Sunday In The Village

Sunny and pleasant today. Stopped by the butcher shop and picked up another pork knuckle. JJ slow-cooked one the other day and it made the best pulled pork without a smoker. The joint came skin on, of course, and that baked into a hard crust as everything inside melted itself into perfection. I scraped the meat out with a couple forks (the bones ended up perfectly clean) and tossed with some home-made carolina vinegar sauce. Looking forward to the next one. Also picked up some more sausages -- they had toulouse, which I'd been fixated on lately anyway, on sale. And they were excited about their newest creation, a pork and stilton, so I tried that. Unlike the toulouse, which is a hearty, garlicky, sausage with some bite, they went with a much finer grind on the pork and stilton. Very civilized but excellent flavor all-around. Definitely getting more of that.

The shopfront that used to be my beloved Frock's has finally reopened as a wine store, which not only sells by the bottle but sells tastings automatically vended. The machines won't be online for a few more days, but they seem cool. They use smartcards but I think they missed a trick by not making them oyster-card enabled. The shop is right by a bus stop, would be handy to duck in on the morning commute, swipe the oyster card, and fill up a travel mug with a fortifying eye-opener. Maybe I'll suggest it. When they announced what the shop would be, I did a little research and found a couple articles from four or five years ago about this sort of wine-dispensing automation being used in San Francisco bars. One critic dismissively sniffed something about how "the midwest" would love this sort of thing but it won't fly on the coast. Which I found hilarious as I can't imagine it generating much interest in the midwest. I also think it's a good concept. I'm also a midwesterner. Or was. Curious, now, I looked up the manufacturer. Their list of installations in the US is nearly 100% east and west coast, not a single one in the midwest. For the London setup, they should've considered a steampunk look, but looks like clean stainless steel minimalism instead. Regardless, should do well.

We could really use a fishmonger now.