Jeff Smith
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sumisu3.bsky.social
Jeff Smith
@sumisu3.bsky.social
220 followers 270 following 1.5K posts
Sauna サウナ, wine, craft beer, 日本酒, BBQ, chilis, hops farmer and home brewer, guitar, French horn, Flügelhorn, jazz, Irish Setters, vinyl & books. 30+ yrs IT. Finnish/German/Chicagoan in NZ via Japan.

@sumisu3@mastodon.nz and @sumisu3@mastodon.beer
Posts Replies Media Videos
sumisu3.bsky.social
Getting Back to the Future vibes
Screen capture from the scene in Back to the Future when Marty sees his brother’s head disappearing and worries that he is erasing his own existence
November 30, 2025 at 8:05 AM
sumisu3.bsky.social
Buttermilk biscuits just out of the oven and the pork sausage gravy is nearly ready. Gotta make it all myself since you won’t find biscuits and gravy in NZ - and the biscuits concept freaks people out. Until you remind them of KFC.
Six golden brown buttermilk biscuits on a baking tray
November 29, 2025 at 8:12 PM
sumisu3.bsky.social
Long day of gardening before I made the dolmades, and they weren’t ready for dinner but damn they taste good. 65 of them (well 63 because I had to sample two of them)
A pot of stuffed grape leaves arranged in layers in an enameled cast iron pot.
November 21, 2025 at 7:00 AM
sumisu3.bsky.social
Today I make dolmades. Grape leaves, dill, mint, parsley, lemons all from the garden.

#cooking #gardening #dolmades
Grape leaves, dill, mint, parsley, lemons piled in bowls
November 20, 2025 at 10:01 PM
sumisu3.bsky.social
If you see this post a bird

Sorry, I just had to
Giving the middle finger to Trump Tower on 5th Avenue, NYC
November 14, 2025 at 10:57 PM
sumisu3.bsky.social
Simple dinner for me and the kids of salad, soba and dashimaki tamago
A long rectangular plate of Japanese rolled egg, a glass bowl of salad and a traditional lacquer ware (actually plastic/resin) with bamboo screen for the soba. A small dish with chopped chives and wasabi is sitting on top of the cup containing the tsuyu
November 12, 2025 at 7:42 AM
sumisu3.bsky.social
Real world variation of the giraffe in Madagascar
Look breath mints scene from Madagascar with the giraffe having a urinal deodorant tablet on this tongue
November 10, 2025 at 9:15 PM
sumisu3.bsky.social
One of my favorite movies but I didn’t want it to become reality
The graphic symbol from the 12 Monkeys movie
October 28, 2025 at 8:53 PM
sumisu3.bsky.social
In NY, visiting the MetMuseum. Seeing in person the stunning Persian painting and calligraphy that @willdalrymple.bsky.social and @anitaanand.bsky.social spoke about in podcasts about Shirin, etc.

Means so much more after hearing about it from my favorite podcast

#EmpirePodcast
Marriage of Khusrau and Shirin Folio from the Khamsa (Quintet) of Nizami (probably 1141-1217) Calligrapher: Sultan Muhammad Nur (ca. 1472-ca. 1536) Painter: attributed to Shaikh Zada Present-day Afghanistan, Herat, Safavid period (1501-1722), A.H. 931/A.D. 1524-25 Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
October 28, 2025 at 3:34 PM
sumisu3.bsky.social
Oh yea - this is the good stuff

Jeera rice was also requested

I feel like I’ve done well as a father when the kids want food like this. Not something they would otherwise experience. Now I need to take them to Goa to eat the real thing
The fish coated in semolina now frying in a cast iron pan The oil is cold pressed rapeseed so it is very yellow. Which suits this dish very well
October 26, 2025 at 5:49 AM
sumisu3.bsky.social
I’m off to NYC tomorrow (and hopefully coming back with a new job). Asked the kids what they wanted me to make for dinner before I leave (mom is still in Taiwan). Request was Goan/Mangalorean rava fried pomfret. Tamarind is addictive.

Waiting while it marinates is the hard part.
Two whole pomfret Cut up fish marinating in tamarind, chili, cumin, turmeric, coriander powder, garlic, ginger
October 26, 2025 at 4:41 AM
sumisu3.bsky.social
Spent the last few days learning to use a scythe - to cut the ridiculously long grass on part of my property that is too wet to mow all winter and early spring.

Amazing to use a tool that goes back nearly 10000 years. Really is better than a line trimmer or mower for this crazy grass.
#scythe
An area of long grass with approximately 2m wide area cut already. Piles of cut grass and the scythe leaning against one of the piles The same view and now all the grass has been cut. Long rows of piles grass run along the cut grass area. This is how they pile up as you use the scythe to cut the grass.
October 23, 2025 at 4:29 AM
sumisu3.bsky.social
maybe he heard frogmen and thought…
Stock photo of Navy Seal frogman
October 11, 2025 at 6:54 AM
sumisu3.bsky.social
What is this espresso machine? Dual lever machine. Out to eat at a Zhejiang cuisine restaurant in Taipei with my wife and they have this amazing machine. Might need to order a coffee just to see how it tastes from this beauty

#espresso
A commercial espresso machine with two levers. The outside panels are an abstract blue and chrome geometric pattern at various angles.
October 10, 2025 at 3:45 AM
sumisu3.bsky.social
Made yakitori for me and the kids for early dinner. Weather changed to be absolutely wonderful. The usual ねぎま and such but first time to make つくね

Kids not so keen because of the bits of cartilage. More for me then!

#yakitori #焼き鳥 #cooking
Uncooked skewered of chicken breast, chicken thigh with green onions on a grill Uncooked skewered of chicken breast, chicken thigh with green onions on a grill two cooked skewered chicken wings on a small round white plate two chicken “meatball” patties on skewers on the grill. Golden brown from cooking over the charcoal
October 4, 2025 at 5:42 AM
sumisu3.bsky.social
Once down the Belgian path…

My still always and absolutely favorite beer - Orval
Orval chalice with beer that is still largely foam as I’ve started the pour and the Orval bottle
October 3, 2025 at 6:46 AM
sumisu3.bsky.social
And some beer that just seemed to be the right combination. It is.
A glass of beer and a bottle of Dupont Bons Voeux
October 3, 2025 at 6:07 AM
sumisu3.bsky.social
Today is a mash-up of Kofta and Ćevapčići style meat. Parsley, mint and coriander from the garden. Some tsaziki. Call it Mediterranean/Middle Eastern/Slavic I guess.

Kids are happy with my cooking while my wife is back to Taiwan

#food #pita #Ćevapčići #cooking
A plate of oblong grilled meatballs along with bowls of sliced tomatoes, salad greens, tsaziki, cucumbers and hummus - plus a plate with some pita.
October 3, 2025 at 6:04 AM
sumisu3.bsky.social
But this isn’t something we learned as kids!
Chapman planted his apples by seed, not grafting,[61][62] but without grafting, about one in a hundred seedlings will yield an apple that is edible as a fruit.[63] According to Henry David Thoreau, an apple grown from seed tastes "sour enough to set a squirrel's teeth on edge and make a jay scream."[64] But apples from seed are perfectly fine for making hard cider,[65] and in the early part of the nineteenth century, there was a demand for hard cider—Ohioans ages fifteen and over drank, on average, thirty gallons of hard cider per year (10.52 ounces per day).[66] Author Michael Pollan believes that since Chapman was against grafting and thus virtually all his apples were not edible and could be used only for cider: "Really, what Johnny Appleseed was doing and the reason he was welcome in every cabin in Ohio and Indiana was he was bringing the gift of alcohol to the frontier. He was our American Dionysus."[67][68]
October 2, 2025 at 12:58 AM
sumisu3.bsky.social
My Märzen is absolutely crystal clear. Long lagering does its thing

Prost!

#beer #Bier #HomeBrew #Märzen
500ml Willi Becher glass of amber beer. It is so clear that the succulents outside the window are visible through the beer - slightly distorted by the lensing effect of the liquid
September 30, 2025 at 3:52 AM
sumisu3.bsky.social
Trump should heed is own words

“What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”
Screen capture of a Trump speech from 2018 when he said “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”
September 29, 2025 at 2:38 AM
sumisu3.bsky.social
If you see this, post a bridge
Blues Brothers Run the Illinois Nazis Off the Bridge
September 26, 2025 at 4:05 PM
sumisu3.bsky.social
Decided to make something special today. Mostly I bake Finnish pulla and banana bread. Today is an Italian tea cake - ciambellone. Lots of lemon zest and some lemon juice in the glaze.

smittenkitchen.com/2018/06/ciam...

#baking #ciambellone
A crusty cake baked in a tube pan so it has a hole in the center. It is shiny from the glaze.
September 25, 2025 at 12:52 AM
sumisu3.bsky.social
Too cloudy to see the partial solar eclipse but the clouds have made it look like we have our own Mt Fuji
Cloudy sky with a greenhouse and rolling green hills. One cloud formation in the distance looks like Mt Fuji
September 21, 2025 at 7:05 PM
sumisu3.bsky.social
Prost!

This year’s Märzen. Brewed on 20 March. Just brought up from the lagering fridge so slightly disturbed and a touch of haze.

#Oktoberfest #Märzen #Bier #Beer #HomeBrew
Half liter Maß of amber beer with 3cm head
September 20, 2025 at 1:37 AM