October 10, 2015 Brunch – Breakfast Burrito, Lunch – Matanza, Dinner at Cynthia and Ricardo's Pernil (Puerto Rican Roasted Pork Shoulder), Calabacitas, and a Spinach, Bibb lettuce, blue cheese and fresh Pear Salad
I woke around 7:45 and by 8:00 I was on the bike path north to see the balloons aloft. Unfortunately, the winds aloft must have been blowing from the South because there were very few balloons in sight even when I peddled to Paseo del Norte. It was a hard ride north because there was a constant 10 mile per hour breeze out of the north at ground level that created a headwind. Of course that made the return trip home very easy. All I had to do was keep my feet moving.
I returned home and Suzette and I made breakfast burrito with the PPI rib steak, PPI potatoes, onions, bacon, eggs and red chili wrapped in the fresh flour tortillas I bought Thursday at Costco.
At 12:00 I went to Birdland to finish and sign the Sub-Lease documents for the new medical marihuana dispensary.
At 2:00 Paula and Jay and I walked to the Wellesley end of the block to eat at the new Matanza Restaurant. The restaurant has a very open floor plan because it is dwarfed within what used to be a large furniture store space it occupies. We sat by the window with a view of Central. The menu included an interesting mix of vegetarian and meat dishes. I chose the blue corn duck tamale with a mole sauce, which seemed to be the most interesting dish on the menu. Jay and Paula are non-red meat vegetarians. Paula ordered the Vegetarian Blue acorn enchiladas filled with sautéed kale, mushrooms, and onions. Jay ordered a West Sider from the weekend brunch special section of the menu, which was a flatbread made with whole wheat pizza dough garnished with cojita cheese, shrimp and pickled sliced red onion.
The dishes were imaginative Mexican fusion recipes made with good ingredients priced at the top of the middle range of $12.00 to $15.00.
The sides dishes were not at such a high standard. TheT included re fried black beans, a wild rice mixture, and Calabacitas. I tried the Calabacitas and wild rice. The Calabacitas seemed to be made by throwing a few slices of zucchini into a bucket of canned corn kernels. The corn was decidedly canned in character. The wild rice was the medley of three types of rice with broken pieces of wild rice that cooks into the medley rather than flaking and bursting with its own flavor after 1 ½ hours of cooking. Two rather unpleasant short cuts.
Suzette called to find out where I was and asked me to bring her something to eat for lunch, so we put the leftovers into styrofoam boxes and I took them to Suzette.
Then I went to Quarters to buy some more of the Nesso Albariño and ginger beer. There were 33 bottles of Albariño left and they had been marked down another dollar to $3.99/bottle. I bought them all, plus a bottle of Bardolino Amontillado sherry and another case of ginger beer ($9.99) for a total cost of $153.00 after an 8% case discount on the cases of wine. This is the cheapest price I have ever paid for Albariño anywhere. I usually pay $12.00 to $15.00. The Albariño should last us for several years. I see lots of Seafood Paella and Albariño in the future.
When I got home I watched the Clinton Adams segment on Colores at 4:00 and later the PBS and BBC news and then I fetched the pear slices, the blue cheese, Bibb lettuce and a bottle of the nely we drove to Cynthia and Ricardo’s house.
When we arrived we were greeted by a whole pork shoulder roast and a large skillet of Calabacitas. Cynthia was sautéing large fresh okra she had breaded in corn meal in a skillet with about 1/3 inch of oil. I added the pear, blue cheese and bibb lettuce to the bowl of baby spinach, sliced red onion, and sliced celery Cynthia had prepared. We poured glasses of white wine and ate the platter of fried okra at the kitchen table and admired the pink sunset through the new southern facing clerestory windows of the kitchen’s newly raised roof.
We then went outside to the patio table for dinner. Cynthia dressed the salad and Ricardo sliced the pork shoulder and put them on the kitchen table. When all was ready we took our plates to the kitchen and served ourselves.
Ricardo told us that this was his mother’s recipe and he had used capers and olives for a more Caribbean flavor besides the garlic and oregano. Here's a recipe for Roast Pork (Pernil) Puerto Rican Style from Food.com: http://www.food.com/recipe/roast-pork-pernil-puerto-rican-style-316839?nl=email_share
We talked about how we acquired our palate for fine food and our respective introductions to communal dining that included our cooking for groups of people.
Ricardo opened a bottle of the lovely Pinot Grigio chiaretto from Total Wine and we all agreed it was a lovely rose.
The Cynthia brought out vanilla Bean Haagen Daz ice cream and a bag of toffee cookies she had bought at the Farmer’s Market this morning and we enjoyed bowls of ice cream and cookies.
At 9:30 we all began to get tired and said goodnight after seeing their newly framed watercolor given to them by their artist friend in Maine.
Bon Appetit
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