Monday, June 30, 2008

At Smokey Joe's Cafe

The skies in my corner of Northern California have returned to a familiar clear blue, even if the wildfires continue. The belch-odor of smoke in the air has died down. Cranky and I still have burning eyes, though, and the other day I sneezed so hard I got a nosebleed (I don't get nosebleeds).
So what did the hellish oppression do for Bay Area appetites? Taunted them. Tempted them. Ignited them!
Over at Meathenge, the Reverend wisely avoided the poisonous air outdoors, and it made him so mad, he set fire to his own kitchen. On purpose, and then he ate the results.
The Bunrabs hopped over to Oakland and nibbled on Mr. McGregor's garden patch of smoky ribs. Silly rabbits.
Catherine at Albion Cooks uncooked a gorgeous salad using chunks of smoked tofu.
Here at Crumb Central, we were taken by an urge to eat smoked trout layered over homegrown mâche, garden onions, little segments of oranges from our tree, and radishes from the market.
What is the MATTER with us people?
I know: carbon mouthprint.

10 comments:

Ms Brown Mouse said...

One of my greatest regrets about leaving my home town was leaving behind our car mechanic. The car mechanic who regularly went fishing in the Snowy Mountains and brought back wild trout, which he smoked and, bless him, shared with "favourite customers". I miss that trout.

cookiecrumb said...

Morgan: Lucky thing you had such a crappy car, then, so that you could become a favorite customer! :D
Last week in my backyard, you could have smoked a trout without even knowing how.

Anonymous said...

Carbon mouthprint. Can I borrow that phrase, or do you have a Cookie/Cranky TM in there somewhere? Oy but it's fun to be inspired by what's right under your nose, even if you (ahem) needed a hankie first, innit.

kudzu said...

Smoked trout in Marin could have become a two-pack-a-day habit.

I adore smoked trout, esp. treated in a rillettes kind of way.
Then you can gussy them up with little adds when you eat them on crostini, like bitsy capers or minced sweet red onion or, or, or.

How lovely to see the return of our wide blue summer skies.

Catherine said...

Thanks for noting my salad. The scene here has been so surreal. We've been battling nosebleeds and the weird surreal amber light has been totally freaking me out. I'm so glad it's gone! Any interest in eggs at Vin Antico. It's my b-day this weekend and I just can't forget how good that dish was. Email me.

Anna Haight said...

This salad looks fabulous! I'm so glad to have some blue sky! I developed a cough during the worst of it.

meathenge said...

What's for lunch?

Biggles

cookiecrumb said...

El: As former print journalists, Cookie/Cranky would claim exclusive rights... But this is the Internet, 2.0, yadda yadda. Take it!
("Right under your nose": very good.)

Kudzu: Smoked trout rillettes style? OMG. Never would have thought of it. Ooh, sounds special.
Didja notice the acrid smoke is back today? Argghhh.

Catherine: I agree, the weird amber light was scary. At least that seems to be gone for now.
I will pop you a note pronto. We're up for it!

Anna: You think you're all sturdy and sh*t-proof, but then this horrible fire weather takes us down! Sadly vulnerable, we are. Stay well.

Biggles: I think I'm just gonna smoke some tomatoes. Wait, the tomatoes are smoking themselves in the yard already.

Nikki @ NikSnacks said...

I love radishes. If they were $3.99 for a piddly-poop bunch with wilted greens, I'd get some, too.

Anonymous said...

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