deangold

What is the meaning of this sentence? Pouring off bacon fat? Are those words even allowed to be spoken?

Neoguri Spicy Seafood Ramen heated in the microwave with a handful of the 16/20 shrimp from Restaurant Depot. Really good! I added a minute and a half and about 1/2 cup water to account for the shrimp.

I rarely go here because of the intense difficulty in parking at Eden Center And if we go to lunch at EC, the prospect of shopping in a food coma is not a good one. I was pleasantly surprised at the produce selection but impressed indeed with the prices. Great fruit selection. Meat, Seafood were quite good. Dry goods has a lot of Chinese and Vietnamese {duh!} selections. Other ethnicities, including Korean, were only soso, except Japan was seemingly well represented. . Again, not a good one stop shop. I am not a fan of Great Wall because if high prices, but I love their selection. Good fortune seems to be as good in quality as Good Fortune and much better pricing, slightly smaller selection. I htink Good fortune is better quality produce, meat & seafood as 99 Ranch Market, but 99 kicks on dry goods. Definitely a good addition to my major shopping rotation. But with LA Mart so close, it will be limited to days I have other things to do close by {our dry cleaner is nearby. And somehow a trip to beanetics makes Good Fortune seem so much closer.

I know I have been in an LA Mart before but I wasn't sure which one. I was not impressed. I went to the Van Dorn location last Sunday. There was a line to get it, nicely socially distanced, and you were given gloves at entrance. This location is stellar. For produce, dairy and dry goods, it may be the best Asian Market I have been to so far. It was nothing special for fish & meats. Simple prepared foods with good looking BBQ & Roast meats, a nice looking hot bar, really tasty looking cold marinated meats like chicken feet, various tripes, pig ear etc. and some baked goods. The produce section is very large and then when you get to what you think is the end, there is an entire second section to the left making it L shaped. It is huge. Hugely huge. So huge, your eyes wll be spinning by the time you shop all of it. Fantastic prices on mushrooms, herbs, greens and more. We had an order coming from the farmer's market so I did not really check out everything. The fruit selection was a tad less impressive than the rest. Dairy had a great selection and, surprisingly, a huge emphasis on Middle Eastern items like yogurt drink, various fetas etc. The Latino cheese & crema etc. section was impressive too. They had a huge selection of locally made logan chorizo in multiple styles. The dry good selection was also good but if I came back with more asian cooking ingredients Kay would feed me to Spot. The frozen selection was quite huge, almost as big as Super H-Mart in Fairfax. There is a full length aisle of western and Indian frozen goods too. The Middle Eastern, Indian and Latino selections were excellent and make this a super convenient shop. But it is not a one stop shop because the meat & seafood just seemed not up to the rest of the store. But in all fairness, Kay was waiting int he car so I did not really explore.

Strawberry smoothie w/a pint of Barajas strawberries, a cup of yogurt, some yogurt whey we had from Lebne making, brown sugar simple syrup, 2 Thai bananas, 1/2 cup ice. Blended till smooth. Stoned wheat thins with Boxcar 'brie' Beanetics Coffee Tanzanian Peaberry, quite feisty.

Local asparagus from Spring Valley and/or Barajas roasted on a raised oven rack on a 425 degree oven for about 45 minutes. Rubbed with grotto spice rub, olive oil, sel gris, cracked peppercorns, The tips were a bit crispy but the stalks silky smooth and concentrated flavor. My favorite way of doing asparagus right now. Shrimp w/Green Garlic. I took a large green garlic {the 7/8 of it left} and chopped roughly using everything but the tough green tips and chopped it roughly. Sauteed in hot pan in corn oil w.salt & pepper, then added 4 cloves of roughly chopped fresh garlic. Took best part of a pound of 16-20 frozen shrimp from Restaurant Depot {they are open to the public now and these shrimp are in 2# bags. Marinated the shrimp in 3 egg whites, Korean soy, sesame oil, potato starch, Chinese black vinegar, rice syrup, salt, pepper for 20 minutes. Added shrimp to pan when the garlic turned sweet. Sauteed for a bit until the shrimp were almost cooked and then added the marinade and cooked for a minute more stirring constantly as the whites cooked and the sauce thickened. Really good and the shrimp excellent. Cocktails: Whiskey Sour {2 oz Overholt rye for me, Old Grandad bourbon for Kay} 2 oz fresh lemon. 1 oz brown sugar simple, 1 stopperful Bitterman's orange cream citrate bitters, lemon twist, Luxardo cherry, egg white {left over from Gelato making.} I am not sure I ever had a whiskey sour much less made one. Put everything in the shaker and did a wet hard shake for 40 counts. Then double strained. Frothy, delicious, dangerously easy to guzzle, I mean drink! The overholt was deemed the better whiskey. Hard Cider: Anxo dry cider. My first ANXO cider and truly disappointing. No flavor, bite or funk. ALmost no discernable apple character. Templeton Rye: turns out I have been over diluting it. With just a touch of water to a shot, it is a better tipple. Not may favorite and no need to boy again. May try it in a manhattan.

So far we have just licked the blades and the sides of the freezer bowl. First try tonight. The best accessory for the maker is our Sumo gelato storage containers. They fit one batch perfectly and the double walled plastic construction make any temperature changes slowly keeping the gelato ice crystal free. The 1.5 is currently sold out on Amazon but there is this if you have a larger sized maker. Sumo

Just completed our best batch so far: started from the Mexican Chocolate recipe. We had a container of heavy cream that was past its best buy date and a little soured, but not really off. We decided to use that as it had a creme fraiche edge to it. I bet we could recreate it by leaving cream out overnight. I used Valrhona Manjari 64% chocolate and bourbon instead of vanilla {generous 2 Tablespoons.} But the real difference was the spicing. I ground aleppo pepper, black peppercorns, all spice & cinnamon all in roughly equal proportions and small amounts of cloves and black cumin. I used about 2 teaspoons of this spice blend and it worked beautifully/ This is the kind of spice mix we used at the Grotto for Boar sauce to creme au chocolat. Last, I used more chocolate and trader joes toasted coconut as mix ins with 5 minutes left in the spin. My question is if the coconut will stay nice and crispy. All I can say is this batch was superbly fun to lick off the blades and side of the freezer bowl!

Cocktails: Tequila Negroni- Lunazul tequila, Luxardo aperitivo Americano, Cocchi rosa, Bitterman's hopped grapefruit bitters, Bitter Truth Lemon bitters Boulevardier- old granddad bourbon, Luxardo aperitivo Americano, Cocchi rosa, Bitterman's orange citrate bitters, Bitter Truth Lemon bitters Salad: Barajas produce spicy salad mix, herb marinated olives, Spring Valley tomato & persian cukes, wasabi-mustard dressing with homemade mayo, ume shisho vinegar, sesame oil, gold's horseradish. Spot has pizza {that is what we have told him canned adult diet formula canned cat food is, he seem happier eating pizza than cat food. What can I say, he is weird} and some dried chow and a beautiful locally produced artisan water alla britta.

Spot slept sooundly thry dinner. That is so he will be wide awake and frisky all night long. Did I say frisky? That is something like demanding little so and so, isn't it? Well, in any case, he did not ahve dinner. But he did spend the afternoon eating cat chow and drinking filtered water. And getting scratched. We both survived. For our dinner, I took some of the raw shrimp I got yesterday and marinated them in shiokoji. Tonight I griddled them on the cast iron flattop. The shiokoji makes then brown and crisp nicely so they were particularly good. Our veggie was thai round eggplant that I cut in half, salted, and then pressed under a weight for an hour or so. Then I washed the salt off the eggplant and drizzles pepper, spice rub, olive oil & sesame oil and let it soak in. I griddled them non the flat top, starting cut side up followed by cut side down. Then I took the combination of rinse water, olive & sesame oil in the bowl and poured it over the eggplants. I then put the stainless bowl inverted on the eggplant. I did this 2 times {the second with awate for the second skin side down portion. The eggplants were not particularly tasty so the technique heavy process worked wonders. I can't wait to do it again {and soon} with local eggplants. I made a margarita rocks with 2 oz lunazul 100% tequila bianco and 1 oz each lime and triplum Luxardo. The Lunazul is the same price as cuervo and worlds better than that swill. It packed a wallop of aroma in the margarita. They use wood burning ovens for the roasting of the agave. They have a 'smoky' version called Humosos that is supposed to be really smokey and traditional for $30. This is a seriously good find. Not for sipping, but a great mixing spirit. I see a tequila negroni and a tequila daiquiri in the near future. Spot says he would rather take water, and if we are in the way of either the water bowl, or the catfood bowl, he may eat us. Or meow angrily and flash his teeth. Or go look at the birds out the window,

We all are trying to support our local businesses. On the other hand, the supply chain is hurting too. I have an offering of a bunch of cheese where we can get some good discounts. The issue is I am going to need 6 or so people to put together an order where the "shares" are 1/2 to 1 pond of each cheese. I could see ordering 3 to 6 cheeses. I would vacuum pack firm cheeses and leave the rest in original packaging. I have a good relationship with the vendor and I could reject anything too ripe. If you are interested, let me know how many cheese you would like and you can send me your favorites from this list and then I will call my sales rep. Aside from the cheeses we can buy by the each, the final selection will be a take it or leave it affair. It is sort of like ordering a pizza to be split among 6 people. You can have anchovies or not {The single count cheeses} but we have to pick our remaining toppings for the entire pizza. I can arrange delivery for those for whom 395 & Little River Turnpike is too far. please pm me asap. Some of my favorites: Hooks blues from Wisconsin including you calf to be kidding 8oz. There is a 6# 1 year hooks blue available now. This is incredible. Rogue caveman blue 5lb, would cut and vacuum seal 1/4 wheel castelmagno 1 to 2 kilos, again wedged and vacuumed *** Chabichou unpasturized goat cheese 5 oz natural rind CHEESE, RACLETTE DE MONTAGNE 6 LB OSSAU IRATY AGED 10-12M 5 LB CHEESE, PECORINO AGED IN WALNUT LEAVES 2 KG *** CHEESE, GOAT FLEUR VERT/HERBS 2.6-KG AVG DELICE DE BOURGOGNE triple cream these would be available by the each 12oz BOXCARR COTTONBELL brie type Boxcarr robiola Brilliat Savarin afine Berthaut Epoisse

Last night we ran a cocktail trial. We had two Daiquiris where the only difference was the rum. Both drinks were 2 ox rum, 1-1/2 oz lime juice, 1 oz simple. The simple was made with a combo of sugar and sugar in the raw 1 to 1 by volume. #1 Smith & Cross Daiquiri ~ the first spin on a S&C daiquiri was too jazzed up {luxardo cherry syrup for part of the simple} so we wanted to keep it very straightforward. The huge funk of the S&C was mellowed and the hole was round. This is a spectacular drink. Fabian, who introduced me to Jamaican pot stilled rum back at Dino {and probably made me my first S&C daiquiri} said he recommends Nephew & Wray. Smith & Cross is 114 proof {Navy Strength} #2 Rhum Barbancourt 5* aged Haitian rum. Very pale straw color so this is probably barrels and bottles without adding caramel.It is 8 years aged in Limousin barrels and 86 proof. The daiquiri appered sweeter, a little too sweet with the lime less bold. On the other hand, it made for an equally fabulous drink. Next time, we will adjust the sugar and lime, and drink it forst if I am going to have a Smith & Cross as well. The well made Daiquiri may be the finest cocktail around. At the very least, it stands in league with the Negroni & variations, Corpse Reviver #2 and Martinis. Manhattans, Old Fashioned, Sazeracs are close behind but are definitely in my second grouping. But this constitutes most of my serious drinking and Margaritas are in the fun drinking class. Sipping booze is a different story.

Hey Don, if you make it read only, then you are making it impossible for POTUS participate. He doesn't read. I guess he could always point and say "Ohhhh, look at the pretty pictures!"

I hitnk Spot is working out a life free from babies and toddlers. I think he likes us. But blase he is for sure. Just don't get in between him and the cat chow bowl! Some of live to eat. Others eat to live. Spot is of the 'eat to poop' variety cat. He loves scratching in the litter box.

Spot picked out a nice water to go with some cat chow. He was thinking about eating one or both of us, but that would cut into his birdwatching time. So he had us brush him for over an hour. His training of us is going well. Meanwhile we has a bibb lettuce salad {spring valley} w/avocado & shrimp, sherry vinegar & leftover olive oil from a bottle of olives in oil & herbs. Griddled Asparagus {Garner Produce} w/ sherry vinegar, lime, olive oil. Griddled Sheephead filet w/ garner spring onion, garlic, lime zest & ginger First cocktail: Smith & Cross Jamaican Pot Still rum, lime juice, dark simple syrup. Second the same but with Rhum Barbancourt Agricole 5*. The Barbancourt seemed more sweet and the lime was less pronounced. Kay had an RAR IPA and I helped finish the glass.

Spot had water & cat chow for a change. He also look out the window menu planning for his bird dinner. Note: in his 11 year life he has never gone outside, but he will as soon as he figures out front doors! Leftover matzo ball soup. Bread & tzatziki. We shared Spot's water. not his bowl, mind you, but from the same Britta. Coffee from Beanetics: Bali Blue Moon. At $14 a pound, a screamingly good buy.

Finished off last weeks veggies with a pot of borscht: beets celery, carrots, garlic chives, green onion, chinese cabbage. Seylou bread and amish blue from Whole Foods {a crazy bargain at $6.99 a pound} Gibson for me, martini for Kay: Hendricks, dolin 4 to 3, Peychayd's aromatic bitters, Bitter Truth lemon bitters, Bitter truth olive bitters Shot of willett rye for me, Evan Williams Bourbon 1783 for Kay Spot had cat chow and water. Filtered Britta water no less. And about 2 hours of ear scratches and face rubs.

Left over chicken w/ume & wasabi. Spot enjoyed his cat chow. We all drank water, ours with ice.

We finished off the grilled veggies from the other night. Then I grilled two packs of chicken, skin on thighs and breasts. I had marinated it since yesterday in barrel aged soy, mirin, Half was leftover. I am still getting used to my cast iron griddle and used the flat top tonight. I had the heat up a touch too long and did not flip the meat as often as I should have. The breasts were a little pink on one side, but incredibly delicious. The char on the skin was actually tasty as heck. The thighs were perfect. The marinade left a great flavor and we dipped into wasabi and more of the barrel aged soy. A note on the wasabi: the usual brand in the small cans is S & B which is a large condiment maker in Japan. I love their ume paste too. But when I was at HMart, the S&B was $3 for a small can and $7 for a large can. There was another brand what offered 3 times the large can for $7 or $8 so I got it. It is really good and it is hotter than the S & B. We had a juicy lucy 16oz DIPA from Solace which really hit the spot. We enjoyed dinner with a new friend in the house. His name is spot {that is what happens when you ask your 6-year-old dog-crazy godson for suggestions for names. So far he is styling in his cat carrier. He is 11 and is former atmom just had her second kid. The cat and the first kid didn't do great together and now with two, that was an unhappy cat. So we really turned is world upside down taking him away from his mom and bringing him somewhere new with new smells. He has eaten some food from my hand and than we left him alone nd his food dish is definitely showing signs of food disappearing. He is definitely a face rub slut and he purrs. He is 21 pounds and like me, could do with losing a few pounds.

Just back from the Farmer's Markey & Seylou Bakery. Seylou rustic toasted w/Gruyere and black pepper.

Celebrating the fact that I can cook or not cook matzo balls whichever night of Pasover I damn well please, and don't ahve to cook gefilte fish at all if I don't want, we had matzo ball soup for tonight's dinner I prepped the broth yesterday cutting onions, carrots and celery and simmering it in reconstituted reduced chicken stock from the great stock making project of late december. As the soup neared completion, I realized I had forgot to use the parsnips Kay wanted in her soup {hey you lunkhead, you for got the parsnips! Whatcha gonna do about that?} SO tonight as I reheated the soup, I strained the veggies out and put in the parsnips. I cooked the soup until the parsnips were almost ready and I readded the cooked veggies and got everythin nice and hot. I could not find my usual Streitz's matzo meal my last trip to the market so I bought Yehuda. The meal was a lot finer and more even than Streitz. I was wondering what the effect would be, thinking it could mean compressed balls {sinkers: BOOOOO!} or extra fluffy balls {Floaters: Yea!!} But I used my usual recipe and chilled the dough for an hour. When I was ready to cook the matzo balls, I started forming them haven forgetting to make the final addition of seltzer water. I made one ball before realizing this, so I grabbed the soda siphon and did the final addition {1/4 cup seltzer before chilling, 1/4 cup after. I was debating if I should fish out the 1 ball and thought F it. Kay served up the soup and balls. I had no way of knowing what ball was what. The first bite of the first ball was tough & heavy. And I thought: Oh no, this yehuda is a waste! But the second ball was etherial and light, one of the best matzo balls I have ever made {A number approaching 6,000.} So was the third. And so were both balls in Kay's bowl {I was not stealing her food, this was SCIENCE!} So my practice of adding seltzer at the end has been proven effective! Years of tradition validated by experiment. Pomegranate. Drink: Perfect Manhattan for Kay with Cochi Rosa and Americano and the wonderful Evan Williams 1783. Bitters were Bitter Truth Jerry Thomas, Bitterman's Orange Cream Citrate and Bitter Truth Chocolate. Fruitier and rounder than the Dolin version from last night. Corpse Reviver #2 for me. 1 oz each Green Hat Gin, Cocchi Americano, Luxardo Triplum, Fresh lemon juice. Iced the cocktail glass and then rinsed it with 1/4 oz chartreuse as I don't like absinthe enough to buy a bottle just for corpse reviver glass washes. Shaken hard and double strained. Luxardo Cherry. Superb. As I left off yesterday, the La Brea Tar Pits. The favorite field trip of every kid in LA prior to the fencing off of the pits because you could get tar on your shoes and it would never come off! Now, the question is the name. La in spanish is The. {some of you can see where this is going already!} Brea is pitch which is tar. So this place is named "the the tar tar pits!" I demand that henceforth and forever, they be called La Brea Pozos or The Tar Pits. Anything else an inconsistent and an affront to latinos of Los Angeles or anyone reading my dissertation here. I will have some other trivial thing almost no one has ever noticed or worried about to bitch at tomorrow. Or not.

We too finished off tomato soup today, this one the veggie pot one. Also a cheese plate w/pecorino pepato, pecorino tartufato and pecorino stagionata marchigiano. A local apple from Spring Valley

For our rare takeout order, we chose Pelicana chicken. Whole Bird w/spicy sauce. The sauce was really spicy. The bird itsle was pretty great even if the breast meat was a little dry. The crost lost a little being in a box on the drive home, but this was tasty. The pocled daikon always a treat. Late afternoon snack: romaine salad w/tuna {genova yellowfin in olive oil, up there with much more expensive brands} and an avocado. Dressed w/olive oil & sherry vinegar. Question; Why is it almost always called Sherry wine vinegar and you never say to "I'll have a glass of sherry wine"? I have trained myself just to say Sherry Vinegar just as I say Champagne Vinegar and not Champagne Wine Vinegar. Sheltering in place has left me time to ponder the deep mysteries of life. Next up a treatise about The La Brea Tar Pits. --- Farenheit Asian (Ericandblueboy) Red Apron (eatruneat)

Always look for coffee cups in work areas. I'd find them with catfished or stolen wine. I\d pour the wine out in a bus tray and refill the coffee cup with........ coffee. {Inspired by the old WC Fields line.... "Who put pineapple juice in my pineapple!"}

Leftover grilled veggies. We area now maybe 1/2 way thru. Romaine salad w/Caesar dressing I'm having a smith & cross Jamaican single pot rum daiquiri w/luxardo cherry syrup supplanting some of the simple syrups. Not a good twist. Kay had a Perfect Manhattan w/Evan Williams 1783 Bourbon {one hell of a bargain at $15.99 at the VABC, less in more civilized booze cultures,} dolin red and dry, Bitter Truth chocolate bitters, Bitter truth Aromatic bitters, Bitterman\s Orange cream citrate bitters {add this to any brown spirit for smoothness and not particularly the flavor.}