Food for Thought

A foodie's hurricane survival guide: Hermine is only the warmup

Just because everything's crashing around you, doesn't mean you have to beuncivilized.
Earl missed, but Hurricane Hermine is bearing down.
Yes, you'll need something stronger than water to drink.
Good canned goods are also a necessity.
Who says you can't live the high life when the water is high?
There's also some essential things you'll overlook at first thought.
Photo by Marene Gustin

The East Coast dodged major damage when Hurricane Earl (and what’s with that name, will there be a Hurricane Bubba in our future?) danced away to make landfall in Nova Scotia last Saturday. And while Tropical Storm Hermine played havoc with traffic and the roads today, it was a very minor event by Texas standards.

Whew.

But wait, Gaston (and why not Goober?) is cruising out there and we still have to wait until the official end of the hurricane season on Nov. 30. So let’s not get too complacent. Even though Texas has only been hit three times with hurricanes after mid-September in the last century, one of those was Ike in 2008, and we all know what that aftermath was like.

So maybe it’s time to take stock of the hurricane closet.

My hurricane closet is in the interior bathroom, per hurricane experts' planning advice. But it’s pretty bleak. An assortment of old towels and linens, extra toilet paper, a couple of flashlights with several packages of batteries of various sizes, a hand-crank radio-slash-flashlight-slash-phone charger (bought after Ike), a gallon of distilled water (bought before Rita, can distilled water go bad?) and the only purchase made this year: The economy pack of 32 bottles of water.

There are also a few candles, basically illegal to light in a high-rise, and a whole box of Molina’s matchbooks from the days before the smoking ban.

So where’s the food?

Glad you asked.

The pantry in the kitchen, which is also in an interior room (I’m not completely hurricane challenged), has a couple of cans of black beans, some canned sardines and smoked oysters. Yep, that’s about it. At least I do have a nonelectric can opener to go with them.

The Chihuahua fares better. He has his own stash of bottled water and a bag of dry dog food.

I usually wait until a storm threatens, like the day everyone evacuates, to stock up on cigarettes and wine.

I was lucky after Ike, as my neighborhood had power within two days and the restaurant across the street was up and running in three days, as was the local Whole Foods Market — otherwise I might have starved.

But what should you be stocking up on in the face of a storm?

Well, guess what. There is a book for that.

Florida International University has produced The Healthy Hurricane/Disaster Cookbook with recipes and instructions on what should be in your hurricane closet in case the worst happens. And no, wine and cigarettes are not listed in the book. Not that that means I won’t be stocking those.

What to Avoid
Fatty, salty, canned meats. Oops, put those Vienna sausages back. That goes for Spam, too. See, my smoked oysters are a good choice, about a third of the sodium as canned meats.

As for a whole side of cow: not a good idea unless you have a freezer on a generator and an outdoor grill.

I personally would like to add guacamole to this list. Please don’t ask.

What You Should Buy
The Healthy Hurricane/Disaster Cookbook is big on canned beans. Ah ha, me and generations of cowboys were right, beans are good for you and they last for eternity.

Also, canned chicken and seafood (again with the oysters!), a good source of non-salty protein. Instant oatmeal and peanut butter are also recommended staples. And don’t forget the dried fruits, nuts, seeds and granola bars. Apparently in the wake of a disaster you can also go on that weight-loss diet you’ve been meaning to get around to.

Other tips include storing fresh fruits and vegetables, bread and crackers stuffed into your fridge (the fuller it is, the colder it will stay after the electricity goes).

So, the big one is on the way, you’ve made the final trip to the grocers. Now, set your fridge and freezer to the coldest setting. Store water bottles in the freezer, put that manual can opener in the cupboard with your cans. If you have meats, cook them now and put them in the fridge. In the event of an actual hurricane, meats, fresh fruits and veggies will be the first things you eat. Also the white wine. Reds you can drink at room temperature.

As days of electric withdrawal drag on, you resort to cans of fruits, veggies, Chicken of the Sea and those wonderful smoked oysters. Also bourbon, which can be drunk warm. Trust me on this.

By now you will be having serious Tex-Mex withdrawal symptoms, but you can indulge in a can of black beans with some salsa mixed in. It’s not the same, but these are tough times so put on your big girl pants and deal with it.

In the final stages you may be eating the peanut butter. That’s OK. My mother once spent an entire semester at nursing school eating only peanut butter on crackers. She survived, and she was really, really slender.

What I’m saying here is this: We survived Ike, if we do get hit again before Nov. 30 we will survive again. Just get that hurricane closet in order and be prepared.

And remember, by the time the peanut butter jar runs out, there will be a Whole Foods and a Vallone restaurant somewhere that’s open.

Because, after all, this is Houston and our foodies would expect nothing less.

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eat real food

Houston DJ-turned-TikTok star cooks up a cult following one recipe at a time

Courtesy of Uncle Dibbz

Uncle Dibbz, a.k.a. A.H. Bowden, has built a devoted following for his viral recipes.

For the past month, Uncle Dibbz has been, shall we say, going ham on social media with the myriad videos of alternative Thanksgiving dishes. He’s dropped how-to clips for such recipes as Cajun-roasted turkey, honey-baked ham/hens, oven-bag turkey, and six-piece fried turkey (to go). Basically, if you don’t want to cook a bland ol’ Butterball this Turkey Day, Dibbz has you covered.

Who is Dibbz, you say? Well, he’s a North Jersey-born, Georgia-bred, Houston-based chef who’s been building quite the foodie rep online. Several videos across his TikTok, Instagram and YouTube pages, from his Cajun-boiled fried chicken (2 million on IG) to his “Propose to Me Pasta” (12.3 million on TikTok), has amassed millions of views. But Dibbz (government name: A.H. Bowden) wasn’t always a culinary content creator. He used to spin music back in Atlanta as DJ DiBiase, named after retired wrestler Ted “The Million Dollar Man” DiBiase. “DiBiase is a mouthful to say, so people just always call me ‘D’ or ‘Dibbz’ for short,” says Bowden, 37, during a Zoom interview.

@uncledibbz PROPOSE To Me PASTA 💍 🍝 Trust your Uncle! This SEAFOOD Pasta will seal the deal 👌🏽 Get my recipe below ⬇️ or on uncledibbz.com [@uncledibbz Link in Bio] 🌐 **Ingredients:** - 8 ounces spaghetti - 1 lb mixed seafood (shrimp, scallops, crab meat, etc.) - 2 tablespoons olive oil - Fresh chopped basil - 2 cloves garlic, minced - 1/2 cup white wine - 1/4 cup heavy cream - 2 tablespoons unsalted butter - Salt and pepper to taste - Uncle Dibbz Delta Dust [link in bio] - Fresh parsley, chopped (for garnish) - Grated Parmesan cheese (for garnish) **Instructions:** 1. Cook the spaghetti pasta according to the package instructions until al dente. Drain and set aside. 2. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the minced garlic, chopped basil and sauté for about 1 minute until fragrant. 3. Add the mixed seafood to the skillet. Season with Uncle Dibbz Delta Dust to taste and cook for 2-3 minutes until cooked through. Remove the seafood from the skillet and set aside. 4. Pour in the white wine to the skillet and let it simmer for 2 minutes, allowing the alcohol to cook off. 5. Stir in the heavy cream, butter, Uncle Dibbz Delta Dust seasoning, salt, and pepper. Cook for another 2-3 minutes until the sauce thickens slightly. 6. Add the cooked spaghetti and cooked mixed seafood to the skillet. Toss everything together until well coated with the sauce. 7. Remove from heat and garnish with fresh parsley and grated Parmesan cheese. 8. Serve hot and enjoy the flavorful Seafood Spaghetti. That's good Shawty! #UncleDibbz #ThatsGoodShawty #Pasta #marryme #proposal #bride #wife #husband #relationshipgoals #datenight #easyrecipe #seafood #cajun #cooking #fyp #foryou #viral #houston ♬ original sound - Uncle Dibbz 🍴

He was making a nice living as a DJ, even serving as rapper Big K.R.I.T.’s touring DJ for a while. But when the pandemic hit, the gigs obviously dried up.

“I was living in Miami at the time,” he says. “And, you know, when you have a lot of time on your hands to think – but also need to figure out a way to, you know, sustain an income and everything like that – the ideas start coming,”

Like most DJs at that time, he was doing live mixes on Instagram. But his days throwing cookout parties in Atlanta inspired him to start doing his cooking videos, where he used his very own seasoning. Of course, he had a lemon pepper blend, which he used in a lemon pepper hot wings video that currently has over a half-million views on TikTok.

“I'm about to go live to DJ later that night, and my phone was just going off with orders,” he recalls. “So I'm like, where are these orders coming from? And it's not from my friends. I'm seeing the cities and the states. I don't know these people.”

Thanks to his videos, which usually end with him saying his signature line “That’s good shawty!” (that’s also the name of his cookbook he released last year), Dibbz went into the seasoning business full time. He eventually hired another person to help send out the piles of orders he was receiving.

He even got an order from former Dallas Cowboy Emmitt Smith, one of his favorite athletes. “I remember doing a book report on him when I was in fourth grade,” he boasts.

Although Dibbz has a flair for making meals that border on decadent, he’s an ardent practitioner of cooking with natural ingredients, especially in his seasoning. He has several low-sodium seasoning, including Bebe’s Salt Free – named after his mother, who had open-heart surgery a few weeks before the pandemic started.

“I don't think a lot of people understand the amount of toxins and chemicals that go into a lot of these seasonings,” he says. “You're starting to see it in the news now. A lot of the foods with certain dyes are being taken off the shelves and things like that.’

Soon, Dibbz moved himself and his new business to Houston, a favorite place to perform as well as a town whose hip-hop got him into music. He cites local chopped-and-screwed gods DJ Screw, Michael 5000 Watts, and OG Ron C as his holy trinity of influences. To give props to the music of his new home, he created a hot sauce – called HXT Sauce – whose uncharacteristically large bottle resembles Promethazine cough syrup (aka the key ingredient in lean, the preferred purple cocktail for the city’s rap community).

“It's not necessarily about promoting that usage,” he says. “But, at the same time, it’s just a homage to one of the factors and influences of screwed-and-chopped music.”

Dibbz still indulges in spinning records from time to time. The Waxaholics’ DJ Big Reeks has gotten him to break out the vinyl a few times during his Thursday-night sets at Alley Kat Bar & Lounge in Midtown. But creating new recipes, dropping delicious content and proving you can eat and live in a hearty, healthy fashion still remains his full-time mission.

“I’m not just talking about eating cauliflower rice all day and every day, but just eat real food,” he says. “We're eating fake food. That's the bottom line. We're eating fake food and my whole purpose is to inspire people to eat real food and that starts with real ingredients, real herbs, you know – real natural seasonings.”

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