I finally had a meal at the Blue Agave. Tuesday evening, while it was still light outside and hardly busy inside.
Can’t turn down a steak au poivre if it’s on offer, so I didn’t. Yum.
I really liked the interior of the restaurant, and my companion and I sniffed at our lavender place setting throughout the meal.
Walking back outside in the twilight we passed by the Palace Grill. A family was playing some kinda cajun music out on the street and the sidewalk was full of people lingering for the sunset and enjoying the music. It’s nice to know there are still folks in Santa Barbara that can, and do, play the washboard.
Blue Agave
20 E Cota Street
www.blueagavesb.com
I had to buy 40 pounds of flour today along with a gazillion other heavy products related to baking bread. As I was struggling across the carpark at my work with the cartload o’ stuff, a truck reversed out of a cul de sac, pausing briefly while I pulled back on the cart with my whole weight to keep from getting run over…then it kept reversing, and nearly hit me! A bystander kept yelling STOP at the driver, and finally marched right up to the window, telling him to watch out, slow down, he almost hit someone, and believe me, his language was most colorful. Ah, my champion. But I’m glad I didn’t get hit, cuz that would mean forty pounds of flour flying everywhere.
And Y’ALL know how windy it was today…
Today’s fog: dense
Today’s waves: big
Pizza 1: red sauce, caramlized onions, kalamata olives, mushrooms, asparagus and mozerella
Pizza 2: chicken and a million other things
Pizza 3: red sauce and italian sausage and cheese
Pizza 4: potato and gruyere
Tonight’s meeting: half an hour too long
Tonight’s movie: Kill Bill 2
The longer you eat tagines, the more special they begin to taste. I made my first tajine three years ago, and it’d been a good four months since I last had the chicken with olives and preserved lemon. The aroma of the spices and soft onions mingling are out of this world.
I’d forgotten how wonderful the dish is. I let it cook throughout the day in my little crockpot, and it was waiting for me when I walked in the door. Thirty minutes later it sat before me in a warm, deep, white platter and I scooped up the stew with a big soup spoon. All that remains is a crust of bread and 6 olive stones.
And one happy me.
Cooking for one has its advantages and disadvantages.
Advantage: I eat what I want, when I want. None of this “I’m a vegetarian,” or “I don’t eat after 6 pm,” or “I don’t eat vegetables, they taste like dirt,” or “I only eat chicken nuggets on alternate Thursdays, otherwise it’s fish sticks.”
Advantage: I can eat over the sink. Or not.
Advantage: I love my old ceramic cooking pot!
Disadvantage: must buy food in large portions at the market. This means one head of cauliflower must go into 3-5 meals in order to use it up. My leeks have been incorporated into at least 6 meals so far. One portion of bechamel has been used 4 times already. One chunk of Gruyeye cheese never seems to get smaller.
Now, I personally don’t mind cauliflower cheese and all its variations, it tastes really really great and sure beats the stuff that Taco Bell, McDonald’s of a can of Manwich sauce provides, but when someone asks me what I ate – or maybe I tell them without any provocation on their part – and I tell them it was cauliflower, leeks, bechamel and gruyeye, I can see their bored expressions. I don’t want to disappoint.
So for the sake of Y’ALL, this is what I ate for breakfast!
One (1) chicken breakfast sausage
One (1) fried egg
One (1) piece of toast
But don’t think for a minute that I’m now lacking my supplies of cauliflower, leeks, bechamel and gruyeye. Ooooh no. I’ve still ages to go before they’re used up.
jury duty sux drive all night play with boys and babies shop at target afghan lunch with roger yay lemon jelly dvd wedding with james my shoes hurt steal the cake smoke mango hookah orange marmalade milpitas los gatos brunch and mud and dim sum
The frank and flashy Rooster struts through life with abundant self-confidence. They are headstrong, with a self-belief that can make even the most idealistic plans succeed. Roosters can be blunt and seem boastful, but their extravagance makes them excellent company. Roosters make ideal restaurant owners, publicists, soldiers and travellers.
The table was first laid with an assortment of little bowls full of things. Almonds, chilled marinated slivers of turnip and black sesame, ginger slices, sweet dried mango slices. Tea in the front room with AW and her mother. AW is one of the chefs at Mimosa restaurant.
First course: poor man’s roast duck, i.e. chicken. A paste of ginger and soy was rubbed under the skin and roasted in the oven. It came out very sweet and tender, even the breast. Eaten with hoisen, slivered spring onions and rolled up in cos lettuce.
Second course: Stir-fried tofu with garden mustard greens.
Third course: Stir-fried snowpeas and guylian, both from the garden.
Fourth course: Whole blue fish from Morro Bay (I caught these), fried then broiled to crisp the skin with ginger and soy, stuffed with spring onions. The fish had very firm flesh, much to my delight. My favorite part of the meal.
Fifth course: sweet and tangy slow-cooked pork and eggs, in heaps of succulent juice, served over rice.
To finish: slices of orange and kumquats.
The red packets are under my pillow, waiting until morning. Happy new year!
Yesterday, the 5th, was my birthday. I spent the day hiking around Santa Cruz Island. High points of the day include:
- Watching a freaking amazing sunrise. Bonus points for this because so few people see sunrises compared with sunsets.
- Setting a goal on huffing up several hilly trails and finishing them, as tired as we were. Great timing too – we walked the last couple hundred feet of our last trail just as the boat was pulling up to the docks.
- gut fud ™ Gaperon cheese, fresh baguette, grapes, Sharffen Berger 60%.
- A grey whale breaching off the bow of the boat, and two dolphins leaping out of the water right in front of me, hovering perfectly silhouetted against the ocean and sky.
- Dinner with my parents after returning home. I may have been exhausted and sunburnt, but it was a simple casual dinner.
- Some good friends remembered and even sent a few nice gifts. I am enbouqueted with flowers, and a good book.
Someone even bought something from my amazon wishlist, but I won’t know who until the package arrives. I do know what is it, at least. I’ll give you a hint, it starts with ‘L’ and ends with jelly. And hey, it may not have been on my actual birthday, but this morning I finally got a hold of the Alpha Quest remix of Roygbiv from Boards of Canada. HAPPY ME.
Tonight I watched what must have been an episode of 30 Minute Meals from this new season. What the hell happened to Rachael Ray?? Her personality coach has turned her into Sara Moulton, and Sara Moulton is b.o.r.i.n.g.
I admit, her previous tv personality of sugar-coated bubbliness, over-the-top and in-your-face enthusiam was a bit gag-worthy and made me grimace with annoyance more often than not, but I shared a sneerful common bond with friends over her – watching just so we could say how scary she was and deep down admiting that the recipes were okay. Now she’s done gone and emerged with a grown-up haircut that makes her look 40, and her near-screaming of “Oh. My. God, I just LOOOOVE Garlic! Let’s just smash up a few pieces…don’t forget the GARBAGE BOWL!! *giggle*” has been replaced with demure smiles and a calm, low-toned voice.
Sara Moulton with brown hair. Who’s Sara Moulton, you ask? Nobody you’re likely to know, and that’s exactly my point. I got bored 6 minutes in and fell asleep on the sofa. Someone once asked me what was the opposite of love? Hate, is that what you were thinking? It’s not. Love and hate are both extremely passionate emotions, sometimes not too far from one another. The opposite of love (or hate) is indifference. That is now how I feel about Rachael Ray’s tv personality, isn’t that sad? What’s sadder still is that I can’t believe I wrote about it.
Santa saw my christmas list, I got bacon!!!!
