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Nagasaki Rice

Saturday, January 31, 2015
A very close friend from Portland sent them over - and it is a yearly gift - a bag of short grain rice from her family's ancestral farm in Japan, and I cooked them right away. I made a dish inspired by an uni bowl appetizer I had from Mu Ramen shop, a new restaurant in Long Island City which has...

HOME OF THE "BRIVE"

Monday, January 12, 2015
I am dedicating this blog to a town in central France, Brive-la-Gaillarde, the "strong" land of the foie gras (and my favorite condiment, the violet mustard), and the macarons home baked not "designed," sold during open market days. We had stayed in Brive over the holidays, and the fillings and the condiment inside this sandwich I made this morning were all parting gifts from our hosts there - the most hospitable people on earth! - where from the moment we stepped in their door potatoes cooking in duck fat permeated the kitchen; welcome wines never ever sold outside Brive flowed like honey; and wheels of cheese slowed the pace of our hearts for their goodness' sake. Brive is a "state of (food) mind." I remember a dinner conversation with our hosts - about cuisines of the world - and appreciated the argument made that, except for French and Italian food, the world's other flavors and cooking techniques were "good," but were not "FOOD." To explain what this meant, I have to digress and talk about the first salad I was served that time, simply with arugula and onions, yet dressed with olive oil infused with pistils of an African orchid. The combination of vanilla essence in olive oil essence was so distinct a taste it seemed to me a deliberate meditation on food-making/alchemy. And that's when I got the meaning of the "proverbial" argument. That FOOD, especially French, was not for eating, but for the visceral surprise pleasure to the appetite and mouth; that it didn't undergo cooking but acting; not served but performed; definitely not black and white, but noir. And I wasn't in a fancy restaurant to understand it. I was at the home of the brive. Therefore the sandwich I made, in this New York - terrine, mustard, vanilla oil - is a classic!   



LOVING RACHEL KHOO

Saturday, January 10, 2015
Ms. Khoo is a beautiful, young British celebrity chef living in Paris (she is part-Asian and part-Gaia, the mythological Greek goddess of earth's harvest and floral elements). Having spent the holidays there and returning to New York feeling post-vacation blues, watching her show my first night back,...

Foodnote: Septime (in Paris, 11th arr.)

Thursday, January 1, 2015
Let's fast forward the greatness of this restaurant to the end: clementine a la mode (sprinkled with fennel seeds) on a bed of yogurt and olive oil boat. That it is a dessert is a miracle, let alone scooping it like seven fruits in one on seven seas. The invigoration of a "sailing sweetness" taste...
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