Crazy Awesome Take-Away

With the globalization of American fast-food chains like McDonald's, Burger King, and KFC, it must be more difficult than ever to operate a small take-away restaurant in UK and Ireland.  Fish and chips are still popular here for traditional fast food, and we have certainly enjoyed chipper meals since we've been here.  Luckily, there aren't any American chains near our home, but there is a nice little take-away shop just down the street.  The other night, we had visited a pub and were in the mood for greasy, salty goodness, so it was time to pay a visit.

The menu had what one would expect from a UK/Ireland take-away joint- fish and chips, burgers, pizza, curry, kebabs (yes, the Middle-East and Indian influence is strong in fast food here), and what I saw as a fascinating piece of foodery: the batter burger.

I had to ask the staff about the batter burger.  It was on the value menu for a price lower than a regular burger, so I wondered, could it be just fry batter shaped into a patty and placed on a bun?  What was it? 

"It's a regular beef burger patty breaded and fried instead of grilled, it's quite good!"

Nice, a breaded and fried burger.  Only in America Ireland.  It brought a bit of a tear to my eye thinking about such inspired innovation.  I simply had to try it.  Sara ordered the veggie falafel (fried and slathered in a mayo-based sauce, so don't let the 'veggie' part fool you!) and we were on our way.

We got home with our greasy brown bag of fried food and dumped it all out on our plates.  The batter burger was exactly what I had dreamed it would be.  It was served without a bun or any other encumberances, so I was able to hold it in my hand for dipping in our salty, sweet, neon-bright ketchup.  I guess the falafel was good, too...

Batter burger and veggie falafel

Burnin' Dirt!?

Peat-cutting has been a tradition in Ireland since ancient times.  Historically, the island doesn't have vast stretches of forest and woodland, so wood was difficult to find as a fuel source.  Luckily, much of Ireland's low-lying area is covered with vast stretches of bog lands.  Bogs are a special kind of temperate wetland in which large amounts of plant matter grow quickly, die off, and decay in stagnant, brown water.  These conditions slow the decomposition process, allowing the formation of peat.  

Peat is the partially decomposed and naturally compacted plant material from old bogs.  The peat is cut, literally from the surface of the ground, by hand or machine, dried, and packed for sale.  Where we purchased it, the peat was available in briquettes, highly packed and shaped into uniform pieces.  There are peat sellers who specialize in hand-cut rough shapes, but our most convenient source was the briquettes.

Peat briquettes

Peat is also sometimes called "turf" by the people who live here, but I have most often just heard, "briquettes."

Looks great, right?

Any experienced peat burner will see the above photo and laugh.  When we got home with our peat, I built it up just as if I was burning a wood fire or lighting barbeque charcoal.  I simply, and incorrectly, assumed peat burned and lit just like wood logs.  I made my triangular stack with paper tinder and thought I was ready to go.

We didn't take any more photos of what happened next, but let's all safely assume we learned a lot about the behavior of peat.  The blocks are extremely dense, feeling much heavier than they look.  When I tried to light the above pile, the paper was burned out and the peat pieces were merely beginning to char.  After more and more (and more) paper, I finally got the pieces burning, but slowly.  I again made a rookie peat burning mistake by poking the pile to open up more airflow.  Sadly, this extinguished the flames and brought the briquettes to a very smoky smolder.

I finally gave up on getting it burning with what we had on hand, so I did what I should have done an hour earlier- left it alone.  I thought it would just smolder out, but when sitting still, the flames were able to build some momentum and actually burned pretty well.  Sadly, we had to open a window to let smoke out and cold air in, so we didn't get much heat from our fire.

Doing some research, it appears peat is most easily lit with fire-starter blocks because it is so dense and needs long contact from flame to get burning.  Lesson learned.  I do like the low cost and slow burn of peat as a way to save fuel.  Hopefully I'll get better at the skill involved so we can experience the full benefit of an Irish turf fire on a cold night.

[Update:  I have since learned the proper stacking technique to get a turf fire going without using store-bought firestarters, thank you very much!]

First Big Batch of Cider

Thanks to the generous gift from Lord Stilton, I was able to make a big batch of homebrew.  I still haven't made the jump to buying beer ingredients because of delivery charges, so cider it would be.

I calculated my recipe mostly based upon my bottling capacity.  I have enough plastic soda bottles to hold about 17 litres of brew.  I rounded this up to an even 20 with some extra apple juice and some additional water to dissolve the sugar and tea.

Preparation and ingredients

The batch used 16.5 litres of apple juice, a cup of black tea (for tannin flavor- simulating tannins from apple skins in pressing), 1kg white sugar, 500g brown sugar, raisins, yeast nutrient, and yeast.  The bleach and vinegar are used for sanitizing equipment.

I brewed the tea, mixed the sugar in hot water, poured the cider (all eleven jugs of it!) into the fermenter, added the sugar water, tea, and raisins to the mix, aerated the whole mix, added the yeast, and sealed up the fermenter bucket.  Easy as that.

What a mess!

Fermenting next to the water heater

I stashed the fermenter in the closet next to the water heater to help keep it warm as our apartment is getting cooler, especially at night.  The next day, it was bubbling and gurgling away.  Should be ready to bottle in about two weeks.  Can't wait!

Road Trip Reflections

24 States, One District.

Some fun stats of the trip:

States passed through: 24 (plus Washington, D.C.)

States in which we spent at least one night:  14 (ND, MT, WA, OR, CA, AZ, NM, TX, LA, GA, SC, VA, IN, IA)

National Parks visited: 5 (Theodore Roosevelt, Glacier, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest)

Gallons of fuel burned:  227.38 (yikes!)

Total cost of fuel:  [classified] but not as much as one might think for a full month of daily travel, and less than the cost of ONE plane ticket from LA to Sydney, Australia

Miles traveled:  7,741 (!) Hold on, lemme look something up... there it is!

Los Angeles, California to Sydney, Australia:  approx. 7,500 miles

We drove the distance from LA to Sydney plus nearly the width of Iowa again!


Wow, what a trip.  It is enjoyable to sit back and think about everything we accomplished in such a short time on the road.  Such a big part of traveling is living monumental experiences while often being tired and somewhat overstimulated.  It is often difficult to appreciate in the moment, but the memories and stories of a big travel experience are incredibly valuable and I will proudly and happily keep them with me forever.

I'm glad everything timed out as well as it did.  Sara's graduation in May, our home sale and the end of my school year in June, our placement in Dublin in July, and the four glorious weeks of homelessness that resulted.  I must also be thankful to Sara, who is an amazing, careful, and thoughtful trip planner.  She helped us build and keep the trip schedule, gathered lists of materials we would need to bring, made the few actual reservations we needed, and made sure the trip was as carefully planned as practically possible going in.  Even though we threw out our carefully printed route in favor of following our trusty paper Rand McNally Road Atlas after the first day, we always knew the general direction and timing of the trip- even if we didn't know exactly where we would be sleeping on many nights.  It was adventures like finding shelter that can stay with a person the most.  The afternoon in California spent trying to find a campground on Father's Day weekend gave us some headaches and concerns at the time, but never fails to bring a smile to our faces looking back.

What may make this trip the most unique we've taken (so far!) is the sheer variety of our destinations and activities.  Some trips are taken to visit family, some trips are taken to see the natural beauty of a national park, some trips are taken to see the lights, excitement, and zest for life of the big city.  We were fortunate in this trip to have accomplished all these and more.  In the same trip, with the same carload of clothing and equipment, we did visit our far-flung family.  We did visit the wildest (natural) places of America.  We did see the wildest (urban) places of America.  We saw natural history and human-made history every day.  Elevating the travel experience was the constant presence of each other.  We always had someone with whom to share the sights, sounds, and smells of travel- because we were almost never out of each other's sight.  If this was a true test of a marriage, I think we passed.

We did weather (sometimes literally!) inconveniences, sudden changes of plan, setbacks, and delays on this trip.  Not everything can go according to plan on any trip, and ours was no different.  From the threat of violent storms in Theodore Roosevelt National Park to the fatigue brought on by crowds, heat, and altitude of Yosemite National Park to the mountain delays forcing us to stay at a Motel in Barstow, CA to taking the wrong exit in Augusta, GA and on and on, we rolled with the travel punches and came out smiling on the other side.

What did I enjoy most, you ask?  I think the entries from Glacier NP predicted that I would look back to the blue water, big sky, and snow-capped peaks most fondly... I believe they were correct.  Thinking back even farther to the trip planning stage, I was most excited about the mystery and majesty of Glacier.  The fact that fishing was legal in almost all Glacier waters without a license was just icing on that beautiful snowy cake in Northwest Montana.  Not to say that seeing the other people, parks, and cities of the trip weren't all great, but nothing made me feel quite so alive as the crisp air of the quiet Two Medicine valley.  There were certainly countless other experiences, big and small, that I thoroughly enjoyed in the moment and in hindsight, but I would have to call the time in Glacier (for me...) nothing short of life changing.

What did I learn, you ask?  Well, it is difficult to explain, but the best way to put this would be to say, "I learned a lot, but most of it I knew already."  I know that sounds a bit like something Yogi Berra might say, but it really rings true for me.  The biggest lesson I could take from this was, "PACK LIGHTLY!"  I knew before the trip that it was important to only travel with what is essential for safety, survival, and a modest level of comfort.  Looking back, there was A LOT we could have lived without.  Biggest among them was that acoustic guitar.  Music is important to me, and the romance of songs around the campfire is enticing, but the fact was that we just didn't have enough time or energy to do much campfire singing.  Many was the camping night where we got back from a busy day so tired that we could barely cook, eat, and clean up before going to bed.  We did get the guitar out a few times, but the hassle of that large, rigid, blocky object on top of everything in the car was not worth the hour (singular...if that) of entertainment we got with it.  I also mentioned fishing in Glacier.  Yes, I did it.  No, I didn't do it very long.  No, I didn't catch anything.  Yes, it meant we had to pack and drag my rod and tackle kit along with us the whole trip.  No, it probably wasn't worth bringing.  Yes, it is pretty cool to look back and say, "Yeah, I fished for wild cutthroats in Montana."  If we were to ever take this trip again, I believe we both would take time to go over our packing list a few (dozen) more times and weed out more of our equipment.

On a more whimsical and reflective note, I learned how freeing and possible it is to be "off the grid" for an extended period.  We did not have smartphones or GPS units with us on this trip, and we managed to find our way without much trouble.  We did have laptops used to check emails at certain points during the trip- mostly to make sure our international travel arrangements and paperwork were processing correctly.  We also carried non smart cell phones for family contact and emergencies.  Outside of occasional Wi-Fi stops for email and route checking, we were mostly at the mercy of a paper map and hand-written notes.  Our campsite fees were mostly paid with cash in an envelope.  Probably most exciting about the time away from the internet was that I could not follow the Chicago Cubs' 2013 losing season through its lowest, most tedious, and painful months.

If I could give a piece of advice to the reader in light of my experience on this (and other) trips, it would be, "Travel!  Plan it, get a partner(s), and go for it!"  Make it work with your schedule and your budget.  See and experience new things.  Don't be scared of the unknown, embrace it.  Endure (and try to enjoy!) the hardships, delays, and setbacks of your trip.  You will be surprised at how much adversity can enhance your experience and memories.  Or, at least, give you a better story to tell your friends and family years later.

Let me close with one of my favorite poems from Emily Dickinson.  I believe it captures the nature of unknown adventure and discovery not just of travel, but of life itself.

Down Time's quaint stream

Without an oar

We are enforced to sail

Our Port a secret

Our Perchance a Gale

What Skipper would

Incur the Risk

What Buccaneer would ride

Without a surety from the Wind

Or schedule of the Tide —

I'll Play Mega Man 2: Metal Man and Wood Man

What are we to do after Monster Party?  Play a better game, that's what.  Mega Man 2 has a much better historical reputation than M.P., and it should be evident even in these first two robot masters.  In real life, it's getting darker at this latitude and we follow an interesting piece of news.