April 16, 2018 Lunch – Amerasia, Tea – coffee, tea, and Apple pie. Dinner – Charbroiled Hamburger Steak and corn, and Steamed string beans

April 16, 2018 Lunch – Amerasia, Tea – coffee, tea, and Apple pie.  Dinner – Charbroiled Hamburger Steak and corn, and Steamed string beans

The usual breakfast of yogurt, granola, milk, and blueberries.

At 8:15 I rode toward Rio Bravo four miles out and returned home after an eight mile ride.

I then showered and went to a 10:00 appointment at the Moses Firm at 2nd and Roma.  When the appointment ended at 11:15 I made a call and then at 11:30 drove the three blocks to Amerasia, where I had one of the most wonderful food experiences in a long time.  I ordered my two favorite dim sum dishes; a bowl of fried tofu stuffed with stewed finely diced shitake and wood ear strips and served half submerged in the stewing broth and steamed buns stuffed with sweet bean paste and BBQ Pork (Char Siu Bao)..

When the Char Siu Bao  arrived and I fingered them and then bit into them I immediately realized that the skin was tough.  After I had eaten one and ½ of the Char Siu Bao  and most of the tofu, the proprietor Hyangmi Yi walked by and asked “Is everything all right?” I mentioned that the Char Siu Bao  were tough and Hyangmi Yi immediately responded, “New cook, left the Char Siu Bao  in the steamer too long and the skin got tough.  Shall I bring you a fresh one?  I said, “Yes, please.”  I have been eating at Amerasia for over forty years, sInce the restaurant was located at 301 Cornell SE and Hyangmi Yi was the server and Mickey owned the restaurant.

It is now joined with Sumo Sushi in the same space at 800 3rd and owned by Hyangmi Yi.

So after a few minutes Hyangmi Yi appeared with a huge piping hot steamed bun that almost filled the small plate on which two are usually served.  It was the best Bao Su I have ever tasted steaming hot, fresh, and tender.  In that moment when I tasted the replacement Char Siu Bao  Hyangmi Yi placed before me several thoughts raced through my brain; we shared forty year of food history (her affiliation with Amerasia and my forty years as a food writer), the shared recognition of how a really great Char Siu Bao  tastes, and her desire to show me that she can make a great Char Siu Bao because she respects my opinion and she is a complete food professional who wants to give me as good a food experience as she is capable of producing; no excuses, just a superlative second effort to erase any possible memory of a less than wonderful food experience.  It was a great Char Siu Bao, accompanied by the great feeling that we had just shared a special food moment.  I felt as though Hyangmi Yi was initiating me into a very select Amerasia Dim Sum club, those who know what real



Char Siu Bao really taste like and can demand the real thing because of that knowledge.  It was a very small thing, but for some reason, I can not explain, an experience that was very satisfying.

Perhaps to confirm that I was an initiate, she brought me a plate with several lovely twisted fried noodles dusted with powdered sugar for dessert.  Here is a picture of one.

After lunch I went home.  Shortly after I arrived home Etienne called and came by and we worked on his case until 3:00 when we drove to Peter’s house to share a bottle of wine that Etienne thought we would like and an apple pie he made.  Peter was asleep but woke up and made us tea and then lovely cups of Sumatra coffee.  Etienne poured us glasses of the a 1990 Scheurebe Spatlese Rheinhassen from Mainz-Ebersheimer Huttberg.  To say this was a wonderful bottle would be an understatement.  The acidity and sweetness were in perfect balance yet pushed to their limit.  It had citrus notes yet a honey flavor that rolled across your palate.  The apple pie and Sumatran coffee were wonderful also.  We heated the apple pie until its filling ceased to be congealed and added whipped cream.  The coffee was so good I drank two cups.  A second wonderful food experience.

I left at 5:00 with the last of the bottle of wine and pie for Suzette to try, thanks to my gracious hosts.

When I returned home I checked the results of the market activity for the day and was pleasantly surprised to see that the market and my portfolio were up about .8%, a very good day.

Suzette arrived around 6:00 and we discussed dinner.  We settled on grilling the last lb. of angus ground beef we had purchased at Smith’s in Taos for $3.99/lb. on Saturday with ears of fresh corn, and steaming the haricot verts I had bought at El Super last Wednesday.


Suzette sprinkled the two ½ lb. hamburgers she made with the ground beef with truffle salt and black pepper and melted a slice of Provolone cheese on each one after she flipped them. She removed all the husks from each ear of corn except for the last layer and soaked the three ears of corn in water before placing them on the grill.  The resulting cooked corn was tender yet had a slightly smoky flavor.  Suzette plated our plates with an ear of corn, a hamburger steak, and a handful of steamed

haricot verts with slices of tomato smeared with mayonnaise and a small bed of lettuce from our garden.  Here is a photo.

  I poured glasses of California Cherry Blossom Pinot Noir, my new favorite under $5.00 bottle of Pinot that I buy at Trader Joe’s.  I like the price and the fact that it shows the light elegance of a good Pinot. I dipped pieces of hamburger into catsup, as I have for most of my life, and we enjoyed a great dinner.

But that was not the end of the wonderful stuff that happened today.

After we watched the MSNBC news about the hearing in New York today in which a federal judge denied Trump’s lawyers’ attempt to preview and object to the evidence seized by the FBI in their search of Michael Cohen’s office and apartment and the disclosure that Sean Hannity is a client of Michael Cohen and two interesting Antique Roadshow programs, Suzette soaked in the hot tub and I began watching a movie titled “Lucy” starring Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman.  Lucy is about a woman who is forced by a gang of Oriental mobsters into becoming a mule to transport a bag of a new hallucinogen sewn into her body that breaks open and stimulates her brain to utilize 100% of her mental capacity.  She becomes a super smart superhero.  I loved “Lucy” and stimulated by the coffee and movie felt great as though I was using more than my normal amount of brain power.

We went to bed at 11:00 when the movie ended but I got up to write this blog entry powered by the great food and wine experiences, Sumatran coffee, and Lucy.  I recommend all of the above.

Bon Appetit