11.30.07
Standing rib roast & boxed wine
I went to get a pork roast for sandwiches because I picked up some discontinued mustards at Safeway: walnut mustard, tarragon mustard, and Roquefort mustard. The butcher didn’t have any pork roasts on display, so I described what I wanted: about this size, no bones, roast to refrigerate for sandwiches. This is at the Grove Market in PG—the Quonset hut—where they have good butchers and particularly good pork.
He nodded, walked into the cooler, and came out with a plastic-wrapped side of pork about the size of my grandson. The older one. “Is that the smallest you have?” I asked in a quavering voice. He laughed, cut away the plastic, started up the bandsaw, and soon had me a wonderful little pork roast.
In the meantime, the short, stocky standing-rib roast (one rib) was eyeing me (though The Wife says I’m mistaken—it was the rib-eye that was eying me. Chortle. (Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) invented that word: a portmanteau word of “snort” and “chuckle”.)) So I got that as well, and cooked it this evening according to the Cook’s Illustrated method — no horseradish sauce, but I did use Maldon salt.
And, for the first time, I got a box of wine, a Shiraz. It’s quite good, and I really like the packaging. It’s the ideal way for me to get white wines, since I can keep them cold and use them a little at a time. Great innovation.
