May 20

Shrimp and Asparagus

Julian got some shrimp out of the freezer for dinner last night, but opted to get pizza. So I needed to come up with something to use said shrimp. I also had some asparagus that needed to be used. Eureka! Shrimp and asparagus stir-fry. Unfortunately, the recipes I found in Chinese cookbooks required deep-frying the shrimp. As longtime readers of this humble little blog know, deep-frying is not done at Casa Sammamish. So I improvised.

I drained the shrimp in a colander, salted them a little, then fried them in a little oil on medium heat until they were nearly done. This was done in shifts. The shrimp were set aside on a plate. I sautéed some minced garlic and ginger until fragrant, then tossed in some asparagus cut on the diagonal into ~ 3/4 inch pieces. I also added a little water to deglaze the pan, then stirred in a mixture of regular soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, and sherry. When the asparagus pieces were barely crisp-tender, I put the shrimp back in the pan to finish cooking them. Just as everything was done, I stirred in a spoonful of Mama Lil’s sliced peppers and two sliced scallions. The stir-fry was served with rice. Julian pronounced it a “good gemisch”.

[A short digression on stir-frying: This is not easily done on an induction range. Convex woks are very tippy, and flat-bottom woks are still quite unstable. This dish wasn’t stir-fried in the traditional sense. I let the shrimp sit still in the pan, then turned them. The asparagus wasn’t stir-fried, either. I stirred it on occasion. The final product still worked.]

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/05/20/shrimp-and-asparagus/

May 12

Fish Sauce in Rural France

Since Vietnam is a former French colony, it makes sense that one can find Vietnamese food in Paris and other large cities. We didn’t expect to find a Vietnamese restaurant in Domme. Our host at the hotel highly recommended the restaurant, Comptoir d’Annam. The restaurant opened the year after our first trip to the Dordogne. We had dinner there our last night in Domme. This was a good thing, since my blood fish sauce level was getting perilously low after over two weeks of French and Spanish food. (We did have Thai takeout one night in San Sebastian.)

Comptoir d’Annam is run by a husband and wife who live above the store with their three children. Periodically the kids come down the stairs to investigate and ask questions of their parents. We were the first customers, but more tables got filled as the evening progressed. We started off with fried pork spring rolls. I ordered the five-aroma duck, while Julian had the prawns. Everything was excellent. We’d definitely go back when/if we’re in Domme again.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/05/12/fish-sauce-in-rural-france/

May 11

Two Side Trips

On the last leg of our journey, we had two side trips – one intentional, one accidental. Julian noted that our route from San Sebastian to Domme passed near Lourdes. We were game to see it, so off we went. For those unfamiliar with the story, this article can bring you up to speed. Miracle cures have been purported to occur after drinking or bathing in the spring water in the grotto where Bernadette saw the Virgin Mary. A basilica was built adjacent to the grotto.

The grounds and basilica are impressive. Most of the art in the basilica is devoted to Mary. The front lawn allows for social distancing, a good thing with hundreds of pilgrims descending on the site on any given day. I opted not to visit the grotto, although Julian and our traveling companion Bruce did. Instead, I watched as an energetic young monk trained a group of docents on what they can see during their shifts. At one point, he belly-flopped onto the grass to demonstrate that pilgrims may prostrate themselves before the altar.

After a late lunch, we resumed our travel. Shortly after we got on the main motorway, our rental car started acting up and the check engine light came on. (Maybe we should have topped off the radiator with water from Lourdes?) We pulled onto a shoulder marked for disabled vehicles. Within five minutes, a service vehicle stopped to offer assistance. He helped us call a tow truck and the rental car company, as our automotive French skills are sadly lacking. We were towed to a Peugeot dealership in nearby Tarbès. The rental car company showed up soon thereafter with a new rental vehicle. As a result, we didn’t get to Domme until well after 10:30. At least we got there.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/05/11/two-side-trips/

May 04

Tyranny of the Minority

The framers of the United States Constitution were leery of the tyranny of the majority. I believe we’re in the opposite situation these days: The tyranny of the minority. Here are a few examples:
• The filibuster “rules” in the US Senate mean that 60 votes are required to take up most bills. The filibuster does not exist in the Constitution. In addition, one Senator can block consideration of nominees to executive or judicial branch positions. Although the Senate’s six-year terms of office are meant to have a “cooling” effect on actions of the rowdier House of Representatives, the cooling effect can freeze legislation from being discussed.
• And then we have the Electoral College. A handful of states hold outsized power to control Presidential elections, regardless of the popular vote.
• Although most of the US population favors the right of women to make their own reproductive choices, state legislatures are gunning to have Roe vs. Wade overturned by the US Supreme Court. The recent leak of the draft opinion that would do just that is the most egregious example of minority rule. Five justices were appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote. An earlier iteration of the Court decided a presidential election in favor of one president who lost the popular vote.
How to combat this tyranny? The majority needs to show up to vote in numbers not seen in decades. Encourage friends to register and vote in primaries and general elections. When the minority puts up obstacles to voting (looking at you, Georgia, Florida, and Texas), work around those barriers. In states that have all-mail elections such as Washington, make sure your ballot gets submitted in advance of the deadline. Verify that your vote was counted (possible in many states). Only with a solid majority can the tyranny of the minority be squelched.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/05/04/tyranny-of-the-minority/

Apr 28

Back to the Bastides

We’re back in France, this time in the Dordogne Valley to revisit the bastides. We were first here in 2015. These are hilltop fortress towns that were fought over for centuries. Now tourists fight over limited parking spaces in these towns.

Our home base, as it was seven years ago, is Domme. This is a gorgeous village with views of the valley below. The Hôtel Esplanade is still under the same ownership. Unlike last time, we’ll be spending three nights here instead of one. Our friend Bruce is here for the fun, although Laurie had to go back to Michigan yesterday.

We went back to two villages we also visited in 2015, Beynac and La Roque-Gageac. The former has a fort built into the side of the cliff that one can climb and visit – for a fee. Despite our aging knees, Bruce and I made it up there. The fort was rebuilt after a rockslide took it and six buildings below out in 1957. The fort now has modern metal reinforcements holding things up, along with a metal stairway. Beynac is also built into the side of a cliff.

The specialties of the Dordogne are walnuts, foie gras, and strawberries. You will find many purveyors of foie gras in the bastides. We brought a couple of cans home last time. The strawberries are excellent. We’ve had some with our breakfasts at the hotel. The red-veneered tasteless ones one gets in the US are no match.

We had to take Bruce to a rail station so he could catch a flight home from Paris. On the way back to Domme, we stopped at Sarlat. This is one of the larger cities in the area. We were underwhelmed. The ratio of souvenir shops to genuine attractions was too high. Parking was a mess. If the city was so crowded at the end of April, July and August would be an absolute nightmare. I think I’ll stick to Domme.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/04/28/back-to-the-bastides/

Apr 24

More on Pintxos

Pintxos are small portions of food, called tapas in other parts of Spain. You can have hot or cold pintxos. Some are on skewers, others on French bread. They’re often inexpensive, because the bar makes most of its profit on alcoholic beverages. Here’s a spread of pintxos we got at one of the oldest bars in San Sebastian.

A pintxo lunch at Bodega Donostiarra in San Sebastian. Photo courtesy of Julian.

At the far left is pig snouts. Julian ordered this on a dare. It was a bit chewier than ham, but just as tasty. The small plate in the middle holds two gildas, the classic pintxo of green olive, anchovy, and guindilla peppers on a skewer. To the right of the gildas are two open-face salmon pintxo. This was more like lox. To the far right is chorizo, the classic cured Spanish pork sausage flavored with a good bit of paprika. [Do not confuse Spanish chorizo with its Mexican cousin. The latter is more like Italian sausage links.] The tomato salad at the top of the photo was on the tapas menu, presumably so some vegetable could get served. Pintxos tend to be meat- or fish-based and often deep-fried.

Here’s a more limited pintxo menu from a restaurant near our rental apartment. It’s also a bit more upscale.

A pintxo menu. Photo courtesy of Julian.

I ordered the mejillon (mussel) and rissotto with mushrooms. Julian had the foie (liver) with applesauce. All were excellent.

As I said in the previous post, pintxos are often consumed at successive bars with alcohol. However, having pintxos at a single place is acceptable if you don’t want to do much drinking or if your kids are with you. Think of pintxos as the Basque equivalent of dim sum.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/04/24/more-on-pintxos/

Apr 23

Never Been to Spain…

Until now. A more appropriate question might be, what took us so long? We’re in San Sebastian, the heart of Basque country. The Basques may be the oldest civilization in Europe, with a distinct language that bears no resemblance to other tongues in Europe or elsewhere. San Sebastian and Bilbao were industrialized cities in an otherwise agrarian and impoverished Spain. The Spanish and French governments alternated between tolerating and brutally oppressing the Basques over the centuries, but now there’s a truce of sorts.

We took a train down to Bordeaux, then rented a car. Our friends Bruce and Laurie had taken a separate train and got stranded in Hendaye, the last town before the French-Spanish border. We picked them up and proceeded to San Sebastian.

The city is much like Seattle topographically, with a coastline and mountains in the periphery. The architecture is a mix of old, renovated old, and modern. Our rental apartment is gorgeous, two blocks away from the Cathedral on a pedestrian street. The kitchen is suitable for real cooking, with a three-burner induction range, microwave and convection ovens, good-sized refrigerator, and real washer and dryer. Even better, the building has an elevator and decent stairs for my poor knees.

The food here is excellent. The Basques were early adopters of Western Hemisphere ingredients such as corn, tomatoes, and peppers. In addition, Basque sheep milk goes into excellent cheeses. The dining culture is pintxos – small plates that would be called tapas elsewhere in Spain. One goes into a bar/restaurant, orders a pintxo and a drink, pays, then goes onto the next bar to repeat the process. This is too much alcohol for me and trying to negotiate crowded bars in the time of Covid is risky business. So we’ve gone to two sit-down pintxo restaurants so far. Thursday night we went to an amazing restaurant, Restaurante Rua 887. Laurie, Julian, and I split a huge rib steak that was probably the best piece of beef I’ve ever had. Julian and Laurie had Basque cheesecake for dessert.

We’ve also done some dinners at the apartment. Julian made a typical pintxo last night – open-faced Iberico ham sandwiches with sheep cheese, olives, and sun-dried tomatoes from the Brexta Market. See below.

Julian’s riff on pintxos.

More tasty experiences to come.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/04/23/never-been-to-spain/

Apr 18

Love Finds a Way

You may recall the story of the Pont des Arts in Paris. Couples would attach padlocks to the wire grates on the bridge to signify their love. Unfortunately, the weight of the padlocks caused several of the bridge railings to crash into the Seine. I wrote about it in this post. This is what the bridge looks like today:

The Pont des Arts, Paris, Easter 2022.

If you look carefully at the lower left corner of the photo, you’ll see some renegade locks. In addition, some lovers have attached their locks to a cable headed to a street lamp over the quay. Others have found other bridges or structures to affix their locks. Proof positive that love will find a way.

This looks risky. But so is romance.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/04/18/love-finds-a-way/

Apr 17

Easter in Paris

Easter is a big deal in Paris. It’s a religious holiday, and the kids are out of school tomorrow. Today’s a big deal for me as well, as it was 40 years ago today when I was nearly killed in an auto accident. Most years the day goes by without my remembering, but this year was different. Maybe it was the juxtaposition with Easter.

After breakfast at the apartment, we headed toward the Eiffel Tower. First stop was Notre Dame. We heard bells ringing. Since it was unsafe for mere mortals to go into the towers, we were puzzled. It was a carillon on wheels.

Have bells, will travel. At the time I took this picture, the chimes master was playing “Stormy Weather”.

We walked along the quay on the Left Bank for a while. We found a Muscle Beach of sorts on the riverbank below the Musée d’Orsay. A yoga class was in swing, some people were boxing, and others were doing strength training.

Lunch was at the Bistro PTT on Rue Cler, near where we stayed on our last two visits. An oyster shucker was hard at work on the sidewalk. A French bulldog discovered the bucket full of empty shells and dove in. The dog was obviously a regular, as it came into the restaurant and visited us.

It was quiet when we left the apartment. Not so when we got back. Every Berthillon ice cream stand had a long line. We went to Sacha Finkelsztajn to get sandwiches – chopped liver for Julian, pastrami for me. Because it’s Passover, our sandwiches were made on Matzoh bread – matzoh meal reconstituted and baked. Very heavy. The pastrami was good. Not quite a traditional Easter dinner, but it worked for us.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/04/17/easter-in-paris/

Apr 17

Laundry à la Française

Doing laundry is inevitable on a lengthy vacation. While having a washer and dryer in a rental apartment seems to be the ideal situation, French home laundry appliances are inscrutable to these two Yankees. The dryers are rarely vented to the outdoors, so it takes forever to get even the smallest load dry. Our apartment has a washer-dryer combo machine. If you’re not careful, you won’t activate the drying function and you’ll wind up with soggy socks. I think our apartment in San Sebastian has a washer and/or dryer. Maybe the Basques have better appliances.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2022/04/17/laundry-a-la-francaise/

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