This is the entryway of the Monroe Town Hall that is converted to our polling place on election days. We use a pencil, tied to a string attached to the wall, to mark a paper ballot that we then deposit into the official (and probably 100+ year old ballot box (on the left, just above the clerk’s head) which has a sliding cover over the slot so it can’t be stuffed when no one is looking.
How much kimchi could a Mainer can
If a TechE can kimchi?
This article is a fantastic example of only ONE of the contradictions our society operates under so that we can live the good life without ever having to confront the consequences. And the big sign of our American Willful Ignorance is the fact that Romney is so close to winning the election. But I digress.
I think this audience understands better than the general public that ALL meat has a name (even if it’s an ear tag code, or a cage number) and that someone cared for that meat as it grew, however well or poorly they cared for it. American society HAS declared dogs and cats and a few other house pets NOT meat, and I also acknowledge that some meat is grown for emotional pleasure, but I still think we can call an old hen or an old ox “meat” to prevent the anthropomorphizing of livestock. So even when our meat works with us to plow our fields, that doesn’t erase the ultimate purpose of their existence. We should, instead of protesting, celebrate that these two Bos taurus escaped their date at the slaughter house for so much longer than their compatriots. I am heartened that there appear to be so few protesters of the decision that the college has made, and I love the retort of one student to those protesters of the fulfillment of Bill and Lou’s destiny:
“Why aren’t you at factory farms right now?” Ms. Hardiman said.
To every person who would spend the time and money to take Bill and Lou off to some Old Ox Home and care for them until their “natural” death when they could be buried, I say the same thing. There are SO MANY other worthy causes that need that money, effort, and time, why would you deny those causes your support and give it to animals that otherwise would have been slaughtered for hamburger long ago? Our emotions (“Death Panels!”) sometimes get the best of our society.
Harvested our autumn produce from our vegetable garden. Eric’s cooking with the Patriots game, a Sunday tradition.
Among the last few things we are pulling out of our garden are dry beans that need to be shelled on a later winter day.
As Wells points out, often the food is incredible; the problem comes in the ritual that denies a diner any bit of the normal restaurant routine. To me, the BFM is a front-of-the-house construct, often initiated by people who really don’t know what “service” means. It’s hours of “look at me, look at me!” as if we were a passive audience at a theater performance. Dining can include elements of theater, to be sure, but dining by definition is the act of sharing food with people, not “experiencing” food by ignoring your fellow diners.
Still, I take issue with people who equate BTMs with the GastroTech dishes (foams, airs, etc.). That’s the mistake of using El Bulli as your main example of both. when, by all accounts, the El Bulli meal was NOT overwhelming, and there’s a reason that Adria’s techniques are now used around the world — the techniques are just that, no different from turning egg whites into foam with a wire whip. They worked very well in Adria’s hand, but not every chef is Adria…
Also one should not equate a BTMs and fixed menus, as at Chez Panisse. I’m very comfortable with a chef having confidence that you will come to their restaurant no matter WHAT they serve, but he/she better deliver. The BTM is more about intimidation than it is about satisfying hunger and curiosity.
It can be a pleasure to put yourself at the hands of your favorite chef/restaurant and have them truly “serve” you the experience they fully intend. Some of my favorite meals in restaurants have folded the tasting menu concept into the a la carte meal by allowing you to order your dishes off the menu, and then offering tastes and teases from the kitchen that compliment what you are about to eat, or what you have just eaten. Restaurants that offer the BTM beside their standard a la carte menu have the right idea: let the GastroDouche have his ShockAndAwe experience at the hands of his personal Top chef, but allow his dining partners to get what they want if they choose. And let the people at the table eat, and talk, and drink and make merry. The focus should always be on the diners, not the service and food alone.
West and East and 36 years
Last Saturday night, Carol and Marcus attended the Oktoberfest Party at Sierra Canyon in Reno, where they now reside (a Dell Webb 55+ community).
Here’s Carol and a bunch of old people… There was live music — think Danke Schoen and Roll out the Barrel. The couple across from us, Buck and Jan, moved here from Mesquite NV, a town of 15,000 in the desert about 75 miles north of Las Vegas. They have 8 18-hole golf courses and 133 days over 90 degrees. Everybody here is from *somewhere else,* so that’s usually the first topic of conversation.
The buffet included more than one kind of wurst, cabbage in many forms, German potato salad and plenty of beer. The first round was draft Sam Adams Oktoberfest followed by various bottled beers. There was dancing and frivolity but we didn’t stay to the bitter end… we were eager to get home to the Nebraska at Ohio State football game. We watched the first quarter before leaving and “taped” the balance of the game. The Buckeyes were struggling and trailed at the end of the quarter. As you can see, they turned THAT around.
We transition to another place and time in my life: Not much more than 6 actual hours later, son Eric was taking pictures at Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston where, in 1975, he accompanied his dad on a very early morning tree planting in South Market Street.
That’s right, Eric. On a rainy October morning in 1975 I didn’t have to pry you out of bed at 4am to go with me to meet the first of the tree trucks, arriving with their Locust trees from New Jersey. You were so excited that you were dressed and ready to go when I knocked on your door.
Continue reading “Saturday Night Sunday Morning”
Thankfully this image is NOT indicative of the food we ate when the Carol Rector family met in Lancaster to memorialize her mother Liz, who passed away this summer. Brian grazed up north in the Mistake by the Lake while the Mainers and new Renoans joined a few Hales to sip and graze in the new Short North district between downtown Columbus and the OSU campus. The next day (after the obligatory Bob Evans breakfast *at the HOME OFFICE*) we enjoyed a buffet lunch put together by the church ladies of Grace Memorial Church in Lancaster. As a nightcap some of us enjoyed a very good Mexican snack on Route 33. The following morning we reconvened in Jackson County, OH just a few miles from the Ohio River to learn all about the Big Green Egg, with a surprising taste of FORTY YEAR OLD bourbon.
Now that Marc and Brian have returned home to review (and lighten) their images, we’ve pulled together a highlight reel of the visit.
[The image above is not even from Ohio — it’s the cheesesteak vendor at the Philadelphia airport where Alison and I had lunch while connecting to ColuOH.]
Ohio September 2012
It all started Wednesday night at Brian’s house: Happy Birthday Brian… and, he grilled pork chops himself. But that’s not why we were there. We stayed over because we had to get up at 4am so Brian could take us to the airport for our 6:05 flight on Southwest. (Brian and Natasza were flying later.) It was our first time on Southwest and we discovered that when we checked our bags at the curb, all we needed was picture ID… We were already in the computer with our group and number for boarding (A 49). Seats aren’t assigned, but we paid 10 bucks to get in the A group, so getting a seat of choice was no problem. How cool is that?
There’s little to report on food at the airport at 5:15am (no tomato juice available) or on the airplane (just snax, thank you, and oh… bloody marys for 5 bucks each).
We got to Carol’s sister’s house in Baltimore, Ohio, late afternoon and sat down for some of DeeDee’s famous Barley Soup.
“Brown a pot roast real good in a cast iron skillet.
Put it in your slow cooker with potatoes, onion and celery and pour a cup of warm water around, not over the roast.
Cook on Low overnite then just keep adding to it.” (This one had carrots, and corn.)
When I went out for my morning walk Friday, I picked up a few cans of V8 at the IGA. (Note to self: carry your own damn V8 for airplanes and when staying with ordinary people where “juice” means OJ or apple.)
I stopped “downtown Baltimore” to do my walking there… where there are sidewalks. I came across lots of pumpkins in a yard, and a few steps up the street, a very early Halloween decoration. Continue reading “Ohio Food Revue”
Over Labor Day weekend I had a chance to enjoy two different lobster rolls with onion rings.
On our way up up to St. Andrews, New Brunswick for the long weekend we stopped at the Eagle’s Nest in Brewer, Maine after Alison Yelped for a good restaurant in the Bangor where we could have lunch with her sister, Leslie, and brother-in-law Rick, both of whom enjoy good food. Alison found rave reviews and an above average rating for the Eagle’s Nest which happened to be on Route 9 East heading toward Calais, Maine and the border.
Continue reading “A Tale of Two Rolls”
Mmmmm….cheese and coffee. Really! There’s going to be a session at the American Cheese Society conference on pairing cheese and coffee. More on that if I manage to attend it.
RectorSite 