Toast Poast Number 3618

Posted on December 9, 2011 | 2 comments

Embracing Home

I race home to embrace home every chance I get. There’s no place like it. Home is where my heart is, my heart at its most aching, and my heart at its most thumping. We are sandwiched between safe walls here, with a large tree looming, the tree that may ultimately come down and split this house in two.

We are sandwiched here between exultation and knock-down-drag-outs. Sometimes thick as thieves, sometimes split in two.

He pushed a note under his slammed door once, “I hate you, mom. For now.” “For now” is key. His “now” one second later had forgotten the note. We are safe between these walls for now. Warming the walls with the heat of the oven and the toaster and our hearts.

Warm thanks to Bird-n-Butterfly Betty for this illustration. Corby Kummer’s accompanying piece on recently released books on home cooking is an excellent read.

2 Comments

Posted in Parenting, Toast Poast

Horseshoes and Hand Grenades II – Merry Ann’s

Posted on December 7, 2011 | Leave a comment

What makes all the difference? Trusting the world to deliver on its promise, that makes all the difference. The world is so thick, fat and full with promise. Zippety doo dah.

Merry Ann’s in Champaign brought us within spitting distance of the Horseshoe Sandwich. Actually, it was the draw of the Bottle Rockets that pulled us to Illinois.

1510 S Neil Street

Champaign, IL 61820

(217)352-5399

highdivegroup

brxokeefsmiling

highdiveceiling

merryannsZip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
My, oh my, what a wonderful day
Plenty of sunshine headin’ my way
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
merryanns1Mister Bluebird’s on my shoulder
It’s the truth, it’s actual
Ev’rything is satisfactual
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
Wonderful feeling, wonderful day, yes sir!

hangover horseshoe

Yes indeed. My brain felt gorgeous – hangover free.

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
My, oh my, what a wonderful day
Plenty of sunshine headin’ my way
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
merryannseggsMister Bluebird’s on my shoulder
It’s the truth, it’s actual
Ev’rything is satisfactual
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay
Wonderful feeling, feeling this way

merryannspancakes

merryannsguysjpg

broxbrianpoints

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Posted on December 6, 2011 | 3 comments

Reuben Tuesday: Did Some Guy Named Reuben Invent This Sandwich?

This Tuesday, December 6th is Reuben Tuesday at the Linkery. We’ve got another batch of our house-cured grass-fed corned beef ready to roll. Made with house-cured sauerkraut from organic Suzie’s Farm cabbage, house-baked beer bread, Pt. Reyes Toma cheese, and house made Russian dressing, our Reuben is the single most popular item we make and serve.

A friend from my days at the Tabard Inn recently posted in depth about Reubens on San Diego’s The Linkery site.

When it comes to favorite anythings, my field is usually wide, but not when it comes to a Reuben. It’s the top. It’s the Coliseum, the Louvre Museum, a melody from a symphony by Strauss. A Bendel bonnet, a Shakespeare sonnet, Mickey Mouse!

In respect to loving deep rather than wide, read the post  to deepen your understanding of this sandwich pinnacle. Mahatma Gandhi, Napoleon Brandy, the purple light of a summer night in Spain. The National Gallery, Garbo’s salary, cellophane!

Simply click on the title above. Love me, love my favorite sandwich.


3 Comments

Posted in Reuben Sandwich, San Diego

We’ve Gotta Have ‘Em

Posted on December 2, 2011 | Leave a comment

Immigrant Identities, Preserved in Vinegar?

By JANE ZIEGELMAN
New York Times, August 3, 2011

TENSIONS over immigration in Europe are flaring this summer, along with questions about what — whether language, dress or diet — makes a foreigner a citizen. Of course, these questions also have a long history in America.

One of the biggest battles over assimilation occurred a century ago in New York City, and the battleground was food. Politicians, public health experts and social reformers were alarmed by what they saw as immigrants’ penchant for highly seasoned cooking. They used too much garlic, onion and pepper. They ate too many cured meats and were too generous with the condiments. Strongly flavored food, these officials believed, led to nervous, unstable people. Nervous, unstable people made bad Americans.

In other words, to be a good American, you had to eat like one.
No immigrant food was more reviled than the garlicky, vinegary pickle. Pungent beyond all civilized standards, toxic to both the stomach and the psyche, the pickle was seen as morally suspect. As Dr. Susanna Way Dodds wrote in the late 19th century, “the spices in it are bad, the vinegar is a seething mass of rottenness … and the poor little innocent cucumber … if it had very little ‘character’ in the beginning, must now fall into the ranks of the ‘totally depraved.’ ”

Read more here.

Pickle History Timeline

FROM

2030 BC: Cucumbers brought from their native India helped begin a tradition of pickling in the Tigris Valley.

TO

2001: The first annual Pickle Day celebration, NYC.

I must have pickles, he said.

Thank you, Elle Kasey of Magniferous, for the pickle tip off.

Leave a comment

Posted in Pickles

Supposably Orientated Towards the Heroizing of Manliestness

Posted on November 30, 2011 | 1 comment

Someone used the word “heroizing” on me this week. Twice. This would not get by a  sharp-eyed gardener (watch her pluck those cabbage worms), editor (lay? lie? laid? she’s on it), writer (need proof? look here), or eclipper like The Sublime Miss M.

She spots it for me, sandwich stuff, fascinating odd bits that I follow down the electronic sidewalk, nose aquiver (speaking of words that look made up).

Heroizing does, however, seem mighty applicable. I’ll give you that. Take, for example, the

Macho, Macho Sandwich

Macho, macho sandwich: Primanti Bros. named ‘manliest’ in U.S.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011

By China Millman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Primanti Bros. has beaten out 8 other regional finalists for the title of the “Manliest Restaurant in America,” awarded by Men’s Health magazine and featured in the December issue on newsstands now.

On Nov. 30, the Travel Channel’s “Food Paradise” will feature the contest and explore what makes Primanti Bros. and the other regional finalists so “guy-friendly.”

And, I ask you, where are you gonna go with your manwich? Where can you simply bask in your bad heroizing selfness? Look no further.  The Manshed

1 Comment

Posted in Link to article, Miriam Rubin, Sandwiches in the News

Rolling In the Deep

Posted on November 28, 2011 | 6 comments

From the deep, dark, cold waters come the hard, sharp, scratchaddy, mondosects, whose anttenae, when I face them through the glass walls of the mondoquarium at the supermarket, always, always, bring to mind the please- don’t-hurt-me, deep, liquid eyes, of my sweet, departed, anxiously aberrant border collie, Ida.

Got my antenna closed, pondering what it is to be a lobster. Imagine wearing your bones on the outside. They put their lives in our hands and we put their bodies on a roll.

The lobster and the jelly fish got into a nasty fight.
Said the lobster, “Every word you spit from your source of spite
Bounces off me and sticks to you
Cause I am rubber and you are glue.”

In Amagansett, New York there is a lobster roll shack. I’d heard about it. Anticipation pumped through my veins. As we passed it on Route 27, heading to the outer east point of Long Island, I felt long, sticky lobster tentacles reach out and wrap themselves around my innermost, my most desirous, self. Alas, that shack was closed for the season.

When one door closes another one opens. Yeah, yeah, cold comfort when you have your heart set on a lobster roll.

Well, I had to eat my jaded thoughts. Had we hit the iconic lobster roll shack on Route 27, we would not have discovered Duryea’s, around the pond, down a winding road, set alone nearly, in a beachy, villagey, hilly, Montauk cottage cluster.

And did we feel smug. And snug. And happy. At Duryea’s the menu reads “Lobster Salad Roll”, a precision that cued purity. As limited as my lobster roll expertise may be, I do know that the lobster should be essentially plain – no mayonnaise, no celery, no salady stuff. And I do love a lobster salad roll. At the shore. In the wind. This lobster salad roll was so delicious.

The chips were delicious. And the slaw. At the risk of diminishing my praise, I could have eaten the plate with pleasure. Another tired aphorism: appetite is the best seasoning.

6 Comments

Posted in Lobster rolls, NY, Sandwiches

Opportunity Cost

Posted on November 26, 2011 | 4 comments

SUNdeVICH is intriguing.  I wanted to go there, but hadn’t had a chance, or made the chance. Then, *bing*, a Living Social coupon lit up my screen, and I was catalyzed. I apologize sincerely for needing a coupon to ignite initiative.Anyway, I had this Living Social coupon for SUNdeVICH, and was excited to go there. Simultaneously, I felt embarrassed to soak a small business with a twofer sandwich deal.On the other hand, a coupon will propel a person across town to save a buck. On the way, serendipity is guaranteed to occur.  A small event to remind a girl that the world is out there, full tilt, and she’s got to jump in.

I pondered my fix and set some personal ground rules.

1. Bear in mind that the merchant receives only 30% of the value of the coupon. That 30% might cover the food cost and not a whole lot more. Maybe less.
2. Don’t visit during peak hours. If you show up during a quieter time, you count as way better than nothin’, rather than  a wrench in the spokes. A discount wrench.
3.Be generous. Spend more than the coupon. If we’re gonna make slaw, everyone has to peel a little cabbage.
4. Tip on  what the total would have been without the coupon. This is absolutely imperative.
5. If you are happy, go again. Pay full price. Tell your friends. Spread the word.
A word to the wise, once your coupon has expired, do not despair. Little known fact: that coupon retains its face value. Go! Same rules apply.
My friend Peter, who met me at SUNdeVICH, is a fantastic pastry chef and always game for dessert. Hooray, we had both!I loved SUNdeVICH. The space is utterly charming, down a beautiful, broad, urban alley. Secret seeming, beguiling and enticing. The sandwiches were topnotch, the choices neither too wide nor too narrow. Superb bread, excellent filling-to-bread ratio. SUNdeVICH does not offer coffee or tea, a parameter I respect. Go! Look for me there.

4 Comments

Posted in DC Sandwiches

You Mommy Would Not Approve

Posted on November 11, 2011 | Leave a comment

Umami Burger and the Melt: Science Meets Fast Food with Muddled Results

By Jonathan Kauffman Wednesday, Nov 9 2011

The McRib, which zooms through the American media with the regularity of a lesser comet, is back again, trailed as always by a glowing cloud of hype and disgust. The McRib is the most delicious mass of sweet, molded pork parts ever concocted in Ronald’s labs! The McRib contains ground-up pig stomach and ammonium sulfate!

San Francisco, which has far more McDonald’s restaurants than it likes to admit, is now being colonized by two nascent fast-food chains that may be sidestepping the foodista loathing for processed food: Umami Burger and The Melt. The two are doing it with Earth-huggy claims, to be sure — good ingredients, compostable cutlery — but also with tech-geek-worthy backstories. The new chains’ McRibs? Burgers and grilled-cheese sandwiches. Re-engineered with science, of course.

Read more here.

Thanks a million, Mike Rhode of ComicsDC, for doing my reading for me and providing razorsharp clipping service.

 

Leave a comment

Posted in Sandwiches in the News

You Know You Can See My House From Here

Posted on November 4, 2011 | 2 comments

Just a loaf’s throw away.

Sauca has opened around the corner. Hallelujah.

Eamonn’s is opening on the Pike! You read it here second. With a broader menu than the Old Town location. I’m kinda excited about the opening of Eamonn’s. Critical mass has not yet arrived on the Columbia Pike commercial strip. Still big patches of blistering parking lots, 80’s era car dealerships, check cashing joints, and mattress emporiums.

Living here in Arlington – Arlingtonian’s love it, and rightly so – I have always been conflicted, and have been making an effort to keep my conflicts in suspension.

Now we’ve got Eamonn’s and Sauca as anchor stores on the Pike.This is good news. Even for a skeptic like me. After 20 years living in Arlington, I still don’t get it. A county with no town.  And this is not rural. It feels like a case of No there there. Or, You can’t get there from here. At best, it is geographically awkward.

And “Pike”.  I can’t warm to a main street we call The Pike. I’m tryin’. I swear. For Pike’s sake, I’m tryin’. Thinking nice thoughts about the trolley. Getting fuzzy over the brick sidewalks. Throwing kisses to the knock-kneed baby treelets as I gun it and swerve around a metrobus.

Anyhoo, Sauca on the Pike is a coup. Thanks be to sandwiches.

There’s a Sauca where the diner used to be, and it’s eye-poppingly adorable.
Farhad Assari, the proprietor of Sauca, comfortably walks the tightrope between friendly and overbearing. What a pleasure to be meeted and greeted by Farhad and his easy charisma.
Melissa went with me and was game for whatever.
We loved the place – from orange spinning stools, to delivery scooters, to sparkly staff.  Sauca’s motto is “Eat the World”, which sounds kinda dirty to me, but that’s okay. 
Melissa has a thing about crumbs. She does not like them. Sauca’s griddled flatbreads keep their crumbs to themselves. Phew.And on a pretty day, a person can eat outside under the space agey awning thingy.

Arlington is ok.

2 Comments

Posted in Arlington, VA, Sandwiches

A Squirrel on Every Porch

Posted on November 4, 2011 | 2 comments



Mathematics and Science Education Resource Center

BBI Squirrel Worreld

Squirrel Place

We have a shortage of squirrels this year. Last fall, just when I thought this fella was ready to start using a napkin, he disappeared.

There he’d be, standing on the porch, peering in eagerly through the glass, head bobbing, body flicking, ready to bolt if I turned too quickly. Cheery voiced, I’d say, “Get up on the table!”, looking him in the eye with a twinkle in mine.

Darned if he wasn’t sitting, cute as a button, on the porch table, when I returned, toasted, peanut butter smeared, English muffin in hand. Held it out steadily, not too close, and he would reach, reach, reach, stretching to the point of teetering, and snatch it. After weeks of grab and dash, and me chit, chit, chittering with my teeth and lips, he learned to pause a bit, so I could watch his tiny tongue flicking over the peanut butter. I can go for an outside pet.

Gone though now. Hide and hair.

2 Comments

Posted in Squirrels