2013/04/09

• 
  Stade Olympique – Olympic Stadium – 2005.06.03
  Scènes de Montréal – Montreal Scenes
  

  Memory and what it’s worth

  About the header pic of a few posts back, I was whining that the weather was so much nicer last year, the marchers of the first big student demonstration in March all dressed up with summer clothes. I realized after the fact that the other header pic about the Earth Day demonstration held one month later, on April 22, saw the marchers back with their winter gear.

  

  Neighborhood

  Some days ago, my neighbor two houses south brought me some brownies and another home-made delicacy whose name I don’t know. She said the brownies are made with the help of her [severely] autistic kid, who is about ten now. The other candy is made with graham wafers covered with some kind of caramel and blanched almonds. Lots of sugar, but the almonds contain protein I think. And the walnuts in the brownies also. So as far as good food intake for my current condition is concerned, I’m covered I guess if I eat those (something well under way, by now).

  

  

  Is nothing sacred anymore?

  So KFC/Kentucky Fried Chicken (PFK/ Poulet frit Kentucky in Québec) is going boneless. I was wondering if they could still label their chicken “Kentucky Fried” after this. I always thought that this label pertained to a particular way of cooking chicken specific to Kentucky, somethig similar to a controlled designation so to speak, and not simply that the colonel lived there (which I’m not even sure of).

  For having been served something in hospital which was labeled chicken but which I didn’t eat since it didn’t look nor tasted like real chicken, I would be weary about KFC/PFK eventually using that kind of pressed chicken parts (god knows which) instead or the real thing, which minimally has a grain (aka is stranded). Not that I really care though. The last time I ate PFK was in the late eighties. I had no lunch for dinner and decided to try that since I hadn’t had any for a long time. Bad move. I found it to be tasting awful.

  

  The lasagna epic

  Last summer before entering hospital (for a then expected 10 days or so ) I had prepared a batch of that bolognese-style sauce I use only with spaghetti and for lasagnas and had put it in the freezer in small containers. Some days ago, I unthawed two of those to make a lasagna, sure or myself that I had the required amount or mozarella in the fridge. I distincly remembered having bought a long piece of it maybe a month or two ago. When it came time to make the lasagna, the mozarella was nowhere to be found, so I made something else instead. I took for granted that I probably had used it at some point and had forgotten. You know, aging… The next day, I found the mozarella in the vegetable drawer, a place where I never put cheese. I guess the top portion was crowded and I put the cheese there because it was vacuum sealed and didn’t need to be eaten in a short future.

  So I was now all set. Or so I thought. Although I have a whole cupboard full of pastas, of which two boxes of lasagnas, I had neglected to check what was left inside those two boxes. What I needed were five lasagnas. One box had flat egg-based pastas. The other had regular pastas but with double curly edges (doppia riccia). In other words, mutually incompatible. And yup, neither one of those boxes had the required five. Once again, everything on a standstill. Meanwhile, although a fridge is a good place to store thawed sauce to prevent it from rotting, there’s a limit to what you can expect. So the next day, I took this matter seriously and went to Milano on St-Laurent and bought a box of lasagna, an Italian brand (what else) in the upper price range and which you don’t have to pre-cook (so they say on the box). I cooked them still the same for a few minutes since the recipe on the box mentioned about adding cream to the sauce which of course I don’t do. I don’t like either those cutting the edges cooking methods.

  Then there’s the parmesan. That, thank god, was the least of my worries. After buying a piece of Reggiano after coming back home, I quickly realized that grating it was scorching my invalid hand, unless I wore a glove to hold the grater. I never do this usually but I decided to buy store-grated cheese instead. This said, I had to find real parmiggiano. Most stores which sell grated parmesan, commercially boxed (like Kraft) or in bulk like in some cheese stores, sell a cheese made here in North America and which has nothing to do with real Italian parmiggiano. But for once, a lucky star took the time to shine over my head [and on it these last years ] and I found, during a previous visit to Milano, real grated parmiggiano and, even better for what I want to do with it, mixed with grated Romano.

  There’s a general lesson to be found from all this: when making a simple lasagna becomes the drama of the week, you know your life has become, even if only temporarily, pretty unexciting at the least.

  There’s also a specific lesson to be had: one can fill three paragraphs with what is essentially a non-story, and get away with it.

  

  Quote

  Heard in the movie Janis et John by the character played by Jean-Louis Trintignant (my translation):

  «You’re like me, Mr Sterni. Every day we are under the impression that we are fighting against the whole world while in fact no one knows we exist.»

  

  Margaret Thatcher

  What about Margaret Thatcher?

  [answer later... maybe]

  

  Kim Jong-un

  What about Kim Jong-un?

  [tentative answer... maybe]

  
  Cartoon © Serge Chapleau, La Presse

  

  Da food section

  Not much to declare, I must say.

  Saturday, I had chipolata sausages with baby bok choy, both accompanied by a vegetable that they serve you so often in hospital that you really thought at some point that you’d never have any of it for the rest of your life. Then again, properly cooked “fresh, not frozen” carrots are something different altogether. The bok choy are cooked with scallions (green onions) and a bit of chicken broth.

  

  Yesterday I finally had the lasagna. No pic. Who wants to see a dripping lasagna anyways. Since I’m alone to eat it, tonight will also be lasagna night, second instalment so to speak.

  

  • 19:38
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