Text 9288, 105 rader
Skriven 2011-04-07 16:19:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: end o trip 175
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After a good night's sleep and a beer or two, I think in
that order, I saw Bill out - he had to go to pick up some
stuff for Connie and go home; Alex fetched me for breakfast
at Over Easy, another of those funky fashionable joints that
grow up like mushrooms when the going is good.

Alex had scrambled eggs with wild mushrooms - a mound of yellow
topped with a thick layer of mushrooms, which, sadly, were not
very wild - button, shiitake, and maybe portobello. His home
fries were a pale imitation of home fries. A side order of
brioche French toast was much better.

My housemade hash and eggs (how would you like those? over
easy, of course) was a moderate but filling serving of very
finely hashed too-lean too-salty meat with not much potato.
The eggs were excellent. My extra order was sweet potato
tots, tasty but on the cold side. So I sent them back;
they returned burning hot - fine, better too hot than too
cold. On the whole a decent meal at a slightly elevated
price, nothing to write home about.

And then it was off to watch the Rangers again at Salt River,
the new stadium built on Pima Indian lands and housing the
Diamondbacks and Rockies. It's, well, a stadium. Looks pretty
neat from a distance, with its winglike roof, but inside,
it's ordinary but fine I suppose. Things looked promising,
with the D-Backs jumping out to an early lead, but the
Texans got 4 in the 9th to put things away 6-4.

Back to Alex's for another cooking extravaganza.

Alex brought out a heavily maderized Columbia Cellarmaster's
Riesling 05 - actually pretty nice, rather like a weakish
sweetish sherry; chilled, it really quenched nicely.

My cooking chops had given way to my drinking chops, I fear.
Everything was fine but just a bit off.

I'd planned on doing a spinach stuffing for a leg of lamb
that we'd picked up for a considerable sum, but when it
turned out that we didn't have any twine or other way to
secure the cavity, I decided to put the spinach underneath
to serve as a platform onto which the meat could drip its
juices. The good part of this was that the stuffing soaked
up the flavors and became quite tasty (if a little greasy);
the bad part was that it also served as a heat sink, so
the bottom of the leg ended up almost too rare even for
me when I took it out (no big problem - shove it back in
at 400 for a while).

Pilaf was the big disaster, though the final wasn't too bad
- I'd just put on a cup and half of rice to saute in EVOO
when Alex poured me the Riesling, so I wandered into the
living room and chatted with him about wine until, what's
that I smell? The bottom of the pan had begun to scorch
when I arrived, and I washed the rice in several changes of
water to get rid of that taste (which is about as ugly as
burned roux'). Well, nothing that some chicken broth and
onions can't fix, and they in fact fixed it. It came out a
little soft, owing to the numerous washings, but a dryout
in the oven did wonders. Oh, at Alex's suggestion I put a
handful of dried blueberries in and on my own added some
marcona almonds.

Merry Edwards Pinot Noir 07 (Sonoma Coast) was bright
cherry red to go with the cherry red meat. I enjoyed the
combination - the acidity of the wine cut nicely through
the fat, and the fruitiness (cherry-berry, some floral
aspect) was enjoyable. The spinach and thyme stuffing
was brought out well by the pairing.

Purely Decadent Chocolate Obsession with chocolate soy ice
cream, chocolate bits, and chocolate swirl - not bad for
those of us with lactose troubles, but I had to assent when
Alex said that it was anything but decadent - the mouthfeel
was more sherbet then Schubert, if you remember the old
joke. I prefer the coconut milk desserts for which this
label is becoming known.

Safeway's tropical sorbet was surprisingly good, its
passionfruit and pineapple flavors going quite well with the
Rasmussen Esoterica Late Harvest Viognier 06 (North Coast),
which itself exhibited pineapple and other tropical fruit
in a caramelly dark liquid package.

Alex's friend Mike showed up for a meal and a chat, but we
had an airport to go to, so the visit was shorter than all
of us would have liked. We left at 9:45; at the airport at
10; through security and at the gate at 10:10.

CO 434 PHX EWR 2250 0625 739 1A

I had a Courvoisier and went right to sleep. We landed half
an hour early, so I had plenty of time to enjoy the club and
to improvise "sangria" by combining the rather not nice wine
with the rather not nice orange juice. No espresso machine
so no cinnamon shaker to spice things up.

CO 552 EWR BOS 0845 1010 738 1E

Ah, sweet sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care.

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