MORE HIGH CUISINE FROM 15 CRAIGSIDE

Two weeks ago I posted on Steak Tailgates.  My cuisine exposition today began yesterday with lobster.  Today, Japanese, Italian and Mexican.

This all started with a trip to Marukai:

The label said chutoro for $57/pound, but it really was otoro, a fattier piece.  The mushroom is matsutake, for $60/pound, and the wagyu is from Miyazaki.  This tiny bottle of truffle hot sauce costs $25.  

With the rest of the sashimi I had some zaru soba:

15 Craigside delivered the lasagna and salad, but I provided some enhancements:

The 15 Craigside tacos service, plus my improvements.  I've recently changed my eating style by abandoning the crisp tortillas for Fritos, so now have a tacos bowl.  Four different hot sauces and frying the meat sauce in butter

I added some Midori to the standard Margarita.  I'm now using this salad bowl concept for fish and other proteins, without the fritos.  This allows me to skip the solid carbohydrates.  I still drink a lot of alcohol, but this is considered to be relatively low-carb in diet value.

When I bought the lobster at Tamashiro's, I also purchased some blue-fin tuna which covered the range of akami, chutoro and otoro (also called hotoro).

I'm now prepared for a raw and fried fish dinner tonight.  Tomorrow the remaining tuna sashimi with pork tonkatsu.

Song #31 is Ave Maria, but which one?  There are at least nine:

• Bach/Gounod
• Caccini
• Elgar

• 
  Verdi
• Mascagni
• Brahms
• Cherubini
• SKIPPER
• Schubert (right)

Ave Maria has a football link.  The Hail Mary is used as a desperation last pass into end zone.  That is the English definition of the term.

The most popular is the 1825 composition by Franz Schubert.  The true name is Ellen's Third Song, which starts with Ave Maria. It was written as a setting for Walter Scott's poem, The Lady in the Lake (listen to this poem, if you have half an hour to spare), with the lady being Ellen Douglas.

The song is used at weddings and concerts, in churches and the end of Disney's Fantasia.  Schubert's Ave Maria is my song #31.  Here are all nine.  Finally, 47 of them, one where you can sing like in a karaoke bar.

Nothing to do with Ave Maria, but in searching for these various versions I stumbled across Mambo Italiano and Sophia Loren, which would be a good way to end your week.  Ah, another one, Mambo Americano.

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