Text 1756, 158 rader
Skriven 2006-05-25 23:39:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av GLEN JAMIESON
Ärende: AU PROJECTS 726
=======================
 GJ> With all this talk about soft-shelled crabs, I had never eaten any, so
 GJ> the other evening when taken out to dine at the T-Chow, and I saw them
 GJ> listed as a chef's special ($14), I had to try them.
...
 GJ> just.  The texture was good, with a nice tender-crunch.  Just some
 GJ> pieces were oddly salty.  Overall, rather disappointing, mainly
 GJ> because of the lack of crab flavour.  Perhaps I should have ordered
 GJ> the stir-fried ducks' intestines...

Stir-fried intestines are wonderful. Crab flavor of soft-shells
is dependent on a bunch of factors - freshness, care in handling,
transparency of treatment, speed of cooking. I had some splendid
ones last night (see bottom of post).

 GJ> Dunno where my lot came from, but my guess would have been frozen,
 GJ> from SE Asia.  The larger ones were about 8 cm body diameter, but were
 GJ> quite tender.

Unless carefully flash-frozen, frozen are nowhere so good as fresh,
and your salty criticism indicates that they may have been brined
for preservation before freezing, which degrades them further.

 GJ> So smart, friendly dogs and cats are safe from your depredations;

But I have no intrinsic objection to dog or cat meat. 

=

 GJ> Hopefully your eyes and some of your skin will survive a couple of
 GJ> weeks.  Some people prefer an umbrella to a hat.  Others, from the
 GJ> Malay States wear hats like plates, to protect them from the glare,
 GJ> but mad dogs and Michael Loo go out in the.. out in the.. out in the..
 

Lived in Houston for 4 years without ever using a hat or
sunblock, never getting sunburn or sunstroke. Of course, one
has to work up to solar imperviousness, but between Caribbean
jaunts and trips in the convertible with the top down, I think
that I should be able to develop some melanin (though of course
between September, when the season essentially ends here, and
November, the tolerance may have gone away again). There was, I
admit, the day when I took a 4-mile hike (aborted from a 6-mile
one) in 107F weather and no canteen, after which I was not the
same at all.

 GJ> And of course, tasting is free, everywhere as far as I know, except
 GJ> at the Wine Centre in Adelaide.

Got to have some source of revenue in that city of pensioners
and folks on the dole.

 GJ> : the "Red Ass Curry and Noodle Cafe Restaurant".
 ML> Possibly. Depends what the red ass refers to.
 GJ> Communist donkey curry?
 ML> Communists I don't mind. Donkey meat I probably wouldn't mind.
 ML> Curry I never mind.
 GJ> The implications of an alternative interpretation could also be
 GJ> acceptable under some circumstances....

I've never been into spanking and am also in fact not
overfond of the ROF (which is probably what is described
by the restaurant name).

=

A mini-banquet at Royal East.
Present: Nicholas, Irina Muresanu, and myself
Cancellations: John & Irene (John was called away to some
exotic location, like Detroit or something, and Irene won't
go without him - just as well, as having two Irenes at the
same table might confuse), Gunther (the roof of his country
house was leaking from all the rain and was threatening to
fall in, and as he and his parents had built it with their
own hands [in the '30s or '40s] he felt he had to be there for
the repairs - I groused, why couldn't his son do it, but ... ).

I was all set for this big party (Nicholas promised frogs,
soft-shell crabs, and live shrimp), but life seems to have
interfered, so it was just the three of us. Irina was, as
glamorous women often are, fashionably late, and my tummy
was growling by the time she got in (excuse: she'd had a
6-hour rehearsal, followed by teaching at MIT).

Though Otto wasn't around, Ken was, and we were favored with
some fancy black tea blend with some Souchong in it; it's
after midnight as I type this, and the tea has something to
do with that. It was so good that I had almost a full cup
of it. Irina poured down the stuff like water (musician,
caffeine fiend, you know).

We started with the mustard green and chicken soup - I'd
voted for the pickled mustard green and pork soup (fatty),
but it was 2 to 1, and I must say that the soup was pretty
good, with a "friends of the house" amount of chicken, which
was white meat velveted with whole egg instead of the usual
egg white; the broth was delicate and good, and the vegetables
were done perfectly.

I'd ordered the Vouvray Clos Baudoin '03, a relative bargain
at $32 (it retails for about $20). It's a fairly prestigious
brand, the vineyards owned by Prince Philippe Poniatowski and
the wine made by Francois Chidaine. A peachy melony nose with
pleasant background sweetness but a touch less acid than I'd
expect, so that a slight peach-stone bitterness came out at
the end. It was made to seem even sweeter by the soup, but it
was just perfect with the next courses, which were

the usual squab (a pair but only one head), which were juicy
and superb as always; this time as it was a small group of
diners we had a nice presentation (instead of half a dozen
of the things heaped on a platter), with a sculpted tomato
and three bright green sauteed broccoli florets garnishing
the two tiny birds and

salt-pepper soft-shell crabs, which were wonderful. The
flavor is a delicate one, but the ginger slivers and fiery
santaka peppers are a fine accent, and a quick shake of
cornstarch and trip through pristine oil didn't hurt things
at all.

We also had a dish of hollow greens in fu ru sauce, which
was great with the rice that came unbidden.

Irina's eyes goggled at the amount of food. She said that
she's on a peculiar diet that allows her 900 Calories every
second day alternating with eating ad lib; luckily this
evening was a free eating one. Nicholas complained that
he'd pre-ordered a dish of frogs and a dish of shrimp, but
they hadn't come - just as well, as neither had three of
the guests. The bill did come, however, $33 apiece counting
wine, tax, and tip, a regular bargain.

Afterwards, we strong-armed Irina into going to Toscanini's,
where she (protesting fullness) had a dish of burnt caramel
ice cream; Nicholas had fresh mint ice cream, which he thought
wonderful but I opined tasted like watered-down toothpaste. I
had tiny taster bites of a couple new flavors - "linen vanilla,"
which tasted like a less eggy French vanilla but with a strong
and not wholly pleasant undertone of extract (the kid behind
the counter described it as several kinds of vanilla, tasting
sort of like cookie dough) and "carina," which is vanilla and
clove, an interesting and actually very nice combination. But
as I was out of pills, I had a scoop each of coconut and
chocolate sorbets - the kid had started my dish out with the
special grapefruit-tequila sorbet before realizing that that
wasn't the coconut, so I got to taste that too (rather sour
and bitter, not bad, not very boozy but you could detect the
tequilaish herbalness); the coconut was a bit leaner than
before (apparently others don't like the clots of coconut fat
so much as I do, so gradually the mix has gotten less and less
rich), but the chocolate was appropriately decadent (Irina
said that it was like essence of chocolate). Nicholas didn't
have any cash, so I paid (he promised to return the favor via
a wine dinner for when Carol visits in July).

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