Sunday, October 12, 2014

Yat

The sidebar at Ace's has an item on Yat New Orleans accent that sounds like Brooklyn and I'm all, yeah, what up wi' dat?

The link is not so useful as hearing it so I searched on YouTube and listened to Mehrvigne, a woman who turns out to be good at explaining and delivering just by talking but, good as she is,  and for reasons my own I found her grating and somewhat annoying and going on with a list of specific common regional words and their uses, finally too much. She begins, "We don't ask, 'how are you doing?' or 'how is it going?' instead we ask, 'where yat?' meaning where are you at in life, thus Yat."

In comments someone remarks, "if you want a serious Yat accent look at user cleverdude, so I did. Sorting through cleverdude's videos I see a lot of interesting things and... hummingbirds!

Oops, hummingbird videos do not have dialogue, have a cleverdude banana video instead.


20 comments:

rcommal said...

OK, so, you've closed your mind, and supposing that's OK by you, all that closing of mind regarding communications and how different sorts communicate both same and different things, in both different and same ways, why is it--then--that you post all that stuff having to do with sign language, pop-up cards, the deaf community, and nurturing sour-dough starter? For example. I mean, sweet man sweet jesus and sweet jumpin' artist where on earth and also for the sake of the heavens lies your actual attention.

And is it actually your intention to claim that sort of thing only for yourself--and, also, to encourage others who also would claim that sort of thing for themselves only?

I wonder.

Chip Ahoy said...

Right now my attention lies on the moistest roasted chicken I've ever eaten.

I bought a carton of buttermilk powder and used it for the first time. Made a cup of buttermilk, soaked the chicken overnight, and I cannot believe how moist the white meat is. I cut slices as a turkey and they folded off as I cut like wet fabric. I just now put the rest away and it's still so moist you could wring it. <--- possible exaggeration.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

And here I thought I was the only drunk who comments at Lem's.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

First I heard of the New Orleans/Brooklyn thing was while reading "A Confederacy of Dunces."

The guy who wrote it offed himself before it was ever published.

Bonus points.

Unknown said...

I call them apple bananas. They are delicious.

ricpic said...

"Where Yat?" is understandable to me. "Yat?" is too condensed for an outsider to make immediate sense of. This is the problem with intercultural communication: the shorthand that the locals take for granted requires an effort on the part of those outside the culture to "get." The effect is like sand in the gearshift.

Trooper York said...

Chip I really enjoy your posts and I learn something every time I read one.

When you say you made buttermilk...does that mean you put the buttermilk powder into regular milk? Would that work with Almond Milk?

My wife loves chicken but is lactose intolerant. Almond milk has substituted for milk in most of the cooking I have been doing and it seems to be a reasonable alternative.

Trooper York said...

I almost always use lemon to keep my chicken moist. But I would love to change it up.

I will try your recipe.

Fr Martin Fox said...

The fellow with the bananas doesn't sound very Brooklyn-ish to me. Is that just me?

virgil xenophon said...

TRUST ME, sportsfans, as a denizen of New Orleans originally from the Prairie State, the "yat" accent and "yat denizen" is well ensconced in the Crescent City. It's not known as the "Brooklyn of the South" for nothing..

Of course the "yat" accent is mainly a white blue collar one confined to various parts of the city like the Irish Channel, 9th Ward, parts of Mid-City and even the blue-collar types living in "old Metairie." across the street in Jefferson Parish. There is also the "uptown" silk-stocking accent as well as practically mid-western neutral ones out by the Lakefront...it has carried over to the "West Bank" in places like Terrytown where large numbers of Irish Channel types moved after WW II due to housing shortages. Then one has, of course, several variations on the upscale/middle-class Metairie accent in Jefferson Parish depending on whether one lives in Kenner, Harahan, Old Metairie, Lakeside of Jefferson Hwy in Metairie proper, etc. e.g. old-timers still pronounce "Metairie" (Met-er-ie) as "Metry"--in fact there is even a cab company that goes by the official name of "Metry Cab."

rcommal said...

I've experimented with brining more recently in my life. Last Thanksgiving's bird was an especial and specific challenge, not just because the bird was so large (in fact, I think I'd rather brine two smaller than one larger, having done what I did last Thanksgiving) but also because I ordered a fresh-kill, free-range bird from a very local source. Nothing wrong with *that*, per se. However, that choice--due to the parameters of the source, which, of course, by definition I agreed to upon order--meant that we couldn't pick up the bird until the day before Thanksgiving. This made things very tight, timewise, and tense, in terms of getting it brined sufficiently and correctly and then getting it into the oven and then getting it all done.

This year, I certainly am planning for a smaller bird, or birds (depending on who's in town and when--there are different situations within the local extended family, and the non-local extended family, that might mean more than one Thanksgiving dinner here, and whether there is one or two is likely to be an open question until close the last minute). I'm even toying with the idea of just brining and roasting breasts this year, or at least, preparing one whole turkey (smaller) and one breast only, and doing the two on separate days.

***

Now, as for yogurt- and butter-milk soaks, bastes, whatever--THOSE I have done for decades, and not just w/r/t to chickens and turkeys (whole or in parts), but other meats as well. Love, love, love that trick!

I've also been stuffing lemons inside poultry for ever. Another favorite trick.

It's such a dated thing, now, to even think of making what used to be called cornish hens, but when it wasn't so very much, I used to like to soak chopped apples in lemon juice and them stuff in the cavity with sausage and probably silly amounts of dried various herbs (who the hell used fresh herbs way back then, anyway?).

I'm surprised I didn't kill people, with all that stuffing, cooked inside those birds, given what we supposedly know now. I do count myself lucky, however.

rcommal said...

Eric the Bat:

Now there's a new revelation. Congratulations!

rcommal said...

And (though, not always and, because one must take care about mixing techniques)--BUTTER! I do love me some butter rubbed inside skin and outside skin of birds to give a lovely crisp, so flavorful thing of beauty. The thing is, there is a trick to that one, too.

rcommal said...

FWIW:

When I first learned of the notion of tenderizing via acid + chemistry, I had no clue what the hell those terms meant. -0- Those terms had no meaning to me (and, honestly, I don't think those terms, *per se*, had any meaning to the old, plain people from whom I first heard tell of the technique).

I did hear (and saw done, though it was done without fanfare) the words "souring" and/or "soaking" the meat. Vinegar was a cheap ingredient with so many uses, and, with regard to cooking, you could use it in so many ways. I first "made" sour milk at around age 4. No one called it chemistry, a miracle or special at the time--as I recall it, though I absolutely do, always, make room for the idea that I could be wrong.

Though not about the souring part, including one of the techniques.

rcommal said...

I am sort of put in mind of what I've recently seen as a suggestion for tenderizing steak (especially cheap cuts). You take the steak, you set it out on a counter for a bit, then you wipe that sucker dry, then you sprinkle it generously with salt (kosher salt, preferably, is what's mostly recommended) and then you let it sit for a time longer than, we're told, one is supposed to leave meat out on a counter (even if you hadn't already let it set out for the bit previously referred to). Then you rinse it well and dry it off even more well. Then season it (keeping in mind the previous salting) and grill or broil or -whatever- it.

Before there was the Food Network & etc., there were ancestors, who knew stuff, and sometimes they passed down stuff.

rcommal said...

One of the reasons I enjoyed reading Chip's food blog over many years is his willingness to experiment, to throw over the notion of recipes when necessary or even when desired, and use basic principles to make and even remake all sorts of things, challenging settled notions along the way.

rcommal said...

Settling in on recipe-based notions: well, yes, that has thrown me for a loop, and, no, I don't find that easy.

rcommal said...

Then you rinse it well and dry it off even more well.

Honestly, I tend to cheat and just wipe off the meat (which, indeed, will have moisture beads on it) very well indeed--and then, therefore, take even more care in its seasoning before cooking it off.

Poultry, of course, I treat differently.

Chip Ahoy said...

Trooper, apologies, I just now saw your question. The powder is mixed with water and it turns a bit yellow.

The buttermilk I buy is white.

I think it could have been weaker, and soaked shorter time.

I rubbed the chicken with olive oil and intended to bake half upside down, then right side up to finish, but I made a mistake and did it backwards.

It is a cheap 5Lb almost 6Lb chicken, so a roaster by size, and half the cost I usually pay. I wasn't expecting much.

I bought the powder by way of experiment. I do not like buttermilk. Have no use for it except this and biscuits. Do not like having it around. For me the powder is better. I can mix up however much I need. WIN! I recommend it.

Chip Ahoy said...

Do you cut up that lemon or what or just cram it in?

I put inside the cavity the classical thing, lime (I got no lemons, but I do have limes), thyme because I got no tarragon, salt pepper.

Baked it over cubed dense and heavy whole wheat sourdough, some cubes got wet with drippings and other cubes toasted for an amazing bread-transformation that rivals horseradish mashed potatoes, and writing this just now has caused extreme hunger. I really do need to stop starving myself like this, my weight is taking a nosedive again and right when I got it up there to 150 where I think its probably the best of all numbers, but that's only because it's a tidy round number that goes with 6'0'' and that is irrational.