I was talking to an acquaintance of mine after church about the drawbacks of working from home. She said, “I’ve forgotten what people look like below their shoulders.” Given the “COVID 19” weight gain some folks have experienced, that may be a good thing.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/08/14/a-sign-of-the-times/
Aug 14
In Praise of Smaller Grocery Stores
I like to do our weekly shopping in larger supermarkets. They have the variety of produce and seafood I want. Some of them will cater to ethnic populations in their neighborhoods. But sometimes when I just need to get two or three items on the way home, smaller grocery stores will do the trick. Some are independent, others are small branches of large chains. Note that I’m not talking about “convenience stores”, which exist to sell cigarettes, cheap beer, rolling papers, and junk food for the post-cannabis munchies. I mean real grocery stores.
Going to smaller grocery stores has several advantages. You can get in and out faster. You usually don’t have to worry about managers frequently “reorganizing” items in an attempt to separate you from more of your money. Sometimes smaller stores will carry organic or other items that are hard to find in mainstream stores. You can get acquainted with the staff, who are usually happy to help you find items.
My usual small supermarket in our old neighborhood closed earlier this year. Kroger, the owner, said it was underperforming. This is nonsense. The store was always busy. Sometimes I couldn’t maneuver a cart around because of the other customers. The building was small, which left no room for a pharmacy. That’s probably one reason for the “underperforming” that the corporation saddled it with.
Now that I’m stuck working from home, the closest thing to a small grocery is the Yakima Fruit Market around the corner from us. There’s a Mexican market across the street from the fruit market as well. Having stores within walking distance works – at least when it’s not 90° or more outside.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/08/14/in-praise-of-smaller-grocery-stores/
Jul 20
Cookbook Critiques
I’ve done more than my share of cookbook-reading over the years and have developed strong opinions on the genre. I gave my strategy for adding a cookbook to the collection in this post. Even if the recipes and other content are first rate, some cookbooks have layout and other issues that reduce the chance that I’ll use the books regularly. Here are three examples.
The font used. I don’t need bifocals (yet), but sometimes fonts can be too small or cutesy. If you can’t tell the difference between 1/3 and 1/2 in a recipe, forget about it. Many folks slammed the first Ruth Reichl-edited Gourmet Cookbook for having pale yellow titles. What was the publisher thinking? Julian bought a cookbook last week that has barely readable 3rd-grade-level block letters for titles and chapter headings. The recipes look good, but the titles and goofy drawings detract from the content.
Printing recipes on a colored background. This is a common sin in my coffee table cookbooks. If there’s insufficient contrast between the page and print, coupled with a puny font, you’ll have a hard time reading the recipe. Maybe there’s a reason these are supposed to sit on your coffee table. It’s difficult to cook from them.
Language. I do my share of cursing (as Julian knows when I have work-from-home connectivity troubles), but I try to keep my discourse on a higher level on this humble blog. It seems as if many authors (usually men) feel the need to use liberal amounts of R-rated language in their cookbooks. The originator of this trend was undoubtedly Anthony Bourdain; however, at least he wrote good prose between the F-bombs. The pretenders can’t. Come on, guys, your mother may read your book and decide to wash out your laptop with bleach.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/07/20/cookbook-critiques/
Jul 17
Streetus Interruptus
I mentioned the small number of bridges between downtown and north Seattle in an early post on The Montlake Mess. There are other “features” that drive new drivers in our area nuts. Chief among them: Streetus Interruptus.
In theory, Seattle’s thoroughfares are set up as a grid. Streets run east-west, avenues run north-south. Then we have regions: Northeast, north, northwest, southwest, south, and east. (No southeast in Seattle. Don’t ask me why.) If you think northeast 90th street should logically connect with north and northwest 90th, you are sadly mistaken. We found this out the hard way when we looked at a rental house on northeast 90th street. The street dead-ended at a stairway. To get to the house from our car, we had to walk down the stairs. We wound up living there for nearly ten years. We got used to the number of cars turning around in our driveway at all hours of the day and night because the drivers didn’t see the dead end sign before getting on the street in the opposite direction.
The causes of Streetus Interruptus can be categorized as natural and human-made. Bodies of water, cliffs, ravines, and other geologic features can necessitate dead ends. By far the major human-made reason is arterials such as Lake City Way and Interstate 5. You cannot take northeast 90th street across either road. When I was teaching at North Seattle College (off north 92nd street), I’d have to get on Lake City Way and get to 92nd street in a zigzag route through the Maple Leaf neighborhood. I opted to take the bus my last quarter teaching there. Much less stressful.
As much of an inconvenience as Streetus Interruptus can be, it pales in comparison to the closure of the West Seattle Bridge. This structure is out of commission until next year, which means that folks in that neighborhood have to drive the long way around to get to the rest of the city. Now there’s a real Streetus Interruptus.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/07/17/streetus-interruptus/
Jul 17
Quote of the Day
Seen in this New York Times article on post-pandemic awkward encounters: “My eyebrows always go up when I’m lying to be polite, which is how you can tell I don’t use Botox.” – Rosie Perez
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/07/17/quote-of-the-day/
Jul 06
Georgia on my Mind
One of the peak experiences of my adult life was accompanying a friend from college to the Republic of Georgia when she adopted a baby girl. In addition to seeing my friend realize her dream of being a mother, the breads of Georgia were a revelation. Some were flatbreads baked on the sides of giant tandoors. Khachapuris were cheese-filled breads. Some were similar to calzones, others open-faced. We devoured them all.
Last Saturday we were downtown and passed the Georgian coffee house we found back in April. Julian turned to me and asked, “So when are you going to make me a khachapuri?” I resisted the urge to exclaim, “Poof! You’re a khachapuri!” However, the thought of trying it grew until yesterday morning when I had a day off for the July 4 holiday.
Yeast Mode needed to be fed, so I used the discard to create a sponge. After a bike ride, I finished the dough with a little added yeast. The dough rose a couple of times, then I made the cheese filling by mixing together some mashed goat and sheep cheese, grated Monterey Jack, the dregs of some bleu cheese, beaten egg, and sour cream. I shaped the bread dough into the traditional boat shape and filled the middle with the cheese. After about 30 minutes of rising, I baked it at 375° for 30 minutes. Julian liked it so much that he thought that I should use this “recipe” for future pizza crusts.
Dinner was also in a Georgian theme. I grilled some chicken and slathered it at the end with tkemali, a Georgian sour plum sauce. I’d bought a bottle at Skalka in April. Quite tasty.
Yes, that’s the Georgian language underneath the Russian.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/07/06/georgia-on-my-mind/
Jun 28
BRUTAL
There’s no other way to put it, friends. The heat wave in the Pacific Northwest is unprecedented and ugly. It reminds me way too much of summers in Dallas – except in Dallas I had (mostly) central air conditioning and ceiling fans. Here at Casa Sammamish we have a floor unit air conditioner in the master bedroom. The office on the ground floor is reasonably cool during the afternoon. The main floor, with south-facing picture windows and a sliding glass door, is an inferno.
There is one upside to this heat wave. My padron pepper plants are blooming and beginning to set fruit. Maybe I can harvest my first crop next week.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/06/28/brutal/
Jun 11
The Slow Schlep Back
As America crawls its way out of the hole that Covid-19 and the initial botched response dug, Julian and I have celebrated a few landmarks.
Vaccines? Check.
No more shopping at “old folks hours?” Check, thankfully for Julian.
Social gatherings in our home and others? Check, with fellow vaccinated people.
Interstate travel? Check, for me.
Last night’s landmark was a trip to the Seattle Symphony. Benaroya Hall was about 10% capacity. We didn’t have our usual seats in a second tier box, as the concert was being live-streamed and the box contained cameras. Masks were required. We had our temperatures taken before our tickets were scanned. No food or beverage service. (No worries there – Julian kvetches about the bad coffee at Benaroya.) The orchestra was socially distanced, and the music didn’t require many brass or wind instruments. All in all, another baby step on the slow schlep back to normalcy.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/06/11/the-slow-schlep-back/
May 31
Ithaca Therapy
The day before Mom’s funeral, I made a spur of the moment trip to Ithaca. I had lunch with a former roommate at her home just north of the Cornell campus. She got takeout from the Collegetown Bagels store/restaurant near her home. This place was the usual Sunday brunch location for Julian and me when we started dating. I even ordered one of my old favorites, the Lindsay. This is a turkey and Muenster cheese sandwich served on a bialy. (For you non-New Yorkers who don’t know from bialys, read this prior post.) I stopped at a Mennonite store on my way down to Ithaca and got some oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies for our dessert.
When I started out for home, I took a route around the Cornell campus because construction is everywhere. I saw the new North Campus dormitories under construction, which have all the architectural interest of state penitentiaries. They make the post-World War II married student housing across the street look good, which takes some doing. Collegetown was even worse. Three buildings just off campus are being torn down for more soul-less, high-rent apartments. I had to detour down Seneca Street to get downtown. At least my old church is still intact. And Purity Ice Cream is still open, but only for curbside scooping – not breakfast or lunch.
Most of townie Ithaca looked similar to previous visits, although the shopping mall is hurting badly. I picked up a couple of provisions I’d forgotten to pack at the Target there and walked around a little. The pandemic is partly to blame, although I’m sure Amazon can take more credit. I didn’t check out the downtown Ithaca Commons. I hope the increase in vaccinated people can help businesses rebound, in Ithaca and elsewhere.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/05/31/ithaca-therapy/
May 24
Bittersweet Homecoming
I’m back east for my mother’s graveside service on Wednesday. Everything was arranged by my sister and niece, all I had to do was fly back.
Flying these days is even more of a slog than it was before Covid-19. It’s not just the masking, other “details” have been added to maximize your misery. Airport security takes longer to negotiate. Folks had to take off their shoes unless they were in the TSA PreCheck program. I flashed my newly-minted Trusted Traveler card (with the photo that makes me look like I got roughed up by the photographer beforehand) so I could wear my shoes. Computers and tablets also had to come out of bags again.
More misery-making: If you’re not in First Class, forget about any food or beverage service (free or paid). I had an hour layover in Charlotte between flights. I thought I might be able to grab a quick breakfast. No.Such.Luck. I had to traverse most of the airport to reach the connecting flight gate. The restaurants on the way had long lines, which negated the chance to get anything to eat or drink. Luckily, I was able to sweet-talk the flight attendant to bring me some water on the flight to Syracuse so my kidneys wouldn’t shut down.
The upside to this trip is getting to see family and some friends. My niece’s kids are growing fast. The older one is about to become a Known Teenager. On Wednesday I’ll meet my nephew’s toddler, who was in utero when I last flew east. Thursday I’ll go out to lunch with three high school classmates. And I may need some Ithaca therapy. Stay tuned.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2021/05/24/bittersweet-homecoming-2/
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