maki’s Neighborhood

According to an article in today's Tages Anzeiger (only in the printed edition), hailstorms did serious damage in the Genova area in Italy, where they grow the "Genova Basil" (which is an AOC) for the famous Pesto Genovese. The farmers estimate the next crop to be more than 20% less than the year before. This may create a Pesto shortage.

So, it could mean that our next Pesto Genovese may not really com from the Genova area.

the other day, I got another of those phishing mails, apparently sent from a bank. As I am not a customer of any US bank, I know right away that such messages are spam. 

But that one message is definitely worthwile, as apparently coming from the Bank of Oklahoma...

Dear Bank Of Oklahoma Customer,

Online banking is essentially safe but there are some areas where consumers remain vulnerable. In our efforts to offer a competitive service and to maintain a reliable database server, we are performing a regular update on every account enrolled with us to eliminate the possibility of money-laundering through one-day accounts. In order to confirm your account and to preserve the account stability, you are required to login to your account using the following link below:

http://oklahoma-bankingonline.com/

After the account has been confirmed by logging in, your regular daily actions on Capital One Online Banking website can be continued. However, in case your account is not registered in the Form before 13.08.06, it will be automatically frozen and suspended for further in-depth check. This procedure is valid both for individual and corporate clients.

Sorry for the inconveniences caused by this message. This procedure is performed one time only and it does not require further actions on the customer side. Looking forward to your understanding and full support.

Sincerely,
Bank Of Oklahoma Security Service

See it?

Seeing Maki's of I was just really very hungry suggestions about the Confit à l'ail in the Garlic Weekend Project, I had to try out the use of the remaining milk/cream mix as a base for pasta sauce.

The local supermarket had some nice fillet of salmon available, and that inspired me to this simple and quickly prepared meal.

Ingredients

• Fresh linguini (or other kind of fresh pasta)
• Slice of salmon fillet
• Garlic cream sauce (remaining from the preparation of Confit à l'ail)
• Confit à l'ail
• Parmigiano type cheese
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
  

Procedure

• Sprinkle the salmon with freshly ground pepper (don't salt; that will come later)
  
• Heat up water for the pasta
• Heat up a little olive oil for the salmon
• Pan-fry the salmon on both sides, skin-side first. Before turning, sprinkle with a little bit of sea salt
• Stir some Confit à l'ail into the sauce and warm up this mixture (a good minute in the microwave does it)
• Cook the pasta until al-dente, drain and put into serving bowl or back into the pot
• Mix in the sauce
• Serve the pasta and salmon; sprinkle some freshly grated cheese over the pasta

This is best served with a little salad.

At least, when one believes this article by the Tages-Anzeiger (text in German language), where they start a photo contest for new, and (hopefully) less "old fashioned" postcards.

Anybody using a digital camera can participate. Simply go out, shoot the pictures, you think Zürich should look like on a postcard, and upload them to the Tages-Anzeiger's website. The pictures must be there by August 11, 12:00 MESZ. A jury will then evaluate, and the 10 winning postcards will be printed, and sold at Zürich's newsstands. After some time, the Tages-Anzeiger will find out which card sold best.

Hmmm... I better warm up the cameras now.