33-50% price increases.

Here of course we get Mexican and South American produce
year-round, and the prices though high are not stupendous.

So do I. Caribbean too.

I'm not sure what if any produce we would get from the
Caribbean, unless it be Scotch Bonnets, but those grow
perfectly well on our own territory. You no doubt haave
some trade patterns that are vestiges from the glory
days of the Commonwealth.

Interestingly more and more stuff is proudly displaying the country
of origin prominently. A lot of us avoid Chinese produce and the
stores realise we want to know. And, uh, how shall I phrase this,
certain elements of our society wish to boycott certain localities
for various political reasons.

Uh, lucky for us, that's well nigh impossible.

(perhaps) the increase in the cost of lettuce after the two
recent e-coli outbreaks is a result of more careful
sanitary

I'm not up to speed on that, but certainly there's been
a demand sag with the consequent planting sag. There
hasn't been much romaine trade down here for a while.

Canadians are buying and eating lettuces again including Romaine
(although it is currently cheaper than Iceberg instead of the other
way around).

The romaine producers should have started marketing
it as a cooking vegetable. In Asia it has been used
almost exclusively as a cooked dish.

For some reason meat has been quite inexpensive, with
pork being especially low - I got a slab of ribs
for $1/lb (previously frozen).

Also chicken. Beef, not so much.

I'm stuck in Pelham for a few days with the food faddist
to end all food faddists and her husband. Being marooned
in a walking radius I had to go to the Manor Market, where
boneless skinless Bell & Evans chicken thighs were $1.69,
which I found acceptable, but Carol balked at dark meat,
so I found organic but no-name pork chops for only $3,
quite an acceptable deal considering this was the local
walk-to market, formerly Gristede's. Pork stir-fry tonight
with cabbage, mushrooms, and onions with broccolini on
the side, over Shanghai one-side fried noodles made with
spaghetti. Only $18 for all the ingredients for 3 servings.
I am torn between feeling blessed and feeling robbed.

I was shopping yesterday and noted some vegetable prices are
starting to decline a bit. Hopefully other crops will follow suit in
a couple of weeks. In the meantime I'm letting price determine my
menu to a great degree and taking up the challenge of artful
substitutions. For example celery is still $6 a head but Napa
cabbage is $1.49 and the white stem base is mild and crunchy so
that is getting pressed into service in potato salad and Juan
Marzetti,

That's a good price for napa. At the aforementioned store it's
either $1.99 or 2.99, anyhow enough for me to reject the idea.

In other shopping, I had a hankering for sherry which we haven't had
for a while and noticed that the selection had been cut way back to
make more shelf room for nasty but popular trendy youth oriented
fruit flavoured schnapps. All they carry now is Bright's Canadian
Classic cream, a disgusting wino wine and Williams & Humbert Walnut
Brown Medium Sweet Sherry which is both drinkable and affordable
but it's a dessert wine and I wanted a fino. I bought some anyway.

Williams & Humbert is okay. Today I asked my hostess
if there was sherry in the cupboard, and she said of
course. Turned out to be California Madeira, which she
said was the equivalent, so I used it. It was years old,
with the screwcap sealed shut with sugary goo, and when
I got it open, okay, it had the right rancio to qualify
for pork marinade, so fine.

Walnut Brown is dark amber with tinges of green on the edges, with an
aroma of raisin, caramel and fig. It's warm, almost hot, and sweet on
the tongue with lots of spice and nutty notes, and has a long sweet
finish. It's a 12 on the sweetness scale; the sugar content is 118
g/L

Sounds more Porty.

While we were there Roslind picked up a bottle of Kracken; she has
broken up with the Captain.

There is a whole genre of Japanese pornography
involving octopuses. And I think Isaac Asimov wrote
a story about Splend, a krakenlike alien with many
tentacles, who lured terrestrial women to his
spaceship, one per tentacle, because Splend is a
many lovered thing. As my friend Lucille noted,
Asimov should have died many years before he did.

... The English single-nationedly built the Sherry industry.

It is said Francis Drake invaded Cadiz to destroy
the Spanish Armada, but it was really to steal
the 3000 barrels of sherry that were on the dock.

Montresor & Fortunato
Categories: Booze, Mryland, literary celebrity
Servings: 1

1 1/2 oz amontillado sherry (Emilio Lustau)
3/4 oz Grand Marnier Cordon Rouge
1/2 oz Carpano Antica vermouth
1 sl orange peel (3 x 1 1/2")
1 sl lemon peel (3 x 1 1/2")
3 Spanish Queen olives

Pour the sherry, Grand Marnier and vermouth into a
mixing glass filled with ice. Express the oils from
the lemon and orange peels by twisting (discard the
peels). Stir, then strain into a chilled petite
cocktail glass. Garnish with the olives.

Damian Windsor of the Roger Room VIA Baltimore Sun
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
* Origin: Fido Since 1991 | QWK by Web | BBS.FIDOSYSOP.ORG (1:123/140)