1001: The Stooges

The Stooges:  The Stooges

First Listen: Samsung Galaxy Note 3, House of Marley Exodus Headphones while studdying

Second Listen: Samsung Galaxy Note 3, House of Marley Exodus Headphones, while reading lyrics

Third Listen: Bose Lifestyle 15 via Google Music Chromecast

I had no clue who the stooges were at all before listening to this album.  I did hear the name Iggy Pop, but I never knew what at all he was famous for.  It goes to show just how limited my knowledge of punk music is.  I did end up liking the album very much.  It is quite laid back as compared to Punk music of today, but I guess that is to be expected.

For this album I wanted to make something that was rather down to earth yet over the top.  I ended up deciding on curly fry pizza.  This was met with a lot of strange stares.  I thought everyone would think Curly fry pizza would be amazing, yet I got so many mixed feelings.  Yes I realize that Curly fry pizza wouldn’t be the healthiest thing you ever ate, but that’s not the point.  You can let go sometimes.  This pizza is letting go in a big way.

The Music

Favorite Tracks:

-1969: This song has a nice catchy tune and it really puts you in the timeframe of the era really well.  I say that in spite of the fact that most of the lyrics are pretty ambiguous and can be used to describe any timeframe.  The only thing that really invokes the time period is the repeating of the year.  It is the songs ambiguity in describing the time frame that allows it to take on a bit of a timeless effect.

-No Fun:  It’s just simple and straightforward music.  I love the guitar solo at the end as well.

-Ann: I appreciate the darkness of this song and the fact that it doesn’t linger on much.  It is direct to the point and finishes up nicely with a cool guitar solo into a fade out.  Straight up music without pretense.

Unfavorite Tracks:

-We Will Fail: I don’t have a problem with giving up in principle and the lyrical content of the song doesn’t bother me a s much as the constant chanting in the background.  It really gets on my nerves after the first couple of verse.  It’s kind of weird though because I do love the guitar in the background and replacing the percussion with simple claps in the background.

-Real Cool Time: You can’t have moral superiority and diss the lyrical content of a song like Turn Down For What, while simultaneously embracing Real Cool Time.  Real Cool Time is essentially the original Turn Down For What, although I must applaud the ability to make a catchy song with under twenty words.

Overall Rankings:

1.       Stooges: Stooges

2.       Frank Sinatra: In The Wee Small Hours (Amazon)

The Food

I was doubted about whether or not this pizza would be good, but I have to give myself some good credit for coming up with this one because it tastes pretty good.  There was a lot of experimentation going on in writing the recipe for this one and along the way I learned a few things.  I initially chose a really hoppy IPA in order to make the beer sauce, that goes on this pizza but that was a fatal error as when the beer cooks down you’re left with a weird aftertaste.  This is one place where a cheap light beer succeeds.  I also experimented with the cheeses as you can see in the picture.  I came to find out that the cheeses were the best in the following order: Pepper Jack, Swiss, Velveta (I don’t typically use processed cheeses at all but I figured it would work out alright, I actually expected it to fare better, but it was just alright), Cheddar, Munster (One that I randomly selected at the end and was just awful, nearly inedible).  If you’re serving an Omnivore, I had the thought as well that you can go the extra mile with this pizza and top it with a combination of diced bacon and cooked chicken fingers.  The dough is also super easy and only takes a mixer and a little bit of time to make.  The crust even tastes like curly fries.

Results of the Taste Test:
1. Pepper Jack

2. Swiss

3. Velveta

4. Cheddar

5. Munster (Don’t use Munster)

Curly Fry Pizza

For the Crust:

1 Pound Russet Potatoes, peeled and diced

1 ½ Cups Flour Plus more for rolling out dough

1 Teaspoon Baking Powder

1 Large Egg

1 Teaspoon Garlic Powder

1 Teaspoon Onion Powder

1 Teaspoon Paprika

2 Teaspoons Salt

For The Sauce:

1-16 Ounce Lager

2 Tablespoons Butter

1 Tablespoon Flour

4 Cloves Garlic Finely Minced

¼ Cup Vegetable Stock

Toppings:

8 ounces Shredded Cheese of your Choice

14 ounces Cooked Curly fries

Optional Meats of your choice: Bacon/Chicken Tenders

Preheat the oven to 375 Degrees

For the crust, boil the potatoes until  tender.  Drain add to the bowl of a stand mixer.

Using the paddle attachment.  Mix the potatoes until they are in small pieces.

Turn the mixer off and add all the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated.

Add the egg and stir briefly until the dough comes together

Roll the dough out onto parchment paper and bake for 15 minutes

With the garlic, and beer in a medium saucepan cook until reduced in half

Add the stock and simmer.  In a separate pan whisk together the butter and flour mixture

Whisk the flour and butter mixture into the beer

Top your pizza with the sauce and curly fries and bake until the cheese is melted.  I know you’re going to want to eat this pizza immediately, but wait.  Let it cool for about 10 minutes for a perfect taste and texture.

The Drink

Electric Raspberry Lemonade

So I read somewhere that Iggy Pop liked Blue Raspberry Vodka and Lemonade.  I couldn’t find blue raspberry vodka anywhere so here’s my best effort.  This is a sneaky drink because it is amazingly potent despite not tasting of liquor much.

4.5 ounces Raspberry Vodka

3 Ounces Raspberry Lemonade

.75 Ounces Strawberry Liqueur (This can be skipped but I picked some up because it looked interesting.)

Shake all the ingredients and serve over ice.

American Idiot

I'm a pretty big fan of Green Day.  I own all their albums and listen to them all.  I don't know what I was expecting to get out of American Idiot the Musical, but I thought that it couldn't be bad.  I thought completely wrong.  Punk Rock doesn't exactly work in a theatrical setting.  Picture yourself at a Green Day Concert sitting down and listening to the music rather than being in a  pit or something getting into the music.  Then imagine that the band is replaced with a mediocre cover band.  There you have it folks, that's American Idiot in a nutshell.

Not to say that the dancing and singing wasn't good because it was.  The whole thing just came across as a poorly done version of Rock of Ages.  I guess I had too high of expectations for the show, but when the curtain closed, I was glad that it was not an intermission.  The plot was pretty much nonexistent.  A short bit of profanities in-between every song.  I walked in thinking "How could this be bad?" and walked out thinking "How could I think that this would be good?"

Carpaccio

Anyhow I decided to cheer myself up from this overwhelmingly mediocre performance with not just a good meal but a great meal.  I had been wanting a good steak ever since I had my well overpriced and just decent steak at Morton's in Miami.  Smith and Wollensky is where I decided to make up for it.  I usually decide to go with a seafood based appetizer whenever I'm going to have a great steak dinner, I don't know why.  If my good friend Doug was around I would have definitely done the Calamari along with the Carpaccio that I ended up going with.  Served on a Himalayan Salt Block I was sold by it.  My only complaint about it was that the crostini served along side it were slightly thick for my taste.

Rather than enjoy just one steak I got the Tenderloin Trio.  It was a good value in I would be able to try out three different sauces for the steak.   The steak in general was just slightly over the Medium Rare that I requested but not so overdone that I would send it back.  The Roasted Chipollini onion sauce was very sweet and just slightly earthy.  I will be the first to claim to be a person that likes things on the salty side, but the bacon on the Gorgonzola crusted steak almost made the steak a little too salty (I'm nitpicking here though, the steaks were excellent).  The third in the trio was the Foie Gras and Mushroom Ragout.  The delicate fatty Foie Gras gets lost among the boldness of the dry aged steak.

Coconut Cake

The sides were just not disappointing.  The green beans I had were cooked to perfection and I kind of wish that the server would have pointed out that there was Gorgonzola on the green beans as well because I would have ordered a different side as I like to avoid overlapping flavors.  Had I known this I would have probably went with the Asparagus as a veg.  The Truffle Mac and Cheese in my opinion lacked a little bit of both truffle and salt.  Should have been called Mac and Cheese with a hint of Truffle rather than Truffle Mac and Cheese.

Desserts are big enough for two to share and my Coconut cake was huge.  The cake was moist and perfectly sweet and I love the fresh coconut strips that garnish the top of the cake.  It's nothing like my Great Grandma's coconut cake with the lemon filling, but it's still pretty tasty.