ROLLER DERBY, PORK AND CIGARETTE SMOKE

Poster Art by Dave Cook, 2010 /idrawmonsters.com

These are a few of my favorite things. Maybe not the smoke so much. But, I like Roller Derby and I like pork. I like them together or alone.

Last night we attended the final matches of the 2010 season for the Atlanta Roller Girls. First was a grudge match next was the championship bout. The event took place at the Yaaraba Temple on Ponce de Leon Ave. I haven't seen Roller Derby since the 70's when I watched it on tv with my Grandma Hartley. Back then I didn't know the rules or how to score so it took a while to follow it. But, Saturday night was great fun and a really well run event with a few artist selling paintings, tee shirts, posters and all kinds of ARG paraphernalia. There was a band playing out doors in the court yard and lot's of folks were tailgating with ice chest and barbecue grills all over the place.

Here is a link to all the excitement. http://www.atlantarollergirls.com/site_admin/

We had a mini keg of home brew, chviche, brisket sliders and popcicles for our tailgate party. We had fun and plan on doing it again next season.

We went from there just up the street to the Righteous Room. The name is correct, it is indeed a righteous room. Great beer list, good bar food and to much smoke. That's the only problem, which isn't a problem for everyone else there so what ya gonna do? Anyway we had a beer and caught up on some football scores and headed around the corner to Pura Vida Tapas Restaurant.

Hector Santiago is the chef at Pura Vida Tapas and he has been putting out great food at the corner Blue Ridge and Highland for a long time. He was also on Top Chef a couple seasons ago. He also recently opened a sandwich shop next door to Pura Vida Tapas and it's a huge hit. We ate well. Here's what we ate. Oh, the sandwich shop is Super Pan Latino Sandwich Shop. Click for link.

Beers, vodka and red wine.

Ga. Trout ceviche con leche
lemon-lime marinated trout loin
aji mixto jelly, celery juice, milk & canchita corn

Mussels in white wine and lot's of garlic. It was served in a small cast iron skillet and the dish had herring in it.

Tuna Poke, Porque No?!
charred mushrooms, soy cassarep marinated tuna loin, sizzling in chipotle garlic butter
coffee nibs, pickled garlic & ginger,
scallions, red habanero
sour orange "caviar" & tapioca flakes

Mofongo con "carne frita"
green banana mash with pork cracklings
berkshire pork carnitas and pork jus espuma

Steamed Coconut Buns
Smoked pilón pork belly, tamarind sauce, shaved cabbage,
chives, cilantro & pickled chilies.

BBQ Beef Rib
Adobo rub beef short rib,
slow cooked, served with carrot slaw & orange
chipotle BBQ sauce.


Mayan Tostones
Fried green mayan plantains, cilantro & peanuts. chipotle honey

Sierra & Longaniza Pinchos
Wahoo & house made longaniza sausage
skewers with baby banana mustard

Damn, damn, damn this was a good meal.
The whole night was good.

IKHLAS

Al-Ikhlas (Arabic: سورة الإخلاص‎) Qur'an. It is a short declaration of God's absolute unity. Al-Ikhlas means "the purity" or "the refining", meaning to remain pure and faithful or a state of purging one's soul of non-Islamic beliefs.

It also means good fried chicken and apple pie to die for.

I do believe that if this dumb ass preacher man down yonder there in Florida was to eat up on some of these peoples food he may have second thought about burning their holy book.

Sometimes, like once a week, I call the gal working the counter at Ikhlas and tell her I want 15 fried whole chicken wings. They are slow so Stacey and I usually start some food at home to go with the fried chicken and then go pick up our order. Sometimes we get an apple pie.

Ikhlas is truly a hole in the wall. But they put out some really good food. The fried chicken is like grandmas. Only problem is they only do wings. I don't know why. Also every time we eat their fired chicken or pie, it is just the same as last time. Always good. The apple pie is so ugly it is beautiful, kinda like Tom Waits. The crust is haphazardly folded over the top. It has cinnamon in it. We have shared this pie with lot's of different people and they often claim it the best apple pie they have ever had.

Ikhlas is at the corner of Cleveland Ave. and Sylvan Rd. in East Point, Georgia. Wings are sold in multipules of 3, can't remember what the cost. The pie is full size and cost $8.50. They do sell out of the apple pies. The do have other pies. You don't need to call ahead for a pie, but I would for wings. PH# 404 766 2808

FLY ME TO THE MOON

Friday was August the 13th. Supposed to be a unlucky day. Didn't scare us. Us as in me, Lil Lady and our friends Mikey and Keith. Keith and I had just celebrated our oldness and Lil Lady was due up soon so we usually get together around this time and do something fun. This year we decided to fly an airplane. A Boeing 767 was our plane of choice.
You can see I had my hair cut like a Pilot for the occasion.

It was a lot of fun flying around for the day and we each got a chance take off, fly and land at different airports. I chose Atlanta, Keith chose San Diego, Lil Lady Boston and Mikey landed at LaGuardia.



We were actually in a flight simulator at the Delta headquarters. Stacey won a 2 hour session for four at a silent auction. This was a rare event as these simulators are booked solid for training and testing Delta pilots. Other airlines pay Delta to test and train their pilots. It took us almost a year to get a reservation.



I have never flown an air plane, but from what we were told this was as close as you can get and still be on the ground. Delta has about a dozen simulators and the guy who "took us up" told us they cost about 20 million each. Taking off was easy the plane kind of does all the work on take off. Flying is easy. Landing is a bitch. I was the only one of us who crashed. The ladies did best. Mikey nailed her landing and the tech ask if she wanted to do another landing? She said no way.

Atlantic bluefin tuna's fate in the Gulf of Mexico explored a timely book

Published: Wednesday, September 08, 2010, 10:50 AM Updated: Wednesday, September 08, 2010, 1:58 PM

Brett Anderson, The Times-Picayune
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The journalist Paul Greenberg has, with a little help from The New York Times, been remarkably successful injecting the plight of the endangered – and perhaps fatally delicious -- bluefin tuna into our national discourse.

His timing could not have been better. Back in June, when coverage of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was at a fever pitch, his book, “Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Fish,” was excerpted on the cover of The New York Times Magazine.

A few of its more salient points:

* The Atlantic bluefin tuna “is a fish that when prepared as sushi is one of the most valuable forms of seafood in the world. It’s also a fish that regularly journeys between America and Europe and whose two populations, or “stocks,” have both been catastrophically overexploited. The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, one of only two known Atlantic bluefin spawning grounds, has only intensified the crisis.”

* “The United States continues to allow bluefin fishing in its waters even though the Gulf of Mexico-spawned stock is considered by many scientists to have entered into full-scale collapse.”

* “BP’s Horizon Deepwater oil rig collapsed into the sea and spewed oil into the only bluefin spawning ground in the Americas just as the few remaining North American stock giant bluefin were preparing to mate in the Gulf of Mexico. Though the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has been deeply critical of the Mediterranean bluefin catch — in 2007, it went so far as to call for a moratorium — it has been noncommittal about the American fishery.”

In August, a laudatory review of “Four Fish” appeared on the cover of the Times Sunday Book Review. It was authored by the paper’s restaurant critic, Sam Sifton, who wrote:

“The point of the book comes down to the push and pull of our desire to eat wild fish, and the promise and fear of consuming the farmed variety. As Greenberg follows his four species, and our pursuit of them, farther and farther out into the ocean, he posits the sense of privilege we should feel in consuming wild fish, along with the necessity of aquaculture.

“Along the way, Greenberg raises real-life ethical questions of the sort to haunt a diner’s dreams, the kind of questions that will not be easily answered by looking at the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s seafood-watch card. In truth, he shows, there is rarely such a thing as a good wild fish for any of us to eat, at least not if all of us eat it.”

I have not yet read “Four Fish” – it’s next on my list -- only the excerpt and subsequent coverage of the book, which suggests that Greenberg’s work should be on the radar of those charged with rebuilding Louisiana’s fishing industry following the oil spill.

While they’re at it, they should grab a copy of Carl Safina’s “Song for the Blue Ocean,” which takes a scalpel and tweezer to the political struggle surrounding the bluefin’s fate. Safina, a celebrated ecologist and conservationist, has written extensively about the environmental ramifications of the oil spill.

Finally, a Greenberg editorial appeared in last Sunday’s Times. It was keyed to the announcement that aquaculture scientists “had succeeded in spawning the Atlantic bluefin in captivity without hormonal intervention” -- and what that could spell for the bluefin’s future.

LATEST EATS

Like I wrote some time ago we have been trying to eat at less expensive restaurants than normal. Normal went from $100 plus a meal to $60 plus a meal to under $30 a meal. For two with tip.

Stacey took this photo when we were in Bangkok.

These are some of the spots we have been getting these under $30 meals at.

Righteous Room, Q's Southern Food, Taqueria La Oaxaquena, Rio Grande, Five Guys Burgers and Taco Rancho.

Most of these spots have been around awhile. Taco Rancho is new. It is almost a full menu, full on Mexican restaurant. Five Guys is a real good burger, lots of fries for $2.60. Fresh stuff and a well run franchises.

Oaxaquena and Rio Grande are hole in the wall joints on the south side of Atlanta and they both rock and they are both very cheap and they are both real Mexican food. The folks running each of these spots are not locals and when we eat there we are usually the only gringos in the place. Our bill is usually $20 with a tip. Check out the tamales at Oaxaquena.

Q's is in East Point. A few blocks from our house. They have good food. Meat and threes. Really it's meat and two. With cornbread. Everybody has got a favorite meat and three and lot's of them are pretty good. Q's is a little better than "pretty good". I love their oxtails. I love their chicken fried steak. I like their Mac and Chz a lot. Their dressing is good. Their fried chicken does not suck. Lil' Lady loves their rutabagas. She gets some every time.

Righteous Room has been in the Plaza Shopping Center at Ponce and Highland Ave in midtown Atl. for the last 15 years. Bare bones, good beer cheap. Always good bar food and cool service.
They have a choice list of beers and a hand full are $3-4 a pint/bottle. Wish it was closer to East Point.

So there!

EDWARD HOPPER

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

I got a call the other day from a guy named Michael. He said he was calling from Emory Hospital and wished to speak with Tracy Hartley. I'm me I informed him, how could I help him? He told me this was a follow up call concerning my bone marrow transplant. Shit, I had forgotten all about that small medical procedure I had received, what was it, 14 years ago? "It's been 14 years whata ya wanta know" I ask him? "You haven't spoken to anyone from Emory since then" he ask? "No one" I told him.

It was July 30th. It was my 48th birthday and here was some guy calling 14 years later to check on me. So I went into this very long winded, detailed description of every aliment I had suffered in the last 14 years. Michael keep trying to interrupt, but I plowed forward. I told him about my back problems. I told him about the poison ivy rash I had suffered. I told him how bad the headaches were when Stacey and I went on a cleansing diet and cold turkey quit caffeine. I told him about the different times I cut myself and had to be stitched up in the emergency room. I told him how I thought I was dying after taking penicillin, which I had obviously become allergic too. I told him about how my blood pressure was giving me trouble. I told him about the time all the bees stung me. I told him about busting my toe and how it took a year for toe nail to fall off and another year to grow back. Hell I even made stuff up just to make it sound really good.

Finally I took a breath and he jumped at the chance to say something. He ask "what about the transplant, what about the cancer any problems with that"? "Oh that" I said, "no problem, no problem at all, check back in 14 years" I told him.