Text 5582, 58 rader
Skriven 2013-10-08 14:16:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: oddities of trip 294
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I sort of dreaded this trip, as it was Jonathan's first day
of chemo, so I expected to find him grumpy and in pain as
well as irrational (I sometimes wish he were imaginary),
but he wasn't there at all. I waited until 4 to help him
in the house, if need be, but he didn't show up. Sleepytime
- but up at dawn. My stomach was jumpy so no food.

I did chores around the house until time to leave; no word
by phone or e-mail. I gave up and decided to honor my
reservation back to Boston, and to heck with the kid.

So I found myself at National again, and so the obligatory
visit to Sam & Harry's, where I found the pretty, agreeable
bartender again (though she's slightly unfashionably hippy,
if I were thirty years younger I might have tried my luck).

Got my usual, the ribeye rare with creamed spinach (I use
plenty of pills) and onion rings. The only consistency here,
as I may have mentioned before, is inconsistency. The steak,
which has varied from a perfect tender 10-oz rare ribeye with
lots of fat and beefy flavor to a slightly chewy 14-oz rare
ribeye with some beefy flavor to a sirloin strip, quite nice,
actually, even if mislabeled. This was of appropriate size
and redness but ice cold, even though the grill marks were
deep. H'm. Flavor? Modest. There had been a salt, pepper,
and citric rub (I think acid crystals, as there was no lemon
flavor). I know that this was real meat, and the line of
gristle between the muscles was tough as you can imagine, and
there was lots of flabby but redeeming fat, which I portioned
out to add savor to the rather tough and untasty muscle. I do
believe they've perfected a technique for grill-marking meat
and then freezing it and then heating to order. Sort of sad
if they've done this to shave pennies, even though the meal
was quite acceptable by airport standards. The spinach was
watery and tasted like grass clippings in sour cream, a far
cry from the near-perfection that it has been in visits past.
There used to be prominent garlic, but no more. Onion rings,
which in past visits either unsalted (remedy - salt shaker)
or woefully oversalted (remedy - shake it off onto the meat)
was in fact this time perfectly seasoned and perfectly cooked.
A mixed blessing, this meal, but a blessing on the whole, plus
I got to watch the bartender's backside wiggle now and then.
A 22-oz Sam was a delicious bargain at $3.80 per 12-ounce
standard drink.

The menu listed the steak as $24, more than I'd paid a few
months ago; when the bill came, it was charged at $21, the
old price. I wonder if the cute bartender had cut me a deal,
or if the menu price was a misprint, or if the system had not
been updated. In any case, the cuteness was worth $1.50 and
the service worth $1.50, so I tipped up to what the cost would
have been.

I still had extra time so had a couple cups of decaf at the
club before heading to the gate.
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