As it looks like we have another developing terrorism story abroad, and I know you’ll want to talk about it, I’ll keep this brief. No blog posted last night because I did The Most Detroit Thing Imaginable, i.e., attended a popup dinner thrown by an up-and-coming chef, in this case a Detroit sushi artist. The theme was a Japanese home-cooked fall meal. If you’re expecting the sushi rolls you buy at the grocery, no dice. There was a squash thing in a dashi stock, fried smelt and tofu with pickled onions, everything vinegar-y and tart. Then there was this:
Salmon in three states of curing — none, one-day, three-day. I’m sorry I didn’t get the picture before the wasabi doodle was smeared. As a pop-up is basically a religious ceremony, eating before one has done the traditional Photograpy of the Food is sort of like chewing your communion host. Trust: It was very good. And I ate the flower, too.
Then there was this:
Noodles with sea urchin and salmon roe, as rich as anything you might be served in Paris or New Orleans. Then a little dish of ice cream then home to an early bed, and– psyche! Of course we rolled into the Motor City Casino. But just for a nightcap, and I was in bed by 11.
Let’s all turn our gaze to Mali, and allow ourselves just this one glimmer of grim amusement, from our commander in chief, just four paragraphs, on his favorite Obama conspiracy theory, with a great walk-off quote.
Have a good weekend, all.
brian stouder said on November 20, 2015 at 8:55 am
the photo of the noodles with sea urchin and salmon roe looks really, really good!
And, the Obama link got me laughing!
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alex said on November 20, 2015 at 9:06 am
I still chuckle when recalling one of my first visits to a Japanese restaurant many years ago. I didn’t try the flower. “Decolation. No eat!” instructed the waitress.
Wonder how many other people’s plates it was used on before they threw it out.
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coozledad said on November 20, 2015 at 9:22 am
The first time I ate at a Japanese restaurant was in DC, and I was shitfaced on sake. I’m afraid I made a spectacle of myself wolfing down several dishes. The waitress was laughing at my drunk ass.
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Judybusy said on November 20, 2015 at 9:36 am
Every year I take out my intern to celebrate a successful internship. They are with me for nine months, so it’s an intense partnership. Yesterday, I found out mine loves sushi, so now I know where we’re going!
The flower is a dendrobium orchid–was there actually any taste?
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nancy said on November 20, 2015 at 9:41 am
It was more of a texture thing, Judy. But surprisingly…”buttery,” I guess you’d say.
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ROGirl said on November 20, 2015 at 9:58 am
Noble Fish is a Japanese grocery store with a sushi counter in the back. It’s where all the Japanese in the area shop and there’s always a line for the sushi. No flowers, but really good miso soup.
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Dorothy said on November 20, 2015 at 10:08 am
Well it wasn’t sushi or sexy, but I got to have lunch at Bibibop in Columbus last Saturday. I had some miso soup with my noodles and spicy chicken bowl. It’s 51 weeks since I had it for the first time at a different Columbus location. It was every bit as good as the first time I had it. There’s a new location north of Cincinnati I’ll have to get to. I wonder how long ’til they open one in Dayton?!
LOVED the Obama story.
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Connie said on November 20, 2015 at 10:22 am
ROGirl, there’s a place like that in Novi, Japanese grocery store where there is always a line for sushi.
I’ve had sushi only a few times and found it sort of bland and all the same. So I am quite sure I am completely missing something.
Plus I have an extremely sensitive burning mouth and prefer not to eat stuff like wasabi. Or sirachi. Maybe a little tabasco green.
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Deborah said on November 20, 2015 at 10:45 am
Love, love, love sushi, I like the tuna varieties best.
If you are as ignorant of Mali as I am this might help https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamako. Certainly I’ve heard about it from time to time and here and there, but I didn’t know where in Africa it was etc. It seems to have a long and rich history. And obviously French connections.
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MichaelG said on November 20, 2015 at 12:12 pm
As you might expect, there are tons of places that serve sushi and sashimi here in California and there have been for years. Not to put too fine a point on it but the photo above depicting raw salmon appears to show sashimi, not sushi. Sashimi is simply the raw delicacy sliced thinly and presented. Sushi includes rice as a base or backing for the fish or seafood and is often presented in the form of an elaborate roll.
There markets that sell “sushi grade” fish and seafood. It’s wonderful stuff but bring $$. Since there’s just me and since I don’t have anything to save money for, I have no problem paying $24.95 per pound at Oto’s for scallops. I only need a third of a pound or so for a meal. Damn, are they good. And no, they aren’t shot up with that additive so they brown beautifully. Fresh tasting, flavorful, briny, yum.
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MichaelG said on November 20, 2015 at 12:13 pm
There are markets.
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Deborah said on November 20, 2015 at 12:22 pm
MichaelG, we decided to have scallops for Thanksgiving this year. We’re all tired of turkey and the fixings, although I will miss the stuffing. We’re going to brown the scallops in butter and serve over risotto with leeks and asparagus. We’re making an almond lemon pie for dessert that I think it was LA Mary who liked it and it turned up on my Facebook feed, it doesn’t require making a separate crust. I guess it’s a tart or is it tort? Our scallops will be bought at Whole Foods I suppose and they are quite expensive, but hey, it’s a special occasion.
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Sherri said on November 20, 2015 at 12:23 pm
I liked sushi before I moved to California, but sushi in California was a new experience. Much better, even at little hole in the wall places. Wonderful tuna. I liked salmon, but then I moved up here, and salmon sushi was even better up here. Not much of a surprise, since the salmon in general is so good up here.
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Sherri said on November 20, 2015 at 12:24 pm
Oh, and MichaelG? When Copper River king salmon season begins, it runs about $50/lb, and that’s not sushi-grade.
Really great salmon though.
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Judybusy said on November 20, 2015 at 2:22 pm
Deborah, I wish my relatives would groove on that menu. With all the food talk, I did dream of braising salmon this weekend in white wine, served over butternut squash risotto. All while getting my heart rate up in spin class.
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Dexter said on November 20, 2015 at 3:19 pm
MichaelG., I thought of you as a listener to the radio station I was tuned to described his experience at French Laundry. He said “the tab was a grand for the two of us and worth every penny…”, and I thought “what a cheap bastard! MichaelG dropped over $1,700 for two and never flinched.”
I used to seek out seafood places and loved ordering scallops, but I got burned too many times when the “scallops” were actually manta ray wings that had phony scallop shapes stamped out from those wings. Sometimes we’d get the water-packed scallops, which are so inferior to dry-packed they hardly resemble scallops at all. And *sigh* how I pine for the days when I could go to a seafood restaurant and get Abalone and prawns for a reasonable price.
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Suzanne said on November 20, 2015 at 4:33 pm
I think I’m missing something with sushi, too. I’ve had it several times and my reaction is always, meh, it was ok. Nothing I’d cross the street to eat.
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Jolene said on November 20, 2015 at 5:33 pm
Did you all hear that Ta-Nehisi Coates won the National Book Award for Non-Fiction? Here is his acceptance speech. Powerful. About six and a half minutes.
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MichaelG said on November 20, 2015 at 5:38 pm
Wow would I love to have some good abalone. The only way you can get it now is to dive for it yourself.
The Dungeness crab season is in jeopardy. It’s already been delayed and is in danger of being cancelled. Some kind of algae stuff.
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alex said on November 20, 2015 at 5:54 pm
Good on Mayor Henry:
http://wane.com/2015/11/20/fort-wayne-mayor-signs-refugee-support-letter-to-congress/
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nancy said on November 20, 2015 at 6:04 pm
For me, sushi is all about texture, and to a lesser extent the brininess of the sea. I grew up far from the ocean, and the flavors of oysters and lightly cooked fish were something I had to learn to like as an adult. But I get it.
I also like how light it is.
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alex said on November 20, 2015 at 6:18 pm
And unlike with lox, you can tell when it’s gone south before you get food poisoning.
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Deborah said on November 20, 2015 at 8:09 pm
Jolene, thanks so much for the link to the Ta-Nehisi Coates acceptance speech. Very powerful.
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Suzanne said on November 20, 2015 at 8:19 pm
Wow. Coates is really tall and looks really, really young! (of course, at my age, everybody is starting to look young).
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Deborah said on November 20, 2015 at 8:38 pm
Today has been one of those days where you thought you had a few tasks to complete and be done by early afternoon. Then you find out that a major fuck up by someone you paid royally 4 months ago has complicated your day and probably your week enormously and will cost you even more. It is not fun to be in this position.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 20, 2015 at 8:53 pm
I hear you, Deborah. May a thousand camels shed in that person’s oatmeal.
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Sherri said on November 20, 2015 at 8:57 pm
MichaelG, Washington’s Dungeness crab season is also being delayed. As I understand it, it’s the warmer ocean water that’s feeding the toxic algae bloom that’s causing the problem. We usually have Dungeness crab as part of our Christmas dinner, but that’s looking pretty iffy.
Halibut is another fish that I discovered was much better up here than when I had had it other places. Nothing like being close to the Alaska fisheries.
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Jolene said on November 20, 2015 at 10:35 pm
Suzanne, Coates is 40. He’s mentioned his height once or twice on his blog. I think he’s 6’3″ or 6’4″.
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Sue said on November 20, 2015 at 11:35 pm
Wow. This article is blunt and powerful. I’m impressed.
http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article45093165.html
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basset said on November 20, 2015 at 11:51 pm
well, it’s Kentucky, what’d you expect? I used to work with a teacher trainer and former principal who’d had a similar job in Kentucky, he took it on the condition he’d never have to go east of I-75. Too many local superintendents up there who not only think their teachers don’t need in-service, they don’t need nothin’ from no strangers.
Thanksgiving next week, about time for holiday depression to kick in. Had a good shot of it today.
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Jolene said on November 21, 2015 at 1:28 am
Here is a longer discussion of the problem of people seeming to vote against their interests. A big part of the issue is the failure of the poorest people to vote at all. The author notes that West Virginia, where government dependency is at its highest, is lowest in voter turnout.
I hate to sound like an old grump, but sometimes the conclusion that this country is going to hell seems inescapable.
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Dexter said on November 21, 2015 at 1:37 am
Sherri, MichaelG: http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/State-delays-commercial-crab-season-indefinitely-6616346.php
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alex said on November 21, 2015 at 11:19 am
Finally got to speak with the neighbor who chopped down my bushes. She claims it was a misunderstanding, that she thought I authorized this when I gave her permission to trim the bushes last spring. She also gave a sob story about being a single mom, starting a new job recently with an hour-long commute each way and not having time for yard work, and how for the last 25 years my hedge has made her life hell because it traps leaves in her yard that blow in from others’ yards so please don’t plant another hedge.
That’s indeed why that hedge was there in the first place and if she doesn’t want leaves from other people’s yards she should plant her own damn hedge.
Not sure how I’ll handle this yet, but hoping I can extract a concession from her. For years I’ve been wanting to put up a privacy fence between the houses and I can’t do it without her permission. This may be my opportunity if I agree to forego the hedge in the open part of the yard.
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beb said on November 21, 2015 at 11:30 am
You would think this was the simplest thing in the world. A Texas politician complained that if Syrians were settled in the Lone Star state they could get driver’s licenses and with that could buy guns and …..
There’s a simple solution to that and Rep. Feinstein has introduced a bill that adds the national terror list to the other lists of people banned from buying guns. If terrorists can’t buy guns in the US how are they going to shoot up Times Square?
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/democrats-terror-list-suspects-gun-sales
But the bed-wetting Republicans aren’t having any of it. Even terrorists have the right to buy guns….
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brian stouder said on November 21, 2015 at 11:33 am
Pammy discovered sushi for us, at the big new Kroger supermarket, when we were stuck in the residence hotel west of town, near where I-69 an US-24 converge. The supermarket has sushi chefs (or whatever) preparing the stuff fresh, and there is no end of combinations and novel stuff to try.
So, yep; let’s stipulate that it’s supermarket sushi – and possibly it is not comparable to whatever is being discussed hereabouts. Whatever you call it, it was and remains good stuff; constantly fresh and surprising
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coozledad said on November 21, 2015 at 2:44 pm
I think it would be a good idea for other countries to impose travel restrictions on US citizens. Simple background checks can determine if they’re citizens of states that endorse descriminatory immigration policies, or favor increased access to weapons of mass murder. Numerous other factors could be taken into consideration- political affiliation, historical trends towards racist views or behaviors, donations to anti-immigrant political groups, stocks held in oil producing countries, voting records.
It wouldn’t cut out all US travel overseas, but it would dramatically improve our image abroad. They’d be doing themselves a favor, and real Americans as well.
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Minnie said on November 21, 2015 at 2:47 pm
Alex, don’t fall for the poor, poor, pitiful me malarkey. That’s obviously how this woman gets through life. By the way, your yews probably will grow back, the juniper, probably not.
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coozledad said on November 21, 2015 at 6:05 pm
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CUTZtgvWUAAac43.jpg
The cook, the thief, his wife, her lover, Stabby, Droopy…
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Deborah said on November 21, 2015 at 6:40 pm
Another good one Coozledad. I saw that movie too.
Alex, good for you and I agree don’t let her give herself a pity party. But also good way to get what you wanted in the first place, the privacy fence.
We are back from Abiquiu, another big thing got constructed on our project. Yesterday I was bent out of shape because we had some structural moment frames built in July and some of the connections were supposed to be counter sunk, but they weren’t. So yesterday when they were supposed to be installing some steel plates they had to go back in and countersink the screws so the plates would be flush. It was a different guy who built the frames from the guys putting them up. So we are having to pay these guys(putting them up) extra to go back in and countersink all of the screws. And we paid the guy who built the frames a fortune, even more than he asked (don’t ask me why my husband did that) so he should have done them correctly. This same guy who built the frames wants to get the job of building the doors and windows too. But I say no way, he also has a bad attitude to top it off. I felt really sorry for the guys out there today, having to crawl all over the structures to do the countersinking while they are in place. Which is time consuming, dangerous and costly.
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brian stouder said on November 21, 2015 at 7:17 pm
Deborah, maybe your husband can get the guy who screwed up the screws to give a price concession on the doors and windows
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brian stouder said on November 21, 2015 at 7:18 pm
without being a ‘pane’…!
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Deborah said on November 21, 2015 at 7:43 pm
Brian, that would be the right thing for the guy to do but judging by his attitude so far that is not likely. He is a prima donna who thinks his shit doesn’t stink. Really aggravating to have to work with people like that.
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brian stouder said on November 21, 2015 at 8:00 pm
Deborah, I confess that if your husband and you and my wife and I were having sushi or some such, and I made that exact same remark, my lovely wife would have laughed out loud – and said something like “Rrrright!!” – because as she would say, all that would come out of my mouth would have been “Oh, it’s alright – ” etc…because she accuses me of being a weenie and a push-over, on all things to do with negotiation (and of course, she’s right!)
This evening Pam and Chloe (our 11 year old) and Shelby (our 17 year old) and I went to Escape Fort Wayne http://fortwayneescaperoom.com/
which is a somewhat bizarre, and yet overall stimulating experience, wherein they lock you into a room full of clues, and your job is to work together to escape. It turned out to be great fun (it was my first time, and their second go-round) run by pleasant people…plus it’s always fun to go ‘Downtown’ (my mom loved that Petula Clark song)
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Connie said on November 21, 2015 at 8:11 pm
MSU 17, OSU 14
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Deborah said on November 21, 2015 at 8:49 pm
Brian, you’re a nice guy and so is my husband. Keep being that way, the world needs people like you.
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Deborah said on November 21, 2015 at 8:56 pm
Just read about this. Holy cow this is right up the street from our place in Chicago. My husband is out of town visiting his uncle in Rockford before he comes to Santa Fe for Thanksgiving so he didn’t know anything about it http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/hancock-building-fire-injured.
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Charlotte said on November 21, 2015 at 9:15 pm
Thought of you Deborah when I saw that news … there were terrifying pics on twitter of flames coming out the side of the building …
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Sue said on November 21, 2015 at 9:29 pm
Basset, I just started back on anti-depressants again. Holy smokes, I didn’t realize how far down the road I’d gone and I’m hoping these help.
Trying an as-needed anti-anxiety med as well.
4+ inches of snow here. Looks like I’m done picking broccoli.
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Dexter said on November 22, 2015 at 12:17 am
Back shortly after The Hancock opened…this was 1972…I took my bride up to “The 95th”, which was the restaurant on the 95th floor of The Hancock. My wife was 19 but she had already lived in LA for a while after high school, working in a downtown LA tower building, so what occurred at The Hancock was rather surprising. She had a panic attack, getting all dizzy and disoriented at the height we were . She HAD to bolt ; I had just ordered a highball for me and a virgin drink for her, and apologetically I left the waiter and the restaurant quickly and we headed for the elevator bank. I have never been back. When we got to the street she was fine and an hour later we found a ground level restaurant and had some burgers or whatever. I used to really get a kick out of Chicago daytrips and weekend stays in the hotels, usually the old Blackstone Hotel which had dirt-cheap weekend rates.
After Sears Tower was finished, The Hancock wasn’t the hot item anymore.
Well, we got blasted with about an 8-hour hard snowfall, ad it’s soon to be 20F.
We have to drive to Columbus for Turkey Day on Thursday. Whoop-Te-Doo. I pine for days of yore when I didn’t have to travel for holidays…we had Thanksgiving here…no more.
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Sherri said on November 22, 2015 at 3:46 am
Good luck, Sue. I figure I’m on anti-depressants for good. Last time I tried to go off of them didn’t go so well.
Basset, take care of yourself.
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Deborah said on November 22, 2015 at 6:31 am
When we had decided to move to Chicago my husband wanted us to live in the Hancock building because a long time ago he had worked for the architecture firm that designed it (SOM). So we looked at a couple of units but we weren’t impressed. One was on the 64th floor and I don’t remember what floor the other was on. As I recall only one window opened and only a tiny bit at that. And some of the windows were shaped with a sideways slant because of the giant X structural bracing on the building. Everything seemed stale in the units we looked at, kind of depressing.
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coozledad said on November 22, 2015 at 7:59 am
Cartilage-jawed fartsucker David Vitter lost the LA governor’s race. I don’t know why he was even running. Bobby Jindal has already excorcised all the piles of money out of the state.
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basset said on November 22, 2015 at 9:06 am
thanks, Sue… just hit a little low spot a few days back, better now. In the deer blind west of Columbia, TN right now – mating season is on so I just let a couple does walk by me to see what might be following them, nothing yet.
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alex said on November 22, 2015 at 9:24 am
Minnie, I’ve had yews come back from stumps before when I wanted to be rid of them, but I’m not optimistic about these given that it’s winter and the time to cut them back is spring so that they can rejuvenate in sunlight and good weather.
I’m contemplating using ornamental grasses, although I need to find some that are shade tolerant.
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basset said on November 22, 2015 at 10:07 am
Or maybe a few of these:
http://thecrimepreventionwebsite.com/garden-boundaries-fences-and-defensive-plants/618/defensive-plants-shrubs-and-trees-shrub-fences/
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Deborah said on November 22, 2015 at 11:54 am
Having a lazy morning in Santa Fe, our high will be 50 today. My husband sent me a text last night from Rockford, IL where he’s visiting his uncle, he said the temp was 6. We had a low of about 23 in SF. Glad I’m not in Chicago right now.
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Minnie said on November 22, 2015 at 4:58 pm
Ornamental grasses would be appealing, but, as you point out, many love sun. Basset’s article has good suggestions. Years a go a fellow horticulture student and I planned a garden using thorny, thickety, toxic and poisonous plants.
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David C. said on November 22, 2015 at 6:05 pm
I know how this feels. We’ve put things off because of our high deductible insurance. I have a renal artery aneurysm. It’s being monitored by ultrasound instead of a CAT scan for cost reasons. The doctor says it should be OK because if it ruptures it’s in an enclosed area so I won’t bleed to death, but it is definitely second best. For those who dream these things up, $4500 is probably their annual liquor bill, so if anybody wants to pay for their health care just stop drinking, right?. It probably would have been OK if the health savings plan started when I was in my 30s, but in my mid 50s as things are starting to go, it’s a worry. I have nine years until Medicare an my wife seven. Unfortunately, that’s nine years for the politicians to tear big chunks out of it.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/11/22/pinched-by-deductibles-some-forgo-medical-care.html
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Connie said on November 22, 2015 at 9:20 pm
Whereas I have reached the point where my insurance is paying 100%. This is not necessarily a good thing.
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susan said on November 22, 2015 at 9:26 pm
Connie @ 59 – Why would it not be a good thing if insurance paid 100%??
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Connie said on November 22, 2015 at 9:49 pm
You have to have spent a great deal of money in this year to reach that point.
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alex said on November 22, 2015 at 9:54 pm
Basset’s link to defensive shrubbery gave me some ideas. I have a lot of cotoneasters, both upright and horizontal, that would give me plenty of material to transplant, they grow well in shade and they are quite thickety.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on November 22, 2015 at 10:40 pm
What Connie said.
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susan said on November 22, 2015 at 10:51 pm
Connie, ah, yes, I see what you mean. Oy. Been there, done that one.
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MichaelG said on November 22, 2015 at 11:14 pm
I know what we all think about skateboards but this will leave you with a smile:
http://sploid.gizmodo.com/seeing-this-girl-dance-on-a-longboard-is-beautifully-mi-1743461802
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Craig said on January 11, 2017 at 11:44 pm
I noticed brian stouder went to an escape room in Fort Wayne. I just thought I would through my two cents in here. Have you tried Room to Escape in Fort Wayne?
http://www.roomtoescape.com
I have tried the escape room you listed and Room To Escape was so much fun and the staff was great. If some have not heard of escape rooms, they lock you in a themed room (such as a Lab Disaster, Dining Room Caper, or Nightmare at the Museum) and you experience the room and find clues that lead to other clues to solve a puzzle which opens a key to a lock or whatnot. The fun and exhilarating aspect of it all is that it is timed, so you much escape before the time runs out! Our room was 60 minutes and the constantly counting down timer is so much fun. Time really flies by.
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