Tag: Gluttony

Meal Planning

Food & Drink

This article got me thinking:

Two-time Masters winner Scottie Scheffler is taking the opportunity to plan a Texas-style menu for this year’s Masters Tournament dinner, according to reports.  Scheffler has the honor of arranging the menu for the “Masters Club” dinner, which was first held in 1952 in honor of golf legend Ben Hogan.

The tradition has carried over to today, when the current Green Jacket winner is given the task of planning next year’s dinner.

Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to set your menu for such an event. Assume that you’d have excellent chefs (like they have at Augusta National) who could create pretty much anything you specified.  You should have four courses:   a soup and/or starter, antipasto/fish, main course and dessert.

Mine is below the fold, to give you an idea.

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Take-Home Foods

Food & Drink, Travels

As someone who’s traveled quite a bit, this article struck a chord with me:

A recent Reddit discussion has highlighted how trips abroad are capable of permanently changing a traveller’s diet, with commenters revealing foreign dishes they had on their travels that they now can’t stop eating. 

The list includes acai from Brazil*, Morocco’s cinnamon-dusted oranges, onigiri (Japanese rice balls), pasteis de nata (milk custard tart) from Portugal, ajvar (a red pepper paste) from the Balkans and even spaghetti carbonara  from Italy — which is quite different from the stuff you’ll get at Olive Garden, trust me.   (There’s other less-salutary stuff like haggis and buffalo wings on their list, but whatever.)

*can someone tell me the difference between acai and blueberries?

One of the foods on the Reddit list struck home for me:  French baguette and butter — which, having sampled it in Paris, made me refuse to eat American shelf bread ever again. Seriously.  Who would have thought that simple bread and butter would be an exquisite meal all by itself?  (Well, anyone who’s ever tasted the real stuff.)  It’s one of the few dishes which I prefer eating with unsalted butter, because the bread becomes unutterably sweeter.

That Portuguese tart (not Sarah Hoyt) is very familiar to me as the Afrikaans melk tert (they’re almost identical, and the Seffricans have even made a cream liqueur based on its taste).  The only difference is that the Porros use puff pastry instead of pie crust pastry.  Hmmmm… now that’s a thought.

I”m going to try the Moroccan oranges this weekend after I’ve done the Friday shopping (no oranges in the house), but with three different sugars as an experiment to see which tastes best.  (Light brown, Demarara or 10x mixed with the cinnamon, in case you’re wondering.)

I’ll also try making ajvar,  which sounds like hummus mixed with ground spicy red peppers, but I’ll use South African Peppadew spicy peppers because they are spectacular.

There are a couple that I’ve encountered on my travels which I wish were staples Over Here.

One of my all-time favorite imported meals happens to be poutines, from Canuckistan, but only one place around here makes them properly (the Holy Grail pub in Plano).  I must have eaten poutines at least twice a day when driving back from Montreal to Detroit, along with Tim Horton’s coffee to wash them down.

Another is Viennese Sachertorte which, having had some in meine schones Wien, would kill me if I could find it here because aaaaargh it’s luvverly.

Over Here, we’d call it “death by chocolate”, because it really is.

There are a few others, but I think they would be best enjoyed in their home countries (e.g. pisco sours in Chile and Welsh rarebit in Britishland).  Of Wadworth 6X and Greggs sausage rolls we will not speak.

And so, Gentle Readers:  tell me about your favorite furrin dishes, in Comments.

It’s The Cost, Stupid

Food & Drink

From some source or another SOTI:

It’s been a rocky year for the restaurant industry, with rising costs due to inflation and changing consumer habits driving a slew of chains with household names into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. According to those who follow the industry, there is no definable silver lining ahead for an industry in deep trouble.

Have to agree with this, because it’s a well-known fact that once food prices go up, they never come down again.

Last Sunday New Wife and I took a little trip to Sherman TX (a.k.a. the last exit off the highway before you get to Oklahoma) for a little antique / bargain shopping.  (I know, I know;  to most men, “antiquing” is just another term for “strap the rat cage to my face”, but I don’t mind it because New Wife and I have very similar tastes when it comes to shopping, and she is a fanatical scrimper  when it comes to this kind of thing.)

Anyway:  Sherman is not in the middle of nowhere, but you can certainly see Nowhere from the town square.  One would expect a small town to have small-town prices, and indeed, the wares are the antique mall were very reasonable.  (Not that we bought anything, but still.)

On the other hand, it was when we went out for lunch that the shock hit home.

You see, I’m in charge of the grocery shopping chez  du Toit, so I’m accustomed to the price increases in food — I’ve ranted about it often enough on these pages — and I’ll be honest and say that we haven’t eaten “out” in about four months, other than the occasional takeout order of fries from Sonic and the like.

So we treated ourselves to a small BBQ lunch at the Cackle & Oink [sic], a nice little place just north of town.  Modest premises, hometown feel, lots of locals inside… you know the drill.

And two small meals with iced tea came to over $50.

I nearly passed out.

Look, BBQ has always been kinda spendy, I know.  But in the past, a small order of ribs and brisket (our normal fare) seldom ran over $30, or maybe a tad over with the tip.  But $50???

Somebody told me the other day that two burgers at Five Guys now costs in the region of $40, and I couldn’t believe them.  Now, I do.

It just means that we’ll be eating at home in the future, and if my prognosis about food prices is indeed true, we’ll never be eating out again.  What a lovely prospect (and just when we were beginning to claw ourselves out of our recent abject poverty, too).

And for restaurants, the prospects will be similarly gloomy, you betcha.

I don’t know what could possibly avert this situation.  Maybe a Trump election would help, in that some sanity will be restored and inflation tamed, but somehow I doubt it.

News From Little Big Horn

Food & Drink

…yeah, Custer’s having some problems out there.

Also, this stunning news:

Cucumbers can be seen as a quick and easy addition to summery salads or a tasty snack, but an expert has issued a warning over the vegetable.

Nutritionist Rhiannon Lambert, who specialises in weight management, issued a warning to anyone who regularly eats them. According to Rhiannon, the cucumber might not be as nutritional as fans first thought.

In her column for the Daily Telegraph, Rhiannon explained: “Cucumber is a refreshing vegetable with a very high (96%) water content, making it hydrating but relatively low in nutrients.”

You don’t say!  Hands up all those who didn’t know that cucumbers are just a water delivery device… oh you all know that?  What’s that, in the back?  “Crunchy water”, you say.  Indeed it is.

But wait!  There’s more!

For an extra box of .22 LR, can anyone tell me another vegetable that’s mostly water but beloved by salad gobblers, vegans and dieters?  [some overlap]

Rhiannon also touched on iceberg lettuce, noting its similar shortfall in nutritional value. Like cucumbers, it’s better for hydration than nutrition.

Ah, you peeked.  No ammo for you.

In our next edition of Little Big Horn News, our intrepid reporters have discovered that slamming your finger with a hammer can hurt like hell, hot stove tops hide a nasty little secret, and Lizzo has a weight problem.

Pay The Price

Food & Drink, Travels

Some Belgie chick went to London and was astonished to be charged through the nose for her breakfast.

A tourist has come under fire for complaining about paying £3.55 for two croissants and a bottle of water at a London supermarket.

Here’s why I have no sympathy.

1) Any time you visit a major city (pretty much anywhere, Tokyo, Zurich ahem), you’re probably going to pay more than you expect for stuff, and in London more so than most, especially when the currency exchange is factored in.  (In Murkin greenbacks, this amount would be $4.50 or so — typical for a quick breakfast in L.A. or NYfC, probably, but without the quality guarantee.)  Which leads to my next point:

2) It’s Marks & Spencer, FFS.  Chances are that said croissants are as good or better than she could get anywhere else in Europe, with the possible exception of Paris.  That’s why they’re more expensive than most places:  they go for quality over everything else, and you pay the premium accordingly..

3) Water?  With croissants?  Loath as I am to tell a Euro how to eat their food, the proper liquid to be consumed with croissants is coffee.  Okay, considering the locale, a cup of tea could be substituted, but water?  Ugh.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do;  and when in London, suck it up and pay, Margriet.