Dinner this evening at a branch of the Vietnamese restaurant I've called "The Fuckin'
Noodle" in previous entries (since a co-worker called it that) - tonight was so
tasty I'll state their real name: "Pho Xe Lua" <1>.
Rather than the Grilled Chicken with Noodle (#21) I usually get, my eye
strayed into a different section of the menu and I ordered the Chicken Sate with
rice, vegetable and soup (#32). Sate of course being grilled on skewers; always
I'm intrigued with how people do this, to enhance my own experiments making
yakitori chicken on my little electric grill. Theirs was great! The sate implies
a peanut sauce, which was just the right spicy, plus it was the first time I've
ever had rice at a Vietnamese. Would it be like Chinese or American, falling
apart and difficult to eat with chopsticks, or would it be sticky like the
superior Japanese? I dug into the large mound and found it to be the latter.
The soup was a rich broth with a few onion rings and leaves of cilantro, and
the veggies were steamed broccoli, carrots (seemingly cut with pinking shears),
and hunks of cabbage. The Game was on a television in the corner, but not loud
and drowned out by Pat Metheny on the stereo. A fine meal.
I've been alternating reading the wonderful (but depressingly bleak) short stories
by Pete Hamill in Tokyo Sketches with lighter fare in a similar vein: Black
Mist and Other Japanese Futures, edited by Orson Scot Card. These are science
fiction - like the other, not translations but written by round-eyes. Great stuff.
Got the winning Peanut Butter Cookie recipe from the chef at the cafeteria on-base
today, and here it is. I'm going to have to print it anyway sometime, because his
handwriting's rather difficult to read - may as well share it, as I type it in when
it's fresh (he went over the instructions with me - then shook my hand in gratitude
at the compliments which accompanied my request).
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup peanut butter [I'll use crunchy]
2 T milk
1 t vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cup flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
Beat sugar, brown sugar & margarine until light and fluffy. Add peanut butter, milk, vanilla & egg, blend well. Stir in flour, baking soda & salt, and mix well. Shape into balls [here he demonstrated with his hands, like making a small snowball] and bake at 375° for 10 - 12 - 14 minutes.
He also said to mash down the balls - but he makes the big cookies, like the size of a compact disk (whose middles can be mushy). When I make them they'll be much smaller, and I'll make the requisite criss-cross pattern impressed into each top surface with a fork, like my Mom does and most other recipes mention.
Political News
Our bozonic governor Pete Wilson signed a law today which makes the California Primary (one of) the
earliest in the nation, so we get to choose the Presidential candidates now instead of
citizens in those other states. I thought so, anyway, until I heard details - instead of June
our Primaries will now be held in March, but not until a week after the New Hampshire
elections and the Iowa caucuses. I'd hoped that weird New England media circus of every four
years would be a thing of the past, as well as the conventions, but no such
luck. Why couldn't we precede all that? What's the deal with them?
Today I learned from the Internet about the Avro Arrow. Seems the Canadians
created a superb supersonic jet fighter in the 1950s, but subsequently
cancelled the project and then destroyed every Arrow aircraft. (Which reminds
me of our own YB-49 Flying Wings - why were they all scrapped?)
This site tells the whole story, with pictures
and more links (plus a photo of the beautiful British R-100 airship).