OurGirl: No Reservations

I sigh over fulfilling a long-time wish to complete the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage. i think my brother is working on his pilgrimage, when he walks the appalachian.

but anthony bourdain? he's smart. he gets the travel channel to PAY him to fulfill his pilgrimage. its a series called No Reservations. here is his intro:

i'm anthony bourdain.
i write. i travel. i eat.
and i'm hungry for more.

yeh!

tony is in my top 20 favorite people i dont know. i like a sly, self-deprecating man who knows more than he immediately lets on and is handy with a kitchen knife. i like a show that starts with view discretion advised, with a host that interacts with his video crew. i find a kindred spirit with his staccato-style rambling prose.

addendum: tonight I watched a little of bourdain on utube. i recommend the lebanon series. here is a link to the first of a series of five utube postings.

if you need a summer beach book, f' the latest chick lit--or worse, the secret. rosicrucianism? can we please proclaim we are over the da vinci code and all accompanying legendary esoteric orders? free yourself from the need to be special. you already are. problem is, so is the rest of the human race. that's why you aren't standing out. oh. and your daddy? he already loves you. stop trying to impress him. and the answer to the universe? i just found out that answer recently from my friend, stew. its deceptively simple. the answer to the universe is: ok.

my suggestion for the perfect summer read is to punch up ebay and pick yourself up a battered copy of cook's tour. yeh. i'm here to facilitate. get it shipped in before you head out to the outer banks, or the gulf, or carribbean--whatever your sandy destination is, you lucky, lucky reader. once there, scoop out a sandy hollow for your butt, plop down with a couple of chilled coronas and read until your eyes fry in the late afternoon sun or your family insists you assume your assigned familial duties.

that evening, make:

spicy, crispy calamari

3 pound calamari
(do yourself a favor and buy it cleaned, but it ain't no big thang to clean it yourself. cut it up into bite size pieces)
tempura batter
(follow the directions on the packet!)
hot oil in a deep pot to fry the tempura
coarse sea salt

essentially, you want to dip the bite-size pieces of calamari in the tempura batter, deep fry the calamari tempura til golden crisp, fish it out and sprinkle with the coarse sea salt. but you want to serve it at the same time with this:

5-6 green onions
chopped into bite size chunks
5-6 peeled whole cloves of garlic
chopped into small bite size chunks ('bout 3-4 pieces per clove)
chopped fresh jalapeno
hot oil in your favorite heavy fry pan

fresh chopped cilantro

here you just want to stir fry the green onion, garlic and jalapeno in the sizzling oil fry pan. then you serve it up, heaping with the crispy, salted calamari on a plate of size and sprinkle the fresh chopped cilantro on top.

make your company eat it with chopsticks and drink cold, cold beer with it. maybe even treat them to watching No Reservations while they eat the meal. show them you think they are special, even if they know nothing about the Law of Attraction.

its as good as it gets.
bon appetit.