poem: Acerbity hot murphy
Strange provenance for this one. Friend X is in China with daughter Y; sends a picture of a Chinese menu; amidst menu items, translated into English, there is an item called "acerbity hot murphy." Right between scrambled eggs with ham and season fresh vegetable dish. X throws a little contest our way: best guess at what "acerbity hot murphy" is. I email back that, for one, it is the title of my next poem (how could it not be?), but in reality (so I surmise), acerbity hot murphy is a "saucy courtesan in Irish tweed."(Teresa, I will get the image to you for proper translation.)
Acerbity hot murphy
in her sassy tweed,
essaying the jonesier joints,
cadillac bars, all
hunky dory callico bliss:
central topics fill
the limelight,
the glut of terra luna
washing down the ways -
bitter, sweet, garish
splendor tumbling,
bookmarking the last
frozen dime
of pleasure's singlemost
dream. castaways
on the fallen line,
one menu you
can't resist:
bloodsweet,
caramelized,
calculating in Qatar's
blistering
Celsius heat;
this were the one
who once,
who will,
who fashions,
who envisions
every paso doble,
carnivorous,
orthopedic
clime.
Labels: steppin' out
posted by murat11 at 11:12 AM
19 Comments:
I believe you've got the recipe down.
San: Needs habaneros.
mmmmm.... delicious!
It's got the habaneros and a whole lot of vinegar and nuts but no balls.
Anno: Beware the after-taste.
Teresa: Ouch!
Okay. It's 辣椒土豆絲, which literally means hot pepper potato strips. I guess the "murphy" is part of the Irish connection for potatoes. I assume acerbity means it has something sour in the mix. The word for potato here also means peanut in other regional dialects; hence, my first comment that it has nuts but no balls. I think I know what it is, too. They cut the raw potatoes into shoestring strips, then they use whole red hot peppers (the really, really spicy ones), then they add a garlic, lemon, and hot pepper paste. Stir-fry till the potatoes are soft. The garlic is in large chunks in the paste. They sometimes also add a seasoning called "sour powder" to make it even more mouth puckering. It is an acquired taste. Our Chinese restaurant kids sometimes make this dish.
What an awesome sleuth you are, Sister T. Thanks for decoding the murphy part for us. I could sense the acerbity (kind of like my "Albanian," when I use Google Translate) and the hot, but the murphy - that's genius!
Well, the "acerbity" is technically NOT in the Chinese, but I expect they wanted unsuspecting English speakers to beware because that kind of hot and sour phenomenon does not always go over well. Some people do sour, but not hot; others will eat hot, but not sour. It makes me wonder if there is an Irish shoestring potato dish called a "murphy." I do think you got close with the courtesan in tweeds, although I'm thinking it has more kick and is more down-to-earth than a courtesan; perhaps a fiery-tempered washerwoman.
T: I dig the washerwoman. She the one.
No, it came to me in a flash of lightning: it's "riverdance to an erhu". Now how do you put that into poetry?
A saucy dish indeed :)
jsd: Irish TexMex Chinese at its finest!
the Italian Bistro in Clarksville has a dish called Pasta Murphy - sausage, mushrooms in a pink sauce with jalapeno peppers - how funny is that? Can we throw some Italian in the mix LOL? I always thought it was the owners nod to Tex Mex.
Love the sassy tweed, cadillac bars. caramelized once, will, fashions and envisions. Irish washerwomen dancing and Chinese erhu players in a remix of Fantasia.
Hope this comment doesn't post multiple times - having some issues with the puter..
Dee: Sounds like the Hot Murphys are more ubiquitous than I would have ever imagined. Ó Murchús of the world, unite!
deartháir o
Ah, that's a funny story and I love how you get inspired by that. And it's (again) making me a bit hungry. :)
I'd say it's time for you to go get you some of them murphies, DM!
it might be a bit spicy for me...
sounds just right for you!
Tammie: I think the acerbity and hot can be scaled down for Montanans; the murphies remain constant.
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