Where there’s smoke there’s flame-ups. Luckily, the Red
Phone
– just like those famous pyro chefs in Gourmet Alley – likes
playing with fire. This time, we’ll fan some flames and douse some
others.
Where there’s smoke there’s flame-ups. Luckily, the Red Phone – just like those famous pyro chefs in Gourmet Alley – likes playing with fire. This time, we’ll fan some flames and douse some others.
To this first caller, we hate to say it, but “enough already.”
“I’m just calling and wondering if you guys know why when we call the time, 842-1711. It no longer tells the temperature. All of us Gilroyans would like to know. So, if you have an answer to that let us know in the paper.”
On the Red Phone’s answering machine, we say to “keep it juicy.” The Red Phone has received so many calls about the weather number that the topic is about as juicy as a dried-up prune. Since you asked, Verizon discontinued the service because the temperature was off by as much as 10 degrees and Verizon doesn’t have the equipment to keep it accurate.
***
Now that the dust has settled at Christmas Hill Park, two callers want to know what’s up with the pasta con pesto.
“Not too juicy, but just want to comment on the Garlic Festival. It was great. The only problem was the pesto. They’ve got to go back to the regular pesto. The penne: Everybody I talked to didn’t like it. They need to go back to the real stuff. The pesto.
The other thing was the mushrooms. I went on Sunday to get the stuffed mushrooms. That was at 10:30 and they were ice cold. I told the lady they were cold, and she goes, ‘We can’t take them back.’ I think they need to fix that.”
Another caller agreed.
“My concern was the Garlic Festival. I was disappointed in the pesto. It was completely different than all of the other years. And the garlic bread. They didn’t even taste garlicky. I’m just wondering why they had changed what was so good.”
Garlic Festival President John Zekanoski said the festival will evaluate its sales of the new dish at a critique meeting and decide if any changes are in order. “We’re certainly not locked into anything,” he said. “If our customers are telling us something, we’re certainly listening to them.”
Like Coca-Cola, the old pesto dish could be called “classic,” and this year’s pesto “new,” Zekanoski added, tongue in cheek. The Red Phone thinks the festival should seriously consider this – there could be room for two pesto dishes. What do you think?
***
Thank you, reader, who called the Red Phone to report a mistake that might not ruin your soup but could break your pocketbook.
“I was just reading your Garlic Festival cook-off recipes, and I think you may have an error. I can’t believe she would put 1 1/2 tablespoons of saffron into the garlic seafood soup. I’m sure you’ve got a typographical error there. Saffron is worth gold. It’s like $300 an ounce. You’re just dealing with something that’s out of the question wrong. There’s no way you could have 1 1/2 tablespoons of saffron in there.
Sorry. The correct amount of saffron is 1 1/2 teaspoons.
***
Someone called the Red Phone to poke a hole in our meteor theory. We thought what one caller described to the Red Phone as something apparently exploding and leaving a trail behind might have been a meteor, as explained to us by an astronomer at the Fremont Peak Observatory. This caller says otherwise.
“What it actually was was a test launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base. You can go ahead and go on their Web site, and it will show you when they’re doing launches. So that you know ahead when those things will be showing out in the sky. But it is Vandenberg Air Force Base doing a test launch. They come through the city every couple months or so. But if you get on the Web site, anybody can see when they’re going to be launching them.”
Sure enough, a spokesperson from Vandenberg Air Force Base said they had a launch around 1 a.m. Wednesday. Their next launch will be Sept. 18. To view a full schedule, visit www.vandenberg.af.mil/. Caller, thanks for helping us get to the root of this mystery.
Realizing he was too late for the Garlic Fest, the spokesman at Vandenberg asked ‘Hey, where are my garlic fries?”
Hmmm … how about penne pasta con pesto?
Call the red phone: 408-842-9070
