A few weeks ago, dw and I went to the Portland Art Museum to look at the Francis Bacon, "Portrait of Lucian Freud". I thought it was a wonderful triptych, dw not so much. We also wandered about the museum for a bit. (I bought a membership a while ago -- for some reason, I don't remember why -- I was offered a deal too good to pass up)
----- As an irrelevant aside, the official description of the Bacon paintings referred to them as "figurative" -- meaning they sort of look like something or someone -- my art work generally sort of looks like something or someone so I'm happy to announce that I'm a "figurative" artist and not someone who can't draw any better than that. And I'm sorry, but your kid couldn't do that, and besides, he didn't.! -----
In any case, after the museum we stopped at "Lardo" for lunch. I don't recall what dw ordered, but I had a pulled pork, kimchi, aioli on ciabatta sandwich that was a taste treat. --
(again, alas, I don't get any perks for mentioning places in this blog) --
and a dark beer -- Timber something, it was very good, even though it was too early for beer. All of which brings me to the subject of this blog: Vegetarianism.
I'm not a very good vegetarian. Proper vegetarians would give me a proper taste of the cat. They would burn me at the steak.* Over the years I've eaten many kinds of meat (not all at once). Naturally the big three, beef, pork and chicken, but also deer (venison), caribou, elk, muskox, moose, bear, walrus, goose, duck and pheasant, horse, sheep and goat plus the fishes of the sea and probably others I've forgotten --- it's good to be on the top of the carnivore food chain --- (although, unlike my friend John G., I've never eaten goat eyeball) And I've enjoyed them all. (As another friend, Bob D. says, "if it doesn't have meat, it's not a meal, it's a snack" -- Or as a friend from college (I go way back with this) said, "I don't like rabbit food.") But a taste of cat is over the line and it should have never been suggested, -- But regardless of what a proper vegan, or vegetarian would say about me, I sort of follow their eating regimen .
I'm the chef du jour at our house, and I haven't actually bought a meat thing since Christmas, and not for several months before that. --- dw is intent on losing weight, (whatever, I think she already looks good) and I have an entirely unfair heart thing happening -- so meat and other animal stuffs (eggs, cheese, butter, etc.) are off the menu. I'm learning anew to cook. I've got a few oriental things (heavy with the peanut sauce) that are good. Thai, and vegan chili. -- Tofu looms large. -- Rice things. Pasta without any meat stuff. And some eastern European things (big on cabbage). Eggplant, beans and squash. It's all good. But truthfully, I miss my meat -- and unlike a proper vegan, at restaurants, or with friends, I occasionally indulge.
--- Several years ago, dw and I were in Prague. My mother was Czech, and to an extent I grew up eating Czech food, and truly -- Czech food, on site, wasn't to be missed. dw and I went to a classic Czech restaurant and after looking at the menu I ordered a dish of potato dumpling (knedliky), gravy, coleslaw (savory not sweet), and roast pork. All of which I had as a youth. The roast pork was called "pork knee" at 5K. I knew that restaurants listed meat servings by weight, but I thought the 5K was a typo and it was actually .5K. I ordered it. -- It was not a typo. After awhile the waiter brought this gargantuan platter with a 5K, 12 pound, chunk of pig to the table. After I recovered from the shock, and after I peeled off the skin, fat and bone it was a huge but manageable dinner and it was wonderful. --- Everything about it was wonderful --- It was one of the reasons I now have two stents.
So I'm facing a choice of eating wonderful roast pork, larded with garlic and dripping with fat or having a heart attack. I'm trying to go the healthy route and now I'm a vegan or a vegetarian, except when I'm not.
*I'm plagiarizing myself.
Did you know? If you stick your nose in a Ponderosa pine bark (a Ponderosa has scaled grey to brown bark with orange deep groves and large cones. The needles are long and grouped in threes --) and snuffle up, the bark smells like vanilla/caramel. dw and I confound other people by sticking our noses in trees and snuffling up.
Words of the day: SLURG --- To lie sleepily or sluggishly. Later today I might slurg on the couch.
ABLIGURITION --- Extravagant spending on food and drink. --- a prodigal spending on belly-cheer. I'm always ready for someone else to abligurite for me.
A few years ago a student in Germany mooned a group of Hell's Angels, threw a puppy at the bikers when they came after him, and then escaped on a stolen bulldozer. (the puppy was fine) "What motivated him to throw a puppy at the Hell's Angels is currently unclear," said a police spokesman.
I don't have any special inside knowledge, but I suspect he stopped taking his meds. And so it goes. DJA
----- As an irrelevant aside, the official description of the Bacon paintings referred to them as "figurative" -- meaning they sort of look like something or someone -- my art work generally sort of looks like something or someone so I'm happy to announce that I'm a "figurative" artist and not someone who can't draw any better than that. And I'm sorry, but your kid couldn't do that, and besides, he didn't.! -----
In any case, after the museum we stopped at "Lardo" for lunch. I don't recall what dw ordered, but I had a pulled pork, kimchi, aioli on ciabatta sandwich that was a taste treat. --
(again, alas, I don't get any perks for mentioning places in this blog) --
and a dark beer -- Timber something, it was very good, even though it was too early for beer. All of which brings me to the subject of this blog: Vegetarianism.
I'm not a very good vegetarian. Proper vegetarians would give me a proper taste of the cat. They would burn me at the steak.* Over the years I've eaten many kinds of meat (not all at once). Naturally the big three, beef, pork and chicken, but also deer (venison), caribou, elk, muskox, moose, bear, walrus, goose, duck and pheasant, horse, sheep and goat plus the fishes of the sea and probably others I've forgotten --- it's good to be on the top of the carnivore food chain --- (although, unlike my friend John G., I've never eaten goat eyeball) And I've enjoyed them all. (As another friend, Bob D. says, "if it doesn't have meat, it's not a meal, it's a snack" -- Or as a friend from college (I go way back with this) said, "I don't like rabbit food.") But a taste of cat is over the line and it should have never been suggested, -- But regardless of what a proper vegan, or vegetarian would say about me, I sort of follow their eating regimen .
I'm the chef du jour at our house, and I haven't actually bought a meat thing since Christmas, and not for several months before that. --- dw is intent on losing weight, (whatever, I think she already looks good) and I have an entirely unfair heart thing happening -- so meat and other animal stuffs (eggs, cheese, butter, etc.) are off the menu. I'm learning anew to cook. I've got a few oriental things (heavy with the peanut sauce) that are good. Thai, and vegan chili. -- Tofu looms large. -- Rice things. Pasta without any meat stuff. And some eastern European things (big on cabbage). Eggplant, beans and squash. It's all good. But truthfully, I miss my meat -- and unlike a proper vegan, at restaurants, or with friends, I occasionally indulge.
--- Several years ago, dw and I were in Prague. My mother was Czech, and to an extent I grew up eating Czech food, and truly -- Czech food, on site, wasn't to be missed. dw and I went to a classic Czech restaurant and after looking at the menu I ordered a dish of potato dumpling (knedliky), gravy, coleslaw (savory not sweet), and roast pork. All of which I had as a youth. The roast pork was called "pork knee" at 5K. I knew that restaurants listed meat servings by weight, but I thought the 5K was a typo and it was actually .5K. I ordered it. -- It was not a typo. After awhile the waiter brought this gargantuan platter with a 5K, 12 pound, chunk of pig to the table. After I recovered from the shock, and after I peeled off the skin, fat and bone it was a huge but manageable dinner and it was wonderful. --- Everything about it was wonderful --- It was one of the reasons I now have two stents.
So I'm facing a choice of eating wonderful roast pork, larded with garlic and dripping with fat or having a heart attack. I'm trying to go the healthy route and now I'm a vegan or a vegetarian, except when I'm not.
*I'm plagiarizing myself.
Did you know? If you stick your nose in a Ponderosa pine bark (a Ponderosa has scaled grey to brown bark with orange deep groves and large cones. The needles are long and grouped in threes --) and snuffle up, the bark smells like vanilla/caramel. dw and I confound other people by sticking our noses in trees and snuffling up.
Words of the day: SLURG --- To lie sleepily or sluggishly. Later today I might slurg on the couch.
ABLIGURITION --- Extravagant spending on food and drink. --- a prodigal spending on belly-cheer. I'm always ready for someone else to abligurite for me.
A few years ago a student in Germany mooned a group of Hell's Angels, threw a puppy at the bikers when they came after him, and then escaped on a stolen bulldozer. (the puppy was fine) "What motivated him to throw a puppy at the Hell's Angels is currently unclear," said a police spokesman.
I don't have any special inside knowledge, but I suspect he stopped taking his meds. And so it goes. DJA
P.S. --- "What's with the cat?" I was asked. It's a small joke mixing a cat (meow) with a cat-o-nine-tails (whip) --- and mixing being whipped by a cat (ouch!) and eating a (meow) cat (ick!).
ReplyDeleteP.P.S. --- Responding to another (verbal) comment. Most of the things eaten in the list of meats were very small portions. I didn't, for example, sit down to a great haunch of raw walrus. I did have a piece of walrus jerky (in Canada). It tasted like jerky always tastes.
ReplyDelete