August 30, 2019 Lunch - Vietnam 2000 Dinner – Salt and Board

August 30, 2019 Lunch - Vietnam 2000   Dinner – Salt and Board

Another excellent Food day with the discovery of a new interesting restaurant.

I ate my usual biodynamic breakfast of granola, tropical fruit salad, and yogurt and then road to Campbell Rd.  The newly aligned toe clips were perfect and both feet slid into the clips perfectly, but for some reason the power was not there or there was some resistance in the bike frame and I mad slow progress.  But then I realized after a few minutes that my leg and hip had realigned and I was without pain and it stayed that way after I had ridden.  I think that my body has realigned from the newly gained conformation due to regular exercise.  I think I am at a solid 85% recovery of my physical stamina.

Suzette stayed at home for a while and upholstered chairs for the renovation of her restaurant.  I will help her this weekend.  She has also bought new marble table tops.

Suzette is working like a dog to get the Bistro ready for its re-opening this next Tuesday. She has hired a new chef with culinary school training, who is of Puerto Rican ancestry.

And she has created four new dishes: a super rich oregano infused chicken noodle soup with freshly made noodles, a vegetarian burger with a super grains salad garnished with a mint and cilantro sauce, a Vietnamese style rice paper and lettuce wrap stuffed with fresh organic pickled vegetables and serve with a peanut and mirin dipping sauce (that may have a bit of fish sauce added to it), and a duck breast and Asian pear (from the Center tree) with perhaps some onion slices in a combination of some kind.

I am excited to see the result next week.  I will go down Tuesday and/or Saturday. 

I worked on my reply in the water case today until 5:00 with a break to take checks to the bank and lunch with Peter at 12:30 to 2:00.

We drove to Vietnam 2000.  On the way we decided against the drip coffee we enjoy to avoid nervous excitation.  After a careful consideration of the menu we bot decided to order No. 21s, Bun Cha Gio or in English Fried egg rolls and grilled pork on a bed of soft boiled rice vermicelli on a bed of lettuce, cucumbers, mung bean sprouts and chopped herbs and green onion in large bowl.  Here is a picture.

I did not add a second bowl of fish sauce to avoid over salting my body and I noticed a difference.

I ate a bit more than half and took the rest home for a snack.  Unfortunately, the salt in the fish sauce ferments the noodles and make them limp and unappetizing after a few hours.  Of course, they are still edible.

Suzette arrived home with news of a new vegetarian recipe for the Bistro at 5:20.  She described the effort to create a sauce to garnish the vegetarian burger the restaurant was going to serve. She settled on the Bobby Flay Chicken sauce of mint, cilantro, honey, and lime juice. That should be a winner.

Sam at the Rembe’s party had mentioned a new restaurant that served interesting charcuterie and Suzette was hungry so after our drinks we drove to Salt and Board at 145 Harvard SE.  It is located in a complex of new small restaurants on Harvard in the first block south of the University.  There were lots of student looking people and lots of other young hipsters. 

The menu and the extensive wine list were intriguing.  Here is a picture. 

We started by tasting a Washington chenin blanc, a French Rose, and a Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.  I selected the rose and Suzette selected the Chenin Blanc, no surprises there.

But we had difficulty picking menu items until the waitress explained the ingredients and preparation of dishes.  Essentially the menu contains three categories: charcuterie trays, open faced sandwiches on crostini (toast points) and covered toasted sandwiches like Croque Monsieur and Mufflata.

When we heard that the open faced sandwiches came with a small salad we decided to try several of those.  We selected the burrata and the mushroom pate sandwiches.

After a bit the wine and then after a bit longer the plates were served.

The salads and micro green arugula garnishes for the sandwiches were very attractive and fresh.  Although both sandwiches were great, I found the burrata the more interesting because the crostini was smeared with a fig and bacon jam tha was delicious and the burrata was super creamy on the inside.

Here are pictures of them.    

Suzette made quick work of her toast points by picking them up and eating them like a slice of pizza, but I wanted to cut my sandwich and requested a sharp knife. Our waitress was kind enough bring me a sharp paring knife from the kitchen that allowed me to cut through the tough crostini and eat the sandwich in bites.  I guess if I go back I will be the “no black pepper paring knife guy”.

We sat outside at the apex of a narrow but pleasant fenced and covered patio with umbrella covered tables and chairs that stretch the length of the front and side of the restaurant.  The restaurant is very clean and new looking, which was nice for a change from the old adobe El Patio down the street, for instance.

After a pleasant hour of eating and sipping wine we left around 8:00.

When we returned home I ate the last wedge of the watermelon I bought several weeks ago.  We were both tired and went to bed soon thereafter. 

The film folks were here again today.  They have started laying cables for power for the lights and cameras and the house is now fully decorated in mid-century modern to look like the South Texas ranch house in the Briarpatch story.

Here is a picture of our TV room as it is set for the show.

They will shoot the scenes on Tuesday afternoon.  I am thinking I will go to Los Lunas or work at Bill’s office and not be around, although I have been invited to visit the filming.

Read an article in the August 19 New Yorker on the re-appreciation of Wolfgang Korngold whose chamber music we heard and liked at the Santa Fe Chamber music festival several weeks ago.  The New Yorker discussed his operas that are having a resurgence of production around the world, except for the Met.

I did not have time to follow the market today except to see that it rose early in the morning and then plunged to the no gain flat line.  The result for me was a small gain and a 41 point gain in the Dow.

Bon Appetit