UKCruiseJeff

Hello Lola. Tempura is a wonderful thing that too late in life i understood that it seemed to me that the Japanese got and we never did. Counter intuitively our first experience of tempura was in Nice with courgette flowers in tempura which was glorious. It’s a spring thing. It’s only a very light batter with fresh content, why is it we rarely get it? But prawn tempura has to be (and can be) made at home or at a place that does it well and that then serves it promptly. From the fryer to the mouth. Crispiness is elusive and can only be served within seconds. Otherwise it is stodge and nasty. I have spent far too much longer than a sane person would ever spend trying to understand why the Austrians’ have been so resistant to an English translation of Gemutlichkeit. It is simply cosiness and happiness. Both being an elusive imponderable. I can only say - imagine thus. It is in Austria, it is snowing, you are in a stübl. This is a wooden sort of taverna. There is a wood stove. There is food served on large platters. There might be a zipher family and there is a feeling of warmth and friendship and cosiness. It is a friendly cosy feeling of warmth and friendliness. If you think of Stille Nacht in a stuble with the effluence of incahol and extraordinary inclusiveness and you come close. It is a condition of feeling. There is no English equivalent. And therefore I’m impotent in explaining. 🙂 Jeff

Steady on Gal …. you’re giving the game away. You are a sticky spicey rib Gal and it turns out that it was worth the four hours of me slow cooking and my bastings. I’ll send you an e-rib. 🙂 Jeff

Lunch! Scratch cooked pork ribs Cremant and stuff. Sweet and sticky. And the ribs were good as well! 🙂 Jeff

I wish they’d make a song about Caramel Magnums. Jeff

S, You're not allowed to drink Coke in our house without a slug of rum. And ice. And a twist of lemon! Jeff

Good Afternoon Coolers ….. Today’s Brunch was Tiroler Gröstl with Cremant. 🙂 Jeff

Hi J, There are some good reasons for some applications to use fahrenheit rather than centigrade temperature scale and perhaps never change. For example in the kitchen you can achieve a 180% more accurate degree of temperature control when using the F scale because the basic scale runs from 32f (freezing point of water) to 212f (boiling point of water} compared to 0 to 100 for C. So for example cooking a steak to say medium rare would be 135f or 57.2222c If each scale on your temperature probe can be set to a single degree then the cook using an F scale will usually cook to a couple of degrees under to allow for continued cooking whilst “resting” but the f scale allows for much more precision as most probes can be set perhaps to the same decimal point. Being a nerd when looking at other people’s kitchens I’m always interested to see whether they have a probe and if they do if it’s set to f or c. That to me is a clue to how much of a perfectionist they are. I see no reason to ever use c in food preparation or indeed perhaps in some medical applications. Some people also prefer to use f instead of c for house /room heating because they genuinely think they can feel the difference of a single degree. Jeff

Good afternoon Coolers …. I don’t want to be the cause of any over-excitement in The Cooler but today is going to be a potentially exceptional day in La Cuccina. If there is no blood. Just soak in that sense of anticipation! I am still only less than half-way through my British Airways sacrificed miles for my Laurent Perrier lake. Who wants to fly when you can bubble at home instead ….. So today’s eatings. I’ll give you a clue. The world will be our o****r! That’s shallot. 😉 Jeff

drron ….. being a man of the stethoscope and prescription pad then this would surely be a referral matter ..… 😄 Jeff

Today was burgers …. hers with pickle and salsa mine with onions and mustard ….. Jeff

Combining doggies and sozzies ……. 🙂 Jeff

Pre-covid for several decades we had at least two trips a year of 5 days each ,,,,, one Advent Markets the other as soon as The Swiss House opened in Prater ie early April for stelze and Budvar … and one of the main things for us (apart from pork and schnitzels etc) was Würstel Stands. There’s nothing nicer than either for breakfast and late nights preferably in snow to stand at a stand and share some würst and at least one with freshly grated kren to clear the nasals. A few of us on TA discussed mounting a definitive guide to all things wũrstel on a web site. We never got around to it but just like Singapore has hawkers, Vienna has wũrstel. Everyone should have on their bucket list a visit to Vienna for a midnight sozzy in the snow after a punch mit schũss. There are some rules to be ignored. https://viennawurstelstand.com/article/vienna-wurstelstands-etiquette/ Hohen Markt was our favourite but Bitzinger even serves sekt or champers. Jeff

Good Morning Coolers Sausages I have known and sometimes think about 🙂 Jeff

Lovely idea. Anything that brightens a day, calms and makes happy is always goodness. 🙂 EDITED: The Times has some lovely furry/feathery pictures every week Jeff

Good afternoon Coolers! I hope some of you are hungry enough to enjoy todays’ fiery pork chow mein prep …… Jeff

Thanks. I’m so pleased I understood it. To understand a bit further. I’m sort of presuming that the inclusion of favela on the jag has been included in the spirit of celebration of hope rather than a record of failure, despondency and victimhood? My understanding of the favela situation is that it has lately been a remarkable bit of progress and whilst not a total completed success story is at least now worthy of some hope and celebration rather than record of failure. In summary my understanding is there has been a gradual removal (although uncompleted) of lawlessness and an improvement of relative safety and normality. I say because the representation of favela on the jag rears was clearly pristine rather than hovels as they could have been represented if so chosen by the artist to imply continued hopelessness. Is that a reasonable presumption? Jeff

You are quackers. Jeff

Thanks, The closer you look at those Jags, the more extraordinary they are. Are the hind legs “buildings”suppose to represent favela? Jeff

I feel your pain. It would be easier to grow two left feet than reeducate Amazon. Jeff

Aren’t you saying don’t visit Seattle unless you have to? 🙂 Jeff

Coffee.

Today we had a smiley lunch, With hotdogs and chips to munch. The sun was shining not so bright But our hearts felt exceedingly light, Truly a meal that packed a punch! Jeff 😄

Thanks for the post so kind It brightened my day, I don't mind Your words were so sweet Made my heart skip a beat Grateful for your gesture, you're one of a kind!