Month: December 2003

Listmania: Serendipity Books

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A bunch of books for children with very colorful illustrations of the main character, usually a monster. They were written by Stephen Cosgrove and illustrated by Robin James.

The books always have a progressive theme to them, such as cleaning up your room, or caring for the environment. My favorites are Bangalee and Creole.

  • List by Nissa
  • Lists by “earthmama03” #1 #2
  • Lists by mirabast #1 #2

Web link of note: Listmania: Serendipity Books
(At http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/listmania/list-browse/-/3ENJHE93NFZTX/ghosthouse01-20)

Raw Meat!

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I am literally chewing on a big-ass slab of raw meat right now.

For my Xmas present my brother bought me a 2.5 pound slab of prosciutto for me to gnaw on.

At Molinari’s they called in the veteran butchers to estimate how much 2 pounds was, because you can’t mess something like that up. Since you usually slice it with a machine, the butt-ends are harder to sell.

2 pound is like a brick-sized block of raw meat. Part of the deal was I had to have photos of me gnawing on the thing, so I took care of that right away…

When prosciutto is uncut, the sinews are so chewy you can chew on them forever. I’m been spitting them out… Diane says I can use this to rationalize that it is better for me, because I am eating less fat!

What am I going to do with this? At least it won’t spoil!

kitchen confidential

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Notes:

  • The restaurant Bourdain cooks for is “Les Halles“
  • In “From Our Kitchen to Your Table” he talks about what things not to order from restaurants at different points of the week, and why table bread is safer than you think.
  • In the chapter “How to Cook Like the Pros” he describes what he considers essential cooking gear for the home chef… he mentions “Global” knives, made in Japan, including the basic chef’s knife, a flexible boning knife, a paring knife, and an “offset serrated knife”
  • He rants about how amazing Scott Bryan / Gino Diaferia’s restaurants are- specifically “Luma” and “Indigo.” (“Veritas” also)
  • Other restaurants, references I totally missed, not being a “Foodie”-
    • Bob Kinkead’s “Harvest” in Cambridge, “21 Federal” in Nantucket.
    • Eric Ripert’s “Le Bernardin“
    • Richard Leach, patissier, at “Mondrian”
    • Brendon Walsh (not the character from 90210) – “Arizona 206”
    • “Lespinasse”- Scott Bryan and Grey Kunz
    • “The Gotham” Alfred Portale
    • “La Riviere” in Tokyo, owned by the publisher of Bourdain’s book

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Merry Xmas

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I should get to bed or Santa will know I’m awake and I won’t get any presents.

I have a theory that Santa can only visit every house in a single night as a waveform- and due to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle if he is observed in a definite location at a definite time, his waveform collapses and he is “realised,” which slows down his itinerary and messes everything up.

So that’s why if you stay awake on Xmas you get no presents.