Text 1034, 84 rader
Skriven 2013-06-05 10:29:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: trip 657
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Last we heard, Annie had volunteered me to guest chef at
the toniest restaurant in town sometime in the fall. Today
she arranged for Liz, head chef at the Herdic House, to come
over for a chat about this and one or two other projects in
the works. She turns out to be a cutish 30-something who
had been a tour guide in Italy but had been shanghaied into
cooking here when the chef abruptly gave notice, and her
parents, who ran the place, said, hey, Liz can cook, why not
have her fill in for a few months while we find someone? Well,
turns out she liked professional cooking as well as amateur
cooking, and the guests liked her food, and she's stayed on
for going on 9 years now, despite this not having been her
on original career path, which I understand had something to
do with the travel industry. As an ambitious young woman and
not being totally fulfilled in the kitchen, and being stuck
back in her home town, she became a politician and was elected
to the city council. She's running for reelection (asked
whether a Dem or a Pub, she answered, there's no Democratic or
Republican way to fix a pothole) and is looking for an excuse
to take a load off for a day here and there, hence the guest
chef thing. Annie and the head waitress have decided that I
will cook Malaysian food rather than Chinese, which is fine
with me, as I can bang out satays with the best of them,
plus Annie wants laksa, which is also dead easy to make,
relatively cheap, and can be made in bulk. September 6, if
you want to be in Williamsport then. I am now a little more
resigned to my fate, though still chafing a bit about not
being master of my destiny. Better than doing 50 individual
stir-fries over an insufficiently heat-endowed stove, say I.

During this planning session I hardly got a word in edgewise,
which can either be a grating thing (at least out of politeness
the workman doing the work should be a party to the planning)
or maybe flattering (as the discussants were operating under
the assumption that I can do anything).

Dinner.

I discovered a pile of stuff in my kitchen (the house has his
and hers kitchens, hers having a smoke detector right in the
room and thus unsuitable for Chinese-style cooking). I didn't
know what was in store - it was sort of like a Chopped basket,
only at home. Red and orange peppers, jalapenos, portobello
mushrooms, three more ribeyes, two pork tenderloins, a pound
of squid (tubes only). How many more people, I asked. Annie
said, 3. This counts up to 2 lb of protein per person.

Seems that she's back to her hyper self (when Billy was sick,
she was heavily medicated) and her trains of thought go a
little short-circuited, some of the things that fall by the
wayside being failing to tell me that I was cooking dinner,
or what I was cooking, or for how many people. It's actually
not that big of a deal. I made the easiest possible meal, stuff
I can cook with my eyes closed and one hand behind my back.

Salt-pepper squid, absolutely superb, if I say so myself; beef
with broccoli, pretty much like what you'd get in your one from
column A one from column B restaurant; pork stir-fry with
peppers and mushrooms, mediocre. Jasmine rice, not my choice -
there's a reason why the Chinese don't use jasmine rice; but
Annie doesn't buy mundane regular rice.

Her brother Robbie was here, and our friend Jeannette brought
her sister Ronnie, who is visiting from Seattle. Robbie and
Ronnie are deaf (Ronnie from birth). These two don't currently
eat carbs or fried food, something that people neglected to
inform me. Or rather, when I asked Jeannette about dietary
restrictions, she reported none. Turns out Ronnie had done
eight years of missionary work in the Philippines and had a
jones for squid, so ate a bunch of the stuff anyway.

Lucas & Lewellen Merlot 09 was pretty good, with licorice and
plums, some other stone fruit, herbs; pretty complex. Jeannette
thought it was off; I didn't detect anything. I suspect that
she is used to sweeter wine.

Dessert: organic pineapple. Just because it's organic doesn't
mean it tastes better. This one was not particularly sweet
and had a peculiar chemically odor and aftertaste. Only a
few chunks were eaten, the rest waiting for me to think of
something to do with it tonight.
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