Archive for the ‘Food and Drink’ Category

I could go for this

Sunday, March 18th, 2007

Tesco is apparently coming to Denver. I hope they include a section for imported items from England; every now and then I get a craving for the food I remember from my childhood: Cornish pasties, steak & kidney pie, Ribena, bangers, pork pies, and the like.

Sometimes, I can take care of it myself. I haven’t done it recently, but I used to make steak & kidney pie once or twice a year, and I have some friends who requested a standing invitation for anytime I made it. My daughter starts drooling if I mention that I might make Yorkshire pudding.

There’s a place over on Havana called The English Teacup. They sell imported food items and some souvenirs and household goods, or, at least, they used to. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been by.

It used to be owned by a woman named Jeanne (I don’t remember her last name), but she sold it to a younger couple several years ago. My mother used to go there regularly – it was amusing to hear her native accent reassert itself almost the moment she stepped through the door.

In any case, I hope that at least one Tesco in the Denver area is convenient to me. Then again, I don’t know how convenient it has to be – my daughter and I seriously contemplated driving to Amarillo, Texas just to get some barbecue (from Dyer’s – winner of the Texas Sesquicentennial Barbeque competition). We never did make the trip just on its own, but we did combine it with a trip to San Antonio. Good eatin’. Have to do it again, sometime.

Now, this I like!

Friday, December 22nd, 2006

One of my favorite Christmas traditions … fruitcake!

I hope you enjoyed Thanksgiving

Saturday, November 25th, 2006

I certainly did. I was invited to dinner with friends (it’s pretty much a standing invitation). Marion couldn’t come (she’s visiting a friend in Florida), so the invitation was passed on to my daughter, who decided to come with me.

I was responsible for bringing a vegetable dish, so I decided to bring a sweet-and-sour broccoli dish I ran across at a holiday party last Christmas season. It’s pretty simple, and turned out well.

I didn’t participate in the conversation much – almost all of the other guests were all neighbors of my friends, and most of the discussion topics involved local zoning issues. Many of the rest were political jabs and one-liners, and I didn’t want to ruin the mood by trying to talk with people who use the phrase “the Bush regime” unselfconsciously.

It was a good meal, though. I like these people, and I don’t see them nearly often enough.

That was different

Friday, October 13th, 2006

There’s a tapas bar that opened near me recently, and I’m starting to get friendly with the owners. Last night, I took in my remaining bottle of Samuel Adams Triple Bock, which I’ve been aging (read: neglecting) for eleven years now.

Very different. No head, very dark, and with noticeable viscosity when poured. My first comment after tasting was, “That’s pretty black.” There was also a strong burnt caramel aftertaste. We liked it though, and we liked it better when a strongly-flavored sharp Swiss cheese (I forget the name) was brought out – the combination mellowed both of them and it became quite nice.

Now I regret only purchasing the two bottles when this stuff was available. It would be interesting to see how it continued to age.

A Nice Dinner

Saturday, September 2nd, 2006

Marion took me out for dinner on my birthday. We both like italian food, but I thought we were getting into a rut with the restaurants in our area, so I did a web search for others. We ended up going to Via Toscana.

It’s a very good place to have found. The seating area we were in was designed to make it look as though you were dining under a grape arbor, and it was done well. I had the Cioppino, and Marion had the Salmone al Carciofini. The food was great, and the service was excellent – the server even came by once to ask if I wanted extra bread to sop up the stew.

We’ll definitely be going back again.