HUNGRY GERALD

HG/BSK dine well at their oceanfront home (spectacular sea views and sunsets) on green and serene Prince Edward Island. BSK is a kitchen star, specializing in healthy, tasty seafood. HG has often praised PEI’s mineral rich potatoes and lush sweet corn (can hardly wait for mid-August and Blum’s farm raised treats). Strawberries (and blueberries) are prolific on PEI. The strawberries explode with flavor. They are a revelation for folks who have been dependent on tasteless, cottony supermarket specimens. HG likes the PEI strawberries with sweet cream or sour cream (a dash of Canadian maple syrup is always welcome.) BSK cooks strawberries and rhubarb into a sparkling semi-smoothie. HG has a big bowl of happy health each morning. These are the ingredients: Liberte vanilla yogurt, BSK’s smoothie, sliced strawberries, granola or walnuts, a glug of maple syrup. Accompanied by cafe latte, it’s a great way to breakfast.

That’s how the late, distinguished literary critic Edmund Wilson headlined an essay on Canada. Yes, Canada is a wondrous nation much loved by HG/BSK and HG/BSK’s children and grandchildren. BSK is Canadian, of course, born there and spent childhood years in Sarnia, Ontario (BSK was eight when BSK’s family moved to Mansfield, Ohio.) The Wonder Woman has dual citizenship. HG/BSK spend many months each year at an oceanfront home on Prince Edward Island, a serene, green, peaceful democratic province. On a sunny day yesterday, HG/BSK enjoyed hours at the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival, an annual event featuring musicians (and step dancers) from PEI and other Maritime Provinces. The Festival runs for three days and focuses on (you guessed it) fiddle music that exemplifies the Irish, Scotch, French (yes,there are still Acadians on PEI) antecedents of PEI’s population. The event is very well organized with special attention given to the aged and infirm (like HG). The audience is appreciative and courteous (very Canadian). Lots of good food is available and folks make sure they clean up their area and dump plates,glasses, and eating utensils in trash cans. Unlike the United States, there is no apprehension a madman with an assault rifle will attack and kill. Since HG has a compelling interest in food, HG is delighted by the wonders of PEI food. Fish, of course. A wide variety of top flight oysters (large Malpeques are HG’s choice.) The best mussels (identified on restaurant menus in the USA and Canada). And, from the red soil earth: world famous mineral rich potatoes, sweet corn, yellow beans, strawberries, blueberries and much else. A gourmand like HG eats well in Canada. Best food city in the world is Vancouver, B.C. Fabulous Asian food. Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Filipino, Cambodian, Malaysian, etc. There’s the best sushi and tasty ramen. This only scratches the surface. The French are not neglected. A shop in Vancouver’s Public Market is Oyama. A French-Canadian operation, it features an encyclopedic variety of home made pates, terrines, sausages. There are also hams and cold cuts (their head cheese and jambon persille are standouts.) Plus French, Italian and other cheeses (in peak condition), condiments and seasonal specials (cassoulet in winter). O, Canada, indeed.

Hake is one of HG’s favorite fishes. Member of the cod family but firmer and tastier than conventional cod. HG first tasted it at an upscale Madrid seafood restaurant and became a convert.(The emperor of all fish is Dover Sole, of course, as served at Le Dome and other exemplary Paris seafood places). When hake is available at Julio’s Seafood (close to HG/BSK’s Prince Edward Island oceanfront home) BSK buys some large filets. The Wonder Woman fried some last night and accompanied the crisp deliciousness with Jacues Pepin’s herbaceous warm potato salad. Joyous eating. HG is very fond of French warm potato salad. HG has many happy memories of eating the salad with grilled sausages and nose stinging mustard and cornichons at the long running Veau D’ Or restaurant in New York.

Some 79 years ago (Wow, that’s a lot of years. HG remembers that time perfectly. Short term memory gives HG problems now), sturdy 13-year-old HG spent a steamy Rockaway Beach summer lifting, stacking, shoving heavy boxes in the stock room of F.W. Woolworth on busy Beach 116th Street. HG interrupted labor with a meal at the Woolworth lunch counter. Each day, HG ate fish cakes accompanied by spaghetti in tomato sauce. Cost: 15 cents. (Might be overstating the price. Likely cost a dime). Probably an awful meal by today’s standard but the famished youngster loved it. These days, HG sups on BSK’s very superior fish cakes (Supermarket or frozen fish cakes are inferior and often inedible). BSK follows the recipe of gifted daughter, Lesley R.(The right ratio of cod, potatoes, herbs and Panko). Happy HG joyfully ate them last night while watching a glorious sunset at HG/BSK’s oceanfront home on green, peaceful, democratic Prince Edward Island, Canada.

BSK encountered a New York Times recipe that contained all the elements HG/BSK enjoy at dinner: “Salmon Soba Noodles With Ponzu-Scallion Broth.” These were the ingredients: Dashi broth, salmon, soba noodles, spinach, firm tofu, scallions, grated ginger, canola oil, sliced radishes, slivers of carrot, ponzu. BSK did a careful mix and followed the recipe meticulously. (Unusual for BSK who likes to deviate and add original touches. This time BSK only substituted spinach for the cabbage called for). It was a sensational dinner dish which BSK promises to repeat often. Drank an abundance of pinot noir (HG/BSK like red wine with fresh salmon; crisp white with smoked salmon, of course). Another joyous evening at HG/BSK’s oceanfront home on peaceful, green, democratic Prince Edward Island.

HG/BSK have a pleasant Prince Edward Island dining custom HG/BSK share with Noel and Yossi M. (BSK’s sister and brother-in-law). One week there’s dinner at HG/BSK’s ocean front home on the north side of PEI; the next week dinner is at N. & Y.’s Ocean Mist Farm on the south side of PEI (near Panmure Island). This week it was N. & Y.’s turn. BSK brought a hand mixed mustard mayonnaise and lemon juice shrimp salad. A succulent starter. Main dish was Noel’s green chili pork stew with asparagus (grown in Yossi’s garden) and cubes of warm mineral rich PEI potatoes. Delish. Dessert was Chapman’s Vanilla Ice Cream (topped with fresh from the vine Ocean Mist strawberries.) Chapman’s vanilla is super creamy. HG and Y. loved it. BSK and N. didn’t. Maybe it’s a guy thing. HG prefaced his meal with a generous pour of Canadian whiskey and had another slug after dinner. A most happy fella.

On a blazing hot New York summer day (July 2 1963), HG and BSK were married in the chambers of Judge George Postel. In attendance were BSK’s parents, Roy and Valerie Kent, and friends, Peter and Julia Meyerson. All are deceased (except HG/BSK, obviously, and possibly Julia for whom no information is available). Wonderful afternoon reception followed at the Library Room of the St. Regis Hotel with the late Bucky Pizzarelli providing guitar music. (It was the luckiest day of HG’s life). Celebration dinner a deux at HG/BSK’s oceanfront home on Prince Edward Island. Caviar (a gift from HG daughter Vicki) and very cool Muscadet. This was followed by mushroom ravioli in a good jarred Arabiatta sauce (BSK enhanced the sauce with olive oil, chopped garlic, chopped red pepper, onions, oregano, Italian parsley.) Drank vintage Chianti. Lovely meal celebrating an auspicious day (After 59 years, HG is still in love with BSK. Want more years, hopefully).

Whatever you want to call them, clams are a treat. When younger, HG would gobble up dozens raw and on the half shell at the great Lundy’s Restaurant in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn. They were accompanied by light buttery fresh from the oven biscuits. Beverage was Piels Beer. Ah, those were the days. When resident at HG/BSK’s Fire Island dune house (two decks so gazed at sunsets and sea views while drinking Martinis) clams were a staple food. HG and pals filled buckets of clams from Great South Bay. No rakes or other implements–just poked with our feet. BSK made the ultimate linguine with white clam sauce (an abundance of clams and garlic). Today, BSK picked up quahogs at the local Prince Edward Island seafood store. So, linguine with white clam sauce was dinner. BSK has not lost BSK’s magic touch. A great dish. Tender clams. Briny sauce. Pasta cooked to a perfect texture. After dinner, watched a spectacular sunset. Glad that the front of HG/BSK’s Prince Edward Island home has many feet of windows. Watching the sunset is a big screen TV show.

HG’S beloved daughter, Victoria Freeman, the renowned New York restaurateur (Shukette, Shuka, Cookshop, Vic’s, Rosie’s), spent three happy days with HG/BSK at their Prince Edward Island home. As usual, much travail for Vicki in getting to this blessed green isle (canceled flights, etc.). The weather? Some rain but plenty of sun ideal for BSK/Vicki beach walks. Feasting: Shucked oysters (Brackley Beach and Colville Bay); Sevruga caviar (a gift from generous Vicki); cod, tofu, spinach, soba noodles in scallion broth; fresh caught seared tuna salad with a plethora of greens, zucchini ribbons, avocado (a Vicki request). Culmination was a huge meal at Clamdiggers Restaurant in Cardigan. Crabcakes. Crisp onion rings. Steamed soft shell clams. Giant platters of seafood (fried clams, haddock, scallops) and French fries, of course. There was a problem. We had to wait for 90 minutes before the food arrived. Busy night and HG presumes the kitchen was understaffed. The wait didn’t blunt HG’s appetite. Usually moderate, HG was a “Clean Plate Ranger”. HG had a credit card in hand but stealthy Vicki had paid in advance. A super generous woman. This was in addition to the gifted caviar and two loaves of hard to find Pepperidge Farm Thin White Bread (perfect as a base for caviar when lightly toasted and buttered and also a worthy companion to softly scrambled eggs). BSK has been searching for more convenient ways for Vicki (and her husband, Marc Meyer, the pioneering farm-to-table chef) to travel to PEI. And, HG has promised to stay alive for more Vicki (and Marc) visits.

The great Jewish writer (an emigre to the USA and Manhattan’s Upper West Side), Isaac Baashevis Singer (1902-1991), wrote in Yiddish exclusively. He said: “Yiddish contains vitamins that other languages don’t have.” His work–short stories, serialized novels, novellas–appeared in the Yiddish language Jewish Daily Forward (“Forvertz”) newspaper. “I have never stopped writing for The Forward. It is my laboratory.” Singer was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978 “for his impassioned narrative art which, with roots in a Polish-Jewish cultural tradition, brings universal human conditions to life.” His acceptance speech before the Nobel audience was in Yiddish. This was the first (and probably last) Yiddish speech before that body. Singer was skeptical of institutional religion and dogma but considered himself a religious man. “When I’m in trouble, I pray. Since I’m always in trouble, I pray a lot.” For the last 35 years of his life, Singer was a vegetarian. He felt there could be no peace on earth if humans slaughtered and ate innocent animals. “I am not a vegetarian for my health, it is for the health of the chickens.”