Cerrado!

Yesterday, a wonderfully aimless Saturday, Superintendant Chalmers smoked two mullet we got at the grocery store in Elberton, Georgia, Granite Capital of the World. He used hickory, and kept the heat very, very low, and stuffed the cavities with parsley stems and lemon slices, seasoned the whole thing with salt. It was lovely. Lots of smoke flavor, but it wasn't overpowering. I think it was better than the smoked mullet we had at the famous place in St. Petersburg, where they use oak (although the quality of the fish itself was far better in the mullet capital of the world than in the granite). I made a quick variation on a gribiche to go with the fish, but it didn't need it.

Sauce for smoked mullet: Some mayonnaise, finely minced parsley (should be dill), minced hard-cooked egg, fresh lemon juice, minced capers.

The bug liked smoked mullet juice. She made faces at first, but by the third or fourth fingerful she was grabbing my hand to bring it to her.

In the evening we played dominoes.

The most satisfying thing about dominoes is the tiles in this set that my mom and dad
brought back from somewhere in South America: heavy, solid, and loud when you
set them down on the table.

I think it's a game best played by more than two people, so you have more of an idea what the other players are holding. Maybe today we'll try Basra, which is a great fast card game with a lot of rules that I find very hard to remember.

The Wagner containment project seems to have been completed. It's been two days since his last escape. He's now working on a tunnel near the gate, but he's digging in the wrong direction!