The Joy of Cooking...in Africa

I was doing laundry at Doris and Ian's house the other day. While waiting for the washer to finish (what a luxury!), I spied an old copy of The Joy of Cooking on a kitchen bookshelf. What young bride in America didn't have a copy of The Joy of Cooking at some point in her married career? I remember getting a copy as a gift on my first anniversary … a not-so-subtle hint, I think. Seeing it on a shelf in Africa, however, brought back many memories. I started thumbing through.

The Joy of Cooking was originally self-published by an entrepreneurial young widow, Irma Rombauer in 1931, in the midst of the Great Depression. The daughter of a German immigrant family, she sold copies of her recipe collection out of her apartment in St. Louis, until an expanded edition was published in 1936 by the Bobbs-Merrill Company. The rest is history. Irma's daughter worked with her in the compilation of new editions and the “Joy business” has now been handed down to Irma's grandkids and great-grandkids. What a legacy! This cookbook is considered one of the premier cookbooks in the USA and has been revised constantly to reflect changes in the times. No more Depression era cooking where shortages and substitutions were key considerations for any recipe.

Ian's copy was given to him by a Peace Corps worker and it was an early 1970s vintage. It was quite a trip back in time to read it as I waited. Some recipes were actually of interest like Mulligatawny soup, which I think I'll try in the near future, and chicken tetrazzini and an eggless, milkless spice cake which required beer! Calf brain fritters, and the preparation of raccoon, beaver tail, bear and woodchuck were not of interest … mostly because the fresh ingredients would not be available as we sailed (as if!). I was particularly enthralled by the illustration of skinning a squirrel. I'd never really gotten the knack of that and now know that I should have employed my foot to aid in the process. Duh!

There were helpful hints throughout like how to poach eggs without a mold or prepare a Parkin, a traditional cake for celebrating Guy Fawkes Day. I learned about new veggies like cardoons (in the thistle family like artichokes) and how to prepare fern shoots and fresh bracken. The instructions for preparing skirrets were very specific.

I enjoyed reading about creating a birthday bread horse and Easter bunny biscuits. Shucks … David's birthday was in July and Easter's not for another seven or eight months. Well, maybe next year.

The proper serving of beer and ale and other alcoholic beverages was interesting. Temperature, using the correct glasses and recipes for highballs and rickeys were all part of the discussion … which made me think grabbing a bottle of the local beer out of the bilge storage and handing it to someone was probably not the proper way to handle things. I need to give this some thought in the future.

Well, the laundry finished, I hung it out on the clothesline and returned to the kitchen table for a bit more Joy. Though there were no recipes for zebra, gemsbok or kudu (thank, goodness), there seems to be a place for Joy of Cooking in most every kitchen … even in Namibia.

The Joy of Cooking is still available on Amazon, but I doubt you'll get directions for squirrel skinning.

Buffets - A Las Vegas Institution

Buffets … you trundle up, grab a plate, stand in line and serve yourself. I don't much care for self-serve at a restaurant, much less a casino. Though this allows me to take whatever I want and the quantity I want, I hate serving myself. Why go out if I still have to serve myself? Okay, so I don't have to do the dishes, but still, part of dining out is the service, plus buffet food is usually mediocre. Except in Las Vegas, where the art of buffet is taken to new heights. There's even a documentary film about it ... BUFFET: All You Can Eat Las Vegas (2007).  

Pretty much every casino here offers a buffet of some kind. Some are definitely better than others, but most are usually pretty good. There are breakfast, lunch, dinner and brunch buffets. Some specialize in seafood like the Rio and then there's the Bacchanal at Caesar's Palace that raises the bar with selection, quality and price. Mary and Becky have tried it for special occasions and raved about it. We couldn't come up with a special enough occasion while we were here to warrant the $50+tax/pp price tag. There's also a 24-hour buffet ticket ... Buffet of  Buffets … which is a pretty good deal if you like buffets on the Strip. It allows you unlimited eating binges at any of seven participating casino buffets for a 24-hour period which means if you timed it right and you could handle it, you could get at least four meals for $70/pp weekends, $50pp/weekdays.

Some tricks/tips for buffet dining I learned from Mary …

*The lines can be very, very long. Going early or late sometimes avoids the longer lines.

*Scope out the entire buffet before digging in. Why waste your appetite on macaroni and cheese when there's fresh shrimp or oysters down the way? Try something you've never tried before … be adventurous.

*Depending on the hotel policy, if you arrive just before the lunch ends, you can sometimes enjoy the dinner buffet, too which is usually considerably more. Same with breakfast and lunch. You can sometimes get buffet passes when you book your room. Shop around or ask before making your reservation.

*Alcohol is not included with your meal in most cases unless it's specified.

*Though you're serving yourself, you still need to tip the wait person who clears your table and keeps your drinks filled. $1-3/pp is usually the recommended amount.

*Take a fresh plate for each trip to the buffet line and don't eat in line (tres gauche). Doggie bags are frowned upon.

So, anyway, Mary had tickets for four free buffets at the Eastside Cannery Casino, not far from where she lives. We picked up Becky who hasn't been out for a meal since her hospitalization in mid-May and made tracks for the Cannery brunch buffet. I may not enjoy buffets all that much, but “free” is more than reasonable. The food was pretty mediocre, but the company was great and the complimentary champagne and orange juice (mimosas) weren't too bad either.

Okay, so where did the term “buffet”, meaning standing in line for a serve-yourself meal, originate. Most agree the concept derived from the Swedish smorgasbord, a fairly well-kept Swedish secret until it was introduced by the Swedes at the 1939 New York World's Fair. The term “buffet” is probably traced to the name the French give for the dining room sideboard that holds food.

Streaky Bay - End of the Seafood Trail

 

We went out to dinner last night. It's not something we do often. We were celebrating just being here, being together, living the good life and also the fact we sold our first article to Cruising Helmsman, Australia's premiere cruising magazine. The dinner probably cost more than the magazine will pay for the article, but let's not get mired in the details.

The Eyre Peninsula is home to the largest commercial fishing fleet in the Southern Hemisphere. The waters here are rich with wonderful fish and seafood: oysters, abalone, prawns (shrimp), rock lobster, salmon, tuna. We've been hearing about Venus Bay prawns, Streaky Bay oysters, King George whiting, Kinkawooka mussels, nannigai (which we thought was Nanny Grey...hmm), and Murray cod. Of course, we've been catching our own blue swimmer crabs which are delish, but we thought we might like to try something that someone else had caught … and prepared.

There's an established Seafood Trail on the Eyre Peninsula and, if we had a car, we might be tempted to drive it and sample the epicurean delights along the way. The trail starts in Whyalla and ends in Streaky Bay, but for our purposes, the trail starts AND ends in Streaky Bay … at the Mocean Cafe (pronounced motion … M-ocean). We might not eat out often, but when we do, we try to find a place that offers interesting menus and makes use of local ingredients.

“Mocean specialises in creative regional seafood with native flavours, using Australian bush herbs & spices to enhance the local bounty from the sea. One of few Australian restaurants to offer abalone year round, Mocean explores the use of by-catch seafood such as the signature sea salt & native pepper stingray.” How can you pass this up?

Mocean came highly recommended by many of our fellow cruisers and it certainly deserves the praise. We loved it. It's right on the waterfront and we had a table outside on the porch overlooking the bay with a good view of Nine of Cups and the jetty. It was a romantic setting. The only other guests on the porch with us were a couple of cheeky locals who insisted on watching us eat.

Margii, one of the owners, offered suggestions, explained the evening's specials and took our order. She was attentive without being intrusive … a true art. She was aware we were from a yacht and midst courses, asked questions about sailing. Another server, Jenny, stopped by to say hello as well. In a small town … news travels fast OR we looked like boat people?

We shared a starter of marinated King George Whiting served with a mustard sour cream and fresh rocket on crostini. We could have stopped right there and just ordered more appetizers, because the fish was melt-in-your-mouth wonderful.

We also shared a saltbush macadamia dukkah. It's not fish, but we were just introduced to it here in Australia and loved it. Dukkah (pronounced doo-kah) is an Egyptian blend of herbs, seeds, nuts and spices and is served with fresh bread, extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. You break off a chunk of bread, dip it in the oil and vinegar and then dip in the dukkah. It was perfect with a crisp white pinot gris and the King George Whiting.

David ordered a whole baked nannigai as his main which was a special for the evening. It looks and tastes like red snapper and was served on baby new potatoes and stuffed with lemons and an accompaniment of black and green olives. My taste verified it was definitely acceptable.

As for me, I ordered seafood marinara. It was outstanding, chock full of local fish, mussels, prawns, squid and scallops in a tomato-saffron based sauce served on fettucine with fresh basil and shaved parmesan topping. Manna of the gods. I was in heaven.

We watched the sun set. The tiniest bit of crescent moon had risen and it became cool and windier. Margii moved us to an inside table, so we could enjoy the rest of our meal. Most all the tables were full and people seemed to be enjoying themselves in a comfortable setting, the delectable smells of different dishes permeating the room.

No room for dessert. We dragged the dinghy back into the bay, feet all sandy and cold from the sea water. A short, cold dink ride and we were back aboard Cups, warming up with a brandy and savoring the evening. I'm glad we don't do this often; it wouldn't be as special.