sailing (sort of), straight-leg jeans, plus empanadas, gorditas, and chavindecas
Since returning from our road trip, I've been obsessively reading a book I found in one of those little free library hutches in Courtenay, BC.
Actually, L found it. We were walking her girls back to the car after their piano lessons when they insisted on stopping in the rain to browse. P seized a book about a little-known dinosaur she absolutely needed to bring home. M twirled, already bored. L nudged me, pointing to a blue hardback at the bottom of the stack, "Look, it's a book for you! 'The Care and Feeding of the Offshore Crew.'"
She was teasing, but it is a book for me. It's very much for me.
Subtitled, "An expert tells how to buy, provision, store, and prepare food for extended voyages," it was written in 1978-79 by Lin Pardey, with the help of her husband Larry Pardey, as they sailed from Japan to the west coast of Canada in a 24-foot yacht. "Yacht" ≠ fancy, I now know. Not necessarily. It just means medium-sized sailboat. And the Pardeys are sailing for real, making the 4500-mile trip without the aid of an engine.
There's not a whole lot of suspense. We know they're going to make it. But the format of the book is pleasing. Each chapter covers a single day, how many miles they logged, what the weather was like, what they ate. Lin folds in tips for buying provisions on foreign shores, advice for storing and extending the life of those provisions, and a number of her own recipes.
This one for Mashed Potato Salad (Day 21) struck me as so gross I had to read it out loud to R:
2 cups leftover mashed potatoes (from instant)
1/4 cup chopped onions
1/4 cup chopped green peppers
1/4 cup leftover green peas (optional)
1 tsp. dill weed
2 tsp. MSG
1 tsp. sugar
4 tbs. mayonnaise
Mix well and then let stand for at least 2 hours in a cold place.
You guys. MASHED POTATO SALAD?! There's also a recipe for Rice Salad (Day 8), which calls for leftover white rice, chopped onions, mayo, vinegar, sugar, garlic, MSG, and dill.
Most of the recipes are unappealing. It's 1979 after all, MSG is still considered a condiment, and Lin is mostly working with canned and dehydrated food. (The fresh meat runs out, along with the ice, on Day 7.) Plus onions. Lots of onions, which are high in vitamin C, and are one of the few fresh foods that'll last 40+ days without refrigeration.
Not only is "The Care and Feeding..." relevant to the script I'm writing—I plan to steal a subplot about scurvy—but also it feels relevant to my life. I'm trying to take to heart Lin's advice to overbuy, and have begun rearranging our cupboards to make room for extra foodstuffs. This bit convinced me:
When you see stores you like, buy them. They might not be available in the next country you visit. Keep the boat full and refill it every chance you get. Full lockers in port mean freedom from that endless round of shop, cook, wash the dishes and clothes, shop, cook... that turns many wives away from cruising.
Yeah, she sometimes gets a little... gendered. But I can relate. My problem is, I like to be in charge of the grocery shopping even though I don't always feel like going. Lin continues:
When you are making passages, extra food on board means you are free to change your plans, extend your stay at a desert island, and avoid civilization for just that extra bit of time that will make your cruise a joy.
I love that. I often feel I'm cruising (albeit with excellent wifi) in this little ship that is our house.
I also appreciate Lin's exhortations to get enough sleep, and her recommendation that "every cruising person keep some special dress-up clothes on board."
***
This month in jeans: Not sure they qualify as dress-up, but I just scored a pair of straight, dark, like-new A.P.C. jeans for $28 at Crossroads. I'm very pleased that straight-leg jeans are in. Now I've got my eye on Simone Kitchens' $40 Wranglers.
This month in tacos: There were so many! We swooped into taco joints in Guadalupe, CA, in Portland, OR, and Victoria, BC, and as we drove back down through Idaho and Eastern Washington. I've forced myself to choose the top three.
1) This is not technically a taco, but the empanada from La Arepa at the Portland Mercado was SO GOOD. I got the Pabellon ($6)—shredded beef, fried plantain, black beans, and white cotija cheese, sealed up in the perfect (gluten free) corn envelope and deep fried. OMG.
2) Again, not technically a taco, but the gordita from Los Buenos Diaz in Nampa, ID, was a fresh, delicious, fried pocket of corn, very like an arepa. Again, gluten-free! We got one nopal (cactus) con asada ($6), which I basically snatched out of R's hands and finished myself. The rajas (roasted pepper) taco ($1.50) was also killer. When we go back I plan to order two rajas gorditas con asada all for myself.
3) At LaPinChe Tacos in Yakima, WA, we got the Red Taco Combo with consume cup ($7.99), juicy and crispy and cheesy, rivaling any birria I've had in Los Angeles, and the chavindecas ($5.50), a specialty from the Mexican state of Michoacán, our server told us proudly, which is very like a mulita or quesadilla, grilled to order with asada and plenty of cheese. Bonkers good. We also bought a dozen of their house-made tortillas ($4.50), which sustained us on the road, and the last of which fried beautifully for chilaquiles on our first day home.
This month on HBO: Succession. I love it. R does not, so I have to kind of sneak it in during off-hours.
xoxo,
Laramie
p.s. As always, please forward this to someone who loves tacos! Or sailing? If you're seeing The Taco Diaries for the first time and you want more, subscribe here to get it once a month.
Actually, L found it. We were walking her girls back to the car after their piano lessons when they insisted on stopping in the rain to browse. P seized a book about a little-known dinosaur she absolutely needed to bring home. M twirled, already bored. L nudged me, pointing to a blue hardback at the bottom of the stack, "Look, it's a book for you! 'The Care and Feeding of the Offshore Crew.'"
She was teasing, but it is a book for me. It's very much for me.
Subtitled, "An expert tells how to buy, provision, store, and prepare food for extended voyages," it was written in 1978-79 by Lin Pardey, with the help of her husband Larry Pardey, as they sailed from Japan to the west coast of Canada in a 24-foot yacht. "Yacht" ≠ fancy, I now know. Not necessarily. It just means medium-sized sailboat. And the Pardeys are sailing for real, making the 4500-mile trip without the aid of an engine.
There's not a whole lot of suspense. We know they're going to make it. But the format of the book is pleasing. Each chapter covers a single day, how many miles they logged, what the weather was like, what they ate. Lin folds in tips for buying provisions on foreign shores, advice for storing and extending the life of those provisions, and a number of her own recipes.
This one for Mashed Potato Salad (Day 21) struck me as so gross I had to read it out loud to R:
2 cups leftover mashed potatoes (from instant)
1/4 cup chopped onions
1/4 cup chopped green peppers
1/4 cup leftover green peas (optional)
1 tsp. dill weed
2 tsp. MSG
1 tsp. sugar
4 tbs. mayonnaise
Mix well and then let stand for at least 2 hours in a cold place.
You guys. MASHED POTATO SALAD?! There's also a recipe for Rice Salad (Day 8), which calls for leftover white rice, chopped onions, mayo, vinegar, sugar, garlic, MSG, and dill.
Most of the recipes are unappealing. It's 1979 after all, MSG is still considered a condiment, and Lin is mostly working with canned and dehydrated food. (The fresh meat runs out, along with the ice, on Day 7.) Plus onions. Lots of onions, which are high in vitamin C, and are one of the few fresh foods that'll last 40+ days without refrigeration.
Not only is "The Care and Feeding..." relevant to the script I'm writing—I plan to steal a subplot about scurvy—but also it feels relevant to my life. I'm trying to take to heart Lin's advice to overbuy, and have begun rearranging our cupboards to make room for extra foodstuffs. This bit convinced me:
When you see stores you like, buy them. They might not be available in the next country you visit. Keep the boat full and refill it every chance you get. Full lockers in port mean freedom from that endless round of shop, cook, wash the dishes and clothes, shop, cook... that turns many wives away from cruising.
Yeah, she sometimes gets a little... gendered. But I can relate. My problem is, I like to be in charge of the grocery shopping even though I don't always feel like going. Lin continues:
When you are making passages, extra food on board means you are free to change your plans, extend your stay at a desert island, and avoid civilization for just that extra bit of time that will make your cruise a joy.
I love that. I often feel I'm cruising (albeit with excellent wifi) in this little ship that is our house.
I also appreciate Lin's exhortations to get enough sleep, and her recommendation that "every cruising person keep some special dress-up clothes on board."
***
This month in jeans: Not sure they qualify as dress-up, but I just scored a pair of straight, dark, like-new A.P.C. jeans for $28 at Crossroads. I'm very pleased that straight-leg jeans are in. Now I've got my eye on Simone Kitchens' $40 Wranglers.
This month in tacos: There were so many! We swooped into taco joints in Guadalupe, CA, in Portland, OR, and Victoria, BC, and as we drove back down through Idaho and Eastern Washington. I've forced myself to choose the top three.
1) This is not technically a taco, but the empanada from La Arepa at the Portland Mercado was SO GOOD. I got the Pabellon ($6)—shredded beef, fried plantain, black beans, and white cotija cheese, sealed up in the perfect (gluten free) corn envelope and deep fried. OMG.
2) Again, not technically a taco, but the gordita from Los Buenos Diaz in Nampa, ID, was a fresh, delicious, fried pocket of corn, very like an arepa. Again, gluten-free! We got one nopal (cactus) con asada ($6), which I basically snatched out of R's hands and finished myself. The rajas (roasted pepper) taco ($1.50) was also killer. When we go back I plan to order two rajas gorditas con asada all for myself.
3) At LaPinChe Tacos in Yakima, WA, we got the Red Taco Combo with consume cup ($7.99), juicy and crispy and cheesy, rivaling any birria I've had in Los Angeles, and the chavindecas ($5.50), a specialty from the Mexican state of Michoacán, our server told us proudly, which is very like a mulita or quesadilla, grilled to order with asada and plenty of cheese. Bonkers good. We also bought a dozen of their house-made tortillas ($4.50), which sustained us on the road, and the last of which fried beautifully for chilaquiles on our first day home.
This month on HBO: Succession. I love it. R does not, so I have to kind of sneak it in during off-hours.
xoxo,
Laramie
p.s. As always, please forward this to someone who loves tacos! Or sailing? If you're seeing The Taco Diaries for the first time and you want more, subscribe here to get it once a month.
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