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Monday, February 18, 2019

Running errands, doing business with tradesmen and professionals.
At each stop people asking for help; people willing to give that help.

How dull if at each stop we simply ordered, waited while the staff took the steps needed to help you, we received, we paid, we left for the next stop.
Not a wonder that it’s known as tedium.

But at my first stop I saw the clerk at Staples, she procuring a soda-stream cylinder for me, took a long swig of water from her personal bottle.
A big bottle.
Caught my eye.
Wondered to her is she drank that entire bottle on her shift.
She did, she smiled proudly.
And then spent a full minute talking about herself and water.
And then spent a full minute listening to me talk about me and water.
What a nice stop.
The opposite of tedium.

And at Planet Fitness, however the conversation arose, I got into a conversation with one of the staff at the check-in.
Seems he’s been involved in gang matters all of his life, helping many a youth through difficult moments.
He learned that I am an attorney.
From that moment, we will never be the same to each other.
Every hello will be of brothers in the justice system.
Far from tedious.

How easy to enrich our lives.To be more interesting to others.
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Tagging Today
Sunday, February 17, 2019

My 312th consecutive posting, committed to 5,000.

Time is 12.01am.
On Monday, Boston’s temperature will reach a high of 32* with a feels-like temperature of 21* and it will snow.
A perfect winter’s day.

Dinner is a rack of St. Louis style ribs, slow-roasted then seared.

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Question of the Day
What is the difference between St Louis-style ribs, short ribs, and Spare Ribs?

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Elephant Jokes to tell at a bar:
What did the Roman picket say when he saw Hannibal coming down the Alps leading the elephants wearing sunglasses?

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Love your notes.
Contact me at existentialautotrip@hotmail.com
This one from Sally Chetwynd responding to the post that read in part: All babies are beautiful.

Her comment:

Beauty, indeed, my friend. 
God had Moses hide in the cleft of the rock so that seeing His face, with its incomprehensible beauty, would not destroy Moses, a mere mortal. 
But we see the face of God every day in every living soul we see.
All we have to do is look, with our hearts, not our eyes.

Sally

Web Meister Responds: Amen to that.

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And here’s a note from Howard D who has early access to the postings, which accounts for our receiving a comment the day before the post was published.
I asked permission to use it to ‘flesh out’ today’s post.
His reaction to the post:

I don’t eat a lot of pork. No particular reason. I love barbeque and pork is my preferred barbeque meat, aside from brisket. I just didn’t grow up eating anything other than bacon, and I came late to learning how to cook pork, and therefore how to select better cuts.

But I’m always interested in learning more, and your allusion to baby back ribs inspired a brief learning session on the web.

I had heard of boneless baby back ribs, but never tried them, and my ignorant response to hearing about this cut was, “how tedious must that be?”

But now I learn it’s a cut of meat, like so many cuts historically, borne of shifts in market preferences, and not because of any great insight about cooking meat in new ways. I mean, we’ve been slaughtering and eating mammals (and other animals) for thousands of years. It only means we learned all there was to learn about anatomy a very long time ago. Differences in cuts (witness what British butchers vs. French vs. American do to the same animal) are usually mainly cultural.

And boneless baby back ribs are no different, it seems.

‘Boneless Baby Back Ribs. Baby back ribs are attached to the loin muscle. In the old days loin meat sold for more than ribs, but the demand for baby backs has changed this. So lately butchers have been leaving more loin meat on the ribs. Now they have taken it ever further by labeling loin meat as "boneless baby back ribs".’ [https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/pork-recipes/pork-cuts-explained]

Thought you’d be interested, or, if you already knew, thought you’d care to have this note that does the work of spelling it out.
 
I’m guessing with your preference for tearing and chewing, especially off the bone, this is not of the greatest importance personally.

You animal.

It did also explain what I had always wondered about, and that is, why pork loin, one of the tenderest cuts of the pig, is so cheap, and always has been relatively.

It’s the American love of fat.

I remember when butchers used to practically give animal fat away.

But then I remember when most fish were around a dollar a pound.

I’ll stop there, because I see where my thoughts are taking me, and I don’t care to write a chapter of a book at this moment.

Web Meister Responds: A welcome add to the post. Thanks, Howard.

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Answer to Question
What are the differences among St Louis-style ribs, short ribs, and spare ribs?

Spare ribs (also side ribs or spareribs) are a variety of pork ribs cooked and eaten in various cuisines around the world.
They are cut from the lower portion of the pig specifically the belly and breastbone, behind the shoulder, and include 11 to 13 long bones.
There is a covering of meat on top of the bones and also between them.
Spare ribs (pork) are distinguished from short ribs, which are beef.
Baby back ribs are spare ribs that come from the shorter end of the spare rib rack.
While St Louis-style ribs are meatier, spare ribs are more tender. Tenderer? More tenderer?

St. Louis-style spare ribs are cut with the sternum bone, cartilage and rib tips removed so that a well-formed, rectangular-shaped rack is created for presentation.
This cut of ribs has been formalized by the USDA as "Pork Ribs, St. Louis Style."
More fat than the spare ribs makes the St. Louis style more flavorful.

Whereas spare ribs and St. Louis-style ribs are pork, from pigs, short ribs are beef, from a cow.
By definition, the ribs are not the entire length of cow rib.
Often the rib bone is cut into a 3-to-6-inch (7.6 to 15.2 cm) lengths and left as a section of meat called a "plate".
They may also be known as barbecue ribs, braising ribs, or fancy cut ribs.

Retail meat shops often do not differentiate between short ribs which come from the brisket, chuck, plate, and rib.
In the United States, short ribs from the plate are generally the least expensive cut, followed by medium-priced short ribs from the brisket and chuck, and premium
priced short ribs from the rib area.

Beef short ribs are the equivalent of spare ribs in pork, with beef short ribs usually larger and meatier than pork spare ribs.

"Boneless" short ribs are cut from either the chuck or plate, and consist of rib meat separated from the bone.
"Boneless country-style short ribs", however, are not true short ribs. They are found primarily in the United States, and are cut from the chuck eye roll (serving as a less expensive alternative to rib steak).

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Good Morning on this Monday, the 18th day of February.
We talked about engaging with people we meet during the day.
And today being a cold wintry day, including snow.
We heard from the elephants again and from Sally and from Howard.
And we talked about spare ribs and its cousins.

And now? Now gotta go.

Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?

See you soon.

Love

Dom