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I want to thank each of you for your very kind words. As an outsider to MFF, 3000 miles away from the center of action, at least a generation older than the average member, I am humbled by the empathy and compassion you've taken time to express. I will always be grateful for these gifts, most often from people I've never met.

Chirashi, using Hokkaido Nanatsuboshi -北海道 ななつぼし- 2024 Crop, 70% milled, from The Rice Factory. Seared sushi-grade Ahi, avocado, gari, ikura, and one sad cherry tomato. Side order of house-made oshinko (if that's the right term for the pickled veg, or does it just mean pickled radish?).

I was recently dumb enough to accept 300g of sourdough starter from one of my neighbors, as you know, because I've already complained about the bread brick I made with it. (I have since made a much more respectable bread.) Now I am finding ways to use the discard, because I don't like discarding things. My sister gave me a very fine recipe for discard crackers, which I've made twice, and today was my second shot at biscuits. They were good the first time, but too small. I don't have a biscuit cutter, so I used a rocks glass. This time I hit on the brilliant idea of using my cocktail shaker. And my food processor to incorporate the butter, because life is too short to spend any of it grating frozen butter. Nice big biscuits. And the really good news is that I convinced my friend Mindy to take 200g of starter. Good luck, Mindy! 🤣

Flounder with ginger scallion sauce, miso tofu vegetable soup.

Maccheroncini rigati w/3-mushroom sauce. Roasted broccolini.

Joe Ely!

These are sold as Wild Montauk Red Royal Shrimp 8-10/lb Head-On. They were not 8 - 10s, but that's okay. Got about 15 for the pound. Head-on, and arrived in perfect condition. Prior to cooking, removed the head from half (or many) of them, for the better half. Oh - they were fucking delicious. Olive oil, garlic, white wine, lemon, parsley, chives. Served with rice.

also, table flipping becomes cost prohibitive. that's a no for me dawg

Last hunk of meat from Foster Sundry, a big boneless beef shank. Braised of course. Second round tonight was tacos. I still have at least one serving left. After a couple of hours in the low oven I was worried that it would stay tough. Two hours more and it was perfect.

trout, stuffed with flat-leaf parsley and lemon slices, seasoned with salt, then baked atop sliced potatoes and onions (which were seasoned with olive oil, salt, and pepper). the fish was baked for 35 minutes at 350 f/175 c. broccolini with lemon.

JK

The birds must be enjoying a break from the cold and wind, too. Tonight's visitors included: Black-capped Chickadee Tufted Titmouse Eastern Bluebird (Yay! I thought they'd left me!) Northern Cardinal White-throated Sparrow Eastern Towhee Brown-headed Cowbird Dark-eyed Junco House Sparrow White-breasted Nuthatch

Dare to toast.

Well, so far we've found a couple of well-known companies who will write policies for us. It looks like it's going to be cheaper to keep our auto insurance with our old provider and use the new provider for home only, rather than bundling home + auto with a new provider.

Truly bizarre. I thought my birth certificate was long lost. I was completing some forms this week that asked for a copy. Nope, I was going to send a copy of my passport instead. Separately, I was looking for a folder or something to hold some documents. I had a mess of them jammed together on a shelf. What the hell is in this one, pulling it out at random? Oh, my original birth certificate and a certified copy. I do need to de-clutter.

Someone here mentioned tariff impact on RG. So I thought it prudent to stockpile

We've been keeping an "emergency earthquake" supply of easy-to-open cans of food, swapping them out as they get closer to their best buy dates. We had a canned ham approaching that date, so N made a hash with the ham, potatoes, onions, and the other half of our red cabbage, along with some Middle Eastern-style baked beans (using RG Cranberry Beans).

Chinese stir-fry chicken with bok choy and shiitakes. Believe it or not, this was my first crack at the "velveting" technique, where you marinate the meat in water, cornstarch, oil, and soy sauce for about 20 minutes. It worked!

We spent the weekend up in Marlboro, MA at a hockey tournament. A friend lives about 20 minutes from the rink and joined us for Shabbat dinner. I made a second cut brisket in advance and took it with me. Maybe one of the best briskets I've ever made. Cooked over night at 250F. Buttery soft. Served with a salad of shredded napa cabbage, dill, and mango with a sesame soy dressing and apple kugel. Traveled with a hot plate so everything was warm.

chicken soup with matzoh balls

I love turnip cakes. Will have to pay Hang Ah a visit sometime.

turnip cakes, curry puffs they were from hang ah tea room (1 pagoda place (sacramento street)) in chinatown

This evening I had: American Robin Dark-eyed Junco Black-capped Chickadee Northern Cardinal House Sparrow I did not stay out long--this quite windy. And dreadfully windy this morning with temps dropping like a rock and snow coming later this afternoon, so I won't be out recording this evening.

yeah, i’ve been a fan for just about my entire life. His pre-Youngbloods solo album was played pretty often & I must’ve gone to see the Youngbloods over a dozen times late ‘60s-early ‘70s. Then, about 6 years ago, he performed in Florida with a young band behind him that included his son. He was in good voice & it was fun. The Youngbloods, like other rock groups (ie; Santana, The Nice) flirted with jazz keyboards & their “Rock Festival” live album remains a favorite of mine.

.....right now....

I love Springtime (even though it is supposed to get cold and snow again tomorrow). Northern Cardinal Barred Owl Black-capped Chickadee Brown-headed Cowbird Red-bellied Woodpecker Dark-eyed Junco Carolina Wren

Casa Vasca, in the Ironbound section of Newark, is not far from the Prudential Center. We haven’t been there in ages, but the food was always excellent.

I still win on that one. 36 hours Nashville to NYC. Broken plane, broken replacement, then into holiday travel with everything booked.

You see, you're imagining them to be unsubtle catastrophes with weird flavors. I can just tell you they're not. They're very subtle and interesting. But nobody is ordering you to go try them.

There's only a slight worry about H7N9.

So excited that Bill Fox is back with a new record of songs after 13 years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMBpgpWo27Q

n/a

No, this took place mostly at the ICC, downtown somewhere. I guess I actually wrote a little bit about it as well.

Sorry, but those drinks sound disgusting. And why, oh why, have we gotten to this point?

If I'm going to have a grilled cheese for supper, it is not going to be an orange plastic slice on Wonder bread. When my sis was here Saturday, she brought a couple of pieces of a cannoli poke cake she'd made so I had a piece of that for dessert. No pix because I completely mangled it trying to get it on the plate.

Codex Books (Bowery end of Bleecker) continues to surprise me. It's on my circuit to browse once every few weeks but I rarely have cause to buy. Last year, though, I found a lovely first US edition of Morante's Aracoeli. Today, I couldn't believe my eyes. In perfect condition (absent dust jacket) US first edition of Patrick Hamilton's Twopence Colored (1928), long out of print. I never expected that. (I read a library edition years ago, probably from the London Library when I lived there.) If Hamilton sounds familiar, his most successful plays became huge movies, Gaslight and Rope. Yes, "gaslighting" is his unanticipated legacy.

Very cheffy cover this week. 😄

I keep up with Tom Meltzer and (especially) Paul Foglino.

My favorite part was her marveling at the reheated bread.

My evening chorale: House Sparrow Carolina Wren American Robin Dark-eyed Junco Brown-headed Cowbird Northern Cardinal

Another great story. Rodeo Bar on Third Avenue? I remember crunching my feet over the discarded peanut shells, but the art work I do not recall.

Many years ago, I was a loyal patron of the Rodeo Bar. if you were too, you know there was a Janis Joplin portrait, and an Elvis rug, hanging on the walls nearest the stage. And for a while, there was a picture of me behind the bar. My boss at the production studio where I worked decided to have a photo shoot so we could have some arty shots of the staff in the office, with everyone making duck faces, as was the custom at the time. The photographer decided to shoot some solo stuff, for fun, and a couple of weeks later he presented me with a framed 16 X 20 of me, posing with chin on hand, like a book jacket photo. I went to the Rodeo Bar after work, carrying the picture, and the bartender hung it behind the bar. For a couple of months, I enjoyed seeing myself on the wall. I pointed it out to people a few times, and no one believed it was me (I look different with neat hair and full makeup, as does everyone). One day someone stole a bunch of stuff - the Janis Joplin, the Elvis, and me. I like to think I'm part of a shrine somewhere.

Rosewood was better and why is the team on Watson all personality disordered folk.

I have been a Hero Bread customer for a long time, products all excellent.

bialys with cream cheese, lox, and cucumber, tomato, and onion and some salads from mollie stone’s

hubby lived in tx for a while when he was younger, so we had chile con carne tonight. and spinach salad with ranch dressing.

Searching for Soul Food on Hulu. Chef Alisa Reynolds is an interesting character and watching her eat around the world is fun.

😬

This is all great info, thanks! And all places (with the exception of El Chorro Lodge) that hadn't come up in my searches. I haven't gotten to do much dining out in Phoenix because I'm with a larger group, and most of the people don't really care about restaurants. I will say that I had a great breakfast/brunch at Testal, a cafe serving Northern Mexican food (Chihuahua).

I was there alone recently to get my passport, not sure if I posted about it in pre-apocalypse MFF (which I'm still working at a glacial pace to restore). From various places I tried, Buna had the best (for me) espresso. At Comida Independente I enjoyed the beautiful oysters from Setúbal and other small bites with very reasonably priced natural wines. A good pre-dinner stop. I feel like the fish and seafood restaurants there are all more or less the same (not Spain). I have a soft spot for Solar dos Presuntos which during covid took over an adjacent building and is now a massive 450 seat operation (including, I'm told, a very nice rooftop). The cooking might not be very precise, but it's easy to eat well there and it's likely the best place for Lamprey if you're in season. Don't refuse any of the cheese and cold cuts offered as optional tapas, well worth getting stuffed. Speaking of Setúbal, there are a bunch of rodizio de peixe places there of which Ivomar is the best. In Cascais there's Baía do Peixe which is maybe a tiny bit less good but has a seaside location going for it. Bring back conservas and regional products - from conserveira de lisboa, from the mercearia dos açores, and even from the very tourist trap located but genuinely old school rei do bacalhau.