I hope my readers had a good weekend. Friday Travalon and I
went to the seafood restaurant in the same strip mall as Crema Café for their
fish boil, which they say is “even better than Door County!” It is different
than a Door County fish boil, I wouldn’t necessarily say “better” but very
good. We ended the meal with Key lime crème brulee. Yum!
Saturday morning Travalon and I met Tiffy and the Rosary
Ladies for coffee and a walk around the Farmers’ Market, then we ladies had
lunch outside at the Peruvian restaurant on State Street while Travalon went to
the Union Terrace. In the afternoon we went to the Willy Street Fair, but
Travalon was disappointed because it didn’t seem as lively as other years. The
weather was perfect, but there seemed to be a whole block of the fair missing.
We usually go on Sunday, so I wondered if more vendors were coming the next
day. I was specifically looking for a West African food stand that has baobab
shakes. They always come to the Willy Street Fair and to Africa Fest, but this
year by the time we got to Africa Fest they were sold out of the baobab shakes.
I did (big shock!) buy a succulent, and Travalon bought a very cool print. In
the evening, Rich, Travalon, Tiffy, and I went out for Tiffy’s birthday dinner.
(Her actual birthday was on Monday.) We went to Otto’s and sat out on their
beautiful covered balcony, which is like being in a tree house. The day was
cooling off a bit by then, but how could we complain? It had been so perfect.
Yesterday Travalon and I overslept and went to Mass near our
house, then we went to one place for brunch but they had a long wait, so we
went to Crema Café and sat outside. We took a boat ride and collected some more
lotus seed heads, and I noted that somehow I always connected being on a boat
with something wonderful from my childhood, but that makes no sense because my
family didn’t have a boat, and I don’t remember being on one as a child. We
didn’t even live anywhere near an ocean or a lake, so where this deep love of
all things maritime comes from is beyond me. Then we went back to the Willy
Street Fair, and guess what? The extra block of the festival was back! And in that
extra block we found the stand with the baobab shakes! And they were just as
good as I remembered! In the evening Rich had a dinner for the Japanese
professor who visits every year and some of his friends; I brought the lotus
seeds, but there was so much food, we never did anything with them. Anyway,
they are not really part of Japanese cuisine. After we got home, I ate some raw
with the covering off, and they were pretty good, but this morning I brought a
seed head to my Chinese colleague who had first advocated eating them, and she
told me they aren’t ripe yet. I suffered no ill effects from eating the unripe
seeds, and in fact they gave me a kind of pleasant sensation. They are
considered very healthful in Chinese medicine, but who knows about the unripe
ones? Anyway, I can always roast them – then they are a lot like pumpkin seeds.
Delicious!
Famous Hat
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