[Sca-cooks] Partial feast debriefing while the massive leg cramps do their thing... LONGISH

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Adamantius recounted a stentorian effort to salvage a feast in an 
inadequate setting during which he wrote:
>  ...or the chickens cooked in inadequate ovens (one slightly pale
>  bird was sent back, I took its temperature, showed the still-above-157
>  to the person who'd brought it back, swapped it for a spare that was
>  browner).

Yeah, brown meat...

I grew up eating only genuine, really and truly aged prime beef. It 
was always cooked so that it was nearly the same color inside as out, 
as in very brown. It is a tribute to the beef of half a century ago 
that it was still tender and not overly dry after this abuse.

So, back when my grandmother was still alive and before she succumbed 
to Alzheimer's (i have so much to look forward to - it's on both 
sides of my family), the family was eating in The Pump Room in 
Chicago - back in the early 1970s - i don't know if it is the same 
quality or even if it still exists.

Let me note:
-- Until me, my family was not into fish at all other than the 
occasional smoked whitefish from the Jewish deli, or canned tuna, 
canned salmon, or canned sardines (only my dad and i enjoyed 
sardines). Ironically, my dad went fishing a couple times a year - he 
did not bring the fish home to the family.
-- Nor was my family into shellfish (mussels, clams, oysters, etc.) 
except for scallops. I discovered oysters in high school and other 
shellfish at 18 or 19 when living in NYC.
-- My parents served real caviar at parties, but my mother didn't 
like it at all and i doubt my father did much either. However, as a 
very small child i would hide under the table and eat a lot of caviar 
when no one was looking. I don't eat sturgeon caviar anymore, because 
sturgeon are endangered.
-- I began eating it in NYC in the late 60s when i was 18 or 19. Even 
after they moved to California, my mom and dad never ever ate sushi, 
thinking it close to suicide, although my brother and his teenage 
sons do now
-- My family only ate crustaceans with gusto - real Maine lobster, 
real crab, real shrimp.

Back to the anecdote:
So back at The Pump Room, Grandma Mabel ordered a fillet of some 
white fleshed fish, probably sole. Because i began eating fish when i 
stopped being strictly vegetarian, i knew that most properly cooked 
fish is still a bit moist inside. My grandma sent her very thin, very 
delicate fillet of white fleshed fish back because it wasn't brown 
all over. Sigh.
-- 
Someone sometimes called Urtatim