magic places.

 I already miss drinking hoppy American beers every day. At the Atlanta airport (Concourse E), we were sitting at a horrible-looking bar in the middle of a hideous food court, a bar whose singular saving grace is their excellent and interesting beer and wine selection.

On the list of non-saving graces, they also had a piano player, the kind you might find in a hotel lobby bar. But this was the airport food court. There are probably more depressing gigs out there, but I imagine you come home from that one and look at yourself in the mirror for an extra couple seconds before bed.

We were on our second beer (Sweetwater 420) when we noticed that the bar had no kitchen. Yet they served food. Hmm. We asked our bartender, who had a serious Wayne Brady thing going on, where the food came from. "Magic places," he said, and wiggled his eyebrows.

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Continuing with nostalgia finds, I just found my first homemade cookbook. Which is really just a collection of stolen recipes, retyped, but at some point I took the time to format them fancily and use a lot of features in Word that I'd never used before, so...I called it COOKBOOK.DOC for lack of a better filename. Here is/are one or more excerpts: remember, it's possible/probable that these are directly cribbed from somewhere else on the internet, I'll check eventually.

This first one is something I remember vividly, it sounds very unlikely but as it's recorded in my mind, very refreshing and delicious. BUT: There is something wrong with this recipe that has to do with salting the zucchini, not sure what the solution is.

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shrimp-zucchini rolls with rosemary-ginger vinaigrette 

3 large zucchini, trimmed
12 cooked shrimp (16/20 is a good size, if you do larger ones, halve them)
3/4 cup daikon sprouts
12 1-inch pieces thinly sliced pickled ginger

3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
1 1/2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Place 1 zucchini on work surface. Using mandoline or similar, cut zucchini into thin ribbons about 5 inches long and 1 inch wide. Repeat with remaining zucchini, forming 12 ribbons total. Place shrimp at 1 end of each zucchini ribbon, dividing shrimp equally. Top with sprouts and pickled ginger, dividing equally. Starting at filled end, roll up each zucchini ribbon into cylinder. Place seam side down on paper-towel-lined baking sheet. Cover and chill at least 1 hour or up to 6 hours.

Whisk next 6 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in oil to taste. Pour vinaigrette into small bowl. Place in center of platter. Surround with shrimp rolls. Makes 4 appetizer servings.

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