March 6, 2020 Lunch – Salmon and Tabouli Salad and tabouli sandwich. Dinner – Sashimi, Nori Spring Rolls, sushi rice, sliced avocados and radishes, and Japanese Pickled Vegetables

March 6, 2020 Lunch – Salmon and Tabouli Salad and tabouli sandwich. Dinner – Sashimi, Nori Spring Rolls, sushi rice, sliced avocados and radishes, and Japanese Pickled Vegetables

I did not eat breakfast.

I started making a salad at 11:30, I chopped Romaine lettuce, a tomato, two radishes and added about 3 oz. of seared salmon from Tuesday night’s dinner plus several scoops of tabouli.  I also toasted one of the whole wheat pitas I bought at Sprouts on Wednesday evening on the stove’s gas burner.  I drank water.  The pita opened easily so I was able to stuff it full of tabouli. I loved lunch.  The warm pita stuffed with the cook tabouli was delicious.

After lunch I flipped the Gravad Lax after 16 hours.

After 16 hours and before the flip

  I will take it out of the curing medium in the morning for a 32 to 36 hour cure.

I then filed my pleading and prepared a letter that needed to be sent certified and then rode to the post office and posted the letter and returned by riding to the bike trail from Central and then to Marquez and back home for about a 5 mile ride.  My calves are still sore from the trainer’s Thai massage pressure on them yesterday.

When I returned home at 3:45 I watched the news and it became apparent that the government is not ready for the possible economic, medical, and social impact of the Coronavirus and Trump is internalizing its effect on him and his chances of re-election, like blaming the democrats and firing one of his unwanted WH officials who delivers unwanted truths to the American people like Mick Mulvaney, who he fired today as his Chief of Staff and lying about coronavirus’ severity as a hoax.

Dinner came together in an amazing way.  On Wednesday I bought 1/3 lb. of Aji Tuna for about $3.00 and ½ lb. of fresh salmon for $3.50 and we had about 1/2 lb. of scallops in the meat drawer, so with about $10.00 of seafood I constructed a Sashimi feast.  I first made a sushi rice dressing by heating 3 T. of rice vinegar with two T. of sugar, a pinch of Kombu seaweed threads, and two tsp. of salt.  After the sushi dressing cooled a bit I poured it over the approximately 3 cups of PPI cooked rice from Wednesday’s dinner and mixed it in.  Because the rice kernels were still hard I put the rice in a Pyrex loaf pan and added about 2 T. of  water to the rice and covered the Pyrex pan with Saran and heated the rice and Kombu threads in the microwave for 4 1/2 minutes.  There was still water in the rice so Suzette heated the rice for another 4 minutes until it and the Kombu became fluffy and the water disappeared. The result was steaming sushi rice with soft Kombu threads.  Suzette filled two rice bowls with rice.

I sliced the  ½ lb. of raw scallops left from Wednesday’s dinner and the small salmon and Aji fillets and placed them on Suzette’s large Portuguese platter.  I thinly sliced five radishes and Suzette thinly sliced an avocado and we placed those on the platter.

I fetched the bowl of pickled vegetables (The pickled vegetables included both Japanese and Formosan daikon, carrots, Napa cabbage, ginger, shallot, green beans, cucumber slices and other
vegetables.  At the end of the meal I threw in the uneaten radish slices)  and the plastic container of  pickled ginger from the ice box.  Suzette heated a small pitcher of sake (Talin).

Suzette wanted to make two nori spring rolls. I fetched her sheets of nori and she dipped two thin rice flour sheets into water to soften and absorb the water.  After moistening two thin rice paper sheets,  she lay a sheet of nori on each of the moistened rice paper wrappers and laid fresh salmon strips and rice on the nori and then rolled the ingredients into a roll. Suzette then cut the spring/nori rolls in half and made a dipping sauce for them from sesame oil, Aji Mirin, carrot threads and rIce wine vinegar.

We filled dipping bowls with soy and squeezed into them prepared wasabi sauce and were finally ready to eat.  Here is a picture.

The array of food items was almost overwhelming but we ate and ate until we could eat no more.  I bagged the few remaining slices of scallops and put them into the fridge for an omelet and put the radish slices into the pickled vegetables along with the remaining dipping sauce Suzette made for the nori spring rolls.

I enjoyed cups of the lovely Chinese green tea Yoyo and Marty brought us as a house gift.

We watched the news but Suzette fell asleep at 8:00 and I went to bed at 8:30 and blogged myself to sleep.

I awakened at 11:30 to finished this blog as I drank another cup of green tea.

The market was up and down today and this entire week ending slightly up for the week.  Until the uncertainty about the effects of the coronavirus is resolved I intend to stay in mostly cash on the sideline.

Billy asked the great question, “When do you know when to re-invest?

The only answer I could offer was, “Watch very carefully.”

It is too early to tell if my impulse to sell was too early or too late.

Bon Appetit