Text 14370, 154 rader
Skriven 2011-08-05 23:26:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: august trip 715
=======================
The plan was to take the T something bus to the E something
bus to the D something bus to the Z something bus to the
appropriately named Burtonsville, where Dale and Gail would
pick me up and take me home before our trek to the picnic.

My brother asked if I needed a ride someplace (rare thing,
and it put me on my guard), and I said where I was going,
and he positively perked up and said, my medical appointment
is in White Oak (5 miles south), it would be easy. So I said
could he take me all the way to Dale and Gail's, 10 mines
farther, and he said okay. We agreed on noon.

Came 11:40, and I asked him for an ETD. Soon, he said. I
asked for 10 minutes so I could check my packing for
completeless. All fine. At 11:50 he tried to shake me down
for money. Turns out he busted the vacuum maybe 2 years
ago (the house was not vacuumed for 2 years, until it got
fixed, and I did it), and he took it to the repair place,
where it or he lost the attachments, only he didn't notice
it for a year, and to make a long story short, he needed
the vast sum of 208.15, and he was going to make my life
difficult until he got it. So that lost a few minutes.
Then we got into a discussion of mental illness in general
and in particular, which was tiring, and soon I said, isn't
it time we went? Oh, yeah.

Turns out in the scrum I failed to give him the money, which
I imagine he doesn't deserve as 1. he busted the machine;
2. he contracted for a repair that cost as much as a new one;
3. he didn't figure out about the missing part for a year.
The check was written, in my pocket, as I'm a bit of a
softy, and it stayed there, unnoticed, despite the fact that
he told me during the ride that he thought that I had paid
him but he couldn't find the check.

Final analysis: owing to various distractions, we were half
an hour late, and I got to Gail and Dale's a bit too late for
him to come in and meet them and for him to make his appointment.

==

As soon as I'd dropped my traps, we headed out for lunch and
groceries.

Pioneer Pit Beef may have the prime example of this regional
specialty - it's certainly the best I've encountered. Very
thin sliced rare bottom round on a squishy roll and condiments
that include, in addition to the usual salt, pepper, ketchup,
mustard, mayo, horseradish, and onions, bbq sauce (a thin
orange tasteless thing that is used for moisture at inferior
places) and tiger sauce (horseradish and mayo mixed). I had
a super (buck more than the regular, 2 or 3 oz more meat on
a bigger bun and a quart of root beer. Filled me right up.

H Mart is the successor in our favors to Lotte, a couple
miles down the road. It boils down to H being clean and Lotte
being dirty. Lesson to be learned. Oddly, H sells Lotte
products. We passed up the 0.99/lb lychees (they smelled
fermented) and the 9.99/lb mangosteens (looked good but last
time we were there were dreadful), and I got some stuff for
the picnic plus a 1.5 lb flank steak, perfect for three.

==

Hot beef with peppers
cat: main, Chinese, mine
servings: 2

oil
3/4 lb flank steak
2 Tb soy sauce
2 Tb cornstarch
1 red bell pepper
1 onion
1 ts minced garlic
1 ts hot paprika
6 to 8 dried hot peppers
Sherry

Slice meat thin on a severe bias. It should be quite thin.

Combine meat with soy sauce. Let sit a while. A tiny bit
of baking soda may be added (1/16 to 1/8 ts), but I didn't
do this. Cut vegetables into appropriate-size pieces.
Stir-fry in oil until almost done. Set aside.

Add cornstarch to meat mixture. Heat some oil very hot
and toss in garlic and hot peppers. Add meat and paprika.
Stir-fry until done. Deglaze with a little Sherry.
Combine meat and vegetables. You may glaze with a bit of
sesame oil, but I didn't do that. Correct seasoning with
soy sauce.

Source: moi

Sweet beef with peppers
cat: main, Chinese, mine
servings: 2

oil
3/4 lb flank steak
2 Tb soy sauce
2 Tb cornstarch
1 green bell pepper
4 scallions
1 stalk celery
1 ts minced garlic
2 Tb hoisin sauce, more to taste
Sherry

Slice meat thin on a severe bias. It should be quite thin.

Combine meat with soy sauce. Let sit a while. A tiny bit
of baking soda may be added (1/16 to 1/8 ts), but I didn't
do this. Cut vegetables into appropriate-size pieces.
Stir-fry in oil until almost done. Set aside.

Add cornstarch to meat mixture. Heat some oil very hot
and toss in garlic. Add meat and stir-fry until done.
Deglaze with a little Sherry, and stir in the hoisin.
Combine meat and vegetables. Correct seasoning with
soy sauce and hoisin.

Source: moi

Drinks:

This house collects beer. People bring it, and it doesn't
get drunk. I was the beneficiary of this. I had a Bud and
a Michelob, both apparently left over from the 2007 echo
picnic. Neither seemed the worse for wear, and the
Michelob had acquired a pleasantly intriguing brown sugar
taste.

At some remote remove, I'd brought over a bottle of
Stone Hill Cellars Golden Rhine (Hermann, Missouri), which
was part of the stash I'd picked up in 2000 (before the
airport liquid restrictions of 2001) when I'd visited
Dave and Georgia in Illinois. We had visited the winery,
and I had picked up a bunch of bottles, one of which had
ended here. We decided to finally open it up. It was
modestly sweet still, with a little balancing acidity
but had mostly become a very demure though drinkable wine.
The foxiness of the Missouri grapes had come out pretty
prominently. Aromas of dried peach, apple, Catawba.
Thinnish but quenching on the palate, with a bunch of
foxiness and a hint of the Dawn-dish-detergent florality
that I originally thought a weakness. Shortish finish
that reminded me a bit of Chenin, whereas the rest of the
flavors were of a mix of Riesling and labrusca.

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