I have never been so happy to have risen before noon

[sovay]

I had a really nice day meeting skygiants at the MFA at noon for a screening of Peter Miller's Projections of America (2015) on the last day of the Boston Jewish Film Festival, curling up on the couch in the afternoon to read Zen Cho's Sorcerer to the Crown (2015)—highly recommended—and then making dinner with rushthatspeaks in time to eat with gaudior and B., but I have slept three to four hours a night since Thursday and the part of my brain that generates critical response appears to have temporarily closed down. It's not that I can't think of anything to say: I think it's going to take me hours to say it. On that level of sentience, I should finish my work and sleep instead.

Zingerman's report of the day: goat's milk gouda plus moutarde violette equals a ridiculously tasty sandwich. I don't know why people eat mustard that isn't made with grape must. If it's got horseradish in it, that's different. Otherwise I think I have a new favorite condiment.

Comments

[rosefox]

Mmmmmmm grape must.

[sovay]

Mmmmmmm grape must.

I'm not sure I'd ever had it before, in anything! I have an ambivalent relationship with grapes: I like the fresh fruit fine (I really like Concord grapes, sour as they are; we had an arbor in the back yard when I was growing up), but I don't like grape juice, grape jelly, grape candies etc.; I don't like wines unless they are very dark reds. As far as I can tell, grape must has all the sweet fruit flavor without any of the sickliness I associate with grape flavoring and then all the complicated dark savor that must come from the skins and seeds and the rest of the must. I have seen recipies online for cookies or other baked goods sweetened with grape must. I want to try these.

[rosefox]

Most "grape-flavored" things are really purple-flavored. I can't stand purple flavoring. Grapes, on the other hand, are delicious.

I haven't had mustard with grape must in ages and now I have no idea why. Should fix that.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

This. Purple is a terrible flavor (red, pink, blue and the others have largely fallen out with me in adulthood, with the solely-because-of-addiction exception of the yellow-green of Mountain Dew), but grapes are some of my favorite fruit. Especially grapes you find by accident in the forest.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

to read Zen Cho's Sorcerer to the Crown

its not bad, I liked that it had different twists on things here and there, and the characters were interesting.

[sovay]

its not bad, I liked that it had different twists on things here and there, and the characters were interesting.

I could tell it was good because it had a character toward whom ordinarily I would have gravitated in an instant—Damerell—and I liked the protagonists so much, which is a rare circumstance for me, that he ended up coming in third-billed with Rollo.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

I liked that the way some of the characters were written, when they did their evil rants they didnt come off as two dimensional, that you could tell that they actually believed what they said. Some writers just miss that part of the storytelling. This book hit the mark for me on that. Plus the magic system, and showing enough to give you a feel for it, but still keeping enough back.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Reminds me that I had a smoked-gouda grilled cheese a while ago, and it tasted remarkably like pizza, despite not having any tomato on it. The combination of smoky taste (as if from a wood-burning oven) and stretchy cheese was what did it.

[sovay]

The combination of smoky taste (as if from a wood-burning oven) and stretchy cheese was what did it.

That makes sense!

[rosefox]

Ooh! I should try adding smoke flavor to my next batch of vegan mozzarella.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

I don't care much for most smoke flavors (I mean the ones in bottles), but smoked paprika is great stuff. Dunno if it would have the right flavor profile, but worth a try.

[rosefox]

I have hickory-smoked salt that I can use.

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

What does one do with garum in the absence of a source for pickled dormice rolled in sesame seeds? If you don't have the honey-pickled dormice, is the dormice and garum on rye really the same?

[sovay]

What does one do with garum in the absence of a source for pickled dormice rolled in sesame seeds?

Well, we are definitely making this recipe for quail eggs. And possibly some other stuff from that list. Probably not the ostrich, alas.

If you don't have the honey-pickled dormice, is the dormice and garum on rye really the same?

It's never as good as it was at that thermopolium in Ostia!