David Sax, in his 2009 book Save the Deli, bemoaned the loss of traditional Jewish delis. Here is a list of delis that are of blessed memory :
Ithaca, NY – Hal’s
Dallas – Phil’s
Miami – Wolfie’s, Corky’s, The Rascal House
Since we’ve lived in the Seattle area, several delis have gone extinct. The I Love New York Deli started out at Pike Place Market, then moved to the University District. Stopsky’s was on Mercer Island. We never made it there. In the last few months, Goldberg’s Deli closed. This leaves Julian and me with one question:
What do we have to do to get a decent pastrami sandwich or whitefish salad in this town?!?
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/01/13/in-search-of-pastrami/
The service at my church today was about immigration and the current situation. Verses two and four of the opening hymn were highly resonant to the congregation. Here they are:
Our world is one world. The thoughts we think affect us all. The way we build our attitudes, with love or hate, we build a bridge or wall.
Our world is one world. Just like a ship that bears us all. Where fear and greed make many holes, but where our hearts can hear a different call.
Cecily Taylor
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/01/13/lyrics-to-live-by/
University Village is a major shopping center in Seattle, just north of the University of Washington. In recent days two businesses within close proximity of each other have closed.
Mrs. Cook’s closed January 6 because the owner retired. It had a great selection of appliances and utensils, along with a small cookbook section. We’ve bought numerous pots, pans, and other supplies there over the years. I went on a spree there before Christmas for Julian’s gifts to take advantage of their clearance prices.
This week Blue C Sushi shuttered its doors. Blue C specialized in “conveyor-belt sushi.” This is similar to the dim sum concept, although customers grab their desired items off a conveyor belt as they go past. The plates were color-coded by cost, so the wait staff could calculate your bill by the number of empty blue, yellow, red, or green plates you had in front of you. The whole chain suddenly closed without explanation. Employees were advised to cash their final checks immediately, according to the Seattle Times. I suspect they expanded too far too fast and the rents in their various locations got too damn high.
If you’re looking to start a business, there are two high-profile sites at University Village available. I’m sure the conveyor belt at the old Blue C Sushi could be repurposed to display other items – cute shoes, perhaps? Just don’t choke when you see the monthly rents on these locations.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/01/13/vacancies-at-university-village/
From time to time one has to get rid of herbs and spices that have long outlived their usefulness. I confess that some of those bottles predated our move to Casa Sammamish six years ago. Julian complained that he was unable to find anything in the spice cabinet. So on New Year’s Day I went on a take-no-prisoners tear. I got a small compostable trash bag and emptied numerous bottles and bags of old herbs and spices into it. So much was discarded that the bag was nearly full.
When Julian surveyed my work, he was amazed. “I can actually find stuff in here!” Of course, that didn’t prevent him from calling me yesterday and asking if we had any five-spice powder in the house. He eventually found it hiding in plain sight.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/01/12/the-spice-cull/
January in the Seattle area is usually cold and rainy. Sometimes high winds get thrown in to compound the misery. As I write this, some intrepid runners are gathering in downtown Bothell for the Worst Day of the Year Run. This is of a piece with other cold-weather lunacies, such as the assorted Polar Bear Plunges around the area on New Year’s Day and the Chilly Hilly bike ride on Bainbridge Island in February. Although I grew up in a colder climate than we have here, I’m not a fan of outdoor activities in cold and wet conditions.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/01/05/worst-day-run/
We attended the traditional New Year’s Eve gathering in the old neighborhood. Our host made soup with black-eyed peas, spinach, and sausage. (In the Southern US and in Northeast Seattle, eating black-eyed peas and greens foretell a good year.) Julian brought herring, which he considers a good luck food for the New Year. (Personally, I think this superstition was promoted by the North Sea Herring-Fishers’ Association.) The party broke up before midnight, as this farm girl and several others ran out of wakefulness. I did stay awake long enough to watch the fireworks from the Space Needle on TV at home. We also had some fireworks in the neighborhood.
While every new year is a beginning, it can also be an end. Just after we left the party, one of the revelers got the call that her husband had died. He was in hospice care due to dementia and aspiration pneumonia. We took fixings for Rachel sandwiches (rye bread, pastrami, Jarlsberg cheese, sauerkraut, and homemade Russian dressing) over to her house for dinner. Her husband passed peacefully. His children and one grandchild had visited earlier in the day. He was in a warm and comfortable room at an adult family home in Kent, south of Seattle. We swapped memories about him, including the time he rolled his recumbent bike and broke some ribs on the Burke-Gilman Trail. The only reason she knew about the injury was that he somehow rode back to his Jeep, but couldn’t lift the bike in to drive home and had to call her for help.
Our friend’s death will probably not be the last end in 2019. I can only hope that other endings are happier.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2019/01/05/a-bittersweet-new-year/
We had lunch at a Japanese/Vietnamese spot today, Poké Café. Julian had a banh mi, I had a ramen bowl. After he finished the banh mi, he decided that it time to try spam musubi. For those of you in Sheboygan or Syracuse, Spam musubi is a quintessentially Hawaiian food. It consists of rice and Spam wrapped in nori seaweed. The particular version Julian had was slices of frizzled Spam sandwiching rice. The nori acted as a belt around the sandwich. The piece was a bit unwieldy, so he had to eat it with a fork. And the verdict? “Now that I’ve tried it, I don’t have to have it again.”
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/12/29/spamorama/
I think Julian wants me to fill up the new bookshelves. In addition to the five we brought home from France last week, I received these:
For my part, I got him some implements with which to cook the recipes from these books. A local cookware store is closing because the owner is retiring.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/12/25/christmas-cookbooks/
I went to two White Elephant holiday parties this year. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, a White Elephant is a gift you’ll never use or desperately need to be rid of. Participants wrap the item and add it to a pile of presents from other partiers. You draw numbers and pick a wrapped present from the pile. There is the opportunity to steal items that have already been opened. It’s always interesting to see what appears at these parties. One person’s white elephant could very well be another’s treasure.
The first party was at my workplace. I wound up with a half obsolete calendar. The most stolen items were a hot dog toaster and an authenticated, autographed photo of Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak. There was one cookbook roaming around the party, but I refrained myself from stealing that when my turn arrived.
The second White Elephant exchange was with our friends on Christmas Eve. I regifted the calendar from the first party. We also brought a Dog Shaming calendar and the book, Fifty Shades of Chicken (a takeoff on the Fifty Shades of Grey books). After the dust had settled, I wound up with this “treasure” – NOT.
Julian had better luck.
Treats from Texas, courtesy of our friend Gayle.
The party also marked the return of the notorious Lizard on a Stick. It took a year’s hiatus from the White Elephant exchange, but came back to haunt our dreams this year. It was the last gift unwrapped. People actually do consume lizards on a stick, as seen in this video. Fortunately, everyone brought far tastier fare to the party than desiccated reptiles.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/12/25/white-elephants/
Our last day in Paris was jam-packed. Bruce attended Mass while Julian and I went to the Grenelle open-air market. We always seem to go to these markets the day before we return to chain-grocery monotony. The displays of fish, meats, cheeses, and other foodstuffs were tempting. Julian bought a vegetable peeler and a tin of goose foie gras. On the way back to the apartment, we stopped at LeNôtre for a snack. He got a mini-bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon. (This was probably the fanciest bagel he’d ever eaten.) I got a chocolate hazelnut madeleine to go with some leftovers we had in the fridge.
The next stop was Le Grand Palais. This is a confection of a building that was constructed for an exposition in 1900. Wings of the building house museums. During the holiday season, the center pavilion is converted to an ice rink. Bruce got there before we did and scored a rink-side seat so we could watch the action. Our admission tickets included ice skates, but we all declined. None of us wanted a visit to an emergency room. Le Père Noël (Santa Claus) chatted up the crowd. A few children dressed as Santas followed him around.
The Grand Palais. You can see a disco ball at the top of the picture. At night it turns into ice skate disco.
A rink-side view of the action.
We planned to go to the organ concert at St. Eustache. We took a detour through a Christmas carnival in the Jardin des Tuileries. That necessitated hustling to get to the church on time. The concert was excellent. The organist was in his early 30’s at most. Unlike other churches, the keyboard console at St. Eustache is on the floor of the church rather than in the rafters.
Our final dinner was an all-out gorge at Au Pied de Cochon, about a block from the church. Bruce had a huge seafood platter with shrimp, lobster, and langoustines. Julian opted for oysters and chicken with sauce Nantua and crawfish. I had onion soup and a pork dish. We took the train back to the apartment and packed up for the trip home.
Shrimp head puppet in Paris. Bruce is in the background, trying to put a dent in his seafood platter.
Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/12/23/last-day-in-paris/
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