deangold

Yes. Thanks for the heads up, I forgot I need to cancel this for now.

Leftover chicken legs that had been stewed in white wine, pomodoro doppio, Chinese leeks, green garlic, garlic served with/on bucatini. Sauteed farmer's market greens: mustards, kales, frisees, hand~torn, garlic, onion, cherry blossom soy Old Fashioned: Old Granddad, sugar cube, Bitter Truth Jerry Thomas Bitters, Bittermans orange cream citrate bitters, Luxardo cherry. Banana Later tonight: Pistacchio geleto from our Cuisinart ice cream maker. I have amazing Bronte pistacchio paste and I used TJs dry roasted pistachio.

From the Sunday morning talk shows... Dr Fauci. Not all of us have as important a job or are his age. But he is in good health and is well aware of the statistics.

China locked down large numbers of people. They equipped delivery people in PPE and that was how most people received food. We had full bars for St Patrick's Day yesterday.

From the Who situation report 52 to 54 the deaths in the us were growing at 46%. That is they double in less than 4 days. We are at 60 today. in 4 days, it will be approximately 120 if we do not bend the curve down. In 8 days, 240 In 12 days 480 And in 16 days, close to 1,000

The leftover duck, crisped in the oven for about 30 minutes. Even better tan the first night! Ciabatta. Persian cukes w/ume paste Manhattan: Old Overholt, Cocchi Vermouth di Torino, Bitterman's Orange Cream Citrate bitters, Bitter Truth Jerry Thomas Bitters, Luxardo cherry. The rest of the Ahlgren Zin. Tonihgt's dinner was better the second time around.

This is a sobering thread well worth reading. Here is one of the most important posts: This is from a few days ago and the US is still on an Italy like projection with a current lag of about 13/14 days. That means that our immediately recent growth over a few days is faster than the Italian experience. Not surprising given our lack of testing. Given my medical history, I will be mostly staying home for now. The spread in the DMV is starting to accelerate. Fairfax County announced 2 additional presumptive positive cases yesterday bringing the total to 6. These cases have not been tested and diagnosed by CDC yet. There is no evidence of community spread yet in Virginia and I will do my bit to help keep it that way. Only necessary trips out of the house. And for now, use delivery service and drop at the door when necessary. Amanda Mull of the Atlantic has an article on the ethics, and safety of delivery. In Wuhan, delivery people were considered heros and major weapons in stopping the spread. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/coronavirus-how-get-food-safely/608008/

Our last group experience at Mama Chang's was nothing special.

Oegadgib was slow for lunch today. Not dead.

Just a mention, information on shad sustainability is not abundant {Monterrey Bay does not list shad} But here is the best resource I found with a few minutes googling Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Comission Report To sum up: This tells a story of a lack of management. Well managed fisheries can repopulate the stock quickly and then sustainable fishing can occur, often at higher levels than were being harvested before the plan was put in place. But for now, there is an ongoing Mid Atlantic assessment going on due to be finished after this year. Unless that shows major improvement, I would think twice about eating shad. Well actually I would not eat it myself.

Next time, I will do more to render the fat... I will prick skin well, taking care not to penetrate to meat. I will parboil the duck by holding it by it's legs and giving the duck a 2 minute dunk in boiling water {I tied the legs together so I will use a wooden spoon thru the legs to hold the duck in the water and to remove it without steam burns} I will lower the 300 degree cook time to 1.5 hours, 45 breast up followed by 45 breast down. Then I will raisetemp to 425 and when the oven is preheated, place the duck in back up for 15 minutes and then breast up for 15-20 minutes. We got almost 2 cups of duck fat: liquid gold at cooking temperature.

I had to get a flat fixed so I needed to eat out. ChiMc in Annandale. Wings half an half. I don't think I needed to finish the whole thing, especially after fried tofu and broccoli appetizer, which was quite tasty. A mug of Sapporo on tap. The car was ready when I walked back to my garage a block away. The place had 2 other tables when I arrived at 1.30 but only pick up and delivery orders after. I have never seen it so empty near lunch time.

Roasted duck. Dry brines 48 hours. None of this newfangled rare breast stuff, slow roasted at 300 degrees for 2+ hours, then finished at 425 for 15 minutes. The last half hour at 300, I added potatoes to the duck fat. Skin crispy, meat juicy. 1/2 left over. I will cook the bones for stock. I have had mixed results making stock from cooked bones after dry briing. But I have the neck and some parts to add to the pot. We will see! Last of the shiokoji pickles radish sauerkraut Corpse reviver #2 Glass of Ahlgren Zinfandel 2000 Livermore ~ OMG it is amazing. The grapes were from very old vines in Livermore, probably part of the original Wente plantings. Probably a McMansion today. This winery was legendary, one of California's best ever and it did not survive the death of founder Dexer Ahlgren. As far as I know, Valerie lives close/with her daughter in Felton. Dear friends who made wonderful wines!

Can I haz what you're hazing?

I thought all meat except impossible and that ilk were from dead animal. I mean I thought that was sort of the point.

Today, the radish is nicely pickled in a sort of tsuekemono style: tangy and vibrant but with the unmistakable funky sweet of the ShioKoji. We ate half and the other half will be consumed tomorrow. I probably could have used less shiokiji.

Chicken legs braised in white wine, pomodoro doppio, leeks, green garlic, thyme & rosemary Mashed potato with just the slightest touch of butter and cream. The rest of the butter & cream ShioKoji pickled Korean Daikon & greens The rest of the Rockland 98 Petite Sirah. Damn, that was good!

I put up 2 batches of water kimchi using Korean daikon with greens. I only used 5 of the 6 roots and had a shootton of greens leftover. So I sliced the one daikon root into rounds and then quartered them. For the greens, I separated the stems from the leaves and chopped the leaves roughly and cut the stems in 1/2" pieces. I had leftover soy sauce brine so I used that to cover a quart jar of veggies. This left a pint jar of veggies {root & green} to which I added 3 tablespoons of shiokoji and about the same of ume vinegar. I have shaken the jar several times and tasted them this morning and they, so far, are amazing. The shiokoji results in a sweet and tangy pickle with lots of crunch, but a definitely softer texture. The sweet is not a sugar sweet but the same kind of sweet you get with great brewed soy or tamari. This is one of the better ShioKoji experiments so far.

Today's lunch at Supreme Buffet & Hibachi on Leesberg Pike was half as busy as normal.

From the freezer: Bean soup w/guanciale, sprinkled with parmigiano Leftover pickled beets Left over roasted veggies Some non descript hazy IPA.

A friend reported that last week restaurants in Flushing NY were pretty empty.

Local porkchops marinated in half shio koji and half fish sauce for 3 days, then grilled on our yaki niku grill. Potato salad w/lebne, soy, ume vinegar, green onion Pickled beets Roasted veggies. Capirhina Rockland 1998 Petite Sirah {truly fantastic, rich, smooth, touch of funk} Untittled Gin #2

Clams with green garlic, thyme, white wine Sazerac: Peychaud's bitters {aromatic 4 dashes, 2 dashes whiskey barrel} sugar cube, splash Chartreuse since I don't have absinthe. A glass of Alcesti Grillo from Sicilia Pecorino Pepato

Got a Dungeness crab from HMart yesterday and steamed it. Let it sit in the fridge overnight. Took the tomalley and mixed it with mayo and yuzu juice. Potatoes from Twin Springs, boiled and chunked. Mixed with slivered green onion, ume shisho vinegar, Chinese soy, sesame oil. We dipped it into wasabi. Roasted veggies: beets, turnip, black radish, watermelon radish, parsnips all from the farmers' market plus king mushroom & Korean daikon, all seasoned with salt, pepper, spice rub & roasted. This was dipped into the leftover crab dip. Martinis {well Gibsons actually, I like cocktail onions}: Hendricks 3 parts 2 parts Dolin dry, Peychaud's bitters. Mine also had BitterTruth olive bitters while Kay's had half Bittter Truth olive and half Bitter Truth cucumber. The bitters difference was pretty strong with Kay's being much smoother and rounder.

Here is what intrigued me: Meat Pearl Balls Chinese Celtus & Muer Shanghai Cabbage w.House Made Gluten Sticky Rice Rib Pork fillet with hot chile oil Crispy sparerib with spicy salt Red three chops {just because I have no idea what it is} Pickled cowpea w/minced pork Triple cooked pork I'm hungry now!