[Sca-cooks] I is in teh East Kingdom! -- plus, a digression on the Rochester Garbage Plate

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On May 6, 2009, at 6:54 AM, t.d.decker at att.net wrote:

> You mean potluck.  A potlatch is a feast where the host displays his  
> wealth and power by making lavish gifts and sometimes destroying  
> prized possessions.  It was the chosen form of conspicuous  
> consumption among some of the tribes in the Pacific Northwest.
>
> Bear

Yeah, I caught that, and as the only local involved, I was a little  
concerned about the implications, between 'Lainie's living where she  
does, and me being the one whose prized possessions aren't coming out  
of a suitcase ;-). On the other hand, we do have an honest-to-gosh  
real old-fashioned AR hi-fi in a real wooden cabinet that we love, but  
never use, and I'd really like the space it occupies for something  
else...

Perhaps a bonfire in Central Park before the cops show up?

And I've got some Zweigle's red and white hots in the freezer, from  
our trip to RIT... (yes, folks, how's that for OFC? the knowledge that  
they sell frozen Zweigle's hot dogs and what, to me, are weisswursts  
or bockwursts, in a convenient little insulated cooler case, with a  
little packet of hot-sauce -- a.k.a. meat sauce but in fact it is  
basically beanless chili -- mix, in the airport in Rochester, for  
those wishing to go home and make their own garbage plates).

Speaking of garbage plates, for those unfamiliar [gratefully or  
otherwise], this is a specialite de la maison at a number of local  
Rochester hot-dog stands/restaurants, most notably Nick Tahou's, who  
appears to have come up with, and in fact copyrighted, the name, and  
which is one of those whimsical things college students feel compelled  
to consume after (and between) 987 serving-units of inexpensive beer,  
ideally around 2:30 AM. A garbage plate consists, usually, of any two  
out of the following three: home fried potatoes, macaroni salad, or  
baked beans, topped with the aforementioned "hot sauce" -- which is  
not hot, it's just the sauce for hots, a.k.a. hot dogs, frankfurters,  
etc., which around here would turn them into chili dogs. On top of  
this go the hots, or some other hunk of  proteinaceous entree  
substance, such as sweet or hot Italian sausage, hamburger or  
cheeseburger patties, chicken, steak, etc. -- early in the day and  
late at night there is a breakfasty version, with eggs, sausage, etc.  
-- this mess of inspired nastiness is topped with more hot sauce,  
blorts of yellow mustard, and chopped raw onion. Ketchup optional. My  
feeling is that food should not look like that _before_ you've eaten  
it, but it doesn't do to be too judgmental. While on our tour of RIT  
(this appears to be the Evil Spawn's alma-mater-to-be), we were unable  
to make the pilgrimage to Nick Tahou's (miles from the school and now  
closed, I believe) but we did have lunch in the Grace Watson dining  
hall, which was able to set me up with a simplified variant based on  
available components. The staff thought I was weird (guilty), but  
eventually figured, "hey, we've got a tourist on our hands, why not  
give him the full treatment to the best of our ability?" Which they  
proceeded to do, and which I felt was a sporting indication of the  
proper spirit.

Of course, I couldn't actually consume all of it, and it's really hard  
to make an extremely small garbage plate, and spouse and spawn having  
abandoned me to my excesses and pretended not to know the strange man  
who had joined them at their table, I had to engage in my life-or- 
death struggle with the garbage plate alone...

It's not something I feel the need to do again any time soon, but it  
was a culturally enriching experience, and the Zweigle's hots are da  
bomb, for those into that sort of thing.

Adamantius






"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter