Superb.
The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena has a wide ranging collection of art, not least the modern sculpture garden in the back. But you come here mainly for one thing and it’s the world class collection of late 19th Century French art, with emphasis on Van Gogh (French in all but birth) and, of course, Degas.
The bronze statue, grass skirt and all, is by Degas.
iPhone 12 Pro Max.
No detail spared.
iPhone 12 Pro Max.
A Hollywood institution.
The bar scene here may not be quite up to Manet’s A bar at the Folies Bergère, but the atmosphere was positively electric when we dropped by this fabled eating spot for dinner. After stumbling along Hollywood Boulevard, that is, trying not to breathe what passes for air in that neighborhood.
Despite its 103 year old provenance and great fame, the food and service were excellent and we lucked out with a small banquette seat isolated from the non-mask wearing set. This being a Thursday I naturally chose the famous homemade chicken pot pie while Winston enjoyed a lovely trout.
If you want to see the glitterati and enjoy a good meal in Hollywood, Musso’s is it.
iPhone 12 Pro Max snap, some taming of the highlights in Photoshop.
Poached perfection.
This is one of an occasional series on cooking devices which make a difference. For an index of cooking articles on this blog click here.
I confess that this is a technique which it has taken me a couple of decades to master and the length of time is a direct function of my general resistance to kitchen gadgets. I greatly enjoy the physical aspects of cooking and prefer to use traditional hand tools – cleavers, knives, pounders and so on – tending to look askance at gadgets.
Now my many years of poaching failure have seen attempts at various techniques. I have done the swirling vortex hot water with vinegar bit. Abject failure. Wisps of ugly egg white everywhere with the egg, as often as not, looking like the victim of alopecia. Then I chanced on Nigella Lawson’s BBC cooking series. Well, actually, I chanced on staring at Nigella – which is why guys watch her show – so my attention to her detailed instructions may have been less than perfect, but she advocated draining the cracked egg in a small sieve, spraying lemon juice on it and then placing it gently, via a ramekin, in hot water, no vortex in sight. The result was much the same as the vortex method. The water clouds up, whites migrate to the surface and you cannot see what the heck is going on.
So I put the whole thing aside and decided that poaching was not going to be a winner for me.
However, I’m anything but a quitter, and recently came across this device:
Click the link for Amazon which will happily take some $33 of your money.
And disregard the one star reviews which say you will cut yourself on the edges of the stamped insert (you will not) or that the screws come out (they do not). These are likely posted by crooked competitors seeking a sales boost, and there are many devices like this at various prices and capacity (2, 4 or 6 eggs) to be had. This one is spendy but I have found it to be beautifully made, with the eggs being perfection itself. And you can always see the state of your eggs through the glass cover. I used two cups of water and you use the same amount whether poaching 1, 2, 3 or 4 eggs.
I swiped a generous layer of butter on the inside surfaces of the removable Teflon cups. Do not use olive oil. The eggs will stick after a couple of uses.
Once the water was simmering I gave the eggs 3 minutes. I found no need for the provided spatula to remove the finished egg. Grab the cup using the provided spigot, give it a shake and out she comes. Three minutes made an egg that was was nice and runny, and if you like your poached yolks hard then I grieve for you.
Here is the whole Eggs Benedict routine with Canadian bacon and Hollandaise sauce. I warm up the bacon for 30 second on high in the microwave. This has it adopt a shallow cupped shape which neatly holds the poached egg atop the English muffin::
I use Knorr packets of Hollandaise to cut down on the cholesterol. Half a packet (12g) with a half cup of milk and a little butter is enough for four eggs.
A great device, recommended heartily.
And if you want the perfect egg in a shell, be sure to read this.
A beautiful place.
For our visit to Caltech we decided to live it up a little, staying at The Langham in Huntington, Pasadena.
When I last stayed there some two decades ago it was a Ritz Carlton. It may have changed hands but it remains a beautiful place to stay.
From Wikipedia:
The Huntington Hotel was originally named Hotel Wentworth when it opened on February 1, 1907. Financial problems and a disappointing first season forced it to close indefinitely. Henry Huntington purchased the Wentworth in 1911, renaming it the Huntington Hotel. It reopened in 1914, transformed into a winter resort. The 1920s were prosperous for the hotel, as Midwestern and Eastern entrepreneurs discovered California’s warm winter climate.
The hotel’s reputation for fine service began with long-time general manager and later owner Stephen W. Royce. By 1926, the hotel’s success prompted Royce to open the property year-round. The “golden years” ended with the stock market crash and the Great Depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s. By the end of the 1930s the hotel was vibrant again. When World War II began, all reservations were cancelled and the hotel was rented to the Army for $3,000 a month. Following the war, the Huntington’s fortunes improved again. In 1954 Stephen Royce sold the hotel to the Sheraton Corporation, serving as general manager until his retirement in 1969. The hotel operated until 1985, when it closed because of its inability to meet seismic standards. The structure was built of reinforced concrete in 1906.
After a 2 1/2-year major renovation, the hotel reopened in March 1991 as the Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel and Spa. The hotel completed a $19 million renovation in January 2006; it changed hands in early 2007 and became Langham Brand International, Huntington Hotel & Spa.
All snaps on the iPhone 12 Pro Max which does a splendid job of controlling dynamic range.