Shel_B

Light breakfast this morning:

What is an Ernest Hemingway burger? In what way is it different from a regular hamburger?

Something simple and quick (except for the roasting time). Roasted and caramelized Garnet yams seasoned with chipotle in adobo sauce that I ran through the blender, fresh ground black cumin, and a bit of piloncillo (sometimes called panela or Mexican sugar) and smoked salt. Mixed everything together to a smooth mashed potato consisency and we had it with an arugula salad with corn kernels and a light chile-lime dressing. Sorry, no pics, was at a neighbor's place and my camera and phone was at home.

Arrived this morning direct from Four Elephants, new crop Thai Hom Mali jasmine rice.

It's a Misty Mango Morning: The morning came greyer than usual and left fingerprints of mist on the office window. A mango that had been ripening for a while seemed ready to eat, and the last of a package of 'tots had already been removed from the freezer. One of my favorite Marie Sharp's hot sauces was at the ready on the counter, and Peet's Burundi Turashobora had already been ground and was waiting for the French press. I was in the mood to take pictures.

That looks great. My kind of meal!

Late Lunch, Early Dinner: Brown rice (Massa Organics), assorted veggies, sauce made with low-sodium soy sauce and Megachef oyster sauce and everything was sprinkled with freshly ground Szechuan pepper. Nepali Himalayan Black Tea as the beverage.

Trader Joe's lightly toasted, thickish-sliced, Pain Pauline with a thin spread of Beurre D'Isigny French butter with coarse sea salt accompanied by a rich cup of Peet's Burundi Turashobora coffee. Simple and absolutely delicious.

There's a community ice house with which I'm familiar up north of Whithorse in Canada's Northwest Territory. It serves a small indigenous community and has about 20 rooms - one for each family in the community. It's dug down below the frostline, I don't know for sure, maybe 40 feet below ground level. Even thugh the community has electricity and mechanical refrigeration, the use of the ice house keeps power usage down and cuts down on greenhouse gases. The Northwest Territory Power Company provides the electricity which is produced by Diesel generators, so you can see how the ice house is an important part of the community.

Sometimes I'll make potato salad for a meal. It's not just for picnics and BBQs. The last time was about a week-10 days ago,and I made a variation on a Japanese-style potato salad.

Finally got around to replacing the old behemoth which was also a Panasonic and which gave us more than twenty-three years of good service. It would have cost more to fix than many contemporary new ovens, and while it was hard to let go, the time had come to replace it. I've been without a microwave for about eight months, and surprisingly I didn't miss it very much. The only thing I really missed was not being able to heat up my favorite TJ's frozen entrées. The new oven cost less than half of what a repair to the old one would have. It's not quite as powerful (900 watts vs 1200 watts), and while it's just about as big inside the outer dimensions are quite a bit smaller. Bought it directly from Panasonic and, OTD, saved about 12% compared to Amazon.

The point was that the food was stored a long time (more than a year in some instances) and using mechanical refrigeration, which was new and frightening to some people. It was mentioned that refrigeration (by natural means) had been used before. “Until we figured out how to use machines to make cold, we were reliant on this very ephemeral, unreliable thing that melted.” In many areas of the United States ice houses had been used. As a kid, I encountered them in upstate NY in the 1950s. A couple were still in use at that time. The ice was obtained by harvesting from frozen lakes and ponds during the winter months and was then stored in ice houses which were heavily insulation to keep the ice frozen through warmer months. Some ice houses were built underground. I'm sure the Egyptians, and even the cavemen, had similar setups, although the Egyptians and many early cultures also used other methods of preservation. And I'm sure both Atlas Obscura and Twilley were and are very much aware of the history of refrigeration, and stated as much in very bold type posted in the middle of the article, and which I copied above. I believe you're aware of all this.

The cleanup lunch: There was some leftover variant of Hazan's sauce in the fridge, an onion sitting forlorn in its bowl on the table, and some Bionaturae whole wheat spaghetti taking up more space than needed. Since Hazan's sauce is made with an onion, I browned some of that lonely allium and added it to the sauce which was used on the spaghetti. Mixed in some Pecorino-Romano as well. Most folks don't seem to like or appreciate WW pasta, but I clearly enjoy it every so often. I made too much to eat at one sitting, but that was the plan ... into the fridge for a future adventure with leftovers.

While we take refrigeration for granted, at one time the idea of refrigerated food scared people. On October 23, 1911, some 400 guests sat down to one of the most pivotal meals of the 20th century. The setting was the Louis XVI room in Chicago’s Hotel Sherman, a “luxurious meeting place for the elite” that catered to swaggering politicians and mafiosi alike. There, under the cavernous, molded ceilings resplendent with gilt details, the mayor of Chicago, the city’s health commissioner, and other bigwig bureaucrats steeled their nerves for the world’s first-ever “cold-storage banquet.” Neither the eggs in the egg salad, nor the apples in the apple pie were fresh from any farm. “Everything but the olives in the dry martinis was refrigerated,” says Nicola Twilley, who wrote of the banquet ... Click Here to Read the Full Article

I (we)will not return to HOPR. Our last experience there was unsatisfactory. The place was very crowded with noisy and boisterous customers to the extent that there was literally no place to sit while waiting for our table. My dear sweetie was pushed and jostled as she tried to find a comfortable place to wait. We were on time for our reservation yet had to wait more than 45 minutes to be seated. That would have been acceptable were there a place to sit, talk, have a drink. But that was not going to happen. As for our meal, well, it too was disappointing. The Yorkshire pudding was grossly overdone and one of the four baked potatoes we ordered was cold. The prime rib was pretty good, but not to the standard I remembered it to be. I've been a multi-time visitor to the restaurant and think I've a pretty good idea of what their quality and standards have been over the years. Overall, it was an unpleasant dining experience. @MetsFan5, if you go back to the restaurant, I hope you have a more enjoyable experience than we had.

It's been a couple of decades since I've been there. Thanks for the reminder.

@Smithy May I offer the following as a great place to start exploring pepper: https://spicetrekkers.com/shop/peppers Click on the name of the pepper to get a description of its characteristics.

How do youlike the gf Rummo. My sister likes pasta but hasn't found a gf that she likes. I've used and found Rummo's regular pasta to be fine, but didn't know they had a gf version. Maybe I'll mention it to sis ... what are your thoughts about it?

This is a joke, right?

Thanks for the info. Vic Stewart's looks interesting.

Let me preface my question by noting that I don't eat much beef, but every now and then I want some. Thr craving for a great steak is upon me ... I'd like a recommendation for a good steak restaurand in the San Francisco Bay Area. A nice setting is a plus. San Francisco, the East Bay, Napa, and Sonoma counties are areas of interest. When sweetie was here, I'd cook steak for her at home, but I generally don't ennjoy pan frying beef here at the apartment. So, a steak dinner for two at a great steakhouse is on the horizon. Looking forward to suggestions. PS: Not interested in SF's House of Prime Rib

Thanks for the bead info. My sister is exploring GF bread options and I've forwarded your comments to her. She found some here when she visied from NYC last month, but there was some sort of problem with shipping or selection so she continues to look for other options.

Bonus for the tots! Did you fry them? They look great. I bake my tots, and they don't look as luxurous as yours. What can you tell me about the GF bread? Local to your area? Do they have varieties and styles to choose from? What type do you prefer? Online availability?

What pepper flavors have you been using or experimenting with?

Lately I've been playing around with white pepper. Since rediscovering a second pepper grinder that I'd stashed away and forgot about, it's been easy to use two types of pepper. Not having used white pepper very much, I was surprised by what it brought to many dishes. I'm still experimenting and learning my preferences, but both black and white together in some dishes has been a surprisingly nice combination.