Back in January, on New Year’s Day, I cooked my first goose, and as another holiday season approached, I wanted to whip up some other sort of feast that was just as special, but also one that took me into new culinary territory. I chose suckling pig … the purchasing of which proved to be far more difficult than I’d at first imagined.

I figured I’d be able to buy one easily—don’t lots of folks serve them around Christmas?—but not a single butcher in my area carried them. And they couldn’t even recommend a local farmer who’d sell me one either. So I ran over to A & H Gourmet and Seafood Market in Bethesda—where I couldn’t resist buying those quail I told you about last week. I was looking for a 9-12 pound pig, but when I arrived, all they had was one that weighed 17.5 pounds. No big deal, I thought. I figured we’d have no problem eating that much pork.

But there was a secondary issue I hadn’t considered until after I got the beast home …

The frozen suckling pig was 24″ long, as you can see via the yardstick above, and we could easily store it in my basement freezer until I was ready. But I realized that not only is my refrigerator just 18″ wide, my oven is only slightly larger, at 22″ wide! (more…)

I always figured that the first time I ate quail, it would happen because I’d spotted it on the menu at a restaurant I trusted to do the tiny things up right. Instead, my first time came about because while I was at A & H Seafood buying a suckling pig to cook for Christmas dinner, I peeked into their freezer and spotted packages of frozen quail. And since I’m not one to pass up the opportunity for a new culinary experience, I picked up two packages.

Why not just one? If you have to ask, you must not know me very well.

Each package contained six quail, and they weren’t very impressive when frozen. Squashed together as they were, they looked like nothing more than a solid lump of frozen meat, giving no sense of what they once were.

But after a few days of thawing, each quail—weighing in at about 4.66 ounces, if the gross weight of the package can be trusted—because a bird again. And looked kind of cute, if you ask me.

I plucked a recipe from my all-time favorite cookbook—James Beard’s American Cookery, which is so well-written that it’s worth reading even if you have no intention of ever cooking anything.

I chose the simplest recipe, not because I wasn’t up to a challenge, but because I wanted to taste the quail meat itself as purely as possible, unmasked by too heavy a sauce or too flavorful a spice. So after some butter, salt, pepper, and little else, plus 20 minutes in a 450-degree oven, here’s what I ended up with. (more…)

I had a 10:30 appointment yesterday over in Maryland to meet with—well, never you mind—and unfortunately, a rock slide prevented me from getting there in time. Oh, don’t worry, no Harpers Ferry boulders got me! But a tractor trailer wasn’t so lucky. It apparently swerved to avoid a rock slide and went through a guardrail on Route 340 near Harpers Ferry between the Potomac River bridge and the Shenandoah River bridge—cutting me off from getting over to Maryland.

I was at a dead stop for more than 90 minutes. When the rubble was cleared, traffic finally started moving again, and I caught up with the scene of the crash, here’s what I saw.

I’d have slowed for better video, but I had an idea that neither the police nor the frustrated drivers behind me would have been happy about that!

I arrived in Maryland MUCH later than I should have … but that’s a whole ‘nother story.

After taking care of business (or rather, learning that I’d arrived much too late to properly take care of business), I decided to try out Kraze Burgers, a Korean hamburger chain which had just opened its first location in the U.S., a fact I’d learned from a recent article in the Huffington Post. I was wondering how it would compare to Reno’s Awful Awful burgers or my all-time favorite, the Thurman burger. (more…)

An ad for Acme Supermarkets (where I guess Wile E. Coyote used to buy all his hunting gear) in the February 10, 1955 issue of the Washington, D.C. Evening Star hints that the ducks the company sells are treated like veal.

According to the ad, “swimming (as well as flying) develops stringy muscles, and Acme wants none of that.”

No wonder that bathing suit is hanging on a tree branch. The duck isn’t allowed to wear it.

I suddenly feel very sad for that duck.

I shared my favorite Worldcon moments the other day, but I know what you foodies out there really wanted to hear about was which casino in Reno made the best Awful Awful.

What’s an Awful Awful? A humongous burger that’s been made by two competing casinos in Reno since back before the Big Mac existed.

As those of you who attend conventions with me know, I get most of my food tips from the TV show Man v. Food, but since Adam Richman has yet to hit Reno, I had to instead base my excursions out of the convention center on the show Food Wars. Here’s the recent episode of that latter show that alerted me to the existence of these legendary burgers.

Before I get into the burgers themselves, check out how the two joints tout them with posters inside their casinos. On the left, The Little Nugget, and on the right, John Ascuaga’s Nugget.

But posters are one thing. Let’s see what the real thing looks like. (more…)

Until yesterday, I was a goose virgin. Even though I’ve eaten some pretty peculiar things over the years—including guinea pig—I’d never eaten goose before, and I’d certainly never cooked one. But it occupies a romantic place in my imagination. Perhaps because I’ve read too much Dickens?

So this year, when I spotted a goose at my supermarket, I thought—it’s about time. I bought it and then waited until yesterday to cook it for our New Year’s Day feast.

I put out a call online for goose recipes, and the one that intrigued me the most came from David Shaw, who recommended multiple approaches. What caught my eye was the Spiced Roast Goose with Dried-Fruit Pan Sauce. I think it was the fig, apricot, and prune stuffing that tempted me more than anything else.

Here’s what the goose looked liked before the cooking began.

What I hadn’t realized when embarking upon cooking a goose was how labor intensive the process was. Oh, prepping it for the oven was comparatively fast and easy, but a goose gives off so much fat that I was required to check on it every thirty minutes to skim off the excess to a) reserve it for later use, and b) make sure the oven didn’t burst into flame. Unlike other types of roasts, which can be fairly effortless save for occasional basting, the goose required my constant attention.

But it was worth it. Here’s what the bird looked like about four hours after it went into the oven.

Those skewers tucked under its wings contain the figs, apricots, and prunes that didn’t fit inside the bird.

I had another helping of goose for lunch today, and will probably do the same for dinner and then lunch tomorrow. I can’t see cooking a goose often, both due to the cost and the effort, but next time Christmas and New Year’s rolls around, I could see trying again.

Though come to think of it … there’s always a suckling pig.