The Cephalopod Coffeehouse: April 2018 Blog List

 

Greetings to all!  I hope you'll join us for the next installment of the Cephalopod Coffeehouse, an online gathering of bloggers who love books.  The next meeting is set for Friday, April 27th.  If you're interested, please sign on to the link list at the end of this post.

The idea is simple: on the last Friday of each month, post about the best book you've finished over the past month while visiting other bloggers doing the same.  In this way, we'll all have the opportunity to share our thoughts with other enthusiastic readers.  Please join us:

Cephalopod Coffeehouse: March 2018

Welcome one and all to the Cephalopod Coffeehouse, a cozy gathering of book lovers, meeting to discuss their thoughts regarding the works they enjoyed most over the previous month.  Pull up a chair, order your cappuccino and join in the fun.  If you wish to add your own review to the conversation, please sign on to the link list at the end of my post.

Title: Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat
Author: Bee Wilson

Consider the Fork is an ambitious project, exploring the history of human cooking through the evolution of the tools we and our ancestors have used for the job.  Each chapter follows a specific technological path: knives, fire, grinding - particularly grains - and even the very existence of a kitchen as a separate, specialized room of the house.  Human life has revolved around food preparation for thousands of years.  How we eat and cook has had an enormous impact on language, social structures, home design and even the alignment of our jaws.

The most amusing chapter for me to read on a personal level was about measurements.  The idea of standardized measures at all, let alone in the kitchen, is actually a relatively recent human development.  Many accomplished cooks, my wife included, eschew the idea of specific measurements with food unless absolutely necessary.  She feels she can pretty well judge a tablespoon of oil without getting out the measuring spoons and, to be fair, I believe she probably can.  Even if she can't really, the resulting food that comes out of the kitchen is proof enough for me that she definitely knows what she's doing.  On the other hand, I have no such faith in my own capacities.  If the recipe says a cup, I want to be as on the dot as I can possibly manage.  Once, as a joke, my late grandmother-in-law gave me a set of measuring spoons with indications for a dash, a pinch and a smidgen.  The real joke?  I use the spoons faithfully.  Drink recipes call for a dash of something all the time - sometimes multiple dashes.  How am I supposed to judge three dashes of bitters without a spoon?!!!

According to Wilson, we're both full of it.  There's more science in my wife's eyeball measuring than she'd admit and my spoons and cups aren't nearly as exact as I believe.  She is, hands-down, the better cook so at least at our house, I suppose she wins the philosophical argument.

Consider the Fork is a keeper.  With so many books about the history of particular ingredients, an exploration of preparation is essential to a broader study of food.  Wilson's writing is both informative and engaging, reflecting thorough research and a genuine passion for cooking.

Please join us and share your own review of your best read from the past month.  This month's link list is below.  I'll keep it open until the end of the day.  I'll post April's tomorrow.  Meetings are the last Friday of each month.  Next gathering is April 27th.

Squid Cooks: Shrimp Scampi

My wife recently reminded me of the first time she called on me for prep help in the kitchen.  The job: peeling and deveining shrimp.  I don't remember the incident with the detailed precision she does but she reliably reports that I complained through the whole operation.

I'd like to think I've come a long way since then.  I still find working alongside my wife in the kitchen to be intimidating but I'm not put off by the work itself.  Even so, I was amused to see that the package of shrimp my wife got for me was already deveined, though she admitted that was all they had at the store.  Even funnier is the fact that in his recipe for shrimp scampi in How to Cook Everything: The Basics, Mark Bittman admits that he doesn't even bother with deveining.  I guess he doesn't enjoy that job any more than I did 19 years ago.

Cooking shrimp, once peeled, is frightfully simple.  Daughter loves shrimp so she was an easy sell.  The pan sauce was tasty, too.

A Window Above: Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters

Song: "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters"
Writers: Elton John and Bernie Taupin
Album: Honky Château
Original Release: May 19, 1972

New York City was my landing spot in the late '90s after two amazing years in Japan.  Moving there was actually one of the crazier decisions of my life.  I'd never even visited before making the choice.  It had a few important draws: I already had friends in the area so I wouldn't have to work too hard at building my social network.  Also, the public transportation system is excellent which meant I could manage without a car.  New York is also, of course, the performing arts capital of the world so as a young musician, the city had many adventures on offer.

At first, the novelty of a new place was exciting but the city definitely wore on me over time.  For anyone who has never experienced it, reverse culture shock can be absolutely brutal, far worse than initial culture shock.  There were horrible moments when I didn't feel I truly belonged in either place.  And in many ways, I was culture shocking with New York at the same time - not fun.  I probably would have been better off going home to Maryland to re-acclimate before heading off on the next adventure.

By the time we left the New York/New Jersey area four years later, I'd had more than enough.  But you'll notice that in the previous sentence, I used we rather than I in the dependent clause.  New York, you see, is where I met my wife.  So while my stay in town was not always easy, it was essential.

No song in the world better encapsulates my own feelings about the big city than "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters."  By the end, I hated the place.  But the people who made up my life there were wonderful, my wife best of all.  It wasn't a great place to live for me but it was the perfect place to fall in love.



There is a bit more to the song, of course.  In time, the narrator finds his footing and a determination to make his own way.  It is one of the more emotionally direct of Taupin's lyrics.  Sir Elton is in top form, too.  No pianist in the world gets so much out of a simple chord change.

Squid Mixes: Huntsman Cocktail

The huntsman cocktail combines vodka, dark rum, lime juice and bar sugar.  My recipe came from The New York Bartender's Guide.  No cats were harmed or intoxicated in the creation of this blog post.

A Window Above: Too Busy Thinking About My Baby

Song: "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby"
Writers: Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong and Janie Bradford
Original Performers: The Temptations
Album: Gettin' Ready
Original Release: June 15, 1966

To love soul music is to love Marvin Gaye, the second-most important musician born in Washington D.C. (after Duke Ellington).  Possessing one of the most captivating voices in the history of popular music, Marvin rose up through the ranks at Motown as a session musician before scoring a few hit duets and, of course, his breakthrough solo smash, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine."  In the '70s, his concept albums What's Goin' On and Let's Get It On were classics of the era, must-haves in any respectable music collection.  His 1982 comeback, "Sexual Healing", is undoubtedly one of the sexiest songs of all-time.  His life story is tragic but his musical legacy is rock solid.

For all this lush greatness, the Marvin Gaye song I have the most affection for is a fairly simple one.  "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby" was a recycled Temptations song and essentially an attempt to quickly cash in on the success of "Grapevine."  The recording may not seem like much compared to his classics but I think it exhibits the full range of Marvin's vocal gifts as few others do.  I especially love the "some kinda wonderful" verse.



Here's the Temptations original, so different:

Squid Mixes: Dubonnet Cocktail

Everybody say hello to the new kid.  For blog purposes, we shall call her The Scamp.  She has quickly made herself at home.  The Squirt is not pleased but we're hopeful she'll come around.

A Dubonnet cocktail combines Dubonnet rouge with gin, a dash of Angostura bitters and a lemon twist.  I got my recipe from The New York Bartender's Guide.

Angostura bitters is a truly magical substance.  I would still say a Manhattan is my favorite cocktail and it is as much for the bitters as for the rye.  A bitters is a botanically infused alcoholic mixture.  They were initially created for medicinal purposes.  Angostura is produced in Trinidad and Tobago and was originally used to serve Bolivar's army in Venezuela.  While Angostura is the most popular bitters, there are loads of others.  Our friends The English Prof and the Playwright have an extensive collection.

A big part of the cocktail mixing hobby is ingredient management.  There is, after all, only so much room in the liquor cabinet.  I have enjoyed this exploration of Dubonnet-based drinks and I am also satisfied by the fact that I have now killed the bottle.