Still struggling to beat Lee at WII Bowling. We’ve played probably sixty games in the last few days. I have won perhaps five. We have both had sore backs and triceps for two days. Last night neither of us could continue to play because our arms hurt too much. Fortunately we’d been drinking a lot of wine, so we switched to playing with our left hands. Lee’s score plummeted. Oddly, mine stayed almost the same, in fact I bowled over 216 once.

We’re staying at the Lilianfels hotel. A very nice hotel overlooking the valley. The decor is very posh. The theme seems is Agatha Christie. Hercule Poirot could be taking tea in the lobby this minute.

The only thing I’ve encountered that I don’t like is the interet. There is no wireless in the room. But the room is “wired.” IF you consider an 24″ cat5 cable that seems to have come from a patchboard in a server closet to be “wiring”.

Now it’s just a simple matter of which internet service option to select:

start with a 9 dirt-encrusted potatoes.

Lovingly hand-washed, by me.

Then excrutiatingly hand-sliced into toothpick-sized pieces. Rosti!

Then…. a handful of fresh rosemary, diced into dust and infused in olive oil.

Oil-and-rosemary tossed w/ potatoes. Aforementioend potato tossed w/ flour and put on a medium-hot griddle. Cook for thirty minutes.

In the meantime…………………………………………………………..

Monkfish fillets.

dusted in corn flour

left to relax for thirty minutes.

In the meantime, a lot of thyme minced and tossed into three free-range eggs.

Said monkfish, washed in egg/thyme mixture, and rolled in a thyme/sourdough bread crumb mixture I made before this narrative even began.

Pan fried. Tested with simple knife. Plunge into fillet, Touch to lip. Cold? Keep cooking. Hot? It’s done!

While all this is cooking…………. softened two fists of onions in a palm of butter. Then subsequently tossed into blanched peas. Sans mint. No one likes drum rolls or mints if they’re honest.

Eat eat eat drink wine. Done.

Good night.

Wednesday we’re going to the Blue Mountains for an overnight trip. I haven’t been there since I first visited Australia in 1998.

Yesterday we went shopping. I bought a pair of RM Williams boots.

RM Williams Arnhem Yard Boot in “Distressed Biscuit color

There are a number of bike stores I want to visit while I’m here. Hopefully I can find some 20″ rims as well as some panniers and other equipment for the Le Chacal.

Luke is going off the walls with excitement right now. Time to pack.

1. Several pounds of cheap tomatoes
2. 1 small onion (whole)
3. 2 stalks celery
4. 1 beet cut into 1cm slices

Threw in a pot with a cup of water and simmered for 45+ minutes

Seasoned with salt (1tsp + pinch) and sugar (1tsp + pinch) and a long grind of black pepper

Pulled out the onion, celery, and beet chunks. Poured the tomato slurry into a food mill and squeezed out all the juice.

Made close to two quarts.

Chilled overnight in a refrigerator and had after my morning latte this morning.

Really good. Way way better than disgusting salt-bring tomato puree you get from stores or restaurants.

“Hi, Daddy”

“Hi Luke, where are you?”

“Sydney” (total lie)

“Sydney?!”

“yeah!”

“How’d you get there?”

“Flew”

“Flew on what?!”

“Fighter jet.”

“Wow. Is mom with you or in Singapore?”

“Sydney”

“How’d she get there?”

“Fighter jet also.”

“Can I come to Sydney?”

“Yes.”

“How am I supposed to get there?”

“Drive.”

“Drive?! If I try to drive, I will sink in the ocean.”

“Ha Ha Ha. Yes. Bye.” <click>

Luke’s answer? “oh, I’ll wear a Decepticon T-shirt instead”

Ling said, “no, that’s included in the ban too.”

Luke argued that is shouldn’t be, as Decepticons (Evil-side Transformers) are bad, thus not super or heroic.

should be ready in four weeks.

Since this is the year of the Intertubes, you can twitter my sauerkraut.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 527 people with the name Michael Slater in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

]]> http://karavshin.org/2009/06/20/michael-slater/feed/ http://karavshin.org/2009/06/17/when-was-the-last-time-you-saw-this/ http://karavshin.org/2009/06/17/when-was-the-last-time-you-saw-this/#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:33:46 +0000 Michael Slater http://karavshin.org/2009/06/17/when-was-the-last-time-you-saw-this/

I’ve been using Matt as my Amazon Depot lately. I ordered a bunch of heirloom vegetable seeds, some bicycle rims, and a pile of dvd’s used from Amazon.

I bought the full series of Picket Fences and Northern Exposure, two shows I enjoyed watching during college. The other thing I ordered was a DVD collection, “The Best of Sesame Street 1974-1979.” I just plugged it in and the first thing the showed was that typewriter man — total flashback!

Personally, the thing I loved most from Sesame Street was the “lowercase n (he’s not lonely anymore)” song. Hopefully I’m lucky enough to see it on my DVDs.

It’s also interesting to see this show again because I recently read “Street Gang,” a birthday present from Megan. Now I know all the dirt on the muppets and man-animals.

["we all live in a capital 'I'" song is now playing. How many times did I hear that as a kid?"]

This Blog Article was brought to you by the letter “I” and the number “9″

Hayes’ premise is to describe all the bits of infrastructure we see in our daily life but don’t really understand. This ranges from chapters on farms to shipping to oil to electricity to air travel and more. It’s “trade” format book, with plenty of good photos. The writing is good, hard, journalistically clear.

I have been carrying it around with me.

Early last week I was in Indonesia. I had been reading all about electricity generation. I was surprised how much fun it was to look at the high-tension power lines and being able to identify all their parts. I spotted some things that Hayes mentioned, but didn’t illustrate. One example was the terminal tower on a high tension line that is especially overbuilt for a right-angle turn.

I had a similar experience when I flew back from Hanoi on Saturday morning. I had been reading the section on airports, and suddenly looking out the window as we were hustling down the runway, I was recognizing everything from the book. “Oh, look, there is the fog visibility meter system, there is the shoulder warning that heavy aircrafts shouldn’t taxi on, there are the stemmed blue lights that are being phased out, oh, Hanoi doesn’t have an underground fuel system, they use bowsers, etc. etc. etc.”

I really am addicted to this book and want to start snapping my own photos of the things he’s described. Perhaps I should start a new group on Flickr where people can upload their own pictures of other things mentioned, but not illustrated, in the book.

Sadly, I doubt there will be a sequel. It looks like this was a labour of love that took a long time to produce.

Four medium onions, split in half, gently roasted in an oven for forty minutes. Accompanied by a full bulb of garlic roasted until soft.

I put the entire roasting pan on the stove in order to save the caramelization that stuck to the pan. Pour in a liter of chicken stock, a handful of hot thai “birdseye” style chilis (picked from a bush in my garden) and chiffonaded lime tree leaves (picked from a lime tree in my garden) along with the squeezed-out innards of the garlic. Heat up briskly and then simmer for 20 minutes or so.

Pour in 400ml of coconut milk (sinful but beautiful) and simmer a bit more. Season with some nam pla (thai fish sauce) to taste.

I roughly pureed mine with a hand blender.

mmmm…. spicy, sour, sweet, creamy all at once. Beautiful. I enjoyed it more than tom yam, as it has a thicker consistency, and I like the sweet onion base.

Bean Tortillas

Nothing real special. Tomatoes, onions, beans. Seasoned and softened. Used some old red chile base from my mexican chilli collection. Wrapped up on some organic tortillas. mmm

Dill Pickles

Made another round of refrigerator pickles from some japanese cucumbers today. I really laid on the spices and tried to be temperate with the salt. Last time I oversalted. Hopefully they are tart and flavorful. The ikea jar holding them looks brilliant with the dill stalks floating around with lots of seeds and spices.

I have a Barolo (Italian Wine) tasting dinner tomorrow, so I’ll not be tasting the pickles till tuesday. Ling (who doesn’t drink ) is coming too. There will be many orphaned glasses of wine I guess we’ll have to take care of on her behalf. I’m really looking forward to a Tuesday-morning hangover. Bit early in the week. Maybe I’ll drink pickle brine for Tuesday breakfast. Ling and Luke fly to Sydney Tuesday evening. I follow on Friday evening. I’ll be there for a week.