Dakar

All is well in Dakar. The training we're leading is going well and the participants are very interested, and working hard on their communication strategies. We're making a lot of notes as to what's confusing for them and what can be improved the next time - much of it has to do with simple things like layout of the worksheets, and having shortcut icons for them to the web-based software we're using (oh, technology - a blessing and a curse!).

Last night we had a girls night out at the Dakar bowling alley, Red Bowl. Hot music videos on big screens above the lanes, a dark corner full of pool tables and very serious men, dark lounge atmosphere with fluorescent accent lighting and booming techno.



Kerri, an old friend from Gabon via Cameroon, now a fellow with the Congressional Hunger Center and CRS, joined us, and we discovered that Claudia had heard about her appendix removal from friends in Bamako, and that Andrea had heard about her malaria episode through mutual friends. Small world strikes again.

Afterwards we headed to a mysterious sushi buffet place, which turned out to be the same Korean restaurant that Andrea and I had tried earlier in the week (and which had no sushi on the menu). For a very reasonable price we got all we could eat nagiri, sashimi, shrimp tempura, bulgogi, various veggies, nems, dumplings, and scallion pancakes. The sushi was great and I stuffed myself.

It was a nice walk back to the hotel through the Place de l'Independence, which is still lit up from the New Year's celebrations.

Finally, Chinese

It's the end of the month and what the heck have we been doing the last few weeks?

Well, for one, we finally got a decent chinese cookbook (something related to stir fries and woks. Not Breath of a Wok, but the same author). And we found an asian grocery (Asia Food on York road) where one can get various noodles and dried fungus and condiments. And dried black beans. So we made black bean chicken stir fry with mystery mustard greens in oyster sauce. Super delish. Crappy picture though:



We were so hungry I already ate the mystery mustards.

Then we had to finish the pork stock (from the PIG ROAST) so what the heck we made fake ramen, I mean, it's not Tampopo or anything, but you throw some ginger and garlic in a pot and add your pork stock and the rest of that beef stock in the fridge because ramen is all about different meats anyway, and then shoot you have those dried shiitakes burning a hole in the cupboard so throw those in, then add the leftover 2 chicken thighs (3 meats!!!) and some other mystery greens, and some soy sauce, and HELLS YEAH that's a good freakin' soup. I forgot the noodles, you have to boil those separately, and they are not ramen, but like, at this point, who cares.



Three meat soup. Right on.

Also we did the following before I jetted off to Senegal:

- Save Your Soul dance party night at the Lithuanian Hall, including tiny cups of honey liquor (viryta, not etymologically related to veritas). The soul DJ was good and the surf-rock DJ was not good.
- Dinner at Dogwood on the Ave - somewhat disappointing, next time we will stick with the small plates.
- Dinner at the bar at Salt - duck fat fries, oyster stew appetizer, and wild board tagliatelle - super delish beyond expectations. The fries came with three mayonnaises (chipotle, truffle and malt vinegar), and surprisingly, I found the tang of the malt vinegar most delectable, perhaps because it cut the richness of the duck fat a bit. Bartender was awesome and so was my Corsendonk.
- King's Speech was great. How did they find the wallpaper for Loge's office?
- bought some shelves and drilled some holes in the walls
- had Nick and Johanna and Oscar over for dinner, Kima was superb
- had Kira and Rosemary over for dinner, Kima was a bad girl
- saw Hope and new baby Anders. Thanks for the wedding gift!! It will keep us warm while cycling, obviously:

Mmm Butter

We got Ad Hoc At Home for Christmas and promptly fell to making three recipes at once from it. It was a bit chaos in the kitchen but we pulled through, flipping back and forth in one cookbook for three recipes is a challenge we will try not to repeat.

The key ingredient was butter. Clarified butter (we used ghee, meme chose) for the scallops (which were also brined for a bit), and a stick of butter for the melted leek rounds, and more butter in which the brussels sprouts and radishes were braised (after blanching the brussels sprouts - key step to avoid bitterness, apparently. Anyway it worked).


The leeks also got parboiled and the kohlrabi we didn't have was supposed to get that treatment too. The radishes ended up crisp-tender without parboiling, and not bad at all. We've had roasted and cooked radishes other places that have been mushy, and kind of boring, but these were at least toothsome, though without their radish bite. The sprouts were _delish_. And the scallops, oh, I mean, it is hard to fuck up a scallop if you are following directions, but these were great. Nicely caramelized just as advertised.



Can you see the butter?


Normally when we are cooking these 'big' dinners and running around swearing a lot something has gotten forgotten, like the starch, or the green veg, but no, we cooked everything we were supposed to! We sat down and enjoyed with a nice Pinot Grigio.

Then Josh noticed we had left the scallop pan on and the ghee, clarified though it was, was smoking. The pan is a 'workhorse' however and was no worse for wear after a brief cooling off period in the backyard.

Kima in the woods

Fantastic End of Year

in bullet form, some highlights from the last few weeks:

• veal loin sous-vide in the stockpot using a thermometer stuck through a gladware lid and an old wine cork (so it floats)
• Jamie Oliver rotolo
• 
  
• mushroom soup from Julia Child (BEST EVER until I try Keller or Jamie's - will report back)
• sitting at home stringing cranberries watching SVU
• ice skating at the local hockey rink (can you believe it's been 10 years since I played??)
• the full complement of home breakfasts
• christmas turkey and its reincarnation into turkey pot pie
• 
  
• seeing Grandma and Grandpa and meeting Josh's new second cousin Liam
• Mom and I playing Angry Birds
• trips to Art Mart for stocking stuffers
• ye olde steake frites
• Vij's goat curry

• hot tubbing in Deep Creek
• hiking with Kima through (cross country) ski trails
• 
  
• hanging out with the Crew (Jason, Lara, Vic and Damon)
• fried chicken!
• bad movies
• messing with the Wii Fit while the balance board was reversed
• ignoring all my emails (fantastic!)

and let us not forget the super fun 34th street progressive, in which delicious cocktails were enjoyed, fun snacks eaten, and I ended up asleep on Sean and Marin's couch as per usual.

Happy New Year to all!