v a l l e j o n o c t u r n o

They are Eating the Dogs

 

From NYT's Jamelle Bouie:

Where once Donald Trump attracted only the right-wing fringe of American politics, now he leads it. Where once he kept some distance from agitators and provocateurs like Laura Loomer, now they’re at the center of his campaign. And where once he merely inspired extremists to act, now he points them directly at the objects of his rage.

Take Springfield, Ohio, where schools, colleges and municipal buildings have been shut down and community events canceled owing to bomb threats targeting the city’s Haitian community. Those threats come as Trump — and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio — smear the Haitians of Springfield with the lie that they’re stealing and eating the pets of presumably native-born Americans. Vance, who was ostensibly elected to represent and aid the people of towns like Springfield, has been even more vicious than his boss, spreading the additional lie that Haitians have carried disease and disorder to Ohio.

Despite pleas from both the Republican mayor of Springfield and the Republican governor of Ohio, who called the story of the attacks on pets “a piece of garbage that was simply not true,” neither Trump nor Vance is willing to end the rhetorical assault on the city’s Haitian immigrants. If anything, they’re unapologetic.

During a rally in Tucson, Ariz., on Thursday, for example, Trump expanded the lie even further. “Twenty thousand illegal Haitian immigrants have descended on a town of 58,000 people, destroying their way of life,” Trump said. “Residents are reporting that the migrants are walking off with the town’s geese. They’re taking the geese. You know where the geese are, in the park. And even walking off with their pets.”

When asked about the bomb threats, he dodged the question. “I don’t know what happened with the bomb threats,” Trump said. “I know that it’s been taken over by illegal migrants and that’s a terrible thing that happened. Springfield was this beautiful town and now they’re going through hell.”

The hell, of course, is of his own making.

As for Vance, who spearheaded this smear campaign when he amplified the claim on social media, he confessed to elevating rumors and lies to prove a political point. “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people,” Vance said on Sunday, “then that’s what I’m going to do.”

A more self-aware person would see that “the suffering of the American people” includes all of the people of Springfield, who are facing the ugly consequences of Trump’s decision to make them a prop for his campaign. To him, their day-to-day lives are worth less than their symbolic value. This is why Trump wants to visit — it’s his chance to fan the flames, as well as fuel the fire for his own purposes.

There’s something familiar in the spectacle of a caravan of far-right agitators descending on a small city to weaponize the tensions that surround inclusion, belonging and identity.

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Cindy Wolf

From the NYT, a very positive article about Baltimore's Cindy Wolf:

She cooks in Charleston’s kitchen nearly every night, as she has since the restaurant opened 24 years ago. Her decades-long mission to refine her blend of French and Southern cuisine has earned her nine nominations for the James Beard award for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic, a record for a chef (tied with Peter Pastan) in a category they have not won. “Just give it to her already,” Tom Sietsema, the Washington Post food critic, wrote in 2017, after she received her sixth nomination.

Charleston is among the relatively few still-thriving restaurants from the 1990s that helped spur the explosion of innovative New Southern cooking in the 2000s.

But after a turbulent year that has brought into question what the future will look like for restaurants catering to affluent diners, Charleston, with its Bernardaud china, cheese cart, tasting menu and long-cellared wines, feels like a throwback to a fading era.

Something similar can be said of Ms. Wolf. At 56, she is the rare chef-owner of her skill level and accomplishment who is mainly focused on her flagship, on traditional fine dining and on the daily task of cooking — something she insists will never change.

“When Tony told me he wanted to open more and more restaurants, we agreed that I would not leave Charleston,” Ms. Wolf said during one of several recent conversations in Baltimore. “Every restaurant since then really has been his dream, because I’m quite happy with this one.”

Three of the Foreman Wolf company’s restaurants are within walking distance of Charleston: Bar Vasquez, an Argentine tapas bar and steakhouse; Cinghiale, an Italian restaurant; and Cindy Lou’s Fish House, a Southern seafood restaurant that opened in October. The other two, Petit Louis Bistro and Johnny’s, a casual seafood place, are in the Roland Park neighborhood. (Mr. Foreman, who is responsible for the wine programs at all the restaurants, owns two wine shops separately from Ms. Wolf.)

The two partners don’t own the real estate for any of their businesses. As revenues shrank during the pandemic, the lease arrangements, particularly in the booming areas around Charleston, in Harbor East, made them uneasy. They decided to buy the Milton Inn, a restaurant in an 18th-century building 20 miles north of Baltimore, to give them more control over their financial future. Chris Scanga, the executive chef at Petit Louis, will be chef of the inn, as well as a business partner, the first such arrangement for Ms. Wolf and Mr. Foreman.

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Some More Images from South Africa 2008

After the conference in Cape Town, we took a side trip to Franshhoek, a wine region, about a couple of hours from the coast. In addition to its excellent wines the food we encountered in the region was of very high quality with the freshest produce imaginable.

Vallejo Nocturno 2020- Scenes from Franshhouk, South Africa

The Birth of Single Malt

From LARB, a review of single malt guide book:

In his brief history of Scotch, Risen includes one overarching lesson: single malts are a happy accident of history. This is apt since the leading theorist of the unintended consequences of economic markets and public policy was himself a Scot: Adam Smith. But even though the author of The Wealth of Nationsdiscussed international wine markets to illustrate his theories, he did not have a single drop of single malt before his demise in 1790. For a simple reason: It did not exist. Yes, whisky could be had in Smith’s time, and for about three centuries beforehand, but it scarcely resembled single malt. To borrow a term from Appalachia (a region largely settled by Scots on the wrong side of history): it was “white lightning.” Unaged distillate of whatever grain, even fruit or vegetable, could be coaxed to produce alcohol. The querulous Highlanders were known for their consumption of uisge-beatha, meaning “water of life” in Gaelic, corresponding to eau de vie in French and similar terms in other languages that attest to the vital importance of distilled beverages. I first met with the term in reading Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley, which I did while on a tour of the distilleries of Scotland. Scott’s novel was published in 1814 and is widely recognized as the first historical novel, with a story set during the Jacobite uprising of 1745 and featuring an English army officer seduced by the hospitable and tragically romantic Highland clans, whose exotic ways included drinking uisge-beatha. His novel does not relate the historical anecdote that the Scottish troops were administered the Eucharist with whisky and oat cakes on the eve of the climactic battle of the uprising. Perhaps the next day would have turned out differently if it had been a single malt.

Whisky was first introduced into Scotland during medieval times from Ireland. Tradition has it that none other than St. Patrick brought whisky to the emerald island during the fifth century. As Risen notes, the legend is exceedingly improbable given that the technology for distilling alcohol did not exist in the European West until centuries later, with the requisite alembic still introduced from the Arabic world (hence “al-embic” and “al-cohol”). Pesky facts. I say we double-down on the legend by adding that the patron saint of Ireland used whisky as fuel to fire his cleansing the island of snakes. The first written mention of whisky in Scotland does not occur until 1495, specifically in the royal finance rolls. Indeed, attempts to tax and regulate whisky production would turn out to be an important factor in the history of single malts, once again by way of unintended consequences. Onerous taxation chased distillers into the hills, just as would happen a couple of centuries later in Appalachia, with the same result: high-octane moonshine. Only after a set of laws dating from around the same time as the publication of Waverley and designed to encourage legal distillation did whisky slowly begin to become what we would recognize today.

Economic and political disasters turned out to be the crucible in which single malts were forged over the next few decades. Overproduction of whisky led to a sudden crash in the waning years of the 19th century, with countless distilleries boarded up and the supply reduced to a trickle. Not a single new distillery was built until 1949. Production in 1900 was 37.1 million proof gallons (a proof gallon being the equivalent of one gallon of spirits at 100 proof), but by 1932 it was 285,418 proof gallons. The dinosaurs fared better! The seven hobbling survivors simultaneously faced a series of laws intended to restrict production, in part the fruit of policies stemming from the temperance movement (though happily not resulting in an 18th Amendment to Albion’s unwritten constitution). Importantly for our story of unintended consequences, however, the laws regulating the ingredients, distillation, and aging of whiskies in order to reduce production and consumption of Satan’s favorite drink created the conditions for single malts’ eventual flourishing. A main villain of the story, turned hero by the unforeseen outcomes of his policies, was David Lloyd George. First in his role as chancellor of the Exchequer and then as prime minister during the Great War, the teetotaling Welsh politician followed up his regulation of the opening hours of pubs (still in partial effect today) by unleashing his animus against whisky, claiming that the unbridled consumption by workers in munitions factories and other wartime industries threatened national security. He probably wasn’t entirely wrong. The man credited with founding the modern welfare state in Britain thereby unwittingly elevated the status and quality of whisky, encouraging the production of a more mature, rounded, and complex spirit. The industry survived the Depression and a second World War to find an expanding world market, including in the United States. As noted earlier, single malts still accounted for a very small fraction of production and distribution, but at least they existed to be discovered and nurtured toward the end of the 20th century by Michael Jackson and Clay Risen, and me and you.

 

In Unison With Yourself

Vallejo Nocturno 2019 - Monasterio de Santa Catalina Arequipa, Peru

The crux was Aretha repeating her legendary scream over and over. Everyone was prancing by in different directions like in a sophisticated but misdirected musical. You realized then that the future was now in short supply as the native slaves came to serve you local delicacies. You emote a last desperate smile. And then when the sun descends and the parade begins. . .the film we all agree was bad. Realism is not what it used to be. Unfortunately, she said, these reality shows is what TV is all about. They permeate the horizon and your history will be to seduce those watching the puppet show how convincing you can dance and boogaloo (a modern dance to rock-and-roll music performed with swiveling and shuffling movements of the body, originally popular in the 1960s).

Mercado Santa Anita in Lima

Vallejo Nocturno 2019 - Images of the food distribution center fro Lima

Two days ago with my cousin's guidance we went to the gigantic and magnificent center Santa Anita where growers of produce across Peru come to sell their products to Lima businesses. This is a key space where the incredible cousine of Peru gets made. Fantastic varieties of fruits, garlic, and onions are picture above. And each nuance is necessary to create the food of this vast and rich country. 

 

El Cubano en Barcelona

Vallejo Nocturno 2018- en Barcelona buscando donde comer

Near my hotel on the outskirts of Barcelona there were many food options when I went out and searched my closest vicinities. I found a brightly lit restaurant where there was a good crowd and some space to sit and try their fare. A Cuban food place with good choices of solid wine. As I had to prepare for work the next day I settled on this place and was not disappointed. The music, the crowd, the food. It was a great solo evening but I felt accompanied by the culture and the bartender who accompanied me throughout my meal.

 

Good bread and bad bread

Vallejo Nocturno 2018 -Barcelona bread

It's the reality-most places outside of the the U.S. specialize in making very good bread. In the U.S. there is very little attention to making good bread. That is a pity. Those of us who grew up with great bread know that it was the primary staple of our well being. But with a bland crust and undifferentiated innards common bread makes life sad. That is what we get in the U.S. unless we search and find that place that understands how bread is made-not produced. In Barcelona you have to hunt for bad bread.

Let's Drink to That

From Balkanization, a legal blog, Mike Graber writes:

Too many young men drink to excess.  When they drink to excess, they often become boisterous.  They engage in disorderly conduct.  They utter and scream racial, ethnic, gender, and other epithets.  They vandalize and destroy property.  They drive drunk.  They pick fights with each other and perfect strangers.  They assault women.  They damage, ruin or destroy their lives and the lives of their victims.

 

Most of these young men mature.  They learn how to moderate their drinking or how to moderate their behavior when drinking.  They become solid citizens, valuable employees, respected professionals and community leaders.  They are faithful spouses and loving parents to their sons and daughters.  The drunken escapades of their past become little more than foggy romanticized memories. Until this week, the central question raised by this pattern of behavior for many persons was how they should regard apparently distinguished and decent persons they remember as drunken frat boys (for the record, I am a lifelong oblivious teetotaler, who spent most weekend evenings in high school and college playing chess or bridge).  For Americans today, this pattern of behavior is crucial to determining whether Brett Kavanaugh should sit on the Supreme Court.

The practice of underage male drinking in the United States supports both Christine Blasey Ford's and Mark Judge’s account of what happened at a drunken teenage bash in North Bethesda thirty-five years ago.  As numerous accounts by women who attended all-girls schools in Montgomery county attest, male sexual assaults on women during underage drinking parties were and are unfortunately common.  What Ms. Ford claims happened to her happened to many women of her generation.  Mark Judge’s claim that he has no recollection of the events is also plausible.  Underage drinkers often cannot remember what they did the morning after events take place much less thirty-five years later.

Brett Kavanaugh’s denials are far less believable.  In previous speeches, he has acknowledged and romanticized his past excessive drinking habits.  Substantial evidence exists that Kavanaugh was blind drunk at various points during his youth.   If he can say with confidence that he never assaulted Christine Blasey Ford, he may be the only adult male in the United States who can remember with perfect clarity everything he did during repeated bouts of drunkenness in the past.  This is hardly air-tight proof that the attempted rape occurred.  The claim is only that Kavanaugh cannot possible remember whether, during his apparently repeated bouts of drunkenness, he ever threw up in a car, broke a window, ran naked in the living room or assaulted a woman.  That Kavanaugh has demonstrated, at the very least, a willingness to make very misleading self-serving statements under oath casts further doubt on his veracity.

The Kavanaugh nomination should go down because he has consistently put the needs of the Republican Party before the Constitution and the country.  The Kavanaugh nomination should go down because Republicans have steadily refused to provide the country with the documents needed to evaluate Kavanaugh’s past service in the Bush administration.  The Kavanaugh nomination should go down because even on the basis of the limited record Republicans have provided, Kavanaugh lacks the integrity demanded of a Supreme Court justice.  The Kavanaugh nomination should go down because his claim to remember what happened when blind drunk is not credible.

The Kavanaugh nomination should go down even if Kavanaugh was honest enough to admit he has no memory of everything he did when blind drunk.  For thirty-five years, Brett Kavanaugh has romanticized his underage drinking, inspiring other ambitious young men to drink to excess, confident that their behaviors will have little bearing on their professional lives once as adults they moderate their drinking or moderate their drinking behavior.  If Kavanuagh goes down, somewhere in North Bethesda or elsewhere, an ambitious young man might decide not to attend an underage drinking party or to moderate his drinking behavior at such affairs.  One less neighbor may be be woken up at three in the morning.  One less racial epithet may be uttered.  One less window may be broken.  One less drunk driving accident may occur.  One less woman may be sexually assaulted.  One less drinker and one less victim may have their lives not damaged, ruined or destroyed.

Cafe Salsa

Vallejo Nocturno 2018 - Cafe Salsa in Morovis