Saturday, May 27, 2006

Thirteen Spoons

Is this unlucky? A dish drainer full of 13 just-washed wooden spoons.
I have a lot of wooden spoons, as you can see. But there was only one clean one left in the pitcher I store them in beside the stove. So I figured I'd better get me a soapy sponge and some elbow grease.
Eating locally has meant cooking locally, a lot.
Cranky and I have only eaten two restaurant meals this whole month. We've patronized places we know to support local, sustainable foods, but each time we were presented with menus on the skimpy side of local. I had a grilled local sardine sandwich at Fish (as of last Wednesday they seem to have lost their Web domain to someone who likes monkeys...?), but of course, the wheat in the bread was not local.
Last night I finally caught up with my much-delayed birthday dinner at Poggio , but the only local item I could spot on the menu was a local endives salad. It was OK. It had walnuts (which certainly could have been local) and dried figs (ditto).
Main courses were less successful. We went totally off the diet with desserts (sugar). I loved my panna cotta. Way too rich. Draped with sliced strawberries. Little flecks of vanilla seeds... Mm.
However. We'd rather eat at home. We like our own food better.
Hence, the thirteen spoons. I think that's lucky.
They're clean now, so I'd better get in the kitchen and start messing around.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

So your spoons are all scorched on the bottom, just like mine!

Haven't been to Poggio since the new chef took over. I'm sad to hear there wasn't more local food -- but the summer produce is slow arriving and I hope there will be more to choose from. (They have organic gardens south of San Francisco for sunny crops.)

Greg said...

I've wanted to try both those places. It has been too many years since I hung out in Sausalito.Have a great Holiday

Dagny said...

I'm glad to know that I am not the only one who occasionally discovers that almost all of the spoons are dirty.

cookiecrumb said...

Aw, jeez, Kudzu. I never thought about them being scorched! I just thought it was the patina of love and age and good, tasty food. By golly. Scorched. Hm!

Greg: Try them, OK? Try Fish for a fun weekend lunch outdoors, but bring cash, and loads of it (!).

Dagny: Oh, you don't wanna know. You would have turned me in to the authorities BD (before dishwasher).

Anonymous said...

No, no, no -- that kind of scorched is good. Some of mine have the special Italian tomato sauce stain that will always be there. This was a compliment, a sharing -- not a negative thing. Sort of like the darkened interior of a beloved enamelled cast iron pot you have used for years. Something that makes me laugh when I see sanitizes soul-less designed kitchens where nothing's ever cooked.

shuna fish lydon said...

Het if your cooking is better than eating out I think it's time you had some of over, no?

eat stuff said...

You can just NEVER have too many wooden spoons!

cookiecrumb said...

Kudzu: Yeah, I was only being a little facetious, but I hadn't really thought about it in depth. Stains, I understand, but it's thought-provoking to consider the heat from the pot transmitting to the spoons... Nice.
BTW, we tried to replace our old Le Creuset pot (with a larger LC), and while the new one is pristine and the old one stained and pitted, we always go back to the old one.

Shuna: Pot luck chez Cookie!

Clare: And I have no idea how it happened! But, yay!

Kevin said...

CC,
Thirteen Spoons sounds like the name of a Wiccan dulcimer and recorder band.

cookiecrumb said...

Kevin: I can't top that. I got nothin', to quote my good friend Jon Stewart.
Good one.