... and stops my mind from wandering where it will go.

In a job like YDS's sometimes you hear the same information from the same people more than once.  Heck, sometimes you hear it like a hundred thousand times.  The message is the same.  The audience is the only thing that changes, and YDS finds himself in that same audience too many times.

That repetition, in a positive vein, can fix the "hole[s] where the rain gets in," and allow for some very productive mind wandering.  Especially for someone who is homesick, and hungry.  When that hungry and homesick person takes notes on the wanderings of his mind (as YDS did yesterday), it can be sort of interesting and so I thought I would share those wanderings (and my annotations to those wanderings) with you, Dear Reader.  The following is what appeared in my notepad after the session.  To wit:

cheese and beer ...
perhaps a crusty bread

chicken wings and a wheat beer

a vodka plate and Russky Platinum
at kipoklu nams or the Russian Restaurant

Bischoff's fish and chips and a well-poured Guiness
with lots of vinegar

Fried oysters with slightly underdone steak fries and tooth-cracking cold Budweiser

Masitas de peurco with fried plantains and a mojito

Shrimp and scallops with a champagne tomatillo sauce over fresh pasta with a great Pinot Grigio.

Some thoughts on my wanderings. 

Cheese and beer is probably self explanatory.  But as I thought further, I was imagining that excellent Irish sharp cheddar in my mind, crumbling slightly as you cut it and standing up nicely to a hoppy IPA.  A big hunk of crispy crusty on the outside and moist on the inside sourdough to set it off just completes the culinary poem.

Chicken wings and a wheat beer.  Spicy chicken wings are among YDS's favorite food.  For all their cursed corporateness, Buffalo Wild Wings (formerly BW3's) has some of the best widely available sauce at their restaurants (although homemade is best).  It's too bad the quality of the chicken they buy is completely horrendous.  Anyway, half of their "Hot" and half of their "Spicy Garlic" strikes the perfect balance.  A good wheat beer has excellent mouth feel and stands up well to the spicy sauce.  It makes a perfect companion.

In Northern Europe, they drink a lot of vodka.  To cleanse your palate between shots of vodka (and YDS suspects to keep you drinking), they often will bite into a pickle or some kind of salted fish.  In fancy restaurants, to those that are drinking a lot of vodka, they serve what is known as a vodka plate, which is loaded down with pickles of all kinds, pickled cucumbers, olives, garlic, onions, etc.  And usually some salted meat and fish.  In a higher class place, there might be some caviar as well.  YDS was introduced to this excellent culinary/drinking experience in Riga, Latvia.  The Kipoklu Krogs (the Garlic Bar although I could swear it was the Kiploklu Nams or Garlic House when I was there) serves an excellent vodka plate, as does the fancy Russian restaurant (not suprisingly).  Given the finanical collapse in Latvia, YDS is not certain that either still exists.

Ireland has a fast food fish and chips chain called Beschoff's.  It's the best fish and chips I've ever had.  Plus they have all different kinds of fish, included smoked fish.  You may pickle your insides from the sodium, but you will enjoy it.  Perhaps the Guiness will balance out the salt.  Perhaps not.

Fried oysters might be my favorite food of all time, if it isn't chicken wings.  I have great memories of standing in a cold drizzle at the Oyster Festival in Urbana with a huge plate of fried oysters in one hand and trying to eat while balancing an ice cold Budweiser in the other hand.  The term "tooth cracking cold" comes from a theatre friend of YDS's and is the best way to drink a Budweiser, which even though it has it's charms and it's place, is not the best crafted beer in the world.  I'm not sure why the image of a slightly underdone steak fry jumped into my mind, but I love how there's a little firmness and extra potato "bite" to a big steak fry that isn't quite done.

There's a small Cuban fast food place in the basement food court of the International Building on I street in DC.  Their masitas de puerco (chunks of pork) are unbelievable.  I don't know how they make them, but most recipes require overnight marinating in bitter orange juice and lots of onions and garlic.  You deep fry the pork and cover with a buttery, oniony, garlicy sauce.  Holy smokes.  A mojito would go perfect with this meal, but sadly, the food court is dry....

The tomatillo recipe is one of the many masterpieces of YDS's chef sister.  I love tomatillos and seafood and this recipe is brilliant.  She recently shared the secret of the sauce in the family recipe book that I blogged about last year.  Fresh pasta is time consuming, but worth the wait...

If YDS was following the rules of essay construction, this would be the point at which I added a pithy conclusion about food and comfort and taste and memory and the association of food with love.  But YDS is an iconoclast and the conclusions at the moment seem awfully trite and unenlightening.  So I will close by saying, all this note taking has made me hungry...

How I did.

Well, Dear Reader, I am long since returned from R&R and thought I'd provide you an update on how I did running down the things that I miss from the U.S. while I was home.  So here they are in order:

• A well poured pint of Guiness - I had a decent (but not great) pint at Champp's Sports Bar in Pentagon City.  What it may have lacked in quality, I absolutely made up for in quantity.  Thanks to all of YDS's friends who met for many pints and sports bar type food.  Well enjoyed.
• Sushi - YDS's brother in law took him to an excellent sushi bar in Virginia Beach and introduced him to white tuna.  Absolutely amazing, a great restaurant and great company.
• Good mexican food - Had a great meal and great fun with Skippy Jr. at Mexico Restaurant.  There was balloon sculpture and really good salsa, so everyone was happy.
• Good chinese food - Eat Rice carry out near my sister's house.  A nice meal with YDS's sister and her family.
• A nice restaurant (of any sort) - Satisfied this jones by drinking with a dear friend at the The Jefferson's recently renovated bar.
• A great Southern breakfast - McLean's with the author of Greg's Alien.  Salt herring and eggs.  Biscuits and gravy.  If it weren't for the fact that we talked for an hour afterward, I wouldn't have been able to move.
• Rain - It rained a lot while we were at Virginia Beach.  Lots of my favorite misty foggy type rain.  Check and checked well.
• Fall - It was late fall, with a lot of leaves already down, but still fall.  Check.
• A good orthoepaedic mattress - Not so much.  My parents have a decent bed in their guest bedroom, but not great.  I still miss my mattress.
• College football on at the right time of day - Oh yeah.  Although Skippy Jr. did not believe it was a good use of my time. 
• A massage - My parents had a therapist all lined up to greet me the first day I was home.  It really helped unkink after the long long trip.
• Sundays as part of the weekend - This was certainly true, but it wasn't a big deal, because I was on vacation the whole time.  Hee hee.
• A sports bar - The aforementioned Champp's where we happened on the replay of the UNC v. Stanford semi final in women's soccer, which I did not know the outcome of, so it was almost as good as watching live.

So there you have it, Dear Reader, an R&R full of checking off the list.  YDS was pretty successful and had a great R&R.

Family Cookbook and a recipe for you, Dear Reader

YDS's mom is putting together a family cookbook.  There's going to be a lot of great recipes in it, so I'm very excited.  Even though I'm a pretty decent cook, YDS's main contribution to the book so far has been to suggest some of his favorite dishes from various and sundry family members, especially my grandfather and grandmother.  Many of my memories of my grandfather have to do with food, but perhaps that is a thought best left for another entry. 

My mother did ask me to include one recipe.  It is not the hardest thing I can make, and certainly not the most sophisticated.  But it is one of my favorites and I explained why in the "story" that went with my recipe.  I share it with you now, dear reader:

The Man Behind the Brats


Other than a secret party, my favorite party is a tailgate. I've been making brats this way for about twenty years - ever since I lived in the Midwest and realized it was brats, and not necessarily fried chicken, that was the absolute must have for any good tailgate. (Although I do love fried chicken and a screwdriver.) This recipe has served me well, from UNC football, to DC United, to Richmond Kickers, to US Men's National Team games. The key to their success is not overcooking them in the steaming, but leaving them to finish up on the grill having marinated overnight in a good hoppy beer.


Someone once told me that there is no such thing as a cooking wine; if you want a dish to taste good with wine in it, use a good wine. The same is true for beer. Don't skimp on the beer in this recipe.


YDS

YDS's Tailgate Brats

One package Wisconsin-style brats (Johnsonville or similar)
One very large onion
Two bottles of a good hoppy beer (like a microbrew IPA)
At least two cloves of chopped garlic


1. Coarsely chop the onion and two cloves of garlic.
2. Place one half of the onion and all of the garlic in a the bottom of a large pot fitted with a steamer.
3. Arrange the brats in the steamer. Try to minimize the brats touching each other, so that they will steam evenly.
4. Pour one of the beers over the brats and turn on a high heat.
5. Bring the beer with the onions and garlic to a boil and steam the brats until they turn grayish on the outside, but retain some pink on the inside about ten minutes. Again, take care not to overcook. You want plenty of the fat in the sausage to remain in brats.
6. Once they reach their partially cooked stage (grayish on the outside with a little pink remaining in the middle; about ten minutes) remove from the heat and allow to cool.
7. Place the brats in a large Tupperware or similar container with the remaining onion and as much of the second beer as will fit. If the entire beer won't fit in the container, the leftover will almost certainly fit in you.
8. Marinate overnight. It isn't a tragedy if you are doing this the morning of your event, because you can probably get some decent marinating time in on the way to the stadium.
9. Cook over a good hot charcoal fire on a crisp fall day with the anticipation of a great sporting event. Turn frequently. They are done when they are golden brown and the fat bubbles out clear when you poke them. But only poke one when you are pretty sure that they are done.
10. Serve on a good roll with a robust mustard and sauerkraut.


Usually serves 4 Persons at two brats each
 
So there it is.  I hadn't written much lately until I had a whack at this and I was sort of pleased with how it turned out, so I decided to share it with you.

Of Raw Fish and Fast Food

There's a new "fast food" sushi restaurant near work. I've been hesitant to try it, because for one, I already have a carry out sushi place near work, and for two, it seemed extremely corporate--a sort of McDonald's with raw fish. The place that I usually go to is a very Mom and Pop sort of place or maybe two brothers and a daughter... in any event, very much a family operation. I like them, they know me, and the sushi chef there has an uncanny knack for keeping everyone's order in his head. Seriously, no matter how busy they are, I've never seen him write anything down.

So anyway, as curiosity overcame me and I decided to finally try the new place, I felt somewhat unfaithful as I entered the slick and eye popping newness of "Wasabi To Go." Now I try very hard not to be sexist, but the first thing I noticed is that there were three young women behind the counter. This was not a good sign, as I know the Japanese culture is pretty sexist and for the most part, women are not taught to be sushi chefs. I also try very hard not to be culturally biased, but I also took it as a bad sign that two of the three young women working there were not Japanese, but Hispanic.

Well, the sushi lived down to my greatly diminished expectations. The rolls were made on, get this, a MACHINE!!! All the sushi "chef" did was put the ingredients down in order. All the fish had been pre sliced and spending god knows how long losing its flavor.

The lesson here must be that "There is value in loyalty." Or something like that.