Last week, my wife gave me an American Girl Doll catalog that had arrived for one of our two daughters and SPOILER ALERT PEOPLE SPOILER ALERT HERE RIGHT NOW DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER UNLESS YOU WANT TO KNOW WHO THE “GIRL OF THE YEAR” IS OK FINE: The “girl of the year” is Blaire. Here is a quote about Blaire that I am pasting from a piece in USA Today:
The newest American Girl of the Year doll is a budding chef that likes to garden and, like so many kids today, struggles to tear herself away from electronic devices.
The green-eyed, curly-haired, redhead that is growing up on her family's farm and bed-and-breakfast in upstate New York, also has a newly diagnosed food sensitivity, which she's self-conscious about.
Blaire will set you back over $100, and that doesn’t count the accessories, which are extremely detailed and often small enough that they act as caltrops when left out for the unwary.
I think my wife thought I’d get amusingly upset about the whole thing, but I can’t do that any longer and besides, I like the idea that the hot new role kids aspire to is “farm-to-table chef.” That’s a step up in terms of the options available in the category: “doll occupation” when I was a kid.
So if you were wondering how I felt about the new American Girl doll of the year, the answer is: feh. If you are wondering how I feel about the tiny fried shrimp at Marjie’s Grill, the answer is: hell yes.
Friends invited us over for New Year’s Eve, and someone brought some of those shrimp. I tried a couple, and as I write it is Jan. 2 and I have only recently finished eating another order of those shrimp along with a Som Tam salad that I also picked up this evening.
Ordinarily I think of you, dear readers, before myself. In this instance, I failed you. I did not take pictures of either the shrimp or the salad before I consumed them. I ate them quickly. The salad was crisp and funky, a bit tart and a bit sweet. The carrots and radishes came through, and the marinade/dressing was delicious. I could have done without the quartered limes, but it didn’t take much to remove the slices as I came across them.
It’s difficult to describe the shrimp except to say that they are small, fried, eaten whole and seasoned with not a lot more than salt and black pepper. My wife does not like shrimp. Obviously, she is a heretic and should suffer, but when I eat this dish, I almost feel sorry for her because this was one of the best bites I had last year, will undoubtedly be one of the best bites I have this year, and I highly recommend it to all right-thinking people. The rest of you lot can piss off.
Also, Happy New Year! May 2019 be filled with shrimp!
