The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

Soon after starting my colorful academic career at Crazy Go Nuts University (a.k.a. Queen’s University) in Kingston, Ontario in 1987, Brian’s Record Option — an ever-chaotic shambles of a record/CD/tape shop — ended up being one of my regular go-to places. I would’ve figured that Brian would’ve retired and closed the shop already, but it turns out that he’s still there, running the business (and I’m using the terms “running” and “business” very loosely). Read more about one of the hangouts of my wonderfully misspent youth in this Noisey article, Brian Lipsin Is Kingston, Ontario’s Anarchist Record Shop Owner.

From Improve your life by thinking marginally:

“Try to answer the following two questions as honestly as you can:

• If you found yourself with an extra hour a week of free time – what would you do more of?
• And if you found yourself with an hour a week less of free time – what would you do less of?

If your answers to these questions differ, then you’re not doing a good job managing your life, and you should just go ahead and replace things from your second answer with things from your first answer.”

What happens when you think that all you need to excel at something is passion, and you skip the other prerequisites such as skills, knowledge, experience, good fortune, and perhaps a modicum of common sense? You get stories like Toronto foodie turned failed restaurateur Robert Maxwell’s A Restaurant Ruined My Life. It’s the latest in a series of Toronto Life articles written by people with more money than brains who are also hard to sympathize with (such as Catherine Jheon’s infamous article of her family’s gentrification move gone terribly wrong, We Bought a Crack House).

November means cooler weather, even here in Tampa, where’s it’s expected to drop to a relatively brisk 68°F/20°C this evening (I did say “relatively”). That means it’s soup season, and for most people most of the time, soup means this:

Thanks to a combination of Hallowe’en and marketing, it’s not just soup season, but pumpkin season, which for most people mean these:

But let me convince you that pumpkin is for more than pies and sickly-sweet coffee — it’s great for dinner as well! As proof, here’s my dirt-simple recipe for pumpkin soup.

It has only four main ingredients…

• One pie pumpkin (about 2 pounds / 1 kilo)
• 2 large sweet onions
• 1 liter (about 32 ounces) of your favorite broth
• 4 or more tablespoons of butter or your favorite butter substitute

…plus whatever herbs, spices, or garnishes you’d like to add. There’s lot of room to be creative in that department.

You’ll also need:

• A big pot
• A microwave oven large enough to hold the pumpkin (luckily, pie pumpkins are smaller than Jack O’ Lantern pumpkins)
• An immersion blender, a.k.a. stick mixer

You’ll do most of the cooking in the pot. Chop the onions, toss them into the pot with the butter and cook them until the onions are soft. The following are photos that I took on Sunday, when I made my most recent batch of soup:

While the onions cook, heat up the pumpkin so that it’s soft enough to scoop out. I do it the lazy way: I poke a slit in it with a paring knife, and put in the microwave at high (my microwave is 1200 watts; cooking times vary with power) for 15 minutes. Remember to poke a slit into the pumpkin if you don’t want your microwave to end up like a Cronenberg movie…

Once the onions are soft, add the broth. Bring it to a simmer, which means “bring it to boiling, then dial the heat down just below boiling”. You’ll know that the stock is simmering when tiny bubbles pop up here and there on its surface, with irregular wisps of steam appearing from time to time:

When the pumpkin’s done — it’ll be darker, and its stem will snap off easily — cut it open, remove the seeds, and…

…add its innards to the pot. Bring it to a simmer again:

Let the pot simmer for about 7 minutes, then turn off the heat. Use the immersion blender to purée the mixture until you have a smooth, creamy soup:

Season as you see fit. Some recommendations:

• Salt and pepper
• Garlic powder, garlic salt, or garlic pepper
• Herbes de provence
• Thyme
• Basil
• Paprika
• Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute
• Curry powder
• Sazon
• Oregano, or if you’re feeling Middle Eastern, zataar
• Top with a dollop of sour cream

And serve!

The great thing about this recipe is that you can replace the pumpkin with all sorts of other vegetables. For example, to get a beautiful green pea soup, use peas. Two pounds of frozen peas will do the trick, and they’re soft enough in their raw state that you don’t have to heat them; just add them after you add the stock and bring the mixture to a simmer:

In the end, you’ll have a beautiful, simple, delicious, and healthy homemade soup, and all in about half an hour!

I took these at the Cheese Boutique during a recent trip to Toronto and then forgot about them until yesterday, when I was going through my photos. I hereby declare them the new official photos of Anitra Pavka and Joey deVilla, suitable for use in the intro slides of presentations, author’s photos on book jackets, album covers, t-shirts and plain old general admiration.

(But seriously: If you’re ever in Cheese Boutique, do yourself a favor and pose for a photo in this chair. It makes you look good.)

I’m also making this the official photo of being 50.

However, when you think about the way they acted, especially in the prequels, “aim like a Jedi” could be interpreted as “pee in the sink, and on any toothbrushes you find.”

First, the upcoming birthday party: Lowry Parcade and Tavern, Tampa — Saturday, November 18th, 2017!

I’ve had a couple of 50th birthday parties already (see below), but I haven’t yet celebrated this big birthday with friends in Tampa. That’s all changes on Saturday, November 18th, when I celebrate at Lowry Parcade and Tavern, a place with a lot of classic arcade and pinball games and a great selection of craft beers and ciders. If you’re in Tampa in a couple of Saturdays, you’re invited to join me from 7:00 p.m. on!

Interested in attending? RSVP on the Facebook page for the party!

Birthday party 1: The Carbon Bar, Toronto — Saturday, October 14th, 2017

My first 50th birthday party took place during Anitra’s and my recent visit to Toronto for Canadian Thanksgiving, which takes place on the second Monday in October. My mom, sister, and brother-in-law arranged for a birthday party at The Carbon Bar in downtown Toronto, where they had a private room overlooking the rest of the establishment. We invited a small number of friends for a fully-catered, open-bar, let’s-all-hang-out-and-marvel-at-how-time-flies gathering.

Here’s the requisite photo with Anitra:

I had to take a shot from the balcony overlooking the rest of Carbon Bar. If I’m not mistaken, that’s Eldon looking up at me as he makes his way to the stairs:

Here’s a photo of the partygoers with whom I’m the most newly acquainted: Robin and Anitra, both of whom I met in 2011:

I’ve known these people longer: June (since about 2003), Maria (also about 2003), Natalie (2001), and James (2007)…

And here are some of the old guard: Kevin (whom I’ve known since 1982), Eldon (1989), and my sister Eileen (1969)…

This photo features Anne, whom I met in 1992:

And way in the back is Patrick (whom I’ve also known since 1982), chatting with my Mom (known since 1967):

…and in the foreground, looking right at the camera, is Marichka, whom I met in 1988 when she and her friend Ellen invited me to what may have been the most booze-tastic Toni home perm experiment ever:

After cocktails, first conversations, and a lot of catching up came a wonderful dinner and yet even more booze, which is exactly the way it should be. There were enough of us that we had to be split into two tables, but I made sure to work the room and eat at both.

It may be a cliche to describe an event as something that made your heart swell with joy, but honestly, that phrase applies. The people in this room have been with me through the years, through good times and bad, who’ve seen me at my best and worst, and most of them were able to make it to our wedding. I’m grateful that I was able to have all of them gathered together to break bread and clink glasses, and even moreso to Mom, Eileen, and Richard for making it possible.

Birthday party 2: Restaurant BT, Tampa — Saturday, November 4th, 2017

Yesterday, the Saturday closest to my actual birthday — November 5 — Anitra took me out to dinner at Restaurant BT, which specializes in French/Vietnamese cuisine. We like trying out new places, and since neither of us had been there before, it seemed like an obvious choice.

I felt more like cocktails than wine that evening, so we started with saketinis. I had the lychee-and-mint one…

…while Anitra opted for the blood orange:

Appetizer time! We shared two appetizers:

• Bo tai chanh: grass-fed beef tartare, ginger, garlic, chili, shallots, opal basil, cilantro, peanuts, hearts of palm, microgreens, and passion fruit jus
• Vegetarian pumpkin soup: made with chunks of pumpkin, coconut milk, galangal, scallions, roasted peanuts, and vegetable broth

The mains called for another round of cocktails. This time, I went with a sake-based bloody mary that came with its own bouquet of herbs…

…and I couldn’t resist getting all Salvador Dali with the onion blossom:

Anitra opted for a passion fruit saketini, which would stand up to her entrée.

My entrée was “Duck Duck Goose”, which was a collection made up of:

• Pan-seared goose foie gras,
• placed atop a duck confit,
• which in turn was on top of applewood-smoked duck risotto,
• and served with roasted parsnips and squash.

Here’s a closer look:

Anitra’s entrée was chiperones relleno: baby squid stuffed with shrimp, crab, pork, and tree ear mushrooms, served on a bed of glass noodles and a tomato-ginger relish, with eggplant and coconut black rice on the side:

The restaurant knew it was my birthday (I told them, of course), and they threw in this birthday greeting spelled out in lime sauce with a very nice chocolate mousse:

I like a good surprise:

This became my new social media profile photo:

We also opted to try out a couple of desserts: a trio of creme brulees (one of which was peppery — quite nice!) and a tropical panna cotta:

If you’re looking for a new place in Tampa to try some really good food, I recommend checking out Restaurant BT. I’m definitely coming back.