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
