Sunday, February 28, 2016. Irish Singing. The Great Zea Seafood Menu Is Back. For about an hour, I don't know what to do with myself. I was up at my usual seven in the morning, and got to work on a few mindless tasks (updated the subscription renewals, updating the restaurant lists, etc.). Then off to St. Jane's to sing. But after that, I began to puzzle over how I would fill the day. I had no place to go for anything. At around noon, I ate half of what was left of that roast beef poor boy I had yesterday. Then, desperate, I looked around for sanding pads to clean up a stained section of the living room floor. I was saved from this discomfort by an e-mail from one of my fellow NPAS singers. He wants to have a rehearsal this afternoon for the Irish songs we will sing when the Covington St. Patrick's Day parade rolls. I am not only performing with five other singers at the English Tea Room, but I am the Grand Marshal of the whole parade. That opens just enough time for a five-lap walk around the ranch before I head to the rehearsal. The weather is very cool, but comfortable enough to work up a brisk pace. The site of our rehearsal is the activity center of Christwood, a very handsome retirement facility. One of our singers lives there, hence the connection. I was astonished by how big this facility has become, and how much there is going on there. We run through about a dozen and a half songs. In faking the ones I don't know (we have no sheet music), I am amused by how much all Irish songs sound like all other Irish songs. After two hours of that, I'm off to dinner at Zea. Haven't been there in weeks, which is why I missed the beginning of their best menu special of the year. Because they originally opened with a menu dominated by red meat, to keep business strong through Lent they began a seafood menu some dozen years ago. It was so popular that many of the fishy dishes stayed on the menu. But the best of these special dishes is limited to only two or three months. Asian oysters are big local bivalves with rough, herbal coatings of bread crumbs, with a peppery brown sauce and finely shredded cole slaw. This is so good that I get it every time I turn up at Zea, until the special runs out. Also on the menu but not quite as the oysters is an oyster-artichoke soup. It's a little too thick and needs a bit of work in the flavor department, although one can't complain that there aren't enough oysters in the ample bowl. At home, I find not enough time for all my Sunday evening projects, and thereby follow through on the opposite problem I had earlier. This is why I plan never to retire. Monday, February 29, 2016. David Gladden Retires From Martin Wine Cellar. I can't help but associate retirement with death, but since I have reached the traditional age for the former and am not yet in line for the latter, I must push these ideas from my mind. Especially when a bunch of reports of both kinds of events come at the same time. Over the weekend I learned that an eighty-year-old relative has a major health battle on his hands, one he thought he'd already vanquished. And a classmate of mine at both Jesuit and UNO has become the first 1968 Blue Jay to pass over the bar in quite a few years. Last time I saw him, he was the healthiest guy in the room. In happier news, David Gladden is not likely to die anytime soon. He and I are about the same age, with a lot of the same habits, and I feel fine. David has been the chief operating officer for Martin Wine Cellar and its wholesale arm Wines Unlimited for decades. Although founder David Y. Martin is mostly responsible for the success of the business he opened in the 1940s, it was largely David's style that made the stores such great resources. He staffed the shops with young men and women enthusiastic about wine, spirits, and specialty food. That created such a welcoming environment that--particularly in the recently-reopened Uptown store--it became a social center for gourmets and oenophiles. David's greatest achievement--at least from the point of view of the wine consumer--was the series of weekly tastings he held for almost forty years. Originally in a rough-hewn room in the back of the Uptown store, the tastings each feature eight wines that have something in common. The tasters know which wines are on the table, but not which wine is in which glass. This created a guessing game as to not only identity but also relative goodness. The tastings were done in silence, with the most avid participants writing notes for the opinions they would give verbally at the end. It was terrific fun, and taught most of us more about wine than any other activity. I went every week for years. Well, after forty years with Martin's, David is off to take it easy for awhile. I wonder whether he will do even more traveling to the wine centers of the world, or find a new hobby. I hope our paths continue to merge. He's a very likable guy full of knowledge and good taste. And the weekly tastings he began still go on every Thursday night. I finally finished that roast beef poor boy I got from the Fat Spoon two days ago. Way to do this: separate the fillings and the bread. Toast the bead in a toaster oven and warm the meat and gravy with forty seconds in the microwave oven. It's not just like freshly made, but pretty good.
