Text 18318, 112 rader
Skriven 2007-07-29 23:08:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: Friday 896
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Awakened by the scent of pork products on the griddle.

Dave was making various scrapple and sausage things. The
local product is called Rapa (it is similar to, and made
in the same plant as, Jones, Habbersett, and Greensboro),
and in these parts it is praised to the skies. Of course
Dave immediately tumbled to the fact that it was the same
as most other kinds of scrapple, which is not a bad thing,
all told. Catering (i.e. Dale) had provided two varieties,
regular and hot and spicy; the regular had a little more
black pepper, the hot a little more capsicum; in most
regards they were identical, though every time anyone got
a bit of hot pepper he made a little whoop of triumph: I
think Dirty Dave and I had two whoops each. Clean Dave
had prepared it in two versions, extra crispy (scrapple
chicharrones) and regular (crisp outside, custardy inside
with little nubbins of skin and liver to add interest).
I ate and ate and ate. I believe that even Steve Haffly
(the porkophobe) had some scrapple, as it is irresistible.

There was also Bob Evans sausage, leanish and quite good.
When the sausage had been cooked, there were enough lovely
brown bits that I suggested cream gravy, which I made
later on. I think people put the stuff on toast.

As I had to atone for all the scrapple, I didn't have any
toast but sampled little bites of the spreads:

Keillor's ginger preserve is a bit sweet, the ginger a
bit mild at first but growing on you.

There was a jar of pretty good, mildly cinnamoned apple
butter whose name I didn't get.

Ruth Haffly brought some homemade preserves:
blueberry - good flavor, not too sweet; didn't think the
fruit themselves were up to New England mountain lowbush
berries, though;

peach - good, a little sweet;

strawberry - also pretty nice.

=

To the National Cryptological Museum, on the periphery of
Fort Meade. We turned onto Canine Road (I believe named for
someone named Canine) and ran into a roadblock manned by
persons with large impressive weapons. Dirty Dave, who was
driving, was asked for our destination. "We're goin' to
Fort Meade," he said with some surprise, and I sensed the
tension of the guards. It is hard to say "cryptological"
when your mouth is dry.

The museum itself is of modest size but contains some cool
things - state-of-the-art cipher machines from Thomas
Jefferson to Ultra to the Cray that we knew from Life
magazine or Saturday Evening Post or something. A somewhat
deadpan retiree from the NSA guided us. He was actually
pretty knowledgeable and pretty informative, and one wonders
what he knew but was forbidden to tell. Stayed there a couple
quite worthwhile hours, and then it was time to think of lunch.

=

Caravaned up to the H Mart, which is not far from where
we'd had dinner the night before (this is the superstore
version of Han Ah Rheum), and split into two parts, the
Asian food court half (the Fords, the Hafflys, and two
Sacerdotes) and the Pioneer Pit Beef half (the Shipps,
the Daves, Joan, Glen, and me). Encountered Chef Richard
Douville at the H Mart, where he'd picked up some
ribeyes on markdown (nice-looking) and other stuff.
Before we left, we got some samples of tofu in brown
sauce that they were cooking up. Good. Two miles up the
road to the pit beef store.

Got in the longish line for pit beef - the menu choices
are pit beef, super-size pit beef, pit beef sub, pit
turkey, or pulled pork; also fries with or without gravy.
Slaw or a pickle for .75 each. Sauces, some free, some for
an additional charge. Soft drinks. I got a pit beef rare;
when you order the slicer guy gives you a taste to make
sure it's done to your liking. Rare is indeed rare. The
cut is round, but it's sliced thin enough to be tender,
but rareness always helps. The sandwich was quite good -
they've put up a sign that says "world-class pit beef,"
and I'd agree it was some of the best I've had. A couple
orders of wets - I tried some; the fries were thick-cut
of old potatoes and were sweetish and okay; the gravy
made from the puddles of juice from the meat no doubt
augmented with a celery-carrot-rich base. Turns out Rich
had followed us here to get his own lunch, so we had a
good chat.

Back to H Mart, where I picked up some delicious lychees
at a great price, king oyster mushrooms for a future
risotto, and a couple things for the house. I pointed out
flank steak at a great price ($2.99/lb) to Dale, who
opined that it was a tough cut; so I got a small piece to
demonstrate how it need not be a tough cut.

An interesting thing: though Han Ah Rheum and Lotte are
ostensibly competitors, H Mart carried a whole lot of Lotte-
branded products.

I missed one great opportunity - Pocky for Men, which I'd
spotted at the far end of the store; I thought to go back
and pick up a packet or two, but people were all ready to
go, so I didn't.
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