ON CATFISH GUACO LOCO
A CATFISH SWAM INTO MY TACO!
ON THE WARM ISLAND BREEZE (French Fry Test 2)
I have a hard time with tropical cooking. That feeling of fear when you know you’re intentionally leaving the burger on the griddle too long. Cause, there’s nothing more tropical than burned food. You’ve gotta time it right though or that shit gets gross. Plop some pineapples on it and you’re in the tropics. Great way to pass winter. I prefer to eat mine in front of a fan with a space heater and a humidifier behind it, with Men at Work blasting. I call it the warm island breeze
ON OUR KITCHEN
>When I bought the house, my kitchen didn’t come with much. It actually came with less than I expected. The seller was supposed to leave the refrigerator- which would start me off with a refrigerator and a sink. No cabinets, counters, range, or anything else. I was sort of excited about this, since I could create whatever I wanted. Once we got to the final walkthrough, a day before closing, my realtor, lets call him Steve, and I realized that he took that too. So I started with a sink.
Steve was furious. He called the seller’s realtor and yelled. The other realtor called the seller and he yelled that he wasn’t giving me a cent for it and it didn’t work anyway and he’d call the whole sale off over it. He had a bit of a short temper. Steve made a deal with the other realtor (at this point we just wanted to leave the seller out of it and deal with the other three sane people) that they’d each give us $200 to make up for the fridge. So, Steve got me $200 for it. Conveniently, Steve also had a new fridge for sale for $400, so I got that the day I moved in.
I moved in my circulator, toaster oven, vitamix, kitchen aid mixer, and vacuum brewer to add to my refrigerator and sink. I was still pretty excited, since I could fully appreciate each piece of equipment as I added it. I needed some burners though. Not having a gas line and wanting to not get anything I couldn’t use in the deli, I scrapped the idea of a gas range for now. I thought I’d try an induction burner. I got a cooktek 1800W one used. I had heard good things about induction, but was nervous I’d miss the gas. It took a bit to get used to, but I don’t. Induction is cleaner, faster, and plenty variable. I stuck with this for a while. Then I added a meat slicer, 3500W 220V cooktek burner, an espresso maker, a 40 lb CO2 tank, and a centrifuge. I’ll do some individual posts on each eventually.
I found out pretty quickly through, that running all this on 60 year old wiring wasn’t going to cut it. I ran everything through surge protectors and had extension cords going into the basement. I couldn’t do laundry and make toast at the same time. Or grind coffee and heat up my espresso maker. Try making bacon, eggs, toast and coffee – yuck! Here’s how I did it: Preheat espresso maker, unplug espresso maker, plug in grinder, grind coffee, swap plugs again, turn on espresso maker, pull espresso, try to sip for long enough to have some left with breakfast. Cook bacon on cooktek, make toast to 75% in toaster oven, put bacon in toaster oven to keep warm, cook eggs on cooktek, plate eggs, heat up toast the rest of the way with bacon, put out food, get ready to eat, wish I had more coffee. After a while, it bothered me too much, so I got an electrician to run some new circuits, including one for my 220V cooktek. I got 4x20A 120v circuits and a 220x20A one to the kitchen. I’ve never been so excited to turn two things on at once.
The electrician was great. He did all the kitchen wiring, put in a few basement circuits, one for the bathroom, and a couple on the third floor in two days. Fast, reasonable (~1800) and clean. One gfci was messed up and he came to fix it the next day. We even went out to have a famous fish sandwich at Armands together and, after a bit of I wouldn’t do this normally but what the hell talk, a beer.
The kitchen has come along from when I moved in, but it’s still an ongoing process, and I’m moving slowly to avoid any mess ups along the way (and it’s expensive). That’s why my circulator and centrifuge live on the floor, and my mixer and blender live in a cabinet and go on chairs or in front of things. I’ll make more posts as we add equipment and finalize our plans for renovation.
ON ICE CREAM SANDWICHES
I still remember the tune of the Ice Cream man back in my hometown of Des Moines Iowa. We’d tumble down the grassy hill from the pool or sprinkler once the do-da do-das hit our ears. Uncle Al made the treats on his farm, with the milk of his cows and the help of his wife Sue. This isn’t one of his recipes, but I still think of him each time I make them. His deep hearty chuckle, white moustache, round belly, and disgusting yellow teeth. He knew all of us by name, and would save our favorites if he was running low.
ON LOBSTER ROLLS
My mother grew up in Maine, so she’s a lobster-complainer. It’s too rubbery, it doesn’t taste like anything, my butter is solid, etc. I wanted to make a lobster roll that even she wouldn’t put her nose up at. So, I bought a 4 lb lobster and after a staredown, looked into the best way to kill it. Answer: knife through the head.
ON CURTIS
Poor Curtis. He was a good power strip. Dutifully running my refrigerator all day, and usually not shorting out when I turned on my induction burner. Protecting my ungrounded and probably dangerous wiring. We had a funeral today, after months of service, Curtis tripped his last trip. Maybe you can protect Jesus’s computer from power surges in heaven Curtis. You deserve it.
Meet Maggie & Ed
