Category Archives: Fooooood &drink

The Perfect Rib Eye

Since figuring out where to get great steaks here, I’ve made three attempts at the perfect rib eye. Last night’s attempt was pretty damn close.

The strategy which I’d been contemplating since the second try, was simply “faster and hotter”.

I played a Bluegrass playlist while cooking. That probably helped.

How do I explain Swiss Cheese to Ukrainians?

My wife is making Reuben sandwiches after trying the most heavenly Reuben in Cracker Barrel when we visited the US. The conversation goes like this:

– What type of cheese goes on them?

– Swiss?

– Huh?

– Swiss. “Shvaitsarski.” You know.

– They make lots of different cheeses in Switzerland.

Apparently, there’s no conception of an individual flavor of cheese called Swiss in Ukraine. Wikipedia sheds some light:

Swiss cheese is a generic name in North America for several related varieties of cheese, mainly of North American manufacture, which resemble Emmental cheese, a yellow, medium-hard cheese that originated in the area around Emmental, in Switzerland.

Also, this is cool:

Swiss cheese without eyes is known as “blind”. . . .

In general, the larger the eyes in a Swiss cheese, the more pronounced its flavor because a longer fermentation period gives the bacteria more time to act.[9] This poses a problem, however, because cheese with large eyes does not slice well and comes apart in mechanical slicers. As a result, industry regulators have limited the eye size by which Swiss cheese receives the Grade A stamp.[10]

NYC in 8 hours

NYC in 8 hours:

The city in which I was born and raised is

– still super exciting — best in the world in so many dimensions. Whatever you love, you’ll find high level talent there.
– still the city of beginning. At the drop of the hat, you can have a clean slate among a new set of interesting, worldly, talented people. (pro tip:if you’re tired of beginnings and want middles or ends, get the hell out)
– still super frustrating — I paid thirty dollars twice, for parking < 2 hrs. - still puts you at the mercy of unreasonable and predatory bureaucrats. - Pongal on Lex is still the best Indian food in the world, and an example of perfect service -- everything you want and nothing you don't. - Rosa's Pizza on 69th Street in Queens is still the best pizza in the world. We called it Rosa's II because there was another Rosa's Pizza on Grand Avenue at the time of their scandalous opening in the late 80s. Loved sharing it with my family. Three surprises: - The Orpheum is ***still*** showing "Stomp"??? (I remember saying the same thing about "Little Shop of Horrors", and noticing when Stomp finally showed up . . . twentyish years ago. - Saint George's Ukrainian Church was having mass in English! Broader appeal. Makes perfect sense. The icons were extremely familiar. I spent hours of my youth studying them while listening to masses which I didn't understand. Long, agonizing hours measured in impatient child time. Also: I lit candles to remember departed relatives -- they have a push button system in pace of real candles. Somehow, it does not appear in poor taste. - Though I've been back many times since adulthood, the streets, houses and hills in Woodside/Maspeth Queens still seem much smaller than they were. - An old Army buddy with whom I was delighted to cross paths said that in Williamsburg, there really is a training academy where leftists learn some weak perverted version of hand to hand combat. These psychopaths are really going all the way with their delusions. They have it completely, and dangerously backwards. It was not a lack of leftist violence that accompanied the rise of fascism, but an excess that precipitated it. You have to look beyond the sanitized, popular versions of history to see this, but once you do, it's obvious. So please tell your radical leftists friends -- be careful what you start.

The dietary advice I’m trying to follow

The dietary advice I’m trying to follow:

It is ridiculous that humans know more about distant galaxies than human nutrition. The hard part with nutrition isn’t finding information but sorting through lies, pseudo science, wishful thinking, and mis-information. Here’s what I’ve come up with. Comments welcome.

1. Vegetables (all different colors, and especially leafy greens).
2. Garlic.
3. Ginger.
4. Fruits.
5. Berries.
6. Nuts.
7. Turmeric (applied both before and after cooking, with black pepper).
8. Coffee (with cinnamon when convenient).
9. Tea (black for taste, green, occasionally hibiscus).
10. One meal a day without meat.

also,

11. Little refined sugar.
12. Beans.
13. pro biotics: live yogurt, sauerkraut, pickled vegetables.

also,

14. Vitamin D supplement.