DD’s In Marseille
HU-455869934
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
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HU-455869934
2 years agoHU-455869934
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What's for dinner #396-August/2021
Comments (100)Everyone's meals look great. Today I made a vat of spaghetti sauce and an apple crisp - both put a tiny dent in our apple and tomato harvest. I'm also trying some spare ribs that DH bought by mistake - he meant to get back ribs to smoke) started in the instapot and then broiled with sauce. So ribs and spaghetti and garlic bread tonight. My daughter who is an RN is staying with us for a couple of days and works the night shift tonight. With all the garlic in the meal, she won't have to worry about treating vampires! I told her I'll give her a pack of TicTacs to put in her pocket. Tomorrow will be Annie's salsa and some apple pie filling for the freezer. Then (not tomorrow!) I'll do slow roasted tomatoes and a batch of applesauce to freeze. Apple butter after that. It is hard to give away produce here as everyone I know has a plethora of produce. At one point our food banks did not take produce from "unkown" producers, but I should check again. There's also a church in our small town that does free "take-away" (since Covid) dinners, so I will contact them too....See MoreDD Is [Still] In Marseille
Comments (94)Sunday July 12 was a “lucky day” in Taiwan, a numerologically auspicious date to start eternally resting, and the recent Covid surge has added to the large backlog of persons awaiting their eternities. There was a long wait at the funeral home for the crowds of families to greet their departed, say their last words, close the lid, and escort the casket through the courtyard to a waiting hearse. Most of the groups were larger, in yellow robes, and others in the courtyard turned their backs in respect as the families passed. Eventually it was the turn of our small group, in black suits and dresses, to say our last words and file behind the only white casket with a cross. Most Taiwanese are Buddhist, others Daoist, with less than 10% of the Christian faith, like our departed had been. I should mention that the funeral home was mostly open-air temple courtyards, with no air conditioning, except for the no-longer-living, and that it was very hot. In addition to my mother’s passing some months ago, my family recently lost my older cousin. On this lucky day we were beginning of the all-day process of welcoming cousin J____ to her resting place. After some hours at the funeral home, we got back into the vans and drove across Taipei to the crematorium. About 80% of Taiwanese are cremated, everyone wants to do it on a lucky day, and it takes about two hours to say the actual last words, perform the cremation, and do the bone ritual thing, while saying the really last words, so we were there for a considerable time. I must comment that the crematorium was not air conditioned, and that it was even hotter now. The vans had been air conditioned, and I had just about dried out during the drive from the funeral home, but by the time we boarded the vans my shirt was again a sodden mess under my damp suit. Southeast Asia is having a heat wave. In Taipei, it was 97 F and humid that, according to my weather app, it “felt like” 117 F. Even locals were commenting on the suffocating heat. On previous, cooler days, I’d already been very hot in the evenings, wearing shorts and a T-shirt. In this day’s midday sun, in my sagging, sticking suit, tie tightly knotted around my neck, I was dizzy with heat as I did my best to copy the steps of the ceremony, remember some Chinese, and not drop any bones. After the urn was ready, we got in the vans for an hour’s drive to the mausoleum. It was a beautiful drive through lush mountains, and I managed to dry off while molding the ends of my shirtsleeves into something resembling cuffs. The mausoleum had an expansive view over a verdant ridge that resembled a Phoenix or a dragon, I didn't quite catch which, a deep valley, and a tranquil lake. J____ was destined for a prime spot, a locker at the door, looking over the valley, right by my mother. Unfortunately, the urn had taken a left instead of a right at the last mountain, gotten lost, and was stuck in traffic an hour away. I am compelled to observe that the mausoleum was also not air-conditioned. Or, rather, it had central air conditioning, but no-one thought to turn it on during our unscheduled vigil, until right when it was finally time to assemble on the sweltering patio to greet the urn and say the definitely last words between the correct number of bows, performed in turn by each family member in order of descending age, at each point in the urn’s journey from beflowered arrival table to its gilded locker. By the time we closed the locker door and got back in the vans, we’d been at it for some six hours. After the post-funeral banquet, and taking care of a few estate-related things the next day, I flew back to the SF Bay Area where SWMBO and I are dog-and-house-sitting for friends for another week. It has been a long time since I visited Taiwan, or anywhere in Asia. The reason for the trip wasn’t a happy one, and quarantine was frustrating, but I got to see my relatives, visit my mother’s resting place, attend cousin J___’s ceremony, and eat quite a lot of interesting food, which I wanted to show you. The heat and humidity is difficult to take, for wussy me at least, but I’d like to do an actual vacation trip someday. Maybe to Japan and Taiwan....See MoreMarseille . . . Again
Comments (92)Some last bits and ends. Some friends took us to dinner. We had a sea bass, skeleton extracted through the back and roasted. Elegant technique; does anyone do this at home? There was also a very nice roast beef, antipasti and primi piattis. And desserts. Back in Marseille, DD has joined a gym and started a diet, and I may have to do the same in Portland. “Have to” and “may” are independent articles. Here is a dish of, I forgot the Italian term, “baccalo”? - basically creamed cod in four varieties, at an osteria in Campo Santa Magherita. We stopped in this square often because it is large and sunny with two good bookstores at one end. Fish, cream, and flavor. I could eat this stuff all day long. Have done. Hence, the diet. We liked seafood so much in Venice that our family sign language even has a sign for “fish”. We started developing FSL on our first day here. There are hand signs for the key beverages, “coffee”, “wine”, “beer”, and “spritz”. “Croissant” (any pastry really), “gelato”, and “fish” have signs. The sign made palm out means “want” the thing, palm in means “have” or “found” it. The left hand’s digits indicate quantities. There is a symbol for “bathroom”, where the left hand denotes “number one”, “number two” and number three means either, urgently. Some signs are either verb or noun, such as “sleepy”, “home”, and “market/shopping”. There are signs for “eat” and “hungry”, and there is even a sign for “HANGRY”. We can sign “and”, “or”, “you got it”, and “you are / that is totally wrong”. To sign “fish”, open your hand, place it behind your ear, and flap. Palm forward means you want (are seeking, require) fish, palm rearward means you have (located, secured) fish. Such as, perhaps, these marinated and fried sardines. I did finally ride a water taxi, taking DD to the airport for her too-early morning flight. The “motoscafo” was speedy, traveling at least twice as fast as a ferry, and effortless, like hopping in a New York cab and being whisked uptown in a Manhattan magically free of pedestrians or stoplights. The interior was more elegant than any Lincoln Town Car. Having a 30 foot speedboat all to yourself feels and is luxurious. For a group of six or ten, it even makes economic sense. Or, if you’re rushing to get your daughter to her inconsiderately early flight, you just splurge. I wanted to see DD through security because of her Jackery portable battery pack, which SWMBO brought from Portland. Flying with larger lithium ion batteries is iffy. They are banned in checked luggage and may be hand carried only if under 160 watt-hours, if the security officer knows that rule. I was to stand at the outskirts of the security queue. If Jackery was rejected, DD would walk it back to me to figure out what next. VCE security pulled Jackery aside for inspection, but let it through. We don’t have a FSL hand sign for “passed security” so the little dot that was DD just waved and walked off. I watched it go and was sad. DD arrived in Marseille to find her apartment’s electricity completely out, so Jackery will be Useful After All. Good practice for the blackouts that I expect in Europe this winter. Returning to Venice, I sat in the open stern of the empty ferry and watched the sleek motoscafos bounding past. On our trip to the airport, we had been the only boat, riding smoothly on sleepy dark water. Now the lagoon was awake and its channels were churned by boat traffic. The water taxis leapt through the ferry wake like porpoises as their drivers pushed on their throttles to overtake us before oncoming taxis closed their chance. Any passengers must have been enjoying a sporty ride, but not an uncivilized one, for the Venetian motoscafo is as evolved for its environment as a tuna. They are narrow beamed, with long vee hulls and agile V drives, and handle their home waters with the same assured panache as their drivers. I left the ferry at Fondamenta Novo not long after daybreak. It was Sunday morning with plenty of time. Empty alleys and quiet canals in the Cannareigo, the more familiar streets of San Marco, Calle dei Assassini and Rialto. A last little treat. See you again, soon, Venice. Fifteen years is too long to stay away. I won’t take you for granted any more....See MoreGood and Bad Restaurant Meals You Are Having
Comments (31)Went to a very good Chinese restaurant last Friday. Very good Chinese restaurants are uncommon in Portland, land of bad ethnic food. This one is a bit of an under-known gem. There is a Chinese family who own one of the larger seafood stores in town, full of tanks of live fish and crustaceans. They decided to use one wing of the building for a restaurant, mostly for owners, staff, and family. So on Friday evening, only about four tables of twenty were occupied, one by a boisterous group of ten or so who I think were said staff. The food was very good, no one seemed concerned about the empty tables, and The Ratio was excellent. The Ratio is number of Asian (or, if you are being very demanding, Chinese) customers divided by total customers. Typical ratio in Portland Chinese restaurants is 50% which is very meh to a Ratio conoisseur and requires lots of General Tso’s Chicken and the like on the menu. Good ratio is 80%. Friday was 95%, with SMWBO being only non-Asian (we count DD in the numerator). Parenthetically, my snarky mention of General Tso's Chicken is not meant to denigrate "American Chinese" cuisine, which I consider a valuable culinary heritage in its own right. Since my dad is living with us now, we try to go to more "genuine" Chinese restaurants, and this place will be a regular stop. I look back on last Friday as our family's last arguably healthy day. Sure, I'd been tired and slightly headachy the previous few days, but that's not usual - work, not drinking enough water, unseasonably warm/muggy says, etc. That evening, SWMBO looked at me, felt my forehead, and exclaimed that I was "clammy". Later that night, after she put DD on her plane to Paris via New York, SWMBO started feeling unwell. By the weekend, she was quite unhappy, in bed, calling for endless bowls of jello, and burning though our supply of Covid tests. By Monday, she tested positive. DD, in Paris by then, also tested positive and reports being mildly tired and headachy. Yesterday, my dad tested positive; he informed us that he had cold-like symptoms a week or two ago, but now feels okay. I was negative and have so remained, but SWMBO claims that I must have had Covid last week, because this has to be my fault. She feels mostly better by now, but has nonetheless started a course of Paxlovid. My dad may start a course as well - still trying to figure out drug interactions. Edit: has started. SWMBO and I have studiously avoided Covid for three years, but she finally got it and maybe - she claims, with NO PROOF - I did too. My dad too. So far, our cases appear very mild, with SWMBO getting the most jello-in-bed mileage out of hers. DD and DS had it last year, DD was fairly sick while DS wasn't, but DD’s current case seems very mild. She is sending me texts about the great new seafood store that opened near her apartment and “i had moules gratinees and duck in a honey lemon sauce which was SOOOO GOID” at a new restaurant, so I think she’s feeling okay. (I am thinking about going back to Marseille to work/hang out for a few weeks in January, and looking forward to seeing these new places.) A close friend who takes my dad grocery shopping has Covid now and is quite sick indeed, albeit medically her case is still “mild” by definition because she is not hospitalized. Another friend got it a couple months ago and was even sicker, had trouble breathing. So basically it feels like Covid is “back” and thank goodness we are all vaccinated multiple times....See MoreHU-455869934
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