Daily Doings at the Line of Death Bar & Grill

Last year, I mentioned my long-term search for an octopus, in order to make a recipe I got from my uncle Yano. I'm happy to report that an octopus was acquired for this purpose.

My friends from college Dan and Jody, and our mutual friend Mary (who just got a job in the Columbus area), were staying at the Great Wolf Lodge in Mason, OH for a Christmas-time getaway. I had the day off, so I drove to Mason to visit them. We then went to the Foodie Mecca of the Midwest, Jungle Jim's, where I was able to purchase a 0.5 kg octopus (that's about 1.1 lb for those of you who haven't gone metric yet) for $9, along with a couple of 6-packs of IBC Diet Root Beer and a 6-pack of Holy Grail Ale.

So, after bringing the octopus back home, I looked for my uncle Yano's recipe, and found it in my recipe book. The octopus is first cut up into bite-sized pieces. (Because of the texture, a sharp knife is required.) It is then simmered in red wine, along with mirepoix (carrots, celery, and onion -- the holy trinity of cooking), garlic, parsley, and olive oil. It is then marinated overnight in more olive oil, parsley, red pepper flakes, lemon pepper, and sea salt. It has been cooked and is now marinating.

Some of you are probably thinking, "Eeewww!" right now. But octopus is a delicacy in places like Spain, Sicily, southern Italy, Greece, and Japan, where seafood is prevalent. ("Polpo" is the Italian word for octopus; the plural is "polpi". And "calamari" is the Italian word for squid.)

As for my uncle Yano, he passed away in 2010. Sebastiano Puma (we called him Yano for short) was a friend of my family -- my dad's goombody. I have no idea how they first met. But we stayed in contact over the years. As far as I know, he is survived by his widow and two daughters. At one point, he owned a liquor store. I remember getting a board game from him: "Rum For Your Money", which plugged Don Q Puerto Rican Rum. It drew upon the story of Don Quixote, oh which the liquor's name was based.

I am looking forward to having this over the next couple of days.

Ealier this week, I talked about the sub shops in town. Now, my attention goes to pizza.

I came from a town that had lots of mom-and-pop pizza shops, many excellent local chains, and a few national chains. Here in southwest Ohio, were there aren't a lot of people of Italian descent, the national chains appear to dominate, but a few local chains and some standlone places stand out.

For the national chains, we have Pizza Hut, Domino's, and a couple of Little Caesar's.

Some of the local and regional chains here, in alphabetical order:

Cassano's. A local family-owned chain, which used to be called "Pizza King" before I moved here in '89. They're one of two places in town that cut their pizzas into tiny 1" or 2" squares. That alone was culture shock to me. I was used to wedge-shaped slices. One of the locals told me, "I can hold my pizza with one hand and my beer in the other."

Cousin Vinny's. I suspect the name was insired by the movie "My Cousin Vinny". I've yet to try their pizza.

Donato's. This chain, based in Columbus, has a tasty thin crust pizza, and tangy sauce.

The Flying Pizza. Some of their pizza chefs will toss the dough in the air and spin it, hence the name. Decent New York style pizza. And New York style service, too.

LaRosa's. This chain, based in Cincinnati, also serves up spaghetti and dinners at their locations. Personally, I think they put a little too much sugar in their sauce.

Marion's Piazza. The local favorite. On the walls are photos of famous actors who dined here while part of the summer "Kenley Players" troupe. I love their "super cheese", which is a deluze pizza with extra cheese. And they cut their pizzas into tiny squares as well. And note: they're cash only.

Marco's. The new kid on the block. Don't think I've had their pizza yet.

Noble Roman's. It's been several years since I've had their pizza. There just isn't one that's convenient to me.

Papa Murphy's. They make it, you bake it. This results in a slightly less expensive pizza. But I like it. And there's on e close to me.

But since I often eat pizza alone, I look for places that sell by the slice. My current local favorite pizza joint does just that. Johnny's, A Slice Of New York, in "downtown" Centerville. The owner, Johnny, is from New York City, and is very personable.

Years ago, around Christmas time, my uncle Yano -- that's short for Sebastiano, and he was a good friend of my parents, hence the title of "uncle" -- would make an appetizer out of marinated octopus ("polpi" in Italian). I think he used olive oil, lemon juice, and some spices. I remember it being a little tough to eat, but it was delicious.

Not many cultures eat octopus. As far as I know, it's eaten by folks from southern Italy, Greece, Spain, and Japan. (Sushi bars have sliced octopus, which they call "tako".)

I've had the recipe for years -- or what I think is the recipe -- and I want to make it for myself. The problem is, where do I find octopus? None of the seafood markets around here (Kroger, Meijer, Cub Foods) keep it in stock. And whatever octopus they sell in Detroit gets tossed onto the ice at Red Wings games. (It commemorates their 1952 winning of the Stanley Cup in 8 games. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_of_the_Octopus for more info.)

I'm considering a trip to Jungle Jim's in Fairfield sometime next week. I'd go today, but I'm a little short of cash.

So, thanks to the events of the past couple of weeks, I now have to do a better job watching what I eat -- fats, carbs, sodium, calories, cholesterol, etc. I will need to cut down -- or cut out -- some of my favorite foods. I'm already cutting out most fast food. So I'll have to find new places to eat.

One of the places I used to go to on an occasional basis was the local MCL Cafeteria, in Kettering. It's a regional chain, based in Indianapolis. It has a reputation of being popular with senior citizens, as evidenced by some of the jokes I've heard about the place. But hey, if it's good enough for older people with their own special dietary needs, it's good enough for me. Besides, it's still the official restaurant of the Black Book Band (as far as I know).

This evening, after dropping M off, I headed over there. I had a dinner of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry relish, orange gelatin, and iced tea. All for around $12. I think I'll be returning soon, and maybe become one of their regulars.

Last week, I talked about mustard here on my LJ. Today, I want to talk about the other squeezable condiment: ketchup.

Heinz is the market leader by far and away. Why other companies still make ketchup is a mystery to me.

An even deeper mystery is why they call it by another name: catsup. Where did that word come from? Catsup isn't made from cats, it's made from tomatoes. (Wikipedia's article on ketchup attributes the spelling variation to one Jonathan Swift, circa 1730.)

Several years ago, clydar taught me the trick to get ketchup out of a glass bottle: hold the bottle upside down and hit one of the "57"s on the bottle with the palm of one's hand. Although fewer and fewer places use glass bottles for their ketchup these days.

What do I like to put ketchup on? French fries, hamburgers, hot dogs, and meatloaf. Some people put it on their eggs. (I can understand that if the eggs were scrambled and prepared in mass quantities.) And it's Heinz for me; no cheap imitators.

What brand(s) of ketchup do you like? What foods do you put it on?

It seems that whenever the weather is cold and overcast or rainy, I want Chinese food. I don't know why, but I usually do.

This evening was no exception. As I was driving home from Cincinnati this afternoon, I was wanting a nice hot bowl of wonton soup. I stopped at my favorite local Chinese restaurant, Hunan Wok. I ordered the General Tso's chicken combo (which adds fried rice and an eggroll). I forgot to order the soup. But I didn't need it after all. I was pleasantly full at the end of the meal.

Fall is also a time when I'm wanting nabeyaki udon, a Japanese noodle soup. The different type of mushrooms that are added give the soup a nice earthy texture and taste.

Does anyone else out there crave certain foods for different kinds of weather?

I don't know why, but the 12-pack of Diet Vernors I bought last Thanksgiving in Buffalo seems to taste a little off. First off, it doesn't have the bite that Vernors usually has; it tastes a lot more smooth. Or maybe because the soda's going flat. Second -- and I found this out the hard way -- diet drinks tend to lose their sweetness after several months as the aspartame breaks down. (That's one reason why I call aspartame evil.)

I found out last week that the local Kroger stocks Vernors in cans, so I don't have to make a special trip back home to get it and bring it back here. I'll have to do that with Weber's horseradish mustard, though.

Does anyone else out there on my flist drink Vernors?

Yesterday was the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island. This year's winner was Joey Chestnut, beating last year's champion Takeru Kobayashi. Joey ate 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes.

First, it's not healthy to eat so much food so quickly. If I tried to race-eat until I burst, I'd probably barf it all up. Yecch.

Second, it's a huge waste of food. I don't need to eat that much food in one sitting. It would all end up around my gut. The food could be better utilized by feeding many hungry people instead of one person.

I probably wouldn't mind these eating contests if each person in the contest was given a set portion of food and had to eat it in the quickest time. But an all-you-can-eat bingefest in a specified time period is just disgusting.