Finished With Fried Foods
If you are reading this now, it’s because I’ve finally found an Internet connection in France. But it was written in Newark as Mrs. Fussy and I were having a work date in Terminal C. This trip to Paris after all involves her giving some kind of talk somewhere about something not food related.
I’d say how boring, but I’m getting a great trip out of the deal, so I’m not complaining.
Today Chanukah ends. Thank God. Last night was the last night, and I was able to get Mrs. Fussy a present of a universal electric plug adapter in the airport. It was just what she wanted. The Fussy Little Children presumably got something from their grandparents. I’m sure they are having a blast.
Let me tell you, one more day of fried foods might have killed me. The holiday has certainly helped to advance my goal of putting on a little winter weight. Somehow I forgot that with the extra weight comes inches. I’m not loving my new tight pants. Luckily denim stretches a bit. So after I make it back from these few days of eating, I’m going to slow it down a bit.
How fast have I been living? Let me share the horror.
Reader Service: Reasoning & Seasoning
Happy Friday! It seems like a long time ago that I would send you into the weekend with some kind of tale of booze or cocktail thoughts. Even further back was my relatively brief foray into wine writing on the FLB. One day the wine stuff may come back. Maybe France will reignite my passion for the juice.
Originally, I had today slotted out to write about the new Ironweed bourbon. I’ve been on some meds and haven’t cracked open my bottle from batch #2 yet. But I thought I could power through a small glass of the stuff and write down some formal impressions.
As it turns out, there is no more Ironweed bourbon. It’s all sold out. Congratulations to the Albany Distilling Company on yet another product that they didn’t capitalize fully. I’m mostly teasing. Theirs is a small, expensive operation. The partners spent a lot of capital on that still, and they still have product just sitting in barrels that’s not ready to be released yet.
Anyway, there is no rush to get that story out now. I kind of missed the boat. Drat.
However, I’ve been charged by two separate readers today with requests to help them achieve their goals of improving food. The first is to improve food more broadly upstate, and the second is more narrowly in her own kitchen. Hey, I’m here to help. And maybe you have some thoughts too.
Cookbooks Come and Cookbooks Go
Whatever happened to that cookbook giveaway? Good question. If you weren’t contacted, you didn’t win. But the winner was indeed chosen by Random.org and it picked Diana.
Her winning comment was:
The Original King Arthur Flour cookbook. Not just a collection of recipes, but why things work the way they do in baking, and how to adjust recipes. My love of yeast baking began with this book.
Not that the comment itself had anything to do with winning. It was just the luck of the draw. Last night I wrote the inscription in her brand new copy of Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. And with any luck it will be put in the mail later today so she can begin using it before Christmas.
But just as this cookbook is leaving the house, another one has entered. It was actually sent to me by the publisher Blue Rider Press. Really I want to tell you about it because it speaks to something I’ve been saying for a while.
Lentils of Infinite Virtue
There are a lot of people to whom I owe debts of gratitude. Stanford Steph is one of them. Not only did she inspire the idea behind the Fussy Little Tours, but she also served as a stand-in photographer for this week’s Eat This! on AOA.
Officially it’s time for me to bite the bullet and buy an actual camera. The good news is, and you probably already know this, digital cameras are a lot better today than they were 10 years ago. Damn, I’m old. But I’ve been holding a grudge against the technology because of the crap camera I paid hundreds of dollars for a decade ago. Today I can buy ten times the camera for half the price, and that’s what I’m going to do.
But let’s get back to Steph.
Recently she had a problem of her own. Steph was looking for a lentil recipe. It was then that I realized I’ve never written down the details of the lentil dish that I make at least once every winter. Usually I eat the whole thing myself over the course of the season. For starters, it’s super healthy. It freezes and reheats beautifully, and since it’s a stew it is even better after the flavors have had time to fully meld.
Also the rest of the family kind of hates it. But don’t be dissuaded by them. I’m not.
Food and Culture
I’ve been told in the past not to mistake food for culture. Still, I’m at a profound risk of skipping priceless works of art hanging in Parisian museums just to sneak in another croissant, baguette, coffee, wine, absinthe, etc.
It’s not that I don’t appreciate the fine arts. I do. They move me. I am as easily enchanted by a line drawing and abstract use of form as I am by classic oils of the masters. And a long time ago I finally understood what it meant to see art live and in person after attending a traveling Van Gogh exhibition.
It’s the colors.
Much like music, a lot gets lost in the reproduction. As good as printing or sound recording may be, a recording of a symphony will never fully sweep over and engulf you like the vibrations in the air at a concert hall.
But there is a case to be made for food as well.
Slinging Samples for Santas
Two nights of Chanukah down. Only six more to go. But I’ve already gorged twice on potato latkes, so now it may be time to move onto other things like donuts or deep fried hamburgers.
But Saturday was a big day for two reasons.
One, it was the release of the Ironweed bourbon from the Albany Distilling Company. I’m really eager to give you my full notes and thoughts on batch #2 (the lot from which my bottle was filled). But that’s going to have to wait just a little while.
The other big thing on Saturday was the Santa Speedo Sprint, and for the very first time I was there manning a table with my chefs of the Chefs Consortium. It may not have worked out exactly as planned, but it was a great time and we were able to spread the word about some delicious regional products.
If you made it out, you saw what I was slinging, but here’s what you didn’t see.
The Sour Cream Rises
Happy Chanukah. Last night may have been the first evening of this Winter Solstice holiday, but today is the first day. Go fig.
As a kid Chanukah used to be my favorite Jewish holiday because of the eight nights of presents. Now Chanukah is my favorite holiday because of the carte blanche it provides for the consumption of fried foods. It is one of many Jewish holidays that’s best surmised by the mantra, “They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat.”
I’ll replace the sufganiyot available in Israel with the jelly-donuts from Bella Napoli available in the Capital Region. They are the best we’ve got, and they are pretty damn good. Really the only thing that would make them better is if they were stuffed with a high quality handmade jam. Maybe if I got them some jam they would do a custom order. Oh man, that would be amazing.
Last night we had latkes (AKA fried potato pancakes), another traditional holiday food. Actually we’ll have them again tonight too. And as a kid I loved to dip them in applesauce. However as my sweet tooth morphed into a fat tooth, applesauce was replaced by sour cream.
The only problem is a good sour cream is hard to find.
Closed?
Thank you for all the birthday wishes. For a weekday celebration it wasn’t bad. Much of the day went according to plan.
I picked up the sparkling wine; bought myself a new pair of gloves with those handy dandy touch screen finger sensors so I can use my phone without suffering from bloodier knuckles; made another purchase according to the Penzey’s Plan; checked out the going-out-of-business sale at FLOW in Crossgates while I was there; took Young Master Fussy out for a haircut; grabbed my birthday cake from Crisan; and used my Hannaford gift cards for four beautiful hard-shell lobsters.
One place the plan fell apart was at the birthday dinner itself. It turns out that neither of the children like lobster with drawn butter and lemon. Neither the claw meat nor the tail meat. And while I was a little bummed that they weren’t sharing in this joy, it meant double lobster for me.
The other lapse in the program was at the beginning of the day at breakfast.
They Say It’s My Birthday
Have you heard this song? It’s relatively new. And while I’m not typically a fan of the genre, for some reason it seems to deeply resonate with me. Especially today. It even kind of makes me want to dance. That’s crazy.
I’m too old to dance. I can barely walk.
Today, by every measure, I’m leaving my youth behind me. You could say that I left my youth behind me many many years ago. There are so many milestones to choose from. Having children, getting married, turning thirty, becoming a manager, getting a real job, leaving home, or graduating college. It could go all the way back to fifth grade when I thought it would be perfectly sensible to bring an attache case to school instead of a backpack.
Or you could argue that chronological age has nothing to do with youth and despite my march through the years I’m still very much a petulant child who throws a hissy fit when the frozen yogurt joint provides the wrong kind of spoons.
I’ve got no idea. But I don’t feel badly about my ascending age. That’s not to say I feel particularly great about it either. Maybe this is has something to do with why I’m really feeling this song.
Still, in the spirit of Happy Birthday wishes, here is a subset of things I am actually happy about (in no particular order).
AskTP – In Lieu of Presents
Tomorrow is my birthday. The kids want a party. They aren’t getting it. Not to say the day won’t be festive. I’ll pick up a birthday cake. We’ll eat lobster. There will be tiny bubbles in the wine. Mrs. Fussy asked if there was anything that I wanted for a present.
But my present is the trip to Paris we’ll be taking later this month. I’ve never been. But I have a friend from college who is living there, so we’ll get to hang out and she’ll show me around. Mrs. Fussy has to work during the first part of our stay. But we’ll have some time together to explore the city.
Mostly I just want bread, pastry, wine and cheese. Maybe some armagnac too. But I’m not going to try and squeeze four months worth of eating into four days. Four years wouldn’t be enough time to adequately eat my way around the city. So I’m coming to terms with missing out on lots and lots of delicious things.
Today though is all about answering your questions from the past two weeks. After all, even though I’m getting older and more forgetful by the day, I have not forgotten my commitment to make sure every single question that’s asked in the comments of the blog gets answered (just so long as it is asked with proper punctuation).
Now without further ado, onto the questions.
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