What I learned today

I'm not a morning person. I bumble around and run into walls until I get enough coffee in me.

Inspired by Jenise, I was going to make a souffle this morning for breakfast, but I ran out of time before meeting a friend for more coffee. So I settled on a cheese omelet for us. When I ate my omelet, I detected some fishy flavor. It soon dawned on me that I had grabbed canola oil + butter instead of EVOO + butter (I decant oils into other bottles with pour spouts).

Then, after I swallowed my dose of pills upstairs and brushed my teeth, I came downstairs and could smell a hint of fish lingering throughout my main floor. It was that damned canola oil. I'm never buying canola oil again.

[Jenise]

Good move, Larry. I use only olive oil--light, robust, and super fine for condiment purposes, but it's all olive all the time.

I use olive oil for most things but I reach for grapeseed oil when I am going to use a hot pan.

[Jenise]

Jeff, I understand why. I would too if I did much of anything on super high heat, but I guess I don't.

I use olive oil for most things but I reach for grapeseed oil when I am going to use a hot pan.

I use grapeseed oil, avocado oil, or peanut oil for high temps. They all have roughly the same smoke point.

[Jenise]

From another episode of Simply Ming wherein he's on some kind of Rhine river cruise (as a guest chef): in Germany, they have a law that stipulates how cooked your french fries can be, an attempt by the government to limit the darker cook and carcinogenic qualities associated with them. Probably other European countries do likewise--the Netherlands would probably be one. They're very concerned about not over-browning meats, etc.

I learned to check the label first and not just blindly grab the Angostura bitters bottle off the shelf and add a dash to my Manhattan cocktail without looking.

Maggi seasoning is not a substitute for Angostura bitters in cocktails.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

LOL, Paul. Did you actually add it and taste it before you realized your mistake?

I realized the mistake as soon as I made it, but I did take a taste just out of curiosity. Let's just say that Maggi seasoning has no place in mixology.

-Paul W.

I learned to check the label first and not just blindly grab the Angostura bitters bottle off the shelf and add a dash to my Manhattan cocktail without looking.

Maggi seasoning is not a substitute for Angostura bitters in cocktails.

-Paul W.

LOL. But at least your Manhattan had some umami.

Didn't realize that.

Last time I bought it, I bought it in Canada and it got seized at the border. They took my fresh curry leaves because they're in the citrus family, took my 3 yr aged basmati because they don't allow rice from anywhere but China, took my eggplant because no nightshades ever anytime (none of this I knew prior to that day) and just to punish me they took anything else I forgot about being in the car and failed to name specifically. Can't recall which side of the problem the methi fell on.

I think I have an explanation for that. Kaffir lime leaves are some of the most susceptible to citrus canker, a bacterial disease that is slowly wiping out the citrus industry. At one point in Florida they were uprooting all citrus trees within 580 yards of an infected one, until they concluded that it wasn't going to be possible to eradicate the disease even with that level of culling. So my guess is they are super strict on all leaves that are citrus, because they are so commonly imported.

I think I have an explanation for that. Kaffir lime leaves are some of the most susceptible to citrus canker, a bacterial disease that is slowly wiping out the citrus industry. At one point in Florida they were uprooting all citrus trees within 580 yards of an infected one, until they concluded that it wasn't going to be possible to eradicate the disease even with that level of culling. So my guess is they are super strict on all leaves that are citrus, because they are so commonly imported.

Similar to what happened for a while with szechuan peppercorns.

[Jenise]

At one point in Florida they were uprooting all citrus trees within 580 yards of an infected one, until they concluded that it wasn't going to be possible to eradicate the disease even with that level of culling. So my guess is they are super strict on all leaves that are citrus, because they are so commonly imported.

Makes sense, Walt, and I didn't know about that. Very distressing to learn about. Though I admit, a lot of the do's and don'ts don't seem to make much sense; we suspect there are often politics involved as much as science.

[Jenise]

What I learned last week is that I love deep fried pickles. Or at least, I will if they're done right. We stopped at a little open-air dive restaurant in Absarokee Montana for burgers, an ugly little not-particularly-well-maintained place in the middle of nowhere that people travel some distance to eat at. You know the kind, you'd probably drive right by it if you didn't know it was supposed to be a 'hidden gem'.

So yeah, had a really great burger with a hand-formed char-broiled patty, a 32 ounce freshly made lemonade, and instead of fries or tots I got deep fried pickles as my side. I'm not sure if I've had deep-fried pickles before. I've been aware of them for a long time and do believe we ordered them somewhere in our travels, like Atlanta or Nashville, but I'm not sure--maybe I have just seen pictures. Either way, what I remember were chips, flat slices. These were spears: long, fat and red-chile pepper spicy. WOW.

[Jenise]

What I learned on Thursday is that since the last time I was physically at a metro post office (vs. the country one-holer I usually go to) they've invented a machine that will weigh and measure your parcel (I originally typed 'package', not parcel, but revised it lest Bill Spohn misconstrue my meaning!!!!), charge you for it, and print you a label. Neat!! Btw, the occasion on which this happened was me mailing a cookbook to Jo Ann--after all these years we're finally going to get together and cook a meal! And we're going to design our meal based on recipes in Marcus Samuelsson's new book Rise, which is what I sent her a copy of (I bought 2). Was going to be next week but we've had to delay it due to illness (my husband), but it's going to happen soon!

I buy all my stamps from the post office vending machines. Most convenient. I do wonder how accurate those scales are. I've always wondered that about the scales at the PO counter, too, given that the postal clerks usually use the scale as a writing platform.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

This week I learned that Trader Joe's has an excellent frozen pie crust dough. A friend made a TERRIFIC onion tart using it, and I was totally fooled. Didn't have that fake flavor that those shelf-stable pre-made doughs of regular grocery stores, this tastes great and had perfect, tender texture.

OH BY THE WAY, speaking of that I forgot to tell y'all that I brought a new rolling pin home from Montana. It's handmade out of red bubinga wood. For years I've had a German rolling pin whose tapering makes it harder to get dough even, plus a short one that's exactly an even width that I preferentially use for evenness but, well, it's short! I constantly wish it were longer. Well, now I have one that's longer and not tapered, and it's very beautiful to boot plus a reminder of a beautiful place.

Sounds nice! I am still very happy using a piece of oak dowel, maybe 18" long. Perfect cylinder, of course.

[Jenise]

Jeff, that's exactly what I'd been planning to do and never got around to buying. No need to spend money on fancy red wood unless you want a souvenir.

Heh. I got mine from a wood shop. Op shop, so to speak.

Maple ones from restaurant supply stores are only four or five bucks.

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[Jenise]

I love the Custer post office and avoid Blaine. The machine I mentioned was at the P.O. in downtown Bham. I hate CJs and never go there. A friend of mine got a job there as hostess and the owner's wife, in training her, instructed her to put the fat people in back and only put the thin, attractive people in the windows. Another story: a guy went in there and service was slow so when he finally got an opportunity to order a cocktail he ordered a double. The bill for that? $27. He was flabbergasted and complained. Mrs. Owner told him, "we're a resort town and these are resort town prices". Too, they 'buy' fake reviewers to post about their restaurant on Trip Advisor and Yelp. One reviewer, who obviously had never been there so couldn't speak specifically about the food, talked about how a whale swam right up to her window and she and the waiter named it. They're not even on the water side of the street, nor can whales swim in 3 feet of water which is the depth when the tide's in. The Steakhouse is a joke, too. Went there once, never been back.

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