Text 36039, 80 rader
Skriven 2010-03-20 09:14:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av JIM WELLER
Ärende: somewhat better 947
===========================
 JW> now do I gamble $29 on the more expensive brand?
 ML> Really, it would be better to save one's pennies and visit Ian.
 JW> A pleasant thought.

Just hold off on buying truffle oil a hundred times or so,
et voila, Ian's beckons.

 -=> Jim Weller said to Glen Jamieson <=-

 GJ> For healthy eating on a budget, look how the people in poor countries
 GJ> cope.  Strongly flavoured spices extend the small amounts of meats
 GJ> served with rice
 JW> Or pasta, corn meal, bread, potatoes depending on the country. If
 JW> those starches are supplemented with beans, peas and lentils protein
 JW> requirements are met and the need for meat minimal. I love meat and
 JW> probably eat too much of it but it's not hard to go from a 12 oz
 JW> steak to 4 oz of pot roast when it is paired with a tasty bean dish
 JW> enriched with pot roast juices.

I ate a 6-oz steak yesterday. Of course, it came with 2
4-oz crab cakes.

The kitchen here is an appalling mess. The other day I made some
chuck eyes (3.19/lb on sale with card), which cooked up almost
like ribeyes but with a little chew to them, which I like; but
afterward, I threw in the towel and told Jonathan that he had to
do a substantial cleanup before I could dare cook again there.
But after a half hour of semi-attention, he wandered off leaving
the place worse off than it was before. I'm going to have to get
a camera and document this, but suffice it to say that I am not
making it up.

So what to do for dinner? I still have a handful of McCormick
and Schmick $20 off per table coupons (they expire in 2 weeks),
and he suggested we use one. Okay, I said, but we'll go Dutch.
I should have said, no, that will reward you for being a jerk,
but I didn't.

8 pm reservation (the time suggested by himself). No Jonathan.
A call comes, I'm on the subway, will be there at 8:15. I tell
McCormick's, give away our table if you like, but they don't.
He shows up at 8:40. I say, subway bad today, and he admits, no,
everything was fine, he just didn't leave work until 8, for no
apparent reason. So I give him the lecture about promptness,
which sails right past.

Okay. As we're going Dutch, he gets the cheapest main course,
the rainbow trout. Commendable frugality, which I wish he might
once in a while exercise when I or the estate is paying. He
also orders an extra order of broccoli and an extra order of
roasted Yukon potatoes. I ask him why he wants so much broccoli
(a big serving comes with anyhow), and he mumbles something about
how he read that the stuff prevents cancer. Ah, well, at least
he's doing something about his health. What comes: over a pound
of broccoli, about a full head's worth, which, to my surprise,
he actually finishes.

Menu anomaly. 6 oz filet - $27. "America's Crab" promotion:
6 oz filet plus 4 oz crab cake - $27, add another crab cake or
some king crab legs for $5. So I ask for the filet extra rare,
still like jelly inside, and two crab cakes. What comes: a filet
of slightly above standard quality, sprinkled with sea salt
and then griddled for half a minute less than I would cook it
myself, so the outside is barely gray and the inside is 
gloriously completely raw. YES! Why can this place get it
right and other places not? Though Texas Roadhouse is good at
it as well. A good steak, despite its being a filet.
A pantload of steamed broccoli with some kind of seasoning (MSG?)
and a lot of butter. Two crab cakes made of a mixture of lump
and something else, all blue crab, though - one excellent,
the other with too much breading and some membrane.

A half bottle of Conundrum is on the menu for $20, a relative
bargain. So I order it, and it's out of course, so instead of
trading up to one of the only two available half bottles (each
over $40), I have a Yuengling instead. Serves them right.

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