Chinese Noodles

A recent trip to Noodle Hole in Marshall, NC got me wondering, "How hard could it be?" I have to say, before leaving this paragraph, that Noodle Hole dishes up an absolutely superb dish of noodles, and the line out the door is justified.

How hard could it be to make these noodles? Pretty hard, but not impossible, I reckon. Of course my first step was to look at YouTube videos.

There I learned that good noodle dough needs a good balance of elasticity (so it doesn't tear) and extensibility (so it can get very long and skinny without bouncing or shrinking back). I think "extensibility" is a very close substitute for "plasticity." In my limited physics education in college I remember being told about elastic deformation vs. plastic deformation. In dough made with wheat flour, gluten gives the elasticity. Plasticity can come from several causes (long rest and overworking being two), but the shortcut for noodles is the addition of alkaline. I had already heard this about ramen noodles.

So here's the professional Chinese way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wajz9sp7oKE

And here's a shortcut/hack/homegamer method, which introduces elasticity via a readily available ingredient (spoiler: nutritional yeast): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmwRAnd-mQo

If I try it out, I'll report back here.

Friday Links: Pizza Dough and a Good Poem

 The pizza expert in this video has some great, refined tips on dough handling. Definitely will improve my technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjsCEJ8CWlg

In the "long list of advice tidbits" genre, with a few good slightly out-of-character items: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57243/how-to-be-perfect?fbclid=IwAR2m6Fy06qUPy8NEniPFRYLOkHSmeGf9l5MUmqZ4yQzaOdlRR4gCA7ty6m8

Recent Reading: Solnit, Pogue Harrison, Adams

 Rebecca Solnit: Orwell's Roses

Not really a biography, but an exploration of certain aspects of Orwell's

Friday Links: German Expression, Knife Sharpening, a Recipe, and Atlanta

I know that the principles of this knife sharpener are sound, I don't know if this version works well. At this price I'm tempted to try. A company called "Wasabi" has been selling the same thing at a multiple of this price.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002806278575.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.100009.1.6013e215hW2M1i&gps-id=pcDetailLeftTopSell&scm=1007.13482.271138.0&scm_id=1007.13482.271138.0&scm-url=1007.13482.271138.0&pvid=5946f051-089f-46be-8974-ac65ec5f40bc&_t=gps-id:pcDetailLeftTopSell,scm-url:1007.13482.271138.0,pvid:5946f051-089f-46be-8974-ac65ec5f40bc,tpp_buckets:668%232846%238108%231977&pdp_ext_f=%257B%2522sku_id%2522%253A%252212000025558963981%2522%252C%2522sceneId%2522%253A%25223482%2522%257D&pdp_pi=-1%253B30.8%253B-1%253B-1%2540salePrice%253BUSD%253Brecommend-recommend

A varenyky recipe. I think this is too much sour cream but I haven't tried it yet. Let me know if you do!

https://www.allthingsukrainian.com/Recipe/Varenyky/VarenykyRecipe.html

Did you know? One German near-equivalent to "painting the town red" is [literally] "letting the sow out."

https://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/die_Sau_rauslassen

Here are some good local writers and reporters making their suggestions for improving Atlanta. I am in strong agreement with Andisheh's.

https://austinlouisray.com/#/how-id-fix-atlanta/

Link: Research on Calorie Restriction in Humans

 We've known for decades that calorie restriction prolongs the life of lab rodents. There's also correlation between a low-calorie (but nutritious) diet and longer life in some human populations, Okinawans being the most frequently mentioned example. This recent summary of NIH-sponsored work starts to hint at what the mechanism might be:

https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2022/03/08/biology-of-aging-study-shows-why-curbing-calories-counts/

Friday Links: Diet for a Small Planet at 50, Scythe Resource, Farm Tractors in Forestry

 Diet for a Small Planet is being issued in a new 50th-anniversary edition: 

https://www.dietforasmallplanet.org/

I have unexpectedly become interested in working with a scythe. I own two, a heavy one for brush and a very light and slim one for grass. Turns out you can still buy all the parts and maintenance tools, and there are modern-day experts ready to train you. This seems to be one of the good sites for both:

https://www.baryonyxknife.com/scac.html

And here's an English translation of a Swedish government publication about using a small farm tractor in the woods. There are still forestry winches being made for tractors, so this is all of interest to me:

https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mfs/publications/general_publications/farm_tractor_in_the_forest.pdf

Friday Links: About Tabs, Citizen Science in ATL, MEI Packs, Wood-Fired Ovens

 First, a tab about tabs and tabbing:

https://dirt.substack.com/p/dirt-the-season-of-tabs?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxMzI5NzkwLCJwb3N0X2lkIjozOTUwMzAxOSwiXyI6ImxhdlFlIiwiaWF0IjoxNjI3OTA5ODYyLCJleHAiOjE2Mjc5MTM0NjIsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yMzIxODciLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.64QlW_nl-AdQCVALWma1__jJDvrWBuQCExTjM9yjI00

(Some of our clutter is there because it's stuff that reminds us of who we want to be.)

An opportunity to do citizen science here in Atlanta:

https://urbanheatatl.org/

MEI makes the Voyageur, my favorite carry-on with backpack straps. I have ordered these as gifts several times and gotten excellent feedback each time:

https://www.meipacks.com/collections/carry-ons/products/deluxe-voyageur-new?variant=29110618751056

An old-school website on old-school woodfired ovens:

https://www.traditionaloven.com/

Friday Links: Rhetoric, Plant Preservative, Tandoors

 

Some rhetoric, some plant preservative, some good music, some instructions on building a clay tandoor. What else do you need?

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question

 

https://www.mckenziesp.com/Plant-Life-Preservative-C4150.aspx

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMKDxxJ6rI8

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciZBwAG54iY 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyOSXRCJlIg

Saturday Night Fish Fry: What I'm Listening To

From WREK yesterday morning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1QfXQakX2w

Maybe Tobacco Wasn't First

So perhaps industry efforts to influence science and perception of science started back in the 1950's . . . . . .
https://www.npr.org/2016/09/13/493801090/sugar-industry-manipulated-research-about-health-effects-study-finds

https://sugarscience.ucsf.edu/sugar-papers-reveal-industry-role-in1970s-dental-program.html

https://sugarscience.ucsf.edu/suppressed-evidence-of-health-risks-of-sucrose.html

Ramen in Decatur: Wa Ga Ya

Last week I ventured just a bit outside the Decatur city limits and tried the ramen at Wagaya, in Emory Village. It was a cold early winter day, with incipient rain, and I

Ramen in Decatur: Taiyo

Taiyo is located in the Courtyard Decatur Hotel, just up from the square on Clairemont. (Yes, I know it's Clairmont further north where you're thinking of it, but inside the Decatur city limits it's Clairemont.)

We both had exhausting Mondays for our own individual reasons, so decided to treat ourselves to noodles. Serendipity! As we were

A First Stab at Ramen in Decatur

Last week, Margaret and I watched Tampopo, and well before we finished, Margaret said out loud what I had been thinking most

A Columbus Day Soup

Navy Bean Soup with Grits

The soup is somewhat of a triangulation. It lies somewhere among the bean soup my mom made when I was a kid, Heidi Swanson’s lima bean soup with chipotle broth, and posole. If I had had whole corn on hand, and time to turn it into hominy, this would have been closer to posole. Using the grits inspired me to use the pumpkin, so the recipe has the three sisters (corn, beans, squash); adding chiles makes this recipe even more appropriate to be served on what I grew up calling Columbus Day (and seems to be becoming Indigenous Peoples Day). I think this soup might be even better with baby limas; they make such a lovely silky broth on their own and cook more quickly. I also think this soup would be good with some bitter greens like arugula or kale tossed in toward the end, but I like that in anything.

Click through for the recipe

What I did on Margaret's (Sort of) Spring Break

Last week Margaret attended the CCCC in Portland, Oregon. This is a big convention under the auspices of the National Council of Teachers of English. I took three vacation days to accompany her; while she conferred, I did some sightseeing on my own and visited Gary Rogowski at his Northwest Woodworking Studio. We also visited with my old friends Chris Murray and Shannon Riley.

Here are some pictures.