Tasmanian Flax Lily Sightings in Pebble Beach, California by Ruth Paget

Tasmanian Flax Lily Sightings in Pebble Beach, California by Ruth Paget 

While drinking my weekly Peerless organic latte from the Market at Pebble Beach (California), I admired the large, puff-ball shaped Tasmanian flax lilies from southeastern Australia and the island of Tasmania originally. 

Up close, you can see that Tasmanian flax lilies have spiky pointed leaves with green and white stripes running along the leaves. The leaves bounce in wind and have a white stripes running down the center of the thin leaves. 

Tasmanian flax lilies are drought and deer resistant – both very important traits in coastal, wooded areas of California. 

You can find Tasmanian flax lilies by the Market at Pebble Beach. 

More information about these hardy yet frail looking plants follows: 

https://txmg.org/hendersonmg/files/2020/06/FLAX-LILY-VARIEGATED.pdf

Nursery information and purchasing details follow: 

https://www.budgetplants.com/variegated-flax-lily

Take a mini trip to Tasmania and Southeastern Australia as you stroll around the Market and Lodge and Pebble Beach, California! 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games

Two German Sandwiches for Tourists in Germany by Ruth Paget

Two German Sandwiches for Tourists in Germany by Ruth Paget 

My go-to German “fast food” sandwiches when I lived in Stuttgart (Germany) for five years were schinken-käse-brot (ham and cheese sandwiches on dinner rolls) and butter-brot (open-faced sandwiches like they make in Denmark). 

Both sandwiches are ideal for tourists especially tourists who visit German cities and towns on foot. 

The place I would order schinken-kâse-brot was Sehne Ihre Bâckerei. Sehne (pronounced ‘zay-nay’) is a national bakery chain like McDonalds that sells bread (supposedly 365 kinds in German) and provides seating for kaffee klatsches (coffee breaks). 

They have white bread baguettes, which I always picked up for toast. As a little treat, I would get two schinken-kâse sandwiches. I liked ordering these in German, “Zwei schinken-kâse, bitte – two ham and cheese sandwiches, please.” I drank Gerolsteiner fizzy water with these sandwichs and contemplated braving the 30 below, windy weather outside to go home. 

The other sandwich I sometimes ate at home was a butter-brot or open-faced sandwich. I bought the ingredients for these at the Total Gas Station down from our apartment or Ikea’s grocery department downtown. 

I toasted rye or pumpernickel bread and spread it with brown, large grain German mustard. On top of this, I would place tinned, smoked trout or smoked salmon and sliced red onion. 

I thought this sandwich was very northern German and would drink a Beck’s lager with my Baltic sandwich. Our local Edeka supermarket had many choices of beer in 4-packs so you could sample beers from all around Germany. I was able to get Beck’s from Bremen in northern Germany this way in southern Stuttgart. 

These sandwiches are available year-round usually at a pretty reasonable price. Tourists and locals alike can enjoy these while visiting or doing errands in cities and towns in Germany.  

Note: Brot bread can be made with spent grain from beer making.  

Polar Vortex Memories! 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games

The Everything Indian Cookbook: 300 Tantalizing Recipes Reviewed by Ruth Paget

The Everything Indian Cookbook: 300 Tantalizing Recipes Reviewed by Ruth Paget 

Monica Bhide’s The Everything India Cookbook: 300 Tantalizing Recipes helped me solidify the knowledge I have gained about Indian from eating in Indian restaurants and preparing several dishes at home over a few decades. 

Bhide writes that Indian cooking has six tastes that cooks try to achieve when putting together a meal. These six tastes follow: 

-sweet 

-sour 

-salty 

-spicy 

-bitter 

-astringent 

These flavors are often brought into a meal with a variety of condiments. 

Bhide further writes that spices distinguish Indian cuisine from others. Indians have a specific spicing order when cooking that promotes flavor and gut health, which follows: 

-whole spices 

-herbs 

-powdered spices  

Spice powders are made from dry roasted whole spices that are ground and kept in air-tight jars in dark places. 

Thickening agents for cooking include: 

-yogurt 

-chickpea flour 

-onions

-nut pastes 

Bhide cites Indian Ayurvedic traditional medicine when she writes that ancient texts promote the use of spices for the following reasons: 

-medicinal properties 

-ability to act as food preservers 

-healing 

The 300 recipes in The Everyday Indian Cookbook are well written and invite Indian food lovers to try cooking some of their favorite restaurant foods. 

Some of the recipes that I think are particularly good for cooking after a farmers’ market visit include:

-Indian paneer – cheese made with milk, lemon juice, and cheese cloth from draining 

-spinach soup 

-Indian-style coleslaw 

-potato and yogurt salad

-Maharastrian cabbage salad 

-shredded carrot salad 

The Everything Indian Cookbook: 300 Tantalizing Recipes by Monica Bhide is enjoyable to read and cook from. 

Novice cooks and Indian restaurant habitués can all find tasty recipes to try in The Everything Indian Cookbook – an absolute great reference cookbook for the kitchen bookshelf or Kindle library. 

Note: In Salinas (California) you can eat Indian food at Avatar Indian Grill,  In Monterey, (California) Ambrosia has two locations.  Ambrosia also has a location in Los Gatos outside San Jose, California.

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games

TikTok Video Restaurant Reviews Suggested Format by Ruth Paget

I have been watching video restaurant reviews on TikTok (mostly Asian - I love all Asian food) and find that reviews in the following format give me the best idea of what a restaurant is like:

-panoramic shot outside the restaurant

-panoramic shot inside

-menu shot - I like photo menus and ordering list 

-if restaurants have a delivery robot, it is cute to see food delivered by them

-close-up shots of food ordered, names, and ingredients

-descriptions of dishes with individual portion shots coming up to the camera

-opinions of why you like a dish and who else might like a dish

-to finish, if they have merchandise for sale like a sauce, calendar, language-learning CDs,  children’s educational books from Daiso or Scholastic, pencils, pens, logo stationery, or chopsticks, that is a cute good-bye

Thanks filmmakers for the fun videos and restaurant ideas.

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games

Ulysses S. Grant Biography Info reposted by Ruth Paget

Ulysses S. Grant wrote his autobiography to support his family after his death according to the book’s description below:

https://www.amazon.com/American-Ulysses-Life-S-Grant/dp/1400069025

For people interested in the Civil War and its aftermath, this looks like a fascinating read.

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games

Monterey Cypress Trees at Pebble Beach, California by Ruth Paget

Monterey Cypress Trees at Pebble Beach, California by Ruth Paget

The Lone Cypress Trees at Pebble Beach, California is the symbol of the Pebble Beach Company that runs the elite resort on property and world-famous golf tournaments.

This hardy, salt-resistant tree is native to the Monterey Peninsula and can grow up to 82 feet in height.  Its branches bend in the direction of the wind and eventually permanently contort to show wind direction.

The tree’s deep roots and its ability to grow in sandy soil make it an erosion fighter.  This trait is very important in coastal areas.

The Lone Cypress at Pebble Beach appears to grow from bare rock on the a ledge over the coast.  It’s improbable surroundings make it a sought after souvenir photo for tourists and a reminder for locals that their bent cypress trees hold expensive property in place.

More information about the Monterey Cypress follows:

https://calscape.org/Hesperocyparis-macrocarpa-(Monterey-Cypress)-2

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games

Cinco de Mayo at Home for Mom by Ruth Paget

I am an older mom now, so my daughter ordered me a Taco Bell dinner:

-crunch wrap 

-hard shell taco

-low-sugar strawberry agua fresca

I thought it was great, because I did not have to cook it.

Cheerios!

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games