BUT WITHOUT THE PEANUTS!

Went to see my doctor yesterday for a six-month follow-up since the stent procedure at the beginning of February. Also had two prescriptions refilled.
As usual, label warnings: don't get pregnant, don't fly an aeroplane.
Dang. I have to seriously revise my bucket list.

A friend commented that by all accounts the RAF distinguished themselves in WWII while constantly hung over. Which is true, but they were English, so being hungover is their natural state. That was the country that in the Elizabethan age sent kids to school with a half pint of ale, and a well-filled clay pipe to smoke during classes. Adults who could afford it, for centuries, would be drunk by dusk. Only the institution of tea-time stopped that.
Since then they wait till dinner to get soused.
Or just noon.

Please don't think I'm slagging the English; the Dutch, Germans, and Irish are very similar. It's probably the beastly climate.

And the food.


蕹菜

Now, speaking of food: my doctor tells me, regarding gout, uric acid, and cholesterol, that there is probably no problem with lobster once a week, or for July Fourth. Pursuant which he asked what I was going to do on that day. Nothing, not even going to watch fireworks. Too much fog, cold on top of the hills. And further, he mentions that Ipomoea aquatica (as he calls it: " 空心菜/通心菜 "kōngxīncài"/通心菜"tōngxīncà") needs to be washed with care, because there might be little things or creepy crawlies inside the hollow stems. In Cantonese, which he doesn't speak, it's called 水通菜 ('seui tong choi') or 水蕹菜 ('seui ong choi'). Commonly just 蕹菜 ('ong choi'). We both know it originally as 'kangkong', great stirfried with red chili paste, shrimp sauce, splash of broth, and garnished with a sprinkle of fried peanuts. Sambal goreng kangkong or tjao kangkong.

龍蝦塊辣炒蕹菜

So naturally I'm thinking a dish of lobster with sautéed water spinach.
Touch of shrimp paste only. Very high heat for the vegetable.
Seethe with sherry, add the lobster chunks.
It's a possibility.

Also, braised pork belly as an accompaniment.
同安式封肉。



He's Chinese from Indonesia, I'm an American-born person of Netherlandish heritage who speaks Dutch, and some Indonesian and Cantonese. We have a lot of food in common. Shared gustatory survival tactics. Sambal.

Discuss food when seeing the doctor; it brightens everything.

For gouty individuals, beer is the great danger.
So Belgian food is quite out of the question.


No drunkard's chicken made with ale.
黑啤酒味醉雞。




==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================