Today's Dork Tower is up.



Click here, there or anywhere to see it.

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The Madison Mallards won the first game in the Southern Division playoffs, beating the Wisconsin Woodchucks 4-1 in Wausau. It's the first game that's really meant anything to the Mallards in a while (they won the first half of the season in the Southern Division, and have been out of the race for home field advantage for a some time, now, thanks to a second-half collapse that saw them lose two games for every one they won).

This is also the first game they've won all year in Wausau (the Woodchucks, similarly, haven't won in Madison), and it puts them in a position to win the Southern Division (and go on to the Northwoods League Championship series) tonight, in Madison. First pitch: 7:05 pm.

Go Mallards!

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Dinner a couple of nights ago:

I found some lovely fresh egg noodles at Midway Asian foods, and couldn't wait to use them. So I picked up a half-pound of organic chicken breast from Artamos Deli, and pulled the string beans and carrots we had from this week's Farm Box out of the fridge, and came up with pan-fried noodles with chicken and beans, in a fresh garlic and ginger white sauce.



Unfortunately, we'd run out of sesame oil, a couple of dashes of which would have given it that lovely, smoky foundation I crave from pan-fried noodles. But the peanut oil did its job, and I was really happy with the results.

Though not one of the most glamorous cookbooks around, I find the Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook just a real solid companion, for its simplicity and ability to demystify Chinese cooking. Once you've gotten solid in a few of the recipes here, it's easy as heck to improvise a stir-fry. while I'm far from a master of Asian foods, but I do love this book. You can find earlier editions for it dirt-cheap at places like Half-Price Books.

Worst comes to worse, you can throw it at people who don't appreciate your cooking, and do some real damage.

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Speaking of Asian foods, I finally found myself on the West side of Madison for lunch, the other day, giving me the opportunity to try a Vietnamese sandwich (Bahn Mi) for the very first time.

Saigon Noodles on Odana Road does possibly the best bowl of Pho in Madison, and it's Bun Ka (a fabulous rice noodle dish with superbly grilled chicken, fresh vegetables, and a delectable sweet and spicy chili-garlic sauce) has long been a favorite of ours. Still, I'd always been intrigued by the sign in their window for "Vietnamese Sandwiches."

Partially inspired by Kevin Weeks' rather terrific article on sandwiches at NPR.org, I tried one at last.





Holy cow, what took me so long to discover these? The bread was lovely - a fresh, crisp crusted (but not overly crunchy) mini-baguette that was perfectly chewy and delicately flavorful. I'd imagined there would be more fillings than there were, but what was there was great: grilled chicken, daikon, cucumber, thinly-sliced jalapeno, cilantro, carrot, chili-garlic sauce...and inexpensive, too, at $3.90.

I suspect this was not even a particularly great example of the genre - as far as I can tell, Saigon Noodles is the only place in Madison that makes these fresh (on Thursdays, Midway Asian gets some in from Milwaukee) - but it blew me away. I can't wait to find the truly outstanding Bahn Mi in Chicago, New York, or wherever...

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Hey. It's Gen-Con week, isn't it?

Yeah. Damn. Not gonna be there...

Again.

Damn.

SPAM SUBJECT LINE HAIKU
(it's been a while)

Upcoming Events
Million dead in Chinese quake
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We're taking it off
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Biggest tool on earth!

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My great friends James Wallis, doing what my great friend James Wallis does best - amaze people:



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On his blog, Michael Ruhlman posed the question (paraphrased greatly here) "What are your go-to, everyday dinner recipes?"

Here are those I'll fall back on, on a time and time again, if I've no time to think about something special.

Most of these come originally from my favorite cookbooks, but have gotten to the point with me where I'll seldom if ever go back and look at the cookbooks when making them. Most have evolved slightly.

John's go-to recipes:

Jalapeno Black Bean Soup
(Gleaned from the Whole Chile Pepper cookbook)
Mushroom Soup
(Gleaned from the Les Halles cookbook)
French Onion Soup
(Gleaned from Le Cordon Bleu at Home)
Potato and Leek Soup
(Gleaned from Le Cordon Bleu at Home)
Sweet and Sour Soup
(Gleaned from Soups and Stews)

Spaghetti Arabiata
(A simple sauce that can morph into many different sauces with additions. I think I originally found it in Bugialli on Pasta - it reminded me of the sauces I had when my dad worked in Milan)
Fettucini Carbonara
(Gleaned from the Silver Spoon cookbook)
Risotto (Either mushroom or gorgonzola, but whatever's on hand)
(again, using the basic Silver Spoon recipe)
Pizza
(Trying to match the Neapolitan style as best as possible)
Lasagne or Canelloni
(A variation on my mom's recipe, with the America's Test Kitchen twist on canelloni)
Holupki
(From my Grandmother's church cookbook)


Chicken Picata or Milanese
(Gleaned from watching my mom and grandma make it)
Tacos, rice and Beans
(Gleaned from Rick Bayless' Everyday Mexican)
Pan-fried Trout
(When available and fresh, of course)
Grilled/roast fish (usually Sea Bass)
(From a L'Etoile class I once took)
Catfish, coated in flour and pan-fried
Moules Marnier
(And all the variations this can lead to. Cleaning the mussles is a pain, though...)
Curries
(Using curry pastes, but I'm learning how to create my own)
Roast Chicken
(Gleaned from Thomas Keller's recipe)


Looking back over the list, I see it's it's odder and more eclectic than I'd have guessed...

"If you could combine James Bond with MacGyver, you would get Robert Irvine, a real life chef extraordinaire and the host of Dinner: Impossible."
- From the Food Network website


In case you were looking for Chef Robert Irvine's web site bio, what used to look like THIS...



Now looks like THIS:

.

His bio's also been pulled from the Food Network site.

Why? Perhaps because the "Dinner Very Possible" host may have padded his resume just a tad.

From the Daily Mail:

Fraudulent' British celebrity chef faces sack from US TV show
after claiming he made Diana's wedding cake
By PAUL THOMPSON
19th February 2008

Among a few nuggets:

"His five star award from the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences was bought over the internet," and...

...wait for it...

...wait...

...here it comes...

"Following an investigation by a newspaper in St Petersburg, Florida Irvine, 42, also admitted he has not been knighted and did not own a castle in Scotland."

Nice prep work, Food network.

John's Pal Scott Bateman has a pretty freaking hilarious animation over at Salon.com today. Check it out, and remember...if you like it, leave a comment!

***

The Ninja Versus Ninja sculpt is back from Tom Meier.





Am I happy?

Yes. Oh, my, yes.

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Here are some of the food blogs I've been loving recently:

Ruhlman.com - Michael Ruhlman's always a great read, and his "Elements of Cooking" has become one of my favorite food books this year. I'm not sure I agree entirely with him on the uses of boxed stock, but I'm damn sure gonna listen.

The Stew - The Chicago Tribune's blog on the local scene. Honestly, I even subscibe to Tiem Out Chicago just to keep up with the foodie goings on in the Windy City.

Diner's Journal - The New York equivalent of the above. The original, and still the best. Chicago's just so much closer, though...

A Hunger Artist - Bob Del Grosso's frequently opinionated, always fascinating ramblings.


Recipes of the Damned - Totally hilarious collection of recipes that have to be seen to be believed.

So, what other food blogs should I be checking out?

EDIT: Well, that's convenient. A whole list of potentially award-winning food blogs is over at WellFed.net's award site!

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And, lastly...



It's not just a good idea...it's the law.

Got back from Chicago early this morning, where we saw Crowded House play the House of Blues.

The trip was noteworthy for a few things. One: Finally seeing Neil Finn live. Few songwriters have made as much of an impression on me as Finn has over the last 15 years, and it was a joy seeing the band in the relatively close confines as the House of Blues, even if the venue insists that lead acts don't take the stage until 10:45 or 11 pm.

Secondly, driving home to Madison in occasionally torrential downpours, white-knuckling it for much of the way. Wheeee!

Thirdly, though, I was reacquainted with another old favorite: Chicago-style beef bombers. After more than 20 years away from red meat, it was fantastic to realize that these were just as wonderful as I remembered them, able to hold their beefy, juicy heads up high with other classics of street food (Philly cheese steaks, New York pizza, German sausages, etc.).

So very many cow- or pig-based foods I've returned to have been disappointing. A good burger, for example, is shockingly difficult to find. Though I've tracked down a few, the majority are greasy and uninspired. When I was a kid, I never met a patty I didn't like. Now, in the full throes of foodie-dom, with a palate refined over two decades of really getting serious about the subject, I tend to be leery when confronted with anything that used to moo when placed in a bun.

Bacon, on the other hand, rarely disappoints. Especially the stuff that's not mass-produced. While I kept my distance from it for decades, I can humbly report that "piggy strips" (as I'm sometimes wont to call them, "vegetarian-bane" being my other go-to moniker) have pretty much blown my mind.

This summer, especially, has been a good one for bacon, if only because the plump, sweet, lush tomatoes that seem to be springing up everywhere are just crying out to be added to what has got to be one of the most amazing foodstuffs ever perfected: the BLT.

Bacon. Lettuce. Tomatoes. Good mayonnaise. Great bread. How could five so disparate ingredients combine for something so heavenly? Anything less, and the center doesn't hold. Anything more, and the perfection is shattered.

Twenty-five years ago, I had my first BLT, at the Cleveland airport, waiting for my dad's flight to come in. At the time, I didn't think much of the sandwich. It seemed oddly...over-rated.

Looking back, of course, an airport restaurant is hardly the place for a epiphanal experience.

Still, I enjoyed it, if only because it meant the chance to have lunch with my mom (we'd driven over from Johnstown, PA). A BLT seemed an adult thing to order, and whenever my mom took me out to lunch, I felt like far more of an adult than I actually was, at the time. (Or perhaps still am, some might argue, and I wouldn't necessarily disagree with them.)

I remember the entire meal clearly. A bowl of cream of broccoli soup, and the sandwich. Much like the time when, in Shrewsbury, my mom took me out to lunch, to celebrate my "O" level exams. I felt grown-up. I felt happy. I felt proud that my mom was proud of me. For that hour, on a lazy Shropshire summer day, with my entire future lying ahead of me, I wasn't an awkward 16 year-old. I was a dining companion.

I can't remember what I had then, at that long-gone cookie-cutter Chinese restaurant, save for broccoli soup once more. I'm assuming that it was followed by my then-customary order of sweet and sour pork. But the experience, the emotions, the sheer pride was palpable, and all have stayed with me to this day.

Reminiscing on this, though, it reminds me of just how much meals contributes to memory, and feelings. Even when the food's mediocre.

I wonder how that first BLT would have struck me, had it been up to par with the exceptional ones served only seasonally at Madison's Cafe Soliel. Would it have been a transformative experience, with artisanal bread, or locally sourced, superbly cured bacon? Would I have even cared about the difference between a lush, rich tomato that came straight from someone's garden, as opposed to the limp, tasteless, mushy fruits that clog so much of the nation's food supply?

Possibly not. So in a way, I'm glad to have waited until my 40s for my first real BLT.

On the other hand, I'm enormously happy that a Chicago beef is every bit the sloppy, messy, joyous, delicious experience I remember from before I had anything resembling a discerning palate.

But mediocre BLTs at an airport restaurant?

Just add loved ones, and you'll have memories for a lifetime.

Well, damn...

Bacon chocolate bars. Seriously.



"Crisp, buttery, compulsively irresistible bacon and milk chocolate combination has long been a favorite of mine. I started playing with this combination at the tender age of six while eating chocolate chip pancakes drenched in maple syrup. Beside my chocolate-laden cakes laid three strips of fried bacon, just barely touching a sweet pool of maple syrup. Just a bite of the bacon was too salty and yearned for the sweet kiss of chocolate syrup."

If it's Vosges, though, I'll give it a try.

I think the whole exotic/weird high-end chocolates scene has become enormously overdone -- I'm awaiting Crunchy Frog as the next logical progression -- but damn if we don't stop in at Vosges every time we're in the Windy City...

A good friend of mine is an amazing chocolatier (Candinas Chocolatier, to be specific), seriously world-class, and his stuff relies on subtlety, simplicity and sheer quality. It's a refreshing respite in a world of Sea Salt and Balsamic Quail Thermidor truffles.

(1) We're safely ensconced at CONvergence, although my laptop is not. Rushing around to pack all the art supplies I needed to finish off and send The Good, The Bad and The Munchkin yesterday, including my scanner and all the cords, I somehow left Muskrat VI (my name for my faithful 17" Macbook Pro) sitting on the dining room table. Didn't realize this until I unpacked everything here in MPLS, and opened an empty laptop carrier.

The art for Munchkin doesn't need to be in until Monday, so that's fine, if annoying (am NOT looking forward to scanning and sending 125 pieces of art in one day). However, I've now got to figre out a way to et my editorial cartoon to Milwaukee this morning. So, anyway, slightly crank bunny right now.

(2) Someone in New York got ahold of a credit card number of mine, and tried to charge $500 worth of drugs from a CVS pharmacy. Not sure how they'd have gotten the number, but here you go. Fortunately, the credit card company (Citibank) flagged this, and called us. So, yay. Cancelled the cards, an awaiting new ones.

(3) Our con liaison, Lex, took us to Matt's Hamburgers last night, where we had their Jucy Lucy. An amazing burger that's actually two patties surrounding melted American cheese. Did I say "melted"? I meant "molten." The bar burger was fabulous, and the fries you could get on the side were amazing - far better than many I've had at restaurants that should know how to fry a damn potato. "Crack fries" is what Lex called them.

There is, apparently, some debate about which MPLS bar is, indeed, the actual home of the Jucy/Juicy Lucy, but I have to say, Matt's burger was outa this world yummy. I haven't sampled many good burgers since reverting to red meat last year, but this is, so far, the best. Some pickles and fried onions topped this post-modern masterpiece, rendering ketchup and mustard unnecessary.

It is, indeed, the cheesesteak of South Minneapolis.

(4)

I've illustrated six full Munchkin games: Munchkin; Star Munchkin; Munchkin Bites!; Super Munchkin; Munchkin Impossible and now Munchkin Cthuhu. At about 168 cards each, that makes 1,008 cards.

I've illustrated eight Munchkin supplements; Munchkin 2; Munchkin 3; Munchkin 4; Munchkin 5; Star Munchkin 2; Munchkin Bites 2; Super Munchkin 2; and Munchkin Blender. At around 112 cards each, that's 896 cards.

And there's been about 30 or 40 cards for foreign editions. Let's say 30. (Anyone have a full count, by the way?) And let's say 20 or so promotional cards for Steve Jackson Games (in Munchkin Dice and con specials).

So overall, that's 1,954 Munchkin cards I've drawn.

Now, there are a few cards less, due to things like blank cards, the repeated Loaded Die illustration (by far my least favorite drawing, and yet one that occurs the most often in all the games), and a few guest appearances.

But the next Munchkin set I do (not telling what it is. Heh heh heh) will contain my 2,000th Munchkin card.

I feel like trying to mark this event somehow.

I'm also trying to figure out if this is even close to some kind or record or something. I'm not sure about any other game systems that contain 2,000 cards by the same artist. Should such things exist, though, I'm sure the Interwebs will provide the answer.

Still, record or no, 2,000 cards is a lot.

Given what I know of the upcoming schedule, my guess is I'm likely to get to that card sometime in May or early June.

Wonder what I should do, then?

***

Anyone else see the Food Network Awards last night?

Awful, awful television. Eye-bleedingly bad.

We made it through ten minutes, of the later showing, and were driven away by the ankle-biting, stomach-churning awfulness.

Then had nightmares. Seriously.

So it was nice to wake up this morning to Anthony Bourdain's take on it.