Yesterday Iris and I went to the video store as part of her planned Bring It On afternoon. She was having friends over to watch those movies and to maybe also watch a Heath Ledger movie (or two).
Alas -- and of course -- the video store was all out of Heath Ledger movies. And the only Bring It On movies were the second and fourth ones. Until yesterday I thought there were only two of those movies.
Even Fred Meyer's electronics section didn't have what we wanted. But I did find a used DVD of Paprika, an animated feature I've heard nothing but good things about.
And PAPRIKA has played a large part in my life lately. At the end of last year the local paper's food section printed a "best of the year" article. I don't read the food section of the paper all that often. I'd link to the paper right now, but their web site is frustratingly difficult to navigate. As a public service, I won't send you there.
Among the best 2007 best recipes was something with "smoked paprika." It sounded good. I'd never seen smoked paprika for sale, and I shop at both 7/11 and Plaid Pantry.
I went to the internets to see where in Portland I could buy the stuff. Most of the results were from fancy-schmancy Portland restaurants -- menu items featuring smoked paprika. "It's the spice of the year!" I told my wife, in between rants about how stupid things are and why I'm smarter than everyone else except her.
I asked my pal Greg, owner of the Corbett Fish House, and yeah, he'd heard of it, but didn't know where to get it. We both looked around at exotic-type spice stores (in my case, the nearby Mexican grocery and the nearby Caribbean spice grocery). A week later Greg ordered some from the internet tubes.
He gave me a pound of it this week. My first thought was to roast some potatoes with it, so I walked to Trader Joe's and endured that crowd.
But lately I've been making pastes with the mortar and pestle for Thai-style foods, and, well... I made a paste with the smoked paprika and prepped some vegetables. But I ended up sticking it in the fridge and doing something completely different for dinner. Golly, the paprika vegetables smell good, though.
Smoked paprika had become some plate-o-shrimp thing. And here it is a month later, I have some in the house, and I still haven't tried it.
This morning Amy and Cleo and I went over to the Hawthorne district. Cleo shopped for a birthday present, while we went to Powell's to spend a gift card. We first stopped at Pastaworks. We bought some cheese. On the spice shelf they sold smoked paprika... but now I don't need any, do I?
And one of the cheeses we bought? We got home and discovered it was covered in... smoked paprika!
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
now, I am completely up to speed on the paprika thing! laurie
I realize that we have fully explored the smokey paprika angle already, but I did want to mention that after perusing your blog I noticed in one of your earlier posts a mention of a product I personally find very intriguing. It's called, "Monica Brand,
Macapuno, Preserved Coconut Sport". Could this be the next "It" food for 2008?? laurie
Now there's an idea! I'd been thinking of pickled coconut sport, in perhaps a sweet'n'sour grass juice. But now I see the possibilities of preserved coconut sport, whereas I've up to now been exploiting it for comic/ironic value.
I planned on going to the Hawthorne area for other errands, so I stopped in at Pasta Works to find this mythical exotic spice, the Smoked Paprika. But first I went to get some pasta sauce. Two rather portly people were already there, blocking access to the sauce. Rather than engage in the dreaded Human Interaction, I moved on to try to find the spices. I roamed all over the store before I realized I had already walked by it near the front. When I got back to the spice section, the same two large people were now huddled in front of the smoked paprika and all the other spices. They had a lot to talk about, so I checked out the chelated Portuguese Okra oil and the Orca Musk brine-soaked capers on a nearby shelf.
Finally I bought my Smoked Paprika and took it home and put it on a piece of quiche and I couldn't taste it at all. I've found, however, that if I mix it with some acrylic medium it makes a beautiful dusky red paint.
Post a Comment