Text 11411, 148 rader
Skriven 2008-07-31 04:36:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: Trip to Dave's 1: 682
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0725
US1406 BWI PHL 1835 1932 734 2F

I arrived at the airport a bit early to visit with the
staff at the clubs, both of which are closing this fall,
owing to the stupid shortsightedness of the headquarters
both of US Air and United. Everything is being cut back,
so all I could find to eat were: snack mix and Lay's tater
chips and not-very-nice fresh fruit at United or snack mix
and cookies and Sun Chips at US Air. In the interest of
scientific inquiry only, of course, I retreated to McDonald's
for a DQPC, which was, aside from the lack of bacon, at least
as good as the Baconator from Wendy's had been. The other
choices were Quizno's (nasty), Mamma Ilardo's pizza (never
tried it, but cheesy and starchy are not the best for me),
Auntie Annie's pretzels, Manchu Wok (looked disgusting), the
Chesapeake Bay Roasters (coffee and starch), Rum Island
(cheesy sandwiches and beer) and the Greene Turtle, which I
have been resisting on general principle (unless it's run by
Graham Greene or something, nothing should be called Greene,
the same way nothing should be called Ye Olde). BAA claims
to be adding wonderful choices to the airport, but, though
there are a lot of these, they all seem pretty nasty. The
only decent catering on these premises had been provided by the
late lamented Roy Rogers, which had pretty good fried chicken.

The 18-minute flight was fine, and I had time for a glass of
mediocre red wine en route. After landing, there was plenty
of time to visit the big club that extends from above the B
gate area all the way to above the central concourse, where
the concierge sniffed at my Red Carpet card but softened
considerably upon seeing my goldness and my row 2 boarding
pass. Had half an hour there; the delicious catering was snack
mix or Tillamook cheese and crackers. I passed. The next flight
was at the way end of B, and I got there just as the boarding
scrum was gaining momentum.

US1258 PHL BDL 2100 2223 319 2A

We pushed off a little late (enough time for me to have a glass
of that cheap red before departure) but didn't have to wait
long to take off. Pretty good service. I switched to Glenlivet
after takeoff. Owing to the modern miracle of schedule padding,
in which they allow an hour and 23 for a 300-mile flight, we
arrived half an hour early. Dave and the Exploder were by
fairly shortly, and it's a pretty quick trip to Enfield from
Windsor Locks, so at home I was amply fed and watered with a
leftover pork chop and a Jolly Rancher blue raspberry soda
(very blue tasting, just like the candy) and turned in not
long after midnight.

I was wakened by a tripelike fragrance. Turns out to have been
Park's beef scrapple, which is distinguishable from the regular
kind by being a little underseasoned, a little chunky with odd
bits, and of course being completely devoid of porky goodness.
It does, to give it credit, have distinguishable blobs of tripe
in it (I get the impression that certain other members of the
family do not consider this a credit, but rather a deficit).
To make up for all the starch, I had a couple fried eggs over
easy (Dave is a great short order cook).

And then out on an outing to the Whole Foods in West Hartford,
which is supposed to carry Vosges chocolates (so I could pick
up some bacon bars for the picnic, as Dave and I had demolished
the one that I'd brought).

It was decided to seek out the elusive Hanschka, which, after
a couple wrong turns was achieved. We were endlessly amused
by the endlessly amusing train track switch in the front yard
and then by Ruth herself, who consented to go on our field trip
with us. After some discussion as to how to start, we decided
to pay a visit to Szechuan Tokyo, as it was coming hard upon
lunchtime.

As I am deemed to be the Chinese food specialist, it fell upon
me to order, which was difficult, as there were so many yummy
offerings, including lots and lots of offal things. I refrained,
at last, from ordering a menu that only Dave and I could eat and
even took suggestions. Despite the committee nature of the final
meal decisionmaking, we ended up with a quite good though almost
fatally salty meal. 

Ma la rabbit (one of several ideas that Dave and I had, but Ruth
was the one who cast the deciding vote) was authentic authentic,
a bit too salty, with a hefty helping of hot bean paste, a lot
of Szechwan peppercorns (which like cloves in Indian cuisine
numb the tongue and lips and make things feel hotter than they
ought), ginger, scallions, garlic (not enough), sesame oil (also
not enough), and neat little bony cubes of white rabbit meat,
which could just as easily have been chicken, for the blankety
obscurative quality of the sauce. I rather liked it aside from
the saltiness and not garlicky enoughness.

Shumai (Lynn) were premade and probably frozen, if not in a
factory, on premises during off hours. They were nonetheless
pretty decent if no-frills.

Scallion pancake (Maryanne) was of a good standard; slightly too
greasy, as such things generally are, but crisp and nicely done.

Yakisoba with chicken (Lynne) wasn't too Japanese; the noodles
appeared to be Chinese, and the chicken appeared to be Chinese.
It wasn't much different from what I'd call lo mein, which kind
of means the same thing. Dave noted that wok-seared oily burned
note, which he particularly appreciates (I can take it or leave
it - it means the food was cooked at a hot enough temperature,
but it also means that the wok doesn't get scoured out often.

When I think of ants climbing trees (me) I think of puffed rice
or mung noodles with a sweet-salty ground pork topping; the
version served here was completely different, the thin rice 
noodles served in a murky soy and hot pepper broth, a few shreds
of scallion and bumps of ground meat submerged somewhere down
there. The dish should have been called ants drowning in the
Amazon rainforest after a flash flood. It didn't taste bad but
just wasn't what I expected.

I think the big winner was pork belly with vinegar pickle (Dave
and me) - the more than half pound of red-cooked pork belly,
done just right for Dave and just a hair under for me, on a bed
of pickled kale (or kale-like substance), garnished with a
dozen cute baby bok choy halves. Very nice dish.

Soup dumplings (me, alas), we were informed when we ordered the
meal, take 20 minutes extra. They actually take 45 minutes and are,
to me, not worth the wait. The concept is nice (and Shanghainese in
origin) - you take pork meatball mix and wrap it in dough along
with a cube of aspic; then you steam the dumplings, and the aspic
melts, so when you bite into the things, juice spurts out and, if
you are not careful, burns your mouth and gets all over your clothes.
These were not so good as they ought to have been - the wrappers
a bit thick and breadlike, the meatball underseasoned, and the
juice mostly absorbed into the doughy dough. They came with a
ginger-soy dipping sauce, whereas I am accustomed to ginger-soy-
hot pepper-garlic-scallion sauce. Not their specialty, I think.

Various beers made a good accompaniment for this kind of stuff.

The meal was, on the whole, quite creditable and very authentic.
The prices weren't too bad, we all got enough to eat that we
liked, and there were about 30 things on the menu that I have to
go back to try, either to see what they're like or to see if
they're anything like how I make them. Duck tongues in hot bean
sauce, anyone?

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