We went to Zenobia and Tyler's house yesterday in Oakland--for a barbeque. It
was much sunnier there than my house in El Cerrito! They've been slowly
remodeling their house and it's got such a beautiful, tropical feel to it. The
banana plants in the backyard are about 30 feet tall, and huge elephant ears
make it very lush. There is lots of bamboo. Zenobia had some great new green
plastic plates with banana leaves on them, and knives and forks with plastic
bamboo handles. "Mervyn's [department store] on clearance!" she told me
proudly, "I only buy things on clearance." She has such a good eye for finding
good stuff. She finally has a comfortable couch and two big chairs. I've known
her (we're like sisters) since 1970, and this is the first time she's finally
had a good place to sit down!
Tyler (he just turned 62) had prostate
cancer with such high medical bills, he was forced to come out of retirement.
Thank God, he decided to go back to being a butcher after 26 years. He's in the
Union now with full medical benefits. But even better than that, he's got a
whole new life. He is naturally gifted at talking to people, so he's out front
at the meat case greeting customers.
He's becoming like a super-star at
the various markets. Now the top stores are asking specifically for him. His
mission is help each customer select the right cut and make sure he or she
knows how to cook it--"I want you to have a great experience cooking meat," he
says, "and not a disaster. If you spend a lot of money on meat, you do not want
to deal with disappointment and giving your steak to your dog. You cannot
afford the emotional pain of burning it!" His enthusiasm is wonderful to see.
I think he should be on the Foodnetwork as a celebrity chef! He's got the
personality for it. The chefs on that food channel are all so suited to what
they are doing--you can tell that they just love what they do. It makes you
want to watch them. Actually, his daughter is Aisha Tyler, who went from
studying environmentalism at Dartmouth to becoming a celebrity herself on
network TV. She had her own show, Talk Soup. and appeared on the last few
episdoes of Friends, 24, and CSI. She was also featured in InStyle magazine.
She's tall and gorgeous and very funny--and also a foodie!
Robert cooked
the ribs and chicken perfectly by cooking them slowly and turning up the heat at
the end. We like to pre-simmer the ribs for 2 1/2 hours before putting them on
the grill with barbeque sauce.
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