July 29, 2016 Lunch Bistro. Dinner Spaghetti with sautéed New Zealand Cockles, Asparagus, and shrimp

July 29, 2016 Lunch  Bistro. Dinner Spaghetti with sautéed New Zealand Cockles, Asparagus, and shrimp

Yesterday was a disastrous food day.  I worked diligently on a purchase agreement that had to be completed, so I other than a bowl of blueberries and yogurt at 11:00, I had no food until 2:30.  I made ham and cheese sandwiches with the slices of ham I bought at El Super and Comte from Costco plus mayonnaise, sliced Roma tomato and a bit of mustard.  Then I ran errands and took a shower and got ready for book club. 

By the time Charlie picked me up, I was feeling rather queasy.  To make a long story short, I threw up everything I had eaten back to and including the ham sandwich at 2:30 in the morning.  I suspect the culprit was the ham slices, which I tossed today.  

Most of the day I have suffered diarrhea, but managed to go to lunch with Peter Eller at a new Vietnamese restaurant, Bistro, at 1313 San Pedro.  I ordered a bowl of pho with raw beef and meatballs, except the waitress messed up the order and had to bring me the meatballs in a separate bowl after the dish was served.  The waitress also had difficulty with Peter’s order.  He wanted to order a dish he had eaten at the Bistro on Tuesday.  He asked for grilled chicken in curry sauce with lemon grass and the waitress said that the restaurant did not have that dish.  We finally found in the hot and spicy section of the menu, Spicy Chicken in curry sauce with lemon grass.  I enjoyed my light beef consommé and left most of the noodles.  Peter loved his dish and probably will become a regular.  

    My Pho

   Some of Peter's Grilled chicken in curry sauce with lemon grass

After lunch Suzette brought a 5 lb. bag of New Zealand cockles home from Costco, which I iced.  I worked until 4:00.  

Suzette came home around 5:00 and we watched the business news, BBC and PBS News Hour.  I had thawed out a lb. of heads of shrimp yesterday.  Suzette suggested making her wonderful steamed clams and shrimp in a white wine cream sauce.  She melts ¼ lb. of butter in a large enameled casserole with three or four cloves of minced fresh garlic and either a diced shallot or some onion and then adds water and white wine to a depth of about 1 inch.  Then she steams open the clams.  Then she cooks the shrimp and four five diced stalks of asparagus in the sauce, adjusts the seasoning, and adds some half and half or cream.  

We boiled spaghetti in a separate pot.

I chilled my favorite wine for this dish, Gavi Princessa.  Suzette loved the dish with the addition of shrimp.  This was the first real meal we have cooked since we returned from our trip.  We both welcomed the return to our normal cooking.  

Here is our cockle shell mitten.

For example, on Wednesday I  ate PPI Hong Kong BBQ Pork for both lunch and dinner, which was dish Willy wanted to make.  

The Gavi Princessa is dry and slightly acidic so it goes really well with seafood and cream sauces.  

From 9:00 until 11:00 we enjoyed watching the British Baking Show and Suzette had a cognac.

As I write this at 11:30 p.m. on Friday night, I am feeling like my stomach has stopped cramping.   I am hoping that the offending food was either expelled or passed the gauntlet of watchful bacteria in  my gut and I am on my way back to homeostatic equilibrium.  

Bon Appetit