Full and happy

Los Angeleno by birth, Northwesterner by choice, Second-hander by nature. Librarian, housebound chef, father, and lowly subject ruled over by the needs and whims of a very old house.
Partial to Mexican, Italian and Vietnamese cookery but will eat damn near anything. Collector of many strange things..the result is chaos and anarchy and a very pleasant place to live.
There is pleasure in accumulation, not just "collecting": music, books and film, in all their multi-formated glory. Outsider artists and those kinds of prints you would recognize if you took liberal studies classes in college. Cooking implements and gadgets for recipes still untried or those ventured. Glasses for most types of libations. Flowers in the garden, herbs in the pot.
It's a life of the senses and a good home life reflects that. Walking helps take in all the rest. Requires no special equipment, opens up the pores, brightens the taste buds, clears the decks for further adventures, puts on the miles, widens the eyes and helps fuel the imagination.

Live boldly, play graciously and love with all your heart knowing that true love comes only once or twice in this lifetime. Speaking of which..donde estas, Empress of my Heart?

Salud!

"Lack imagination and miss the better story" Yann Martel

"Life is a great adventure and I want to say to you, accept it in such spirit. I want to see you face it ready to do the best that lies in you to win out. To go down without complaining and abiding by the result....the worst of all fears is the fear of living." Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.

"Not I - not anyone else, can travel that road for you
You must travel it for yourself" Walt Whitman


And above all, friends should possess the rare gift of sitting. They should be able, no, eager, to sit for hours-three, four, six-over a meal of soup and wine and cheese, as well as one of twenty fabulous courses.

Then, with good friends of such attributes, and good food on the board, and good wine in the pitcher, we may well ask,

When shall we live if not now?

-From Serve it Forth,
M.F.K. Fisher


Sunday, September 20, 2009

No Tuna Town Tourism for my tomcat


My cat Guapo likes to start out his day with a pinch of cat nip and a spoonful of tuna. I don't know about other cats but he is a fairly finicky critter when it comes to his wet chow. He won't have anything to do with those fancy cans of cat food, and has consistantly turned his nose up to other kinds of canned fish like mackerel, sardines and salmon. But tuna? If I find that the cat is a bit overdue from his evening's outting all I have to do is lay my Swingaway to the top of a can of Bumble Bee and he magically appears by the back door. Good trick, good tuna.

Now, I have to admit I do not spoil my cat with high priced cans of albacore or the like. I have no idea what types of tuna parts are found in the kind of tuna I bring home but I am sure it is not sashimi grade. After reading the NY Times article posted below I guess I can say that I am getting off lucky and so is he, for tuna are highly overfished and because of that can be pretty pricey in some parts of the world. According to the article some fisherman in the little fishing town of Oma, Japan, feel that catching a tuna these days is like winning the lottery and can bring in thousands of dollars for one fish alone. I must remind Guapo of that the next time I hear a little attitude in his morning "meow". Attitude or not, that cat, gawd bless him, allows for a bit of that Vegas lottery magic to happen here in this house every day, all at sixty nine cents a can. Good for him, good for me.

Salud!

The Napa Valley of tuna towns:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/world/asia/20tuna.html?_r=1&hpw

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