I have achieved something today! Linking my blog to Picasa is working again. So here are the photos from the Culture Magazine launch party (I am hungry already just looking at them).
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Food
So Much for Free Trade
The one thing we know about politics is that Republicans are all about free trade and Democrats are all about protectionist tariffs, right?
Wrong. One of the many petty things that Dubya did just before leaving office was impose a bunch of hefty tariffs on foreign foods. That included a 300% tax on Roquefort. Sacré bleu! This is outrageous! I trust that all cheese-thinking Americans will write to Mr. Obama forthwith and demand that this unjust tax be done away with. (And failing that you should all mail packages of over-ripe Vieux Boulogne to your CongressCritters.)
Dill Pickle Deadly?
A few years ago I wrote an April Fool post about a vast conspiracy involving orbital mind control lasers, corn syrup and dill pickle. But corn syrup really is all-pervasive in American food. And according to the Washington Post a whole lot of it is contaminated with mercury. That’s not good at all.
(Hat tip to Daniel via Twitter)
Burns Night Cometh
And I have been out and hunted a wee hairy beastie, just in case the weather is too bad for them (and me) to be out and about later in the week. Besides, they are best hung for a few days.
Those of you who were not following this blog last January should probably go and read the bizarre natural history of the Vegetarian Haggis.
And to mark the day, Parliament is to consider making Scottish money legal tender in the rest of the UK.
Got Spices
I was wandering around town today and discovered a new shop in the arcade. It is a New Age sort of thing called Avalon Esoterics. Normally I don’t pay much heed to such places, unless they also sell interesting books, or run by Liz Williams, but this place caused me to stop and take note. Because it has the biggest selection of obscure cooking spices I have seen anywhere. And you know, I have been around a bit. They are very cheap too. So if you have a recipe that requires an obscure spice, check them out. Or ask me to go in and talk to them.
Frostfox, m’dear – they also sell pyrogravure plaques, which are nowhere near as good as yours. Let me know if you’d like me to go and talk to them on your behalf.
Glasgow Cuisine
Over at Neth Space, Hal Duncan waxes lyrical on the subject of deep fried haggis.
Oxbow Cheese Tasting
Before leaving California I managed to try out all of the cheeses that Kevin and I bought from Oxbow over the weekend. Here is a brief report.
First up was Sparkenhoe Red Leicester which caught our eye because it had a truly splendid color (it comes from Annatto). Red Leicesters are generally milder than cheddars, but they cook really well and it was good to know that you can get cheese of that variety in the US. This one comes from the UK, however – indeed it is apparently the only Red Leicester actually made in Leicestershire.
Blue de Basque is a French blue cheese made from sheep’s milk. It was a recommendation from the young lady who served us, and we bought it on the basis of a taste sample, which should be its own recommendation. The cheese is made in the Pyrénées (of course!) and I’m interested in the comment on the web site I pointed to saying that it is “‘thermalized’ but not pasteurized”. I’ll have to check out what that means, but I’m pleased to see the cheese was OK for sale in CA.
Roomano Pradera is an aged Gouda made from skimmed milk, which we bought to see if it was as good as the full-fat milk Goudas we normally buy. Kevin and I are fans of aged Gouda, and we were very happy with this one. Of course, like all cheeses of that type, it has a tendency to turn into granite if you don’t take care of it, but that’s something I’m sure you are already aware of.
Finally we tried a habanero cheddar. As a cheddar it was quite plasticy, and mild to boot, but just when you start to think that it wasn’t up to much – boom! – the chili kicks in. The store lady recommended it for grilling, and I can see why. That stuff would make fabulous cheese on toast.
The UK Experience
My apologies for the lack of blogging over the past few days. As you will know if you follow my Twitter feed, I have been traveling. It is much easier to update Twitter when I’m on the road than the blog. There is an RSS feed if you are not on Twitter yourself.
Anyway, here’s a quick anecdote especially for Bruce Holland Rogers. When I collected my bags from Left Luggage in Paddington this morning I was served by a nice young man who, from his looks, might have come from Thailand. He had a broad Geordie accent. It isn’t quite in the same league as Pakistani Welshmen, but it is good to see the Melting Pot still functioning.
As I don’t have much food in, I picked up a ready-made meal from Marks & Spencer. It was traditional British cooking: Chicken Balti and a garlic naan.
I’m composing this entry on the train out west. I daren’t read or I’ll fall asleep and risk missing my stop. Jet lag is horrid. It takes me several days after an eastbound trip before I can sleep through the night. Still, I’ve been here more than 24 hours and I haven’t been rained on yet, so I mustn’t complain, right?
Culture Magazine Launch Party
This afternoon Kevin and I headed up to Napa for a launch party for Culture magazine (which I have written about previously). Kudos here to the Culture folks for finding my blog post and inviting me, otherwise we may never have known about the event. A lengthy report follows.
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Celiac in the News
Things may be looking up for people with Celiac problems in the US, or at least in California. Yesterday I heard Narsai David, the KCBS Food & Wine Editor, talking about it on the radio. Today I found Jerry Pournelle talking about it on his blog. Jerry says:
Despite Celiac’s prevalence in up to 1% of the population, a lot of doctors have no experience in diagnosing it.
Hopefully a little publicity will help change that.
Yummy Bacteria
My, cheese-making is complicated stuff.
The Christmas Post
Other people seem to be writing about presents, so I guess I should too. Not that there is a lot to write about. I’m not part of a big present-giving culture. My mother, who obviously knows me too well, always gives me money to spend on clothes in the sales.
Still, I did get some lovely, and very unique, jewelry from Kevin’s family. Gigi gave me some chocolate (which I am eating) and Rina gave me some shower stuff (which I shall be using). Kevin very cleverly bought me a subscription to Culture magazine. He also got me the Planet Earth DVD set, and I have been working my way through them, one a day, during the holiday. Thus far the verdict is that the script is pretty silly, but the photography is absolutely awesome.
Christmas dinner will be chicken curry. My excuse is that it is for health reasons, but actually it is because I have some chook left in the fridge and it needs cooking before it goes off. Once it is cooked I can start experimenting with recipes from the new Nigella book.
The other thing I should be doing is listening to the Boxing Day Test from Melbourne, but this year ABC have only got rights to stream the commentary inside Australia, so in the absence of a proxy server I’m limited to following the game on CricInfo. Punter seems to have everything under control, but I see Katich has just got himself out. Could be a close game.
Eat More Curry
Researchers at the University of Southampton believe that turmeric may help protect people against Alzheimer’s. It is not proven by any means, but I think I’ll eat more curry just in case.
Culture: The Word on Cheese
An entire magazine devoted to cheese? You betcha! Culture magazine has just produced its first issue and I think I will be a regular reader. It is a bit expensive at $12.95 an issue, but it is only quarterly and it is very glossy. (Heck, it has a centerfold – that’s serious cheese porn.) Of course Kevin and I were further attracted by the fact that one of this issue’s articles is all about cheese-related venues in San Francisco. (There is a cheese school in Powell Street!) The feature article on blue cheeses is also very good. And of course it has contact details for the American Cheese Society. They are having a big convention in Austin next year. It is the same weekend as Worldcon. Oh no! However will I be able to decide which one to attend?
Back to Normal
Well, that’s another conference over. Sorry it has been so quiet here, but I have been busy on my company blog and I haven’t had much time for anything else.
The conference was a lot of fun, and reminded me quite a bit of ICFA (as opposed to other work conferences I’ve been to which have been either all-business or heavily theoretical). I think I might go to more of these, though they do need to do less of the mandatory formal banqueting and cut the cost. I mean, what’s the point of going to New Orleans and then forcing everyone to eat hotel food?
This evening we had a reception in the Cabildo, which is the big building at the far end of Jackson Square from Cafe du Monde. It was very nice. Good food, and there’s a museum in the building with a lot of local history. Obviously it has a lot about the good people of New Orleans seeing off the evil British, but I’m used to that sort of thing. Kevin would have loved it.
By the time that was over I just about had enough energy to stagger across the square for hot chocolate and beignets. Now I am going to bed and not putting the alarm on. If I get up in time I’m going to Two Sisters for brunch, and maybe doing some shopping. I’ll be home later tomorrow. Normal service will be resumed on Sunday.
N’Awlins – Day 1
The trip went very well. I was a bit worried about the fog this morning, but SFO ran like clockwork. A colleague of mine who flew out of OAK said he was an hour late leaving. I think I was very lucky. There were flurries of snow in Denver, but it wasn’t settling.
I took Gene Wolfe’s An Evil Guest with me to read. It is a lot of fun. I would have finished it if I hadn’t slept much of the way.
I’m staying in the Sheraton on Canal Street which, if I remember my history correctly, was one of the main hotels of NolaCon. I hope this is not an omen. Thankfully this is a business/academic event with only around 250 attendees so there isn’t much that can go wrong.
We went to Galatoire’s for dinner, and I have to say that I was not impressed. The turtle soup was OK, and the mushroom side dish was lovely, but the rest of my meal was poor. Two of my three fellow diners were also unimpressed. Our waiter explained afterward that they have a lot of older clients who don’t like food to taste of anything much so you have to ask for flavor if you order a dish that is supposed to be spicy. Not recommended.
Bourbon Street is fairly quiet on a Wednesday in December, but that’s only relative. There were lots of people, but several of the sex clubs were closed and there was no band at Maison Bourbon. Preservation Hall was closed too, but that was because Pat O’Brien’s, an Irish pub, had much of St.Peter’s Street packed solid for a block party with a live band actually in the street. The jazz boys wisely decided not to compete. I did find some interesting live music in one of the Irish pubs on Decatur, but I didn’t have time to investigate.
7:00am breakfast meeting tomorrow. Urgh.
Travel Report
OK, time to try to catch up on things…
I should start at SFO, because the United terminal has a wonderful new exhibit celebrating the influence of science fiction on American culture. The walls are lined with posters made from the covers of pulp magazines, and there are lots of exhibits of SF-related toys. I was particularly pleased to see a large model of dear old XL5.
Chicago has been a bit of a whirl, resulting in last night’s Gaiman-esque post. It has, however, been very useful, and a lot of fun too. I spent a lot of time yesterday hanging out with Gary Wolfe. One of the things we did was go looking for a copy of Zahra the Windseeker. B&N and Borders both drew a blank, so Gary drove me down to the university bookstore. They had a large sign in the window saying something along the lines of, “we congratulate our regular customer, Barack Obama, on being elected President of the United States of America.” (More on that story from Publishers Weekly.) Would such a store have Nnedi’s book? Of course they did. What is more, the guy on the checkout was reading an ARC of Kelly Link’s new book, Pretty Monsters. We figured this was someone we could talk to, and as Nnedi lives in Chicago we did a bit of PR. Hopefully there will be an event as a result. (Hey, and maybe Mr. Obama would like a copy of the book for his daughters.)
Nearby is a fine antiquarian bookstore called O’Gara and Wilson. It is apparently a favorite of Mr. Clute, and I can see why. It has the best SF section of any antiquarian bookstore I have visited.
Kevin joined us in the evening and we had dinner in the very splendid Grand Lux Cafe, where they make the best beignets I have ever eaten (sorry N’awlins). I was also rather taken by the appetizer of kobe beef hot dogs.
A Day in The City
Yesterday was busy and spent mostly in San Francisco. It started off at the Fungus Festival in the Ferry Building where Kevin and I got to indulge in more fabulous good food – in particular mushroom ice cream. Yes, candy caps can be used in just about anything that would be good with a butterscotch or maple syrup flavor. Yum!
From there is was on to Borderlands where I picked up a number of books, including Jeff Ford’s The Drowned Life and Kathy Sedia’s The Alchemy of Stone. Ellen Klages was doing a reading of her new novel, White Sands, Red Menace, which is a sequel to Green Glass Sea and sounds to be utterly awesome. The chapter that Ellen read was all about the Kix Atomic Bomb Ring. I confess to having had no idea what a spinthariscope was before. Now I want one.
We had a few hours to kill, which was spent happily with Ellen and Madelaine Robbins in the local Irish pub and then a Thai restaurant. After that it was off to Writers with Drinks. The first thing I should note about this is that the size of the crowd is utterly awesome. By the time we got there it was not just standing room only, it was hard to squeeze anyone else in. Huge credit to Charlie Anders for creating such a successful event.
This month’s theme was “Writers in Drag”, by which Charlie meant writing outside of your usual genre. The evening began with Jaime Cortez who had a fun take on the Snow White story. Stephen Elliott read some poetry with a very flat delivery. Michelle Tea couldn’t make it (abducted by aliens, I presume). Annalee Newitz is working on a science fiction novel. And finally, the headline acts…
Nalo was fabulous. She read parts of a piece of gay erotica, which went down very well with the San Francisco crowd. By the time she had finished (very deliberately before the climax (pun intended)) I was starting to feel sorry for Austin Grossman. I needn’t have, he was brilliant. Now I guess I have to go and buy his book.
Next month’s Writers with Drinks will feature the fabulous cheeseographer, Jay Lake. The date is December 13th. See you there?
Finally the sfnal part of the crowd detached itself and found a very nice coffee bar (thank you, Debbie Notkin). All in all, it was a very successful day. Today, we need to run some errands, but I’m planning to spend much of it vegging out in front of yesterday’s rugby, and cooking.
Cheesebloggery
Having been into San Francisco a couple of times recently, Kevin and I have been able to stock up at Cowgirl Creamery. Here are our latest discoveries:
- Barely Buzzed – a firm, cheddar-like cheese with a rind of coffee grounds. Yes, you can taste the coffee, and surprisingly it works.
- Truffle Tremor – from the same people who brought you the magnificent Humboldt Fog, this is a goat’s cheese laced with little bits of black truffle. Yummy.
- Flagship Cheddar – It goes without saying that most Americans have no idea what cheddar cheese tastes like. Even so, a whole lot of people who ought to know better claim to make “cheddar” when their cheese bears no relation to the original. Sooner or later, however, that was going to change, and that time has come. This is the real thing: cheddar cheese made in America that looks and tastes like it was made in Somerset. Well done, Brad Sinko and colleagues.
Endorphin Rush
I found time to pop into Taunton today. It was farmers’ market day, so I was able to pick up some venison for dinner. And I found a new stall that I hadn’t seen before. These nice chocolate makers from Minehead. They make chili-flavored dark chocolate. Wow! Mega endorphin rush. It was seriously good stuff.
I also picked up some more emotibombs and a few nice clothes. I was stunned to find M&S selling jeans for 12 quid a pair ($24). And they fitted perfectly too. Just what I needed (my only pair of blue jeans here developed a hole last time they got washed).