Ravioli at Home

For dinner, I had store-bought ravioli from Nuovo Pasta, with leftover pasta sauce from Alessi and a beloved Cerveza Cusqueña. The ravioli flavor was appropriately bizarre: Crawfish and Andouille, with caramelized onion and peppers. I'm a little disappointed in the company- apparently, they make other interesting flavors (Crab, leek, and lemon; asparagus, lemon, and mascarpone; squid ink, etc.), but they are only available to food service professionals. The crawfish ravioli was ok, but I really hate red and green peppers. They were not noted on the packaging except in the ingredients, and by the time I noticed, it was too late. Still, I think it's the strangest ravioli I've ever had, which is worth something.

The Cusqueña was very exciting. I haven't had it in years, because the importation supply lines were that bad. I think it might actually be on the menu at Los Cabos II, in downtown Denver, but every time I was ever there, they were out. The story they told me was that one company imported it into Los Angeles, and that they sent some poor employee off driving through the desert to bring it back to Denver in the trunk of his car, at which point it sold out in about a day. No, it is not the best beer in the world, but it's pretty good, and it's from Peru, which is one of the best places in the world. Hence, my ridiculous joy at finding it in the expensive grocery store here in Houston. In Peru, it's about $1.50 a liter. Here, it's almost $8 for a six-pack. I really hope some of that money makes it back to Peru.