Another great day of food. I worked and at 9:00 went to Tricore for a lab. When I returned home at 9:45 I was hungry so I heated the last of the egg and sausage casserole Suzette made on a Sunday and ate it with bites of Japanese pickled carrots, cucumber, radishes, and Daikon.
Peter Eller called and we decided to go to lunch. I asked him to think of where he would like to go and when I picked him up at noon, I was pleased when he said,”The Vietnam Place” because I was not very hungry. Peter volunteered that he really liked it because of its Vietnamese coffee which I introduced him to last time we went there. Vietnamese coffee contains chicory and is dripped into a glass with about an inch of condensed milk on the bottom. The full dripped coffee an condensed milk are stirred into solution and poured over a glass full of ice cubes to create a strong sweetened iced coffee. I can not resist the thought of sitting in a street café in Saigon, sipping one on a hot summer day.
I drove us to Vietnam 2000 at the corner of San Mateo and Zuni, which currently is my favorite Vietnamese restaurant. We studied the menu and chose almost identical dishes. I ordered flat noodles with pork and Peter ordered stir fried noodles with pork. Both combined stir fried noodles with lots of vegetables. The only difference between the dishes was that wheat noodles were used for Peter’s dish and rice noodles were used in my dish. Here are the pictures.
Neither of us could finish our pile of noodles, pork, and vegetables,, so we each took a box home with almost half.
I worked until 4:00 when Suzette arrived we started dinner by cleaning the whole chicken. I then went to the garden and picked tarragon and basil. Suzette wanted to prep the chicken so I went to refill our propane tank and returned at 5:00 just in time to watch the Nightly Business Report. Trump’s threat to increase tariffs on China changed a 300 point rally into a 280 point drop in the Market. Terrible after the drop yesterday after the 25 basis point increase in the fed discount rate was announced.
I went to meditate at 5:45 and when I returned at 5:45 the chicken was cooked and sitting on the top of the stove.
Suzette had plated two plates with a Caprese salad using the last two ripe tomatoes Suzette brought home from her garden at the Center, the fresh basil I picked and thin slices of the mozzarella cheese we bought at Costco on Tuesday evening.
Suzette had prepped some fresh asparagus and fetched the PPI Chard Couscous from the fridge. At 7:00 Suzette grilled the asparagus and I carved the chicken and went to the fridge in the garage and fetched a new bottle of Verdejo Spanish white wine I bought for $4.99 at Trader Joe’s last week. It was rather tart, but Suzette and I liked it and drank a glass without ice. Suzette spooned Apple of Couscous onto my plate, laid chicken top of the Couscous and grilled asparagus on top of the chicken.
Let me mention an interesting aspect of Suzette’s prep of the chicken. Suzette slid slices of lemon and sprigs odd tarragon between the skin and the flesh of the chicken. As the chicken coked it held the herbs and lemon and released their flavor int the chicken. This is a French method of seasoning a roasted chicken. My mother taught it to me and I taught it t Suzette. What makes the story interesting and poignant is a speculation of how mother learned the method. Mother was friends with Simon Beck , who was one of the authors of Mastering the Art of French Coking and visited her several times at the compound Beck shared with Julia Child in the south of France. I wonder if Simone Beck taught mother the French prep method of sliding flavorings under the skin of a chicken before roasting it.
Willy arrived and Suzette made him a plate. Here is a picture of Willy’s plate. Willy does not eat asparagus. I bless him for that because it is my favorite vegetable. I also bless because he likes white meat and we like dark meat.
We talked and watched a nature program about Autumn and then two re-run episodes of The Durrells in Corfu. Willy left at 9:00 and we went to bed at 10:00after the second episode.
I had. Recovered enough to work the entire day without a nap, especially when I drink a glass of Vietnamese coffee with lunch.
Suzette ate ice cream garnished with several of the maraschino cherries she made. Willy had tea and some of the fancy desserts from Chez Mamou.
Bon Appetit
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