• You must be logged in to see or use the Shoutbox. Besides, if you haven't registered, you really should. It's quick and it will make your life a little better. Trust me. So just register and make yourself at home with like-minded individuals who share either your morbid curiousity or sense of gallows humor.

ghosttruck

Level 57 Taco Wizard
full


PANAMA CITY, FLA. —
A Florida man has been convicted of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of his co-worker in what began as a dispute over gumbo seasoning.

Orlando Ricardo Thompson, 27, was found guilty Thursday in the 2015 death of Caleb Halley, according to The Panama City News Herald. He faces up to life in prison for the crime. Thompson will be sentenced on May 4.

On June 23, 2015, Thompson and Halley began arguing about how many spices to add to the gumbo they were making at Buddy's Seafood Market. The argument quickly escalated into a physical altercation involving a two-by-four and a pocket knife. The pair separated, but Thompson is accused of starting up the fight again, this time with a decorative sword. Halley tried to defend himself with a mop handle, but suffered stab wounds to the abdomen. Halley died two days later.

 
I have met very few bowls of gumbo that I didn't like. It was a staple down on the coast where I grew up. In other words, it's hard to screw it up if you have experience making regardless of spice variation. Just don't forget the file (pronounced fee-lay) when you serve it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filé_powder

I'm one of few coastal southerners who doesn't care for okra in any prepared form, and have always used file as my thickening resource when making gumbo.
As you've said, gumbo is a hard dish to screw up, and depending on the Gulf Coast region, the ingredients may vary, even to the types of shellfish and meats (some variations may include prawns substituted for shrimp, and can even include some lobster meat).

This story is one of a stupid argument escalating into senseless anger and murder.
The fact that Thompson came back to later attack Halley with an ornamental sword reminds me of something my father witnessed as an older teen working in a restaurant and always warned me about when explaining to me as a child how knife, sword, or spear playing games can turn deadly: He was about 17 and working in the same restaurant where my grandma was also a cook, when one evening during a lull in customers, the two 16 yr old teenage busboys had each jokingly grabbed 22"x 3" kitchen knives used to slice through large roasts/prime rib/beef sides, and began to "play" sword fighting.
It ended suddenly when one of them accidentally stabbed the other, and the blade went completely through the young man's body, who died in the few moments of time it took to call for an ambulance.

Thompson isn't a teenager, and he had to have known that Caleb Halley would have limited, if any, means of truly protecting himself from a large pointed metal sword, whether ornamental or fully functional.
His actions speak of someone in a blind rage of stupid origins, who simply could not walk away from a petty argument, but returned with the intent of causing serious injury and/or death.
He's extremely lucky he was only convicted of 2nd degree murder, as his actions show obvious intent and premeditation, and now will be facing LWOP, instead of the DP.
 
The shame...

I do love me some grits, collards, cornbread, home cooked beans, rice, catfish, smoked mullet, fresh hush puppies, 'taters no matter how they're cooked, BLT's without the B or the L - known down here as " 'mater sammiches", baked bean sandwiches - aka a "Rebel Sandwich" (because the South had no meat after losing the Civil War), along with traditional Creole, Haitian, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Jamaican foods found in the South FL region, eaten and adored damn near type of reptile and seafood that lives in the Gulf coast region and FL's fresh waters - even some of it still alive and raw while on the boat.
I like my steaks thick, and rare with a barely warm center, I will strip a sparerib from the muscle attachments to the bare bone, I hunt my own swamp cabbage aka "Heart of Palm", and when I worked as a chef, I was the one who'd eat the anchovies to check their freshness.

BUT I WILL NOT EAT OKRA!
It's snotty on the inside, and fuzzy/prickly on the outside, and it's got little to no flavor of it's own and just takes on the flavor of a dish's main ingredient(s).
It's just yucky. :p

I love pickled okra. (And all kinds of okra.) And boiled peanuts with cajun seasoning. It's hard to find green peanuts in the shell around here.

Yasss, boiled green peanuts is a staple and rite of passage down here for when a child's able to get the soft nuts out of an open shell an adult is holding!
I love them in every flavor, and can easily eat a 1lb bag of fresh steaming hot ones, then look longingly at the extra 3-4 bags we always buy.
I'm in a peanut county, and we can usually get raw fresh green peanuts from the farmer's market, where a lot of local farmers sell their excess produce.
Even though the local independent and commercial grocery stores buy from the same farmers, and are located less than 1/4 mile from the peanut plant and crop fields, their prices can often be 2-4 times the amount from the market - for the exact same produce.
I usually make up about 3 lbs of unsalted boiled green peanuts for the birds, package them in small servings and freeze all but a week's worth.
A close friend and neighbor gets with us every year for a 20lb peanut boil, and she makes some with Greek seasoning, then we all make salted, Cajun, and flaming - which even with freezing, will only last us all a month to 6 weeks.:greedy::woot:
 
But...but fried okra though! Omg I seriously love okra. Fried, pickled etc. it’s a staple here in the Lone Star State! Lol
I've lived in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Okra sucks in all those states.
I do love me some grits, collards, cornbread, home cooked beans, rice, catfish, smoked mullet, fresh hush puppies, 'taters no matter how they're cooked, BLT's without the B or the L - known down here as " 'mater sammiches", baked bean sandwiches - aka a "Rebel Sandwich" (because the South had no meat after losing the Civil War), along with traditional Creole, Haitian, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Jamaican foods found in the South FL region, eaten and adored damn near type of reptile and seafood that lives in the Gulf coast region and FL's fresh waters - even some of it still alive and raw while on the boat.
I like my steaks thick, and rare with a barely warm center, I will strip a sparerib from the muscle attachments to the bare bone, I hunt my own swamp cabbage aka "Heart of Palm", and when I worked as a chef, I was the one who'd eat the anchovies to check their freshness.

BUT I WILL NOT EAT OKRA!
It's snotty on the inside, and fuzzy/prickly on the outside, and it's got little to no flavor of it's own and just takes on the flavor of a dish's main ingredient(s).
It's just yucky. :p

I'm in love with you (except for the collards).

My two years in Louisiana was made exceptional by the food. I hated the weather, but the food more than made up for it. One of the best things I had was in New Roads, LA. There was a pizza place there that made Crawfish Étouffée pizza. That was the best pizza I've ever had.

I lived in St. Francisville. New Roads was just across the river. There was no bridge, but the state ran a ferry there. There was an old black lady who was there every day selling boiled peanuts and Pecan Pralines. Some of the best damn food I ever had. I miss it sometimes. I just don't miss it enough to move back there.
 
I've lived in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Okra sucks in all those states.


I'm in love with you (except for the collards).

My two years in Louisiana was made exceptional by the food. I hated the weather, but the food more than made up for it. One of the best things I had was in New Roads, LA. There was a pizza place there that made Crawfish Étouffée pizza. That was the best pizza I've ever had.

I lived in St. Francisville. New Roads was just across the river. There was no bridge, but the state ran a ferry there. There was an old black lady who was there every day selling boiled peanuts and Pecan Pralines. Some of the best damn food I ever had. I miss it sometimes. I just don't miss it enough to move back there.

Even my kids love it. ;)
 
We made a pilgrimage to my mother's Georgia homeland and I ate so many boiled peanuts on the way back that I was never able to eat another one.

Chitlins is another southern food many folks wouldn't eat either.
 
Back
Top