March 1, 2012 Lunch – Taj Mahal, Shopping – Pro’s Ranch Market and PPI dinner

March 1, 2012 Lunch – Taj Mahal, Shopping – Pro’s Ranch Market and PPI dinner

I had lunch with Mike Verhagen at Taj Mahal.  It was the usual clean unadulterated Tandoori chicken, Saag Paneer with lots of spinach and greens in a rich vegetable broth, a bit of chicken curry and lots of riata (yogurt sauce with potatoes and cucumbers) with cups of chai.  I enjoy Mike’s conversation.  We seem to cover lots of areas of intersecting interests and personal tangents even though we are in unrelated fields.  Mike is a computer programmer and I am a lawyer, but we are both self-employed professionals with active interesting lives.  For example, we both have kids who live in Brooklyn., NY.

Among the topics discussed at lunch was my thought that combining and sharing the steps in the food chain from field to fork enhances the food experience.  The best food experiences for me are to plant a garden, raise the food, cook the food, and share it with friends.  The second best experience is to shop to find interesting food ingredients at low prices and make amazing food with it.  The way I met Mike was through Mike’s wife, Lisa Richard, who was the president of the American Institute of Wine and Food for Albuquerque.  So we share a love for good food and wine.

The best example of the second experience occurred after lunch, when I went to Pro’s Ranch Market for its Thursday fruits and vegetable specials. I love Pro’s because its vegetables and fruits are inexpensive and totally fresh. Often I am picking the vegetables and fruits out of the shipping cartons as the produce workers are unloading them into the bins on the shelves.  I purchased naval oranges (5/lb. for $.99), gorgeous green string beans ($.99/lb), the first manila mangos of the season (5 for $.99), large slicing tomatoes ($.50/lb), yellow onions (5/lb. for $.99), beautiful fresh cilantro ($.25 per large bunch), small limes ($.50/lb), smoked pork chops ($3.99/lb), Mexican LALA Mango yogurt. (32 oz for $2.99), Corn chips (2 12 oz. bags for $3.00) and bolillas (4 for $1.00).  I love Pro’s Market because it is so inexpensive and fresh.  I was told that Pro’s owns growing facilities in Mexico where they grow the produce they can sell it more cheaply because they cut out the middle man.  I generally do not like their meat, but I love their panaderilla, tortilleria, and fruits and vegetables and the Mexican market atmosphere.

Suzette had to set up a quilt show in her Santa Rosa facility on Friday, so she spent the night in Santa Rosa, which meant no cooking dinner tonight.  I chose to finish the lasagna and heated it in the microwave with cauliflower and broccoli flowerets in a bit of water to steam the vegetables and soften the lasagna and drank some of the Pennywise Pinot Noir with it.  The Pennywise is the best bottle of Pinot Noir for under $8.00 (Costco $7.89) but it is not a great pinot.  It does not have character and its taste does not linger on the back of your tongue. Having said that, Pennywise also lacks lots of unpleasant baggage, like a musty aftertaste and harsh tannic over tones that many other under $10 wines have. It is what it is and worth every cent.  We tend to drink a lot of wines with less character because their simplicity complements food easily and they are priced right.  For example, the lasagna was a pretty straightforward dish.  It was mostly pork, guajilla chili, mushrooms, tomatoes, fresh noodles, ricotta style cheese, a layer of spinach, and some melted Pecorino Romano cheese on the top.  So, a light red without much complexity allowed the subtle flavors in the lasagna to show more fully.

Check tomorrow’s review, Friday, March 2, 2012 for more discussion of Pennywise with food.

Bon Appètit