The Hizzle of T-Fizzle

Since our only visits to Boston had occurred during the cold winter, we convinced the Fitzes to show us around “America’s Walking City” when it is actually warm enough to walk around comfortably. Actually, it was hot enough that we were really just walking around in a DIFFERENT state of discomfort.

We left Thursday night and crashed for the night at Mike’s parents who are always most accommodating. Friday morning we drove into town and parked the car at the hotel and dropped off our bags and left to explore. After our last trip my dad scalded me somewhat for going to Boston and not eating oyster stew. I thought that lobsters and chowder (lawbstahs and chowdah) was the canonical Boston food, but dad seemed to feel that oyster stew was the REAL local delicacy. So I decided to humor my old man and requested a return trip to Union Oyster House.

I was a little bit iffy about oyster stew. I generally like shellfish as long as they are of the “cooked” variety, but I had once had an oyster po’boy at Hoopers and while I didn’t dislike it, I thought the fried oysters just tasted too much like seawater, and I didn’t much care for the texture either.

Enter Oyster Stew:

Seems pretty simple. The broth is buttery with a hint of sherry. In the broth are lots of oysters. I liked the oysters here. Perhaps they were different/better oysters, or perhaps its just that after soaking in a stew, they become much more tender and lose some of the marine flavor. I also had a bit of X’s crab cake. Very good.

After lunch we hiked to the Museum of Science to catch our Duck Tour. The Duck Tour is conducted in a refurb’ed WWII-era DUKW — an amphibious truck. Guides with colorful characters take you around town and then barrel down a ramp into the Charles River for a bit of sightseeing from the water. Our guide Tim Burr posed as an eccentric Canadian lumberjack packing a toy chainsaw which he occasionally uses as a pointing device.

Here’s a green Duck:

And the 2004 Red Sox World Series Duck:

After the tour, we went back to the hotel where we could now check in. We napped and relaxed for a couple of hours and discussed our plans for the evening and the next couple of days. For the evening, we decided to go to Fajitas And ‘Ritas for dinner and then perhaps to see The Taming Of The Shrew in Boston Gardens or over to Landsdowne Ave if the Sox were winning to enjoy the festive atmosphere.

As we were walking to dinner, a heavy storm rolled in. We had to run the last block to avoid getting soaked in the sudden deluge. The food was good. Great margaritas, and the fajitas and quesadillas weren’t bad either! While at the restaurant waiting out the storm, we saw that the Sox game was on rain delay and potentially cancelled, so we quickly scratched the Landsdowne plan out of concern that the bars would be crowded with despondent baseball fans. After the rain stopped, we walked to the Gardens to find that the play was cancelled. We walked back to Filene’s Basement to find that it and most neighboring stores were closed, so we just headed back to the hotel to get some sleep.

We got up early Saturday morning in order to catch a tour of Fenway. Tours stop departing 2 hours before a game, and there was a game in the afternoon so we thought we only had until 11. We got into the 10:00 tour and learned it was the last one! We lucked out. When we checked in at about 9:30, there only seemed to be about 10 people waiting around. By the time the tour departed, I’d estimate close to 200 were onboard!

They split us into 2 groups. Mary had a sense that the female guide would quickly become obnoxious, so we worked to join the male guide’s group. It’s a good tour for $12 and I’d recommend doing it. The guides are full of facts about the stadium and they take you around to various parts of the stands. It does not include walking on the field or going into the manual scoreboard.

Fenway is a neat place, one that makes me AGAIN really want to like baseball. They have these awesome table seats over right field that, while far from the infield, offer a commanding view of the field and pick up some nice breezes. The entire stadium crackles with history and has lots of fascinating stories. The stands are consistently packed by people who came to Fenway with their grandparents and are now bringing their own grandchildren along. It makes you really want to see a baseball game. Until you remember…its baseball. The thrill wears off quickly. It hits you that probably 10 really awesome things happened at Fenway. Over 94 years. Probably 10000 games have been played there and 9990 of them were pretty much unremarkable. That’s baseball.

Did get some nice pics, though.

The retired numbers. 42 is blue because it is Jackie Robinson’s number, retired by all of MLB.

And the Green Monster:

After the tour we hit up the Boston Beerworks on Landsdowne where I had previously been told about their blueberry beer which is served with blueberries floating in it. It was tasty, although it seems like NJ blueberries are much sweeter than New England ones, and the bitterness of the berries was a little offputting. The girls got a sampler which included some interesting watermelon beer along with a nice blonde and a wheat beer.

Next we headed to Newbury Street which is a posh shopping district ranging from one of those whacky Bang & Olufsen stores where they don’t even seem to have a point-of-sale to overpriced “consignment shops” where they sell used clothes at amazing profits. Also of note, some store that is basically Build-A-Bag Workshop where grown women get to make “custom” handbags by choosing an off-the-shelf shape and an off-the-shelf fabric and then wait 3 weeks for it to be made. Bizarre! We also saw a cow painted with chili peppers.

On Newbury we ate lunch at a pizza joint called Upper Crust which has some good thin crust pizza and is not too expensive. I had an interesting experience in the solo bathroom where I must have forgot to lock the door, as a woman walked in and not realizing it was a one-man toilet fully entered the room and had a complete conversation with me about the whereabouts of the ladies’ room before realizing what was going on. Fortunately, I had not yet dropped my drawers!

I did find a small Le Creuset pot in orange. It was 30% off. The downside is that even a smal cast iron pot can be rather heavy.

We walked down to the end of Newbury and then, since it was hot, and since we are lazy, and since we had a day pass for the T, we rode the T back to the top of Newbury and got some ice cream before going back to the hotel.

Now X has a friend named Matt who lives in Boston. We try to catch up with each other whenever we are in the same area, but we often plan poorly and it doesn’t work so well. For instance, we all happened to be going to the same ball game in Baltimore, but it took us awhile to pick up our tickets from the broker and then get to the stadium, so we basically said “hello” and then ran off to the game.

This time it worked out fairly well. Matt suggested dinner at a little restauarant called Silvertone, and Mary had planned out a decent route of barhopping. After a nap and a shower, we headed off to Silvertone.

Silvertone is a nice little restaurant that has a reputation for a great wine value, good comfort food, and good prices. The dining room is small, so we had to wait for about an hour for a table big enough for 5 to open up. No matter, we hung out at the bar with the affable bartenders, one of whom I believe was the owner. The food was great. X’s steak tips were tender and juicy and the meatloaf was very tasty.

Next stop was a bar called The 21st Amendment. It was a little dive-bar type place. There wasn’t anything really spectacular about it, but the beer was cold and it wasn’t crowded. After The 21st Amendment, we walked to Quincy Market to a bizarre Asian-themed restaurant called Singapore.

By day, Singapore appears to be a functioning Asian restaurant. By night, it’s a crowded and bizarre bar fueled by a guy selling skewers of teriyaki chicken and something they call the Scorpion Bowl, which has to be seen to be believed.

This large noodle bowl is filled to the brim with a pineapple potent potable. Unlike Monkey Boys at PSU, they will not sell them to solo acts…you have to have a partner. Of course once it’s in your hand, you don’t have to share :-). I feel bad for the waitresses that have to carry the heavy earthen bowls through the packed frat-party atmosphere, but its a good drink and packs a decent punch.

It has been YEARS since I have been to a crowded meat-market bar like that. I generally dislike that atmosphere but it was a fun change of pace. It’s easier to enjoy when you can relax knowing you don’t have to drive home or get up to go anywhere the next day, which is often not the case.

After draining our Scorpion Bowls and a skewer of chicken, we went to the final stop, Dick’s Last Resort. This was on our NYE agenda until we learned that it had moved to Faneuil Hall. The “theme” is supposed to be grouchy waiters, but they seemed normal to me. The perception seems to be that this theme has been mostly abandoned since the move to such a high-profile location. We had a few drinks here, but everyone was getting tired. It was a nice quiet place to rest and the patio gave us a nice vew of drunken bachelor(ette) partiers staggering by and harassing the painted cows and the street violinist.

Heading back, we didn’t feel like walking and we knew that a taxi wouldn’t cost much. The trick was either finding a van, or a driver willing to risk overloading his car. There was a ton of taxis near the market, so X walked up to 5 or 6 of them and found someone to take us all. We dropped Matt off at his car and returned to the hotel and crashed.

Sunday morning we slept late. We didn’t have any real plans other than trying ot hit Harold’s on the way home. We went to Durgin Park for lunch, another restaurant that claims to be Very Old with a slogan along the lines of “Your grandfather and your great-grandfather ate here.” They specialize in the local Yankee Cooking with schrod, lobster, clam chowder, pot roast, corn bread an Indian pudding all on the board. I had the pot roast, which was great. I also decided I should have a taste of the legendary Boston Baked Beans. They are very different than what we make even in NJ. The beans are al dente, and the sauce is sweetenned with molasses. They are good, though!

We then walked back to Boston Gardens where at my urging, we decided to see if the Swan Boat line was short (it was). The Swan Boat is an amusing tradition where a beleagured collegiate must paddle 25 or so people around the man-made lake. It’s a nice ride with pretty scenery and breezes coming over the water. One of those touristy things that is worth doing if the line is short and the weather is nice.

Finally, we drove home. Traffic wasn’t bad and we made it to Harold’s before closing. We branched out from just corned beef and pastrami. This time I got liverwurst, Mike got roast beef and Mar had turkey. It was all very good. I considered taking pics of the sandwiches at Harold’s but it just doesn’t do them justice. You really cannot comprehend the magnitude of these sandwiches without seeing them in person.

Thanks to Mike and Mary for showing us around!

Mary’s company has nice season tickets for the Phillies and offers them to the employees. Naturally, choice of games is based on the corporate hierarchy, so the peons get the least favorable games to choose from, but Mary was able to secure tix on her 26th bday, so we joined The Fitzes along with Ron and Katie to celebrate.

We showed up a little early this time, so we got to see some of the pregame festivities such as c-list child vocal trio singing the national anthem and c-list multiple-time reality show loser throwing out the first pitch.

The game was pretty typical baseball boringness. We left after the 9th inning and were pleased that we didn’t wait around until the 11th to see the Phils finally lose. The seats were great, though, and the prospect of free tickets and free parking made the dire cost of beer seem less offensive.

We also had someone come sing happy birthday to Mary (and douse her with confetti) and put Mary’s name up on the big board. It was somewhat amusing to see a 26 year old named alongside a lot of 5 and 6s.

Singing to Mary. The SKII did not handle the backlight situation well at all.

Confetti:

I assure you it has Mary’s name! You’ll just have to trust me.

Williams-Sonoma sells a really cool sand castle-shaped bundt pan. At $35, it’s not outrageously expensive, but it’s a bit extravagant considerng how actually useful it is. X had planned on making one for my birthday last year, assuming that the pan would surely be $20 or less on clearance come September. Come September, though, the pan had been a hit and sold out so this year we bought one full price (making it a scientific certainty that it WILL be available on clearance next year).

X decided that this year’s Independence Day festivities would be a perfect chance to debut the cake. She made two of them, sat them on a bed of smashed up pecan sandies (to make sand) and then filled the hole in the center with tasty fruits. As you can see, they turned out very nice:

Perhaps a little *too* nice. No one wanted to cut a piece out of the lovely cakes! Aunt Bern ate a piece of a turret because she felt bad. The cakes were otherwise untouched.

We found the old coal cart in a dilapidated sub-building near the main building. Barges laden with coal used to pull into the 100′ slips on either side of the main building where large cranes picked up the coal and loaded them into these coal cars at the top of the building where the coal began its journey to the enormous boilers.
We first encountered the coal cars a few years ago when construction was just beginning. They sat in the upper reaches of the boiler house, presumably in much the same locations they were left when the plant was decommissioned. Aside from a few that were tpped over by mischievous teenagers, they were well-preserved. Probably also mildly radioactive from traces of uranium and other such stuff in the coal. A few of the carts were cleaned up and put on display in the main lobby, but I believed the rest had been scrapped along with most of the other remnants of generating electricity until TG spotted them in their current location. Nearby in the building was an enormous spring balance and a large valve wheel. There is also a really cool freight elevator. TG and I really wanted to explore the upper floors of the structure but decided that doing so without clearing it with building management was not a good idea. We’re on good enough terms with the super that we would probably get an OK or even a guided tour if we asked. Perhaps I will bring my good camera now that I have one.
Until then, here are the coal cars as seen by the venerable SKII.

Its probably impossible to make out in the pic, but this baby praying mantis was standing on top of my grill. She was probably 3/4″ long at most.

I never did post the pics from Trivia Night. This year, we sported two tables…a sober table consisting of the Cherelli men and their wives and the Schmalbachs, their team aptly named for the Crock Pot Full O’ Sausage thay brought along. The drunk table consisted of X, Mary, Gabs, The Book, Kate and Rob and me. In keeping with our [container] full of beer concept, Mary found an absurd inflatable palm tree beer bucket which we filled and subsequently emptied. We dubbed our team “Palm Tree Full O’ Beer” and even made a half-assed attempt at having a team theme with everyone wearing Aloha shirts. Except for The Book who, lacking an Aloha shirt, decided that a Lumberjack shirt was the next best alternative.

They kept the game moving quickly this year and the questions were pretty interesting. There were few if any “moop” questions. LeoMoeD was there along with some other faces we hadn’t seen in awhile. In the standings out of 20 teams, The Palm Tree came 6th and The Crock Pot came 4th. If there were an award for the lowest ratio of wrong answers to drinks consumed, we would surely win that prize quite handily.

As you might guess, an inflatable palm tree makes for good photo ops.

The palm tree had two air chambers - one for the tree and one for the bucket. After inflating the bucket, we realized the valve for the tree was INSIDE the bucket. Undaunted, Mary went in.

Here’s the team once we got it all blown up.

I *think* The Book is “climbing” the tree, but it looks inappropriate now.

Attempting to squeeze all the air out was as amusing as blowing it up!

Last weekend (Jun 2-4) I was supposed to work on Aspects Of Love filling in for a stagehand who could not make one of the performances.  Unfortunately we could not remember which night it was.  Some time ago, Lee had bought tickets to an event called Video Games Live which features a live choir and orchestra playing music from video games. I was very intrigued but could not commit to going due to the aforementioned uncertainties. As luck would have it, I actually was not needed on Friday OR Saturday, so I was able to get a hold of Lee on Friday night. Riz was going to go, but had enough actual work to do that she did not mind letting me go instead.

We parked on South near Broad (the concert was at the Merriam) and shortly thereafter encountered The Jerk Hut.

Some of you may recognize this as one of the recurring settings in the book/movie “In Her Shoes.” After seeing the movie X and I had wondered if it was real and learned that it actually exists, and it was the actual restaurant in the film (i.e. they didn’t just film the outside and shoot the actual scenes elsewhere a la Seinfeld or Cheers). I knew it was on South Street but I assumed it was near Penn’s Landing.  Intrigued, and never ones to shy away from a new ethnic food, Lee and I went in, surveyed the menu and then addressed the thatched-roof cottage that serves as the ordering counter.

We chose some beef “patties” to start followed by a potato roti and of course jerk chicken and their homemade ginger beer. In my hunger, I always forget to take pics of the food!

The “patty” is said to be a tradtional Jamaican snack. The beef variety consists of a spiced ground beef in a pastry dough shell.  The roti is a result of Indian influence and strongly resembles the dosa you are likely to find in your local Indian restaurant. The potato filling seemed to be curry-flavored and it was served with a sweet chutney that appeared to consist of pickled onions and dates. It tasted a lot like Branston Pickle and balanced the spice and starch of the roti.

The jerk chicken was a half chicken cut into smaller pieces. The rub was very tasty and also quite spicy. The chicken was perfectly cooked.  It was served alongside some cabbage, beans and rice and fried plantains. Cabbage is cabbage. The beans and rice were very good. I guess they are steamed with banana or plantain leaves because they have an awesome banana overtone. The fried plantains were great. My only complaint is that there wasn’t enough of them! I could eat a lot of fried plantains.

We washed all this down with the ginger beer. The homemade stuff is significantly more expensive than the bottled stuff, but I felt we just had to give it a try. It was much nicer than any bottled ginger beer I’ve had. For one thing, it was very lightly carbonated, if at all. It was also a little sweet tasting more like candied ginger than ginger ale. Finally, it lacked the harshness of the bottled ginger beers.  They usually burn going down and your mouth and throat burn long after you finish. This ginger beer instead helped cool the burn from the spicy jerk chicken. It is well-worth the extra cost. There’s a lot of stuff to try on the menu…we will definitely have to return.

After feeding our faces we headed up to The Merriam. The doors weren’t open yet, so we stood around with the rest of the masses. A few people were in costume…less than I might have expected, and to be honest the costumes were pretty low-quality. Eventually they let us into the lobby where they made us stand around for another 10 minutes while they took pictures of the assembled throng. Eventually they let us through and we found our seats which were right up against the stage affording us a great view of the big screen:

And the low-brass section:

The concert began with a montage of video games over the years (complete with Pong sound effects on pizzacato strings) and proceeded to meander through video game music from Mario Brothers to Worlds Of Warcraft. The show was intended to highlight and legitimize video game music as serious comopositional work and featured both live and pre-recorded composer-introductions to most of the pieces. Featured titles that I can recall included: Sonic The Hedgehog, Super Mario, God Of War, WoW, Myst, Beyond Good and Evil, Frogger, Space Invaders, Zelda. And some others that I can’t remember. The orchestra was great. The choir sounded good although they were mostly relegated to the fairly typical operatic Latin or faux-Latin howling that is a fixture of both film and video game soundtracks that are intended to evoke images of war and strife. Note to game composers: cook up some good vocals sometime!

There were a few contests. In one a guest wearing a T-shirt with the Space Invaders gunship allegedly has his motions tracked as he runs back and forth across the stage carrying a fire button. Either the motion sensor is not so good, or in reality someone is sitting in the booth with a controller trying to anticipate the player’s movements. The “contest” was that the player would be awarded the cash value of any flying saucers he hit. He didn’t get any. Maybe they also gave you the cash value of your total score if you cleared the stage in 2 minutes?  While this is going on, the orchestra is providing the sound effects.

In another contest, two players competed for a laptop playing Frogger, again with the orchestra doing sound effects. This was more impressive since the Frogger music seems much more complex than Space Invaders. The contest was weak. The winner was astoundingly good, but the loser was astoundingly bad. They should have had a qualifier or something.

There were also guest appearances by Martin Leung (known for an Internet video of him playing the Super Mario Bros. music on the piano…blindfolded). Leung did a medley of music from Final Fantasy on solo piano. During the encore he got out the blindfold and played both Super Mario Bros. And Super Mario World.

Finally there was a jam by guitarist Marcus Henderson who fits in as the guy who recorded most of the music in the Guitat Hero series. Being in the front row, Lee and I got to play along as he held his guitar out for the audience to strum. He was also close enough and well-lit enough that I felt I could get a solid pic with the SKII:

Lee said he probably sucks at Guitar Hero, but the commentary at the website says he was whipping people on the new Guitar Hero 2 that was making its public debut at the show.

Hopefully they’ll come back again. It was a great night.

My 3 regular readers will be pleased to know that that the limbo period
between the close of curling season and the open of surfing season has
finally lapsed. The last six weeks could have been filled with rowing
posts but alas the UM Boat Club has been unable to secure a volunteer to
teach a novice rowing class this year This year’s Memorial Day weekend was particularly remarkable for three
reasons: warm (or at least not cold), sunny, and a favorable lunar
phase. I typically spend Memorial Day weekend huddled indoors or
standing in the loft of the Root Beer Barrel surf shop trying to
convince myself to buy a full-length wetsuit even though I will only use
it 1-2 times a year.
I kept a very lazy pace on Saturday - slept until 11:00, ate some
brunch, chatted with the parents. We wandered to CVS and the beach
where we found a strong low wind out of the north that was causing the
sand to blow some. The New Moon resulted in an afternoon low tide with
some sizable waves rolling slowly in off the sandbar. The water was
surprisingly warm. X felt that she would be OK to sit on the beach with
the aid of a tent-like device which we call “The Wind Tunnel.” Having
reached a consensus, we returned to the condo to pick up the beach
gear.
I spent close to two hours on the water. The waves were in the 3-5 foot
range, breaking far out on the sandbar. There were a few surfers on the
beach break, but I pretty much had the ocean to myself. Rolling in
slowly, the waves formed wonderfully; breaking in a nice orderly line.
The speed of the waves made them a little tricky to catch. I typically
wait until a wave is almost upon me and then step in as the crest
forms. That doesn’t work with these kind of waves. You have to lead
them like a conventional surfer, paddling far out ahead when you aren’t
even certain the wave is going to break. I find it helpful to just keep
moving. Paddling into the wind helps since you can get some waterspeed
going even though you aren’t moving much with respect to the beach.
Once you get the timing down on waves like this you are rewarded with
long rides on clear, broad faces that give you plenty of time and room
to travel all around the wave. As an added bonus, once you ride a wave,
you don’t get pounded to bits trying to paddle back out through the
break.
Back at the house, we cooked up some burgers, corn, beans…a “typical”
Memorial Day feast. We tried to get ice cream at Aunt B’s, but the line
was longer than any of us coulf have imagined. We went to Rita’s
instead.
Monday, the wind had shifted to being more off the ocean and much
colder. The waves were considerably flatter as well, so I decided to
skip kayaking. Dad and I played an epic freestyle Bocce match in which
I managed to edge him out by a point in the end. Watching and playing
so much curling definitely left me surprised a few times when balls on
sand did not behave the same way stones on ice do! After that, we just
sat on the beach for awhile talking and napping. Eventually X came down
to see what we were up to and we decided to head back.
Some great surfing. Unfortunately, land-based activities are going to
have me out of commission for the next 3 weeks

We finally made it to Jones! Philadelphians will probably know Jones as
Stephen Starr’s “budget” offering which focuses on American comfort
food. X is a big fan of comfort food, and was intrigued by descriptions
of the decor being reminiscent of The Brady Bunch house. She has been
jonesing to go to Jones as long as I’ve known her.
Taking advantage of the previously-discussed “Build a playground and get
a day off” deal, I took off Friday and we cooked up a plan to eat at
Jones and then go to the art museum, as X has never been there!
We slept very late Friday morning and the weather looked iffy. X had to
be back fairly early for Aspects Of Love. We decided to at least go get
lunch and then decide what to do from there.
My favorite travel tool right now is the Pop Out Map. X bought me one
for NYC a few years ago so that we could find our way around when we
venture over there. We picked one up in Boston and used it
extensively. We probably would have got one for Minneapolis/St. Paul
had we thought of it. At some point we decided we should get one for
every major city we ever visit. They are pocket-sized self-folding
maps, including street and subway maps. They fit easily into your
pocket/manbag and you can discreetly pop them out and get your bearings
without looking too much like a tourist. I’m the kind of traveller who
is willing to go almost anywhere as long as I’ve got a map and maybe a
guidebook to tell me where not to go.
All my life, I have avoided driving in Philly whenever possible. I
realized that a big part of it was inherited from my parents who are not
big on urban driving, but another big part of it was simply that I do
not have a mental picture of the streets. I don’t know which way the
numbered streets go. I don’t know where Spring Garden is in relation to
say Walnut Street. I don’t know where 676 is and how to get back to
it.
Yet for some reason carrying a map of one’s “local” city just seemed
embarassing. I don’t know anyone who carries a map of Philly around.
Everyone just seems to have acquired their street knowledge by trial and
error, eventually getting a feel for the lay of the land.
Well, I finally got over myself and picked up a Pop Out Map for Philly.
I actually got it months ago (shortly after Boston) but have not had
much occasion to use until now. Armed with my little map, I was able to
look at my route in advance and picture where I was going. I knew that
Chestnut was below Market, so I was ready to turn after I crossed
Market. Suddenly the city seemed a lot more navigable. I still feel
somewhat like a rube consulting a map “my” city, around which I have
lived for 26 years. But its better than constantly avoiding going
there.
Jones was very nice. The comfort food menu was somewhat innovative,
offering little twists to the “common” items. X got spaghetti with
mussels. It came with a LOT of mussels in the shell, and the sauce was
a basic olive oil and garlic, but it must have been some sort of infused
oil becuase it had a pretty good kick. I took the ALT which was the
avocado, lettuce and tomato sandwich with mozzarella cheese and some
sort of aioli. I really liked it. The lemon in the aioli really worked
well with the avocado. I also got a side of deviled eggs which were
pretty tasty.
For dessert we got a peach sorbet. Very refreshing.
The decor is indeed the sort of 70s “modern” style that is very
reminiscent of the Brady’s. No flying staircase, though. I was very
surprised and somewhat dismayed to realize that there is no draft beer
system! They have a pretty decent selection of microbrews, but all of
them seem to come bottled.

The weather cleared up nicely but we felt that we didn’t have much time
for the art museum, so with the aid of our trusty map, we located
Reading Terminal Market and wandered through it. It reminds me a lot of
Faneuil Hall in Boston although there is a heavier focus on food. We
found a nice set of salt/pepper grinders with adjustable coarseness. We
also found the most amazing dish rack. It’s made by OXO Goodgrips and
it features and elevated drainboard with a long spout that can be aimed
in any direction. This solves the frequent problem where the lip of the
sink causes the drainboard to not drain at all.
It’s too bad had already eaten because I would have loved to try some of
this enormous loaf of scrapple:

Really ditzy bread?