more on lunch, etc - this is supposed to be about lunch and foodie stuff, i have digressed ...

well, i have had idle time to surf the net and get distracted. i have found some great tunes and also some great photo exhibits, but now let's get back to food, after all, we can not live on art, or can we?

first is the lunch i had on the train up from nyc to brattleboro, vt.

i know from past experience the the food on the train is limited,
horrible and insanely expensive, so i bought a greek salad

and a tuna sandwichat zaros in the penn station terminal
and took it on the train for the 6 hour journey to visit my mom.
both were good and the portions were typical to america, HUGE.

i find the view form the train in many countries is about the same.
real estate near train tracks is not always the most desirable
and many times those who live near the tracks are lower income or poor.
the usa is no exception. here a few pics that i hope are not so "poor".

the #56 vermonter train.

what is totally cool was there is a power outlet for devices next to every seat.
i spent the whole journey bluetoothing my phone pics
to the laptop and formatting them for this post.

i saw many car dealerships with their lots full of all the gas guzzling models

that will not sell and can not sell now that we are in an economic collapse.
too bad detroit didn't follow japan when the time called for a shift in car design.
typical american business pracitce.
now we, the people, have to pay for these cars
despite not wanting them to begin with.
ironic at best.

i arrived on time and met my mom who had made the
45 minute drive to pick me up despite being ill. mom's are like that,
even when you are 56, they are still your mom.

we went to the local co-op, picked up some veggies to have with dinner
and went over the mountain and home to the house where i grew up.

being in a snowy mountan region my mom has learned
from past experience to keep a full freezer
for when she gets snow bound, so i had a choice
of many family favorites that she had socked away.
i chose macaroni cheese.

she uses penne noodles, not elbow macaroni.
this gives the dish more substance and it
remains al dente during the cooking process.

she uses a local white cheddar, something we are famous for
and people have mailed to them all over the world.

this is a k.i.s.s dish.
keep it simple stupid.
just noodles, great cheese (cabot's is one) and milk, penne and
topped with fresh whole wheat bread crumbs that are shredded,
not dry and ground.

some great co-op spinach.
just steamed, chopped and a little bit of whole unsalted butter added.

my mom's table.

the next day it was still very cold so we had some of mom's chicken soup
with home made matzo balls (is there any other kind?).

matzo balls are unique to jewish cuisine but being dumplings,
they are really common to many cultures and can be found in most any country.
whenever i make them in thailand my thai friends love them.

matzo balls are not made from flour, they are made form matzoh meal.
some folks use a prepared one, and others grind their own.
this is derived from matzos, un-leavened bread, that is dry and ground coarsely.
like any dumpling the trick is to keep them light and fluffy,
my mom never fails at this task.

the next day the freezing rain stopped and i was able to
drive over the mountain to bennington, vt and go shopping.

i bought many things, but what i was looking for, and found,
was mary's kitchen corned beef hash for breakfast

and some fresh cod fish.

i had the hash with eggs and rye toast for breakfast the next day
and we had the cod fish for dinner.

this is a half can of the hash in a heavy bottomed, non-stick skillet.
try to use a skillet that is thick bottomed so it will
cook the hash slowly and brown it well.
non-stick is also great when the time comes to flip-it/turn it over.
the hash should develop a nice crust (skin) which creates
the great texture hash eaters are looking for.

i find canned hash to be superior to any home made
one i have ever had, bar none.
everything is uniformly cut and the fat content of this one is minimal.

cook the hash first, as it takes a while to brown, and then set it to rest.

then i started the toast and fried the eggs.
i usually have poached eggs with hash, but i was being lazy that day
so i simply made them over-easy.


2 of these rye slices are fresh, and one was frozen.
note the distinct difference in how they toasted up.
either way, i love this stuff and can not get it in bangkok.
the thai rye breads never have seeds, and are never light,
always heavy and dense.
a good, ny style seeded rye is hard to find these days, even in ny.

notice, that as always, i forgot to take the picture before i started to eat.
i caught myself this time right after i pierced the first egg.

that night we had the cod fish.
actually it was scrod, a smaller fish than the one in the link above.
i bought two small fillets and trimmed them down.
next i placed them in a broiler pan that was lightly oiled with olive oil
and i ground fresh black pepper on them.

next i rummaged around in my mom's re-frig-a-lator and found
half a spanish onion, half a bermuda onion, and half of a beefsteak tomato.

also, a few sprigs of fresh thyme, italian parsely and some
pimento stuffed manzanilla olives and some nonpareil capers.
just enough to make a garnish for the fish.

i diced the veggies and first sauteed the onions in
a mixture of olive oil and olive oil margarine.
i love these products because i can use them to my hearts content,
and my heart is content.

then i tossed in the herbs, tomato, olives and capers.
i purposely did not put the tomato in at first so as not to over cook them.
then i simply added them to the pan and tossed it a few times.

i ground some fresh black pepper into it and put it on top of the fish fillets.

i then put the fish under the broiler and steamed the veggies
and boiled 2 potatoes.

fairly simple and straight forward,
and i used up some things that were being neglected in the fridge,
something i like to do. i find it a challenge to use
whatever is in the bottom of the crisper box, wherever i am.

been so long it looks like > > > egg salad to me ...

it has been so long since i contributed to my own blog. so here we go with a great egg salad on whole grain baguette.

i use quail eggs for this because i can get them on most any bangkok salad bar these days and they are already peeled. nice and creamy and i now prefer them over chicken eggs for this application. i mash them with some chopped chives and curly parsley, minced shallot, french's ball park mustard, some 0% cholesterol japanese mayonnaise (a bit sweet, but that's cool because i usually like to throw in some salad cream which is also sweet), a dollop of olive oil margarine and finish it with fresh ground sea salt and black pepper.

note that my chives, shallot and parsley are not 100% up to par.
this is due to the airport having been closed for 8 days
as it was occupied for political demonstrations
(go democracy thailand)
and there is not a lot of fresh stuff around.
things should get better now as the airport opened today.

note that i use a potato masher, works just great for this application,
and it is easy to clean too.

salad is ready and the baguette has been just barely toasted
and allowed to cool down.
we don't want to heat up the salad
and have it get warm and runny now do we?
that would defeat the purpose of the margarine
which is added not only for flavor, but also to bind it.

the sandwich garnished with arugula and all ready for slicing with the
trusted dropped-edge sandwich maker's knife.

every time i take a pic of this knife and look at the broken tip on it
i want to find the cook who abused it and stab him with the damn thing.


the sandwich has been sliced on a bias and is now ready for eating.
note: when i sliced it, i sawed through it carefully,
i did not cut straight down.
that would have caused the egg salad to ooze out
and that is not what we want.


there are two reason for cutting this way.
one, it looks good, and two -
it makes the first, all important bite, easy and proper.

if you turn the sandwich on its side, and bite into it
so as not to push the top and bottom together,
the egg salad will not squirt out.
this is easily done when the sandwich
has been cut on an angle as you see here.

the arugula adds a nice nutty flavor and some bite to the already sweet salad.
notice i choose not to add tomato slices to my sandwich.
just pure creamy quail egg and arugula is about
all i want to taste here set off by the robust baguette.


i wash this all down with a steamin' hot fresh cup of
fresh ground hill tribe coffee
my friend brought me from chinag mai last week.

not as robust as i prefer, but for thai beans,
o'tay buckwheat!