September 6, 2019 Lunch – Vietnam 2000 Dinner – Grilled Halibut and Asparagus with Ratatouille

September 6, 2019 Lunch – Vietnam 2000   Dinner – Grilled Halibut and Asparagus with Ratatouille

Some days events sneak up on you.  Today was one of those days.

I woke up with the thought of trying to get my communications system working better.  My internet connection has been failing at an alarming rate and I have lost my password for my internet system, so after I ate my usual breakfast of granola, milk, blueberries, and yogurt, walked a mile and showered and dressed, I called Comcast and had a lovely conversation with a lady about my internet.

The result of my conversation was an appointment at the Comcast store at 11:30 to try to straighten things out.  When I arrived at the store they did not have my reservation on file and I forgot to take my appointment confirmation, so I made the best of it and made an appointment for 1:30. 

I was hungry and had a hankering for sushi, but did not want to spend $20.00 for a Chirashi for myself when I could make a sushi dinner for perhaps four of us Saturday evening for $30.00.  So, I drove to Vietnam 2000 and ordered No. 21.  No. 21 is my favorite summer dish and the day was hot in this endless Summer.  No. 21 falls within the larger category of dishes known as Bun, which contain three layers of ingredients in one large bowl.  On the bottom are cool chopped lettuce, cucumber strips, green onion slices, mung bean sprouts, and chopped basil and cilantro.  The middle layer is warm freshly steamed rice vermicelli.  In the Bun category the top layer is populated by choices among many different hot ingredients.  No. 21 specifically is grilled marinated pork and two small, fried pork filled eggrolls.  Vietnam 2000 makes the best fried egg rolls I have found anywhere. They are crisp and the rice paper shell is exceedingly thin so it is like a super thin shell of rice phyllo around an interesting filling of finely minced ingredients dominated by pork.   The thinly sliced pieces of grilled pork, probably pork sirloin, are slightly charred from their grilling so that their crisp darkened edges complement the sweet marinated pork meat flavor.  When done well Bun Cha Gio/ No. 21 is truly a symphony of flavors in a bowl.  Today was one of those days when everything was perfection.

I ate most of my No. 21, boxed the rest and drove to Talin Market to buy sushi fish.  I like Talin Market because it reliably offers sushi grade seafood.  When I arrived I first went to the prepared food coolers and picked up small containers of squid salad and seaweed salad, Then I pulled my shopping basket to the fish department where I picked up a 1 lb. cryovac packet with a slice of sushi grade aji tuna for $15.00 and waited for the fishmonger to scale, clean, and cut me a 2 inch slice of salmon off a huge Atlantic Farm raised King Salmon.  I then looked at noodles and found several different types, including a new Vietnamese rice vermicelli like what I had just eaten at Vietnam 2000 moments ago, except these were made with brown rice.  I also bought thick and thin wheat noodles and a large can of coconut milk in the Vietnamese section.  I then went to the fresh vegetable section and picked up a bag of baby bok choy, which is Suzette’s favorite Chinese vegetable.  The total for all the ingredients was $40.00.

I then drove back to Comcast for my 1:30 appointment.  I was introduced to a lovely assistant who straightened out my issues.  She put me into a new bundle of four services for $75.00 less than I am currently paying which includes a security service with monitoring that will save me an additional $15.00 per month for a total savings of $90.00 per month after dropping several cable packages of shows we never watch and returning several cable boxes I never use.  Finally, she set up appointments for Comcast installers for the security and equipment installations.

I was thrilled as I drove home and arrived around 2:15.

I drafted and filed a couple of notices and then at 4:00 after receiving text messages that my prescriptions were ready for pick up I drove to Costco.  I was hungry for a snack so I decided to look around for wine and took a basket and went to the wine department, where I picked up two favorites, a bottle of Mohua New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc for $11.49 and a bottle of Spanish Rioja Riscal Reserva Tempranillo for $14.95.

I saw that it was a Seafood Fiesta day, so I wandered over to the fish display and picked up a lovely 1 lb. chunk of fresh halibut for $10.99/lb. and a 2 lb. Dungeness crab for $8.99/lb.

Since I was getting into it, I next rolled into the large cooler room full of fresh vegetables and fruits to see what the asparagus situation was and I was thrilled to see a 2 1/4 lb. bag of thick fresh asparagus for $2.15/lb. among the bags of thin tough asparagus.   We love to grill these big boys, so as I picked up the bag of asparagus I had a flash of premonition of our dinner.   Grilled Halibut and Asparagus with a glass of my favorite Sauvignon Blanc.  I also bought freezer bags and a new item, 16 individually wrapped Chocolate Croissants made in France for $6.99.  I could not resist and began reorganizing my breakfast menu for weeks to come.  Finally, I picked up my prescriptions.

When Billy and I went to Europe with our parents in 1960, we stayed at a Hotel Du Printemps just south of Gare San Lazare.  We shared a separate room with a small balcony with a view of the plaza in front of the train station.  Our breakfast each morning was a chocolate croissant and slices of bread with butter and jam with a small pot of hot chocolate.  I am looking forward to re-creating that breakfast this Fall and Winter with these small lovely Pain au Chocolates.  Voila.  If you cannot be there, at least you can eat like you are there, thanks to Costco.  

I drove home a bit after 5:00 in the height of rush traffic with the freeway jammed up for several miles north of the Big I behind a line of cars transitioning from I-25 to I-40 westbound for a few minutes.  I bit exciting to see the density of traffic in our small town.

I arrived home at about 5:40, put the Mohua and seafood into the fridge and watched some TV until Suzette arrived around 6:15.  Suzette was tired so that ruled out any art gallery opening.  We rested and watched Shields and Brooks on PBS’ New Hour and then Rachel Maddow.  We called Willy as he was returning to town riding his motorcycle.  We told him we were grilling fresh halibut and invited him to ride over for dinner.  Soon Suzette rallied, as she always does, and sliced a lemon and made a make shift pan with aluminum foil to hold the halibut and another one to hold the asparagus to shield them from the direct fire of the grill and cut slits in the halibut into which she slid pads of butter.  I squeezed lemon juice on the fish, while Suzette snapped the ends off the asparagus stalks and tossed them in one of our new freezer bags with a bit of olive oil and a dash of freshly ground salt and pepper.

Suzette decided to heat the PPI ratatouille to accompany dinner. 

Willy arrived a bit after 7:00 while the asparagus and Halibut were grilling.  I poured glasses of Mohua and soon Suzette took the fish and asparagus off the grill.  I filleted the Halibut and divided it into three 5 oz. sections and Suzette added four or five grilled asparagus and a pile of ratatouille to each plate and we enjoyed a memorable dinner that was created out of nowhere; one that would be hard to equal in any restaurant in Albuquerque or Santa Fe at any price. 

We watched the last half of the U.S. vs. Mexico friendly, which Mexico won 3-0 and then said goodnight to Willy and wished him well on his trip to Toronto and Montreal tomorrow.

I lay down to read at around 9:00 but soon fell asleep, as did Suzette after she watched a House Hunters International segment.

Bon Appetit