THE
COUSH-COUSH
DIARIES

Coush-coush ("coosh-coosh") is a dish with parallels and cousins in many food cultures. This staple of Cajun breakfast tables consists of cornmeal or stale, crumbled cornbread, soaked in milk or buttermilk, and often topped with sugar (or more commonly, cane syrup). I was introduced to this dish, along with many other things, by my grandfather. It is a wonderfully simple, exceedingly comforting breakfast dish, and its humble elements belie the culinary bear-hug, more than the sum of its meager parts, that is coush-coush. 

It is a metaphor for what I love most about food: its ability to connect us to others and to our younger selves. I use it as my inspiration for writing about food--both the familiar and the unfamiliar--as well as the interplay of foodways, cultures, and social phenomena, and the tendency of food to bring us together, as well as its potential to create division.

 

You will note a menu at the top. This site consists of the following sections:

• This Homepage

• Blog. This is where I do my writing. Here you will find essay, critique, review, poetry, short fiction, nonfiction, and anything else I decide to write. There will often be a distinct focus on food and wine, although there will be pieces which are not food-centric. I have categorized the blog posts for your convenience. It is my intent that the blog (as well as The List--more on that below) be interactive, so feel free to subscribe, comment, share, etc.

• Publications. Whenever something of mine is published, I will share links to the published work (usually found in the blog as well) and organize them by topic and publication.

• The List. This is a list of everywhere I have eaten or drunk in New York City (limited to the five boroughs), but not including chains not uniquely identifiable with New York City. It is organized by borough, and entries are organized alphabetically, not chronologically, within each borough. This is a running list, regularly updated, and is intended to be both a repository of my experience and an opportunity to share information. As such, you're encouraged to comment, ask questions, etc., concerning the places I've been as well as those I haven't.

• Instagram. This is an embedded, simplified version of my Instagram feed, also available directly through Instagram via the Instagram icon at top right.

• Contact. Note: I pursue my writing efforts through a separate corporate entity (Mayhaw Collective).

• Social Media.

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And yes, that IS an oyster tattoo.

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Brennan Breeland is an eater, drinker, lawyer, writer, and raconteur from Brookhaven, Mississippi. In addition to practicing law full-time, he is compiling and editing an anthology of food-themed poetry entitled Savor: Poems for the Tongue (available now from Friendly City Books). He lives in New York City with his brilliant wife and two spoiled dogs, one of whom is a tyrannical malcontent, the other a well-meaning doofus. He loves bourbon, boiled peanuts, raw oysters, chop-cheese sandwiches, fried chicken, shrimp Creole, dumplings, and French wine in equal measure.