Embracing the Darkness: My Eclipse Day Menu

in #food7 years ago

Eclipse.jpg

Watching a total eclipse of the sun may be a “once in a lifetime” opportunity. The August 21 solar eclipse passes through much of the continental United States, but its path lies far to the north of me. So my plan was to take the kids out of school, spend one day driving north and then another day driving back south, just so we could brag to other people that we saw the total eclipse for a few seconds. That was Plan A.

EclipsePath.jpg
Eclipse path through North America. Source: NOAA.

So I managed to book a hotel in the eclipse belt, which wasn’t an easy task since they are quite full (and overpriced). In fact, the traffic on the interstate highways will be heavy, since so many people from population centers are driving to the same spots to see this much hyped eclipse. Since I booked a couple of months ago, my intended hotel has called me several times asking if I would cancel my reservation (since I assume they have jacked up the price since then and could get more for the room from someone else).

Yesterday, I gave them what they wanted. I cancelled my hotel reservation at the Acme Motel in Throckmorton Slough or whatever the place was called. I won’t be one of the people driving for hours to see the dark sun for a few seconds. I’m going to miss this eclipse.

I cancelled Plan A because no one else in my family wanted to go. My kids actually want to be in school that Monday, since the school year is just beginning and they aren’t bored with it yet. My wife said she needs to work that day and told me to watch the eclipse on TV. Then she suggested that I could drive to Idaho and watch the eclipse by myself. Wait, did she mean I should take a one-way trip to Idaho or come back afterwards?

My Plan A was a family trip. I don’t care about seeing the sun go dark for a few seconds; I simply hoped that my kids might care. Since they don’t, I’m not going to waste two days driving by myself. It’s on to Plan B: staying home.

My dog suggested we have an eclipse day party. I told him I might be the only one staying home with him that morning, so it might be a party for two. The dog doesn’t eat my food and I don’t eat his, so we had a tough time agreeing on a menu. In the end, we went with fruit and cheese, which both of us will eat.

The Fruit

My dog likes a little fruit. Apples, pears, and stone fruits seem to appeal to him. I’ll eat anything in season. Since we don’t have any local apples as black as a solar eclipse, I’ll go with the darkest fruit that’s in season in the late summer: prune plums.

PrunePlums SpecialtyProduce.png
Prune plums. Credit: Specialty Produce.

More people are familiar with dried prunes than fresh ones, but this is what they look like fresh. In taste, they are similar to other European plums. In other words, they have sweet, dense flesh, with much less juice than the Asian plums that dominate the market in my area. Even while Asian plums and pluots (plum-apricot crosses) are more popular here, fresh prune plums make a great late summer treat.

There is plenty of symbolism in this choice of fruit. On the outside, prune plums are purple or deep blue, evoking the darkness of outer space. Their shape is oval, resembling the elliptical orbit of a planetary body around its larger host. When you cut them open, plums have a golden interior with a pit at the core. If you squint your eyes, you can imagine Saturn or perhaps a cross-section of the earth’s interior.

Sugar DWN.jpg
Sugar prunes. Credit: Dave Wilson Nurseries.

Prune plums put us in astronomical territory.

The Cheese

So what goes well with this fruit? Cheese, of course. But in keeping with the eclipse theme, it must be darkened or two-tone cheese. And I have the perfect choice: Humboldt Fog Cheese. While any self-respecting French person will tell you the best cheeses come from France, that statement was once true of wines as well. With wine, the French simply had a 500-year head start on some other parts of the world when it came to quality, but others began to catch up as they learned which grapes grew best in their microclimates. In 1973, French wine judges in Paris conducted a blind taste test in the so-called Judgment of Paris, famously selecting Napa Valley wines from the United States over their French counterparts as the winners in both categories.

Humboldt Fog Cheese cc arndog.jpg
Humboldt Fog Cheese. Credit: CC via Flickr by Arndog.
Humboldt Fog Cheese cc allaboutgeorge.jpg
Humboldt Fog Cheese. Credit: CC via Flickr by Allaboutgeorge.

If you asked me several years ago, I would have said that there is no cheese in the U.S. that is equal to what you can taste in France. French cheeses are simply better. But the craft food movement in the U.S. has introduced better quality in so many fields, from cheese to chocolate. And while much has been written about the cheese I am about to describe (which has won multiple awards), it has taken me several years of tasting this cheese to fully grasp its complexity and make a definitive statement on the matter:

“Humboldt Fog Cheese is the most important cheese ever made in America. It is equal to anything I have tasted in France.” ---@donkeypong

BOOM. The silence is so, so, so…silent that you can hear a pin drop just at that moment the moon blocks out the sun. Since donkeys know their cheeses, and this one is not paid by the cheese maker for recommending its product, you’ll have to trust me on this until you can find somewhere that sells this stuff. It’s multi-layered, light and yet heavy, it’s almost two cheeses in one, and the only real parallel I can give you is Teahupoo.

Tea-hoo-what? Teahupoo; it’s a surf spot in Tahiti.

HamiltonWave1.png
OMG.jpg
Hamilton's wave in Teahupoo. Photo: Tim McKenna, Surfer Magazine.

It’s been called the thickest wave and the heaviest wave. Seventeen years ago this month, surf legend Laird Hamilton dropped into a wave at the surf break in Tahiti known as Teahupoo. The full force of the South Pacific broke over this line of reef that’s so shallow it almost touches the surface. While others had surfed at Teahupoo, no one had ever seen someone ride a wave like this. Hamilton didn’t have to ride that wave to prove he was a bad-ass surfer, but the fact that he did ride it encouraged surfers and other extreme sports enthusiasts around the world to test new limits.

They called it the most important wave ever surfed because it showed human beings can reach new heights of extremity. Just like Humboldt Fog Cheese could be the most important cheese in America: it shows that more is possible outside of France. Like the Teahupoo wave, Humboldt fog cheese is a double-layer of complexity, almost two cheeses in one.

WaveofCheese.jpg
Humboldt Fog cc Mindonfire.jpg
Humboldt Fog Cheese, first overlayed on the wave image credited above. On this wedge of cheese, you can see the different layers and the ripening process that begins on the outside. Credit: CC by mindonfire.

The first thing you notice is the vein of ash that runs through this cheese, made from edible vegetable ash. In keeping with our eclipse theme, this darkness runs around the outside as well, where the ash layer actually is buried in the edible mold rind.

Humboldt Fog is a goat’s milk cheese and at its core, when fresh, it tastes like a smooth chevre. Yet it is made as a soft-ripened cheese with a process much like that used for Brie or Camembert, which ripen from the outside in. When fresh, the cheese’s complex character only becomes fully evident when you reach the outer portion near the rind. There, all bets are off, because you’re in French cheese territory. To taste an American cheese with that kind of live, nutty, tangy, and salty complexity is to appreciate that this is a special confection.

And it only gets better as this wedge of goodness ages, since more and more of the cheese ripens toward the core. Imagine rolling together and layering the flavors of chevre, brie, and blue cheese, maintaining one of the smoothest consistencies you can imagine, adding in the earthy nuttiness of the ash layer, and throwing in the dynamic unpredictability of a live cheese where every wedge is a unique creation of nature.

The Drink

Fresh prune plums with Humboldt Fog cheese. What beverage matches with these delicacies while keeping us in the pitch blackness of an eclipse? With fruit and cheese, the first thought would be wine, but I’ve pretended once already that purple was the new noir. At this juncture, ‘tis a better job for a stout, such as the pride of St. James Gate. And I cannot justify drinking a pint of Guinness at 9:30 in the morning, so I’ve found something more appropriate for an eclipse party.

Guinness.jpeg
Yes, I know, but...
Luli Charcoal.png
Prevention.jpg
Blackness in a bottle. Sources. Guinness, Luli, Prevention Magazine.

Liquid charcoal lemonade. Drinks don’t get any blacker than this. And unlike a dark beer, a shot of charcoal helps eliminate any junk in your body's digestive system. I had never tried this stuff before, but I sampled a bottle of it to rehearse for eclipse day. It tastes like a sour lemonade that’s blended with activated coconut charcoal. Just the stuff to clean you out inside. Warning: check with your doctor before consuming such a beverage.

Drano.jpg
And never drink Drano unless you want to be eclipsed from the inside out. Source: The Naked Gun, Paramount Pictures.

But I'll be watching it on TV. Can someone please pass the Oreos?

Top photo credit: NASA

DotConnector.png
Thanks goes to @jodipamungkas for the badge. Great gaming blogger, too.

Sort:  

I loved your plan B, to wait for the next eclipse. In life not everything comes out as we planned but it depends on us if we live frustrated by what happened, or we enjoyed plan B. thanks for sharing.

yeah your r right awesome post man and the info is very usefull

Wow check this out @emonemolover

Let's go to the Tops! on 21st!

Wow let's go!

Oh no, it's not visible in the Philippines! We have to fly to USA lol

ohh nooooo! we gotta fly by our wings! haha

Waoo really nice post !!

Hey roseri, If you want to watch a new movie Dunkirk by Christopher Nolan just click on the link : https://dtube.video/v/shugamena/gbg0937q

I haven't witness an Eclipse yet. I hope one day I will :)

Así es mi linda en esta vida hay que tener un plan B......y sobre todo ver siempre hacia adelante con un horizonte ...y siempre viendo al frente y esperando cada atardecer ..par luego ver el amanecer

Love the menu, love the dog and how you make plans around the eclipse. The cheese sounds interesting, and I agree people start again to care about making quality products. Saludos!!

The dog doesn't let me forget him when I'm home.

And he doesn't forget you when you're out, even for a minute. They're all made of pure love.

Give some love and good dog food. Get back the love x10. Dogs are amazing.

You should go see it! It's 90% where I live and I'm driving 4 hours to see it full. My sister lives in NYC and is flying to Kansas City and driving from there to see it. Worth every cent.

You'll have to post some pictures. But be sure to wear some glasses.

Enjoy the eclipse while eating the fruit of blackberry this one must be more exciting @donkeypong

Sweet Blackberry from aceh. :)

I'll have to try those. They do look quite dark.

Very dark ... and this is only in indonesia especially aceh

Well we all gonna see it on the net ;)

I'm looking forward to the eclipse this year too. Just wrote a post about being directly in the path of totality, up here in White House, TN.

Sorry to hear that you won't make the trip, @donkeypong, but there will be plenty of live coverage on TV. I intend to shoot footage during the event then post it right to Steemit.

My dog suggested we have an eclipse day party.

Mine said the same thing! :) Of course I will be missing out on the fruit and cheese.

Yes, please blog it!

I will certainly be missing the eclipse from Koh Pha Ngan, Thailand. So would be great to see it here on Steemit! Great idea, blog away!

I'd trade places with you for a day. Haven't been to one of those Thai islands for a few years.

I'd trade places with you for a full afternoon! Like when I was babysitting my cousins kids a few weeks ago in the US. It was a lot of fun, but by the end of the day I was happy to return them and get some R&R. :) But I love children, they are so pure and innocent! I see you've traveled a bit based on your comment. So you probably know about this; but I'm about to publish an article on medical tourism, a real money saver. Hoping I can save some steemians thousands on their next major dental work or something.

Have a great day!

-Dan "world travel pro"

Plan B looks great. I hope you enjoy it. I hope you take some pictures of the eclipse.

hahaha your joke so awesome and make us laught @donkeypong , thanks for using my badge's , you are so great tom

Thanks for the great badge. I promised to use it on a funny post. This one is partly funny, but no warranties on my sense of humor.

you are welcome tom @dongkeypong , this is great tom , im so like it :))

cool post! I especially like the reminder of prune plums. I love those, but sort of forgot to buy them this season. I will now though!! :)

I've got to look for some now then! :))

Only had to read in a few paragraphs to see how good this post is!

Since that's a few more paragraphs than many people read, you deserve an upvote.

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.35
TRX 0.12
JST 0.040
BTC 70351.33
ETH 3563.43
USDT 1.00
SBD 4.72