OK, another Calatrava pic, this, the underbelly of the large bridge:

The first thing is to decant the three liters of pickled Brussels sprouts (spruitjes) into the small jars Rina and I have been gathering, taking the opportunity to sneak in another Thai pepper, some dill seed, and some black mustard seed into each jar. I get nine jars worth plus half a jar for my refrigerator. The taste is a bit different, but they'll do.

And now to address tonight's dinner. I'm doing a mole, so I gotta get yesterday's whole chicken on to poaching, as I'll need to let it cool and tear it off the bones and then concentrate the stock with the bones so that I can use this in the mole and the rice.

And while I'm jarring the spouts and poaching the chicken I sneak glances at Coria vs Djokovic. Coria's court coverage is just awesome, and I love watching him play. However, today's match is marred by Djokovic's repeatedly going on sick call. I can't understand Dutch well enough to catch what is wrong, but no bandages are applied, and he looks healthy enough to me. Besides, he doesn't retire until well into the third set...after winning the second.

Then again, I have to remind myself that when I was at my sickest, my self-pity knew no bounds because I didn't look anywhere near as sick as I was and thus didn't feel like I was getting the sympathy I deserved. I'm trying to write that as a joke, but alas it's at least partly true, so I gotta cut Djokovic some slack.

But back to the mole. I'm using the "Tierra Mole Crumble" that I get from Lee at Tierra Vegetables. You can order this stuff online from her or pick it up at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market on Saturdays, and I think it makes the best mole I've ever eaten. It also takes all the tedium out of making mole but still has enough steps and makes enough of a mess that you feel like you've accomplished something.

To Lee's directions I'll add a couple of points that I've developed. First, if you grind the stuff up in the blender before her first step of sautéing the dry mix, straining the mole later is much easier. Second, instead of the lard that she uses to sauté the dry mix, I just use the schmaltz that I've taken off the stock I've made from the chicken bones and skin. In any case, though, the amount of fat is so small in proportion to the amount of dry ingredients that you have to stir absolutely constantly or it will stick and burn.

Lee's instructions call for a quart of stock, but I've found that I need more, or the mole is as thick as peanut butter. I don't want the sauce running all over the plate, but at the same time I do want it thin enough that it will mix easily with the chicken without tearing it completely up. If you were doing a mole to put onto whole poached thighs, it could be thicker.

But I'll stop, so as to snatch this narrative back from the brink of a recipe. Speaking of which, there is popular demand for additions to my online recipe collection, and when I get this tale posted, my next project will be to add some new recipes. I have enough European readers now that I will be adding metric conversions to future recipes...and maybe even, don't hold your breath, retrofitting them into the existing recipes.

While the stock is cooling, I run over to the Nieuwendijk and pick up a liter of Van de Linde IJs for banana splits featuring my chocolate sauce. It's really a hot day, so a cold dessert will be good.

As a cold appetizer I'm serving some of Frank's smoked tuna with alfalfa sprouts (instead of shredded daikon) and Zaanse mustard (instead of wasabi). In this manner, I expect to trick the Dutch into eating the tuna like sashimi instead of like smoked fish, in other words, without toast.

Rina's doing my avocado salad that everybody here seems to like, and to brighten it up we got some arugula and fresh coriander.

Tonight's guests are Joke and Roos, who turn out to be great fun. They also like my food, which is a plus. Roos knows a great deal about cooking, and she brought me this Spanish fig cake that I'm dying to try but have decided to take back to SF. I'd bought Surinamse rice since I couldn't find Calrose, and Rose knows exactly how to deal with it.

Joke is more knowledgeable about American literature than any Dutch reader I've actually met so far, and it was a great joy to get her takes on some of our writers. I'd love to be able to spend some time with her talking about literature.

What a great evening.