graciespeaks

Best Car Ride of 2009--to Anna Maria Island

I'm back, a little rusty after my Christmas-driven week-plus off from writing and blogging.

My plan through the end of the year is still to finish Gwen Bell's Best of 2009 Challenge, starting where I left off, a little later and with posts more abbreviated than I planned on December 1.

December 19 Car ride. What did you see? How did it smell? Did you eat anything as you drove there? Who were you with?

For Labor Day weekend, and Michael's birthday, we headed across Florida from east coast to west, and then north to Anna Maria Island, near Sarasota.

The stretch of I-75 from west of Ft. Lauderdale to Naples is aptly known as Alligator Alley, and my favorite part of the trip. The Alley cuts through the Everglades, and you almost always see a few alligators sunning on the banks of the canals on either side of the road.   You pass Seminole reservations, airboat tour sites, and the occasional park rest stop but the river of grass stretches as far as you can see.

The marsh has its own smell, earthy and dank, not unpleasant but rich and ancient.

Once through the glades I-75 turns north.  We left Miami after breakfast and arrived at Longboat Key, just south of Anna Maria, in time for lunch at the MarVista Restaurant, an old Florida restaurant with a Gulf view.

 
Since their website is www.groupersandwich.com, I ordered a grouper sandwich, which was all that it should be, mild white fish in a light batter on a toasted bun, served of course with fries and cole slaw.  Gigantic plastic cups of iced tea and a slice of Key Lime pie finished the meal.

And then we were ready to make the short drive to quiet, beautiful Anna Maria Island.

Best Tea of 2009: Rishi Organic Earl Grey Rooibos

Before I talk about my favorite tea, I have to say that I love(d) coffee, and I love(d) caffeine.  I've quit drinking it from time to time, but like any addiction, I've always gone back to it.

By mid 2009, most days I was drinking about six cups of French Roast coffee, organic, free trade, everything nice, plus an afternoon double espresso if anyone leaving my office was passing by a Starbucks.

I didn't dislike tea, but I completely preferred coffee.  I could always find the studies that said that coffee prevented dementia, enhanced athletic performance and fatburning, reduced cholesterol.  What was not to like?

But I was having a little trouble with stress and sleep and I began to wonder if my caffeine consumption could possibly have anything to do with it.  So over the course of a couple of weeks I tapered down to 100% decaf coffee and then switched to tea. 

Withdrawal was a brutal process that left me putting my head on my desk in the middle of the day, ready for bed at 6 p.m., and wishing for caffeine all the time. 

Finally I began to feel better.  While I still don't like a lot of bright light and conversation first thing in the morning, I am no longer daily transformed from a pre- to post-first-cup-of-coffee self.  I have an energetic rhythm throughout the day which seems to be my own rather than determined by how many cups or shots I've consumed.

Occasionally I drink a little black, green, or white tea, but my consistent favorite is a caffeine-free red: Rishi Organic Earl Grey Rooibos.  I make it first thing in the morning because I like the taste, the smell, the heat, the comfort of the ritual. 

As much as I liked my caffeinated buzzing self, I think I like my tea self better.

Best Food of 2009: Adventures in CSA

For the past three or four years I've been a member of a CSA, and here in South Florida, our growing season has just begun, and will last through April.

A gracious neighbor allows her house to be a drop-off/pickup point, and for about twenty weeks, every Saturday I and other members will pick up our "shares":  boxes of vegetables and fruits that have been harvested that week.  Eggs and honey and cheese shares are also available.

Some of the contents of the box are common enough, but often the selections veer into the unfamiliar.

For example, everyone has had Romaine lettuce, but what about eruption and deer tongue?

Green and red chard and kale and bok choy and collards are in my repertoire, but other greens are new and fascinating: tatsoi, komat suna, yukina savoy, and callaloo.

Strawberries and oranges and avocados appear throughout the season, but also canistel, carambola, caimitos, and my favorite and most unusual, black sapote, which came last week and is really still not ready to eat.  The flesh tastes (sort of) like chocolate pudding.  It will be really ready to eat when the skin is black.

Tonight I am cooking yuca for dinner for the first time. 

I've learned that it contains trace amounts of cyanide, so you have to boil it, then drain the water, then boil it again before you (for example) cut it into wedges and drizzle with olive oil and bake for oven-fried yuca.

Here's where I am at the moment: just after the first boil, cyanide-free.

Without the CSA experience, I would not be looking forward to black sapotes turning wrinkly black on my counter or the taste of yuca fries.  We'll see what's in the box next week.

Best Night Out of 2009: The Magnum Lounge

I am not much of a "night out" person.  It's almost 8 p.m. on Saturday night as I write this post and I'm not on my way out when I finish.  I considered modifying this Best of 2009 Blog Challenge to "Best Night In."

But then I remembered the Magnum Lounge.  It's in a neighborhood that could be described as seedy, shady, unfashionable.  It's in a nondescript building.  The sign is hard to find unless you're looking for it.  But I'd heard that it was a fun piano bar and served the best crab cakes in Miami, so on a Friday in September when my workout was canceled at the last minute, I asked Michael if he wanted to check it out for happy hour.

We arrived around 5:30, and the parking lot was nearly empty.  The entrance leads to the hall in the picture above.  The interior is red, both paint and velvet, and dim nearly to the point of darkness.  As our eyes adjusted we saw that we were approaching a large wooden bar with a disco ball over it.  We walked to the far side of the bar and sat down. 

To our right was a grand piano, and beyond that, a dining room.  Because of the dining room, there is no smoking.  On the walls around the bar area were flat screen TVs, with various movies playing, soundless.  The owner, clearly in still-getting-ready-for-the-evening mode, treated us as if we were his old friends.  As we sat, I sipping Ketel One gimlets, an older crowd began to fill the dining room.  The bartender was friendly but unobtrusive.  We ordered the crab cakes at the bar, and they did not disappoint.

At 7:30, Terry Hammond,

the piano player, started his evening.  By then the owner had changed into his evening clothes, and he continued to check on us.  The bar had filled up with a diverse crowd of gay and straight couples and singles.  

We moved to the piano with half a dozen or so other people and sang standards and showtunes with Terry.  I can't remember ever having such a good time in a bar. 

By the time we left around nine (as I said, I'm no night owl), all the restaurant tables had filled up and the bar was packed with people sitting and standing around it.

Maybe it's time to go back to the Magnum Lounge.

Best Restaurant of 2009: Sacred Chow

Best restaurant of 2009 was Sacred Chow.

Michael and I walked from our Lower East Side hotel to the West Village for the first lunch of our October long weekend. 

The painted-red-brick interior walls, decorated with original photographs, were a perfect backdrop to my orange barbecued seitan sandwich and pumpkin soup.  Our Georgia peach waitress, also a singer in a band, persuaded us to try a fantastic and somehow vegan chocolate cake. 

People at the next table ordered cornmeal-crusted Brussels sprouts.  How did I miss those?  Next time.

why do(n't) we cook?

An article, and comments worth reading, about why Americans don't cook more than we do.