Food Porn Friday: The last meal of your life

My death row menu: A bellyful of bivalves and beer

There is a time-honored and oft-discussed thought experiment, in the circles of people who cook food and the people that surround them, and it goes like this: It is your last day alive on the Planet Earth. Tomorrow, you will be put to death by the state for all of your heinous crimes (most notably forgetting to mount your sauce with enough butter, and especially cooking that beautiful Wagyu ribeye well-done, OH THE HUMANITY!). Alternate versions of this philosophical discussion involve exploding volcanoes, nuclear holocaust, alien invasion, global catastrophe by asteroid, et cetera. But no matter the instrument of your demise, today you live, and tomorrow comes the reaper to claim his prize. So it goes. Hence, the question:

What is your death row meal? You have one last chance for food to pass your lips before you yourself become food for worms, so you’d best use it wisely. What’s on the menu?

Today, with the Internet abuzz with news of the Mayan Apocalypse, the death row meal question returns with added significance. For me, it has always been Louisiana oysters. Raw, with plenty of cold beer, and keep ’em coming. After a few dozen and a few pints, you can lead me away to the gallows a happy man.

And for you? We might not have much time left, my friends…what would you like to eat?

Native New Orleans food writer Scott Gold, author of The Shameless Carnivore and a blog by the same name, has written for Gourmet, Edible Brooklyn, The Faster Times, and other publications. His Food Porn Friday column for NolaVie offers a weekly mouth-watering photo designed to start culinary conversations in the Big Easy. Catch his weekly food column for The Advocate here.