Lunch 2022

[weinoo]

 

Relish tray with a tuna fish salad sandwich (on Eli's Health Bread!). Or, conversely, a tuna fish salad sandwich (on Eli's Health Bread!) with a relish tray.

[weinoo]

On 4/5/2022 at 4:15 PM, weinoo said:

 

I started reading some of the stuff on the bags of products I got from them, and...oy. 

FWIW, this is the company which used to be Geechie Boy Mill. Good products.

 

Today, I was in a much different neighborhood, uptown around lunchtime.

 

 

And one of my favorite jerk chicken carts was rarin' to go. He's got a nice setup, and his chicken is tasty, with rice and peas, steamed cabbage, sweet plaintain. $10.

 

71st and York, for those so inclined.

 

Yesterday, I took a drive out to deepest Brooklyn. Ostensibly, I was headed to Brighton Beach to one of my favorite Russian places, to pick up a few things to maybe have for dinner. No dice - closed for good.  So, with my trusty Google maps, I headed even further into Brooklyn, to find...

 

 

One of the 3 Forever Jerk locations. As Pete Wells wrote, To Find New York’s Best Jerk, Follow the Smoke:

 

Quote

 

When Forever Jerk’s operation in Brooklyn is going full throttle, the smoke is visible from at least a quarter-mile away. I saw it for the first time as I was driving down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Starrett City housing complex, and I thought somebody had thrown a couple of couches out on the street and set them both on fire.

 

The smoke, in fact, pours from five or six hooded stainless-steel grills the size of steamer trunks that are hauled up onto the sidewalk along Flatlands Avenue six days a week. Under the hoods are half chickens and pork shoulders, rack after rack of them, inhaling the hardwood charcoal fumes that help turn the meat into the finest, juiciest and most impressively smoky jerk in the city.

 

Urban jerk buffs are used to scanning the horizon in summer for low-lying blue clouds in areas where Jamaican-Americans live. On the streets of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, East Flatbush and Brownsville, jerk is made in simple grills more commonly used for backyard hot dogs and hamburgers; larger and sturdier offset smokers from Home Depot and Lowe’s; and a variety of rigs custom-made from oil drums, water boilers and other vessels. If you are used to seeing these other smokers, your first visit to Forever Jerk may make you feel like a young child being taken to a monster truck rally.

 

 

Indeed, found it! The big rig in front was not fired up - they wait until a few hours before dinner, but the one in the rear (with the haze of smoke) certainly was. The line moved quickly - I bought a couple of chicken lunches and an order of ribs. I don't know how I made it all the way home with that lovely scent in my car, but I did. I enjoyed it for lunch, and we both enjoyed it for dinner.

 

[MaryIsobel]

18 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

Relish tray with a tuna fish salad sandwich (on Eli's Health Bread!). Or, conversely, a tuna fish salad sandwich (on Eli's Health Bread!) with a relish tray.

Your sandwich looks great. It also brings up a discussion my husband and I have been having for nigh on 35 years. He also says "tuna fish" sandwich and I've always wondered why. He doesn't say "salmon fish" sandwich or ahi tuna fish sashimi... I know lots of people do say tuna fish - it is just a curiosity to me.

[blue_dolphin]

47 minutes ago, MaryIsobel said:

Your sandwich looks great. It also brings up a discussion my husband and I have been having for nigh on 35 years. He also says "tuna fish" sandwich and I've always wondered why. He doesn't say "salmon fish" sandwich or ahi tuna fish sashimi... I know lots of people do say tuna fish - it is just a curiosity to me.

 

I grew up on tuna fish salad sandwiches.  Prickly pear fruits are called tuna but I doubt my family was wanting to make that particular distinction. I also learned cod fish at home, depending on the dish so codfish cakes, creamed codfish (both made with salted cod) but probably cod filet without the fish part.  

 

Edited to add that I did wonder if tuna fish was a regional usage.  I grew up in northern NY state and this usage seems less common here in SoCal.

 

Edited April 21, 2022 by blue_dolphin (log)

[kayb]

It's tuna fish in most Southern areas, in my experience. Dunno where else.

 

[kayb]

 

Greenhouse tomatoes from the ag students at Williams Baptist College, just up the road. Unfortunately, no fresh basil, but the olive oil is basil infused...

[heidih]

48 minutes ago, kayb said:

It's tuna fish in most Southern areas, in my experience. Dunno where else.

 

Maybe because of where I grew up - with the families of the fishermen and cannery workers - tuna was tuna -  dad's livelihood he went out for months to fish, and what others (many women) worked with at the canneries. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/west-coast/sustainable-fisheries/voices-fisheries-pioneers-west-coast-tuna-industry

[liuzhou]

According to the OED, 'tuna' originally (in the early 20th century) referred to the animal in general and 'tuna fish' referred to 'the flesh of that fish used as food'. 

 

I'm not sure if that explains anything much, though.

[FauxPas]

4 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

According to the OED, 'tuna' originally (in the early 20th century) referred to the animal in general and 'tuna fish' referred to 'the flesh of that fish used as food'. 

 

I'm not sure if that explains anything much, though.

 

That makes sense in some ways. We do also refer to elk meat or venison meat at times. 

 

The term 'tuna fish' makes sense to me because of time spent in Mexico and southern Arizona, where the Spanish term 'tuna' refers to the fruit of an edible cactus. So, if you want to differentiate, you add the 'fish' on to the end. 

[liuzhou]

10 minutes ago, FauxPas said:

the Spanish term 'tuna' refers to the fruit of an edible cactus. So, if you want to differentiate, you add the 'fish' on to the end.

 

Yes, that too. The cactus meaning is much older (16th century) than the fish name is in English and, unlike the fish name, is derived from Haitian. The fish name is via Spanish, too but ultimately from Latin.

Edited April 22, 2022 by liuzhou (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I grew up in Philadelphia saying "tuna fish".  I still say "tuna fish" if it comes out of a can.  I must say I had never thought about it till now.

 

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I grew up in Philadelphia saying "tuna fish".  I still say "tuna fish" if it comes out of a can.  I must say I had never thought about it till now.

 

 

I believe I grew up with "tuna fish" sandwiches in central California, in which case the canned tuna was mixed with Miracle Whip (yes, really) and hard-boiled eggs. I'd forgotten all about that, as surely as I'd forgotten about preferring MW to mayonnaise when I was a kid! Somewhere along the way it simply became "tuna sandwich" to me, probably about the time I began to prefer mayonnaise. "Tuna salad sandwich" always sounded like a restaurant offering.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 minute ago, Smithy said:

 

I believe I grew up with "tuna fish" sandwiches in central California, in which case the canned tuna was mixed with Miracle Whip (yes, really) and hard-boiled eggs. I'd forgotten all about that, as surely as I'd forgotten about preferring MW to mayonnaise when I was a kid!

 

Here only Hellmann's.

 

[weinoo]

6 hours ago, Smithy said:

"Tuna salad sandwich" always sounded like a restaurant offering.

 

Since it's as if I run a restaurant here (albeit a small one with only one or two customers at a time) (but I do shop, prep, cook, and clean the kitchen), tuna fish salad covers all the bases.  I'm literally making a salad out of tuna.

 

Same as we say whitefish salad, shrimp salad, egg salad...

 

On a few menus...

 

Ben's Deli...Old Fashioned Chicken Salad or Large Tuna Fish Salad Platter  15.99   Prepared from scratch by our chef

2nd Ave Deli...* Tuna Salad16.95

Sarge's...TUNA SALAD* ........................................................................ 14.95

Katz's...Tuna Salad Sandwich

[Smithy]

2 hours ago, weinoo said:

 

Since it's as if I run a restaurant here (albeit a small one with only one or two customers at a time) (but I do shop, prep, cook, and clean the kitchen), tuna fish salad covers all the bases.  I'm literally making a salad out of tuna.

 

Same as we say whitefish salad, shrimp salad, egg salad...

 

On a few menus...

 

Ben's Deli...Old Fashioned Chicken Salad or Large Tuna Fish Salad Platter  15.99   Prepared from scratch by our chef

2nd Ave Deli...* Tuna Salad16.95

Sarge's...TUNA SALAD* ........................................................................ 14.95

Katz's...Tuna Salad Sandwich

 

Oh, I agree with you. It's just that among my family and acquaintances during my growing-up years, we called it a tuna sandwich or tuna fish sandwich. The only time I saw "salad" appended to that phrase in a sandwich description was in restaurant / cafe menus such as you cite.

 

It was a linguistic observation, perhaps related to regional differences. And I agree that your household is essentially a small-order restaurant...and a fine one at that.  

[liuzhou]

Damn!

I made a beautiful, if I may say so, plate of garlicky shell on shrimp for lunch and in my greed scoffed the lot before I realised I had forgotten to take a picture.

 

Oh well,  I'll just have to make them again.

[KennethT]

Viet style lemongrass shrimp.  Banh mi from Wild Fork - not bad at all!

 

 

In my mind, I envisioned being here

 

 

 

 

[Raamo]

Basmati Pilaf with Caramelized Onions and Broccoli.  From 1000 Indian recipes book I've made many things out of - In India it seems this is called Bhunna Pyaz aur Hari Gobhi ka Pullao.

 

Either way, first time I've made it - and won't be the last - I'll caramelize more onions next time.

 

[BonVivant]

Got 2 kilos of asparagus yesterday and have already finished half.

 

A big glug of Schnapps went into the salt cure

 

Asparagus softened in milk then pureed with leftover boiled potatoes.

 

Riesling from Pfalz (Rhineland-)Palatinate. I prefer mineral rich Mosel Riesling (Sekt/Chamgpagne style) but it's a very hard wine to find where I am, let alone from Mosel.

 

Meal number 2: prawns and eggs with green sauce

 

 

Half kilo of prawns and the shells (to make a broth to drink)

 

Beer for afters

[BeeZee]

Chopped Greek salad with chickpeas, leftover rotisserie chicken.

 

[Kim Shook]

I believe I go back and forth between “tuna fish sandwiches” and “tuna salad sandwiches”.  VA and NC girl.  (And your tuna salad looks excellent, @weinoo, and has me craving some). 

 

@Raamo – I love the look of your caramelized onions.  They are what I was trying for when I recently made mujadara.  Could you explain your method a bit, please?

 

Sunday’s post-church brunch at my favorite Richmond diner.  Mr. Kim had the corned beef hash and eggs:

 

And I had the breakfast “Garbage Plate”:

 

Hash browns, scrambled eggs, cheese, sausage gravy, and bacon.  It tasted better than it looked!

 

Today:

 

Saturday was the memorial service for my mother.  She passed in May of 2020 and I finally felt comfortable inviting people to travel and gather in a large group.  One of my church friends handled all of the food and drink for us, bless her.  The above sandwiches were turkey and cheese.  There were also some ham and cheese ones.  They are the sandwiches that are built on a sheet of rolls, brushed with butter, sprinkled with ET seasoning and then baked until hot and melty.  I make the ham and cheese often and wasn’t sure about the turkey ones, but they were very good.

[blue_dolphin]

My condolences, @Kim Shook, on your mom's passing.  Where I grew up, it was very common to hold springtime burial services for those who had passed away in the winter while the ground was frozen. I always felt it was a bit wrenching for the families to revisit that grief at a distance and even more so for everyone who lost loved ones in these last few years and had to postpone gatherings.  How lovely of your friend to handle the food, too.  It's so nice to be able to visit with people over a bit of food and drink, especially when they may have traveled a ways.  

 

My lunch today - spaghetti with asparagus fashioned after the recipe for pasta alla gricia with sugar snap peas in Six Seasons. 

Asparagus going in for the sugar snaps is the obvious sub but I also used diced country ham instead of pancetta. Those little biscuit slices from Broadbent's are ever so handy to have on hand!

The asparagus spears were big and fat but very tender and delicious.  I peeled about the last inch or so but I don't think it was necessary. 

Edited April 27, 2022 by blue_dolphin (log)

[Kim Shook]

@blue_dolphin - thank you so much!  I still am a bit of a mess dealing with the loss of my mom and especially how unhappy her last couple of years were – mostly due to dementia.  But, thanks to friends and family, this service was not nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be.  I got so much love and support from everyone.  I had friends from HS (I’m 62) show up.  Folks at church arranged flowers, blew the leaves off the sidewalks and driveway to make it look nice, and cooked.  And Jessica’s singing and eulogy truly blew me away.  I was awash, but in a good way.  Someone else at church recorded the service and put it on FB so I can watch the whole thing any time I like and share it with friends and family who couldn’t come. 

 

Edited April 28, 2022 by Kim Shook (log)

[Raamo]

On 4/26/2022 at 3:55 PM, Kim Shook said:

 

@Raamo – I love the look of your caramelized onions.  They are what I was trying for when I recently made mujadara.  Could you explain your method a bit, please?

 

 

I had oil in pan with some spices for 30 seconds, then added  the onions.  Cooked them until they started to change color and added 1 tsp of sugar.  Over 40% or so heat on our induction cooktop I just stirred them now and then for about 20 mins until they were that color.  Takes quite a bit of time to get caramelized onions.

[blue_dolphin]

Bought a packet of frozen gorgonzola, toasted walnut and endive ravioli from Roan Mills the other day.  Made a walnut brown butter sauce with tarragon and added asparagus.