Tuesday, March 14, 2017

This and that, These and those...


POP Quiz:   what is the shortest day of the year?  If you said 21 December, 2017, you would be wrong.  In reality it was 12 March 2017.   Huh?  Yes, it was that darn “Spring Forward” day when we cycle to “daylight savings time” that louses up your circadian rhythm for longer than you would think (speaking personally).  And although it’s “only” an hour, it seems to have huge impacts and makes for a “short day”, kind of leaving you (me) dazed and confused.  And why are we trying to save daylight time anyway?  Who uses it?  Maybe the agrarians who toil in the field, but they kind of work (I assume) by the rising and setting of the sun regardless of what some mechanical device says.   It is probably one of the two times a year you hear the phrase “body” time employed briefly.    The only positive that I can divine is that cocktail time arrives earlier, since 6:00 EST is now 5:00 EDT, “body time”.   Anyway, it takes me a while to adjust, and I’m not sure I ever really do.  Somebody suggested we do it Friday afternoon instead of Sunday Morning.   Like.

Been a while since we sort of rambled into “this and that” territory.  Let’s ramble:

La Rive Breton
Along with Cow & Fish, this place kind of remains an enigma.   Been there a few times, not real recently, but despite being open for months, still seems to be kind of finding its way.  So I was interested to see a little piece in the County Times “wine and dine” section entitled “Striving For Culinary Excellence”.  More of a meet and greet theme with the Chef/Owner Brian Wilson, who says while working in a DC restaurant wanted to go to the “next step” which was ownership.   So when Café des Artistes became available, he decided to take the opportunity “kind of on a whim”.  He says he’s trying to “slowly breaking away from any kind of definition, and trying to incorporate my own style”… and has “Enjoyed spreading my wings”.  I’m sure he is conscious of always being compared to the previous owner(s), but my experience is that he kind of is living up to his vision.   There are varying items on the menu, which seem to change routinely and in my warped mind, I find them interesting.  I never have had any quarrel with the food, it’s always nicely presented and quite good.  They (Wilsons) responded via email and thanked them (County Times) for the mention and also that the patio (curb side) space is now open, weather permitting.  I look forward to my next visit.

Publications
We have some neighbors who routinely spend some time in Western Maryland, and I have been taking in their papers, the daily editions of the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, as well as our local Enterprise.  In return, they offer me the weekly (Wednesday) food section from the post, and the monthly “Magazine” from the Journal.  As for the enterprise, all I’m doing is keeping it from clogging the newspaper tube.  A couple of recent editions caught my eye.

The Post – Food Section
The lead article was entitled “Smoke Signals – A melting pot fuels the new Barbecue”.  It took kind of a national view of BBQ, and how the traditional regional concept of BBQ (Carolinas, Memphis, Texas, “Southern”, etc.) is evolving along with international cultural heritages by the immigrants of contemporary America. Korean influences are cropping up in Atlanta by Jiyeon Lee at her Heirloom Market BBQ (which opened in 2010).    She and her Texas – born husband Cody Taylor serve “pungent gochujang-marinated pork, smoked over oak and hickory wood, served as a sandwich with kimchi coleslaw”.  I don’t have the space nor intelligence to go through the other examples, but they talk about the German immigrant influence which probably created the Mustard Sauce of South Carolina.  In Texas in the 1880’s and ‘90s, German, Polish and Czech meat markets were the only ones selling barbecue, according to the barbecue editor (!) of the Texas Monthly magazine.  A Greek influence is found in Memphis which was founded by Charlie Vergos, son of immigrants who in the late fifties concocted a spice rub for pork ribs of Greek herbs, such as oregano combined with traditional BBQ spices, dabbed with vinegar while cooking which generated the Memphis ‘dry” rib style.
 
Maybe you can find the article on line, it is very interesting reading. 

Footnote to regional food: (not related to the Post) I have just come into possession of a book called “Fading Feast; a Compendium of Disappearing American Regional Foods” by Raymond Sokolov.  I have only gotten seven pages into the (ten page) introduction (a pet peeve, either write the book or just stick with the introduction for goodness sake!).  But it appears to be a series of articles about some regional dish followed by a recipe.  Example from the South chapter:  "A Squirrel in Every Pot: Brunswick Stew and Burgoo".  In the Midwest section there is an article about Morels in Michigan. Looking forward to reading it

WSJ
In addition putting out the daily edition of the Journal crammed with arcane business statistics, they also publish a “magazine” which comes out monthly.  It is a fascinating piece of work.  While there are a few articles with content (mostly profiling designers, interior decorators, various pop culture luminaries  - this month Bruno Mars graces the cover), it is 80% advertisements for fashion, accessories, shoes, and the like.   And, we’re not talking things like Dockers, Tommy Hilfiger, and other product lines such as would be found in Old Navy, TJ Maxx, Belk’s, and the like.  No siree, Bob!  Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Gucci, Saint Laurent, Ferragamo, Giorgio Armani, Bottega Veneta, Prada… you get the drift.  After all their market is not humble retired Flutter Engineers scraping by on an aerospace firm’s pension.  We’re talking hedge fund managers, CEO’s of massive brokerage firms, and so on.   People whose portfolios bulge with amounts of equities and monies we could only dream of.  High end to the extreme.

But what is most fascinating to me is the photos that accompany the ads. Of course there are the pictures of shoes, handbags, etc., but also human (?) models who are draped in the designer clothes.   It is easy to echo the all too common remarks about the females who never heard of the word cheeseburger, but probably are familiar with Kale.  For whatever reason, the issue in hand has more males than females.  Like the women discerning their age is almost impossible, but to a man/(child?), they all seem to have the same facial expression.  Gazing off into the firmament without eye focus, or are suffering from acute gastric pain, or have just been informed that their favorite pet had been run over by a bus.  It must the genre....

A few small samples credited to the WSJ magazine and used for critique purposes only:


 And you can have that same sweater from Jeffrey Rüdes for a mere $1200



And I don’t even know what to say about this..

Ah, the world of high fashion…


STL
I still receive the St. Louis magazine as a way of keeping in touch with the old stomping grounds and food scene. In the March issue, there is what I assume is a regular column restaurant “Closings, Openings” and that ubiquitous “Coming Soon” categories..  The scorecard:
Closings:              4
Openings:            2
Coming Soon’s:  21
Numbers kind of speak for themselves “I’ve always dreamed of opening a restaurant”
Pi Day
Always remember:  Pie Are Square

As well as:


DFD

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