Text 19471, 101 rader
Skriven 2011-12-27 10:47:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: CT trip 414
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More tastes to fill up a morning.

Ikea gooseberry preserves - they did a good job of capturing
that sourish not quite grapelike taste, and there are enough
seeds to remind you of the ribosity of the fruit. The texture
was kind of lumpy, though, rather like separated Jell-O. C.

Blue Diamond spicy Jalapeno smokehouse almonds - your regular
smoke-flavor almonds but with some Indianish spicing and a
pleasant bit of green Jalapeno heat; somewhat moreish. A-.

Amande raspberry flavored almond milk yogurt (from Cascade
Fresh) - nasty, nasty, nasty. Tasted like spoiled mayonnaise.
A little raspberry aroma did not help. Hunger would be
preferable to this stuff. F. F. F.

Smirnoff blueberry lemonade - pretty okay, the blueness being
rather fugitive in every way, but a pleasant tartish fleetingly
berrylike taste. As with the other flavored malt beverages, a
pleasant unchallenging way to get a buzz on. B-.

Dry rhubarb soda (Dry is the brand name) - dry indeed; this was
like sucking on a rhubarb stalk, in a good way. Quenching but
also made one feel healthy and virtuous. B+.

Organic Valley orange juice calcium added (not from concentrate)
- this tasted stale, flat, and unprofitable, and I wondered how
a savvy customer had been suckered into buying it. Turns out it
had been on ziltuple markdown and had cost under a buck. At that
price one could easily afford some vodka to redeem it, so bravo. C.

Thus began my day. I was thinking of shower, drunkenness, nap,
but then

- "We're going to T.J. Maxx, want to come along?"
- [yawn] "Any place else?"
- "Victory Market"
- "Be right there."

T.J. Maxx seemed to me underwhelming, but the ladies liked it.
I spent my time in the mediocre, off-brand, and past-date food
department, followed by a stint in the mediocre, off-brand, and
past-date chocolate department, while the rest of them hustled
around for gifts and (nonexistent, I think) bargains. Marveled
at the misuse of the terms Kona and Jamaican (sic) Blue Mountain
in the marked-down coffees that were offered. I came close to
buying some chocolate substance but reflected on that I had plenty
stashed in three cities, some even not mediocre, off-brand, or
past date. I think Lynnie got something, but I didn't pay attention,
focusing on the gold ring of Victory Market, our next stop.

Where, having been disappointed by the Kvass selection, I got
a pound of garlic salo to salve my hurts. All the Kvass was from
concentrate, a weird concept. Kvass (Kvas, I don't know why the
English transliterated term has the extra s) is a lightly fermented
either sweetish, sourish, or sweet-sourish (depending on the yeast
used) beverage made of macerated rye bread. It's the #1 beverage in
eastern Europe, a pleasant, low-alcohol way to waste an afternoon.
Well, the stuff sold here is non-alcoholic, Kvass extract mixed with
sugar, fizzy water, and sometimes flavorings. Not for me. The other
thing I love here is salo; I was disappointed not to see a good
salo, the only stuff in the case being the cooked stuff that is
hardly worthy the name. Dave pointed out a tray with the real stuff,
shining white pork belly lightly cured and in this case further
enhanced with garlic. This, fresh cured and perhaps even homemade,
also had parsley (good) and dill (not so good) added. Back home,
we had some for snacks - very nice.

Dave had got Baikal soft drink; I had a taste - it seemed like
Moxie infused with bubble gum. He told me it was a native-grown
competitor to Pepsi that somehow (and inexplicably, given the
taste) became incredibly popular, obliterating the competition.
Translated here, there's some loss. I'd drink it if offered,
but buy it, nah.

It was time to deal with our loot from the Food Zone. I set
about making red-cooked pork shoulder and pig feet. The feet
were relatively clean, so after a cursory scrub around the
toenails, I put them on to blanch. Immediately a strong and
rather unappetizing though porcine aroma filled the kitchen.
These had been really big trotters, and I guess they must have
been from the alpha boar of the farm or something. Whoof.
After an hour, they went in the pot with the shoulder (which,
it turns out, was probably from the same animal, judging from
the smell), cut up vegetables and aromatics, and a good glugg
of soy sauce. Turns out the soy sauce was a little old, and
its lack of flavor couldn't compete with the strength of the
rather mature pork and the rather overmature carrots I'd
thrown in as flavoring. Three hours, I guess, in simmer, and
we had tenderish porky pork (flavored with carrots, garlic,
celery, cabbage, sugar, and soy) and falling-apart pretty
good (thanks to the extended parboil beforehand) pig feet.
It wasn't the finest meal ever made by man or beast, but it
was edible.

Dessert: Milano Melts - chocolate Milano-shape cookies filled
with chocolate goo, also pretty decent.

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