to the Telegraph the Queen likes 'tiny raspberry jam sandwiches cut into circles the size of an English penny and washed down with Earl Grey tea'. Whereas Elvis Presley was partial to a grilled peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwich with Pepsi iced tea.

We thought of adding in biscuits, but then you have to think about dunking or not, and so on, and then why not cakes. It all gets too complicated. So one of our themes will be exploring the different manifestations of tea and a sandwich and the settings in which they are consumed.

A quick summary of the history around tea and sandwiches is here

For those worried about etiquette a quick guide to the 'proper' way to eat a cream tea. This raises another question of whether a scone is just a posh jam sandwich?