Today was packing day — we leave on our Big Road Trip tomorrow. Attempts to make the car-top carrier work (we decided in the end that it didn’t) were punctuated by getting more iced tea from the fridge and my forcing myself to finish reading The Overstory. I’m not sure that book is as brilliant as it thinks it is. Food-wise, the most interesting occurrences until dinner were a) my becoming acquainted with elote (Mexican corn on the cob slathered in chilli, cheese and lime) in the form of a Trader Joe’s dip inspired by that dish, and b) our sampling of two of the ciders from the Press then Press order: Empyrical’s Outlier, made from a sole crab apple tree on a Washington prairie, and Raging Cider & Mead’s Perry Feral, made with seedling pears foraged from the mountains and canyons between San Diego and Julian, California. Both were high-strength (exactly 9% ABV), quite sweet, and full of a characteristic wild fruit tannin that coats the mouth in a somehow-not-unpleasant fuzzy-itchy feeling. Very interesting.
In the evening, we headed out for an In-n-Out Burger, which was a more mixed experience than I expected. The atmosphere was good, the commitment to retro design was strong, and the prices eminently reasonable for this day and age, but the food was also quite cold, and the burger lacking in flavour compared to our recent Damburger. Clearly, the concept of ‘animal style’ — added Thousand Island dressing, caramelised onions, and mustard-grilled patty in the case of a burger and Thousand Island, caramelised onions and slab of American cheese on top for fries — is great. But again, a bit more heat and care were needed: the Thousand Island was very runny, and the cheese not melted enough. Hilariously, the Brit of the party was a fan of the famously underdone fries’ sogginess. To be clear, I’m not writing off In-n-Out — there must be a reason it’s so iconic. I’ll just have to try it again! The trials…