Text 35770, 116 rader
Skriven 2013-04-05 20:00:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: another day 382
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Turns out it was only 0847, and Annie just wanted someone to fix
scrapple for her, courtesy, as is almost all scrapple these days,
of the Rapa factory. I cut it into 13ths with two relatively thin
slices so I could get some extra crunch and 11 normal ones. I don't
recall how I pulled that off; usually I slice 12ths, sometimes 8ths.
Somehow we got distracted, and they all turned out extra crispy.

A lazy day of Internet, magazines, and Tony Bourdain in what he
claims is (as is mine) his favorite Australian city, Melbourne.

Annie went off to get the newspaper and somehow was waylaid by
a quart of shucked oysters, for cocktail hour she said. I pointed
out that we had a 6:30 at the college for dinner, and that would
spoil our meal. She pooh-poohed that and opened these up but upon
noting that I was serious in my refusal had just a few. 

Present: Mindy and Charlie, Barb and Dan, Jill and Mike, and
us. Surprise that Ann (Charlie's and Dan's mother and Mike's
aunt) was not invited; also Robbie was not invited. Not a
surprise that Barb and Dan's kids were also not invited. Our
reservation was for 6:30, which seems to be too late, as we
ended up facing shortages and substitutions. These after all
are kids, and their planning and provisioning skills are still
being honed.

Penn College
Le Jeune Chef

Austria & Germany
April 4, 2013

We were seated at a big round table, and for reasons beyond my
ken managed to be arranged with the men on the north side and
the women on the south side. Aside from Dan and Barb sitting
next to each other, nobody sat next to the opposite-sex person
associated with them. Peculiar evening.

Wurst
 House made Hungarian, weisswurst and bratwurst sausages,
 courtesy of Chef Steve and the Advance Garde Manger class

A very hard toasted crostino spread with grainy mustard and
topped with a slice of each of the mentioned sausages. The
Hungarian, somewhat spicy, was the hands-down favorite; the
other two could easily have been the same thing and tasted
sort of like sweet Italian.

TRIO OF AUSTRIAN WINE DINNER SPECIALTIES:
 Warm Cured and Smoked Farm Raised Trout on Crispy Potato
 Gallette

This was announced to the table as Arctic char, which it
probably was, as the pinkness certainly did not come just
from the smoking. It was a nice smoke, and the fish flaked
nicely while retaining tenderness and moisture. Sadly, the
entire assembly was stone cold, and the galette, a tiny sort
of latke, was soggy.

 Chilled Salad of Roasted Winter Vegetables with Micro-greens,
 Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Tomato Vinegar

Pretty good but somewhat underseasoned. The vegetables were
carrot, parsnip, green onion, and white and red beets.

 Hot and Savory Butter Roasted Onion and Cheddar Cheese Tart

Quite tasty, and the most aromatic dish of the evening (you
could smell it coming in to the restaurant, and it smelled
nice). Unfortunately also stone cold.

SOUFFLE
 Warm gruyere and local smoked ham souffle

At least these were hot from the oven. They tasted good but were
a little on the heavy side. Mine was nicely browned; Jill's next
to me was sort of unevenly colored. Kids will be kids.

SOUPS & BREADS
 Gulyasleves - Traditional Austra-Hungarian soup of simmered
 beef, onion, sweet paprika, garden vegetables and caraway seed

Annie, brattily, exclaimed "Campbell's!" which wouldn't have
been nice even if it had been. Actually, the soup had good beef
flavor; there were copious slightly undercooked brunoise of
carrots and stuff in the broth and just a shred or two of chuck
to make things interesting. Fatless, which I didn't like, but
this made for a nice professional-looking appearance. Also
carawayless, for which I was thankful.

 Suppe mit Lacets - Glistening chicken consomme seasoned with
 natural subterranean sea salt, garnished with simmered leek
 and julienne crepes "laces"

Jill was the only one of us to get this. She said it was
chicken noodle soup.

 Plunderbrot und Pumpernickel - Braids of rich egg bread and
 dark rye bread

Black-and-white swirlies, low salt (I like this), also
caraway-free (I like this), nice texture owing to lots of butter
and eggs. They brought a little one ounce dab of butter and a
saucer of olive oil for dipping; this was insufficient, but a
quick word with one of the willing but undertrained waiters
brought another 5 or 6 butters, half of which went to waste.

INTERMEZZO
 Gewurztraminer Sorbet

Bitter lemon sorbet, actually. Too bitter and sour for most of
the table, though I found it okay.


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