The Sabbatical’s Unofficial Official Drink
Good stories need not be true. When reading about cocktails in particular, one needs to remember that many of the tales surrounding their origins are apocryphal. But that doesn’t make them any less fun to tell.
It’s just a good thing to keep in mind.
So when I overheard something about a classic cocktail recently at a reception, it piqued my interest, but I have no idea if the statement was accurate. Before I can share it however, I need to explain a little something about this sabbatical.
Forsaking Paris for Princeton
Writing a month’s worth of posts based on the experiences of the Paris trip would be easy. But I have found that even the last week’s worth of foreign-focused Fussy has tragically delayed my exploration of New Jersey.
At least in part. There are other factors too, like getting the kids adjusted into their new schools. And of course there is the odd compulsion to continue the Tour de Donut even in my absence.
One of the things that I had identified as a New Jersey item of curiosity even before I left New York was the state’s deep fried hot dogs, both in the classic and Italian styles. I still haven’t tried these regional hot dog variations, but just this week the New York Times scooped me on the story.
Dammit. I hate it when that happens.
So now I’ve got a fire under my tush. One of my ten months in New Jersey is almost gone, and what do I have to show for it? I don’t even have my New Jersey driver’s license yet. So let’s clear up some old business quickly, and get to it.
AskTP – Where Did Jersey Go?
I need to get out and explore more of Jersey. Given the stories on the blog recently, one might have forgotten that I’m now living in the Garden State. This year is going to fly by, and I can’t help but feel like I’m squandering opportunities to explore some of the culinary delights that can only be found in this neck of the world.
The local farmers market has provided me with Jersey produce, Jersey eggs, and Jersey honey. But I want to get to an actual Jersey farm and a Jersey apple orchard for some Jersey apple cider donuts. Plus, I haven’t been to a diner, I haven’t had an Italian hot dog, and I haven’t had any Trenton tomato pie.
Clearly I’m behind.
But that doesn’t mean that I can take time away from answering reader questions. After all, I’ve made a commitment to answer every question asked in the comments section of the blog, just so long as it includes a question mark.
So without any further ado, it’s time to match up questions with their proper answers.
The 4th Annual Tour de Donut
First the old business. Some of you are probably chomping at the bit wondering who were the five winners of a dozen apple cider donuts from Golden Harvest Farms? Well, I haven’t even contacted the winners yet, but Random.org declared Susan, Shawn, Susie, llcwine and Chef Paul as the victors. Congratulations to you all.
If you didn’t win, don’t worry. I’ve got your chance to eat an unsensible quantity of apple cider donuts in one day. And you can tell your friends and loved ones that it isn’t gluttony when you are doing it for science.
That’s right. It’s the Fourth Annual Tour de Donut.
For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, let me give you the short version. Periodically, I lead a group of intrepid eaters around the region to eat and evaluate some of the most beloved foodstuffs of the area. These things both have an inextricable sense of place and would also diminish in transit. So we cannot bring these delicacies to us. We must go to them.
At the end of the day, not only do all the participants have a better understanding of the item in question and the nuances of its component pieces, but they have also decided upon their favorite version. Whereas most people’s favorites stem from childhood memories or geographic proximity, those on the tour form their opinion based on empirical data.
If you haven’t been on a FLB tour before, you should come. Seriously, this is open to anyone. Don’t be shy. For those brave souls who venture forth, this is what awaits.
This will be a bit later in the season than in the past, but I’m hoping you can cut me some slack since I’m not even in the region. There are some things that I’ve determined must go on, even in my absence. And luckily there are plenty of people in the 518 who are willing to help out.
A big thank you to Stanford Steph who will be leading this excursion on Saturday, October 5. Yes, that’s the same day as All Over Albany’s Bootlegger Tour. But you’ll be done with enough time to get to Troy by 2pm. Plus, you can be the envy of everyone on the trolley if you managed to hit both events in one day. For real.
This tour is a chance to play clean up. Somehow there were orchards that have been missed on the three prior tours of the Capital Region. And I’m not talking rinky dink operations either. A few of these are places that people love and travel to every year to celebrate fall.
So here’s how the day will shake out.
Fussy Eats Paris – Day Trois
I’ll let you in on a little inside joke. Sometimes when Mrs. Fussy forgets her manners, I’ll ask her, “Where did you go to finishing school?” The only correct rejoinder to that question is pronounced [DAY-twa] which as I’ve gleaned from my Michigan friends is the fancy way of pronouncing “Detroit.”
Never forget, I write this thing almost entirely for my own amusement.
That said, I don’t like to leave topics half-baked. And last week I took a brief break from the travelog of my recent Paris trip. You know, I didn’t intend for this recap to take up a week’s worth of posts. But then again, I haven’t really begun to eat around New Jersey in earnest.
Heck, I haven’t even been to the local Whole Foods yet. Nor have I eaten a Taylor ham, egg and cheese sandwich with saltpepperketchup. Needless to say, I’ve got my work cut out for me. But I can’t not tell you about my third day in Paris, because this was my feast of butterfat.
SOS: Cupcake Wars Winner
It’s a little late, but dammit it’s still Sunday. And there’s an occasional feature on the FLB where I’ll periodically publish the press releases I receive via email.
I had actually thought this one would have been posted on Table Hopping and ballyhooed all around the Capital Region food blogosphere by now. Maybe people will be talking about it on Monday. Who knows.
But given that this local shop was a participant in the FLB/AOA blind cupcake tasting and that I had taken a bullet by tasting all of their Super Bowl cupcakes last year, I’m delighted to share the following news.
Win Apple Cider Donuts and More
Besides Eric Paul at The Cheese Traveler, I can’t think of anyone else that might be bummed about today’s Paris recap being postponed until next week. This was going to be the installment in which I would reveal where I picked up two discs of fermier Rocammadour.
For a small select audience, this is thrilling stuff. But it’s going to have to wait.
Today I have exciting stuff for the rest of you. At least those of you who continue to read from within a comfortable driving distance of New York’s Capital region. One of these days I’m going to pretend I live in New Jersey and stop writing about New York. But I just can’t seem to stop myself.
It seems I have a dozen five dozen of some of the best apple cider donuts in the Capital Region to give away. But I also wanted to make sure that you know about a contest where you can win something much more valuable.
Fussy Eats Paris – Part Deux
To date, one of the greatest pure sensual experiences of my life involved a hose at the north rim of the Grand Canyon. I had hiked down the trail with ADS and Raf without nearly enough water for that hot August day, and on our way up there was a rest stop with non-potable water.
While we might not have been able to drink it, the water that came from the public hose was copious and cold. And the feeling of pure pleasure as it cascaded over my sweat-drenched head, neck, face, and hands was immeasurable.
Laying down on a soft bed after a restless sleep on a cramped airplane and an afternoon wandering around the Right Bank was pretty high up there, though. So, I shouldn’t have been surprised that I overslept. Thankfully, there was some construction going on outside the hotel, otherwise I would have slept even later.
It was a happy accident, because I was going to need my rest for day number two in Paris. But before I could do anything else, I needed a cup of good coffee.
Fussy Eats Paris – Part One
Goldilocks had to try a few different things before she could settle on the one that was just right. I feel her pain. When I arrived in Albany, I found it to be too small. There was no grassfed hamburger, no place to get a reliably good espresso, and there wasn’t even a Chipotle or Trader Joe’s.
But Paris? Paris is much, much too big. As a food lover, I can barely stand it. I go to a cheese counter and gaze upon rows and rows of raw milk farmstead cheeses that will never ever make it to the US and I want to eat them all. But I can’t. And there are so many highly acclaimed bakeries within the city walls that even at a pace of visiting two a day it would take months to sample them all.
So what’s a fussy food lover to do? Prioritize. And it helps to have a loose plan.
More than anything else, I wanted to get the things that I just couldn’t eat anywhere else. And while my short list was comprised of fundamentally simple things, they are mindbendingly delicious. It’s the glorious trinity of butter, bread and cheese. My goal was two loaves and two cheeses per day, and as much butter as I could squeeze in, in between.
People have requested a travelog, so here’s how it all played out.
How Our Apartment Became Our Home
The travelog is coming. It’s just going to have to wait. I still have a lot of catching up to do from the trip. It probably wasn’t the smartest thing to take an international vacation the first week of school after a month of wandering the northeast.
But it was a blast.
And what’s done is done. Yesterday I spent a lot of time on the phone trying to solve a mail forwarding problem and a lot of time doing laundry. There was also the matter of going to three different stores to pick up a bunch of household goods.
Despite the relatively short time we’ve lived in this new apartment, which doesn’t even have any of our own furniture within its walls, the place already feels like home. Actually, it started to feel like home on day two. And there was one thing that really made it click. Naturally, it has something to do with food.
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