Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Menu

1. A reasonable ficelle, or baguette, quartered, drizzled with a fruity olive oil, sprinkled with a mixture of finely chopped tomato and garlic, tossed in a 375 over for some time. A breakfast with authority. Needs coffee.

2. The arrival in today's mail of a Little Blue Book, yclept Poems of Robert Burns, number 284 on the Little Blue Book roster. The booklet is falling apart but the poems aren't.

3. The Kahuna Grill, way out in the Goleta Big Box Mall, serves a concoction called The Island Burger, which contains among other things a wedge of pineapple. Dale, who owns The Kahuna Grill, is an ardent surfer, a regular at Peet's for coffee; the combination of interesting persons bringing interesting things together. Who but a surfer would refer to a hot dog as a tube steak?

4. Occitan or Catalan goodie: aioli, a sauce made of garlic and good olive oil. Think of a bowl of olives, a few slices of baguette, and a plop of aioli. Go ahead, think of it.

5. A fan of pickle in many of its avatars, I also pause to consider the unpickled pickle, the fresh, crisp, splendid cucumber, sliced lengthwise in strips.

6. Serrano ham, buried in snow for some considerable time, thus to age.

7. The French and Spanish have another sort of ham, brought about by feeding nuts to the pig.

8. The chiramoya, a multifaceted fruit from Peru and Ecuador but also, mercifully, grown in California. Looks like a green hand grenade. Tastes like a succulent pear or peach.

9. While we're at it, gazpacho, the soup of soups.

10. With all this seasonal talk about lamb shoulders and shanks, not to forget the basic short rib. It is said that Hopkins derived his sprung rhythm from contemplating a plate of short ribs.

11. It is probably apocryphal or urban myth, but Dom Perignon is reported to have said upon tasting his first sip of champagne, "My God, I'm drinking the stars."

3 comments:

R.L. Bourges said...

bon appétit, shelly.
7 is probably jambon de Bigorre.
And may the Great Kahuna see you safely over the rainbow.

Bobby D. said...

Lovely lovely post! ... and to top it all off...
am drinking the stars.
brilliant.

Anonymous said...

# 5...How 'bout half sours at The Pantry in L.A.?
Or cucumber rounds to refresh the eyes after burning the midnight oil...or staring at a blank page too long...