Wow. Been a week
since we’ve talked! Besides having “minions”
all over the place (painters, dry wallers, downspouters, landscapers) which
always stresses me out, I somehow got what turned out to be a bug that was one
of the most worst I’ve had in a while.
Could hardly get out of bed, dizziness, nausea, muscle pain, on and
on. As usual, I thought I had had a
stroke, heart attack, combination of both, dengue fever, and was ready to follow
the light. Well, turns out a couple of
friends noted (social media IS good for some things) similar symptoms which
helped and today with minions gone, fresh paint, tidy drywall, etc., I am
feeling whatever generally passes for normal.
Okay, end of self pity.. and a few things to talk about.
Guess we’ll start with the more important and descend into
restaurants and food trivia.
Ground Operations
Last night I attended another in the series of Boeing
Lectures at Sotterley Plantation. I (through
Boeing) funded the original series years ago and my old company has had the
wisdom to continue their support. To
Sotterley’s credit, they have continued to present excellent programs and
speakers over the years. Last night’s
presentation was a film entitled “Battlefields to Farmfields”. I saw the notice and figured it would be
something like the evolution of Civil War battlefields into agricultural
use. Wrong, oh Bottom Feeder! It turned out to be a documentary about
engaging returning veterans into farming and food production. It followed some individuals who came back
with disturbing mental conditions that prevented them from entering and
surviving a “Cubical environment” and getting involved with farming. The calm and quiet of farm life along with
animals and watching the ground produce food for human consumption seems to be
a restorative environment for them. I
can’t do it justice here, it just made you feel good to see young veterans
finding a passion for some of the same things we do.
Besides following the individuals, the film made a strong
case for organically produced foodstuffs including produce, poultry, pork, and
beef. Free range, grass fed product
resulting in healthy food that provided not only the farmer but surrounding
families with better foods. I won’t get
this exactly right, but it was stated that (something like) 70 per cent of
existing small farmers are over the age of sixty. Hopefully this movement will provide a
resurgence of small farms and farmers.
Goodness knows there are (unfortunately) thousands of veterans
Although the producer of the film couldn’t be present, there was
a young couple who were in the film and have a farm up near Annapolis.. In their introduction, it was stated that they
both graduated from the Academy and were veterans. They spoke about running their farm with
three small boys, and the joy they received from the effort. In the Q&A somebody asked what the young
man did in the Navy and he casually said he was a Navy Seal of 6 tours at “all
the garden spots in the near East”. Maybe
there is some hope after all. Here’s a
link to their web site. Take a peek...
R’sters
My gastronome friend up in DC reported on a lunch he shared
recently with a student from St. Mary’s at Hank’s Oyster Bar on Capitol Hill. Reports were quite favorable with his guest
giving it “Five Stars”. He started with
a plate of Oysters (obviously Hank’s specialty)
“I also had a half dozen oysters on the half
shell. They had 6 types of oysters on hand, all of which came from
different regions of the East and West coasts. All were incredibly fresh
and delicious, but I preferred the midler, saltier East coast oysters”
Entrees
included a Lobster Roll
And “I had a salad that came with a filet of
some type of white fish. The fish was cooked perfectly and you could taste the
freshness”.
One sort of nuance was that food was served with a little jar of Goldfish (if you notice) and there was complimentary dark chocolate for a final note. Can't argue with that!.
Service
was reported to be very good and server was educated on the food. No report of the opening remark… All in all they enjoyed the experience. So maybe the Feeder should go check it out
for himself.
Food
News Snippets
McDonald's
is going to return McWings to the menu.
Despite being a flop in certain markets they feel it is worth another
try
On
September 21st (Peace Day) McDonalds and Burger King will bury the
hatchet and each will provide a “McWhopper”.
Stop the presses..
In
the world of wine, there is a trend of wineries to produce “Non-traditional”
red Blends. Such strange bedfellows as
Zinfandel, Malbec, Syrah, and Cab Franc are being bottled and offered. For one thing it offers them something to do
with “odds and ends” left over from separate bottlings. And these aren’t all from houses like
Barefoot and Yellowtail, Coppola is
producing a wine called “Director’s Cut Cinema” ($39) based on Cab and
Zin. Keep your eyes open and
DFD
DFD
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