Text 29491, 55 rader
Skriven 2012-09-12 07:18:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: an amusing meal 255
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It started off with my buying another pound of those hen of
the woods (Grifola) mushrooms that were such a hit at the
echo picnic. I made half of them for Billy, and he just
gobbled them right up, and saved the rest for tossing with
pasta on Sunday. But Annie doesn't think that pasta is a
proper meal, so she bought 2 1/2 lb of calamari at Giant,
which is the only place that has them packaged this way.
Wegman's has only 1 lb packets without tentacles; the
fishmonger offers them in 5 lb lots, nothing smaller. So
now we had 2 1/2 lb of pure protein plus pasta with mushrooms
for 4 people. Boys and girls, can you say "enough"?

Well, 10 oz of squid apiece wasn't deemed to be enough, so
she got 9 double lamb chops, and as Robbie's favorite
vegetable is said to be bean sprouts, we got 2 lb of those.
Plus a bok choy for those who would want greens.

I ended up pan-broiling the chops, 4 rare ones for me and
Robby, the rest medium-rare, and frying the squid - that's
a lot of frying - , using 1/3 lb cornstarch and thus ending
up with about 3/4 lb squid a person. A simple saute on the
mushrooms, the same for the bok choy, and stewed the bean
sprouts in soy, sugar, sesame, and hot pepper. I dispensed
with the pasta.

With this I drank half a bottle of Notios Agiorgitiko 08
(Peleponnese), an interesting inky wine with a strong
berry and fig aroma, flavors of almonds, walnuts, and dried
figs, and a dried fruit compote finish. Good balance of
sweet/acid/tannin. Annie had her usual Yuengling Light,
Billy water so as to be able to fill his belly full of the
good stuff, and Robby nothing at all for the same reason.

All the squid went, as well as 6 of the chops. Most of
the mushrooms and sprouts, half the bok choy. Everyone ate
enough to get sick, Billy especially. I'm thinking that
my role in Billy's survival involves saturating his system
with nutrients, so no matter how much the cancer tries to
starve him out, there's always plenty of calories to keep
him going. A worthy role.

Another amusing though slightly sad item: When I was flying
back, the flight attendant (who looked like a model and, as
it turns out, has been tapped for some modeling on behalf of
US Air, perhaps in the advertising, but I didn't get the
scoop on this) poured me a giant glass of red wine. I drank
half of it and promptly fell asleep. When I woke up, was the
glass half full or half empty? Justice would dictate that it
had flopped over and ruined my pants leg. In fact, it was
half full or half empty, and I looked at it and said, oh no.
I did end up drinking the stuff, shuddering before the last
couple gulps.
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