Yesterday seven chefs gathered at the Slovenian Cultural Center in Biloxi, MS, to compete for the title of King of Mississippi Seafood. Last year's Seafood King, Chef Vishwesh Bhatt of SNACKBAR in Oxford, was on hand to lend sustanance to all with servings of his divine Black Pepper Shrimp, which he served over a cold salad of watermelon, radishes, lime juice and mint. It may be the perfect summer dish.

 So today I enjoyed the dubious pleasure of visiting the Office of Motor Vehicles to replace my driver's license, which I lost on Friday to the most unwelcome experience of being releived of my handbag during a robbery. Hearing the lines were relatively short, I visited the OMV  in Westwego, which I guess qualifies as a fishing community but I am not sure. It is only 15 miles or so from Orleans parish but it seems a world away. The OMV in Westwego shares a small building with the community's City Hall, City Council chamber, Police Department and probably several other municipal agencies I overlooked. 

When I was a child I did not particularly enjoy the weekly southern ritual of Sunday dinner.  Like many families, mine was pretty screwy and the dinners were often wrought with tension, usually generated by my father's mother, Lillian, AKA Maw Maw Benson, whom I  still regard as my Evil Grandmother. The woman was an absolute terror, a grief-seeking (and generating) missle, a character who HAD TO BE THE CENTER OF ATTENTION at all times. That said, this bitch could cook. She grew up in New Orelans' 7th Ward neighborhood, near the corner of Elysian Fields and St. Claude avenues.  She was born Lillian Lombard somewhere around 1911 to a family of second or third generation French immigrants and her father died of tuberculosis when she was 2.