I signaled the nearby waiter and he slid over to my side and then leaned downward so that his face broke into the personal space of my own face and I whispered directly into his ear so that the woman sitting at the nearby table would not accidentally overhear,
"If I may ask, what did that woman over there order?"
The waiter stood back up erect, looked at the woman, looked at her bowl and looking back directly at me but without bending down he said,
-pause-
"Oh, she's having the Capellini Pomadoro. That would be angel hair pasta. Yeah, it's got tomato, basil, and shaved Parmigiano."
Cringe.
Busted. The woman looked up. She recognized her lunch being described. I grinned and waved acknowledging the bust. You know, from where I was sitting at the time it looked to me like Pad Thai. So now I'm wondering what's up with the chopsticks, Lady. But then I knew why I would have passed it up when scanning the place's chalkboard menu back there. It's the sort of thing I do myself. And now that I know she ordered something I regarded as too simple to bother I lost interest and wished I hadn't asked.
This here is more of the 20% fat ground beef flavored with things that could go in a sausage. That's all. Pasta water is carried over to the sizzling pan, its starches interact with the beef fat which along with a little rice vinegar forms a thin flavorful sauce. Then fresh tomato, basil, and hard cheese tossed in at the end. So those last things are not actually cooked, just warmed through. Carryover heat melts the hard cheese which thickens the sauce.
I am so happy to have some fresh herbs around here. This bunch said 'grown hydroponically' and came with its own little patch of dirt. That did not make sense completely, its rootball is tight, squarish, and quite dirty. So I gave it some hydroponic fertilizer for plants in their vegetative growth stage. I also gave it a hydroponic light to extend its life and so that I could watch it and appreciate the greenery like a regular plant. These leaves were picked off that.
Is that molted lead in the 3rd and 5th photos?
ReplyDeleteI don't know. I didn't see it until I saw it in the photos. I'm alarmed by how gross the pan is. Seeing its surface makes me want to sandblast it.
ReplyDelete