Jeff Houck

The Tampa Tribune’s food writer since 2005, Jeff Houck covers the way people live through their food. He also hosts the Table Conversations food podcast and believes that everything crunchy is good.

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Jalapeno Cornbread, Calamari Pasta, Deep-Fried Biscuit-And-Gravy Balls [This Week’s Weekend Eats]

Posted Nov 28, 2011 by Jeff Houck

Updated Nov 28, 2011 at 02:48 PM

The holidays always throw a bit of a monkey wrench into Weekend Eats festivities.

On one hand, you are assured that just about everyone eats well on Thanksgiving. Yet everyone pretty much eats the same thing: Turkey.

Not so. That photo above? That’s a deconstructed shrimp etouffe with andouille sausage. Looks mighty tasty. And it was part of a multi-course Thanksgiving meal enjoyed by Facebook follower Dean Regan.

Dean had quite a meal. In addition to a cheese course, pumpkin cheesecake for dessert and cognac with coffee, Dean, who lives in North Springfield, Va., also threw some roasted duck quarters, Sardelaisse potatoes, sauteed Brussels sprouts with camelized onions and oyster corn bread dressing into the mix:

In a word: Wow.

We’re way past Golden Corral’s all-you-can-dunk chocolate fountain now, aren’t we kids?

For his efforts, Dean takes this week’s top prize for Weekend Eats: A copy of Andrew Carmellini‘s excellent new book “American Flavor.”

This week proved to be quite a tasty edition of Weekend Eats. Here are more contributions from other friends and followers:

Shirley Steele - Tropical sweet potatoes made with rum, pineapple, and coconut!

@otmdish - 4 new breeds of Cactus Pears & Baby octopus w tom fennel - But definitely not together

@sarcasmically - deep-fried biscuit-and-gravy-balls and Memphis dry rub ribs

@SuwaneeRefugee - between fried mullet, fried redfish, fried turkey, and fried French fries my arteries are successfully clogged until Christmas.

@terrysimpson - Pan-seared pork dumpling w sweet chicken and a hearty Manhattan

@TampaTapRoom - Deep-fried turkey injected with Cajun butter, Creole sweet potato casserole w/ praline topping Sunday = Beef on Weck

@heatherdd93 - I made bahn mi sammies with a super fresh slaw and homemade potato chips! It was outta this world!!!

And, as we do every week, here’s this week’s gallery of dishes. Click on each photo to get a description: