Suzette went to work and at about I had discussed with her, what to do with the fresh sierra mackerel I bought on Thursday at Ta Lin and we decided to make mackerel teriyaki for Monday evening’s meal and the fresh salmon I had bought at Albertson’s on Monday evening. So after a long call from Luke and watching the Sunday morning news shows, I made a teriyaki sauce and placed it and the two mackerel filets into a 1 quart plastic freezer bag in the fridge (the teriyaki sauce recipe is 7 Tbsp. of dark soy, 7 Tbsp. of mirin, 7 Tbsp. of saki and 1 Tbsp. of sugar from “Japanese Cooking; A Simple Art” by Shizuo Tsuji, page 200).
Around I started looking for something to eat for lunch. I found a small bag with about 4 oz. of PPI grilled steak and decided to make steak and eggs. I diced about 3 Tbs. of red onion, and 1 baby bok choy, 1 Tbsp. of garlic and 1 Tbsp. of ginger and 2 Tbsp. of red bell pepper. I then sautéed the garlic, ginger and onion and red pepper in about 1 Tbs. of peanut oil and 1 tsp. of sesame oil. I then threw in the white portion of the baby bok choy and about ¾ cup of PPI white basmati rice and let that cook for a few minutes (out of mushrooms today). I then threw in a small handful of mung bean sprouts and the green portion of the baby bok choy and about 1 Tbsp. of fresh cilantro leaves and about 1 Tbsp. of rice cooking wine and about 1 ½ tsp. of soy sauce and little more sesame oil and cooked the mixture for a few minutes while if stirred to combine two whole eggs and two egg whites. After a couple of minutes of cooking, I added the eggs and lifted and stirred the mixture to allow the egg to cover and circulate throughout the mixture. I let the mixture cook for a few minutes to allow the egg to set up a bit and then I flipped the mixture in the wok, but only was able to get ½ of it to flip so I had to use my wok spatula to flip the rest of the mixture in sections. I started water in the tea kettle for green tea. When the whole mixture had set in a few more minutes and the green tea prepared, I sat down to a lovely large plate of egg foo young and fresh brewed green tea. This is one of my favorite Chinese cooking techniques. The result was also a little like a Vietnamese omelet with the addition of the fresh cilantro and mung bean sprouts.
After a quiet day of dozing and a breezy bike ride we dressed and went to the Hotel Andaluz to meet Cliff and Nancy Blaugrund for a Chatter Cabaret performance and dinner. The performance was in a room on the first floor of the hotel that I had never been to that was painted black with a low stage that appeared to be used for a disco but today was filled with tables for four and a low stage at one end.
The music was very entertaining and included: a Cello Counterpoint by Steve Reich played by cellist James Holland with a recorded track of cello music accompanying him that he had previously recorded. Next was a Steve Reich clapping piece performed by violinist Feldberg and another man, whose name I missed. Then a piece played on the triangle by the Symphony’s timpanist Douglas Cardwell called Diving Bell by Nathan Davis that utilized a series of percussive hammers to make different sounds on a triangle to a sound recording accompaniment. We ordered glasses of wine and two appetizers when we arrived. One appetizer was a shot glass filled with goat cheese and olives and the other was a glass with two dates stuffed with a Spanish almond, wrapped in bacon and fried to crisp (one of my new favorite appetizers, $5.00 each). Both appetizers accompanied with what were called pita chips but were actually wedges of flour tortilla sautéed in herb infused olive oil (I don’t know why they did not say that the pita was really tortilla, because it was very creative and tasty). Suzette and I both ordered a glass of Santa Rita Reserve Sauvignon Blanc ($8.00). After an intermission, the final half of the program was a chamber piece: Felix Mendelssohn’s Quartet No. 3 in D Major, which perfectly filled the room with sound. After the performance we crossed the lobby to the Lucia Restaurant
The menu was a mix of Spanish and 
For entrees, everyone else ordered the dish of the day, a Mushroom Risotto ($18.00) that was soft and heavy with cheese and cream and enoki and other mushrooms. The Risotto was so heavy that, after having eaten our two cycles of appetizers and a soup or salad, everyone could only eat a few bites of it and then asked the wait staff to carton the rest to take home. 
I had trouble deciding what to order. The thing I wanted to try was the Paella Valencia, but it was an appetizer ($10.00) and was informed by our waiter that I needed to order an entree for the free wine and soup. He and I quickly solved the dilemma when I asked if I could order a double portion of the paella as an entree and he said. “Yes!” The paella combined fresh manila clams, mussels, tiger shrimp, small shrimp and bay scallops with saffron cooked rice that was dry to my taste and seemed to be colored with a form of saffron I was not familiar with (short orange colored things) and/or turmeric instead of the long threads of red stamens I am used to seeing. Perhaps this is too harsh a criticism because two nights later on Tuesday evening we ate the reheated PPI Paella with a Salmon Roulade and it was more moist and filled and had a delicious seafood flavor. So I conclude that I just was not hungry for another rice dish on Sunday evening after the rice filled egg foo young and all the appetizers I had eaten.
After a few bites of my Paella, I also asked for most of it to be boxed. We said good night to Cliff and Nancy at the end of a lovely evening of music, conversation, food and wine.
When Suzette and I arrived at home we were so tired that the only thing we could think about was going to bed, I suspect because we were both affected by loss of the hour’s sleep due to the spring forward to Day Light Saving Time. Remarkably, Nancy seemed to be unaffected by her lack of sleep, even though she had spent the weekend in Las Vegas attending the Lobo games and had awaken at 4:30 a.m. to catch a 6:30 a.m. flight back to Albuquerque for the Chatter Cabaret.
Bon Appètit
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