Musings

This wonderful veggie sushi is by the Lovely L.

Buffet sushi is not my most favorite way of eating sushi (too much breading and rice and mayo-based goop for my taste), but Ru San’s, a chain that began here in good ol’ ATL over fifteen years ago, does a pretty good job.

We broke up our shopping expedition to lunch at a nearby Ru San’s and I was reminded of an observation I’d made several years back—the guys in the front of the open kitchen are Asian or Asian-American, but the guys farther back tend to be Latino (are they cheaper to hire? more available? what’s the deal?). One guy working today had a perfect Classic Maya profile!

Here’s the link I found with the most info on Ru San’s (after only a quick google), which doesn’t have a real corporate web page, just a stand-in I won’t even link to. Hmm. Business opportunity for my web-page-adept friends? No, must be a conscious management decision…perhaps to make them seem less, well, corporate, and like a chain?

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Buffet sushi

Grain is the closest thing to an industrial commodity: storable, portable, fungible, ever the same today as it was yesterday and will be tomorrow. Since it can be accumulated and traded, grain is a form of wealth. It is a weapon, too…; the nations with the biggest surpluses of grain have always exerted power over the ones in short supply. Throughout history governments have encouraged their farmers to grow more than enough grain, to protect against famine, to free up labor for other purposes, to improve the trade balance, and generally to augment their own power. *

Note: wheat prices on the global market have doubled in the last year.

Implications? Yes, the modern global economy pivots on more than food, but food prices, especially of the underpinning of the modern diet—grain, as Pollan repeatedly notes—have substantive implications, including of sociopolitical instablity.

Archaeologically, evidence of food storage takes myriad forms: below-ground pits, pots and baskets and other containers…. Of special interest: where those were located—out in public view or hidden in a domestic structure….

* From Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (2006; now available in paperback!), page 201. Read Pollan’s page here, and the NYT review here.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Grain/fundamentals

Pontil (the indented base) of mold-made (modern) bottle.

Several years ago, we discovered this lovely after-dinner wine, a variety of sherry, as I understand it. The grape is called Pedro Ximénez, and is often referred to simply as PX. The wine has a rich raisin backnote and makes for some fine sipping. Especially when it’s nippy out.

Posted at 5:10 PM | Comments Off on Fluid: fortified

Okay, the warm summery days are gone gone gone, and the rains have arrived. Maybe we’ll have a fairly normal winter from here out—with a semi-rainy season. Last winter we never had the rains, which is part of why our drinking water supplies are so low.

I think people don’t take this water situation seriously. I’m not overhearing people talk about it while walking on the street or shopping in stores and the like, but maybe I’m too much of a hermit to have an accurate radar on this.

So, to avoid water consumption, I’ve been upping my beer consumption (serious duty, here!), and this is a lovely bottle we had from our good friend “Mugs,” who has an importing system for Western brews. I can’t give details here, because I don’t want to compromise it/him.

So, to make a long story short, via Mugs we acquired this fine bottle, and, yes, the name is Moose Drool Brown Ale. I found the beer’s flavor superior to what the name suggests (at least to me!).

Posted at 4:49 PM | 3 Comments »

I know I’ve touched on this perhaps universal human behavior elsewhere, but darnnit, feasting is fun!

I think, perhaps, this was my most successful T-giving spread ever—on-time (thanks in no small part to many assistants and much assistance), each dish near-perfect (knock-out gravy, for example), and exceptional company. Hope your Thanksgiving was as rewarding….

[Yes, I’m ignoring the ugly colonialist aspects of this holiday….]

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Feasting

It’s great to be back home, where the autumnal colors are vivid and the leaves are almost all still on the trees (maybe 90%). None of the trees and flowers we saw on this morning’s walk through our neighborhood was as brilliant as the leaves on this dogwood, which were especially striking backlit like this….

It’s also great (actually more than that: positively superlative!) that my parents are doing so well this year after the crises of last fall.

During our trip, we had wonderful visits with long-time friends in WI, MI, and NY, and I’m especially excited that we could meet a cutie who was born in late October, the newest listing in our address book (even if he doesn’t know it yet!).

Thanks for the Fat Tire, McGrady. We didn’t break any bottles on the way home!

Posted at 8:03 PM | Comments Off on In the red/pink

Today we cruised through an area in Ohio where Amish farmers continue the old labor-intensive ways. I had to search my memory for the name of these harvest constructions of corn stalks bound together to dry in the field. First I could only think of shucks, but that’s the name of the dried husks, sometimes used to wrap tamales. The word is similar, hence my confusion. It’s shocks.

Posted at 11:22 PM | Comments Off on Maize vocab

…in which, after enjoying the taste-sensation of goat cheese and pomegranate seeds (Punica granatum) on water crackers as an appetizer, we head off to the local supper club for dinner (in Ann Arbor!).

…in which hilarity ensues!

Posted at 11:22 PM | 4 Comments »

…in which I throw together an extended leftover dinner by adding meatballs to the chicken, and another jar of Classico Tomato and Basil (the only flavor without sugar in the ingredients list, last time I checked, and thankfully on sale!), along with a whole bag of those Ronzoni whole wheat “egg” noodles, and make a table of laughing adults very happy.

Yea!!

Posted at 11:22 PM | Comments Off on Classico classic

Today’s wander included an early morning stroll through the last day of one of those street fairs that bring out folks of all types to stop by booths with attractive displays of food, clothing, knickknacks, and the like. In fact, we arrived so early that most people were still setting up. This pizza vendor had the oven going, perhaps for a bit of extra warmth, and someone we did not see left a mink(?) purse on the counter….

The following has no connection to the fine day we had, which also included a great blue heron, several deer, Canada geese, mallards, wonderful views of old lava flows, an extended trip to REI (sale for another week), and the Deschutes itself.

Just had to note this from James Lee Burke’s Crusader’s Cross (2005, p. 87):

• Question: What can dumb and fearful people always be counted on to do?
• Answer: To try to control and manipulate everyone in their environment.
• Question: What is the tactic used by these same dumb people as they try to control others?
• Answer: They lie.

…the thoughts of a worldly police officer (character)….

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Wandering Bend