Bean Season
Seasons in the Capital Region are a funny thing. Recently, I’ve adopted a rather unorthodox way of looking at winters up here. Instead of thinking about it as one season, it’s really three. I wish I could take credit for this, but this idea is directly attributed to Kurt Vonnegut:
November and December aren’t winter. They’re Locking. Next comes winter, January and February. Boy! Are they ever cold! What comes next? Not spring. ‘Unlocking’ comes next. What else could cruel March and only slightly less cruel April be? March and April are not spring. They’re Unlocking.
Which means that winter has finally arrived. I have to tell you, I’m so much happier in general during the colder months with this revised outlook on the seasons.
Do you know what else gets me through winter? Beans.
Momentum
Happy New Year! I’m going to take a moment to share a couple of lines from a Fiddler on the Roof song:
God would like us to be joyful
Even when our hearts lie panting on the floorMay all your futures be pleasant ones
Not like our present onesAnd if our good fortune never comes
Here’s to whatever comesDrink, l’chaim, to life
Here’s to joyous occasions. I hope your holidays were full of as much joy as you could muster. Mine were a little lighter on the fried foods and a little heavier on the meats. In the past week I’ve enjoyed two standing rib roasts, a wedge of scrapple, hotdogs, kielbasa, pulled pork, breakfast sausages, hamburgers, ham sandwiches, liverwurst, pierogi, dried sausages, chicken livers, pate, donuts, cupcakes, and more.
Yesterday, I bumped into a friend who was looking for jeans at Nordstrom Rack. I could use some more jeans, but I’m not going to be trying on any pants for at least a few weeks. My shopping trip was all about socks, and I scored some great pairs.
Let me put this out there right now. This is a terrible time to make a resolution to lose weight.
The Five Minute Sommelier
It’s almost New Year’s Eve, and man, there are a lot of great events going on around the Capital Region. It’s funny because while people can’t wait to be done with 2016, I’m not sure how many of them are looking forward and seeing better times in the year ahead.
Perhaps that’s reason enough to party. And by party, I actually mean drink. Maybe a little more than you should.
Whatever you do, just please be careful out there. I’d say to make sure to take a cab home, but our cabs are a disaster, and we still don’t have Uber or Lyft. Which is embarrassing. But not nearly as embarrassing as the state of our taxi cabs. Thanks to all of those who are fighting the good fight with the state to clear these challenging regulatory hurdles.
Sorry. Politics. Let’s get back to food. And by food, today I mean drink.
Oh, and while I’m in a contrite mood, I should apologize for the headline of today’s post. Nobody can be a five minute sommelier. Earning a sommelier title is no trifling thing. And we have precious few actual sommeliers in the Capital Region. There’s a lot of education and study that go into earning the right to call yourself a somm.
But with today’s post, you should be able to navigate the sparkling wine section at your local wine shop with ease.
Gone in 2016
Celebrity deaths don’t phase me all that much. The famous live on. Sure David Bowie might not make any more albums, but I can listen to Big Brother on YouTube whenever I want. It’s a bummer that Carrie Fisher won’t be around to appear in Star Wars Episode IX, but her body of work endures. Postcards from the Edge can be streamed on Amazon right now for four bucks.
It’s the end of the year, so I’ll avoid all the heavy political weighted stuff about other senseless deaths both at home and around the world. Those I find to be much more taxing.
Anyhow, the food blogger in me wants to use this opportunity to talk about the deaths of beloved local restaurants. Personally, I find those much more tragic than the loss of the stars of stage and screen. George Michael was a major part of the soundtrack of my teenage years, and I’ll never forget him, but I’ll always be able to tap my foot to the rattling guitar chords that open up Faith.
The same cannot be said for the local institutions that closed their doors in the past year. Like people, no restaurant lasts forever. Many don’t make it past the first year. And restaurants close all the time.
I wanted to take a few minutes to offer remembrances to a handful of notable places.
16 Going On 17
If people really hated year end round-ups, would there be so many of them? Probably not. But even if you do hate these kind of things, they are a good exercise for me to go through and see which kinds of posts had the most resonance over the last twelve months.
Plus, this is the week I’m on vacation. Nobody wants to read about my culinary adventures in rural Pennsylvania. Okay, maybe somebody does, but those will all get wrapped up into another post where I complain about how much meat I ate, and how no pancakes are as good as the ones my father-in-law makes.
This year, we’re going deep. The top 16 posts from 2016. Mostly, so I could include this one that just squeaked into the annual wrap up.
Fourth Night
Man, Chanukah is a long holiday.
Tonight is the fourth night. That means that it started at sundown on Christmas Eve, and we’ll be lighting the last candles at sundown on New Year’s Eve. I tell you, having your holidays pegged to a lunar calendar is the source of endless amusement.
One year you get the holiday of lights overlapping with Thanksgiving, and another it’s taking you all the way to the end of December.
Since there are so few of us Jews, and Christmas is now officially over, it’s unlikely store clerks will continue to wish us a “happy holidays”. My hunch is that they will have moved on to “happy new year”. And that’s okay.
But maybe, just maybe, in the absence of other holidays to celebrate this week, people might consider trying out a secular celebration of Chanukah. Here’s my pitch.
Pictures of Eggs
Hope you all had a merry Christmas and a great first two nights of Chanukah.
Right now on the road I’m working on my first cup of coffee. More than anything, I want to spend time with old friends, but also need to start packing for our next stop. All the same, I’m not prepared to abandon the blog.
So today, I’m sharing pictures of eggs.
The Warning Before Christmas
Next week I’ll be blogging live from rural Pennsylvania. But there’s something big that’s happening between now and then. And that’s Christmas.
Sure, Chanukah is happening then too. But that’s a lesser holiday. Plus, this year Chanukah extends past Christmas, so you’ll be hearing more about the fried treats I can find around the Bedford, Altoona, and Johnstown area.
This year, Christmas is even more significant for the Fussies since we’ll be having a bonafide Christmas dinner with Raf and his family in Westchester. I’m hoping that this is the start of a new family tradition. While I might miss stopping for Chinese food in State College, PA on the way down to the farm, it’s better to spend time with old friends who are indistinguishable from family.
I’m not sure what Raf will be cooking for Christmas. I hope to find out soon, so I can bring down wines that will pair well with the meal. But the food itself doesn’t matter. I’d be happy with a big pot of black beans and rice. I’m thinking that a Carménère might be the best pick for that. It’s a good question for another day.
Today though is not about wine. But it is about Christmas dinner. Because there are always people who will have their Christmas dinners ruined by failing to do one simple thing.
Take One For Tonga
Mutton flaps are killing people in Tonga. Where’s the outrage?
Okay. This is the kind of news story the FLB can get behind. Sure, “news” might be a stretch since the story is almost a year old. However, I’m in desperate need to leave the divisive politics and American social issues behind for a moment. And I also don’t want to think about all the other awful things happening around the world right now.
It’s almost Christmas, so let’s try and bring some joy and good will. This is the perfect post for that, because as it turns out, saving the good people of Tonga is both cheap and delicious.
The first thing we’re going to have to learn how to do is love the mutton flap.
Twenty Five Ounces
Yes, last night I had the vegan Reuben at Berben & Wolff’s. But lunch was a brie, bacon, and pear sandwich at Sweet Sue’s. And today, it’s likely I’ll get some kind of grilled cheese sandwich at The Cheese Traveler.
Even though I was given permission to loosen up the constraints of my diet, I’m afraid the floodgates have opened, and the only way to get back on the right path is to shut them down completely.
That will happen sometime in January. In the meantime, there’s too much eating to do. Like what happened on Monday. Because on Monday, I found myself in Schenectady, a mere stone’s throw from Capri Imports.
I suppose I could have gone to La Gioia and have one of their magnificent Italian mix subs. It was the sandwich that won the last Fussy Little Tour of Italian Delis. However, I already knew what sandwich was great at that spot.
The question was, could I finally find the sandwich of my dreams at Capri.
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