THE GURGLING COD

If I buy her the yarn, will she make me an artisanal porridge shop, too?

Big times for the 718 these days. The basketball team may be struggling, but Brooklyn is #1 in two things: 

1) Artisanal porridge shops. 

2) Lesbians.

Hoping for new signs on the bridges: "Welcome to Brooklyn! Come for the hot dykes! Stay for the hot gruel!"

Under the right circumstances, paying someone to fix you a hot farinaceous breakfast might be just the thing. Asked the porridge folks a menu question, and they use Bob's Red Mill grits, which is nice, in that they did not say "corn grits," but also disappointing in that it's not Anson Mills, or Red Mule, or Timms Mill or other grit with more personality. They were at pains to tell me the grits were gluten free, which considering grits are made out of corn seems unnecessary. However, the entire resto is very focused on being gluten-free, which is nice for those folks, though alarming in that there is a market for a gluten-free restaurant. Also, the grits are "creamy," but all the porridges are "dairy-free"? Butter is available, for a seventy-five cent surcharge on your seven dollar bowl of grits. We are not quite in gravy sommelier territory, but not far off. Would welcome intel from any boots on the ground in the Slope. 

Judy Rodgers is gone

Like many of you, when Lou Reed died recently, I went on a  VU/Lou binge. I bought New Sensations, listened to Rock n Roll Animal for the first time all the way through in forever, and so on. And now the news that Judy Rodgers, of Zuni Cafe, has died. I only had the chance to eat at Zuni once. I had the chicken, of course, and it was good, of course. What I learned from that meal, however, was how good Judy Rodgers was at writing cookbooks -- when a dedicated home cook took the time to read the receipt, get the proper ingredients, and take the time to do it the right way, the result was within maybe not spitting distance, but within a biscuit toss, maybe, of the restaurant version. That's rare for chef cookbooks. There is a lot of great stuff in the Zuni cookbook, and you should go get one now if you don't have it, but the bond between Ms. Rodgers and her roast chicken and bread salad is about as strong as any I can think of between a chef and a dish. As it happens, it's also figured in some moments in the Cod's life - I cooked it the night my mom died, and I mention cooking it for the first time when I remembered my father. 

As it happens, we have the cinetrix' grasshoppers over for dinner tonight. I was tempted, for a moment, to scrap the plan and make the chicken and bread salad, in the same way I went on a Lou Reed binge recently. Then I remembered the recipe, and that starting now and making it for tonight would mean a series of halfass compromises, inimical to the spirit of her cookng. So I'll fire out something nice for the kids, and plan on roast chicken and bread salad for the weekend when I can get good chicken, good bread, and take the time to dry brine. With luck, I might be able to find the Charles Joguet Chinon she suggests as a pairing. I might just pick up Live, Take No Prisoners as a soundtrack. 

Cheerwine Robot makes everything ok!

For reasons easy to imagine, but tedious to relate, not the Cod's favorite time of year, specifically the part where we pivot from being thankful to trampling oneanother for flatscreen discounts. And "cyber Monday" is not part of the solution - a) it carries this spasmodic consumerism into the next week, and b) "cyber" is a word best left to the 900-baud era of online pornography.* That said, it is phyisically impossible to get mad at a Cheerwine robot telling you how to get some Cackalacky** hot sauce for Xmas giving: 

*It still exists! Best viewed in Netscape, though. Never change, Hef.  

**There is even a Cheerwine/Cackalacky collab!