HNY and Oyster Battles

Well, the drumbeat for 2020 commences.  In the books is the 2019 holidays sort of symbolically  ended by the traditional good-bye wave of the FOJTE’s. 

They were able to squeeze in a visit during his winter break from school.  This was more of a “working” rather than celebratory Christmas.   They were of immense help, upstairs, downstairs, and outside. 

Upstairs:

The big project was the removal of the carpeting on the loft which was very hard for me to negotiate with my office chair.  Doyle’s was “kind” enough to schedule the work while the “kids” were here (to help replace heavy stuff). So we had Christmas eve day punctuated by a compressor and air gun (“Bam, Bam Bam! what did you say??”) as well as the day after Christmas.  But, it turned out well and now my “upstairs” office is much more accessible. With the help of FOJTE doing much of the carrying

Downstairs:

 he and Ms. FOJTE entered all my wines into Cellar Tracker.  If you’re willing to put in the effort, it’s a great tool for knowing what bottles you have and where they are located…

We did our best to lessen the work load

MFO is quite fond of Viognier, and this bottle from Calera was especially good.

Veteran oenophiles know that usually the back label is full of “wine speak” as in “this lovely wine has hints of pineapple and overlaid with waves of citrus and burnt orange” or some such crap.  Not so, the good folk at Calera… everything you wanted to know and more

Outside:

they replaced some pansies that had formed a salad for deer, unearthing the plants and nibbling them to the nub.

This time we enclosed the “new” ones with Cloches and sprayed with DeerAway

Damn deer!

Anyway, a huge thanks to them for caring for their aging parents.

Back to the foodie stuff

Oyster Wars

After the Civil War, the oyster harvesting industry exploded. In the 1880's, the Chesapeake Bay supplied almost half of the world's supply of oysters. New England fishermen encroached on the Bay after their local oyster beds had been exhausted, which prompted violent clashes with competitors from Maryland and Virginia. Watermen from different counties likewise clashed.

BUT! that’s not the war I’m talking about (thank goodness) although it does involve oysters.  My war is much more local.  It is the war between preparing fried oysters via two separate techniques the “traditional” and the “new wave” opportunity

Traditional technique:

heat oil to 350°

Prepare a batter of your choice (I am still trying to duplicate Cow and Fish) with egg, flour, and in this case (forgive me) Old Bay, bread crumbs and a finishing dusting of Southwest Seasoning

I clean the oysters removing the foot and the stringy parts

And then put them in the hot oil flipping if necessary to get crispy and turn them out onto a plate (and dust with the Southwest Seasoning).

Pluses:  nicely formed, crispy all over, creamy inside

Minuses:  Dealing with the oil, and detritus from the frying, wife complaining about oil on her counter.

The newfangled “air fryer” technique

First, get out the device

For this go round (there were predecessors) I wanted to try two different preparations for the oysters, the C&F version and one from the internet using a pre-made coating from that bastion of southern cooking

I prepped the oysters again, and laid out the two preparations: Cow on the left, and Zatarain’s on the right

Oddly (enough) C&F said only flour coating (no eggs), panko bread crumbs, old bay (in the flour) and a post cooking dusting of Southwest Seasoning (which I ground up in the spice grinder).  Other side was egg wash, coat the oysters with the “Fish Fri”, and go at it.

Previous attempts at using the air technique resulted in too long cooking and so this time I reduced the heat to 350 and set it for 4 minutes.

Dredged the Zatarain’s side

Coated the C&F with flour and made the panko adhere as much as possible

And loaded all into the air fryer

After roughly three minutes we had:

5462

The C&F side (left) looked awful but the Zat side looked better

Tasting revealed the C&F to be less than flavorful still, and the Zat versions were quite “zesty”.

Current evaluation:  To date I think overall the boil in oil technique has supplied the better product. Test kitchen experimentation will continue, however.

Wow, this got long, sorry, thanks for hanging in!

And what the hell, I’ll throw in one of many growing list of rants that I have recently made notes on:

I know this time of year is when resolutions are made to lose weight, get healthy, eat right, and so on.  Strike while the iron is hot.

Peloton blasts you with commercials (please forgive me) featuring ladies who obviously are fit and trim, dressed in tight fitting yoga pants, and many shots taken to seemingly (is it me?) feature the posterior of them.  Never have I seen one showing anybody who is obviously overweight, and really might benefit from an exercise machine.. 

Okay, enough getting back on track, more to come

DFD

Top to Bottom

This turned out to be a long journey (from top to bottom), so maybe more than one visit would be warranted to digest it all but at least we are now kind of "up to date" (with apologies to FOJTY, who IS in Kansas City)

The Top (dog)

In our kind of helter skelter approach to the Feeder columns, let’s go back to STL for another glimpse at the world of big time dog events.  I may have said this, but probably bears repeating, that when we told FOJTY we would be attending, he asked if we had seen the movie “Best in Show”.  Why, yes, we have…  “well he said, it’s just like that.”   Yeah, sure that was a parody, but this is the real thing…. Guess what.  He was right.

So while all the dogs are doing their strutting (along with the handlers) out in the ring(s), a whole different world exists “behind the curtains”.  Mostly I suppose it’s like many performances.  Stuff stacked around

And plenty of dogs, killing time in their little “houses”

Or just "hanging out"

Some almost literally

FOJTY says they do this to keep them in good shape after grooming..

Some ever hopeful for a treat

Or just plain bored

Griffs seem to have the right idea

While waiting for Duke and FOJTY, Stanley’s mom and I got along quite well..

And then eventually it’s showtime!

In the case of FOJTY’s Wirehaired Pointing Griffons, they are bred to be hunters, out in the fields, on point with quail, retrieving waterfowl, very active.  He really prefers to be out there doing field trials, or training, not prancing around a ring.  

He says some dogs (not necessarily only Griffs) spend most of their lives in those crates, going from show to show to show.   It’s an unfortunate truth (Right Al?) that in order to advance your dog in the world of ratings and thus stud fees, etc., you have to do this..

This may be the last dog show related posting.  It was an amazing experience.  What a world.  And I don’t think I saw one sequined sweat shirt with “I love my….” On the front.  Serious stuff.  

The Middle

We abandoned the original plan to visit KC and so had to skip the annual meeting of the AASLH (American Association for State and Local History), which of course is of immense interest to MFO.  The theme for the meeting was “Truth or Consequences”:

“Museums and historic sites have been ranked among America’s most trusted institutions in an age where trust continues to erode and truth sometimes becomes murky. Our history organizations maintain the trust if we continue to tell the truth. But what is truth when our work is based on interpretation of the historical evidence and interpretations change? How do people know what to believe?”

Very timely, but with our STL experience in the hotel, we mutually agreed that travel is (now) very hard on us both, and so decided to return to Maryland.  Too bad, MFO had to miss it, but by the time we got here we were pretty well tuckered out.  We were so glad we made the dog event.

The “Bottom”

So life returned to “normal”, and the Feeder had an interesting experience with a new restaurant.   One of the things I do with my limited abilities, is to be a member of the Editorial Committee for the St. Mary’s Chronicles, the newsletter of the St. Mary’s County Historical Society, published quarterly which contains articles pertaining to the history of our county.  We review potential articles, and edit where called for, and learn a lot in the process. 

We have occasional meetings of the committee to discuss philosophy, recent and potential articles, tell stories, etc.  So last week we decided to have a lunch meeting.  Since there is a preponderance of members from the western part of the county we decided to eat at The Bottom of the Hill, a relatively new place just north of Leonardtown in the shopping center with the garden place, McDonalds, and Weiss (nee Food Lion). 

Side Track, but interesting (restaurant review to follow):

During the small talk while we gathered, I mentioned that this location has had many occupants, none of which have survived very long.  When I arrived here in ’96 the spot was a Perkins (Pancake House) one of two in the vicinity as there was one also in California in Wildewood (which kind of figures in the story).  Some of the members recalled a couple of the places, but the Feeder got interested in coming up with a comprehensive list.  Well, that has proved to be an elusive task.  I posted the question on the Facebook Page: “you know you’re from St. Mary’s county if…” which features history and many interesting postings from “county folk” who post pictures of old buildings and people, etc.  You might visit the page if it interests you.  Anyway, I got dozens of replies, and sparing you the details, here is the kind of consensus of occupants (no dates).

Mattingly’s Tobacco Field

Perkins Pancake House

Alice’s Restaurant*

Arizona Pizza

Rustic River Grill

Sakura**

Pho Saigon**

Bottom of the Hill

* It may be that “Alice” was after the Perkins in Wildewood, mixed opinions

** cloudy as to which of these two preceded the other

I am not sure of the accuracy of the above.  I could not find any way of “looking it up” on a county site, although I might be able to go back and research occupancy permits (too much work!).  Pretty interesting lineup, I’m not sure another county location could top that!  Some postulated that early demises could be because of the owner, but again, no substantiation.

Anyway, this is today’s incarnation:

The inside is kind of what one might expect and is common for a County local restaurant

With photos of local interest and cute signs.  Continuing the same formula, the menu is a single laminated sheet (front and back)

With choices you can find at almost any place in the county, baskets, sandwiches, appetizers, dinners, sides hidden as usual, nothing extraordinary. It does provide a challenge for the (now sodium limited) Feeder.   You probably can’t read the above selections very well, but try to think what might be low sodium in that lineup!  Invariably, it leads him to the salads, as most of the other (good) stuff is probably pretty high in sodium (as well as mostly fried) so I (ho hum) get some salad with chicken (here it was the Santa Fe (“no added salt, dressing on side" please).  Others at the table without dietary restrictions got some very nice sandwiches

Like a Reuben

A proper Crab Melt

A fried shrimp plate

All of which looks lovely compared to

Dry chicken and bare greens.  Sigh

(not that I’m bitter mind you!)

So Bottom of the Hill is just another place to eat, at least it's not a chain, not awful, not great.  Maybe they’ll last. We’ll see.

And since it was for lunch, we didn’t worry about
DFD

And to their credit, water was served in a proper glass, so didn’t have to worry about
NMMJ

Not really about Walruses..

But, as the Walrus says, it’s time of many things… of shoes and ships… and DOG SHOWS!  Been postponing dragging you through our recent experience at the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon National Specialty event in St. Louis (which was defined last time).  I did give you a little taste, but there’s a lot more to say.   I’ll try to break it up into nibbles so you don’t get too much at a sitting.

Anyway, the dog judging/competitions took place at the facility of Purina, which is headquartered in St. Louis

It is located out by Gray Summit in far western St. Louis County

It is a huge complex, all devoted to animals but real concentration on dogs.   Pretty fancy building for the animals

3760

With many outbuildings for other critters

And even a place to present trends

We got there around nine, when people (and their charges) were beginning to gather for the day’s competition, and you had to work to find parking

Once inside, there are several “rings” that are used to show the dogs.

As "showtime" approached, hopefuls and their companions began gathering waiting for the competition to begin.

Including FOJTY and Duke

Then the judging begins and they strut their stuff

In the end, you want to wind up like this!

While all this is going on, there are other diversions around the outside of the ring, many “souvenirs” and general doggie stuff

and of course an opportunity to create lasting memories with your friends

Mostly the Feeder sat with his new found friend (Stanley's mother)

Anyway, it’s quite a different world.  I did get to walk around in the “prep” area, but I’ll wait for another edition. It is amazing..  A homework assignment might be for you to watch "Best in Show"  

I won’t wait too long.   Maybe tomorrow.    Besides I need a little “Just Right” discussion with you..

Meanwhile don’t forget to

DFD

And don’t sit at a table where you have to suffer:

Nice, huh?  really goes with the drink glass, which is why we always end with:

NMMJ,  NMMJ, NMMJ!