Text 3107, 121 rader
Skriven 2006-07-10 08:14:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: report 956
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So I was invited to lunch with my ex-b-i-l and his new
wife and our friends the Fishers - being an affluent
bunch, all our food was bought of the farmers' market
that morning and consisted of local berries (blue,
black, and rasp) with fresh cantaloupe, breads from
some farmer's wife (blueberry scones, good, almond
croissants, excellent, cherry Danish, okay but for
canned filling), and omelets, which John, being a bit
of a yuppie and gradually forgetting what my sister
had taught him, made in a wok, except for the one that
he started in a Cuisinart straight-sided saucepan and
that stuck horridly (I rescued it and ate it) - the
omelets were topped with a mixture of (local) Swiss
chard, onions, and red peppers. I don't care for Swiss
chard (or Swiss anything except for chocolate sometimes
and Gruyere when I'm in the mood, only to my taste the
best Gruyere doesn't come from Switzerland anyhow) but
ate the vast portion manfully.

The notable things about this meal were: they asked me
to make mimosas using a bottle of old bubbly that had
been given to Vicki (John's new wife) by (as the label
said) Compliments of Key Realty back when she was married
the first time, so close on a decade ago. The stuff was
heavily maderized, so that one could use less of it and
give the impression that there was a lot of booze in the
orange juice, but the bubbles were mostly gone. The
mimosas were okay at best. But most interesting were the
sausages that went with the omelets. They were small,
barely an ounce if that, full of paprika and vinegar so
the effect was of a kind of chorizo, but also well hung
so there was an aspect of Smithfield ham about them.
They were (this is a yuppie farmers' market) incredibly
lean and dense, and it turned out that John's cholesterol-
aware doling out of one per plate was about enough (though
I had a second one while the others were chowing down on
their second half omelet made with free-range hen eggs
laid yesterday).

What was the point of this, I forget.

Oh, yeah, there was an interesting yuppie food topic that
came up that I was going to discuss, but I've forgot it now.

Anyhow, the Fishers took me to Bethesda afterward, and
instead of going out to dinner, we went to the Chinese
grocery, where my father gets lots of prepared stuff,
including, this time, a pound of Chinese sausage, a pound
of char siu, a whole duck, a quart of bean curd in hot
pepper sauce, a pound of lion's head meatballs (Jonathan
said that at this place they used too much filler, so I
said why don't I make them myself? which was for some
unknown reason frowned upon - a prophet being dishonored
in his own country, that sort of thing), two dozen
lotus seed buns (for my father's breakfast), assorted
other buns, 5 packages of frozen eight treasure rice
pudding, and enough to bring the total to $77. I'm sort
of surprised that my father is more solvent than I am.

I told my brother that while we were away in England
I expected him to exercise a bit more fiscal restraint
than he was being exampled to do; today I'll tell him
that his week's food budget will be 70 bucks and see
what he replies (I can't imagine spending $10 a day
except if I go to restaurants or have people over).

Oh, off topic, one very cool thing: we were off on the
subject of how unsafe the bike paths are, with children
and incompetents causing accidents, and John was relating
a story about a friend of his who was riding along minding
his own business, when someone tried to pass him in traffic
but had to swerve and fell off onto him, so he sustained
several broken ribs and a broken collarbone, whereas the
culprit, whose fall was cushioned of course, had minimal
damage. Whereupon Carol Fisher (Carol B wasn't there, as
I decided inviting her for a 1 1/2 hour drive each way
for a 2 hour event might be silly) said, broken collarbone?
Was this at [such and so bikepath]? Was it a big woman?
[all answers yes]. Turns out the culprit was a friend of
hers!, and Carol reported, with some dudgeon, that in fact
her friend had suffered two sprained wrists and so didn't
get off so scot-free as all that after all.

---------- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.02

      Title: Lion's Head Meatballs
 Categories: Meats, Main dish, Microwave
      Yield: 4 servings

      6 lg Bok choy cabbage leaves
           -- washed
           Warm water
    3/4 lb Ground beef
    1/2 lb Ground pork
    1/2 lb Imitation crab meat, flaked
    1/3 c  Kikkoman Stir-Fry Sauce
      2 tb Chopped green onions & tops
      2 ts Minced fresh ginger root
      1 tb Kikkoman Stir-Fry Sauce

  Remove stems from bok choy; chop enough to measure 1 cup.  Place leaves in
  9 x 13-inch microwave-safe baking dish; add enough warm water to fill dish
  halfway.  Cover; microwave on High 5 minutes.  Remove leaves and cool with
  cold water; drain.  Spread leaves out flat on paper towels; set aside.
  Thoroughly combine next 6 ingredients and bok choy stems.  Divide into 6
  equal portions; shape into meatballs.  Enclose each in bok choy leaf;
  place in 9 x 13-inch microwave-safe baking dish.  Cover; microwave on
  Medium-high (70%) 6 minutes.  Uncover; brush tops lightly with 1 Tbsp.
  stir-fry sauce.  Cover; microwave on Medium-high (70%) 7 minutes longer.
  Serve immediately.

  Makes 4 to 6 servings.

  Source: MICROWAVE MAGIC with Kikkoman Sauces
  Reprinted with the permission of Kikkoman International Inc.
  Electronic format courtesy of Karen Mintzias

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