Text 21295, 162 rader
Skriven 2009-02-26 09:40:04 av Michael Loo (1:18/200.0)
Ärende: trip start 278
======================
 Lest it be thought that I am sloughing off again and
 being unproductive, it should be made known that this
 week I have two book indexes to do and one to rewrite
 (owing to publisher mistakes, not mine).

Bill had another Iron Chef challenge for me but not a very
taxing one: country-style ribs. These, from Market Basket,
weren't the weird shoulder off-cuts that Giant and Stop &
Shop often sell, but were in fact ribs with a flap of loin
meat. Yay! I inquired about the diners' tastes and found that
this was a falling-off-the-bone crowd.

I sawed off the ribs and put them to marinate with some
fatty trimmings in a mixture of sugar, garlic, lemon, and soy.

The loin meat was cut for stir-fry and soaked in sherry and
soy. The fat (ample) got rendered in a 200F oven to yield a
gorgeous clear lard. Guess what was had for lunch.

The ribs went in at 275F (along with the fatty trimmings) and
cooked 2 hours, then were covered to steam for another couple
hours, and then crisped up at 350F. These made quite a nice
appetizer. Instead of using a wire rack, which I couldn't find,
I'd found some green potatoes; peeled them, cut them into
French fry shapes, and made a bed for the meat. Although these
were not necessarily meant for eating, they were eaten.

The loin became pork with broccoli, cooked in the lard.
With this, instead of the choices of brown rice or instant
rice, I served spaghetti.

A small mixed salad and Sweet Sloops rounded out the meal.

Black Opal Shiraz 2006 was nice and fruity, with ripe brambly
and plummy notes, a bit of pepper, not too sweet. Good value,
which it was when my sister discovered it in the '80s. This
label took a bit of a sag in the '90s, but it's now revitalized
somewhat, as part of Wolf Blass, which is part of Beringer, which
is part of, who knows, now, Mildara and/or Foster's. $8 a bottle
at the local place, which Clam Crawl veterans know is called
Bunghole Liquors; seen elsewhere at $9.

In the morning I hopped a ride with my friend Linda on her way
to work ... she has to be in Quincy by 6 or something, so
dropping me off at the airport at 5:15 was a piece of cake.

Security was almost nonexistent: there was a crew/first class/
preferred line with one person ahead of me. I let two pilots
in front and got behind them in line. At that point, they
opened a second line, and the TSA person motioned me into it,
so after maybe a 10-second screening I ended up ahead of the
pilots I'd allowed to cut in. Total time from queueing up to
airline club approximately 2 minutes.

At the club an Otis Spunkmeyer chocolate chocolate chip muffin
and a cup of decaf.

0225
US1907 BOS PHL 0630 0801 319 2F

Pathetically, 61 seats filled, 12 of these in first class,
mostly upgraders, from the looks of us.

As it was too early for booze, I had a cup of Mother Parker's
orange pekoe tea, which tasted pretty bland and useless but
served to get me a bit of fluid. I hate hydrating, but I didn't
want to come down with anything and end up sneezing up on my
friend Billy, whose colon cancer was the impetus for my visiting.

The flight was uneventful and landed 15 early, but as they had
to rustle up marshaling and baggage crew at the gate, we sat
around until scheduled arrival.

At the club an Otis Spunkmeyer blueberry muffin and a cup of
Dove brand hot chocolate, which was disappointingly thin and
not very chocolaty but at least not too sweet. 

I checked at the front desk and was informed that there wasn't
a hurry to get to the gate, as the equipment was going to be late.

US2523 PHL AVP 0915 0959 CRJ 3F

There was flow control into Philly, so the inbound didn't land
until about the time we were supposed to take off. As a result,
we took off and landed 30 late. I can't say a whole lot about
the flight, except that the flight attendant was personable and
apologetic about not being to serve free drinks (US Air no
longer serves free water or soda, but owing to a sag in bookings
will reverse that policy as of March 1). The guy in 1C asked her
as she had said per policy "if there is anything I can do to
make your flight more comfortable, please do not hesitate to
ask," would she serve him blueberry pancakes. I didn't hear the
reply, as I drifted off and didn't wake up until we landed at
the airport now known as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International,
formerly known as Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and really in Avoca
between the two. I can see why it's not Avoca International,
but why its name was changed to that of the smaller and farther
of the twin cities I can't figure, unless the Wilkes-Barre
chamber of commerce is in a particularly influehtial phase. It
is extremely snazzy for an airport that has only 5 gates and 20
scheduled flights a day, with a restaurant that emitted appetizing
smells as I went past, a frequent-flyer club, architecture more
like Munich than Podunk, and free wi-fi.

My friend Annie had just arrived, because there had been an
enormous traffic jam on I-80, so timing was perfect. We decided
to avoid I-80 going back so took the scenic route through the
Poconos to Williamsport (80 miles away and with its own airport,
but with only 3 commercial flights a day in and out, all on US
Air at extortionate rates, and even Annie and Billy, who live
5 miles from it, don't use it). Halfway, as it was lunchtime, we
found the Red Rooster Pancake House and Family Restaurant.

There was one waitress for the whole room of maybe 10 tables
filled out of 25, and service was rather slow, if willing.

I started with chicken noodle soup, quite homemade and quite
plain (the noodles were those thick starchy Penn Dutch facsimiles
of spaetzle), followed by two breaded pork chops, a mountain of
quite decent home fries, and applesauce (the other choices were
corn and cole slaw). Annie had the $4 patty melt with a $1.50 side
of fries. Along with a Labatt's (the choices were Bud, Bud Light,
Coors, and Coors Light for domestic, with Heineken, Labatt Blue,
Moosehead, Molson Canadian, and, the waitress thought, Blue Moon
for imports at 20c more; no Yuengling of any sort here) and
unlimited iced tea (sweet or nonsweet), this cost us $20.

Took a wrong turn and were a little late getting in, and for
some reason (the temperature getting above 32F? the sun coming
out?) Annie felt like a mojito, only she didn't have any mint
or any rum or any club soda or any superfine sugar. I.e., she
had just limes and ice, and we had to go to the state store and
then Wegman's. The state store is quite an eye-opener compared
to the ones I knew from the '70s and '80s, which were these
little buildings with a front room with a few bottles each of a
couple dozen kinds of booze and a back room that apparently must
have had replacement stock. Having figured out that this is a
major potential source of revenue, the enterprise has transformed
into something that would be competitive anywhere. We ended up
with a bottle of Appleton for the mojitos and various wines for
other occasions.

Wegman's is an eye-opener of sorts, too: just like all the other
ones I've been in, even down to the layout. Except. The meat
department is very unimpressive. Back in the day, I showed Burt
and Shirley my confidence in the quality of the meat by buying a
fresh-cut filet mignon at Wegman's, unwrapping it in the parking
lot, and eating it as is; Burt and Shirley, bless their hearts,
took tastes as well, pronouncing it good. Here, the butcher
section is small and dull, and most of the meats are precut and
vacuum packed; there were few that I'd be enthusiastic about
eating cooked, let alone raw. No matter, there are excellent
butcher shops in the area. Oh, on the way from the airport, we'd
stopped for some pig products at the Pennsdale Country Store,
which has some impressive-looking fresh meats and charcuterie
under its own brand (which Wegman's sells at a 10% premium).
We got various sausages but passed on scrapple for some reason;
maybe we'll pick some up next time.
___ Blue Wave/386 v2.30

--- Maximus/2 3.01
 * Origin: Get your COOKING fix here! - nsbbs.info (1:18/200)