Yellowknife

64 degrees fahrenheit

So, earlier this evening I went out to dinner.  I was going to go to the Monkey Tree for my usual burger and salad, but it looked kind of noisy so instead I went over to the more upscale Diamante restaurant next door.  That’s an Italian place.  For starters I had their caprese salad and the house wine.  I forget the name, but it’s exactly the kind of wine I don’t like: tastes like a mixture of apple juice, vinegar, and rubbing alcohol.

For the main dish I ordered the fettuccine pescatore, or ‘fisherman’s pasta’.  It was pasta served in a bowl with some fish broth at the bottom, and a variety of vongole:  shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels, squid, and octopi.  I ate all of it except the octopi.  I remember back when I worked at the extremely pretentious nouveau riche French restaurant La Fougasse, they had a seafood salad which they would garnish with three or four whole, boiled, miniatire octopi.  They were about 2″ in diameter, including tentacles.  They eventually stopped putting those in the salad because it grossed out the customers.

I know that my relatives in Italy love eating snails.  They’re called bombolini.  They’re served even in the most expensive restaurants, it’s a delicacy.  Question:  Isn’t “delicacy” just another word for “gross”?  Can anyone name a “delicacy” that isn’t gross?  I should perhaps rephrase: something both gross and irrationally expensive.  Ricotta, for example, means “baby vomit” (have you ever seen a baby vomit?  It looks just like that), but it’s not a delicacy, since you can get it for $1.99 at Safeway.

Foo, back to work.  I have to write a reply to address the concerns of my NSF reviewers, but it looks like I may get the money, so that’s progress, eh?  I’m finally starting to gain some credibility, it seems.

Oh, finally, here’s a recent picture, just for fun: