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And painted by the Bosphorus in blue
1. I took my mother to Mamaleh's this afternoon. I had wanted to ever since it was such a hit last week with my father (and me: their Reuben is competitive with the Deluxe Town Diner, my previous local benchmark. Maybe with a slight edge. Their corned beef is amazing even before they pile Russian dressing and cole slaw—I prefer it to sauerkraut—on it. All their deli meats are in-house). She loved it. We ordered sable, a fish she had not had since she visited relatives or her godmother in New York City; unless I'd encountered it under a different name as sushi, I'd never had it. She was very encouraging that I should. It came smoked, delicately edged with what looked like paprika, with a ringed arrangement of cucumber and tomato slices, red onion, capers, and cream cheese. It was expensive, the same price as the smoked sturgeon. It was worth it. A rich, silky, melting fish, exactly as good as my mother had remembered for decades. I ate a cold tongue sandwich—I really like this thing where I can now get tongue on marble rye at Mamaleh's and in corn tortillas at La Victoria in Arlington—and still saved the last bite of sable for the end of the meal. My mother loved her 50/50, which was approximately the size of a city bus. She drank some of my chocolate egg cream and then ordered one of her own. (Is a pretzel rod in an egg cream a regional thing? I have never encountered it before, either in Boston or New York. Do I just order my egg creams in the wrong boroughs for it? Philadelphia?) Then we found out that their bagels are good. Like, insanely, four-in-the-morning-in-Manhattan good. We took home a dozen. I spent the rest of the evening in Lexington, helping clean the house in preparation for incoming relatives with an hour off for a stunned nap, from which I woke up starving and ate a bagel covered with whitefish salad. The block of halva we also took home did not survive the night. I am so happy about this restaurant. I'd been hoping about it since the owners were interviewed in the Globe in the spring, but first it wasn't open and then it wasn't open for dinner. Given its name, I am especially glad that it serves food that makes my mother happy. She wants to order the chicken livers next time; she thinks I may have eaten them as a small child in Portland, when my grandmother would have made them. I'm up for it.
2. The stove in the new apartment isn't dead, but it's mostly dead: two burners on a good day and no oven period. The property manager came to look at it early this afternoon while I was at my PT appointment, before![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
derspatchel left for work. She suggested we try lighting the other burners by hand to see if we could burn off some of the rust and crud and if that didn't work, she'd bring the appliance guy to check it out. She must have rethought her position, because later in the afternoon she called me back to say that she had brought the appliance guy and he had all but taken his hat off while somewhere a stove-sized bugle played taps. So next week we're getting a new stove. I know not to feel jubilant until it's actually installed and isn't an electric range or anything else godforsaken, but this is already such a change from the landlord with whom we had the five-month fight just to acknowledge that the oven was defunct and the broiler had had small animals living inside it, I'm quite impressed.
3. I like having the two versions for comparison, but I really love the first, which is the more faithful: Angela Leighton translates Leonardo Sciascia's "Hic et Nunc."
Tomorrow I need to mail a whole bunch of bills, make several phone calls, and work an inordinate amount of catch-up for all the hours I missed yesterday and today. I feel very cautious about being in a good mood given this last year's baseline of violent self-damaging depression into which I am sure I will crash back at any minute, but the change is really nice.
2. The stove in the new apartment isn't dead, but it's mostly dead: two burners on a good day and no oven period. The property manager came to look at it early this afternoon while I was at my PT appointment, before
derspatchel left for work. She suggested we try lighting the other burners by hand to see if we could burn off some of the rust and crud and if that didn't work, she'd bring the appliance guy to check it out. She must have rethought her position, because later in the afternoon she called me back to say that she had brought the appliance guy and he had all but taken his hat off while somewhere a stove-sized bugle played taps. So next week we're getting a new stove. I know not to feel jubilant until it's actually installed and isn't an electric range or anything else godforsaken, but this is already such a change from the landlord with whom we had the five-month fight just to acknowledge that the oven was defunct and the broiler had had small animals living inside it, I'm quite impressed.3. I like having the two versions for comparison, but I really love the first, which is the more faithful: Angela Leighton translates Leonardo Sciascia's "Hic et Nunc."
Tomorrow I need to mail a whole bunch of bills, make several phone calls, and work an inordinate amount of catch-up for all the hours I missed yesterday and today. I feel very cautious about being in a good mood given this last year's baseline of violent self-damaging depression into which I am sure I will crash back at any minute, but the change is really nice.
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I feel very cautious about being in a good mood given this last year's baseline of violent self-damaging depression into which I am sure I will crash back at any minute, but the change is really nice.
May the good mood continue as long as possible, and the depression be as brief as possible.
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I appreciate it!
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It certainly didn't hurt any!
May the good mood continue as long as possible, and the depression be as brief as possible.
Thank you! I hope so.
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Good luck with the new stove *hugs*
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I strongly recommend it. They are not necessarily cheap, but they are absolutely worth it.
Good luck with the new stove
Thank you!
*hugs*
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What is it with you and stoves?
"Hic et Nunc" 1, hands down.
If eating sable will keep you upbeat, I would happily provide.
Nine
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My mother was also struck by that! And schmaltz on rye, which occasionally turns up on the menu at Bronwyn. The kreplach currently being served by the restaurant are actually duck. Also, we have ordered our Rosh Hashanah challah from them.
What is it with you and stoves?
Hey, I don't kill them! I even checked before renting the apartment that the stovetop worked. Just . . . not well enough.
"Hic et Nunc" 1, hands down.
I loved the pairing with the diorite head of sunken Alexandria.
If eating sable will keep you upbeat, I would happily provide.
I may take you up on that. Thank you.
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Well, that'll put a comma in your cholesterol.
Hey, I don't kill them!
I didn't say you do. You keep wandering into the crime scenes.
I loved the pairing with the diorite head of sunken Alexandria.
So beautiful.
I may take you up on that. Thank you.
Just ask.
Nine
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My mother thinks my affinity for water is detrimental to gas ranges. But I hate electric, so there's nothing to be done.
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May your new stove be a model of endurance and capability, such that no one has to give it a military funeral any time soon.
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That's great.
It's wonderful to know that there's a Boston outpost of something in the same vein. Auto correct made "something" into "soothing", and that's quite accurate.
If they serve a sufficiency of things you can eat safely, we should visit while you're in town for Arisia.
May your new stove be a model of endurance and capability, such that no one has to give it a military funeral any time soon.
Thank you!
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What are you safely eating these days?
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You have not; thank you for the link! I like your exercise in translation for
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Glad you're feeling good. Regardless of tomorrow, a good day is something to celebrate. As is the potential for a new stove!
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Thank you! I am reminding myself of this.
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That's an excellent description: it reminded me of the time I had mackerel in sushi without knowing what it was and spent something like six months searching for the delicious "buttery fish" that was finally identified as saba. My mother remembers it as a luxurious treat. Is it more widely available where you are?
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If someone wants to order some smoked black cod as a treat, order here (http://www.holysmokedsalmon.com/) for a uniformly satisfying experience. Or you can phone and discuss what kind of piece you want (middle, end, thick, thin)---it comes unsliced, and after you eat the fish you can frizzle the skin in a frying pan.
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I believe it! It is a memorable fish. If you can get out to Kendall, I recommend Mamaleh's unreservedly.
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The food, despite things I wont eat, sounded wonderful. Its the joy of eating good food that resounds.
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We didn't even blow up the stove! We inherited one that had already been blown up! I really appreciate not having to suffer for the sins of previous tenants or the inevitable ravages of time.
The food, despite things I wont eat, sounded wonderful. Its the joy of eating good food that resounds.
Thank you.
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I'm glad they're going to give you a new stove.
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Highly recommended the next time you're in Boston!
I'm glad they're going to give you a new stove.
Thank you. Based on previous experience I was a little concerned it would turn into a thing, and it doesn't seem to be doing so!
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Reminds me of archy:
we dropped freddy
off the fire escape into the alley with
military honors
Nine
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off the fire escape into the alley with
military honors
That is one of my favorites.
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David! I don't know. I'll have to ask him. Or just bring him a bagel and watch.
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You're welcome! I liked that they provided a link to the original Italian, too (with a Portuguese translation accompanying, so the reader with the right languages could also consider that).
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Oooo. Now I have to try Mamaleh's (sadly without my mother, who passed on in 2000, but maybe with my childhood best friend, who lives in JP). Definitely the ethnic food of my childhood....including sable...sounds wonderful! Thanks for the tip!
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You're welcome! It is a good place to go with people.