Smorgasbord #40

Ephemeral, The Boys in the Boat, Paper Plane

Jul 19, 2024

Hello friends! This is Smorgasbord, a self-service buffet of ideas—the banana cream pie of newsletters.

This week has been challenging, guys. It started great and got slightly more complicated towards the middle, but things seem to be letting up now; thank God for that. But don’t be alarmed, there were good things as well! My oldest son got his second stripe in his grey belt at BJJ, and my daughter lost her first tooth, so there were some sweet moments to balance the chaos. What I’m trying to say is, count your blessings and maybe have a drink to wind down tonight. We made it to Friday.

Alright, let’s get on with it.

Ephemeral

On Monday night, I was driving over to the ice cream shop to get Diana and me a treat after the kids went to bed (if you’re a parent, you know how this works), and then I saw it: two E-Z Ups on the side of the road with one of these guys under it.

If you don’t know what this is, it is The Best Taco (in my opinion). Obviously, I had to stop. It felt like God was smiling at me. I asked the taquero how long they had been setting up shop on that spot, and he said it was the first time. He said they do pop-ups around Phoenix and let people know through TikTok.

I got three al pastor tacos, and they were stupendous. I was so giddy eating them because they were the closest thing I’ve found to what I remember these tacos tasting like. I’m not on TikTok, so I will take this encounter as something ephemeral that may not repeat itself, making it even more special. It was a one-night-only kind of thing, especially because days before that, I had tried tacos al pastor from another Mexican restaurant, and they were underwhelming.

The Boys in the Boat

I have a Concept 2 rower at home, and this month, I’ve been trying to get three rowing sessions weekly. With the Olympics starting at the end of July, it made sense to plan a movie night, get takeout, and watch “The Boys in the Boat.”

I had watched the PBS Documentary “The Boys of ‘36,” which piqued my interest in these characters, and this 2023 movie directed by George Clooney is an adaptation of “The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics” by Daniel James Brown. And you know that I’m going to be interested in anything WWII adjacent.

Here’s the synopsis of the movie, courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes: During the height of the Great Depression, members of the rowing team at the University of Washington get thrust into the spotlight as they compete for gold at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

It’s a good movie to watch if you like to see how humans deal with adversity or like a good underdog story. The film centers around Joe Rantz, one of the nine crew members. Joe was left to his own devices as a teen but eventually tried out for the rowing crew because the University of Washington provided room and board to those who made the team.

If I told my son that some people in the 1930s couldn’t get jobs and didn’t know where their next meal would come from, it would sound crazy, but this is precisely what these people went through. I like the band of brothers feel from the nine young men who became gold medalists against all odds.

Based on the documentary and movie, a topic for further exploration would be how people in the 1930s seemed to be fitter and better dressed than we are today. It was all suits and dresses back then. I’m getting very “Midnight in Paris” with these thoughts, so I’ll stop now.

Paper Plane

The Paper Plane is a modern classic created by Sam Ross. It’s a riff on one of my favorite cocktails, the Last Word, which uses one base spirit, two liqueurs, and citrus juice. This is Diana’s favorite whiskey cocktail, and it’s really good for summer. It’s sweet, sour, and slightly bitter. It’s also an equal-parts cocktail, which makes it even easier to make.

I hadn’t been making paper planes because one of the ingredients in this cocktail has a kind of high price tag: Amaro Nonino. A bottle of this Italian aperitivo will cost around $60, but if you are on a budget, you could substitute Nonino with Amaro Montenegro or Amaro Meletti, which costs half. Maybe buy both bottles and see which one you like best.

But we decided to splurge and get a bottle of Nonino to make these as Mr. Ross prescribed. Here are the ingredients:

3/4 oz Bourbon
3/4 oz Aperol
3/4 oz Amaro Nonino
3/4 oz Lemon Juice

Pour all the ingredients into a shaking tin with ice and shake vigorously for about 10 seconds. Strain into a chilled coupe and enjoy. A tiny paper plane can serve as a garnish if you want to practice your origami skills.

I hope you try this one because it’s delicious. If you make it, let me know how you liked it in the comments. Cheers!

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Sobremesa

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