What's For Dinner Tonight?

Don Gin and Ton said:

1st one, i like second not so much. there's a new food place opened across the way from my work which specialise in veggie and vegan friendly stuff. i'm thinking about propositioning them to feed me for a month and see how i get on with it. only thin is they are quite pricey.

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sadly vegan food and natural food is in the trendy part stage where its still getting awareness so everything is fucking expensive unless you do it yourself . kinda like when hybrid cars came out for the first time they were super expensive now not so much

i wouldn't mind so much but i actually eat really healthy now. think i'll have to make a switch from red meat to chicken and cut out beer. that should hopefully swings things back into balance without meds but the pains i'm having at the moment nothing is touching them. valiums, codeine. weed actually intensifies the feelings which really sucks.

no beer with summer upon us doesn't fill me with joy.

Korean chicken for dinner...yup! yup!

Im sad, my beef shank cut sat around too long....ffs, garbage. Once again, im eatin a farmers market sandwich

That sucks Don. I will happily eat all kinds of veggie food if it's given to me, but i could never give up meat and fish. I'm sure you will be able to find a way to continue to enjoy these things, even if just in strict moderation. First website i came across states you can have 6 ounces of meat or fish a day. A damned sight better than being forced to go full blown vegan. Does make me wonder about my own diet though. Mine is pretty much meat, fish, and alcohol. Not gonna catch me giving up the meat and fish, although asian cooking is good in that it uses a lot less but still tastes good, but i would really love to give up the booze, but well, with no weed, you finish a long day at work and a bevvy or two feel rather justified and desirable.

Doc said to give the booze a month off keep a pain diary and they're testing kidney function ans muscle enzyme testing whatever that is ?!? See how it goes. Thanks man. No booze for a month is going to be a real test. :'(

Aye man. I did it for a month, finishing a fortnight ago when kuroi came down. Couldn't stick to it, got to friday night and thought hey, it's friday. Fridays aside though, i did darn good. Was tough those first 3 or 4 days as you get used to sleeping naturally, but after that it was fairly easy going, with the saturday morning just empowering my resolve to stick at it. Think i'll have another crack at it, from today why not. Became very aware of how badly the booze was effecting me. Studying became easier with regard to concentration, work was more bearable, but mostly my issue is routine. I have a severe addiction to routine. When i'm drinking, my days are based around the booze, dinner and a bath must be done by a certain time giving me X hours to consume my beer, wouldn't go downstairs or out and about to see people as it would mess up my schedule. Fucking useless i am. My addiction to routine is often the cause of my additiction to substances. I could stop smoking if i wanted, but at work, i have to have a cig before service, and have to have one before clear down. Not because i need a cig, just because that's what my routine is.

Erm, food, yes, dinner. I think i shall goto the shop and buy lots of ingredients and make up a bunch of wontons. Thinking 40 fish based, 40 meat based, and maybe 40 veg based. Thinking prawn, venison, and butternut squash.

man last time i did it i managed ok. the mental clarity is so much more apparent than when i regularly drink, dulled senses all round.

think it's going to be a simple fish fingers, chips and steamed veg tonight. been up since 3 writhing about with these effin pains. missus kicked me out into the spare bed at 3 n once i'm fully awake that's that. body clock will try n wake me at the same time tonight. if it does I might go n cycle up the river for an hour. it's light enough lol

Turkey meatballs for dinner. Spent the last 3 hours making wontons. After prepping took 2 hours to wrap up 90 of em, so listened to a 2 hour howard marks interview while doing it, good stuff. Got another 90 to make after dinner. Can't wait to fry some of them up. Might try making some plum sauce to go with em.

Dinner wasn't enough. Nnow I am truly satisfied, half price smoked oysters!

Went to an awsome dive bar today, they serve fried chicken and its the best fried chicken ive ever had. They made these potato wedges fried in the same batter as the chicken and holy smokes they were good, ill be back.....now i got a place for tacos, fish n chips, fried chicken, thai food, and sushi. What the hell more could a guy ask for, oh, dim sum and pho

ham cheese n pickle with lettuce on wheat buns with a bunch of grapes and a banana for lunch.

put a chilli in the crockpot for tonight's eats, normally i put a dried chilli in but we're done from last seasons crop so i subbed with cayenne. took a sip of the sauce before i left and may have over shot a little.

loo roll in the fridge the morrow......

You're lucky NB. No suhi bars or anything like that around here, or in the next town or so. Just your standard pubs and pizza places. Not even a chinese restaurant, just a crappy take away.

Cooked up sesame chicken and pineapple with steamed rice. Simple but tasty

So last night I opened a bottle that surprised me with its loveliness. An '89 Coudoulet de Beaucastel, the "second wine" of Château de Beaucastel, the Katharine Hepburn of the Northern Rhône. The Coudoulet is only called a Côtes du Rhône, not a prestigious tag, but this wine shhows what that all means. This bottle hasn't had the best of lives, but when i pulled the seepage-stained cork, I was so happy. It had much of its big smoky nose left, along with the sort of red fruit that could make a guy sit up and say "Côte de Nuits!!" The Burgundian poise showed in the mouth as well, but with that characteristic grapefruit-and-loam bite of its proper terroir. At twenty-four, this bottle was at the top of her fine-boned form. Gawd i love the wines of southern France.

So to celebrate this bottle I prepared a simple repast with the emphasis on good ingredients:
two thin rib eyes briefly seared in butter
a coupla chunks of artisan bread (Pugliese style) with Boursin, but the shallot&chive sort
a chunk of real Emmental, glistening with the heat of the day

and a tall glass of Seltzer water (wish I'd had Perrier!) to share hydration duty with the nectar from the cellars of Jacques Perrin et fils. cn

Its true, the french do make the best wine. By far. Theres alot that they are the best at. A couple years back i bought four bottles of ten - fifteen yr old south african wine while i was down there and three of the four were bad. The worst part was that the wines i found were wines that i had tasted when i lived there. I probably wouldnt have remembered what they tasted like, but it still would have been nice to test them out knowing i could have drank from the same batch that these bottles came from. Im jelly over that bottle of ruby red Cann, i hope you drank it all to yourself

tip top toker said:

You're lucky NB. No suhi bars or anything like that around here, or in the next town or so. Just your standard pubs and pizza places. Not even a chinese restaurant, just a crappy take away.

Cooked up sesame chicken and pineapple with steamed rice. Simple but tasty

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Its a good thing sushis so easy to make right

Ninjabowler said:

Its true, the french do make the best wine. By far. Theres alot that they are the best at. A couple years back i bought four bottles of ten - fifteen yr old south african wine while i was down there and three of the four were bad. The worst part was that the wines i found were wines that i had tasted when i lived there. I probably wouldnt have remembered what they tasted like, but it still would have been nice to test them out knowing i could have drank from the same batch that these bottles came from. Im jelly over that bottle of ruby red Cann, i hope you drank it all to yourself

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I've had a similar experience with Chilean and Argentine wines. I visited down that way in '84, and ehrmagerd the wines were lovely. But buying them here ... they tasted not just ~meh~, but bad. It's like they left a scrap of their souls at home while being loaded on the freighter. It's better now; I've scored some pleasant bottles, but I still think they know they're far from home.

I have half the bottle left for tonight. I plan to make home cheeseburgers with it. I'll try to remember to take the pic, but no promises. cn

Bravo CB, a meal to be revered. My family has a renovated 15thc blacksmith's cottage in the loire valley.

sadly in the uk wine like that is more than my wage commands. but now and then the family will bring a car load back and dish a few nice bottles. man it's such a quaint way of life over there. The little queue at the boulanger for their batons in the morning and oh my the patisserie. shit the french live well. but god damn i hate Parisian's.

well off to get the bloods taken. should find out in a week or so if my kidneys are f@cked.

The Coudoulet chronicles, the sequel

Tonight I am finishing the bottle. It's hotter than a teenager's night thoughts here in the 'Stan (and I'm being a miser with the air conditioning), so the bottle simultaneously opened up and blew off some of its enticing red fruit.
But goodness, the tannins and mouthfeel are in a simply lovely balance. It's the perfect Zen blend of hard and soft.

Tonight's culinary accompaniment was that most perfect of foods: the cheeseburger.

No pedestrian drive-through fare this. I started with ground beef from the best butcher in town, and I formed a perfect patty: even thickness, square edges. It's a gift I have.
I then pan-seared it to a rare state.
I sliced Swiss cheese (Danish alas and not Emmental. Nobody's "swiss" is a reasonable stand-in for real Emmental. The Danish one is pretty good , but i have to rate it as midway between the real deal and a neutral cheese like a good Monterey Jack.) thick and employed the marvelous little trick I discovered recently: I nuked it on a small plate to a softness just shy of gooey, so that the patty's trapped heat would finish the work of melting it.
I cut four slices off a fresh loaf of Pugliese-style bread. I sliced them thin. After all, I'm watching my carbs.
The condiment is a mix of a truly evil mustard (Kremser) unique to the swamps of northeastern Austria. The mayonnaise is one I make myself with corn oil and a goodly dash of tarragon. I love home mayo!! The ketchup is liberated from the local Golden Archery ... "tastes better stolen" is an axiom in our family. It's true; it's true!!
i present this with dessert: petits palmiers from a local bakery that NAILS the French style. One bite of one such, and BAM I am a lanky blonde teenager wandering the streets of Antibes from brasserie to pâtisserie. ~sigh~ the days.
A glass of RO water (imagine that ... why would I have that.) completes the tableau, shown on my breakfast tray. I've left the Thread Count Cocoon to post this before I polish off the last of Hepburn-In-a-Glass. cn

Don Gin and Ton said:

Bravo CB, a meal to be revered. My family has a renovated 15thc blacksmith's cottage in the loire valley.

sadly in the uk wine like that is more than my wage commands. but now and then the family will bring a car load back and dish a few nice bottles. man it's such a quaint way of life over there. The little queue at the boulanger for their batons in the morning and oh my the patisserie. shit the french live well. but god damn i hate Parisian's.

well off to get the bloods taken. should find out in a week or so if my kidneys are f@cked.

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I will observe that when I bought this bottle on release, it cost me $15.95. A sound CdP commanded $40, and next year I was happy to find the better clarets at $60-80. I sold my "real" Beaucastels (including five viciously-scrounged bottles of the incomparable Hommage à Jacques Perrin!) and those glorious '90 Bordeaux recently for good money. I quite recently re-inventoried the ruins of my cellar and am delighted to find I still have a coupla cases of '90 Hermitage left ... a wine I unrepentantly refer to as "the crotch sweat of God". I will open these only on occasions of high ceremony, and the fabulous condition of this old and maltreated second-stringer gives me a fine bracing confidence that the big boys will be worthy.
About the cellar: seven years ago i traveled with a few of my "in case of nuclear attack, drink this first" bottles to the 50th anniversary celebration of my parents. I was shocked and disappointed to find the '90 Margaux plainly cooked, and the '88 Guigal "La Turque" only passable. Lately though the bottles I've pulled, while plainly dented by the vicissitudes of imperfect storage during two summers during which my own life was in shards around my ankles, are beyond merely passable (including some rather modest domestics) and have regained a bit of poise. Their future seems to have brightened in lockstep with mine. cn