Smithy
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The other half of the building containing the International Banana Museum is a small grocery and liquor store. It's worth a trip in itself for the quirky woman who minds the counter, but we actually went in to buy food and beer. I spotted a Barefoot Merlot for $6.99 and picked it up. One the next shelf down were several bottles of Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon. This is usually pretty good stuff, IMO. I thought I might be willing to splurge, depending on its price. I couldn't find a price. I added a bottle and went to the counter. "Before you ring this all up," I said, "please tell me how much this wine is. I couldn't find a sticker on any of the bottles." Ms. Quirky never batted an eye, except to mutter about her boss. I detected some, er, attitude. "Well, then, let's make it $5.99." I restrained myself from buying all their stock, but I did add another bottle to the bag.
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I hadn't intended to cook beef short ribs today: it's a beautiful day here and the heat from the long oven braise isn't needed now as much as it should be later this week. However, I realized today that the wrapping had split and some meat is exposed and starting to freezer-burn. Short ribs today, it is! There will not be leftovers going into the freezer.
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It can be a good way to save money, but it's also a good test of how much togetherness you can stand. I'll be glad to discuss this more offline, if you wish: the ins and outs of RV life, as well as things to consider for the unit itself.
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In fact, I think it did play while we were there. I can't remember the background music, which probably means there wasn't much...but I have had that one rolling around in my head since our visit! @chromedome, I remember that banana song, but they didn't play it that I recall. Got it stuck in my head now anyway, thankyouverymuch. The American Gothic House museum sounds like a worthy stop. I too thought that parody painting was funny!
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That was an interesting note in the KAOAE Farm story: that by interplanting avocados and bananas he increased the yield and quality of the bananas, as well as making better use of water. I'll keep an eye out for Farmers' Market banana opportunities. I fear I'm already too far east for this year, but one never knows.
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Alrighty then, let's go bananas! Settle in, there's a lot to see. A few miles north of the Salton Sea State Recreation Area Headquarters, more or less at the north end of the Sea, is the International Banana Museum. It's only open Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It proudly advertises that it's a Guinness Book of Records collection. Furthermore, the Auto Club of Southern California put it on a must-see list of top 100 attractions. Yes, it's a quirky place. The owner is clearly into advertising the property with his sports car. The entrance fee is $1. Signs say that it's okay to snap all the photos one wants, but please no videos. A friendly young woman greeted me from behind the counter, and was happy to be included in the photo essay, as long as her friend could be in the picture too! Everywhere you look there are banana-related items. Some are for sale; ...and of course there is food: banana-flavored ice cream, shakes, sodas, and some non-banana fruit smoothies as well. The aroma of banana pervades the space. They have banana costumes for photo sessions. The costume is a banana-shaped sheath that comes down over the head and body until the face shows through a large hole, and then a filler of plastic bags is added to make sure the head point is full and firm. (The outer bag of the stuffing is changed each time, for hygienic reasons.) I'm pretty sure they come in all sizes, but while we were there it was two girls who looked to be under 12. This photo of the dressing exercise is heavily cropped; sorry for the odd appearance! I didn't ask permission for faces to be posted, and don't seem to have software that will allow selective blurring. The finished product was cute: the girls sat amongst these stuffed toys, while everyone giggled and the family snapped pictures. There is stuff overhead, and stuff along the walls, stuff inside cabinets and above cabinets and just about everywhere except underfoot. You still have to watch your step, lest you bump into something. This slot machine was for display only. The caption on this cartoon doesn't show well; it's "I distinctly said bandannas!" This big guy is next to the counter where people can order food, and sit to eat it if they wish. I got a kick out of the salt & pepper shakers and the oil & vinegar set. I have a nice collection of citrus packing crate labels. It was fun to see a banana crate label of the same ilk. More bric-a-brac, proving that bananas transcend time and space. Another item has been checked off my bucket list.
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Today the gremlins stayed away. In fact, even though we simply returned things back to the way they had been last night, the electrical system is working better than it has since this trip began. Is it possible we had nothing worse than a loose wire? The adage about blind pigs and acorns has been invoked. Instead of chasing gremlins, I had time to try some new dishes, and used the Indian cookbook I'd picked up at Pismo. I've posted more detail about it here in the Curry Cook-off topic. Next up: a return to the San Joaquin Valley, and citrus country. Unless I post next about the International Banana Museum.
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I finally found the time to try out a couple of recipes from an Indian cookbook I picked up over the holidays. It isn't that I needed another cookbook, but this one jumped out at me from the shelves of a thrift store. What I like about it is that it describes how the cuisine changes from one part of India to another, and each dish is ascribed to its particular area. The instructions are clear and the photography beautiful. I chose 2 recipes to try: Pepper South Indian Chicken Curry (Murgh chettinad) and Pilau Rice. The book notes that the curry is hot and spicy, and not for the faint of heart. The spices include black mustard seeds, curry leaves, asefetida, cumin, coriander, turmeric, salt, pepper, and freshly grated ginger. The mustard is fried until it pops; the curry and asefetida are added to the frying, and then the chicken is added. After the chicken has begun to cook, most of the other spices are added. Simmer in coconut milk and water. When the chicken is done, finish with the ginger, some lime juice and cilantro. Meanwhile, in another pot I had the pilau going. I don't know that there's anything extraordinary about it, except possibly the addition of black peppercorns (fished out at the end) and saffron, but it worked well for me. The instructions are very clear about repeatedly rinsing the rice until the water runs clear, then soaking it for a half hour before draining and starting the cook. I occasionally rinse. I've never soaked beforehand. This basmati was fluffy in a way mine has never been. My eyes are opened to a new way of cooking rice! We both thought the finished dish good, and well worth doing again. My darling, who likes dishes slightly sweeter than I do, though a touch of Worcesterhire sauce added to the curry and balanced it nicely. I wouldn't have tried it without his prodding, but in fact I thought a drop or two were helpful.
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If I'd stopped here, we'd have had a good dinner. We spent much of the afternoon chasing gremlins in the wiring. At last, we were sure we had corrected the problem. Everything worked! The generator was charging the batteries properly! We went for a walk. When we came back, my darling decided the generator had run long enough. "Let's see how the batteries are doing," he said. We turned off the generator. EVERYTHING went dark. Instantly. The desert is astonishingly dark. Hmm, I guess we hadn't fixed the problem after all. A principal rule of troubleshooting is: if things get worse, undo what you just did and hope you haven't broken anything. We did, working by flashlight, and we hadn't broken anything. We relaxed and left the gremlins for another day. It was the third sequential evening of varied drama around the Princessmobile. With all that going on, I was a bit distracted during dinner preparations, as I had been the previous nights with at least one other disastrous dinner. When the two dishes were mostly cooked, I turned down the heat to let them sit while we watched a news show. At least, I thought I had turned down the heat. I got the stovetop pan, forgot to turn down the oven. The sprouts, in the stovetop pan, came out well: soft and flavorful, with a nicely cooked-down coating of balsamic vinegar that doesn't show up in this photo. The potatoes, linguica and onions on the baking sheet - well, the spuds were good. The rest might as well have been croutons. I was too disheartened to take a photo. Incidentallly, I really do like balsamic vinegar with brussels sprouts. Much nicer than tomatoes.
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Thank you for those comments, @Thanks for the Crepes! I don't think I've ever tried making tartar sauce, mostly because I don't use it on fish and it rarely occurs to me to use it elsewhere. Your additions sound like some that I've had in other tartar sauces that I liked. That's funny about the garlic fries, and I'm glad to know I'm not the only one taken by surprise. The menu at Mersea's also did not mention the parmesan. My family took it for granted. It seems to be one of those things that everyone (else) just knows. I'll have to try @heidih's cheater version sometime. Yes, it is bitterly cold at home. I haven't heard from the housesitters about any disasters, so I assume the house is holding up. It rained here in the desert last night, and the air smells sweet. There will be new vegetation in a couple of days.
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One more Pismo post, more or less. On our last day at the beach, the entire family got together for a good long beach walk. I had been jonesing for clam chowder - the place is the home of the famous Pismo Clam, for heaven's sake - and for a variety of reasons hadn't been able to get any. We rectified that on our final evening, by going to Mersea's Restaurant at Port San Luis. This place is out on a pier. One can drive to it, and maybe find a parking spot, but we didn't know that at the time. We walked out, wishing we'd brought more warm clothing to protect against the ocean breeze. Mersea's is the sort of place where you go up to the bar to get your own beer or wine, and get a very generous pour for very little money. You go up to another counter to place your order when you're ready, but they bring the food to you. The floor is sturdy wooden planking. There are glass windows at strategic intervals in the floor, so you can look down into the water below. At that time of night there was nothing to see, but it's probably pretty neat in the daytime. I got my clam chowder. I opted for what they called "Nolan" style, with bacon and croutons added. I don't think they added much to it, but the chowder itself was good...exactly what I'd been wanting. As usual, my darling opted for fish and chips. My sister and cousins also opted for chowder, or for fish and chips. The fish and chips came with a tartar sauce that I thought terrific and my darling thought disappointing: it had dill pickle relish instead of sweet pickle relish. The real star of the show, as far as I was concerned, was the garlic fries. Oh, my! They were crispy and garlicky and I couldn't get enough of them. How was it they were so crisp, and the topping so crisp? It turns out that their topping included finely grated parmesan cheese, along with parsley. I'm not much into frying things, but this would be worth trying at home. They came with a very nice aioli...accentuating the garlic flavor, and ensuring that we all needed to be eating the fries out of self defense. The portions were generous and there were a lot of garlic fries, as well as sauce, left over. Everyone else decided they wouldn't be worth reheating, so they were going to leave them behind. I took them all, and reheated them in the microwave later. They were still fine...perhaps not quite as crisp, but with that topping they still weren't limp. I was well rewarded for carrying the stuff home. Happy and sated, we worked our way back along the pier, listening to the barks of the sea lions. What an amazing sound they make!
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One day when we were on our own, my darling and I drove up to San Luis Obispo airport to meet friends who flew up in their homebuilt airplane from Oxnard. We met at the Spirit of San Luis restaurant, which offers outdoor or indoor seating and a fine view of the runway - de rigeuer for pilots, of course. Here's their lunch menu, but be warned that it's a pdf download. The quotes below are from the menu descriptions. I chose the Grilled Prawn Cobb Salad: My darling, ever on the lookout for good fried fish, chose their Fish and Chips: The restaurant serves breakfast all day; their menu is here (another pdf download). One friend chose Eggs Benedict, and the other chose a hearty breakfast omelette. It was a good 2 or 3 hours' worth of visiting. My friends visit this restaurant frequently, but it was new to me. I'd go back again any time.
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What's not to love about the beach? I, at least, adore it. Well, except for the crowds. Everyone else adores the beach as well, and for folks who want a lot of elbow room it can get to be a bit much. On the other hand, without the crowds one is much less likely to find interesting restaurants and quirky shops. I enjoy the variety that crowds can bring, even if we have to close the curtains at night lest we and our immediate trailer neighbors inadvertently share too much information. My sister and I walked the beach, walked nearby trails, and grazed on little treats we purchased along the way. I don't seem to have much on the way of food pictures from those walks, so here's some scenery. The first is from a trail walk; the second is looking toward Avila Beach from the pier. This tree root, with a very healthy coastal oak attached, climbs up a cliff along one of the walks we took. Our cousins, our hosts for Christmas (and other evenings), live atop a hill where they have an excellent view and more trees than houses or people. (They also have a startlingly steep driveway. Clearly, they never worry about snow or ice!) On a clear day, which is the usual, one can see to the ocean. We spent more time chatting than I spent photographing food, but I do have a picture of the fine Christmas spread they put out. I miss being able to use my Christmas dishes and throw Christmas parties because of our winter travels, but my cousins more than make up for the loss. I took this picture just before we dug into the salad. After that came prime rib, salmon, oven-roasted potatoes, green beans, and the bread that I'd made. Of course I took the opportunity for a bread-vanity photo. Dessert also was missed in the photo lineup, but there were two or three types of pie. I had volunteered to make cheesecake in the Instant Pot as I did last year, but the true cheesecake aficionado wasn't going to come. Given the variety of health issues among us - egg allergies, diabetes, and plain old extra weight - we decided the cheesecake was unnecessary.
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It looks like a lot more water than you might think, because of the way it's foaming up. There was no more than a quart of water for about a half pound of pasta. Granted, @Harold McGee said on an episode of The Splendid Table that 1.5 quarts for a pound of pasta is plenty, so it's still more than strictly necessary.
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I've noted before that our plans change abruptly at times. Last night we were planning to cook outside. The campfire hadn't been laid yet, but the fireplace and camp stove are ready to go. Instead, we found ourselves making an unplanned trip to town. By the time we got back (in the dark - it's surprising how much different the terrain looks by headlight!) we wanted the easiest thing we could think of, short of leftovers. Jarred spaghetti sauce supplemented with chopped onions and hot Italian sausage did the trick. I normally use one of those silicone blumen-things to prevent pasta from boiling over, but my new pasta pot has a strainer built in and I wasn't thinking clearly. Given the pattern of bubbles building and breaking against the clear glass of the lid (lower right image in the collage above) I'm glad I tried the pot lid. Isn't that a pretty pattern? I'll get back to Pismo (figuratively speaking, not literally) later today.
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Starting a high profile new restaurant (after closing another)
Smithy replied to a topic in Restaurant Life
I thought that bit was almost mixed parts sad, funny and creepy. Sad for the obvious reason that you were denied those mushrooms, funny because of the unexpected competition: the competition was a surprise, even though you discuss it in Acorns & Cattails. Creepy because, well, somebody else could have been watching you directly. I probably read too many crime novels. -
That's an interesting take on the concept!
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Starting a high profile new restaurant (after closing another)
Smithy replied to a topic in Restaurant Life
That's a nice article, Rob. I especially liked the opening contrast of perceptions: a city with trees, vs. a forest with buildings. Are you harvesting only wild persimmons, or do you also find commercial cultivars such as Hachiya and Fuyu? -
Have you ever made it? I don't know anyone who has, except for Shelby - whose attempt was rather discouraging. I'd love to hear first-hand experience from someone who got it right.
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Aha. I've been looking for more information on Dutch Crunch Bread. I found a very good article in American Food Roots titled Dutch Crunch is San Francisco's other bread that tells about its history and explains the odd topping of rice flour, yeast, sugar, salt and fat. The history is unclear. Some claim that it's an old recipe from the Netherlands, where it's known as tijgerbrood (Tiger Bread). @ElsieD, does that ring any bells for you? Others claim that the recipe even in the Netherlands isn't very old - dating back maybe to the 1970's. I have also found recipes for tiger bread, but as usual the internet is a prolific source of information - good and bad - and I've restricted my search to the term I know. I was amused to read that Sainsbury's in the U.K. has taken to calling it Giraffe Bread instead, after a 3-year-old girl questioned the name. The pattern doesn't look very tigerish to me either, but it does look giraffe-like, or jaguar-ish. Here's what the American Food Roots web page has to say about the Dutch Crunch bread's texture: They offer a recipe on the web page, of course. I also found these recipes to consider: Genius Kitchen: Crunch Dutch Bread (I don't know why the words are reversed. Strangely it seems harder to say that way.) @kitchn: How to make Dutch Crunch Bread Time to compare, contrast, and try when I find some rice flour.
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They were very good. I don't remember much detail, unfortunately, but the photos give an idea of the texture. The buns were sturdy enough to stand up to the juices of the burger and additions, but not tough. I don't particularly remember a "crunch" but the burger in the background suggests that there was. Here you can see how much stuff I had loaded into mine. The bread never got soggy. @Porthos may be able to say more about the bread and what it's like. He recognized it two years ago and commented on his favorite source for it. @Thanks for the Crepes posted a link to a recipe, also. Hmm, I still haven't tried making this! Maybe it's time to change that. (To go directly to the recipe TftC posted, see here.)
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I'm sorry to report that Beach Burger, in Oceano, was closed while we stayed at Pismo Beach. I wrote about it here and rhapsodized about their burgers with the Dutch Crunch buns. Here's a refresher, from two years ago: There was a sign on the door saying they'd be opening "soon" - now I don't remember whether it was under new management - but it was clear the place had been closed a while. We were very disappointed, but it gave us a chance to check out another place we'd been wondering about: the Rock & Roll Diner, located along the Pacific Coast Highway in a couple of rail cars. We've looked at the place for years but never gone. "Come and experience the most unique 50s diner on the Central Coast!" they brag. (Yes, the web site says "most unique". Hey, it's a 50's sort of place.) I have always been entranced by their grill outside, that begins working on meats early in the morning. We learned that it isn't just "standard American" fare, but it's also Mexican and Greek cuisine. My sister, DH and I ate there one night. I think he had a burger. I had a tri-tip sandwich. She had Greek chicken. I don't seem to have taken pictures, inside or out. The interior is decorated with old movie posters; each table has a countertop jukebox, but the actual music had to be chosen from a more modern electronic version. One day my sister and I wandered the little village of Arroyo Grande, inland from Pismo. We weren't hungry at the time, and we were on a mission, so we simply stopped to admire this interesting little cafe. Next year maybe we'll stop in if it's still around. The chickens clearly belonged there. They looked like they were waiting to be let in. The mission was that I needed new guitar strings and there was a music store in the village. I got the strings, but I also came within a hair's breadth of buying a ukelele - like this one. It was so darned cute! And it was so cheerful! And it was on sale! And it was fun! I mastered my impulses for the moment, and we went across the street to an antique store. I came out with these: Considerably less monetary outlay, and (only slightly) smaller than the ukelele. I've nearly given up on being able to learn about Indian cookery from an e-book, and this book looks like it will be a good start for me. "feast of eden" seems to be a typically good Junior League book, and it's sprinkled with John Steinbeck quotes. This book is the source of the broccoli with sun-dried tomato dressing I wrote about a few days ago. We went for a good, long beach hike. I'll be posting more photos of the scenery - we walked a lot - but I'll spread them out amongst the Pismo posts.
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That is a nice find, Shelby. I'm safe for now, though: it won't fit in the 3-quart IP! I don't know what it is about the iMusa brand, but it catches my eye every time I pass it in the grocery store(s) - and it seems to be widely distributed.
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<The back-story resumes.> Somewhere between Claremont and Pismo Beach is a preferred fuel stop: preferred because of its easy access to fuel with our rig, and its easy access to and from the freeway. We have it marked on our GPS. I have always been intrigued by the Farmer's Market next door. Although we didn't need any groceries - we planned to eat out a lot at Pismo, and we still had a good stock of food - I decided to investigate. At first glance, it didn't look promising... ...but at a closer look I realized that there actually was produce available. The building itself was locked. How often do you see an "honor box" in California? They're rare even in northern Minnesota these days. I bought a bunch of onions that I didn't need but were too beautiful to pass up, then we went on. The coastal mountains are gorgeous in winter, when the rains have allowed them to green up. That night, we dined on the enchiladas I'd bought at Wolfe's. When I said earlier there was no photo, it's because I'd forgotten this one. In truth, the plating is horrible and the proprietors of Wolfe's Deli would probably prefer that I NOT show it...but this way, you can see some of our Christmas linens. The enchiladas were delicious.
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We have gremlins in the trailer. I'm not talking about the gremlins in our electrical system, although we have more than our share of those. Maybe these are the same gremlins, doing extra mischief in their off-hours when they aren't messing with the wiring. It all began when my darling wanted to make chili. He has a very specific recipe, with very specific ingredients. He swears he bought the precise canned goods he needed for this dish before we left. (I do mean 'specific': Joan of Arc brand beans, for instance - not Bush's Best, thankyouverymuch, because they don't taste the same.) He swears they were in a bag to be packed. I have no such recollection, but packing can be pretty intense toward departure time. Maybe we'll find them on the garage floor, frozen and then exploded from the intense cold, when we get home. Recollections or no, we can't find them. Next up was refried beans. They are a staple in our household: want Mexican? Pull out some salsa, refried beans, maybe some enchilada sauce, and have at it with the meat of choice, tortillas, sour cream, greens, etc. Nope. No refried beans to be found in the trailer. We've looked everywhere. There are at least 3 cans of assorted enchilada sauce. There are least a dozen pints of salsa we made last fall and packed along. There are at least 4 cans of diced or crushed tomatoes, although they aren't the specific brand he wants for his chili. There are no refried beans. There are plenty of dried beans from which to make refried beans, but one doesn't do that on a moment's notice. We began to wonder about our packing, or our memories. The plot thickened. Last night, we wanted something incredibly easy. "Zatarain's!" I yelled. "How about red beans and rice?" Yep, that was it. I dug through the cupboard until I came to the canister that carries several boxes of Zatarain's New Orleans mixes, and opened it....and found a small bag of brown sugar and a piloncillo. "We must have gremlins in the cabinets," we agreed. We settled for leftovers. Today we realized the gremlins give as well as take. There is a mystery bottle of salad dressing...or marinade...or what?... in the refrigerator. He swears it isn't his, because he always makes his salad dressing in the ridged bottle. I swear it isn't mine, because I never use packaged mixes. The picture below shows, from left to right, my most recent salad dressing, the mystery bottle, and his salad dressing. He tried to claim today that it's the leftover marinade from my last citrus chicken. I know it isn't. Gremlins, I tell you. At least they give back.
