Mafalda et le futur

Cette image a été prise il y a quelques jours sur la page Facebook officielle de Mafalda. Je ne me rappelais plus de ce gag. Il prend une toute autre dimension de nos jours, sachant de quoi l'avenir a l'air. Je crois que beaucoup ont envie de faire comme ce crabe.

Crab, Mayonnaise and Vampires

 This may come as a surprise, but this post is another one for my countdown to Halloween. Because allegedly, crab mayonnaise and horror are somewhat related. Or rather, a famous horror classic. Because there is a claim that Bram Stoker found the inspiration to write Dracula after a nightmare caused by an indigestion of crab mayonnaise. It is only a claim and everything leads to believe that is unfounded. Be that as it may, I ordered crab mayonnaise a month ago for our wedding anniversary meal. Because why take a chance? It was delicious, but unfortunately gave me no nightmare to work on. To my wife's dismay, however, it made me snore.

La Crâââbe

Vous vous rappelez peut-être qu'en mai, j'ai blogué sur la Crâââbe, une bitter rousse de la micro St-Pancrace. Je n'en ai jamais bu, mais mon père oui et des fois j'aime bloguer sur la bière. On voit mieux sa couleur sur cette photo. Enfin bref, c'est sur ma liste de bières à découvrir.

Crâââbe

Mon père a acheté une bière de la microbraserie St-Pancrace, la Crâââbe. Une bitter rousse comme je les aime d'habitude. C'est le temps du crabe au Québec, me suis-je laissé dire, j'imagine que c'est aussi de la Crâââbe. Je la mets sur ma liste de bières à boire.

Coquille St-Jacques (encore)

 Mon père m'a encore une fois envoyé une photo d'une coquille St-Jacques. On dirait que c'est l'année des coquilles St-Jacques: il en avait fait il n'y a pas si longtemps. Moi, je suis un chef cuisinier trop limité pour m'essayer. J'ai dû manger ma dernière il y a dix ans, peut-être plus, je crois que c'était à Marc and Spencer. Ou alors dans un restaurant, mais je crois plus que c'était M&S. Enfin bref, ça me manque.

Crabe et homard

Mon père a fait des coquilles St-Jacques il y a peu de temps et il m'a envoyé des photos. Je ne me rappelle pas avoir mangé des coquilles St-Dacques avec du homard par le passé. J'avoue que c'est inspiré. Le met est encore plus riche et décadent. J'adore les coquilles St-Jacques, c'était mon repas préféré lorsque j'étais enfant, pour moi c'était le summum du grand luxe. Je crois que ça fait une décennie que je n'en ai pas mangé. Et encore moins mangé maison. Mais enfin bref, cette coquille a l'air délicieuse.

Un crabe

 J'ai pris cette photo à Weymouth dans le Dorset,dans un centre pour touristes qui est peut-être fermé maintenant. En tout cas le café à côté n'existe plus, ce qui m'a bien chagriné. Dans tous les cas, voici un crabe. Je ne sais pas si on peut dire empaillé quand il s'agit d'un crustacé, mais je l'ai trouvé impressionnant.

Coquilles Saint-Jacques

Mes parents ont fait il n'y a pas si longtemps des coquilles St-Jacques. Un classique de mon enfance. J'adorais les coquilles St-Jacques, je ne sais pas trop pourquoi. En fait oui, je sais: fromage, poisson, patates, crabe (je mange peu de crabe mais j'adore le goût du crabe), c'est juste généreux, indulgent et juste... bon. La dernière fois que j'en ai mangé, ça date d'au moins dix ans et elles n'avaient pas ces dimensions-là.

The menu at the Old Post Office in Wallingford

I have been blogging a good deal about Wallingford recently, so I hope it does not come as a surprise ifthe new restaurant/pub I plug in my traditional weekend post is from there. I am talking about the Old Post Office, or OPO, which ironically is not supposed to be the best one in Wallingford (not according to TripAdvisor anyway), but so far it is the only one I have been to and every time I went there I was happy about the food. I usually have fish there, which is now my food of predilection when I go out, but this time it was linguine with prawns and crab. Drowned in a lot of Parmesan, as you can see on the picture. You can see it on the daytime menu here. So far I only had lunch there, so I am plugging the OPO out of a very limited, very partial experience.

I do not find the food outstanding as much as good, but good food is good enough when you are hungry and eating there is in itself pleasant. It is mid-way between a gastropub and a full fledged restaurant, not quite the traditional pub I would naturally go to for the atmosphere, but the setting is nice and in the heart of Wallingford. It is clean, there are always tables available, it is spacious... and then you can have a walk in town, a lovely English town, maybe the most quintessential English town I have seen, at least down south.

The Best Sandwich in America (?)

This is a post about guilty pleasures. Tonight I watched an utterly stupid TV program, an d I am actually enjoying it. It is called Adam Richman's Best Sandwich in America. With Adam Richman. I know zilch about the guy. I usually hate, hate, HATE that kind of television program. I mean it is really stupid: a contest with different sandwiches from different places in the US. How braindead is that? That said, I do LOVE sandwiches, I am a real sucker for them. And the episode that caught my attention and made me watch it as if it was a high standard BBC documentary was set in Baltimore and Washington D.C. I visited neither place, however Baltimore was immortalised of course in The Wire and Washington in the novels of George Pelecanos. Who also wrote on the aforementioned Wire. And both Pelecanos's novels and the TV series describe the cultural aspects of both cities, including the food they eat. The contender from Baltimore was a crab sandwich, made in a diner I think I saw in The Wire, the contender from Washington D.C. was a club sandwich made by a French chef.

The club sandwich won, and however intrigued I was by the crab sandwich I agreed with Richman about the club sandwich. I love club sandwich, how "classic" a sandwich it is, this one had an originality to it. It had avocado and a fried egg. My mouth was watering just watching it. I am a bit of a connoisseur when it comes to club sandwiches, I have tried them all around, in greasy spoons in Montreal and here in the UK (I know where to find decent ones and even one excellent open club sandwich). And this one was standing out from all the ones I remembered seeing or tasting. You can find more about it here. I will not watch more of the show, however I love sandwiches. I can eat plenty of junk, but junk TV I watch it at small doses. But this episode, just like a good club sandwich, was a guilty pleasure. And I know where to eat if I ever go to Washington D.C.

La Révolution des Crabes

J'ai vu pour la première fois ce petit dessin animé il y a quelques années, j'ai tout de suite adoré son humour absurde.
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A few years ago, a friend of mine made me discover this little cartoon, I always loved it's absurd humour. There are subtitles.