Bo Diddley, podcasts and roast chicken

Another Sunday and I've been trying really hard not to work today.  Dealing with not being in Australia with Steve Ignorant's tour - relief that I can get on with the very urgent work at Southern, but also sad not to be there for Steve and to be missing (what I hope is) all the fun.  Seems I can't be happy no matter what I do! So today I am teaching myself how to podcast.  About two months...no, wait - FOUR months ago, Damon bought me an amazing USB mic (Yeti Pro, more on that later I'm sure) and I've finally gotten it out of the box and I'm trying to figure out GarageBand.  Not bad so far, I've made theme tunes for two podcasts (a personal one, Savage Pink - and a work one for Southern).  However I'm now caught up in the drama and having twelve kinds of performance anxiety.  I reckoned I'd start with my personal podcast - easy right? No one will even know it exists!  Yeah well, wrong... I've spent about 6 hours picking out 15 minutes worth of songs.  It's the usual Allison stuff - if I'm going to do a podcast it's going to be the best podcast anyone living or dead has ever done now or forever into the future. Example?  Choose song. GREAT SONG! Wonder when that song was recorded, who wrote it, what that unintelligible lyric is, did anyone ever cover it, is there a story behind it.... At this rate I may produce one podcast per year.

While I've been spinning my wheels I have enjoyed myself though.  Spent probably a good 90 minutes revelling in the genius of Bo Diddley.  Actually this was prompted by hearing George Thorogood's version of "Who Do You Love" on the radio t'other day - for Americans of my generation, an FM radio classic, and an undeniably good version of the song. But DAMN what a great lyric.

I walk 47 miles of barbed wire I use a cobra snake for a necktie I got a brand new house on the roadside Made from rattlesnake hide I got a brand new chimney made on top Made out of a human skull Now come on take a little walk with me, Arlene And tell me, who do you love? Who do you love? Who do you love? Who do you love? Who do you love? Tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Just 22 and I don't mind dying Who do you love? Who do you love? Who do you love? Who do you love? I rode lion in to town, use a rattlesnake whip Take it easy Arlene, don't give me no lip Who do you love? Who do you love? Who do you love? Who do you love? Night was dark, when the sky was blue Down the alley, the ice-wagon flew Heard a bump and somebody screamed You should have heard just what I seen Who do you love? Who do you love? Who do you love? Who do you love? Arlene took me by my hand She said, "Oohwee Bo, you know I understand." Who do you love? Who do you love? Who do you love? Who do you love?

An incredible amount of cool jammed into one song - even if it had been written yesterday, never mind in 1956 by a boy from Mississippi. Bo was about as good as it gets. The Originator, The Black Gladiator, a true legend. And in the course of my shameless meandering across the interweb, I was reminded of Peggy Jones, aka Lady Bo, Diddley's first female side-kick, who he apparently met on the street when she was 16. How cool is she? And still going strong, playing gigs and recording.

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Lady Bo

Here's a clip of Bo and Lady Bo I found today.

Meanwhile, I've been roasting a chicken. Damon loves my roast chicken (learned from Nigella Lawson's How To Eat, to give credit due). Billie also loves chicken, probably more than anything in the world - and therefore when I roast one, she is driven to distraction by the wonderful smell. It's heartbreaking to see her face, looking up at you urgently, and her obvious attempts to be THE BEST BEHAVED DOG IN THE WORLD, in the hopes that you'll let her have the chicken. The whole chicken.

She won't get the whole thing, but she will benefit greatly once we've had our fill.

Restaurant review: Chop'd

New chain offers a green & healthy option for lunch. Chop'd is a relatively new fast food chain, with five branches in London.  They are, apparently, "on a mercy mission to bring delicious food into real working lives".  They serve breakfasts (porridge, yogurt, muesli and fresh juices), soups, and salads.  Everything, they say, is freshly assembled each morning in-store. You have a choice of pre-assembled salads - tuna nicoise, jerk chicken, superfoods (edamame beans, avocado, beetroot, carrot, broccolis, spinach, seeds and sprouts), parma ham & mozzarella, smoked mackerel, and the particularly frightening (to me, at least) powerfoods (broccoli, green beans, carrot spaghetti, beetroot spaghetti, more seeds).

The more exciting option, however, is the "create your own salad" challenge, where for £5 you can choose a base (leaves, pasta, rice noodles, couscous, potato or any combination thereof) plus 3 "house" ingredients (vegetables and fruit, plus the scary beetroot or carrot spaghettis), add 1 "deli" ingredient (cheeses, fish, meat, avocado or pine kernels), 1 "garnish" (fresh herbs and seeds) and a dressing (they offer 14 choices, from the naughty blue cheese to the low fat miso or no fat thai dressing).  You can add extra ingredients for 25p to £1.

Chop'd get green points for offering you an extra house ingredient if you leave without a carrier bag for your salad, and also for offering free water if you bring your own bottle (not sure if they just fill it up at the tap though as we didn't have a bottle with us).  Also the bins they provide in store allow customers to sort the waste for later recycling.

The staff were all friendly enough on arrival, though when it came to serving us one staffer came to the counter and asked if we needed help, and then turned around and admonished a co-worker for ignoring us, walked off and made the co-worker serve us!  Said co-worker looked a bit sour about that.  Apart from this they were all charming enough.

I went for leaves (which considered of iceberg, cos and/or romaine, which was just started to get a tired edge to it -- surprising considering it was 11am), chickpeas, carrots, fresh peppers (I forgot to claim my free fourth ingredient, and they didn't offer!), chicken plus avocado (an extra £1), fresh basil, and sesame soy dressing.  We sat in to eat.  The portions were certainly generous, all of the ingredients bar the leaves were very fresh, and the dressing very tasty.  I'd say good value in general, though I was not happy to have paid an extra quid for some seriously under-ripe avocado.  I did manage to spend £8 with my extras (which also included a brownie and sparkling mineral water).  The brownie was good and moist and chewy, but nothing particularly special.

Seating at this branch was limited inside, but includes plenty of extra tables outside on the station concourse.

I think a few improvements could be made but will definitely visit Chop'd again if I'm in their neighbourhood.

I visited the St Pancras branch at about 11am today.

Chop'd Unit 34, St Pancras International Pancras Rd, London, NW1 2QL 020 7837 1603

Next time you’re in Hoboken…

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Photo by Eating in Translation on Flickr

While traversing the net for interesting dirt on my family name, I came across this place - Schnackenberg's Luncheonette in Hoboken, New Jersey.  It looks like exactly the kind of classic American diner that I love.  All the reviews are great, but some recent postings say that the food is great, and great value.  The decor is vintage and a scene from The Basketball Diaries was filmed there. Apparently it is run by the daughter of the immigrants who opened the place in 1931.  I was sad to read recent posts on a local site which said it's rarely open these days, as apparently the sister of the owner is ill.  Maybe I need to move back to New Jersey and take the place on.  It's not that crazy of an idea, you know.

Address - 1110 Washington St, Hoboken, New Jersey ( NJ ) 07030-5302 Telephone - (201) 659-9836

 Photo credit: IMG_4519_edited Originally uploaded by Eating In Translation to Flickr