Wednesday - April 30, 2014

we’re all gonna die, but at least we’re happy

The rain is coming down in buckets here, and has been since last night.

We’re on the very, very ragged edge of major flooding.

Down town, the peaceful little Beaver Brook has sprung it’s banks and is now a raging torrent 100 yards wide. Where this “little” stream joins the South Branch (of the Raritan River) right on the south edge of town, is a massive field of white water, triple it’s normal width. Pretty scary.

With isolated heavy rainfall possible through early Thursday, the Weather Service issued a flood watch through this morning for the state’s northern and northwest regions, as well as for portions of eastern Pennsylvania.

“The flooding is definitely the primary concern,” said Carl Erickson, an Accuweather meteorologist in State College, Penn.

With the ground already soaked this evening, rising rivers were approaching their banks as runoff reached those waters, he said.

At 7 p.m., the Rahway River at Springfield and the Assunpink Creek at Trenton were at moderate flood stage, according to data from the Weather Service. Several others were at minor flooding stage, including the Passaic River at Chatham; the North Branch of the Raritan at North Branch Village; and the Millstone River at Griggstown.

The rain is “coming too hard, too fast” for runoff to seep into the ground, Erickson said.

Until today, April’s rainfall was slightly below average for most of the state, he said. This storm could double the amount for some regions.

New Jersey is getting drenched today, with bands of heavy rain continuing to fall across the region — and more rain on the way tonight.
...
HUNTERDON COUNTY [rainfall for today, so far]

Readington: 3.26 inches (4:50 p.m.); Lambertville: 3.15 inches (4:43 p.m.); Wertsville: 2.00 inches (3:35 p.m.)

So we went out for sushi for dinner. Right next to the Beaver Brook (map ref 40.637220, -74.906817), the turgid brown waters nearly lapping at the back of the restaurant. Hey, I had to say that; how often do you get to write “turgid” and get away with it? And since it’s BYOB, we stopped in at the booze shop across the street first ... what shall we get, a Riesling or some sake? Hey, let’s get both!! So we settled for a genuine Gewürztraminer and a bottle of Momakowa Silver sake. And I got to use an umlaut, woo hoo!

Ok, a big platter of sushi and sashimi each later, comes with the crispy shrimp filled tempura roll, salad, and miso soup. Plus we always have to order something daring ... because part of the thrill of sushi is getting something really gross and then daring each other to eat it ... we got the baby octopus, which we haven’t had in years. A dozen or so little red octopussies, the size of a quarter, boiled bright red, their heads sliced open and stuffed with sesame and garlic and stuff. Chewy, and yumm!! They were out of monkfish liver, and we had the sea urchin and the raw scum shrimp last time.

Ordinarily, the gross-out factor here for roast baby octopus would be about a 6, a solid medium. But she’s Italian, so fried calamari (squid) is nothing new, and everyone in the family knows the tentacles are the best part. Plus, pulpo salad. Tentacles!! So for us, the octopus was about a 0.2 on that scale. But it freaked out the people at the table near us, and that’s what it’s all about.

So, we finished off the German wine, which had a nice crisp clean taste with a mild citrus finish. Perfect for cleaning up after seafood. Then we opened the sake, and had a few rounds of that. The Momakowa Silver is quite dry, and tastes not at all like low octane gasoline the way that certain famous cheap brand of sake in the green bottle tastes.

And it was a very nice dinner, down at our local Sea Kara sushi joint. It wasn’t Kumomoto Oyster night; that’s Friday. And they do a magnificent job thene, serving those soft gentle buttery good oysters topped with a tiny shred of fresh cilantro, a microspoon of flying fish roe, and a half spoon of brown sauce. Which is to die for. But not tonight. Tonight it was simple slabs of fish, straight up or on rice. And that was enough.

On the way out, the Beaver Brook was lapping at the back edge of their parking lot. And it’s still raining. Hard. ruh roh.

We, however, live on top of the hill. And we still have half a bottle of sake left.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/30/2014 at 07:24 PM   
Filed Under: • Fine-Dining •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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