So Much To Be Pissed About

“In the past two decades, the money that states spend on prisons has risen at six times the rate of spending on higher education.” (“The Caging of America”, Adam Gopnik. THE NEW YORKER, 1/30/12). I read that piece of information two days ago and I’m still fuming about it, and that is just the start.

There is just so much to be pissed about. In a bunch of letters to the public editor of THE NEW YORK TIMES, the writers consistently blasted the rather strange position of the paper that it is somehow biased and even unethical for an editor to fact check political statements. From there I went deeper into the Perspective section and read Obama’s piece (“An America built to last”) which was basically a summing up of his State of the Union address, and to me at least, every bit as disappointing in its populist assertion that--”Gosh Darn It”--anything is possible for the American people if they just put their heads together.

Right next to that was a vacuous essay by William McKenzie of THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS entitled “What makes good teachers effective?” In it, McKenzie breathlessly announces that researchers at Harvard and Columbia have “set the education world abuzz” with their discovery that quality teachers impact their students over a lifetime! I’m sorry but I’m not all abuzz with this stale reiteration.

Then, below the fold, was perhaps the most evilly misleading essay I’ve seen in a newspaper that wasn’t written by Mike Rosen. In approximately 800 detail free words, Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, launches an attack on Obama that manages to cloak any semblance of the truth in a morass of ad hominem name calling and glaring errors of omission.

This has combined to make me flee to my keyboard where I can spill my guts about the one topic that really matters to me:

J. Starkey’s Top Ten Things To Eat In Denver When You Are Dead Or Alive

1. Steamed Buns - Bones (7th and Grant). Thick and sticky buns filled with either pork belly or fat back. Choose the belly. They come in orders of three, but if you are dining with a friend, ask for a fourth bun. If you don’t, you will end up wresting over the odd bun. Oh, and tied for first are the Shishito Peppers from Bones. Long and thin skinned. Flash fried, they come to your table simply presented on a long white plate, salts clinging to the skin. Best of all, the heat varies with each pepper. Some are HOT. Others with just a little kick. A constant surprise.
2. Pineapple Upside Down Pancakes - Snooze (Park Avenue and Larimer). We go to Snooze every Saturday morning for breakfast. We get there right at seven because we are early risers, but mostly because any later and we would be facing an hour wait. You see people like the food and the vibe at Snooze. An order of these pancakes is, well, huge. Two large pancakes falling over the edges of the plate, with creme anglais and crowned with a nice dollop of a flavorful butter melting on top. Ask for a Bloody Mary and a great cup of Guatemalan coffee (you can buy the coffee beans and ask them to be ground for you for $11 a pound), and hang out. Be sure to check out the seasonal murals on the outside facing Park Avenue.
3. Huevos Rancheros - Snooze. The best huevos I’ve had anywhere, period. I have them add pulled pork and substitute their terrific green chili for the ranchero sauce. Like all dishes here, it is too large, but I’m not going to complain.
4. Calamari - Luca d’Italia (7th, across Grant from Benny’s). Here is another Bonanno restaurant. We don’t go to Luca as much as the other Bonanno venues because we do a pretty good job on Italian at home, if I say so myself, but when we do go I always start with the Calamari. Tender, not chewy. Lots of spice. Beautiful to look at. Oh, and as long as you are at Luca, if they have rabbit on the menu, get it!
5. Burrata - Osteria Marco (Larimer Square, a couple of doors down from The Market.) This is one Italian place we do frequent, especially in the summer. There are few things nicer than sitting at the bar at Marco drinking great house wine and nibbling on house made cheeses and house cured salumi. But the burrata is a revelation. We took a cheese making class once and learned two things: One, how to make burrata; two, the certainty that the next time we wanted burrata we would gladly let a paid professional do it. Burrata is homemade mozzarella wrapped around home made ricotta. It is served with grilled bread. When you cut into the cheesy ball you find the smooth mozzarella cupping the creamy ricotta. The only challenge is making the slices of bread and clumps of cheese come out even.
6. Hamburger - Park Burger (South Pearl Street a few blocks North of Evans and across from the Folklore Center). Last year, USA TODAY ranked Park Burger’s hamburger the best in Colorado. I see no reason to disagree. Never frozen. Always cooked as requested. Cherry Cricket? Elways? Brothers Bar? They aren’t even close.
7. Fries with the works - Park Burger. You know how when you order something like chili fries or nachos, you end up with a basket full of chips with a layer of all the goodies sitting on top. Once you get through that top layer you are left with just chips, or fries. Not at Park Burger. You get a huge basket of fries with cheeses and scallions and real bacon bits swimming around in every bite.
8. Whole Colorado Trout - Lola (1575 Boulder Street). I love trout and the only trout I’ve ever had better than the trout at Lola was once up in the Tetons when the chef at Jenny Lake cooked up a few trout that a fellow guest had just caught. He, bless his heart, gave me bites. Wonderful, wonderful. In addition to the trout being great, the view of downtown Denver from its Highlands perch is probably the best in the city. Arrange to call a cab and partake of their alarmingly long list of tequilas.
9. Lobster Mac’ Cheese - Mizuna (around the corner from Luca at 7th and Grant). Mizuna always has the best things to eat in Denver, but they never stay the same. So, where I might go to Lola just to have the trout, I just go to Mizuna to have whatever the boys in the kitchen have cooked up for me, so to speak. However, the mac ‘n cheese has been a permanent fixture on the menu ever since Frank Bonanno opened it ten years ago. When people first start frequenting Mizuna, they always order the mac ‘n cheese, but Kathie and I have out grown that phase and are more experimental. On the other hand, this is probably the best dish in Denver. It won the Food Network Challenge on the strength of its pure decadence alone.

I think I’m ready to face the day now.