Due to this and that, I picked up Viv at her mechanic’s shop around 4:30 and we decided to try our luck at Thornton Place again (largely because I wanted to see what the deal was with the new-to-me ramen and izakaya place was – it’s a ramen joint, looks promising enough). We arrived before Tengu, the kaiten sushi place, opened at 5.

So we went literally through the building to the other newish place, the Watermark, which is a blond wood beer bar with pub food, and had a pint. Then back to Tengu. No wait, and the plates were coming right off the prep line. I don’t recall the end count, but I ate enough to be genuinely full, which with me and sushi can put a real dent in the wallet. We still came out ahead – I was thinking the meal for two was about $120 at a non-kaiten place, and it came out to about $60. Getting there right at open very clearly improved the quality of the plates, too, as well as the availability. They had at least five varieties of salmon, including both coho and copper river, and six, maybe seven varieties of tuna including toro and bluefin.

I dug up my overwintered broccoli today. Damn that plant was huge, neary four feet tall. My last overwintered produce is a four-foot carrot top with what I estimate to be a five-pound carrot beneath. I am waiting for the flower to blossom before I pull it. My intention is to use it for a main dish.

Picked up the new Belgium seasonal this weekend. It’s a nice hoppy pale called Mighty Arrow, memorializing a brewery dog it seems. I LOVE THE BEER. The tiny picture of the dog on the label seems to resemble Rocket, too. It’s the first New Belgium product that immediately led me to desire a tee shirt or some such.

1 teaspoon molasses

1 tablespoon hot water

2 oz Kentucky bourbon

Ice

4 oz club soda

a pinch of ground clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg

Stir molasses and hot water together to make an ad hoc simple syrup.

Add bourbon, swirl.

Hold up to light, and experience anxiety at the brown color, turbidity, and lack of transparency. If lucky, note slight greenish tinge.

Add ice.

Fill glass with club soda, and add pinches of spice.

Drink!

—

Inspired by an upper-south molasses cookie that I recall as a ‘lilypad’ and which I associate with a childhood visit to Mount Vernon. Which, I know, is in Virginia.

We ended up not being able to go to a friend’s Derby party, which bums me out a little, having donned the white linen and all. One hopes this might well make up for it.

It strikes me that this can also be made most profitably with rum. Note that the spices and liquors involved were all readily available staples of the day over 200 years ago. As you drink it, you may experience symptoms of time travel.