Rice and Beans and Collard Greens

Moroccan Chicken

2012-01-26T10:52:00.003-05:00

My mother's husband made this dish a couple weeks ago and I haven't been able to get it out of my rotation. It's so good and it also works for this silly diet I'm on, even if I have to leave out the goodies like olives, apricots and/or chickpeas.

The original recipe is from Cook's Illustrated, I believe they called it Moroccan Chicken and I always find it pretty humorous to name a dish after an ENTIRE nation. As in, do I think Moroccans call this dish Moroccan chicken? Unlikely. Do Moroccans always make chicken this way when they decide to make chicken for dinner? Probably not. But nonetheless, very tasty.

Below you will find the original recipe, I made it this way and then again with my own tweaks, see my notes after the recipe.

1 1/4 t sweet paprika
1/2 t cumin
1/4 t cayenne
1/4 t ginger
1/4 t coriander
1/4 t cinnamon
3 strips lemon zest (each about 2 inches by 3/4 inch) plus 3 T juice from 1-2 lemons
5 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 chicken, 3.5-4 lbs cut into 8 pieces (4 breasts, 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks, 2 wings), trimmed of fat
S&P
1 T olive oil
1 large onion, halved and cut into 1/4 inch slices (about 3 cups)
1 3/4 c. low sodium chix broth
1 T honey
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut crosswise into into 1/2 inch thick coins, very large pieces cut into half-moons, about 2 cups
1 c. Greek cracked green olives, pitted and halved
2 T chopped cilantro leaves

-combine spices, set aside
-mix 1 strip zest and 1 t garlic and mash to a paste, set aside
-season chicken with S&P. Heat oil in dutch oven until smoking, working in batches, brown chicken skin side down until deep golden brown, about 5 minutes. Turn chicken and brown on other side, about 4 minutes. Cool, remove skin and discard all but 1 T fat.
-add onion and 2 remaining strips of zest until onions have browned at edges but retained shape, about 7 minutes. Add rest of garlic and cook 30 seconds. Add spices, stirring constantly about 45 seconds to 1 minute. Stir in broth and honey, scraping bits off bottom of the pot. Add dark meat, reduce heat to medium and simmer 5 minutes.
-add carrots and breasts to pot, arranging chicken in a single layer on top. Cover, reduce heat to medium low and simmer until chicken registers 160 degrees, about 15 minutes.
-transfer chicken to bowl and tent with foil. Add olives to pot, raise heat to med-high and simmer until liquid has thickened slightly and carrots are tender, 4-6 minutes. Add chicken back to pot, add garlic-zest mixture, cilantro and lemon juice. Season with S&P and serve
-as a variation, replace 1 carrot with 1 c. dried apricots, halved and replace olives with 1 can drained and rinsed chickpeas.

First of all, I like spice, I just wanted more! So I doubled all the spice amounts, except for the paprika because I used hot and not sweet. I also just took the zest off of a whole lemon and threw it in the pot, I liked how it tasted cooked down, tender and spicy. I skipped that step with the raw garlic and mashing into a paste because I feel it didn't really add anything, I just put it all in the pot. Less fuss, that's my motto.

I threw out the honey, it didn't seem necessary and I'm not supposed to have any sugar. I didn't miss it at all. I did not do carrots, I did not create a bed upon which to lay the chicken breasts. The article that went with this recipe said they did that to avoid stringy, dry breasts but I found them to be fine if I just cooked everything low and slow. I do think you should turn them during the cooking to ensure that lovely juice gets into every part of the chicken. I also did not add chicken stock, the chicken has bones and they create a lovely stock all on their own.

This is great with olives and apricots, which I sadly am not eating right now but they really are a tasty addition.

Oyster Stout

2011-10-03T14:52:00.006-04:00

Meh, not a fan. Especially not for the $4 or $5 dollars I paid for one measly bottle. I'd be just as content drinking a Guinness, which is not as bitter nor as expensive.

Here's what the experts have to say:

"Sweet and roasted flavors of dark malts, caramel, dark chocolate, wood, and something that I could see being described as barbequed oysters."

"The first smell is light cocoa, the second is a barely discernible salty ocean, I'm not playing into the name, it really has it. Some cherries and Goldings hops aroma.
Roasted malts and heavy chocolates, some light smoke and a little salt water taffy, not salty though just the taffy."

First, I call you out on BBQ oysters. I love BBQ oysters and this tasted not a bit like them. In fact, I dare say you have never even tasted BBQ oysters. Second, cherries, chocolate, the ocean and taffy? Not only did I not pick up on any of this, it doesn't sound like a winning combo in my book. And finally, do you see that twisty, wire ring around the cap? Well, it broke off and the bottle doesn't open like a regular cap would so it spilled 1/4 of the bottle out all over me and the counter before I got it off. Quirky and different is only cool if it also works.

South of the Border, Segundo Parte

2011-09-26T20:33:00.006-04:00

Crap, this is what happens when I don't post immediately. I forget. I think I will remember but my memory is certainly hazier than when I got back a month ago, 6 weeks ago? Good Lord, this month FLEW!

Anyway, we found this taco place on the main drag, Taco los Arboles I think it was called. Blew Urge out of the water! They were open at 6am and so two mornings in a row, I ate tacos for breakfast and it was glorious. The first day I went a little nuts with the hot sauce though, hot sauce in Mexico is realllllly hot! We had shrimp and fish and chile rellenos (yes, in a taco!) and my favorite was a sort of stewed pork in a green sauce. MMMMM. Washed down with some deeply colored flor de Jamaica, which I believe is just dried hibiscus flowers soaked in water. The color is like loganberry, so intense! I plan to make some of my own to make a fancy cocktails. I couldn't ever take pictures here though because I always had pork juice running down my hands and that's bad for the camera.

So after eating at all the town's taco stands and lollygagging on the beach, Ben and I rented a scooter and that was an excellent choice. I have no words for it but riding was one of my favorite moments in Mexico.

We went to some ruins, I'm not really a fan. But Ben enjoyed it and after we spent the day in the unforgiving sun at a dusty ruin with thousands of tourists and vendors trying to hawk you crap, we stopped to go swimming here.

The cenote, as they are called, was cool and deep and when you swam out into the middle and floated on your back, you could stare up at the sky and admire the treetops dancing above.

Our last night in Tulum we spent walking along a street parallel to the main drag but completely off the tourist grid. Well, not completely of course, it was only a block away but it was a stark contrast to the shops and restaurants that catered to visitors. It felt like we were another place completely. And there was street food! I went crazy when I saw a sign for churros but our attempt to procure them failed, the churro lady was having issues with her batter. But then we saw a guy making marquesas, which is like a slightly sweet and crispy crepe with cheese melted inside and rolled up. Good, but my heart belongs to churros.

I have one more installment from Mexico and if I'm lucky, I'll write it up by Christmas. Adios!

Tonight on Our Table

2011-09-11T19:52:00.002-04:00

Pork roast, butternut squash and spinach salad. Blueberry sour cream crumb cake with vanilla frozen yogurt.

I think I'm going through a beer phase

2011-09-09T16:30:00.004-04:00

I've never been much of a beer drinker, I like it sometimes but generally, it's too filling and too carbonated and the taste gets overwhelming to me. However, lately I've been wanting to try different beers and I've been enjoying them and I'd like to keep track of them. I should really do that with wine too and I started doing it with cheese a few years ago and never followed through. The story of my life!

Anyway, I think it started this winter when I went home for Christmas and had something brewed by Goose Island in Illinois. It was dark and coppery, with caramel and coffee undertones and I still haven't gotten it out of my mind. Goose Island doesn't distribute in Louisiana but I heard that they were bought up by Budweiser. This initially made me sad until someone told me that it won't change anything except they will have better distribution. Fingers crossed for Louisiana!

Yesterday I got a bottle of Saison Dupont, which is from Belgium. It had a nice, blond color although on first sniff, it smelled like Heineken to my unrefined nose and Heineken smells like funky skunk. But it tasted really crisp and refreshing, I even felt like there was some banana lingering. I did not much care for the aftertaste, which I am too beer-ignorant to place. Hops? Malt? Not sure. I did a little sleuthing to see if someone else could more eloquently describe it and I found a lot of very amusing descriptions like;

"Nose is a very dense earth, soil, it feels like fresh tilled dirt. Mild chlorophyll and resin, with a big giant lemon zest."

"Hazy straw yellow with 2-3 finger stark white tightly-bubbled, frothy head with good retention with numerous blobs of lacing."

These guys clearly drink more beer than I do and for the record, I don't really know if I could place the taste of resin. I sipped mine some Havarti cheese with caraway seeds and I thought the combination was mighty fine.

Be aware that the alcohol content is somewhat higher than an average beer, which I think is usually about 5%. The Saison Dupont I think is about 6.5%. That coupled with the fact that one of them costs almost $5, makes it a perfect beer to sip on leisurely and then call it quits.

Adventures South of the Border: Part One

2011-08-19T13:34:00.009-04:00

My Fox and I just got back from a lovely week in Mexico and of course, I wanted to share with you all of the food that we tried and tasted! The week got kicked off really right when we got all the way to the front of the customs line in Cancun and they promptly booted us (me really) back to the US. It's a funny story and I'll tell you if you ask me but suffice it to say, when we finally got admitted onto Mexican soil two days later, I was ready to put the hurt on some food.

We decided to have lunch in Cancun before jumping on the bus to Tulum and that was the worst mistake I made the whole week. Cancun pretty much sucks as a city and we ended up at a crappy buffet with sour lasagna and some funky beef skewers. They didn't even make margaritas. Thanks for nothing, Fodor's Yucatan 2011!

After that debacle, we boarded our bus and I was very glad to see the LOVE PINK sweatsuit-clad American tourists fade away in the rearview mirror. Seriously, if I saw one more girl wearing that godawful Victoria's Secret pre-fab shit emblazoned on their ass cheeks, well, it's no wonder we're not always well-loved abroad. Because we look like this. Yeah, I'm judging, so hate me.

Tulum is a dusty little town about 80 miles south of Cancun. We got off the bus and immediately stopped somewhere to cool off with a margarita. We had some that were darn tootin', as well as some fantastical shrimp ceviche. After that,we got a cab to our new home, Papaya Playa, our little cabana on the beach! Once we settled in, we went and sat in a palapa hut that overlooked the beach and had a couple more margaritas. I think perhaps I overdid it with the margaritas but after getting deported and suffering the indignity of spending a night in a motel in Indianapolis, I thought I deserved it.

Back to our cabana (27). We could open our door and lay back in the bed and watch the waves crashing in! There is nothing quite like sleeping with the sound of the sea and then wakening to the first rays of the sun stretching across the sky. The water really is a most perfect turquoise and the sand was as white as I've ever seen it.

Ai, I didn't mean to make this a play by play, let me just get to the food! I read about this place called Urge Tacos from some food writer who said they had the best fish tacos she has ever had. I don't know about that but they were good. What was really notable was that they had this salad bar that was really a taco bar with all kinds of accouterments. So I got my plate with tortillas and fish and then went and loaded up with a sweet and tangy tamarind sauce, pickled red onions, radishes and jicama, avocado-habanero sauce and so on. Their octopus ceviche was super but the horchata was just okay.

I skipped dessert because the waiter made a face when I asked about it, as if to apologize for a meager offering, not a promising sign! Now that I think of it, maybe he was grimacing at my gringa accent. Anyway, by the time we walked from the taco place to town, we were drenched with sweat and parched. Luckily we stumbled upon this great little place called El Flor de Michoacan. It had the sweetest little courtyard with flowering trees and white cast iron tables. They also made several different kinds of paletas(popsicles) to soothe weary and overheated travelers such as oursleves. We visited this place pretty much every day we were in town, it was that good. My favorite was called gazacho moreliano and it had pineapple, mango,jicama, lime and chile. So incredible!

More to come....

Blueberry Cobbler

2011-07-19T11:41:00.006-04:00

I posted recently about my forays in ice cream making and I believe I also mentioned the blueberry cobbler that went with it. A few weeks ago, we trekked up to Franklinton, LA to go blueberry picking. I was imagining some large, industrial farm but instead there was one table with some buckets, a metal cash box and a sign that said to please leave $8.50 for each gallon in the box and to have fun. I was instantly in love.

It was July in Louisiana and we had to wear long pants to avoid ticks so needless to say, we got to picking quickly. I think I sweated out stuff I ate in 2007. All told, I came away with about 2 gallons of blueberries and I probably consumed just as many in the process of picking. I couldn't help it, they were so fat and juicy and all warmed from the sun!

It was a blueberry bonanza weekend. I made blueberry cobbler and blueberry pancakes and I also made some blueberry vodka, which has turned a brilliant, violet hue and I look forward to testing it on my NEW PORCH of my VERY FIRST HOUSE! More on that later. I brought this cobbler to a party for the 4th of July, along with the lemon-ginger ice cream.

6 cups blueberries, rinsed and dried
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 cup flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter or lard (Yes, I did!)
1/2 cup buttermilk or cream

Preheat oven to 400°F.Toss blueberries, sugar, flour and lemon juice in the bottom of a 2-quart ovenproof dish or 9x13 baking dish. I actually didn't have any lemons so I used grapefruit juice. Worked just fine.

Stir together the flour,sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut the butter/lard in with a fork or pastry knife. Stir in buttermilk/cream (or what the hell, soymilk) until the dough comes together, it will be wet and shaggy. Cover the berries with the dough, I did this "rustic-style," which means that there were big blobs of it in some places and less in others, it doesn't need to be perfectly smooth. Blobs are A-okay. Bake for about 20 minutes or until you smell it. You will want to eat this warm and with ice cream.

National Ice Cream Month

2011-07-06T19:45:00.006-04:00

In one of his very few policies I ever agreed with, Ronald Reagan declared July to be National Ice Cream Month. Now there's a holiday I can get with! According to Wikipedia, the third Sunday of July is actually Ice Cream DAY and Reagan implored to nation to celebrate with "appropriate ceremonies and activities." Word.

I haven't busted out the ice cream maker since last year because, well, I was using it a bit too liberally if you know what I mean. I made two flavors this weekend and they were both hits! I actually did take pictures but ice cream is such a fussy model and besides, there are always pesky things happening with homemade ice cream around, like bowls getting gobbled up in no time at all. So no photos, just imagine though and then make them because they turned out better than I was hoping for.

The first one was a lemon-ginger ice cream that I made to serve alongside a blueberry cobbler for a Fourth of July Party. That cobbler was also very good but let's talk ice cream first. I love lemon desserts and I especially love how they complement blueberries but I had never had lemon ice cream. Should I make ice or perhaps sorbet? No, by golly, it would be un-American not to eat ice cream on July 4th. I made this recipe from Epicurious, I just added ginger and next time, I'll add more.

Lemon-Ginger Ice Cream

zest of one lemon
1/2 c. lemon juice (this took about 2.5 lemons)
1 T. chopped ginger, will up it to 2 T. next time!
2/3 to 3/4 c. sugar, depends on your sweet tooth, original recipe called for a cup!
2 cups heavy cream, half and half, milk or any combination of the three
3 egg yolks
splash of vanilla, maybe a teaspoon or so

Bring all ingredients just to simmer, whisking constantly. It will probably look curdled because of the lemon juice reacting with the cream but never mind it. Cool in the refrigerator, strain through a fine sieve and then process however you make ice cream, coffee cans, the old crank or new-fangled machine.

STELLAR. I wish I had made a double batch but it would overflow my wee ice cream maker, don't make the same mistake!

Next, since I brought all the ice cream to a party and my freezer was feeling forlorn and ice cream deprived, I made a batch of cardamom. It was good but I made it last year and remember it being ethereal. I wanted to amp up the cardamom flavor so I used 40 pods instead of 20 but it just wasn't quite right. I ate it a few times before it came to me that I used to work at this pan-Asian cafe in Portland long, long ago and they had only one dessert; a chocolate-cardamom cake. Well, let me tell you, I just stirred some Dutch-process cocoa powder in the little bit that was left and BA-BAY, it was GOOD! Yes, it was! This is actually a good theorem for any of life's problems. When in doubt, add chocolate.

Now, I've got to gear up for July 17th and see if I can top either one of these winners. It is my patriotic duty. Thanks Ronnie!

La Boca: Run, Don't Walk. Just Get There.

2011-06-24T11:53:00.001-04:00

Incredible. It may not be fair to give them such lavish praise but after our failed dinner attempt at Cafe Adelaide, the comparison between the two for service, food and drinks was night and day.

We were immediately acknowledged, sweet! Given four menus for all four people and told about specials, thank you! Thursday is service industry night at La Boca, even better! We just looked at that menu, which did not include the pastas and salads but had all the cuts of meat, empanadas etc.

We got our cocktails immediately, God, I'm really loving this place! Fresh watermelon and vodka, which was really tasty and not watery like I feared. For starters, we ordered the morcilla, provoleta and bruschetta. I didn't really dig the bruschetta but it wasn't bad. The provoleta, I maybe expected more, it was just cheese to me. A really good cheese appetizer is the fried cheese with lemon at Mona's. Also, it had oregano sprinkled liberally all over it. I used to think I wasn't crazy about oregano until I went to Sicily and tasted their oregano and had an epiphany that what we have here in the US is just stuff they sweep off the oregano factory floor. I don't even like fresh oregano that I've tasted out of many gardens so maybe Sicily has the advantage with all that volcanic ash in the soil or something, I don't know. This was definitely factory floor oregano but not everyone is an oregano elitist like me. The morcilla though, oh, well, the morcilla. Fan-flipping-tastic. Just order it and get over the fact that it's blood sausage. It's pretty much just like boudin so if you like that, you should really try it.

The steaks were out of this world, some of the best steak I've ever had and I have eaten bife de chorizo in Buenos Aires. Fried brussel sprouts are the most genius thing ever. Asparagus and fries are also not to be missed. The brussel sprouts even taste good cold for breakfast. I can't wait to go back and try the empanadas and the gnocchi and of course, dessert! Love, love, love La Boca!

Current Drink Obsession

2011-05-09T13:51:00.006-04:00

A Negroni is one of those cocktails that I've heard of but never actually knew what was in them. I didn't really ever give the subject much thought until I read about Orangette drinking them with her mother and it sort of stuck in my brain. (If you click on the Orangette link, make sure you click in turn on her link, I really like the accompanying article that discusses Negroni variations). Like so many things, it did indeed get stuck in my brain but under a pile of exceedingly heavy other tidbits. I'm starting to suspect that I have had more than a few mini-strokes with all the things that fly out of my head, never to return. Anyway, I remembered the Negroni when I read this article in the New York Times about the Negroni Sbagliato. I actually love saying this but it's a bit much and would probably earn me cold reception from the bartender if I blithely ordered one of these.
So, picture this this. A steamy May evening in the port city of New Orleans. I enter May Baily's, a perfect reproduction of what I imagine the elegant parlors of Storyville's sporting houses to look like; Victorian wallpaper, sumptuous carpets and cut glass light fixtures. I want something to match the decor, refined and classic. The bartender had no idea what it was but she had no problem whipping one up based on my vague instruction. If you don't like Campari (bitter) you won't like this but I really enjoy that flavor, especially as an antidote to the heat. And then, about halfway through the drink, when the ice got all melty, something happened to the alchemy of the cocktail and it turned into something altogether different and even more delightful. If you don't like gin (and I don't really either but somehow it works for me here), make it with sparkling wine. I bet the effervescence really enhances the drink.

Meals From the Market

2011-04-13T17:29:00.004-04:00

I went to the farmer's market on Saturday and picked up a ton of local strawberries and fava beans. Those berries found their way into my yogurt, my oatmeal, salads and even fresh margaritas but I still had some more to devour so I made strawberry shortcake. To complement the perfect spring dessert, I made a simple fava bean pasta for our entree. I have to say, I was bored by the pasta. I put shallots and lemon zest and a generous splash of cream and yet still didn't achieve the understated elegance I was looking for. I blame it on the orecchiette from Whole Foods that I used, they had a gummy, almost slimy texture.

For the shortcake, I whipped some heavy cream and added a bit of sugar and lemon to my berries. I made little muffins using a recipe that is actually the base of a tres leches cake but I figured it would work here too.

1 cup flour
1 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
3 eggs, separated
3/4 c. sugar
zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon
1/4 c. milk

Sift the dry ingredients together in one bowl and set aside. In another bowl, beat the three egg whites with the sugar until soft peaks form. Begin adding the flour mixture to the egg whites, then the egg yolks, milk and lemon, alternating in between. don't overmix because you want to keep the airiness you created by whipping the egg whites. Pour into a cake pan that has been greased and floured and bake until lightly golden brown, about 25-30 minutes.

I made this recipe as mentioned above for a tres leches cake and it was okay. I made it again for the shortcake simply because I knew the proportions in my head and didn't have to look anything up. I'm not thrilled with the texture of the crumb with this cake, it's okay, but that might be my fault for using part white and part whole wheat flour. But I mean really, I could put strawberries and whipped cream on top of a shoe and eat it contentedly so if you can keep it easily in your head like I can, it's not a bad vehicle for other toppings. Although I think I will use this recipe next time.

Viva San Giuseppe!!!!

2011-03-19T20:54:00.013-04:00

Today may very well be my favorite holiday of the year and I never miss the chance to celebrate, even if I am not with my nearest and dearest. If you don't know about the tradition, check this out. Last year I had my own altar and table but this year, well, I am just so tired of entertaining and having a house full of people (Mardi Gras was great but I'm glad it is over!). So instead, I decided to altar hop. I ended up going to SIX different altars today, ate my own body weight in cuccidati, made my own abbreviated dinner in Joe's honor and ended the day with some gelato. Love this day and LOVE celebrating it in New Orleans where the tradition is still going strong!

First, I went to St Alphonsus. This was the church I went to for my first St. Joseph's Day in New Orleans many years ago. There weren't nearly as many people there as I remembered but it was still lovely; we ate at tables set out in a pretty courtyard with azalea bushes in full bloom. This is where I ate my main meal of the day and it included baked redfish, shrimp risotto, artichoke milanese, pasta with egg and salad. THe risotto was new for me and it was delicious. Everything else was good, not outstanding, but solid. Next year, I will have to bring my own red pepper flakes (absent) and a bottle of wine (not box).

Next, I went to St. Stephen's. I didn't eat there but they looked like they had pasta con sarde! It was also a much bigger crowd. Not only did they have an elaborate altar, but there was also the lady playing "O Sole Mio" on the ukelele. Awesome.

I love in New Orleans that they have bread shaped like crabs, crawfish and alligators. I'm used to just plain old crosses and staffs.

Next I went to someone's house that was open to the public, how cool is that! This was an extremely lavish altar, with bowls of boiled crawfish and plates of stuffed crab (that was only for the altar, the food offering was just pasta and some fried cabbage and artichokes). I don't know if people there knew each other or not but I really got a kick out of overhearing other people talking about which of their family members came over from Sicily and other little personal tidbits.

St Augustine's, small but sweet. And the first altar I saw with honey balls! (Pignolata)

St Joseph's, apparently the largest church in the South.

Finally, I went over to the gelato shop around the corner, Brocato's.

Weary and heavily laden with cookies, prayer cards and fava beans, I returned home, all altared out. But I wanted to make an appropriate meal so I made Gramma Bondi's cabbage patties and cooked up some skate with a butter-lemon-caper sauce. It fit the bill perfectly! Then, what the hell, I walked back over to Brocato's, where Ben and I finished up with gelato and espresso, a very fine day indeed!

Chocolate Guinness Pudding

2011-03-17T16:17:00.003-04:00

It often surprise me how pervasive St Patrick's Day is in this country. It really doesn't seem to matter much what your ethnicity or race is, people love to drink green milkshakes and swill beer on March 17th. Although I am approximately 1/16 Irish, I don't connect much with that part of my heritage, nor do I care much for St Patrick's Day. I don't have anything against it, mind you, it is just overshadowed by MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY, St Joseph's Day, which happens to fall two days after. More on that come Saturday. Anyway, I saw this recipe for Chocolate Guinness pudding and I could not resist. It is just as delicious as it sounds!

* 8 large egg yolks
* 1 cup sugar
* One 14.9-ounce can Guinness Draught
* 3 cups heavy cream
* 7 ounces high-quality bittersweet (70 to 72% cacao) chocolate, finely chopped

In large nonreactive mixing bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar.

Open can of Guinness and slowly pour into 4-cup measuring cup, pouring down side of cup to reduce foaming. Pour half of Guinness (about 7/8 cup) into heavy-bottomed 3-quart saucepan. Add 2 1/4 cups cream and whisk to combine. Set over medium heat and heat, whisking occasionally, until bubbles just begin to form at edges. Remove from heat, add chocolate, and whisk until smooth.

Slowly pour hot chocolate mixture into eggs, whisking constantly to prevent curdling. Return mixture to saucepan and set over moderately low heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until mixture thickens and coats back of spoon, about 15 minutes. (Pudding will look separated.) Pour into blender and blend on high for 1 minute. Divide pudding among glasses, leaving at least 1 inch of space at top of each. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled and set.

Meanwhile, pour remaining Guinness into small saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to moderately low and simmer, uncovered, until reduced to 1 tablespoon, about 20 minutes. Pour syrup into small bowl and let cool.

Beat remaining cream until soft peaks form. Add Guinness syrup and beat until combined. Divide cream among 6 glasses of pudding and serve.

My thoughts: I halved this and I still got six, er, um five (I swear I don't know what happened to that sixth one!) 4 ounce servings. This is rich so I think 4 ounces is fine, although, who am I kidding, I could easily eat 6. I also halved the half of cream it called for because I didn't have any more and also because I wanted a more unadulterated chocolate flavor. It worked. Finally, I thought the reduced beer in the whipped cream tasted sour and not good at all but when you eat it all in one bite, it comes together but I might skip that next time. The pudding itself is just so perfect on it's own.

Last Night I Spotted a Unicorn!

2011-03-03T08:37:00.004-05:00

No, not really, but I felt like I did when i spotted the elusive Hubig's king cake at the grocery store! I've been scouring the city to find one since Three King's Day and finally got my hands on one. It looked a little worse for wear and quite honestly, it wasn't nearly as good as a plain old Hubig's pie that you can get all year round but hey, now I can say that I tried it!

What's Your King Cake Pleasure?

2011-02-02T10:36:00.008-05:00

I am a king cake aficionado. I have heard some blasphemous talk that they are just big cinnamon buns but when was the last time you had a moist, springy cinnamon bun that was filled with almond-scented cream cheese and fresh berries? And covered with purple, green and gold sprinkles?

I admit, part of my obsession can be attributed to the laws of supply and demand. Their supply is only around for a few months of the year, therefore my demand for them is on high when 'tis the season. I also enjoy tradition and ritual and so if my forebearers ate cinnamon buns, umm, I mean king cakes, during Carnival season, then by golly, so will I! Each year, I like to sample just about as many as I can, I'm a king cake flirt if you will and see no reason to stay in a rut with just one bakery's king cake for the rest of eternity.

Last year, I sampled Randazzo's (my favorite), Rouse's (just fine and the best bang for your buck), Winn Dixie (nasty, inedible even), Cake Cafe and Sucre. Cake Cafe does have that wonderful goat-cheese apple combination and Jackson Pollack like frosting, unfortunately their "cake" is more like dry bread and so that was the last of Cake Cafe for me.

Sucre's iteration was a pastel-sparkly number that my friend Corinne gasped at and called it "unicorn food" when she saw it. It is awfully pretty but it is also awfully expensive, just like everything at Sucre, and it wasn't really worth the price to me. It was smallish and had a poor filling-to-cake ratio.

This year, there are some new players on the field! And mini king cakes are all the rage, which is great, because then I don't have to live in a constant sugar-glazed haze of guilt after demolishing a regular size king cake in just one evening. La Divina Gelateria has minis filled with Nutella! Must try this. Hubig's, that elusive beast, has made minis as well but I can't find them anywhere. Cochon Butcher has minis too and last night I picked up a chocolate one. I was sort of expecting chocolate pudding or a Nutella type filling but instead it was a drier, crumbly, cocoa powder based filling. It was STELLAR!!!!! The cake was soft and moist. The frosting was right on, filling super and all three were in proper proportion to each other. Definitely my favorite so far this year and that says a lot because last week, we took down an entire Chantilly Berry king cake from Whole Foods, also very good. We've got more than a month left until the season is over so I anticipate many more king cakes in my immediate future. I'm even going to make my very own for the Endymion party I am having so come on by and indulge in a slice or seven with me!

Holiday Roundup

2011-01-28T15:43:00.011-05:00

Yes, the holidays are over but I am just uploading pictures so I wanted to sum it all up for you, photo-journal style. I made lots of jarred and canned things this year, including watermelon pickle, satsuma marmalade, mirliton chutney and hot pepper jelly, pictured. I also learned how to de-bone a duck

...and subsequently made duck confit.

Then I made Christmas cookies. I already posted about the specuulas.

Then there were some chocolate-almond financiers.

I went home and ate some fantastic food, look at this pretty and oh so festive cheese and olive assortment.

Of course, we can't forget New Year's Eve!!!! Ben took over the kitchen. First there was venison carpaccio.

Scallops and boudin cakes on sweet corn essence.

Lamb chops with fig mostarda.

Lemon-brown butter cake from Sucre.

It was a lovely season but it is even nicer as a memory, with life back to normal, the house is a pleasing quiet and spring is beckoning

Please Support the New Orleans Food Co-op!

2011-01-11T09:55:00.006-05:00

One thing I really, really miss about home is the wonderful supermarket (Wegman's) and dirt-cheap Italian delis (Guercio's) and farmers markets that overflow with produce, flowers, demonstrations and music (Bidwell). I'm not going to dog the New Orleans farmers market scene, it's a good start, but selection is pretty limited, spaces are constrained and so on. I also miss the food co-op (Lexington), of which my mother was member number 15 and we spent playful hours of childhood sorting spices and such so that we could reach our weekly hours and therefore get our family discount on food.

New Orleans has improved since I moved here in 1998 when the scene was dominated by Schwegman's and Winn Dixie. Ugh, and also that awful Canal Villere that used to be on the corner of Claiborne and Carrollton.

Remember this beauty? Ain't dere no more. It has been replaced by a much nicer albeit much pricier Robert's. Don't forget that god awful wasteland of a Robert's by my old house on Annunciation. I can't find a picture of that, likely because Robert's wants everyone to forget that location ever existed. But anyway, I am not doing an expose on local supermarkets, just commenting on the dearth of fresh produce in New Orleans and overall, the lack of food access as it relates to social justice sort of thing going on here(I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Hollygrove Farm but that's another day).

Okay, finally getting to my point here. New Orleans is forming a food co-op! How post-modern and hip! PLUS, they are building it in the old St Roch market, which is a beautiful building that is getting the restoration it deserves. (UPDATE: It is not in the old market, it is in the old Universal furniture store across the street.)The St Roch/St Claude/Marigny/Bywater neighborhood doesn't really have much in the way of grocery stores, unless you count Mardi Gras Zone (and you shouldn't), so this is another reason for celebration. They need 1500 people to become founding members and donate $100, so far I think they have about 800 people committed. Join the food co-op, it's such a worthwhile venture for yourself, your family and the community as a whole.

Bistro Daisy

2010-12-31T09:00:00.004-05:00

The boyfriend and I celebrated an anniversary this week and I have been looking forward to a fancy dinner with him for a while! Sadly, because of the huge winter storm, I ended up stuck in Chicago for the better part of our special day so we had to postpone.

The next day we opened a bottle of bubbly and sat on our porch in the remarkably mild weather. It felt so good to be HOME and reflect on the past year and, obviously, to savor some champagne! I won't bore you with details and cut right to the chase. We went to Bistro Daisy. It was outstanding. This is where I need to bring my mother next time she visits.

It's beautiful inside, the wooden bar is lovely, the ceilings are painted a sky blue and the chandeliers look like they are original. But what really shone was the food. I normally only like my oysters raw or fried but I ordered an appetizer of poached oysters with an Herbsaint cream broth, fennel, tomatoes and bacon. WOW. This may be one of my favorite dishes of 2010. The excellent bread served to us sopped up the juices perfectly. Now my grandmother definitely never cooked with oysters or Herbsaint but something about the aroma of this brought me back to Sunday dinners in her kitchen so naturally, I loved it a little more for that. My sweetie got the sweetbreads, which were very good, but the accoutrements of sweet potato, bacon and pecans were not the perfect foil for the already rich meat. I like the zing of citrus to contrast such a rich dish.

For entrees, I ordered the duck with cracklings and a brandy-orange-foie gras demi. It was very tasty but I think they took the skin off to make the cracklings (which were addictive by the way!) but that meant that I lost the crisp skin with savory meat in each bite. I sort of missed that. It was good but GAHHHH!!!OOOOHHHH!!! MMMMMMMMMMM!!! The lamb shank that Ben ordered was out of this world. This is last-meal worthy food. The meat was unctuous, so luscious and flavorful, cooked in a bit of a tomato sauce with MINT and this taste made me think of my grandmother all over again. I would have thought Bistro Daisy had French leanings but I felt like I was in my Sicilian grandmother's basement kitchen. Basement kitchen, you ask? Yes indeed, the second kitchen in the basement where the real cooking happens but I suppose that's another post.

We skipped dessert in favor of espresso and a glass of port but they brought us a baked Alaska anyway, which was very sweet. Sweet of them, not overly sweet to taste. I don't know what they do to their meringue but it was the creamiest I have ever tasted, so much so that it just makes you want to slide it up against the roof of your mouth and mash it around with your tongue to prolong the experience.

We walked back to Nashville Avenue hand in hand in the breezy and wonderfully warm night air and really, I could not have asked for more. Go to Bistro Daisy, take your beloved, order the lamb.

Windmill cookies! Be still, my childhood heart!

2010-12-21T15:46:00.003-05:00

I recently read about the new Gourmet Cookie Book and that therein lies a recipe for Speculaas. Not familiar with these, I did a little research and lo and behold! They are actually my favorite windmill cookies that were served at snack time by every school or day care I ever went to! Maybe this is a northern thing, I have asked several people here if they know what I'm talking about to no avail. Anyway, real speculaas are a very traditional Dutch cookie. They kind of remind me of sugar cookies, except that they are a deep brown and spiced warmly, dotted with toasted almonds. I made a lot of cookies this weekend and these seemed to be the hit.

This recipe is from Gourmet but please note my changes at the bottom because I had some issues.

Ingredients

3 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon ground aniseed

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ginger or white pepper

2 stick (1 cup) butter, softened

1½ cups firmly packed dark brown sugar

3 tablespoons milk

¼ cup flour (for rolling the dough)

2-3 cups blanched almonds, chopped lengthwise

2-3 lightly beaten egg whites

Directions

Published in Gourmet in 1971, these cookies have been baked in the Netherlands for centuries.

Into a bowl, sift together 3 cups flour, baking powder, spices and salt. In a bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter with brown sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Stir in milk. Gradually add the flour mixture, stirring until it is well combined and form the dough into a ball. Knead the dough on a board sprinkled with flour. Roll it into a rectangle ¼-inch thick. With a sharp knife or cutter, cut the dough into rectangles 2½ inches by 1½ inches. Put the rectangles on a buttered cookie sheet. Decorate them with blanched almonds by gently pushing the nuts into the dough. Brush cookies with lightly beaten egg white. Bake the cookies at 375 degrees 12-15 minutes, or until they are firm.

My notes: I had neither ground clove or aniseed but I think it's perfectly acceptable to add more ginger and pepper or maybe if you're adventurous, some cardamom. I mixed the dough as directed and it seemed awfully dry so I added an egg. That seemed to do the trick and then I was able to roll it out just fine. I also skipped the egg whites at the end and just pushed the almonds into the dough, which worked fine and then I didn't have to think about what to do with those egg yolks. Also, I am pretty generous with the almonds but I probably used 1/2 cup of blanched, toasted almonds and that was plenty. (I had all those leftover almonds and so it inspired me to make chocolate financiers but I am stopping here!)

Elixir G

2010-12-20T17:06:00.004-05:00

I went to Pal's for drink on Friday and let me just tell you how much I like Pal's. It is a comfortable neighborhood joint that also serves upscale cocktails without the pretense often found at other places. I got the Gingerita, which scared me a bit because drinks with cutesy names often are laden with super-sugary liquors and pre-made syrups and so I asked what was in it. Ginger vodka, ginger beer, ginger juice and a bit of fresh lime juice. It was excellent. The ginger juice is apparently from some organic ginger farm in California, it's called Elixir G, which sounds like something you might have imbibed at a rave circa 1997. Despite its sketchy name, it is DELICIOUS. Not available in the great state of Louisiana, I wrote the company and they told they they could ship it to me for $10 a bottle and I could send them a check upon receiving it. How's that for customer service? Anyway, get yourself a bottle of this stuff or just go to Pal's and drink theirs.

Heaven on Earth: Gene's Po-Boys

2010-12-17T13:23:00.003-05:00

You wouldn't guess it from the charming exterior, but Gene's Po-Boys is the shit. This Pepto-Bismol pink landmark has been filling happy bellies for years and every time I am in the neighborhood, i make it a point to stop by. Their hot sausage is, quite simply, inimitable. It's super garlicky and redolent of spice, topped with cheese and mashed altogether in the perfect Leidenheimer loaf. I took an out-of-town friend there last night and he was floored. Could not believe that New Orleans gets the hype for its roast beef po-boys and not the hot sausage. While they are certainly popular in the city, I'm fairly sure most tourists come here with red beans and jambalaya on their minds more than hot sausage.

Can I rhapsodize about the hot sausage just a little more? Bear with me. I just can't stop thinking about it, which is where the danger lies because once you have one, you start plotting activities and routes to get you near to Gene's at all times of the day, thank GOD they are open 24 hours! Although in truth, I have never been there during the day, which you may want to do actually. It's generally surrounded by people asking for change but if you're not bothered by it, neither am I. Please go to Gene's next time you come to New Orleans. Or if you live here and you have never been, please go immediately. You will be so happy.

Sorry I have no pictures, usually Gene's po-boys are consumed rapidly in the car because I cannot resist their intoxicating aroma on the drive home!

Georgian Cilantro Sauce

2010-12-14T14:22:00.005-05:00

I am not sure how I spent my Saturdays before but my routine for several months now has been coffee in bed while I peruse the internets, hitting the gym, and then settling in for back-to-back episodes of "The Splendid Table" and "Louisiana Eats." Generally what I hear goes in one ear and out the other. This is not because it isn't interesting but because between the 20,000 food blogs I read, constantly reading updates on Yelp and voraciously attacking the weekly food installments from the NY Times and Gambit Weekly, I get a little overly saturated with information.

Anyway, this sauce, native to Georgia (country, not state), piqued my interest and I finally made it on Sunday. It's very tasty, I slathered it on some chicken thighs (all over, including under the skin) and then made my boyfriend go outside and grill them in the 26 degree weather. I am a cruel mistress.

I didn't have any parsley so I used all cilantro in its place. That's it, no other changes.

2 ounces dried apricots

1 cup boiling water

1/3 cup shelled walnuts (1 ounce)

2 to 4 garlic cloves (to taste), halved, green shoots removed

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon salt (more to taste)

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Pinch of cayenne

2 cups cilantro leaves (2 good-size bunches), coarsely chopped

1 1/2 cups parsley leaves (1 1/2 bunches), coarsely chopped

1/2 cup coarsely chopped mixed basil, tarragon, and dill

5 tablespoons walnut oil (or more, to taste)

1/2 cup soaking water from the apricots, as needed

1. Place the dried apricots in a bowl and pour on the boiling water. Let sit for at least an hour, more if possible, even overnight. Drain over a measuring cup and retain 1/2 cup of the soaking water.

2. Turn on a food processor fitted with the steel blade, and drop in the garlic. When it is chopped and adhering to the sides of the bowl, stop the machine and scrape down the bowl. Add the walnuts, and process with the garlic. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the drained apricots, the lemon juice, salt, pepper and cayenne to the bowl, and process to a puree. Add the cilantro and other chopped herbs, and puree, stopping the machine to scrape down the sides several times. Combine the walnut oil and soaking water from the apricots, and with the machine running, gradually add it to the puree. Process until smooth. Transfer to a bowl, and let sit for one hour. Taste and adjust salt. Serve with beans, chicken, meat or fish, grilled or roasted vegetables, or grains.

Yield: 1 1/2 cups.

Advance preparation: This sauce will keep for several days in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before using.

Somebody Loves Me

2010-12-09T11:30:00.004-05:00

The boyfriend missed me while I was gone and he welcomed me home with this. This would be seared redfish on homemade gnocchi, topped with watercress and a bit of bacon, sauced with a dijon beurre blanc and finished with truffle oil. I love him.

COLD!!!!!!

2010-12-01T15:39:00.003-05:00

I am cold. I went to Chicago for Thanksgiving and it was about 22 degrees there, about 80 in New Orleans when I left. During the four days, I pretty much stayed enrobed in my favorite fleece pajamas and beshawled by miscellaneous afghans. Family members kept going on walks and shooting off to the movies but not me! I entered the house on Wednesday night and I did not emerge until Saturday morning on my way to the airport!

(By the way, T-Day was great. I love my family. I can't believe we can put 16 of us in one house for four days and all enjoy it so thoroughly. It probably helped that we were lubricated by perhaps dozens of bottles of wine and champagne, plus a liberal amount of "the brown," as my uncles affectionately call their stash of Basil Hayden. My nieces are delightful. I ate with wild abandon. I luxuriated with books. Too bad I didn't take any pictures but I leave it to the pros in my family. Gordon? Greg? Cory? Where are the photos? This is your not at all subtle hint!)

Anyway, the weather changed dramatically whilst I was away. It was chilly in NOLA too. Then weirdly it was 78 and humid. Yesterday the temperature inside the house (nothing on, open windows) was 76 degrees. By evening, it was 61. I relented and let the boyfriend turn on the heat. Although I am reluctant to turn on the heat, I do love the chill, brisk walks and soup-making. I made a split pea soup the other day with smoked turkey instead of ham and it was fine but I really prefer the swine. Tonight, I am thinking about a Jamie Oliver recipe for soup with pancetta, barley and sage.

This is weird. Split peas and barley are my new cravings? Oh well, go with it, I say. I'll update you on how the soup turns out!

Thanksgiving List 2010

2010-11-15T14:12:00.002-05:00

I think you know the drill now, it's my family's annual make a list of what you are thankful for! If you'd like to read other people's lists or post your own, click here

* Parades for every occasion. That’s NOLA, baby!
* Hotels with free wi-fi. You’d think they all have it but you would be wrong.
* Chivalrous strangers
* Duck stock
* Oysters and having them back after a frightening hiatus.
* Electric kettles
* Fig trees
* Having a washer and dryer on the GROUND FLOOR and INSIDE my house! No more creepy basements or scary sheds for me!
* Discovering the Alto Adige region of Italy and their beautiful wines
* Bayou St. John and Spanish moss
* Pumpkin spice lattes on crisp, fall days, walking the pups and kicking through delicious smelling leaves (I just came back from Denver, obviously I am not referring to New Orleans)
* Being able to walk to work (now that it is not 8,000 degrees out every day)
* Having a dog who knows when I am sad and gives me lots of kisses
* The boyfriend being a super handyman. There are many other reasons I am thankful for him but man, that walk-in closet he built me is GREAT!
* Free, spontaneous street music
* Toasted brown rice green tea
* Fresh caught fish. Again, the boyfriend delivers!
* Sidereel
* Sounds of the streetcar
* Yelp
* Quiet nights and fleece pajamas
* Being able to always go home

Favorite Book: Hmm, I read a lot of duds this year. The books that were most notable include “Who Will Run Frog Hospital?””Watership Down” and “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian.”

Favorite Album: I don’t know anything about albums, when was the last time I actually bought one? Anyway, I’m liking Buika lately.

Favorite Movie: Once. I’m sure this came out a while ago but I am woefully out of date.

Favorite Meal: This is hard because I eat so damn good. I’m going with dinner at my house with my love, my New Orleans brother, my best friend, her babies, my mamma and Gregoire. Grilled oysters, drum and amberjack with chermoula and tzatziki, mustard greens, corn and potatoes, shredded beets, ginger-poached mirliton and a fig vinaigrette. Bruleed bananas foster over homemade lucuma-manjar ice cream. Good food and SO MUCH LOVE.

Favorite Wine: I’m adding this category this year. Orin Swift’s “The Prisoner”

Denver!

2010-11-12T14:15:00.004-05:00

I just got back from visiting the Mile High and I ate LOTS of good food, too much really to detail here so I'll just give you the highlights.

Cuba Cuba: Delicious caipirinhas and chorizo empanadas!

Steuben's: Rhode Island calamari kind of threw me for a loop, what is that? Well, since there is a large Portuguese population there, they fried the calamari but served it with olives, tomatoes, garlic and onions and it was very tasty.

NoRTH: Even though I dislike the pretentious way this is written, it was one of my favorite meals. We shared several appetizers including a salad with strawberries, goat cheese, hazelnuts and avocado. It sounded kind of weird but it worked and the goat cheese was ultra creamy. Excellent prosciutto bruschetta and calamari served over a perfectly dressed arugula salad with grilled lemons. My entree was a short rib osso bucco that was excellent and huge and I admit I ate the whole thing. I had a Nutella cake for dessert, it sort of had the texture of a flourless chocolate cake and it made even the non-chocolate lover at the table swoon. I also had a glass of Pinot Nero from the Alto Adige region, which is quickly becoming my favorite wine region.

Panzano: Grilled Caesar salad, always a hit. But the piece de resistance was prosciutto-wrapped prawns with a date-honey-pine nut sauce and sprinkled with a bit of gorgonzola. Stellar. I was sad I didn't have room to try the apple-date fritters for dessert.

1515: Well, we started with a bottle of Orin Swift's "The Prisoner" and if you haven't had this wine and have recently gotten a birthday card full of money or a small bonus at work, I urge you to try it. Beef Carpaccio with truffles, jumbo scallops on a bed of corn puree were both good starts. The croissant soup was very interesting; it came with a egg cooked sous vide and asparagus in the bowl and then the server poured the soup (croissants pureed in chicken stock) into the bowl over these ingredients. Then you swirl the egg around and it becomes extra-luscious, plus you could actually taste the slight sweetness and buttery goodness of the croissant! We also had a salad dressed beautifully with copious tarragon.

Rioja: Apple and basil soup was unremarkable but the housemade bread (I chose kalamata olive bread and a rosemary-goat cheese biscuit) were absolutely delightful, really, they just don't make bread that amazing in New Orleans or at least I don't know where to find it. I had a saffron-manchego risotto that exemplified what I often hate about poorly executed risottos, hard rice. Yet. The flavor was good and it had, YES, a pistachio-pine nut stuffed date on top that really set things off, plus ribbons of arugula and radicchio and a citrus ver jus. I don't know what Denver's obsession is with dates but I can so get with that. For dessert, I had a lemon-yuzu tart with a cornmeal-pinenut crust (decent), served with limoncello granita (tasty but pedestrian) and a pinenut brittle ice cream (yuuuuummmm!). Excellent espresso served with a froth and a lemon rind like it should be.

Thank you Denver, for being so delicious, thanks Tulane for footing the bill, thanks to my lovely Rebecca and Kim and Bob and Jeanne for their inimitable companionship!

The Girl and the Fig

2010-10-25T15:10:00.003-04:00

Unfortunately, this is not a post that includes me waxing poetic about a meal I ate at The Girl and the Fig but someday I will get to Sonoma and do just that! No, no, I've just had a number of fig-related encounters over the past month that I'd like to share.

-I bought some beautiful, fat-bottomed figs at Whole Foods and mixed some gorgonzola, chopped walnuts and rosemary together, stuffed the figs and drizzled with balsamic vinegar and they were delightful. I bet they would be good with a scoop of vanilla ice cream but lovely in their own right.

-I often have an egg scrambled with spinach and snippets of basil from my massive basil tree (yes, it's a tree, woody stalk and all)for breakfast. The other day, I also had a piece of toast, smeared with fig preserves, piled with basil-flecked egg, and who knew that the combination of basil and fig was so perfect? I can't recommend it enough.

-Speaking of those fig preserves, I also put them on some savory bread I made this weekend with squash and feta. It seems that fig preserves taste delicious on everything.

-I bought "Good to the Grain" by Kim Boyce for my sister's birthday and while I haven't had the pleasure of sitting down with it and perusing, I expect her to make the Buckwheat Figgy Scones and send me the recipe. One of the steps has you make FIG BUTTER with port and red wine. How can that not sell you?

-I have a fig tree on the corner of my street. It seems largely untended and generally unloved. It's not very nice to ignore perfectly good figs so sometimes I will pick one or two. There really is nothing better than taking a walk in the morning on your day off, grabbing a few fresh figs and sitting on the porch in the sun while you eat them. Perfection.

Cheese(s) of the Week

2010-10-01T20:36:00.003-04:00

Enjoyed an evening of cheese and wine last night with the inimitable Mary Beth aka best roommate ever. It was so nice to spend one of these cool, early fall evenings with good company and these delectable selections.

Bucherondine: Reminds me of Humboldt Fog (mmm!) with the ultra-creamy goat cheese center, surrounded by a runnier layer.

Appalachiam Tomme: Never heard of this, sort of a cross between cheddar and Gruyere? This would make a super grilled cheese.

Roth Kase Gruyere Surchoix: Oh my. Nutty, with those little crystals that I love so much.

I'm Eating Good

2010-09-30T13:27:00.005-04:00

Me and the man have been cooking at home more and we have had some damn good meals in the past couple of months. A few weeks ago, we went to Pensacola and this great fish market called Joe Patti's. They had just about every kind of seafood you can imagine so we got some grouper and monkfish, which I love but rarely see anywhere. Ben seared our lovely monkfish, served with roasted squash and asparagus and topped with squash seeds he had seasoned and toasted.

I didn't really grow up eating pork chops, I like them, I just never really had them so I never really make them. Plus, we have been eating a ton of scallops and fish and shrimp so when Ben made these pork chops last week, it tasted like one of the best things I've eaten in a while. He made a balsamic reduction with sage to glaze them, then made a black-eyed pea salad with tasso and I made some roasted broccoli which I will tell you about in a minute. It was all so earthy and rich and warm but not heavy at all. Make it. Don't skimp on the sage.

So, about that broccoli. The Wednesday Chef is beginning to be my favorite blog, I just want to be her and vacation in Italy at my mother's house, who lives there naturally, and take whimsical, nostalgic photos. This recipe is actually Melissa Clark's recipe, whose life I also covet because her weekly Times article always has her throwing together random things in a simple and elegant way. I loved this recipe, Ben and I both enjoyed the crisp bits of broccoli and extra lemon squeezed over top. Now I just roast the broccoli all the time, whether or not there's shrimp to go with it. I served this with a beautiful tomato tart with Gorgonzola, basil, chives and tarragon. You don't need a recipe, although you could certainly Google it and find one. Just make your pie crust however you make it, layer the ripest tomatoes you can find over it, sprinkle cheese, a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and herbs and bake it.

Speaking of tomatoes, I read this article in the New York Times and who can resist the end of summer ode to tomato? I can't and since we were driving past a stand that boasted "Tomatoes for Sale that Actually Taste Like Tomatoes," well, I bit. I even went out and bought Robiola, which has a similar texture as Brie but tastes a bit funkier and while I liked it, I did not like the $29.99/lb price tag nor how it made my refrigerator smell. Sub Brie, you'll be fine. I also wanted to bake to tomatoes some, the recipe doesn't say too but they were just so JUICY! I would say to DEFINITELY drain the tomatoes, cut side down. Also, I found the butter to be strange and extraneous so I'll skip that next time. So I out the tomatoes and the chicken on a platter with some toasted baguette rubbed with garlic and oh, how that juice crept into all the shaggy bits of the bread was just otherworldly. I mean it, but I discovered some of the magic disappears as leftovers. Some things improve the next day, this does not, so invite some people over and sop up every bit of juice with every crumb of bread.

One more thing. I bought peaches that taste like peaches from the Tomato guy and made Smitten Kitchen's Peach Shortbread and it is amazing but be forewarned you might eat three pieces in one sitting. My changes:

-I used whole wheat flour instead of white. No one noticed and thus, the shortbread was obviously transformed into healthy food, no matter all the butter I used.

-I used four peaches and not two. I'm sure there is something to be said for a light layer of peaches but I like to overdo things.

-I toasted about a 1/2 cup of almond and chopped them up to add to the topping. I think you should too.

Jazz Mass and Satchmofest

2010-09-28T12:53:00.008-04:00

Where else in the world does a city celebrate a jazz legend's birthday with jazz mass and a parade? I'd wager that no other city does it like New Orleans. I went to St. Augustine's for their annual jazz mass to honor Louis Armstrong back in early August. I got there 15 minutes before mass and it was PACKED! Treme Brass Band was the featured guest, how do you love that? The priest sang "What a Wonderful World." It was pretty incredible. Unfortunately, it was about 4000 degrees inside and while I don't quibble with anyone's right to wear or not wear deodorant, I am still kinda pissed at the girl standing next to me who chose NOT to and also chose to fan out her armpits right in my face throughout the service.

After mass, there was s second line out front and all the way down to the Mint where, of course, the music played on and on all day. We sampled an organic daiquiri...

...watching DancingMan 504 work his jelly... ...and ended up at Mona's on Frenchman. I've never been to that location but it was just as good as the Banks Street location. Word to the wise; their iced tea is awful, it tasted like slightly minted water, which isn't awful sounding actually but it sho ain't iced tea. Hummus is hands down my all-time favorite, baba ganoush also wonderful. I thought their grape leaves and kibbeh were sadly lacking but the spreads and dips selection more than made up for it.

Five Favorites

2010-09-09T16:44:00.002-04:00

Some other New Orleans bloggers are listing five favorite food items so I thought I'd join in the fun.

-Perfectly pulled espresso
-Lemon ice
-Roasted beets, carrots, brussel sprouts and cauliflower
-Chicken livers with pepper jelly (OK, now I verging on whole DISHES that I like but if I'm going to have chicken livers, that's how I want them)
-Scallops

Yes, Please!

2010-08-15T20:42:00.003-04:00

Oh joy! I had a successful day in the kitchen, which did much to assuage my wounded ego after yesterday's bread-making debacle. I sort of knew this recipe wasn't going to work, not enough liquid in the dough. I did read in the comments about a similar bread that also contained oats but this other version called for soaking the oats in water or milk. That seems to make a lot more sense. In any case, my bread was not good, not one bit, it did not even redeem itself once toasted and slathered with butter.

So today, I made this, which is one of mine and my papa's favorite summer recipes. I used scallops instead of bacon, still delicious but perhaps a scallop-bacon combo is in the future because there is no way that could be bad. Also, without consulting the recipe, I caramelized an onion, only to find out it wasn't called for but still quite good. I made the pesto with walnuts instead of pine nuts and just in case you were wondering, peeling blanched walnuts is a real pain in the ass.

And now for the piece de resistance. I made a pie. Rhubarb. And homemade vanilla ice cream. But the real star was the crust. I come from a long line of accomplished pie-makers so there's always that pressure. Plus, after my colossal bread failure, I felt like I needed to prove something to myself. Okay, well and to Ben too, lest he think I can't bake. I made this pie crust and oh LORD, it was on point, best pie crust I've had in...maybe ever. No, no, that couldn't be but it was outstanding, thank you Deb for being my ever-trusty consultant. In addition, I read Shirley Corriher's chapter about pie-making in her book Cookwise so I was feeling ready! The only change I made was to use half butter and half lard. Don't hate me. After all this consultation, I was worried about things not being cold enough, especially since who the hell makes pie, or bread for that matter, in New Orleans in August. I put my cubed lard, butter, flour mixture, bowl and rolling pin in the freezer 30 or 40 minutes before using it. I even put ice cubes in a bag and let it properly cool down my counter before getting into it. I would show you a picture but the rhubarb was kind of a weird, greenish color, not that pretty pink I like so much. While perhaps not picture-worthy, it's worthy of just about everything else, tender and flaky, ginger-scented rhubarb, cool vanilla, oooh my! I wish I could send a piece to my grandmother, I think she'd approve.

Chocolate Spice Sorbet

2010-07-27T09:52:00.003-04:00

Last week when Mamma and I took refuge in Sucre from the unrelenting sun, I had a chocolate sorbet. Now, I like fruit sorbets because they are refreshing and light but really, if you want to get right down to it, I will take an ice cream any day over sorbet. But for some reason, perhaps the spice, this sorbet called my name. It was a rich, dark chocolate brown and now that I've tasted it, I don't think I'll ever look at chocolate ice cream the same. You see, the cream or milk or whatever dairy actually mitigates the flavor of pure, unadulterated chocolate sensation. Kind of like the difference between rich, full dark chocolate and its more insipid milk-chocolate brethen. So, there's the incredible punch of chocolate flavor. Then there's the spice. I was told the sorbet had cinnamon, cardamom and ginger and it reminded me an awful lot of those chocolate cookies at Christmas, you know, the ones with grape jelly and clove and light, white glaze topping? Is this a Buffalo cookie? An Italian cookie? Because people here don't seem to know what I am talking about. Too bad because that cookie is awesome, especially if you get someone who still uses lard to make them.

I could not stop thinking about this sorbet and this weekend when I stupidly bought an enormous thing of soy milk just days before going out of town, I decided to make my own with soy as a base. I used about 2 cups of soy milk, although water would be fine. Then I added a cup of sugar, a 3.5 ounce bar of bittersweet Perugina and 1/2 cup of dutch processed cocoa. By the way, Hershey's special dark costs $3 and this stuff from Holland cost $9, about which I was a bit put out but I sprung for it anyway. I added ground cardamom, ginger and grated nutmeg and cinnamon. Then a shot of vanilla and a shot of strong coffee to round it all out. Oh, a bit of cayenne and a pinch of salt for good measure. I love, love, love the flavor of the spice with the chocolate, I could eat this for the rest of eternity. Although next time I think I will skip soy and do water (even though it kept a sorbet-like quality, not dairy-like or creamy at all) and I will use fresh ginger, cardamom pods and some of those little, bright red Thai chiles. The ground spices gave good flavor but there was a slight murkiness or dustiness that I think I can avoid using fresh ingredients. Finally when I topped it all off with stewed figs last night, I knew I had hit the sorbet mother lode. Make this!

Where is My Waistline Continued?

2010-07-25T17:20:00.008-04:00

Where was I? Ah yes, Saturday, mid-afternoon. After Coquette we went to The Joint for some smokin' BBQ, just thinking about it is making me want some of their meltingly good brisket, especially that line of fat that rides along the top of each piece. After a cruise around the 9th Ward and a little down time at the house, we were ready to hit downtown for some live music. John Boutte was playing at dba and even though I think he is a primadonna, I also love hearing him perform. It was a great show, he made me chuckle, he made me tear up a bit and there was this incredible guy who came up and did this spoken word sort of piece using New Orleans street names to create a narrative that combined history and politics and other local tidbits. I should go take advantage of living in a city with such wonderful music more often.

Sunday morning Mamma and I went to mass at St. Augustine's in the Treme. I'm sure I've been to mass here before but long ago and infrequently so it was interesting to see how it differs from Mass I am used to. Like the peace section, which went on forever, maybe a full 15 minutes! At Holy Cross, you'd wish peace and kiss cheeks with people in your pew and in those directly in front or in back but at St Aug's, people perambulated! They made their way! I went over to peace with an usher and she said "peace, my baby," which delighted me and people who couldn't get to you flashed the international sign for peace (two fingers). I found this both hilarious and endearing. Afterwards we went to Betsy's Pancake House, where there was plenty more "How we doing, my babies?" and "Everything all good, my darlings?" Oh, and two poodles getting amorous in the flatbed of a pickup truck across the street. Good, solid, breakfast entertainment.

I sent the adults off to the French Quarter to play while I went grocery shopping because Ben and I really wanted to cook for them, plus we invited my Louisiana family to join in. We have never cooked for others together, nor have we entertained in our new place and it could have been a mess but went off without a hitch. Except for the broken window but that's neither here nor there. Donovan now knows the difference between glass and plastic and thank god he didn't hurt himself worse, as he put his foot through a window and then pulled it back in with nothing more than a tiny cut on his foot.

Amy first arrived with Donovan and Neely in tow, Mamma and Greg got back and we all piled into the kitchen to hang out and have some wine before dinner. We made crawfish dumplings and charbroiled oysters to start. I was sad that I could only find Atlantic oysters. In fact, I'm so sad about it that I can't say any more except that they turned out very well, even though they weren't from the Gulf.

We also grilled drum and amberjack with chermoula and tzatziki to top it off, a hash of mustard greens, corn and potatoes, a salad with shredded beets, ginger-poached mirliton and dressed with a fig vinaigrette. Finally, for dessert, bruleed bananas foster over homemade lucuma-manjar ice cream. It was fantastico.

Here is my fireplace, appropriately decked out with a coveted shoe from the Muses parade and a picture of my grandparents. I like seeing Donovan and Neely's shoes there too.

It was a night I won't soon forget, some of my most beloved people in the world who rarely, if ever, see one another, it was very special indeed. And delicious of course.

Greg left the next day and Mamma and I were pretty low-key the rest of the time we were there. We went to the Creole Creamery for dinner (well, we had a salad first but who cares about that?). I had white chocolate-pink peppercorn, Sicilian pistachio (I think it had a hint of cardamom in it?), chocolate-cherry and....I don't remember but I liked them all. Mamma had a kinda over-salted salted cashew chocolate but her other flavors were good, especially the lavender-honey, which is one of my favorites.

We also went to Lafayette Cemetery, shopped around the cuckoo crazy antique store on Magazine where you never know what you will find and ended up at Sucre for more cold treats, it was HOT! Then I had to bring my mamma to the airport, which was sad but luckily I get to go home this weekend so parting wasn't too hard. See you soon Mamma! See you soon Buffy and wings and pizza and chicken finger subs! Chiavetta's and sponge candy and chocolate-vanilla twists at the Custard Corner!

Domenica, Delachaise, Cure, Coquette, Camellia Grill, My Goodness, Where is My Waistline?

2010-07-23T11:39:00.004-04:00

It's been an exciting few weeks around here with the move and house guests and summer just generally being the wild whirlwind that it is. When did summers stop being languorous and fluid and turn into visitor after baby shower after wedding after concert? Jesus Christ, I'm tired and it's only mid-season!

A couple weeks ago, a co-worker asked us to go out for happy hour. I'm new on the job and I'd like to extend my social circle a bit so I wanted to but Ben and I going to a concert. She suggested the following Friday, also out for me as my mamma and Greg would be here. So she suggested Wednesday, which wasn't great for me at all but there is only so many times you can turn people down so I agreed. We went to Domenica, Besh's newest restaurant, because they have a killer happy hour. Half-price drinks, any drinks, not $2 Bud Lights, which is the norm for happy hour offerings. And half-price pizzas from their brick oven. Wild mushroom, bacon, ricotta and yard egg? Or speck, gorgonzola and pecan? Decisions, decisions! The pizzas were very good, thin, well-blistered crust and they have a nice wine selection so I got a $12 Pinot Bianco from Alto Adige for $6 that was mighty pleasing.

Next day my mamma came to visit! We went to Baton Rouge to see Miss Amy and the kiddos. She made us a delightful shrimp remoulade and boudin, mmmmm! When we got back to New Orleans, we went to Cure for a cocktail. It was happy hour, what do you know! I am so glad that happy hour seems to be morphing into lower-priced specialty cocktail and wine as opposed to well vodka and cheap beer. I love this change. I had read on another blog that Cure's pisco sour was better even than any in Chile. Frankly, I disagree and for $9, it was outrageously small. I got a $5 Sazerac (hurrah for happy hour specials!) and it was pretty good but I would have preferred more bitters and a chilled glass. Yet. It was delightful inside, decorated like an old apothecary shop and they had a nice little menu so I'll be back for happy hour to see how their Pimm's Cup is. Afterwards, we went to Upperline and I was excited because they have their 3 course Garlic menu all summer and I've been wanting to go there for ages. But I just wasn't that hungry after eating a cheese plate at Cure. I got an unremarkable salad, in fact, it was kind of watery. I also had the Oysters St. Claude but the oysters weren't seasoned that I could taste and the St. Claude sauce used an unfortunate amount of the pre-minced garlic that marinates in embalming fluid for who knows how long. I liked how the interior was designed though, lots of local artwork and quirky memorabilia, so I will give it another shot someday.

Greg arrived the following day and after sending them to Mahoney's for po-boys while I went to work, we went for a post-work cocktail at the Sazerac Bar in the old and beloved Roosevelt hotel. Well, for me it was a post-work cocktail but as Greg put it "I've been in New Orleans for six hours and haven't had a drop of alcohol yet. That's got to change!" The Sazerac is delightful, full of well-appointed furniture that probably warmed the ass of Huey Long and other New Orleans notables back in the day, and paintings commissioned by the WPA lining the walls. The last time I was there, the bartender was explaining the history of the bar to people, making up new drinks and allowing us to sample, all in all a very pleasant experience. This time, our bartendress was a stiff woman in a white jacket that reminded me of a straitjacket. Her demeanor was about as playful as her uniform, which was kind of off-putting. I don't mind paying a lot for fancy drinks but I do expect them to be good and these were okay but forgettable. Sigh. I do so enjoy taking visitors to the fancy hotel bars here but much better cocktails were had the next day at Coquette. I'm getting there!

After the Sazerac, we went to my favorite wine bar, the Delachaise, for some snacks. The fried frogs legs were delicious and drizzled with a tarragon-butter sauce, my idea of heaven. Goosefat-fried pommes frites are always a winner and my salad was a nice foil to the fried offerings. Exhausted and sated, we turned in for the night at a respectable 9:30.

The next morning, Greg wanted to hit the Camellia Grill, which I think I only went to once and it was a very, very long time ago. Their schtick is jiving with the customers, which can't help but make you smile unless you are the duds who were sitting next to us. I literally felt the fun draining out of me just sitting next to them, not a smile cracked the entire time. Anyway, the pecan waffle was outstanding! Why would anyone make any other kind of waffle ever? It had a lovely nutty chewiness to it that I might have to have again tomorrow morning.

When afternoon rolled around, we decided to go to Coquette for a pre-lunch drink, hey, they were on vacation and I was tour guide so I had to! Wow. I had a French 75 with apricot brandy, which brought me back to when the Ritz first opened in New Orleans. We'd go hear Jeremy Davenport after work and I tried this magical cocktail, made with apricot brandy instead of regular brandy (or gin, not my style at all)and loved it. Mamma had a lychee martini, which was wonderful and balanced, which is tough to pull off because lychees are so sweet. Greg had a very solid mojito. Not only were the drinks stellar, the staff was very friendly and informative and the inside is beautiful but not stuffy. Original tin ceilings, gorgeous wooden bar etc. Plus all their cocktails are $5 on Thursdays. I will be back! Wait, I just realized I let a Thursday pass me by without thinking about that. Oh well, next Thursday then.

The rest of the weekend is forthcoming; John Boutte, grilled oysters and limbs going through glass. Stay tuned.

July 8th, 2010

2010-07-08T14:32:00.003-04:00

Yes, that's the best I can do for a title because there is really going to be no cohesive element to this post.

The first day after my week of denial was a special day for me and the boy so we made a marvelous dinner to celebrate that AND to welcome me back to the world of STEAK and ICE CREAM and WINE!!!!! We grilled some steaks simply and topped them off with a knob of a shallot-tarragon compound butter, which may be overkill but nonetheless, I encourage you to try it. We had a grilled romaine salad with pan-seared scallops and the most garlicky, buttery, peppery homemade croutons. As if we didn't have enough decadence-ahem, butter-, we fried some potatoes, tossed some in garlic butter and finished with shaved romano. This meal will be going on the menu at the restaurant we open. Also, I'm pretty certain the measly eight-tenths of a pound I lost during denial week came back after this dinner. No matter, 100% worth it!

I bought Ben an ice-cream maker, which means I bought myself an ice-cream maker, and made my first creation, the cardamon pod scented bliss that it was. Here's what I did.

Crush up about 20 pods of cardamom, so the seeds are exposed. Heat with 1 2/3 c. heavy cream, just to a bare simmer and then remove from the heat. I let this sit overnight but probably a few hours would do. Strain the seeds from the cream. Bring the cream, 1 cup of milk and a scant 1/2 cup of sugar to a simmer, just enough to dissolve the sugar. Whisk together four egg yolks and a scant 1/4 cup of sugar Slowly add the warm milk-cream mixture. I worried about curdling so I tempered the eggs a bit with a few eggshells of the milk mixture, then whisked in the remainder. Let this cool in the refrigerator and put it in the ice cream machine for about 30 minutes. Transfer to a container and freeze for about an hour.

It was super, I mean, I really cannot say enough about this ice cream except that you should make it and share it and eat it. I brought this to a picnic with some pound cake cupcakes I had made. One fine friend had made sangria and I though how nice that would be, the pound cake, the ice cream and the wine-macerated berries. But said friend also brought THE Chantilly cake from Whole Foods so we skipped the pound cake and berries.

I made mango sorbet the next day but it was kind of a dud because the mangoes were a bit past their prime, do you know what I mean? They get a very unpleasant flavor as they age that I can't quite put my finger on but I didn't like it. To save it I added some lime, mint and cayenne. I really liked the kick of the cayenne after the sweet, icy beginning but sadly, that over-mature note remained. Anyway, now I can't wait to do cardamom again and praline-bacon and salted caramel and peach-basil and lucuma-manjar!

I made this carrot salad, which had a number of things going for it. Namely, it was posted on smittenkitchen, which has never steered me wrong. Second, it had harisaa, mint and feta! Yes, yes, yes! I made the harissa last week and had it on eggs before making the carrot salad and it was so good that I couldn't wait to make the salad. But guess what? It was only ho-hum, I think the addition of sugar was unnecessary and actually kind of gross. I much preferred the carrot salad I made during Denial week of carrots, ginger, cranberries and scallions.

Monday night was our farewell dinner for Tabitha. I have made a very good friend here and I am sad to see her leaving us to go to medical school in Shreveport at the end of the month. But she needs to go on and challenge that big old brain of hers and God knows she isn't doing it here, sitting on the porch drinking Rose and eating cheese like we are so wont to do. Anyway, four of us got all gussied up and went to Susan Spicer's new place called Mondo. Overall, we really enjoyed it although it was nothing mind-blowing. I sort of think that's how she envisioned this place though, a neighborhood place that's casual and you can pop in for a glass of wine from their thoughtful wine list and some snacks. But it was no culinary mecca like I think so many people expect from Susan Spicer.

Highlights were the shrimp and pork meatballs on the lemongrass skewers and creamy crab toast. The breaded artichoke was pretty boring and awfully stringy but the lemon aioli was a bright spot. The steak tartare was fine but there was so much caper and pepper and so on that it detracted from the beef. If there was actually even any beef at all, I'm not sure. I'm kicking myself for not trying to soup of the day, a hot and sour soup with duck dumplings.

My dinner was perfectly passable, fish "Muddy Waters" (which in a meneuiere with jalapeno and anchovy) with roasted potatoes, except I didn't care for the fish of the day...tripletail? Triple beam? Triple threat? I usually hate five-spice powder but Tabitha's Chinese duck was very tasty, if a little small, as was the accompanying turnip cake. Corrinne got a steak with bearnaise and OOOOH, I cannot get enough of tarragon lately. I don't even know how the steak was because I focused on those lovely, licorice-like, grassy bits of tarragon in the sauce. Emily got a very well-cooked (I mean rightly done, not overcooked)piece of lamb with ricotta agnolloti that might be what I order next time I'm in. For dessert, lemon tart, coconut sorbet and sweet potato-pecan pie with almond-sherry ice cream. Sorbet, good, lemon tart, lemony, sweet-potato pecan pie with ice cream was STELLAR. I really liked the ice cream, the sherry complemented the almond so well and the almonds tasted deep and toasty.

All in all, a very nice meal, although we wanted a perhaps finer dining experience than they offer. We wanted some port or sherry after dinner, no such luck, but with such company, who really needs it? Anyway, I think next time I'll skip the high-brow meal experience and sit at the bar with a glass of wine and a pizza from the wood-burning oven. Oh, and those meatballs!

Straight and Narrow, Days 4, 5, 6, 7

2010-06-29T09:36:00.003-04:00

Day 4

I had oatmeal for breakfast, sweetened only with banana which I cooked for a few minutes first to bring out some of the sweetness. Although overall it didn't have the sweetness I'm used to, I got used to it after a couple bites, the walnuts helped too.

I had a pretty craptacular day at work, I would have REALLY enjoyed a glass of wine after work but I abstained and went to a new class at the gym that I've been eying for a few weeks.

Day 5

Oh, Day 5. Not a great day, I started out by leaving the house early so I could get out of work early, I like to do that on Fridays. Not only did I not catch an early streetcar, the usual 8:10 one that I take never came. By 8:30, I walked to another busline and took that, got to work ten minutes late and, oh, did I mention that it was 93 degrees at 8am? So I wasn't in a great mood when I got to work and my insane boss had emailed me 14 times and left 4 voicemails, delegating two weeks worth of work to be done by 5. Sweet. I immediately wanted to stress eat so I scarfed down a bunch of cherries and an orange without tasting either one. After an hour or two, when I had made myself feel physically sick with stress, I overdosed on peanut butter, I don't even know how much, it was embarrassing. It must have been a lot thought because I wasn't even hungry for my lunch until 3pm.

Speaking of lunch, that was a high point of my day. I made dahl a couple days ago and it was delicious. I haven't made dahl in a very long time but it is total comfort food for me, my mother had it on heavy rotation when I was a kid and I always loved the creamy lentils and the cool coconut. Only thing was I usually make raita and mango chutney to go along with it. But since dairy was out and chutney has so much sugar in it, I ate it with those wonderful dried cranberry and fresh orange scented collards and I was more than satisfied.

Feeling weary, I dragged myself out of the office and decided that I was going to break with the diet for one evening. Actually, I stuck with the diet, I just allowed myself some wine after a hellacious day. I met up with some friends for dinner at Lola's and we ordered sangria, yes we did and I don't feel bad about it! I also ordered this soup that was INCREDIBLE! It was a cold chilled almond and garlic soup, topped with grapes. It was flavorful and refreshing and I decided I could drink/eat this at every meal for the rest of the hot ass New Orleans summer. Until I googled it the next day and found out it has bread in it and is pretty much a caloric bomb. Damn. Oh well, I still urge you to try it, it's fresh and elegant and unique, you can impress your friends when you tell them this is an authentic, Spanish white gazpacho, I'm going to try this recipe.

Day 6

I hauled ass at the gym this morning and spent the rest of the day eating dahl, reading my book and getting my house in order. I haven't been home in a couple weeks because my car was in the shop and so I stayed at Ben's. Either he'd chauffeur me around (thank you baby!), let me take his car or I'd just take the streetcar, which is easier to pick up at his house than mine. I did get my car back on Friday but umm, I'm not sure why they had my car ten whole days and didn't even do one of the major things that needed fixing, thanks guys. What a bunch of morons. Then I worked a party that night, a wedding with 300 guests and when we broke down the buffet and everyone was in the back kitchen eating roast pork and pasta with caramelized onions and mushrooms, I felt a little faint as I nibbled on strawberries. That pesto-crusted tofu I made earlier just didn't cut it for me. Then they cut the cake and they had all these little cupcakes and oh my, it was hard. but I didn't give in! Even when I felt like I might fall over with hunger and exhaustion at midnight!

Day 7

I almost said screw it and had coffee for breakfast. But I didn't. Ben and I did some shopping for the new house, I'm moving on Thursday and I am SO EXCITED!!!!! Anyway, we got a lot accomplished and then we had a picnic at City Park, it was magnifique. I made a very good lentil salad, I used a dried lime that a friend brought back from Abu Dhabi and it lent a nice, subtle citrusy note. Some onion, cilantro, red bell pepper and a vinaigrette were the only additions. I also made some hummus (Ben ate it with bread, carrots for me). Ben made vegetable spring rolls with roasted beets and this stunningly colored and delicately flavored cherry-mango sorbet, just fruit, no sugar. It was a perfect evening, not too hot, not too many bugs, sitting on the water's edge under a live oak. What a life!

Straight and Narrow, Days 2 and 3

2010-06-24T10:23:00.005-04:00

Day 2

Well, today I'm sleepy, is it a lack of coffee? Or is it that I've been sitting on my butt in the same spot for several hours at a riveting Institute of Medicine Conference? It's certainly not a lack of sleep, I went to bed at 11, woke up with a start at 7:30 and had some bizarre dreams, the last of which included Beyonce asking to borrow my deodorant and I was embarrassed to tell her mine was down to the little nubby pieces stuck in the plastic.

Back to the conference. I initially kicked myself for choosing this week to be on the straight and narrow since I'd be at a conference downtown for two days. Not only did that mean I'd have to plan, pack and lug around food all day but I'd have to forgo the ubiquitous continental breakfast pastries. Actually, these didn't tempt me too much and I sipped on lukewarm green tea and nibbled on cherries and slices of sweet potato all morning. For lunch, I had soba noodles with teriyaki tofu and potato salad with a tarragon-shallot vinaigrette. After that, I took a walk and passed by Starbucks, man, did it smell enticing! Even a post-lunch walk could not keep my head from drooping as I listened to presentations on genotoxicity, industrial effluents, renal excretion levels and anaploidistic sperm. Weird, huh? This is usually when I'd hit the coffee or sweets to give me a little rush.

The conference ended at 4:30, I quickly changed into my penguin costume (that's the black and whites worn in the restaurant, I think it makes me look like a penguin) and headed over to the Foundry for my evening shift. I got there with a few minutes to spare, shoveling potato salad in my mouth for my "dinner." It was one thing to turn down slightly stale doughnuts in the morning but I knew I was really crazy when I started turning down PECAN-BREADED OYSTERS that the kitchen blithely nibbled on from a huge mound in the back or the ENORMOUS slabs of King Cake everyone took home with them. I started feeling a little light-headed halfway through the shift but fortunately the party ended early, I was out by 9.

Day 3

Still sleeping long and hard, which is fine, less time to be tempted by food. This morning at the conference, they had BEIGNETS! I didn't even look at those sugar-dusted, golden pillows of deliciousness, I'm getting better at this! I told my co-worker nonchalantly "It's not as if these are the last beignets on earth, who needs them?" She responded "Won't you be sorry when tomorrow is Armageddon?" Damn her. Today was much better because I could go home after the conference instead of to another shift. Hit the gym, hit the grocery store, came home and made dahl and Bryant Terry's collard greens redux from his excellent Vegan Soul Kitchen cookbook. (As a sidenote, I am no vegan but I do like my vegetables and new, innovative recipes are always welcome, pro-biotic, raw, whatever). By the time I was done with that, it was almost 10, which is around bedtime for me, read a few pages of my book and was out.

I'm not finding this too difficult yet actually, I mean, sure, passing the oysters, the beignets, eating my black beans while watching my boyfriend dig into some sopressata, Cotswald and fresh bread wasn't EASY but doable. The hardest part for me at this point is all the work it's taking to make sure I have an endless stream of appropriate foods, every night when I am done with work and the gym, I'm cooking for a couple hours to get ready for the next day. But it feels good for once to say, hey, I don't need that, because self-control is not something I've ever been very good at it. We'll see if that's how I'm feeling in a few days!

Body and Mind Recalibration

2010-06-21T13:22:00.004-04:00

I think I've always had a pretty healthy attitude towards food, if you overlook my slight preoccupation with it. But I've never been one of those people who wants to curb my appetite or have guilt associated with certain foods. In fact, I'm a strong proponent of the whole mind over matter thing so that if I am eating dessert, I don't say "Oh, this second piece of Chantilly cake from Whole Foods (which is incredible) is making me fat." No, instead I prefer to say "This second piece of Chantilly cake is making me strong and beautiful," because by doing that, it negates the caloric intake, right?

Additionally, I work out a lot and I generally eat very well, lots of vegetables and whole grains, not much processed, canned or pre-made food. So I have gotten myself into this habit of eating whatever I want based on those two factors. I don't know how I got here but I find myself eating (or needing) a dessert EVERY DAY. Once I start eating the sweets, I feel like a junkie, like I'm calculating how much more I get eat or what I'll eat after that. It's a sickness and I must quell my inner junkie! Even with "good" foods, I will just continue to keep eating unchecked, paying little attention to how my body responds. Anyway, I have decided for one week to give up MEAT, SWEETS, WHEAT, DAIRY, CAFFEINE and ALCOHOL. Sure I'd love to lose a pound or two but I really am more interested in eating more mindfully and practicing self-control, never one of my strong suits.

Incidentally, I fully expect to fail by Friday but right now I'm going strong! I am keeping eggs because I don't think they have that same difficult to process element that cheese and milk and yogurt have and also because I think I'll need to protein. For breakfast I had my usual egg and spinach with green tea and no coffee. I didn't miss the coffee but I sure was yawning until 10am. I had fruit for my mid-morning snack, which was not as satisfying as yogurt or peanut butter or Goldfish or Luna bars but amazingly I held out until 12:02 to eat my lunch of black beans, kale and brown rice. I also have a Creole tomato-basil salad, cherries and a carrot-ginger salad to tide me over until dinnertime.

Is it terrible that all weekend I was cramming in fried shrimp poboys and smoked cheddar and a lovely Rose? And that I wanted to buy huge steaks for a farewell to red meat sendoff party last night? That I have already checked all FIVE of my favorite food blogs this morning and that just moments ago I was salivating over Joule restaurant's dessert menu offering of Banana tarte tatin with rum caramel and coconut whip cream? What is wrong with me? Let's hope by Day Seven we see some improvement!

Hits and Misses

2010-06-16T12:37:00.002-04:00

I seem to have lost my mojo since living in Chile. There I grappled with poorly equipped kitchens, the lack of tools and ingredients I was used to, not to mention having to learn how to measure things from my recipe sources (usually in the silly American system) using metric system containers. 100 grams of butter? I had no idea what that even looked like. Plus, the ovens range from 1-8. I am clueless there. Anyway, since moving back to New Orleans, where there are over 1100 restaurants, not to mention working in a restaurant, I did far less cooking than I have any time in my adult life. So I have lots of misses lately, perhaps I can just blame it on the recipes. On the flip side, there have been a number of hits.

This weekend, I was having a birthday party for my roomie. She's been talking for months about Coq au Riesling, an Alsatian twist on the French classic, so I thought that would be a good choice for our main dish. I found this recipe from Nigella Lawson but then I tweaked it a little, mostly because I was too lazy to walk ALL THE WAY over to the computer to re-consult my recipe but also because my chef boyfriend intervened and who am I to argue with his expertise?

Ingredients

* 1 cup bacon lardons
* 1 leek, finely sliced
* 12 skinless chicken thighs or 2 3/4 pounds thigh fillets
* 3 bay leaves
* 10 ounces oyster mushrooms torn into strips (4 cups)
* 1 bottle Riesling
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1 to 2 tablespoons freshly chopped dill leaves
* Buttered noodles, optional

Heat the oil in a casserole or large wide pan and fry the lardons until crisp.

Add the sliced leeks and soften them with the lardons for a minute or so.

Tip in the chicken thighs, bay leaves, torn mushrooms and wine.

Season with salt and pepper and bring to the boil, cover the pan and simmer gently for an hour. Like all stews this tastes its mellowest best if you let it get cold and then reheat the next day. But it's no hardship to eat straight off. Whichever, serve sprinkled with dill and with some buttered noodles, if using.

Two nights before the party, Ben told me to "saute no more than half my aromatics," so I cooked down half of the leeks and added a couple carrots too. I couldn't find that darn bulb of garlic but I would have! I added the wine and let that cook a few minutes, turned it off, chilled and put my chicken thighs in the marinate overnight.

I DID flour and brown my chicken, although Nigella doesn't and while I think that gave it a deeper layer of flavor, plus the flour thickens the sauce, it was a pain in the ass. I guess that's mostly since I made over 6 pounds of chicken. Then I continued on, layering the rest of my aromatics with chicken and more wine and some stock. This was done one night before the party because, as I have indicated, I'm lazy and wanted it out of the way. But also I think that these sort of stewed dishes taste best when they've had some time to thicken and mellow. It was indeed a hit and I have REALLY enjoyed it as leftovers for lunch. It would be great over potatoes or rice or with some garlic bread instead of the egg noodles. Next up, strawberry shortcake, both a hit AND a miss!

Baked Asparagus with Tarragon and Shiitake

2010-05-05T21:09:00.005-04:00

Tonight I tried Melissa Clark's Baked Asparagus With Shiitake, Prosciutto and Couscous, although I left out the prosciutto because I forgot to pick it up at the store. I'm not sure what her angle is but she writes an article each week for the NY Times and every dish seems like some serendipitous and totally off the cuff success. Naturally, I hate her a bit for that but I forgive her because I always, ALWAYS want to eat what she's making.
She describes a method for cooking asparagus that yielded an asparagus like she's never tasted before (her sentiment), apparently a slow-cooking method made it absorb the other flavors of the dish without getting overcooked. Yes, it was delicious, although I think it would have been equally delicious if I sauteed the whole thing in 10-12 minutes versus waiting a whole hour to slow roast at 200 degrees. I do think the tarragon made the dish, in fact, I liked tarragon before but I don't know if I ever tasted it in a dish that made me like it as much as this one. Actaully, I think the tarragon flavor was such a wow factor, that I have re-named the dish Slow Roasted Asparagus with Shiitake and Tarragon. Couscous soaks the juices up nicely (and I so wish there were more!) but really, does it need to be in the title? I think not. It would be fine over rice or quinoa.
Eat with Marques de Caceres white rioja.

Hmmmmm

2010-05-04T23:50:00.005-04:00

When I was in Chile, the words and the stories were a constant feed running through my head. I also had a lot more free time. I can blame my much fuller schedule or that I am not in a new country, full of prompts for me to comment on. Whatever the case though, I've been feeling remarkably stagnant, missing that steady stream of playful phrases and clever stories. The best way to remedy that, as I know, is just to start. So even though I may not be witty or remarkable in any way, I like to look back on this day last year and know that I went to dinner at Atano with Alberto and had perhaps my favorite wine while I was in Chile, Ventolera, a pinot noir from the Leyda Valley (I didn't know that as I started writing this but was just able to look it up because, go figure, I actually documented it, unremarkable as it may have been that day!). Maybe in May 4th, 2011 I will be interested to know that I enjoyed a glass of Li Veli Passamante today, which I liken to drinking liquid violets.

Tonight, Ben and I went to Cooter Brown's for oysters and they were perfectly salty and not too cold and just wonderful. Add to that the nostril-clanging burst of horseradish and the muskiness of Lea and Perrins and I was in heaven. Eating oysters seems particularly poignant right now, in light of the oil spill in the Gulf. It makes my time in New Orleans seem all the more precious, not just because my seafood consumption may be severely limited very soon, but because this region just seems to be hit again and again, threatening the way of life here in a very permanent way. After our oyster dinner, we walked around the Riverbend neighborhood, quiet, stately, picturesque. I could smell the dank moisture of the river and house after fence after tree was loaded with wild jasmine, making me just want to fall into the blossoms and breathe deeply. We also saw a magnolia tree in its first bloom.

I've been in New Orleans now just over seven months, which is longer than the whole time I spent in Chile. That realization makes me a little sad and wistful. I remember thinking the same thing when I realized I had been back in Buffalo longer than I lived in New Orleans. A good reminder to take it in, breathe deeply, walk enchanted streets at dusk, reflect but mostly, be here now.

Catch Up

2010-03-20T13:43:00.003-04:00

Since I have felt like life is an endless string of unreturned phone calls and emails, I haven't been able to attend to most basic tasks, much less the blog. I have (attempted) to write down little musings daily, which usually end up being about food. Let's catch up on what I've eaten since December.

12-3-09 Languedoc at the Delchaise with Alycia.

12-9-09 New haircut. Dinner at Ralph's. Wagyu beef.

12-13-09 Dinner with Adam and Kristin at Mr. B's. Grouper with crab meat. Pimm's cup at the Roosevelt Hotel.

12-14-09 Snifter of Frangelico, porch, lightning storm.

12-16-09 Oh my god, La Divina Gelateria, chesnut, honey, pinenuts and rosemary.

12-23-09 Package of cuccidati arrives in the mail from Mamma!

12-25-09 Christmas in Slidell with the Boos family.

1-1-10 Life is beautiful.

1-3-10 Dinner with Ben at the Orleans Grapevine.

1-6-10 Horinoya! Black sesame ice cream is my new obsession.

1-7-10 Wake up at the W, order room service, lounge in my robe. Dinner at the Butcher.

1-15-10 Off to Seattle. I love Beatrix!

1-16-10 Besalu for breakfast and afternoon naps, oh yes.

1-19-10 Lunch with Nika at Boat Street Cafe, dinner with Anna-Beth at Quinn's pub and salted caramel ice cream at Molly Moon's.

1-21-10 My Lucy girl turns three!

2-7-10 Holy shit, did the Saints just win the Super Bowl?

2-8-2010 Pho Tau Bay with Ben and Alycia, Sucre, early birthday dinner for Ben at Cochon.

2-13-10 Endymion! Champagne! Smoked meat!

2-18-10 Mahoney's makes a po-boy with fried green tomatoes, grilled shrimp and remoulade.

2-21-10 Ben finally cooks for me! Grilled steaks and shrimp with brie.

2-25-10 Off to Baton Rouge to see Amy, Neely and Donovan. Beautiful day with my babies. Le Chat Noir and sushi.

2-26-10 I'm 31! Doberge cake for breakfast. Oysters and champagne for lunch with Paul and Emily. More oysters and chamapagne with Ben at Luke.

3-2-10 Off. 25 cent oysters at Luke. Chesnut ice cream at Angelo Brocato's.

3-3-10 The view at Second Line movie studio is AMAZING!

3-10-10 Tulane wants to interview me TOMORROW. Holy shite.

3-11-10 Driving down Dumaine to work, I noticed the trees abloom in the early greens, whites and purples.

3-13-10 Went to New Orleans Museum of Art for the "Dreams Come True" exhibit, which details Disney's fairy tales. Favorite was illustrations for Sleeping Beauty,done by Eyvind Earle.

3-15-10 Finally get a nice day when I'm off to eat the first crawfish of the season, sitting on the levee with my baby, watching the sunset.

3-16-10 Ben makes grilled redfish with a crawfish crystal-butter sauce, braised greens with andouille and a cajun hash. Every element perfect. Delicious with Cakebread Sauvignon Blanc.

3-17-10 I got the job!!!!!!!

3-19-10 Viva San Guiseppe! Missing Buffalo and my family. Went to St. Joseph's Cathedral to see the altar.

So I guess that's my life over the past three months. Now, lest you think life is all afternoon snoozes and dinners with my love, please know I didn't want to bore you with savory nuggets like "Time change and a LONG. ASS. DOUBLE." Or "Clocked out with 34 hours in three days. Dead tired." But overall, life is good, I'm eating well. More to come.

Thanksgiving List

2009-12-02T21:23:00.003-05:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah, so I'm a week behind on the list. I did write it a week before Thanksgiving, I'll blame it on my rigorous work schedule and general malaise surrounding anything that requires brainpower when I'm off of work. Thanksgiving was a little strange this year as I spent it away form family and friends and waited on rich people for twelve hours. Not all bad though, lest you're feeling sorry for me. My friend brought me a plate from his grandmother's that included some AMAZING oyster dressing and shrimp-mirliton stuffed bell pepper, plus some kick-ass sweet potato pie.

dental floss
discovery of new foodstuffs such as lucuma,merquen and machas
chilean wine and wineries
sunny days in November
learning to live with others again and also the intricacies of living with so many, multicultural people this year
getting unexpected gifts in the mail
all the 2009 baby girls in my life, Beatrix, Neely and Sadie
my beautiful and newly enlarged family
free shrimp boils on Friday nights
hot water heaters that don't need to be turned on with matches
clothes dryers
book-lending coworkers
the brief opportunity to be free and untethered
sunrise over Playa Ancha
clouds
phonetics, syntax, idioms
lentils and their endless yet still delicious iterations

Book: A Prayer for Owen Meany. It's not new but just read it this year.
Album: Javiera Mena and Kid Cudi
Movies: Ummm.??? I'd like to see Precious and the new Almodovar movie but haven't yet.
Meal: Prietas, pastel de choclo and ensalda chilena that Sebastian made for me my last day in Chile. Had some other very good meals in Chile with all my visitors including mango pisco sours, clams with ginger and lime, duck ravioli with port reduction, ostrich carpaccio!

Simple, Elegant, Delicious

2009-11-20T00:13:00.003-05:00

I haven't been cooking much lately, mostly because I am working a lot and in restaurants so my meals are cobbled together from various vegetal matter at home, employee meals and eating out. Yet I have been making this super-easy and fast meal lately that I am in love with. It couldn't be more simple. Grill some asparagus. Toss with lemon juice and mushroom-truffle sauce (sub truffle oil if without the sauce). Top with shards of romano or parmigiano and a fried egg. It might be the best five minute meal you've ever had.

Antidote to Craptaculousness

2009-09-19T18:40:00.002-04:00

So I'm having this colossally shitty week, certainly the worst this year, in fact I can't remember having a period of time with this many craptacular days in a row in quite a while. In any case, I usually remedy weeks like these by making a parody of it to whoever will listen and then making myself something delicious and comforting.

I'll spare you the gritty details but suffice to say that shuttling back and forth between various offices at City Hall, all manned by surly people who could, quite frankly, use a makeover and perhaps another cup of coffee, is not fun. Did you follow that run-on sentence? Me neither, sorry. Anyway, there was the mess at City Hall, some medical issues and being reminded that anyone I'm attracted to likely has a criminal record and/or borderline personality disorder. I'm not being dramatic, I swear it's statistically significant with a strong confidence level. I mean, I haven't run the regression analysis and I didn't do the p-test and I'm sure this sentence is only relevant or humorous to you if you've slugged through a semester of Quantitative Methods for Public Administration so I digress. Oh, and then someone hit my car and left me a nice big hole in my bumper and blithely sailed on with their day without nary a word or an apology note.

I've been surprisingly unperturbed about things though, which is of slight concern to me. I didn't even cry once and I am usually queen of the Water Works. Wait, I take it back, those snarky bitches at City Hall make me cry every time. Well, whatever, I felt like some comfort food so I splurged on an organic chicken, roasted it with some Yukon Golds, rosemary, lemon and leeks. It was just what I needed. Give it a try.

I've Been So Bad

2009-09-10T18:03:00.005-04:00

I was really rolling with the blog thing for a while and there is SO much to tell you but, as I said, I've been a very bad blogger and since I can't possibly catch up on all that now, I'll just pop in for a brief bite.

I'm obsessed with dates and golden raisins and anchovies right now. The golden raisins in Chile, ooooh, I know what you're thinking but you probably have never had a golden raisin from Chile. The ones I have from Guercio's are a faint substitute but I throw them in everything, from oatmeal to red sauce, which reminds me that I made this sauce from tomatoes and zucchini, onions and garlic of course, then added copious amounts of basil and mint, some anchovies, capers and the raisins. It sort of reminds me of St. Joseph's Day pasta con sarde, but fresher. Or pasta puttannesca I suppose.

That leads me into anchovies, which are delicious with pasta of course. Also, the other day, I grilled some baby bok choy, laid an anchovy down each one and poured some homemade caesar dressing over it. This was inspired by Greg's famous grilled caesar salad that I adore. It was spot-on with the bok choy, the crevices between each tender little leaf a perfect receptacle for holding little pools of lemony-salty-briny delight.

Dates. I am buying these fantastic dates from Guercio's; they're big and dense and moist, not like those nasty, dry, ashy-looking ones you get sometimes. I just eat them plain or, like the raisins, in my oatmeal OR stuffed with goat cheese that has been jazzed up with walnuts, mint and lemon zest. I made these treats last summer and loved them and now I'm kicking myself for wasting whole year without them.

You may think I've been cooking a lot but this is really all I can handle lately. Stuffing goat cheese into dates. Boiling pasta and making quick-cook tomato sauces. Add to that my other dishes in heavy rotation including....Peanut butter toast. Massive amounts of green beans from the garden sauteed with onions. Really, I'll just eat a whole pound of beans for dinner sometimes. Tomato-basil salads. Fried eggs. I'm not feeling terribly motivated to cook these days. However, I am looking forward to moving back to New Orleans and having all kinds of fresh seafood and other goodies to mix up my current, funky, rutted eating repertoire. That's right, I said it, going back to New Orleans! More updates to follow!

World's Most Amazing Coffee

2009-08-15T22:48:00.006-04:00

No, it's not from Chile, I think I mentioned they are Nescafe aficionados there, which I still can't figure out. Anyway, my sister went to Hawaii in January and I asked her to pick up some Kona coffee for me; I've had it before and thought it was fantastic. She did indeed bring me back some Kona coffee but apparently it's SUPER expensive so it was just a 10% blend but they labeled it Kona anyway. Cheaters. However, she and her husband happened upon a little lady who roasts her own coffee and when they asked why Kona was so expensive, she dismissed it as swill and proclaimed hers infinitely better. Well, I don't think Kona is swill but I have to admit, this coffee was absolutely perfect; complex, caramel hints, balanced without being acidic. So, this is a super boring post that I'm mostly writing to document the contact information for this woman, should you or anyone you know be in Hawaii. I've had the empty bag sitting around here for weeks and I keep telling myself to write it down so I can get rid of all this trash cluttering up my apartment! Without further ado,

Poppi Beanz
100% Maui Grown, Kaanpali Estate
Red Catuai Beanz

Full City Roast by Haz Beanz Coffeehouse
115 Baldwin Avenue
Paia, HI
808-268-0149

Normally I'd write off anyone who spells "beans" with a "z" but I'll let her slide on this one, it's that good. Get me bag or two please if you are in Hawaii!

Desert Adventures and a Trek to Bolivia

2009-07-18T15:01:00.008-04:00

This first part sort of repeats a bit from my last post, although I am more detailed here. Why did I do that? I don't know and I'm not editing it. Stick with it though, there's lots of new material!

Sunday morning arrived, time for my last jaunt through northern Chile, with a pitstop in Bolivia.

I thought it was genius of me to get a place ticket from Santiago to Calama, thereby avoiding a 23 hour bus ride. Really though, I had to take a micro to the bus station in Valpo, a bus from Valpo to Santiago, the subway from Las Rejas to Pajaritos to catch a shuttle to the airport, my flight to Calama, a taxi from the airport to the bus station and after a three hour wait, a bus to San Pedro de Atacama. Still, I left my house in Valpo just before noon and arrived in San Pedro at 10:30 that night, not too bad. However, I had set up a place to stay which, in typical Chilean fashion, fell through so I was left wandering around SP looking for a place to stay after traveling all day. I should note that I went out dancing Chilean cumbia the night before and got home veeeerrrrry late and on the way home, there was one of those fantastic downpours so my damp jacket and wet clothes in tow didn't make things easier. Anyway, I found a place to stay and put myself right to bed!

Lucky for me, the next day, June 29th, happened to be the festival of San Pedro and I happened to be in the town of San Pedro. I went to an outdoor mass in the central plaza, where there were people all dressed up, some in indigenous costumes, others as various animals and still others in their marching band best. Mass was followed by a parade down Caracoles, the main street. Two men dressed as chickens lassoed me and pulled me into the parade. I have no idea what this means and I didn't see anyone else get lassoed. Unfortunately, my camera had just decided to make its final exit from the world so I didn't get any photos from this exciting event. I spent the rest of the day wandering around the little town, checking out the many shops selling overpriced shit you can buy in every country in South America, shopping around the many storefronts offering tours to all the wonders of the desert. I signed up for the Geyers del Tatio tour the following morning, meaning I had to get up at 3:30 to be ready for pickup at 4am. Apparently the geysers are best appreciated as the sun rises, the reflection of light on steam and sediment creating an incredible array of colors. Well, let me tell you something about the desert. It's cold as hell at night and blazing hot during the day. So when I got up at 3:30, it was FREEZING!!!!! I am going to apologize in advance, because I am going to abuse the word “freezing” like nobody's business in this post. I should have kept a count of how many times I heard the word congelado during the week. Another thing, Chileans seem incredulous that we tourists are cold. They say “But you're from New York, it gets cold there.” Umm, yeah, but we have HEAT. I realize indoor heating is expensive but to not have it in cars? That is bullshit. Hence, the two hour bus ride without heat before the sun came up was uncomfortable to say the least. Oh yeah, and the road was RELENTLESSLY bumpy so even if you wanted to catch a little shut-eye, no luck.

Let me interrupt by saying that you must think my experiences in Chile have all been horrible, based on these blog entries. Not in the least, quite the contrary. It's just so much easier for me to write in a self-deprecating style and that just doesn't lend itself well to writing about some of the magic I've experienced. So instead I will poke fun at all my random, uncomfortable and, I like to think, totally hilarious adventures. Anyway...

OK, we got to the geysers and I have to say, I was underwhelmed. There was some steam rising out of the ground, whoop-de-doo. No gorgeous colors to speak of. What WAS impressive was watching the sun come up over the mountains. I don't know what it is about these landscapes that inspires such awe in us, maybe it's the feeling of our smallness in the face of such grandeur, maybe it's the revelation of the spectacular forces of nature that created such beauty. Whatever the reason, it was truly amazing. On the drive back, we stopped several times to get out and take pictures, or in my camera-less case, gawk at the scenery. A couple times I thought to myself there was no need to get out, I don't have a camera and I can see this very well from inside the bus. But then I'd get out and my sense of scale was completely altered. Still though, I don't need to stop and get out every time we see a damn llama, which is one of my main beefs with these organized tours. Another beef is stopping in these “quaint” villages to soak up some indigenous culture. We stopped at a little place that consisted of about 6 huts, all selling more overpriced crap. I could really skip this orchestrated, tourist marketing scheme, thanks anyway.

Christ, it was already my third night in SP! I got back from the tour and busied myself preparing for my three-day excursion to Bolivia, filling every bottle I could find with water, changing pesos for bolivianos and so on. Once again, I put myself to bed early to be ready for our 8am departure.

I arrived at Colque tours office and boarded a bus with a bunch of other confused-looking people, this would set the tone for the entire trip. After an hour of driving, we reached the Bolivian border, where we were all herded off and into the customs office to pony up our money for Bolivian travel visas. Everyone else had to pay 2100 pesos, less than $4, but those of us lucky enough to have an American passport had to pay $130. I think this is ridiculous but people comforted me by telling me Bolivians have to pay the same when they go to the US. I am not appeased by this, I don't want them to pay either but nonetheless, that's the way it is. Actually, I slid in by paying the bargain price of $50 since I'd only be in the country 3 days. They didn't stamp my passport though, likely because this is somewhat illegal but we all know I'm no stickler for rules, especially if it saves me $85 dollars..

After the border shenanigans, we split up into smaller groups to fit into the jeeps we'd be traveling in for the next few days. My tour included two jeeps; in mine was me, obviopo, Laima from Holland and Nicolo from Italy. The other jeep had two girls from Manchester (Bex and Katy), Rafa from Spain and Moses from Brazil. We stopped at a hot springs and several lagunas the first day; Laguna Verde, Laguna Blanca and Laguna Colorada. I'm sorry I don't have my own photos to share with you but my travel buddies have promised to send some my way (the ones I have here are from Rafa) but you should really do a Google image search. Actually, it was pictures of Laguna Verde that convinced me too do the Bolivia trip.

Laguna Verde

Laguna Colorada

I should say a few words about Bolivia. If I thought the Chilean desert was cold, I was blown away by the Bolivian altiplano. The elevation is much higher so it's way colder. The country is also much poorer and less modern than Chile, plus we were in really remote areas, meaning that there was no electricity or running water at the places we were staying. Also I will now state my disclaimer that I am about to talk some major smack about Bolivia but that shouldn't taint any ideas you may have about the country because I was only there three days and barely saw anything. That said, Bolivia ain't my cup of tea. It probably would have been much less painful during the summer than the winter but I still only have so much tolerance for barren towns made of mud and peopled by women in skirts and bowler hats. I fear that I am about to sound very ignorant and small-minded but I'm just going to embrace it. If you've seen one woman in a bowler hat, you've seen 'em all. I do not want to pay anyone for a picture of me and a wrinkled lady in llama leggings and that goddamn bowler hat. Why do they all wear the same things? And how did this fashion trend spread all over Bolivia and Peru and who knows what other countries? It SHO' ain't cute and more importantly, it doesn't seem all that warm either.

Case in point...

Anyway, we stopped at Laguna Colorada for lunch and also to spend the night. We were at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters, which is pretty damn high and super-cold. But we were all still in pretty good spirits and had a mediocre but filling lunch. Then we realized that there was not a whole lot to do here, we had only a few hours of daylight left and already it was unbelievably cold. Fortunately, there was one lookout, which I thought was very meanly named Aguas Calientes ( I mean, just don't mention hot water if there isn't any, okay?). We walked through the wide open altiplano, clutching each other and screaming to be heard, until we reached the lookout and saw a small exhibit about the laguna and why it changes colors, micro-organisms etc. With nothing left to do, we headed back to our room to layer up, push our beds together and wait for dinner.

I believe this is where it started too sink in for me that we would be sleeping in this godforsaken place. The bathroom, if I may call it that, had toilets that did not flush and no running water in the sinks. The smell, well, I don't need to tell you, but the bathrooms so far in Bolivia were impressive in their stench and squalor. Then it hit me, “Are you kidding me? Are we FUCKING CAMPING?” I could feel a hysterical note rising in my voice and this is where it is great that someone like Laima was along on the trip. She is one of those delightful people with twinkly eyes who immediately links her arm through yours and unabashedly asks to borrow your mascara and if you'd like to split a piece of chocolate. I love these kind of people, they're almost caricatures of real people and just crack me up to no end. So although I was tricked into a miserable camping trip in Bolivia, at least I was in good company.

Our "hotel" on the first night, I'm depressed all over again just looking at that picture.

After dinner, we all brushed our teeth together, sharing water bottles to clean off, haha, God, isn't camping fun? Then we went to bed and they turned off the generator at 8:30 and I spent one of the worst nights of sleep I've ever had. Not only was it ungodly cold, but that altitude really does something to you. Actually, we made jokes about it over the next few days, blaming everything on the altitude, especially things that had no relation to altitude whatsoever. Yet, the altitude absolutely makes you feel tired and dizzy and slightly sick. After waking up for the 17th time, I blissfully saw the sun rising, which meant it was time to get up. I sat up and felt like I drank 2 bottles of whiskey and smoked 14 cartons of cigarettes the night before. And perhaps someone had also hit me over the head with said whiskey bottles. Of course, nothing of the sort happened but the altitude gave me a clanging headache and the dryness of the air sucked the moisture out of my skin and throat.

Day Two was pretty great, I think you haven't really lived until you've sped through the altiplano with a crazy Bolivian driver while blasting reggaeton. Marcos and Chino, our drivers, seemed to delight in racing each other and scaring us shitless by driving through rivers and riding alongside huge ridges at impossible angles. I loved seeing how the scenery changed. The day before, it had been huge mountains, composed of all shades of red, brown, terracotta, bronze. Which was stunning, of course, but then we cruised into different terrain, lower slopes, looking misty blue in the distance, with golden-green shrubbery creating a beautiful contrast. It looked like a cover of one of those paperbacks about the Wild West by Elmore Leonard or whatever his name is. I only know that from shelving his books those years of working at the library in high school. Again, we eased into yet another striking scene, with huge rock formations created by wind erosion. It looked like a set from Beetlegeuse or something totally otherworldly.

Desert racing...

Arbol de Piedra

We stopped for lunch in another incredibly depressing town called Villa Alota. There appeared to be no sign of life, it looked completely devoid of people and activity. After lunch, Chino told us that there was a problem with frozen water at the place we were supposed to stay at that night so we were going to go straight to Uyuni and sleep there. This sounded great to us because Uyuni meant civilization! Internet! Running water! Along the way, we stopped in another horrible town, although this one had a market that we wandered around in for a minute before we spotted a bathroom. Now, how it works in many places here is that you have to pay to use the bathroom, with a nice little sign indicating such. Well, there was no sign and no attendant and so I bravely went in first, holding my nose, clutching my toilet paper. Without getting too explicit, I was using the bathroom when this lady kicked in the door and demanded 1 boliviano. I could care less about the boliviano but umm, can you shut the door and I'll pay you on my way out? Nope, she stormed out and left the door wide open. I kinda felt like smacking the bowler hat right off her head. Enough of these little towns, please get me to Uyuni!!!!

So, this post is already way too long, I will get to Part Two of my Bolivian adventure soon, stay tuned!

Hey Kids, I´m in the Desert!

2009-06-30T13:02:00.003-04:00

I just wanted to write a quickie before I take off for Bolivia tomorrow, I have been told by the tour guides that the accommodations will be ¨rustic¨ and ¨basic¨ and since hot water=luxury here, I am going to infer that the next few days will be internet-free.

So I left Valpo on Sunday, which was super-sad because, although I will be back next week for one day only, I said goodbye to my apartment, had breakfast for the last time there etc. Next Tuesday I´m going to be staying at the boy´s house (yes, there is a boy, come on, of COURSE there is a boy. That´s all I´m saying about it.) so no more Casa Peral for me:((( So, I hopped on a micro to the bus station, bus to Santiago, the subway from the bus station to another station(for some reason, the bus didn´t go to Pajaritos, who knows why)to catch the shuttle to the airport. Got on a plane, landed in Calama, cab to the bus station, another bus to San Pedro de Atacama, goddamn, I am tired just thinking about it! Then I couldn´t find/get in touch with the woman who I´d arranged to stay with so I got to walk around town at 11pm looking for accommodations. Did I mention that I went out the night before in torrential rain and so my coat was still soggy? It was awesome, let me assure you!

I managed to find a slightly overpriced room, but it was mine, all mine, no sharing. No internet or breakfast, which kind of sucks and the water wasn´t working when I wanted to take a shower but these are just small details, right? I walked around town looking for a place in the morning with these ¨luxuries¨ and everything was full or way overpriced. Hotel Puritama turned out to be just fine in the end.

June 29th also happens to be the festival of San Pedro and what better place to be than San Pedro de Atacama? I took some pictures before my camera finally committed suicide (yeah, it´s been working pretty well for the last month or so but I think it took it´s final swan dive yesterday. Fantastic timing. There was mass outside in the plaza, followed by a parade with some decent marching bands, altiplano dancing and men dressed as chickens inexplicably lassoing me. Hmmmm. Then I had a DELICIOUS empanada, one of the best I´ve had in Chile, that was full of olives, egss, onions and meat that I will pretend was llama. By the way, I love llama. I had a llama skewer today in a little town called Machuca, on the way back from seeing the Geisers del Tatio. I thought the geisers were totally overrated and getting up at 3:30am in -15 degree weather even worse. But once the sun came out, the scenery was absolutely breathtaking. I´m so pissed I can´t take pictures!!!!!!!

Ok, my time here at the internet cafe is running out, I gotta run, see you soon!

Four Month Check-In

2009-06-08T19:51:00.006-04:00

That's right, it's been four whole months since I left Buffalo, a bittersweet day indeed. I've had a wonderful journey so far, and I still have a month left, but it's official. I'm ready to come home. Don't get me wrong, I will be SUPREMELY sad to leave here when the time comes but the life of an ex-pat is a sort of lonely one. Sure, I've met great people but meeting other travelers/English-speakers mean that they are inevitably leaving, and many of them have. My Chilean friends are fantastic, I feel really blessed, but being really ME is limited, which I have mentioned before. At first I thought I wasn't really ready to leave or homesick for home, just a little lonely. But now I know, that just ain't true. I miss YOU, my garden, my niece, cheese, the library, my gym, ole Blo, picking up the phone to call people. In short, it'll be time to go when the time comes. However, I've got one more trip planned before I jet, on June 28th, I will fly to Calama, in northern Chile, to visit San Pedro de Atacama, the desert, Valle de la Luna etc. Then I will go on an expedition to Uyuni, in Bolivia. Back to Valpo on July 7th to pick up my stuff and say my goodbyes and I am OUT OF HERE July 8th. Anyway, soon enough I will have my own photos to post but in the meantime, here are some titillating shots of both locations!

Daytripping in Quintay/Picture of the Day 18

2009-06-03T14:09:00.006-04:00

I've been kinda lazy about exploring lately and my time here is winding down, que lata. So the other day I decided to start taking some small day trips and remembered several people telling me to go to Quintay. It's about an hour south of Valpo and was the epicenter of Chile's whaling industry in the late 1800s/early 1900s until 1967, when whaling was officially banned worldwide due to hunting the poor things until near extinction. (Everyone signed the treaty but Norway and Japan, what's up with them?). Quintay also has a number of good seafood restaurants, so no one had to twist my arm to get me there!!!

I tried to go last week but I got to the bus station at 11:20 and the bus left at 11:15, since when do things happen on time in Chile? Pucha! The next bus wasn't for several hours and since winter is approaching, the sun sets early and I decided to wait for another day. Monday broke, gloriously sunny and oddly clear. I could see all the way to the snow-capped Andes, past Santiago, which I have never seen from this far away.

On the bus ride, I watched the beautiful interior glide past me and I realized I had become complacent about how gorgeous Chile is. I noticed that the other day too, walking down a street in Valpo and it just seemed like a street to me, not a fascinating, ramshackle, South American alley. So it was a good reminder not to lose my sense of wonder and HOLY SHIT, LOOK AT THIS PLACE AND TAKE IT ALL IN!!! Just before we got to Quintay, we were treated to the most breathtaking view of the beach and cove below from the incredible height of the incoming road, I couldn't take a picture because, well, we know how well pictures through windows turn out. Trust me though, my day would have been complete just seeing that view.

The town is pretty much nothing but if you walk down the path to the harbor, you can see the old whalery??? Is that a word? I don't know the word in English. 500 pesos got me into the old place, there was a pretty uninspiring exhibition hall that had pictures of starfish and excerpts from Moby Dick pasted on warped cardboad. But touring the old, abandoned complex was totally worth it, the day was perfect, the camera was behaving, sort of. Magnificent.

The water had a brillo especial about it.

Eerie.

Sky.

Whales are big.

I wrapped up my afternoon with a big pastel de jaivas, which I could describe as a an enormous dish of local crabs, baked au-gratin style. Mmmmm. On the way home, I realized I completely missed walking along Playa Grande, which is supposed to be quite lovely. Maybe another day...

Picture of the Day 017

2009-06-01T23:12:00.002-04:00

I'm a thief. I was walking to the store the other day after work and saw this MAGNIFICENT sunset. Sadly, I didn't have my camera, and even if I did, I'm having so many problems with it that I can't rely on it at all. Anyway, you can imagine how happy I was to see that Matt at corrugatedcity.com posted this picture and more of this very same sunset! Thank you Matt!

Things I Don't Miss About Home/Love About Chile

2009-05-30T14:33:00.003-04:00

Perhaps I should split this into two separate lists, as I was noticing when I did the combo Things I Miss in the US/Things I Hate in Chile post, but I think there is too much interconnectedness.

-I do not miss my car. Not one little bit. See, that leads into THREE things I love about Chile, which is public transportation, the brilliant colectivo system and living in a walkable city. Or rather, these are things I love about Valparaiso because this sure as hell is not the case in Santiago, ugh. Valpo has innumerable micros, or buses, which are very easy to figure out because they have signs in the front window listing major stops and streets. Unlike Blo, which just lists the end station, where the hell is Elmwood Loop? I have no idea. There are trolleys and buses within the city, buses to Viña, Reñaca and other cities nearby for a paltry sum. Then there are colectivos, which are cabs that run on a fixed route and are often just as cheap as the bus or cheaper. The system fails sometimes though, around rush hour when there are lines 10 deep of people waiting to catch a colecivo up the hill after work and before I figured out where to catch certain routes, I had a couple of long waits. But generally, I can get around in minimal time with a couple coins, or, better yet, I can just walk pretty much anywhere I want to go.

-Don´t miss my TV. Actually, I kind of wish I had one here because I have learned a lot from watching shows with subtitles. But overall, I don´t miss the distraction. OK, I admit, I found projectfreetv.com this week and devoured the second season of Mad Men in no time at all. But that is neither here not there.

-Work. You think I'd be bored down here, now work or school to speak of. Actually, I have started working for a friend who has a gallery here but 10 hours a week doesn't really count for anything. Plus, I am at work right now and I am sitting on my butt, writing to you all. Anyway, my days feel full and happy and I could easily live as a leisurely lady who lunches for the rest of my days.

Well, that ends the Things I DON'T miss, now on to Things I Love.

-The feria. I love, love, love the biweekly market that sells fruits and vegetable and flowers and eggs and kitchen utensils and so on. It is super cheap and I would imagine it's mostly local produce. It's funny how quickly I got acclimated to prices. A few months ago 500 pesos (less than a dollar) for a bag of brussel sprouts seemed great, now I scoff if they are asking more than 250 pesos. Also in the beginning, I was less than willing to call out a vendor when I knew I was getting the short end of the stick, now I just cut them my "Are you kidding me" eyes and they sigh and concede. In keeping with how much I adore living in a totally walkable city, it is just so EASY here to go to the market every few days and load up, making my three weeks without a refrigerator much less of a pain in my ass. Sidenote: In my new apartment, the sink didn't work and so we had to empty out a big bucket every time we washed dishes, there was no hot water so we had to heat it up to wash said dishes and I had to cook on a hot plate for three weeks. We all know how much I LOVE camping! All remedied now, except the hot water in the kitchen sink thing but something tells me this is not a matter of urgency for the roomies.

-Street Vendors. Yes, I know they exist in the US but not so much in fair Buffalo and I don't mind if I do partake in a manjar-filled churro as I stroll to the feria and a sopaipilla on the way home. Except, good Lord, the churro-lady in Plaza Victoria is so disgusting, every time I pass her by and think I could be tempted by the hot, sweet fried dough, I see her commiting yet another egregious act. If she's not smoking and letting the ash blow all over the treats, she's letting birds roost on a mountain of churros. The other day, she was mopping the ground with a horrifyingly dirty mop and no bucket of water or sink in sight. She makes me sick, that lady. But the guys in Parque Italia are pretty friendly and clean, although they're kinda stingy on the sugar. Oh, and those hot peanuts with sugar, which I've never sampled but the smell....ooooooooWEEEEEE. Actually, speaking of smells...

-...there are innumerable bakeries here and while I am generally unimpressed with a lot of their sweets and the daily pan amasado, the smells just kill me. A while back, I was lamenting about the lack of bakeries in the 'Lo, a friend new to the area asked me about a good place to get baked goods on a lazy weekend morning and I had to say Wegmans. I love Wegmans just as much as anyone but it's not exactly what you think of when you conjure up images of quaint, neighborhood bakery. I found a place recently on Plaza Victoria that has LOVELY stuff, including these glazed, whole chesnuts that are DELICIOUS!!!!

-Speaking of chesnuts, have you ever had chesnut puree? I know it exists other places, I'm just wondering if it tastes the same as it does here so I know whether or not to fill up my suitcase with it on the way home. Lucuma puree is another current favorite, it's a fruit here that I suppose has no translation, wiki calls it eggfruit, like chirimoya/custard apple, this does nothing for me. The flavor reminds me of maple syrup (and wiki says sweet potato, I can see that), the good stuff, and it is a wonderful addition to yogurt, oatmeal or straight out of the jar. I have no shame. It's also my current, favorite ice cream flavor, mixed with a little Cuatro Leches (yes, like my beloved Tres Leches cake, but as an ICE CREAM flavor. And with coconut milk as the fourth milk!!!!!)

-Fixed lunches. I mentioned above that I would like to be a lady who lunches. In fact, I do quite often. Most places do a fixed lunch menu, three courses, for anywhere from $1400-$3500 pesos ($2.50-$6). Well, the really ritzy places might be as high as $5500 pesos but I'm not referring to them. At that price, I could eat out daily and often did when we were, ummm, "camping" those first few weeks in the new place.

-I realize I have been talking only about food, sorry! Even though I sometimes get annoyed with the relaxed sense of time here, I have learned to take advantage of it. For example, the other day I was supposed to work at 11 but I didn't feel like it so I called the boss and told her I'd be there at 3. She does it to me all the time so why not turn the tables? And it was totally fine! That would NOT fly at home. I learned this tactic from my bestie Amy-she used to drive me crazy when we'd be sitting on the couch and she'd say "Cleatis (that's what we call each other)? Get me a glass of water?" I'd look at her exasperated and say "But you're closer!" to which she'd reply "Yeah, but I'd do it for you!" And she would, so instead of being annoyed about it, I just started asking her to pick stuff up at the grocery store for me when she was on her way over. Likewise, instead of getting crabby that someone is 45 minutes late, AGAIN, hit snooze! Let 'em wait! Have another cup of coffee, whatever!

-Back to things that crack me up linguistically, I am super-enamored with the use of the words super,yapo and especially appropriated words form English. Chileans like to put super in front of everything and for some reason, I find this super-chistoso. It's also super-easy to do in English so you can expect to hear it super-a lot from me. We've already discussed how the suffix 'po' is used and I especially love it after 'ya,' which means already but here people use it in many ways like "ok, got it, ready to order? be right there, enough, cut it out." Add po on the end and I am dying. The little boys I live this would use this all the time with each other, drawing out the syllables "Pero Manuel, yaaaaa-po!". You can imagine my delight when I came upon the Yapo store.

Excuse the abrupt ending, but I need to close up shop and head home!

Picture of the Day 016

2009-05-29T23:09:00.001-04:00

Looking over Santiago from Cerro San Cristobal.

Picture of the Day 015

2009-05-28T21:54:00.002-04:00

The other day, while wandering around Playa Ancha, I turned around and saw this view. Will I ever tire of seeing the bay and the hills offered up around every bend?

Picture of the Day 014

2009-05-27T18:49:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I became one with the ocean.

Picture of the Day 013

2009-05-26T23:20:00.003-04:00

I have no idea what this means, I just appreciate the use of "po."

Picture of the Day 012

2009-05-26T01:34:00.001-04:00

Never saw a sand castle like this one in Puerto Varas.

Picture of the Day 011

2009-05-24T22:22:00.002-04:00

Chiloe

Picture of the Day 010

2009-05-23T18:07:00.002-04:00

I live with this furball.

Picture of the Day 009

2009-05-21T12:49:00.003-04:00

I'm feeling generous today.

Subida El Peral, my stairs.

My very, very, very fine house.

Looking out towards Playa Ancha from Paseo Yugoslavo at sunrise.

Picture of the Day 008

2009-05-20T19:51:00.001-04:00

Steak. Wine. Buenos Aires. Bliss

Picture of the Day 007

2009-05-20T00:09:00.001-04:00

My hood, Cerro Alegre.

Picture of the Day 006

2009-05-18T17:25:00.003-04:00

Plaza Victoria, El Puerto, Vina and beyond from the spectacular patio at Gato Tuerto.

Picture of the Day 005

2009-05-17T13:13:00.003-04:00

This one is for my mamma, who loves laundry pictures. This shot is out my window into our courtyard.

Picture of the Day 004

2009-05-17T10:46:00.003-04:00

You know what happened yesterday? I was going to post a photo in the morning but thought better of it and said to myself "Wait until the end of the day and see if you get any good shots." Well, I was seriously reaching for my computer last night, feeling all self-congratulatory for keeping up with this picture a day thing for FOUR WHOLE DAYS and the lights went out. We were plunged in darkness. Juan Pablo tried flipping the breakers but to no avail, there was no electricity to be had. And since I killed my computer battery last week, working without a functioning electrical outlet is impossible. So I read by candlelight for a bit and went to bed at 9:30. Anyway, I refuse to concede failure so today, you will get a morning and evening photo to compensate!

Casa Crucero, around the corner from my house in Cerro Alegre.

Picture of the Day 003

2009-05-15T11:17:00.004-04:00

It's two-for-one Friday over here at the Rincon Porteno. Sunset looking out my front window and the garden, respectively.

Lucy Love

2009-05-14T17:56:00.002-04:00

I have meaning to do some sprucing up here for a while now, but like I said, I am lazy. I finally got around to adding a picture to the title bar and changing up my food/Sabres theme, that was soooooo 2007! Now the blog is officially devoted to my favorite pastime (eating), my current locale (Chile) and the love of my life, my niece Lucy. She has been absent far too long from this blog so I need to change that. Here is my girl over the weekend. Like auntie, like niece!

Picture of the Day 002

2009-05-14T09:06:00.001-04:00

Walkway at House #1, Cerro Esperanza

Picture of the Day 001

2009-05-13T17:35:00.004-04:00

When Kim was visiting me, she took a picture of the day with her blackberry and sent it to her parents. That was such a lovely idea and now I'm stealing it. I am only going to put in writing that I will do this for a week, but mentally I am telling myself a month. It's just that I'm super lazy about follow-through so I'll try to get through the week so that I don't beat myself up when I quit after two weeks. Watch me not even get through seven days, ha. Well now, without further ado.

(Turn off your television. Live your life.)

Things I Miss about the US and Also Things That Drive Me Crazy in Chile

2009-05-13T16:28:00.004-04:00

Before you think I am all Negative Nancy, be forewarned that I have a post on deck about things I love about Chile and things I do not miss about home. I'm very balanced like that. And it would be interesting to compare how I would have written these entries three months ago because I think the list the things I liked about Chile would be shorter then. When I got here, I was definitely enjoying myself but I wasn't in love with Chile. Even as of early April when I went to Buenos Aires, I questioned if perhaps Chile was the right choice. But now I am deep in Chile-love and I can see that leaving in July is going to be much harder than I anticipated. But this post isn't about that, God, focus Laila!

-I miss a number of food stuffs, too much really to list here but peanut butter is top on my list. I can't believe I have gone through three months of my life without peanut butter! Also, cheese. Oh CHEESE! There is no cheddar here and worse, they national cheese seems to be waxy, tasteless swiss cheesy-looking stuff and that's one cheese I never got along with. I also am adjusting to life without tofu and soy milk. Weirdly though, I missed this stuff a lot at first and now I am over it, mostly. I never thought a cheese-less life would be okay, but it is. That does not mean I won't run to Wegman's cheese shop when I get home, because I will.

-My washer and dryer. Well, anyone's really, I'm not so attached to mine. The washing machines here SUCK and people just do not own dryers. Also, there are no laundromats, there are laundry services that will wash and dry your clothes but it is expensive and I don't like strangers touching my dirty clothes. This no dryer thing was acceptable when it was hot and sunny all the time but now the weather is changing and I've been waiting for my jeans to dry for two days. It's a wonder the whole country doesn't smell like wet towel.

-Pandora. It's unavailable in Chile and that is a shame.

-Gas that just comes on. I pay my gas bill and hence, I turn on the stove and there is gas. I want to take a hot shower, and I do. Just like that. Here, people use tanks of gas that need to be lit when cooking and showering. I had an old stove explode in my face in my first, shitty apartment in Allentown so this makes me a little uncomfortable. Plus, you never know when you're about to run out of gas or you worry that you might not have turned it off and the house will have blown up in your absence.

-Being understood. I can express what I need to here but obviously not as well as I can in English. Factor in also that people expect not to understand me because I have gringa written all over me. For example, I got into a colectivo the other day and said "Teatro Mauri." The driver said "Ehhh?" I said "Teatro Mauri." He looked at me like I had two heads and the guy next to me said "Teatro Mauri." "OHHHH, Teatro MAURI! Yapo." I said it right, I know it, I even rolled my tongue, but only once because the single "r" is one glottal flap, just like I learned in phonetics. I wonder if people here think I am stupid or if they know that sometimes I can be funny. Sometimes I think I can't be the REAL me here and other times I think I can only be the real me, because I have nothing to lean on or hide behind; I can't be coy or use humor to deflect like I can in English.

-Paper products, soap and hot water in bathrooms. I am not a huge germaphobe but it's pretty skeevy that most bathrooms are not stocked with these products. And what's the point of washing my hands if there is nothing to dry them on? Actually, I have that beef with a lot of home bathrooms I've visited in the US too. People! Where are your hand towels?

-Dog diarrhea and dog erections. Not a pretty subject, I know. Oh, by the way, that falls under the Things That Drive Me Crazy about Chile category, not Things I Miss. Anyway, there are almost as many mangy mutts here as there are people. I think this illustration, expertly rendered by one of the little boys I live with, gives you a visual of one of the reasons this is so annoying. (Fijate por donde caminas=Watch where you walk.)

There is dog shit EVERYWHERE!!! You have to really pay attention while walking to avoid it. And these Chilean dogs have diarrhea a lot, it must be all the garbage they eat. Also, since these are wild dogs, none of them are fixed and a day does not go by that I don't see at least one in a heightened state of arousal. Gross. I mentioned the dog situation at a party a few weeks ago and related a story about my mother calling Animal Control to pick up the wild dogs outside of the school where she works. They all thought an office called Animal Control was one of the funniest things ever.

-Overemployment and Underpayment. In what I can only assume is a strategy for reducing unemployment, lots of people here have completely unnecessary jobs. I'm sure they aren't making much money but some mindless, senseless job must be created so that the government can say they are reducing the number of people without jobs. I first witnessed this when in Chiloe, buying a towel from a department store. I selected a towel, walked to the cash register and paid. Instead of the young man handing me my towel, he gave me a receipt, indicated that I should follow him across the room, where he handed off my towel to another useless employee and I had to wait in line to exchange this stupid ticket for my towel. Moronic.

-Actually, that last point leads into my next one well. Chileans are obsessed with receipts and tickets. If you buy a bottle of water, they will slowly, painstakingly write you a receipt for 300 pesos or whatever measly amount it is AND if you don't take it, they will chase you down, press it into your hand and tell you to GUARD IT!

-My, my, I am segue-ing nicely here! Chileans also seem to love telling people to watch their things. I think they must have an overinflated sense of danger. I'm sure there is some violent crime here but mostly what seems to go on is petty thievery. They must not know I am from the WEST SIDE, ok? Seriously, I don't walk around with money out or have a big camera, so LET IT REST! Just because I am a a gringa doesn't mean I have no street smarts. Interestingly, there is a sizable network of women from the US-living in Chile bloggers and some of them have touched on this subject. They mentioned that's just how it is in the US, you know, you can leave your laptop on the table in the cafe when you go to the bathroom. Huh? I wouldn't leave my pen on the table if I didn't want it stolen, here or at home.

As soon as I publish this, I will think of another point to make so I may be editing and updating this. And I'm sure my lovely family members who visited may have some things to add to this list so feel free to jump in!

Holler At Me

2009-05-10T20:19:00.002-04:00

I am lonely and waiting for a letter from YOU! I have only received one piece of mail since I've been here, thank you Nicole! So, if you feel like writing to me, I will smile and you will make my day and then I will write nice things about you on here.

My new address is:

Subida El Peral 138
Cerro Alegre, Valparaiso, Chile

More on What I'm Eating, Have Eaten, Plan to Eat

2009-05-10T13:47:00.006-04:00

Despite my somewhat dire previous posts, all is not inedible here in Chile. In fact, I've had some lovely meals but that's mostly because I had kind and generous visitors who are used to, umm, a step above my slummin'style of travel. As I mentioned before Mamma and Greg journeyed down here in the beginning of April. Our first foray into Chilean cuisine was at a lackluster little cafe, no that's being kind, cafeteria rather, on Plaza de Armas in Santiago. Mamma tried the congrio, which is the local fish about which Pablo Neruda waxed poetic. Neruda was also a fervent Stalinist so maybe that should be an indication that not all of his tastes are in line with mine. Anyway, it was oily, heavy and had an off-putting texture. Yuck. Greg got chicken a la cognac and I still have no idea what that says about the preparation because it looked like pretty regular chicken to me. I got the standard fried fish and mashed potatoes and then we all shared a most disgusting salad of iceberg lettuce and canned corn.

Things picked up on Day Two when we went to Bellavista, which is one of my favorite Santiago neighborhoods. It kind of reminds me of New Orleans but I say that about nearly every Spanish colonial city I've ever visited. Anyway, it's low-slung buildings with narrow doorways and decorative ironwork with a decidedly bohemian feel. At La Boheme (a French-Chilean fusion place and if you think that sounds weird, it is), I was proud to introduce M&G to the pisco sour. Pisco tastes to me like grown-up white grape juice, so naturally I love it, as anyone who remembers my White Grape-Peach phase would understand. A good pisco sour incorporates the spirit, lemon juice, egg white and sugar. It's simple, it's sweet, it's tart, it's fantastic. It's a bit like drinking lemon meringue pie, well, not quite as sweet but it uses the main ingredients of the oh-so-delicious dessert. I already know that I love the traditional pisco sour so when I have the opportunity to try a different iteration, I take it, obviopo. I had a chirimoya sour that might well be one of my favorite sour variations. What's chirimoya, who knows, google says its a custard apple, which doesn't illuminate matters much for me.

We also had a splendid rendition of moules frites after spying the colossal beauties on a nearby table. Later that night, we dined in a near-empty restaurant with fabulous Oriental rugs and Cher playing on a huge screen, to my mother's great pleasure. We started with OSTRICH carpaccio, which was delightful. Texturally, it reminded me of fresh tuna but flavor-wise, it was bigger and beefier. Speaking of beef, my cumin-rosemary scented filet was the main course hit. We were all too full for dessert but somehow Mamma managed to make enough room for a bag of potato chips once we got home :)

Sidenote about my mother. When I was 13, my best friend moved two blocks away on Ashland and Potomac, scary 'hood, right? I was thrilled to have my bestie so close but less-than elated when my 4 ft. 7 inch mother insisted on walking me there. I'm not sure why she thought that it was safer for her to walk alone than me, since I have about 2 feet and a million pounds on her but argue not with a Sicilian mother! They make no sense! Just do as they say! Anyway, I bring all this up to say that once we got home to our apartment in Santiago, my mother had a craving for potato chips. I, being the fabulous, attentive daughter that I am, suggested I run across the street to fetch a bag. Literally, I could step out of our doorman-attended building and spit on the store but my mother acted like I was suggesting donning some Lycra and going out to work the Alameda. She physically barred the door. I thought she was joking but once she let her guard down, I scooted out the door and could hear her wailing "Greg, STOP her! Nooooooooooo!" Upon my return, about 2.5 minutes later, chips in hand, I opened the door on a very somber Mamma, who immediately let out a huge breath, clasped her heart dramatically and said "LAILA!" Does my mother not know I have been out on streets at night before? Does my mother think this is the first time I have ventured solo in Chile? Is she crazy? Yes, yes, she is. She is so cute. Anyway, that was a long note, moving on...

Well, the next few days, we dined sumptuously on machas a la parmesean and sipped pisco sours on various patios overlooking the beautiful bay. We had some seriously amazing Greek food, odd, I know, in a restaurant owned by a Chilean, whose family fled to Switzerland during the political upheaval in the 1970s, followed by time in the US to attend culinary school. As Greg put it, "My man is full of beans" and he was definitely a smooth-talking bullshitter. More on that in another post. Regardless, the moussaka and baklava were outstanding, as was the ouzo sour.

Other standout meals, or dishes of the week included the broiled clams with ginger and lime, duck ravioli with port and dried cherries and salmon ravioli with curry and spinach at Pasta E Vino. In fact, we liked dinner so much, that we went back again the next night, although the clams weren't as tasty and I got strawberry gnocchi with a champagne sauce and clams. Does that sound revolting? Because it was. Over at one of my favorite blogs, 101 Cookbooks, Heidi, who I have the utmost respect for, traveled to Chile last year, ate at Pasta e Vino and apparently enjoyed said ravioli. This did not sound like a winning combination to me for a number of reasons. Can you really transport the ethereal, fresh taste of strawberries into a ball of dough? I think not. Also, I love champagne, but let's be honest, any time it is used for something besides drinking, it is absolute pretentiousness. And finally, strawberries, champagne and CLAMS? Christ, I hope I don't need to explain why that is completely abhorrent. Heidi, you let me down, don't let it happen again! I kid, I kid, in fairness, she did not say they were delicious, I'm sure she had them clam-less as she is vegetarian and her post is actually about making peach gnocchi. But whatever. The nice thing about this meal was that a wine we had by the glass the night before and LOVED was unavailable but once the sommelier was summoned, a call was made and the bottle appeared at our table within minutes. I felt very special and would also like to note that I cannot afford restaurants in the US with sommeliers on staff.

We had lunch at the Greek's the next day and I had this tres leches cake that I would gladly eat for the rest of my life. Sadly, I'll never have it again because I went for dinner there with some friends a few weeks back and the Greek was in fine form, or rather he was pissy drunk and extremely scary. A terrified employee basically told us to get out after we heard plates crashing and saw waving fists so I don't think I'll be going back there, not even for that wonderful cake.

That's it, I think I've been writing this blog for the past two hours and I still haven't gotten to what I am currently eating. So it goes with blogging, I start out one way and it turns out another. You'll just have to wait until next time for more exciting adventures involving fried eggs and Nutella.

Valparaiso: Not for the Disabled

2009-05-08T11:42:00.007-04:00

This is part on an ongoing installation I am working on. I don't know how old people live here, but they do, ambling up hills wiht their bags from the market. Also amazing to me in this city is the number of people on permanent-looking crutches and scooting around legless on scooters. How do they do it? Incredible.

This and That

2009-05-06T12:12:00.002-04:00

I have so many random things to document so I will utilize my favorite writing method, the list, to share some of observations about Chile. This is a topic that I could go on about forever and will definitely elaborate on in future posts but I am getting so very behind so here goes.

-Linguistically, Chile kills me. Obviously, all countries and regions that share a common language have their own distinctive vocabularies, slang etc. but Chile is known for having an unusually colorful and varied dialect known as chilenismos. I actually bought a book prior to leaving the US, entitled Chilenismos, and while it has been somewhat helpful and an endless source of entertainment to my Chilean acquaintances, it is a bit limited. First up, the addition of "po" at the end of every word. At first, I thought "this is dumb, so totally unnecessary, I will NOT leave here saying si-po, no-po etc." Except that is is hilarious and sooooo Chile. Entonces, not only do I say si-po, no-po, obvio-po, ya-po, but I also add it onto English words to make myself laugh. Hence, when I am back in the US, expect to hear me say things like "Turn off the stove-po!" "What are we doing tonight-po?" and so on. Po.

-The use of words such as "claro," "obvio," and "logico" when things are neither clear, obvious nor logical. For example, last week, I got up on a Monday morning and the boys were in the kitchen. I still can't quite understand school schedules but I am quite sure that at 9am, they should have been there already. I asked if they had school that day and they told me "Obvio." OK. Then Coti asked if I could stay with them for a bit while she ran an errand. Sure. She got back around 11:30 and told the boys they would have lunch and then off to school. "Pero Mama, nooooooooo, por que???!!!" And she responded "You have to go school. Obvio. Logico." I don't think it was obvious or logical why the boys weren't in school already but hey, what do I know?

-Kissing. No, I am not talking about a romance, mullets and skinny jeans are in fashion here and I just can't get with that in my men. I'm talking about kissing as in greeting and then again to say goodbye. Generally, I like this quite a bit but it was a tad unnerving when I went to get my toes done and afterwards my pedicurist grabbed my face with both hands and exuberantly pulled me in for a farewell beso. Then I get confused sometimes about when it is appropriate, like last week when I got out of a cab and almost kissed the driver before I thought better of it.

-Lying and roundabout communication. Chileans think it is rude to talk directly, it's considered cold. Therefore, they will talk around and around and around to say something that could be accomplished with about 43244255 fewer sentences. Thus, it is also rude to say no so you can expect to be lied to if you ask a question with a negative response. Similarly, it is more socially acceptable to stand people up or not return calls rather than deliver bad news. Hmmm.

In other news, I moved again for the final time last night. I am absolutely enchanted by my new home but my camera is acting funky so I will hopefully have some pictures sooner than later. And, the big news for those who don't already know, I have made a decision about school this fall and I will be moving to New York City to attend COLUMBIA!!! You didn't think I was that smart, huh? Me neither. Wish me luck!

The Jig is Up!

2009-05-02T19:36:00.009-04:00

I really have little excuse for not communicating better with you all, my gentle readers. Oh sure, I've had a lot of guests this month but seriously, I don't have a job nor am I going to school and the fact that I am so behind in uploading my photos and generally documenting every move I make while on this journey, well, damn, it is just inexcusable! Or, que feo! I am a big fan of this phrase, which ostensibly means “how ugly” but is appropriate as well to mean “that is totally uncalled for” or “what bullshit.” Oops, I cursed, which leads me to the title of this blog post and also one of my numerous excuses for not being better at this update game. I think it has been hard for me to keep up the blog, send out emails that are suitable for all audiences, separate what I eat from what I do etc. So I am consolidating, it is just too much for me to try censoring myself, from here on out the emails will consist of a link to my latest blog entry. Hopefully, this will streamline things and I can avoid repeating myself or underreporting. Do forgive me though, I am politically incorrect, uncouth and I can exercise a real potty mouth from time to time. There, I said it, sorry Mamma!

(Chile's answer to Jim's Steakout, don't hate me that I find it hilarious that there is a sandwich called Ass Italiano)

Besides my disclaimer, life is love-love-lovely here! Kim came for a visit, we went to Mendoza and I can't for the life of me figure out why the town has such a thriving tourist industry. We also had a grand old time in Valpo, visiting wineries in Casablanca, dancing the night away, getting tested for swine flu at the border...
we also had a stellar despedida for my best friend here, Maija, who sadly went back to Finland on Monday. Then my friend Giulia came to Valparaiso before saying adios to Chile. It was great to see her again and swap stories of our adventures since we departed in Puerto Montt two months ago. I saw her off to the bus stop, wrapped myself tightly in my lana-chal and walked straight into the fading, golden, change of season light reflecting off my hill.

Ode to the Pisco Sour

2009-04-20T20:15:00.002-04:00

OK, no ode really, I'm in no mood for poetry. I am in the mood for pisco sour however. My mother and Greg were here last week and we tried just about every kind of pisco sour imaginable; the ginger sour, the mango sour, the green chile sour, the Angostura bitters sour, the chirimoya sour. I'm going to miss these.

Mysterious Afflication Wrap-Up/Update

2009-03-30T18:40:00.002-04:00

Sitting here in my lovely backyard, enjoying what is surely one of the last fine days of the season, I am finally hunkering down to update you. When I last left you, I had just arrived at my new home in Valparaiso. Within a few hours, I was invited downstairs to join an asado, Chilean-style BBQ, with my new family. Afterwards, I went to the beach with three of my new “brothers.” Things were starting out just swimmingly. EXCEPT, for this weird affliction that engulfed my body in about 2.5 seconds.

The week before, I noticed some bites on my arms but I didn't really pay much attention to them as I was sleeping in hostel beds, scaling mountains and so on. That meant two things; first that I didn't really have time to be preoccupied, even if I wanted to and second, bites didn't seem to be out of the ordinary. Until my entire back erupted. Then my arms and fingers. One of my new housemates nodded knowingly and said “Ah sí, pulgas.” If you don't know what that means, God bless you. It means fleas. Chile seems to have quite the flea problem but my roomie assured me they usually die down in the winter. Great, because winter was still a good two months away. I was none too thrilled about this but I thanked my stars that the fleas at least left my face alone. Then my cheek started itching. And my face erupted. Now, for those of you who know me well, you may have picked up on the fact that I can be slightly hyperbolic but I promise you that it is no exaggeration to say that I was acutely afflicted, a veritable monster. Seriously, I scared small children on the subway. It looked like someone attacked my face with a meat tenderizer.

The next morning, I headed straight to the pharmacy, held up my arms and lifted my protective curtain of hair in front of the poor woman working the counter. She winced and called for backup. The man who had the misfortune of being head pharmacist in charge shoved some Allegra and calming spray at me and fled.

In the meantime, I had to catch a bus to Santiago to meet my beloved sister at the airport. She was to arrive the following morning and I was spending the night at my friend Monika's so I could get up and early and fetch Nika. The woman who sat down next to me on the bus took a closer look and promptly got up and moved. Awesome. I was kinda worried that Monika would not be very thrilled to see a cube steak ringing her door bell instead of me but she handled the situation the tact and grace by telling me that she had a friend with leprosy. Or something that made her a total freak, just like me. We had a grand old time eating dinner and looking up bed bugs, fleas and other things on the internet.

In the morning, I hopped a bus to the airport and drank a crappy cappuccino while waiting for Nika to arrive. We shared a huge hug and she appraised my face and said “it's not that bad.” Then I lifted my hair, which I had cunningly styled to hide the 50-plus bites on my right side and she said “oh.”

We got the rental car with no hassle, except that it was a piece of junk. No matter, we blazed onward to Valparaiso with my valiant sister at the wheel. I'm not quite sure how she managed that after 20+ hours on a plane but I suspect she has super powers. Once we got home and Nika further inspected, we decided it was time to go to a hospital, the situation was getting dire. Fortunately, my landlord Rocio was able to join us and we went all over the place, looking for a doctor to see me. Welcome to Chile, Nika! I'm sure that wasn't on her list of things to do in Chile but...desperate times! The homeopathic doctor who finally saw me said I was having an acute allergic reaction to a few bites and wrote me a script. As of that evening, my affliction started to fade, I don't know if it was psychosomatic, the homeopathic remedies or the Allegra or a combination. However, it still looked pretty bad until about a week later, when I was finally able to pull my hair up into a ponytail and show my face. (Three weeks later, the marks are still there but I am sure they will fade someday. In the meantime, it just looks like a mild case of total body, adult acne.)

Anyway, that's the status on my little problem and considering the myriad other things that could have happened to me, this is relatively innocuous, if not a bit inconvenient and totally embarassing. Forgive me for a picture-free post, fear not,
I have plenty but I think we can all agree that this is one entry that really does not beg for visual illustration.

This is One Reason I Love My Friends

2009-03-23T10:01:00.004-04:00

The following text is from an email sent to me by a friend this weekend. I love these kind of messages, in fact, emails like this were what nudged me towards starting my blog. Actually, it was my sister nudging me, perhaps because I sent one too many emails like this and she said "Start a blog already!" Anyway, it sounds amazing and I will always welcome emails of this nature, keep 'em coming!

Girl-

Yesterday, we ate out twice- once for lunch (Sofra) and once for dinner (Oleana). If for whatever reason you come to Boston, you gotta go to these places. Both places are owned by the same lady, who's big into North African-type stuff. The lunch place is a small cafe and makes some of the most beautiful baked goods you've ever seen. Everything is done with an expert touch, and you can tell just by looking at the pastries that you could basically order anything, and be happy.

For lunch, a lamb shwarma with pickled cabbage and this really good flatbread that they then grilled on some kind of Moroccan domed griddle- I forget what it's called. The lamb had been braised prior to being shwarma-ed. Simple and slammin.

But that's not enough to write you, right? The real reason was dinner. A 6-course vegetarian tasting menu at her fancy restaurant. Beautiful:

1. Meze plates with two preparations on each plate of standard meze fare- but everything was done to perfection. We each had different things: baba ganouj with dill, warm hummous w/tomato and olive confit, red pepper dip with spicy chiles, walnut pate (amazing), some kind of tomato conserve with other stuff, and I forget what the sixth was.

2. THIS. COURSE. WAS. AMAZING: Parsnip hummous with chickpeas on top and beautiful olive oil (or melted butter- I'm not sure), yoghurt, cilantro tabouli, and the best crisp flatbread ever. It's weird for me to be so hyped up about this course, because it was basically hummous and tabouli- nothing out of this world, but again, the beauty was in the preparation. On top of the hummous were just some plain old chickpeas, but I had to do a double take, because however they were cooked, they tasted so rich and milky- and I even asked the waitress to find out if they had been cooked in evaporated milk, because that's how prevalent the milky flavor was. She checked, but apparently that wasn't the case. I'm not sure if they were punking me, or what, because I swear to God I knew what I was tasting...

3. Spinach Falafel with micro greens, beet puree, fresh pickle on house-made flat bread. Lovely. Expertly executed.

4. Savory garlic pancakes served on spinach and some kind of creamy concoction. SLAMMIN.

5. Fideos and chickpeas cooked in a vanilla saffron broth with some other stuff that made the one spoon I ate heaven. By this point, we were all so stuffed we could only taste one bite- but the good news is that we packed it up and are having it for breakfast today with some omelets. HOLLA!!!

6. Three desserts: walnut tart with a walnut gelato and something else (the best!!!); chocolate frozen mousse or semi freddo or something with cocoa nibs (slammin); some kind of fruity floral frozen dessert with pomegrante granita and a rose cream, or something (lovely- but by this time I couldn't keep the ingredients straight, lol).

To accompany the meal, we all drank a beer created especially for this restaurant- it was lovely and crisp, but not overwhelming- and scented with the three Cs: cardamom, cumin and coriander. I could drink this stuff all summer long.

In short- it was slammin.

Holla!

What I'm Eating

2009-03-18T18:29:00.005-04:00

As you know, I haven't been too impressed with the food here in Chile. However, now I am home in my own place and can cook so it's not as much of an issue. Although I am limited by inability to find certain items (breadcrumbs, seriously?) and a meagerly furnished kitchen, I still manage to crank out some good eats.

The market here is great and cheap. For example, today I bought a kilo of oranges, celery, half kilo of carrots, two zucchini, two things of swiss chard, a head of cabbage, about a bushel of basil and a stack of hot peppers for about 3 dollars. Not too shabby. Anyway, I've been on a real beet, carrot and squash kick here, often slicing them all up, dousing with olive oil and sprinkling with merquen, a Chilean spice that is kinda smoky and hot. I toss the roasted vegetables with some brown rice to make a warm rice salad, squeeze on some fresh lemon juice, top with toasted walnuts, golden raisins and some cilantro and I am good to go. Simple pleasures.

ats

Ain't No valley Low Enough

2009-03-10T11:02:00.005-04:00

I really love the outdoors and seeing beautiful scenery but I'm not an adventurerer per se. Nevertheless, I always seem to forget this and agree to go on multi-day camping trips and several hours long kayak trips, only to conclude at the end that I really hate that shit. I'd rather appreciate it from a calm boat ride or a lift. Camping eludes me; I hate sleeping in tents, it smells, it's stuffy, I really don't get the appeal. I hate being dirty, I like to hike though, and by that I mean take a walk on flat ground for an hour or so. Mind you, I'm in good shape, I work out several times a week and I am fair game for exploring a new city by foot. But climbing a volcano at a 60 degree angle for four hours just really isn't my cup of tea. Let me take you on my journey....

I paid 80 USD, which is a bit steep (haha) but oh, it would be so worth it, right? The fee included a guide and all my gear; backpack, gloves, gaiter, windbreaker, snow pants, some butt protector thing (more on that later), metal clamps, boots and an ice pick. Yeah, it's when I saw the ice pick strapped to my pack that I thought this might not be a great idea.

Anyway, my dumbass is still all excited, Giulia is nervous and I'm telling her she'll do great. Which of course she did. I on the other hand, climbed for about 15 mintes, my lungs raging and my heart ready to explode, I had to stop. I was so mentally unprepared for this expedition that not only did my body need a minute to adjust but now I was scared. I did a little crying because we all know I do that so well and then I told myself to man up and keep rolling. I hate looking weak in front of people. I can' tell you how terrifying it is to be 3,000 meters up a mountain, and digging your feet, which now weight about 15 pounds each thanks to the boots, into volcanic ash, and sliding back with each step. Because of the crumbly nature of the sand and ash, taking one step forward often resulted in two steps back. Finally, I think after an hour or so, although I had no sense of time during the trek, we came upon snow. “This will be better,” I thought. “I'm from Buffalo, I can DO snow and ice.” I thought if I planted my feet firmly in the snow, I'd do a lot less sliding backwards. Which was mostly true for about ten minutes until we hit real ice and then it was a slip and slide free-for-all. In addition, we were now engulfed in a full-on gale, threatening our balance and making a fall off the side seem very plausible. At this point, I was feeling the Tourette's coming out in me, I let the f-bomb slide out a few times, muttering and cursing to myself as I inched facefirst in the ice up this goddamn mountain. I thought I'd really much rather let someone waterboard me for free, keep my 80 bucks and spend it on a nice bottle of Veuve and some oysters. This climbing shit was for the birds.

What could I possibly think about to distract myself from this hell? My mother told me about a writing practice she had done the week before in which you answered three questions. What surprised you today? Inspired you? Motivated you? I get the subtle difference between motivate and inspire but it didn't really seem all that different to me on last Thursday or Friday or any other day I had it in my head. But ohhhhh, I saw the difference on that hellish Sunday morning. What surprised me was how f-ing hard it was it climb this goddamn mountain. The tour companies, likely eager to sell, don't forewarn you about much, don't ask if you have asthma, a heart condition, nothing. I'm pretty active and I'm fairly young so I did NOT think that I would be having such a hard time. What inspired me? Giulia's 22-year, Swiss self scurrying up the mountain like a damn billy goat. Not for nothing, but that girl smokes like a chimney. Damn! What motivated me? Honestly? Fear, pride and chocolate. I was terrified of falling off that mountain and being left alone so I stuck with the group. My pride would not let me quit in front of others and the promise of an enormous chocolate gelato after the climb really paved the way.

Did I mention that it is high summer right now in Chile? That means the sun is hot as hell but you're on a mountain with snow and wind and you've got to stay covered up to avoid sunburn and illness. So we're all sweating like animals and I would venture to say the gear they gave us wasn't washed after each use, rendering a distinct and altogether unpleasant aroma. Also, you have to put on sunblock every 12 seconds or so or else the sun will scald several layers of your skin off. Try slapping some SPF 70 on a sweaty face with pebbles stuck under your nails and volcanic ash coating your hands and I dare you not to get any in your eyes, producing an unbearable stinging, profuse eye-watering and clutching of face for at least ten minutes. When it subsides, repeat immediately.

After what seemed like hours, we finally reached the top, well, almost. Our guide told us that the volcano was spewing too much gas, which is toxic, so we'd just wait 15 minutes or so. Great, because I was not really convinced that the toxicity levels would have plummeted in a scant 15 minutes. But make it to the top we did, where I most certainly ingested my lifetime recommended intake of sulfuric gases. Anyway, we started to make our descent, where things got a lot more interesting. We strapped on those butt protector things, really high-tech diaper-like contraptions slathered with duct-tape, and made our way down the mountain on our butts. There were all these paths carved out by millions of other peoples' weary butts and I begrudgingly admit I had a ball cruising down the mountain in this fashion. They told us to keep our legs out but all that surface area would slow you down so of course, I pulled my legs in and went for the fast ride. One woman in our group didn't understand the mechanics of physics very well so she kept getting stuck and then we would have a sort of snowy-mountaintop bumper car thing going on that was also quite funny. We now were shrouded in clouds and there were times where you'd be hurtling forward with no one around you and the snow and clouds eating up every sound, the ash creating an eerie, grey veil on top of the snow, it was really quite incredible.

We finally made it down the mountain,looking bedraggled and exhausted, except for Giulia of course, who looked all smiley and accomplished. It's amazing how quickly you forget the pain because an hour later I was showered and enjoying an ice cream cone in the sun and feeling quite pleased with myself. Yes, I know that it is good to challenge yourself mentally and physically and in retrospect, I suppose I was glad that I did it. The day was really a lesson in patience and humility and while I don't regret it, I think I've had my fill of conquering the great outdoors for now.

First Installment from Chile!!!!

2009-02-20T14:53:00.004-05:00

Hola, long time, yes, I know. On my trip, I will be blogging and sending out mass emails, if there is some overlap, please forgive. I hope to focus more on food here and of course, be a little more colorful than I would be in mass emails. That may change though. Stay posted.

So, let's start with the food! So far, so mediocre. But improving. The first day I got into Santiago, I went down the street and ordered pastel de choclo, a Chilean dish. If I were from Chile, this would be comfort food. It's a big mush of sweet corn topping with eggs, beef, chicken and olives. It was pretty good actually, although when it's 90 degrees out, it's not exactly what I had in mind. I'm a big fan of hard-boiled eggs in all dishes (on greens with some bacon, in braciole and red sauce) so I enjoyed that but something just wasn't right about that "beef."
Also at this point, I had no clue about prices in Chile so I'm thinking $4,800 (divide by 600 or so) made for a pretty cheap meal. Today I wouldn't pay more than $2,500 for lunch since, as we know, I'm damn near a local now. Really though, I have a much better grasp of the relational economics at play now than I did upon arrival.

For dinner, I went down the street and paid an exorbitant amount for a salad and some really dry bread with chorizo. As an aside, I can overlook the dry bread because I love that the menu described the bread as being "crowned" in chorizo. Lot so menus have things "bathed" in chocolate or caramel and even if it's just ok, I love the way it's worded. The next couple of nights, we cooked at Monika's apartment, which was both affordable, delicious and had the extra bonus of close proximity to a rooftop pool!

On Friday, Giulia and I got on the bus to Vina to relax and escape the Santiago sun. You'd think on the coast, we'd find some good seafood but it was all overpriced tourist crap and fast food. We finally found a place and I had a very nice grilled fish and papas salteados, nothing remarkable but pleasant. I also had my first pisco sour, or should I say I ordered one, took one sip and then promptly spilled the entire thing all over myself so that I smelled like a brewery.

Incidentally, things here are really sweet. I ordered a fruit juice at the market in Santiago and the man asked me if I wanted it very sweet. I said not really and he proceeded to dump a LOT of sugar in. Then, while walking around Vina, we kept being seduced by the smells coming from innumerable bakeries. Finally we could take it no more and gave in. I got lemon pie with the most voluminous meringue I've ever seen. Except it wasn't good, no discernible lemon taste, just straight sugar.

When I got to Valparaiso on Monday, I went straight to a little restaurant near the Central Market called Donde Carlito's, known for it's seafood. I got the Paila Marina, which is another Chilean dish that I apparently can't stand. Their cuisine doesn't seem to have much flavor. This dish was essentially a fish stew, with a cloudy, grey, obscenely hot broth and a ton of different seafood. The soup was so hot, I had to wait about 20 minutes before I took a bit, and let me tell you, it was not worth the wait. The broth reminded me of dirty bath water and the seafood was boiling away in it for what seemed like forever. We all know I HATE overcooked seafood. At this point, I was getting kinda pissed and fearful that I would spend the rest of the five months eating the bread, which is the only thing I like so far. To the market I went, bought some tomatoes and avocado and happily dined on that for a couple days.

On Thursday, I went to the Hare Krishna place and for about $2, I got a huge, wonderful bowl of white beans and pumpkin with a great salad that was topped with shredded beets, as well as some apple-tamarind juice that was delicious. Things were looking up! For dinner, I went to a panaderia and bought a spinach pie with egg in it that of course I loved. And it cost 500 pesos, which isn't even a dollar.

Thursday, I had lunch with two friends from the hostel. We did the daily menu thing, which means you get an appetizer, entree and dessert or coffee for a set price, usually much cheaper than anything on the regular menu. Salad here generally means iceberg but the fried fish entree was fresh and well-cooked. The coffee was pretty wack but decent for Chile, where Nescafe seems to be the norm. I'm really missing coffee. However, this place also does the the fresh juice thing, I got watermelon-aloe and it was slammin'.

Finally, I had to go and get the bus to Pucon. It started not so great. I was sitting on the second floor of the bus in the last row and I knew whoever I got to next to would be a real jerk because who else waits that long to get their bus ticket? Me and this a**hole, apparently. Not only was he sitting in the window seat, he didn't even look up when I sat down. I mean, first of all, he knew that wasn't his seat and second, if we are going to spend the next 12 hours together, most of it in the supine position, could I get a nod or something? The bus was stifling, it smelled like bad breath and my kind neighbor had his big elbows and knees all in my space. But somehow I fell asleep and when I did, the jerk was gone and I got to watch the sun come up over the mountains and the glistening Lake Villarica. A good ending after all.
Quickly hiked to my hostel, took a much-deserved shower and went out exploring. I love Pucon, it makes me want to sing “The hills are alive...” Really, it looks like Austria here, all dewy pines, and soaring, snow-capped mountains. And a volcano! Which I might climb tomorrow! Anyway, I digress. I did two things today that I've been meaning to do; eat machas and mote con huesillos. Machas are like clams but they area specific variety native to Chile and they are often served baked ala parmigiana. It was kinda pricey but I figured I deserved it after spending the night with Mr. Elbows and Knees. Mote con huesillos is a drink or a snack, depends on how you look at it. I saw it all over Santiago and had no idea what it was. Well, it is fantastic, corn kernels and preserved peaches in their juice. I know I'm not explaining that well but there is no other way. It's like three things at once; the chewy corn (not like our corn, by the way), the sweet and lightly spiced juice spooned over it, and the sweet peaches.
OK, sorry for the abrupt ending but the hammock out by the pool is begging for a nap.

Pay Attention!

2009-01-29T10:41:00.004-05:00

I've been trying to avoid high fructose corn syrup for some time now. The way I figure, I like food to be as close to natural as possible so even if it has no negative side effects, anything highly processed like HFCS is undesirable. Add to that the fact that it absorbs quickly into the bloodstream, like a shot, and cause spikes in blood level, which can lead to fatigue and irritability. Sweeteners like honey, are twice as sweet as sugar but are absorbed slowly, so you can use less and can avoid the up and down sugar buzz.

Anyway, I was really peeved to see a commercial recently (PAID by the Corn Refiners of America no less) that depicted a buffoon of a boy ridiculing his brother for eating cereal with HFCS, only to be schooled right back by his smart-ass brother that HFCS is made from CORN, dummy and other nonsensical arguments as to why HFCS isn't really bad for us. Ummm, seriously? Heroin is made from POPPIES, dummy, it's natural, sheesh, there's nothing wrong with it! Is it just me or does argument not really hold water? And, Mr. Smart-Ass, the body needs GLUCOSE, not FRUCTOSE, which serves no discernible purpose. I've been kinda revved up on the topic for a few weeks because it pisses me off that people see those commercials and think it's gospel truth. I realize that one must evaluate sources so I encourage you to do your own research, starting with this article a friend sent to me this morning about HFCS containing mercury. The good ole boys at Corn Refinery central have a link rebutting this evidence on their website and who knows what the real truth is, I'm no scientist. But I ask you this, do we really need sugar in our ketchup? Think about it.

Nothing But a Cheese Thang, Baby...

2009-01-28T09:32:00.005-05:00

I love cheese and often want to have an impromptu cheese-tasting at home, but buying several wedges of the expensive stuff for one person is kind of silly. Anyway, struck with brilliance mid-morning yesterday, I thought cheese would be a great theme for Tasty Tuesday with the ladies. Quick email to my girls, good response rate, off to the Co-op at lunchtime to make my purchases, where I incidentally, or accidentally even, paid $4.59 for a dozen eggs but that's another story. If you've never had Humboldt Fog, I highly recommend it. It's a goat cheese with a layer of ash running through the middle and as it warms to room temperature, three distinct areas emerge; the dense, creamy mid-section, the rich, oozy outer section and the pleasantly chewy rind. I also got a Bier Meck, which is a Dutch-style cow's milk cheese from the Finger Lakes region.

Keeping my fingers crossed that no one would roll up to the cheese party with a block of Cracker Barrel medium yellow, I was happy to arrive and see Meg setting out two kinds of Brie; one with a warm pecan-cranberry topping that made the insides of the cheese delightfully melty, and a garlic-herb variety that I ate way too much of. Maria showed up with a Valmont blue cheese from France, that was the funkiest-looking thing I ever did see. It smelled dank and aged and while it was incredibly intense, the blue wasn't overwhelming and in fact had a very delicate flavor that expanded as it warmed in your mouth. I should have written down what we were saying while tasting because now I'm having a hard time conjuring it back up! Maria also brought Torta Ambrose, a cave-aged Italian cheese that I would liken to an upscale Muenster. Add slices of red pear and a onion and garlic-studded crusty loaf of bread, we feasted!!!!

Tandoori Chicken without the Tandoor Oven

2008-12-21T12:18:00.003-05:00

I flipped open my new copy of Cook's Illustrated yesterday and came upon a recipe for tandoori chicken, which is traditionally made in a tandoor oven that can get up to 900 degrees! I wanted to try it and thought it would be a nice dish to bring to the birthday party later on that night. Well, it was good and the partygoers seemed to enjoy it but my finished product varied vastly from what I imagine came out of the test kitchen at Cook's Illustrated! First of all, I am not used to working with chicken thighs so when I opened the package to wash and clean them, I was shocked by how much fat was on them! I immediately attacked them, trimming and stripping the poor birds of any modicum of fat. Until I realized I was removing skin. Oops. Who needs it? Then I thought that if this was supposed to be appetizer-sized bites, I would need to remove the chicken from the bone. Have you ever boned chicken thighs? I don't recommend it. I spent an hour and a half engaged in the slippery, salmonella dream of a task. Once I got that done though, it was easy enough to put together. My little chicken pieces were so small that I opted to thread them on toothpicks to make chicken tandoori skewers, which worked out quite well. Finally, I baked them at 325 degrees as indicated and finished them off in the broiler. I ran into some more issues here, namely that the chicken started releasing juices so they were steam-baking. I probably didn't remove enough of the yogurt marinade. Anyway, I poured off the juices and put them back in the oven. I don't know how necessary the bake-then-broil process was for my version of the dish because the chicken pieces were so small but it turned out just fine. I stacked the skewers on pretty plates with little dishes of mango chutney and away they went! This did not evoke any tandoori chicken I've ever eaten but it was very tasty nonetheless.

2 T. vegetable oil
6 cloves garlic
2 T. grated ginger
1 T. garam masala
2 t. cumin
2 t. chili powder
4 T. lime juice, divided
1 c. yogurt
1 t. salt
4-5 lbs bone-in chicken thighs

Heat the oil in a skillet, add ginger and garlic, cook for one minute. Add the spices and cook for 30-60 more seconds. Cool. Add half this mixture to the chicken, along with salt and 2 tablespoons of lime juice. Mix in well and let sit for 30 minutes. Add the other half of the garlic-ginger-spice mixture to 1 cup of yogurt and add the remaining 2 tablespoons of lime juice. After the chicken has marinated in its spices, pour the yogurt mixture over it and mix well. Bake whole chicken pieces or thread smaller pieces on skewers at 325 degrees (Put on a foil-lined, rimmed baking sheet with wire rack to let juices fall away from the chicken. I didn't do this but I will next time!). Bake 12-15 minutes, then finish in a hot broiler for 3 minutes on each side. This time could vary greatly depending on the size of the chicken. Also, don't make the mistake I often have and let the chicken hang out in the yogurt; its enzymes break down the meat and make it mushy. Marinate in spices only and then dip quickly in the yogurt for that distinctive tang!

My Kitchen: Introduction

2008-12-19T08:50:00.010-05:00

Last night, I tossed and turned in a sea of tissues. No amount of cough syrup, Vicks or chamomile tea helped, I was just plain sick. I tried several times "Ok, one more cup of tea, shot of the syrup, slather of Vicks and this time, I'll fall asleep!" In between tries, I pulled my laptop out in exasperation and perused a trillion different food blogs. I found some great sites, met some new characters and although I was awfully sleepy and quite a bit groggy, I felt inspired. One site featured different people, what their refrigerator staples were, favorite utensils etc. I thought about featuring my own kitchen and eating habits in a similar fashion and before you know it, I was leaping out of the bed at 4am to photograph the interior of my freezer.

So, here it is, my kitchen. Red walls and a black-and-white checkered floor, which happens to be the bane of my existence. Oh, it's cute and all but whoever created textured linoleum was a masochist and I gave up trying to keep that floor clean three years ago. In fact, I despise cleaning this particular floor so much that I complete the task over the course of days, doing the bit by the refrigerator on Sunday and the bit by the counter on Monday and so on, thereby ensuring that it is never, EVER completely clean.

Freezer: It's not too bad, well, it's a mess but it's not overly packed. Now, that is. For months, I have been trying to whittle down its contents in anticipation of my departure for Chile. Usually, I keep the freezer stocked as if I am expecting some dystopic future in which I have to fight rabid dogs and fierce gangs of raggedy-clothed urchins for an apple core or potato peel. Often I will have 5 pounds of chicken breast, a roasting chicken, pork ribs, 4-5 pounds of ground turkey, 4-5 pounds of ground chicken, 2 pounds of shrimp and a few pieces of assorted fish. There is no need for a single person to stockpile over 20 pounds of meat, along with a tray of stuffed shells, a couple pounds of meatballs, a vat or two of red sauce, half a quiche and several containers of soup. Right now, I have a steak, a couple chicken breasts and some shrimp. That's impressive. I also save leftover egg yolks and egg whites that I have NEVER used yet gamely continue to freeze and discard in a timely fashion. If I'm feeling particularly ambitious, I'll whiz up a base of peppers, onions, garlic and aromatics, split that into individual portions and freeze so it's ready to roll for me when I'm making a host of stews and soups. Kinda like that Martha Stewart tip to freeze leftover wine in ice cube trays for later use. Except, weirdly, I never seem to have any leftover wine.

Refrigerator: Yeah, that's a cheesecake you see in there. Chambord cheesecake with a walnut crust for the holiday party that I HOPE I can go to tonight, what with this winter storm and all. Anyway, I don't usually have cheesecake in there but I wanted to document it while I did. What I always have in there; soy milk, yogurt, Brita, romano cheese, butter, eggs, ginger, different color onions in various stages of use and a lemon or two. I, of course, have a rotating list of fruits and vegetables which change with the season, some tofu or other protein as well as numerous condiments (fish sauce, creole mustard, dijon mustard, wasabi, crawfish boil, Frank's Red Hot, Tabasco, sesame seeds, apricot preserves), but I consider the above list my absolute must-haves. Other must-haves that I do not keep in the refrigerator are olive oil, coffee beans, oatmeal, cold cereal, granola and garlic. Invariably when I start a meal, I reach for onions without having a clear idea what I'm going to ultimately end up with. I am a huge garlic fan as well but the onion-green, red, mayan, sweet, vidalia, carmelized, shallot, leek-is my true love. I also always have some rice or quinoa, pasta or other starch but I could go days without giving them any thought and then eat them nonstop for an entire week.

I'm realizing I could go on like this for hours so I'll stop now and promise titillating future installments with grabbing titles such as My Kitchen: The Spice Cabinet or My Kitchen: How Many Types of Cheese Does One Need?

Disclaimer: Cut me some slack, ok? I realize my freezer and refrigerator are in disarray but I took the pictures in the wee hours this morning and, let's be frank here, I'm not planning on sprucing it up in the next few days soooo......

In Case You Haven't Met My Little Angel....

2008-12-18T10:41:00.003-05:00

Isn't she something? My gorgeous niece Lucy, for those of you not lucky enough to receive the Christmas card graced with this image! Lucy called me the other night to sing "Jingle Bells" over the phone and I wish I could play you the recording because she cracked me up with her rendition.

Italy: Part One

2008-12-18T08:24:00.006-05:00

So I was going to do this long, extended, several-part post on my magnificent trip to Italy this past fall and I just keep pushing it to the side. It was so monumental and filled with delectable morsels that I feared I would not do it justice by memorializing it in my usual, haphazard, bullet-point laden way. Now it's been over two months since my return and I've said nary a word, not so much as a peep. Well, before this year is over and my memory comPLETEly fails me, I am going to give it a shot.

I arrived in Rome on Wednesday morning after a long, long plane ride. I took the subway to our "B&B," which was less a bed and breakfast and more a rented closet in a crazy lady's apartment. It was odd to say the least but I'll touch on that a bit later. Anyway, Nicole was just finishing up breakfast and so I laid down my bags, took a quick shower and we were on our way! First stop was to pick up our Roma passes. We took the subway to Repubblica to that end and the way, we saw our first gelato place so we stopped for a quick taste. I got ciocolatto, Nicole got pistaccio and although in my now, less-euphoric state, I can admit it wasn't the best I've ever had, I swooned nonetheless. First gelato in Rome!

We hopped a bus to head towards a neighborhood known for pizza, cheap pizza at that. I should remember the neighborhood but I don't and this is an example of why I should have attacked this task two months ago. We weren't on for long when we jumped off to take pictures of this and that, Rome is gorgeous and crumbling and majestic and on and on. We found ourselves at a spot called PizzeriaRe and procured ourselves a table outside and, still giggling and mumbling in our imperfect Italian, managed to order some pasta dish and also a pizza. I don't know what we ate but it was marvelous; the pasta was chewy and had just the right bite, the pizza was light as air.

After that, we took a stroll through Campo di Fiori and across the river to Trastevere. As soon as we came upon the Tiber river with its tree-lined boulevards and ancient bridges, I just fell in love. I fall in love all the time so perhaps you may think this wasn't noteworthy but just wait til you see it for yourself! Still stuffed from our magnificent lunch, we decided to skip dinner and just have gelato.

New Love

2008-12-04T18:01:00.003-05:00

I haven't really been inspired by food lately, which is odd because I've eaten a lot of wonderful meals recently including a stupendous Thanksgiving dinner, day after steak and salmon blowout, family lunch at Francesca's in Chicago and a redemptive meal at Mother's with Dominick. (Side note: I have been disappointed by Mother's the last few times I was there but this time we had an outstanding quail stuffed with sweet potatoes, golden raisins and pistachios, plus a wild mushroom and white truffle risotto.) Maybe it's because I'm so overwhelmed with studying for the GRE, getting my school applications together, wrapping up work and a million other things before leaving for Chile in February, but in any case, every time I think about what I want to eat for dinner, I'm stumped. Caramelized tofu and brussel sprouts have been on heavy rotation, lots of roasted squash, wah, wah, wah. Boring. YET! I read this month's issue of Gourmet and was intruiged by a Roasted Potato and Wilted Kale Salad with lemon-tahini dressing. I just made it and I am SWOONING! I am excited to eat this again and again and again.

yield: Makes 4 (main course) or 6 (side dish) servings

active time: 20 min

total time: 45 min

Ingredients

* 2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces
* 1/3 cup olive oil
* 4 garlic cloves (3 thinly sliced and 1 minced)
* 1/3 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
* 1/4 cup well-stirred tahini
* 2 tablespoons water
* 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
* 3/4 pounds kale, stems and center ribs discarded and leaves very thinly sliced

* Accompaniment: lemon wedges

Preparation

Preheat oven to 450°F with rack in upper third.

Toss potatoes with oil and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper in a large 4-sided sheet pan, then spread evenly. Roast, stirring once, 10 minutes. Stir in sliced garlic and roast 10 minutes more. Sprinkle with cheese and roast until cheese is melted and golden in spots, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, purée tahini, water, lemon juice, minced garlic, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a blender until smooth, about 1 minute. (Add a bit of water if sauce is too thick.)

Toss kale with hot potatoes and any garlic and oil remaining in pan, then toss with tahini sauce and salt and pepper to taste.

Notes: I am delighted with the lemony-tang imparted to the creamy roasted potatoes. I added the zest of a lemon to aid that end and I highly recommend doing the same. I also upped the kale to about a pound. Would make a lovely substitution for mashed potatoes and some sort of meat but I thought it was sublimely perfect as a humble dinner on it's own. DO NOT skimp on the lemon and add more garlic if you like. Also, the kale DOES wilt a bit when you mix it with the potatoes but after I mixed and deemed it a little too raw still, I put the baking sheet with potatoes and kale back in the oven, but only for about 1.5-2 minutes. Perfect!

Thanksgiving List Time

2008-11-18T08:37:00.002-05:00

Alright loved one, it's that marvelous time of the year again. My family has been doing the "things we're thankful for" list for almost 15 years no. It's morphed from a handwritten page in my mamma's notebook to a full-blown website with entries from people all over, often including some I don't even know. I love this traditon and encourage you to share your thanks with us.

My 2008 List:

New Orleans and a sense of hope
Barack Obama and a sense of hope
peach season in Georgia
paying off my car
youtube and subsequent early 90s dance parties
running into people you thought you had lost forever
crab boils and meeting friendly neighbors who hold them in your honor
premier's coffee bean selection
Monday night sewing club/crochet club/all-around crafty club
my KitchenAid food processor, thanks pops!
getting to see my niece three times already this year!!!!!
hearing Lucy call me Yaiya
hearing Donovan call me Teetee Laila
Italian cashmere, specifically the sweater I bought in Florence
jars of pear sauce and dilly beans preserved from my garden and lining my shelves
oysters; on the half shell at Redfish, fried at Casemento's and chargrilled at Drago's
Books: Mudbound by Hilary Jordan and Feast of Love by Charles Baxter
Memorable Meals: El Quenepo in Vieques with the most incredible grilled meats and passionfruit creme brulee, Il Fagioli in Florence with Florentine steak, fagioli ucce'letto, tortelli di spinaci and torta di fichi with vin santo
Movies: None come to mind but I have enjoyed watching the series Mad Men on Netflix
Music: Santogold

A cocktail and a stick of butter, please!

2008-11-11T08:27:00.008-05:00

Saturday morning, Rebecca and I rose early, put on our pretty dresses and went over to wake Amy up and go to brunch. We were torn between Mr. B's and Palace Cafe; Palace has such great turtle soup but B's has that amaaaazing barbeque shrimp! Anyway, neither one were open yet so we went to the Carousel Bar at the Monteleone for a glass of kir royale. I'm on vacation, I can have a cocktail at 11am if I feel like it, ok?!

We decided on Mr. B's and although I've been there before, I forgot that it has this old-world elegance to it yet it isn't pretentious or stuffy at all. Our team of waiters fell all over us, fluttering napkins and deftly gliding us into our chairs. We got a very nice salad to start but that's really neither here nor there. We all ordered the barbeque shrimp and were properly outfitted with bibs (you have to wear one if you're eating barbeque shrimp, no matter how silly you look) and then they dropped this magnificent concoction on us.

Rebecca enjoying her skrimps.

Amy enjoying male attention, I mean, getting her hands washed.

So, in case you don't know, barbeque in New Orleans refers to a sauce of butter, lemon, worcestershire, black pepper and more butter. Really, it's just straight up, flavored butter and it's fantastic. The recipe that Mr. B's uses, available online, calls for 3 sticks of butter for two servings. I'm not even kidding. I'm not sure what business we thought we had ordering a piece of hot buttered pecan pie but we did and it was also delicious, washed down with a glass of muscato. Since the trip to Italy, I am really enjoying dessert wine and how it complements the food.

After our decadent lunch, we headed off to the lovely City Park, thick and verdant with live oaks and Spanish moss, to go to Voodoo Music Festival. It was a gorgeous, sunny afternoon and although I was still too full from Mr. B's, I did have a taste of an alligator sausage sandwich that was spicy and flavorful. I exited the show just past dusk to go meet Amy for dinner, the music still dancing in my ears as I made my way through the dark, tropical obscurity and in that moment, it all made me so nostalgic for the time that I lived here, spending evenings strolling in the hush of sticky nights, smelling jasmine and knowing I'd never have to leave or grow old or forget this wonderful time of my life. Sigh.

OK, onward ho! Amy has been raving about these chargrilled oysters at Drago's forEVA! I'd heard about Drago's when I lived her but it's located in Fat City, out in Metairie and I just saw no need to go there. They opened one downtown within the past few years, at the Riverfront Hilton and it's became one of Amy's go-to spots when in New Orleans. And for damn good reason. What do you know, the oysters were swimming in a pool of butter, with some lemon and parmigiano on top for good measure. Add to that equation the delicious, smokiness of the grill and I was in heaven. It was so good, I actually picked up the oyster shells and licked them, not even caring if I got some of gritty, flaky shell as well.

After Drago's, we met up with old friends and went to go dancing at Mimi's. Next up, crab boil at Mr Billy's, a tour of the Ninth Ward and Donovan's first trip to Cafe du Monde!

Incidentally...

2008-11-07T17:11:00.003-05:00

Last week I made my annual pilgrimage to the back of the house, in order to shut off the front and therefore save hundreds on my already astronomical heating bill. I'm a big fan of men doing men stuff and women doing women stuff. Oh, don't groan, I KNOW I'm capable of taking out the trash but I'd rather not, cook dinner and call it a day. But, the annual move is a source of fierce pride for me. I don't know why, maybe it reaffirms my single woman status but anyway last Thursday found me schlepping the bulky mattress over my shoulder, reassembling the bedframe etc. Then I got to the TV. Everyone makes fun of me for this old thing but it still works and I've never bought a TV before, relying on roommates or castaways. Well, I unplugged the TV and started hauling when I heard a nasty sound. It seems I forgot to unplug the cable as well. So I effectively murdered my TV. And you know what, it's been over a week now and I really don't care. I was never a huge TV watcher anyways but I do enjoy watching hockey games and cooking shows and OK, I admit, I LOVE "So You Think You Can Dance" and reruns of "Designing Women" but....it's been really liberating. I highly recommend it, give it a try!

Forgetting My Cares in the Crescent City

2008-11-07T10:34:00.014-05:00

Damn, I love New Orleans. Every time I go back, I'm reminded of how I first fell in love with the city and get crazy ideas about moving back, buying a little cottage in the Marigny, fixing it up and having seafood boils on Sunday afternoons.

I flew in Thursday night, to be greeted by a bunch of New Orleans ex-pats, now living in places ranging from Portland to D.C. Immediately went and checked into my hotel on St. Charles and can I get an amen for staying in one's own hotel room? Amy and I hit Casamento's uptown for dinner because you know I was DREAMING about my oyster po-boy all day! So, Casamento's is the greatest place on earth. It's been open for about 90 years, the owner is the son of the original owner and they don't even have deep fryers, they fry everything by hand in deep, ancient pots on the stove. I love it.

Anyway, as we were throwing down on some expertly fried crab claws and oyster po-boy (the gumbo was fine but nothing special), who did we see in the kitchen but our beloved Ms. Judy! Amy and I worked with Ms. Judy at Olivier's back 1998 and she was like our adopted New Orleans mamma. She came running out of the kitchen screaming "my babies!" as we all hugged and cried and the rest of the restaurant looked at us like we were crazy. Did I mention that I love this place? Because I do, deeply so. I haven't even lived there in 6 years but give me two hours and I'll run into someone I know!

Next we hit the bar at the Pere Marquette hotel to meet the lovely Rebecca and company. Chris was bartending, although that's kind of a bastardization of the term when referring to him. He's more a mixologist, gives talks at the Smithsonian and whatnot, he's the real deal. Anyway, I had three magnificent drinks there, the most delicious concoctions I have ever tasted. The first was a mojito-style cocktail but it was less minty and more ethereal and served straight up and very cold in a martini glass. Then, since I heard Chris makes the world's best Pimm's cup, I had to have it. But he only had enough for one so I graciously split it with Amy. Holy hell, have you ever had a Pimm's cup anywhere else? You won't want to after this! It had fresh blueberries, and raspberries, and, oh my! It was heaven. Finally, I had the Gin-Do, which is muddled with crystallized ginger and lemon and I don't think anyone should drink anything else ever again.

Friday morning we got up and decided to make reservations at Bacco for lunch, but wanted to start at Redfish Grill with oysters. Rebecca and I have this tradition of eating oysters for breakfast and I for one can never eat too many oysters. Within minutes of being seated we had a dozen BBQ oysters and a Redfish Grill lemonade. By the way, I remember loving this drink, it ain't all that. Tasted like cheap, pre-mixed lemonade and too much Razzmatazz. The oysters were another story, perfectly plump and seasoned, fried and tossed in that addictive mixture of butter and hot sauce and dunked into blue cheese. Oh my word. Then there were the raw oysters and I liked them better than the ones at Casamento's because they were more petite. I don't like the big ones that look like elephant boogars.

I think I said previously that I wanted a Pimm's cup at Napoleon House. I would like to strike that from the record. Nasty, nasty, nasty. Anyway, these cocktails at lunchtime were making me sleepy so we moved on to Bacco, where we ran into Stovall, who used to work at the French Quarter bar at the Ritz. I swear, you can't spit in this city without seeing people you know. So Stovall fixed me up with an espresso and we worked our way over to a table. Sadly, they did not have any carpaccio and carpaccio at Bacco is another Laila/Rebecca tradition PLUS I was stuffed from all the bread and oysters at RedFish so I opted for just an order of shrimp remoulade for my lunch. It was good, but I think the shrimp was a mite overdone. At that point, I didn't care because our old boss, Steve, swung through the doors to start his dinner shift and it was hugs and smiles all around. Not to mention that I saw another friend who I haven't seen since 2001 strolling down the street. This city is truly crazy. For dessert, I wanted Steve to make our old signature cocktail, the Lady in Red. It sounds kinda gross but I love it eternally; praline liquer, chambord, vodka and cream. Alas, there was no praline liquer at the bar and just when I was about to give up, that genius Stovall subbed Nocello and the rest is history. Oh yeah, and Rebecca told Steve to comp our check to, I don't know, say 22 cents? And he did. I love him almost as much as I loved my Lady in Red.

After a good, solid three hours of eating, Rebecca and I moved down to OZ and drag queen bingo. Now, DQB used to be hosted by the inimitable Bianca del Rio. The hurricance displaced her to NYC and it hasn't been the same since. HOWEVER, Laura informed us that Bianca was back in town for a guest appearance!!!!! I have to say though, she wasn't as funny as she used to be but I'll blame that on her being out of practice? What was great about it though was that Laura showed up after work and it's been forever since I've seen her. She was just as fabulous as can be and after DQB, we went back to her place in the Marigny to plot dinner plans. WE ended up staying close by and walking around the corner to the cozy, neighborhood Schiro's cafe. I was about to order the caeser with fried oysters but Rebecca told me that Schiro's got their samosas from Sara's, a great Indian place uptown. So we split samosas and vindaloo and saag paneer and doused everthing with tamarind chutney and it was fantastic. Then there was the achingly tender peach upside-down cake, which is made in-house by a friend of Laura's who is a baker extraordinaire. I think she mentioned something about a lemonade-chambord cake he makes or maybe I imagined it? Anyway, that cake was good!

The night ended in one of my favorite ways; sitting on the stoop with my girls and Laura's amazing neighbor, Mr. Billy. He's lived next door since 1971, but in New Orleans his whole life and he had these great stories about going with washbasins to catch crawfish that would just run across the road in season. After he came back from the Army and the government had constructed the I-10, that didn't happen anymore because they ruined the fragile ecoysystem for wild crawfish. I love stuff like this and Mr. Billy is an endless source of just such tales. He promised to have a crab boil for us on Sunday and by golly, he really did buy 40 pounds of crab the next day! Anyway, this is getting long so I'll return for the rest of the story ina few...Don't run away though because I have yet to tell you about Saturday and Sunday, which were perhaps the two finest eating days of my life. Wait, there have been a lot of those, well, I have a flair for hyperbole, what can I say?

Remembering Albert

2008-11-03T09:32:00.003-05:00

A dear family friend passed away last week, unexpectedly of a heart attack. Albert P. Saladino was 56 years old. father of three and friend to the masses. His service was yesterday and the line out of the church spanned several hundred feet for the better part of an hour. I have never seen such a turnout nor could there have been any more fitting tribute to Albert. I was so moved by the words that his loved ones expressed that I came home and tried to sum up what everyone had said.

Michael, oldest son:

"WOW!!! That's what my dad would have said right now." He started with that and then went on to say that whenever he had to do some task such as this, his dad was the first person he'd turn to for help and not having that this week brought it home for him. Friends always told him his dad was cool before parents were ever considered cool. He said Albert was always pushing him to be his best and one time when Michael was having a hard time at school, Albert told him he needed to go in and talk to the teacher. Michael said that he didn't want to but Albert said "We're going in there." Albert had a passion for people and he translated that passion into being a father as well. He ended by thanking his dad for helping him to be great and saying he loved him.

Sammy, middle child:

Very different from the more reserved Michael, Sammy sauntered up with his "bodyguard," chewing gum and turning around his cap, a la Albert and with an impressively honed gumba-inflected speech, told some quintessential Al Saladino stories. My favorites included Albert being, at best, assistant coach on Sammy's baseball team but he thought he ran the whole league. Sammy would be on the pitcher's mound and Albert in the dugout, reaming the umpire out for bad calls. Sammy said he couldn't count on two hands the times Albert got kicked out of Shoshone Park. Another time while camping at Alleghany, Albert pulled up to where Sammy and cousin Nicky were standing in a car he probably paid $750 for and said "get in the car." The kids were confused and didn't know why he wanted them to get in the car but he just repeated "GET in the car!" So they got in and Albert pulled a baseball bat out from under the seat and went outside and beat the shit out of a bee's hive on the top of the cabin ("excuse my French," said Sammy). Then he got in the car laughing like a 9 year old or a maniacal hitman. Here are the life lessons taught by Albert to Sammy:

1. Work hard.
2. Always put family first
3. Look everybody in the eye when you talk to them
4. Try to make Sunday dinner with the family
5. And don't ever leave that table hungry!

Finally, Sammy said his dad always told him he was real popular. And then, gesturing at the church overflowing with people, he said "But he should have looked in the mirror, he really should have looked in the mirror on that one. And I got a lot of friends but in the end, he was my best friend."

Thomas Centolella, childhood friend:

Thomas said he met Albert when they were 13, as Albert was wedging himself into the basement window of a church with Tom's cousin Marty Rafaello, trying to sneak into a Friday night dance. They were "inmates" together at the all-boys Notre Dame Catholic Academy in Utica, at that he stopped himself and said "oh, is that sacreligious?" The minister congenially nodded his head and Tom said "whew, I am glad we're in a Universalist church!" He said they were more than friends, they were brothers. He has never laughed so long with anyone else though so much time and triumphs. Getting a letter or postcard from Albert was always an event, you knew he'd be saying something great. He pulled out a postcard from Albert, dating from 1980, when Albert was about 28. I, of course, can't remember the entire postcard but I'll try to sum up what I remember.

"Tomas, Here in the city....something about energy, sparks igniting, illuminating, it's time for a change! When are you coming back East? In Peace and Rhythm.......P.S. I gave a friend your address, I hope it's no trouble! (Hope is such a silly word!) Bye bye! Albert

The front of the postcard had a picture of a craggy cliff and a large rock, there was a man jumping from the cliff to the rock.

Thomas closed by saying that if we could all hope to pack as much life, love, joy and zeal into our lives as Albert, then hope was indeed a silly word.

Carlotta, coworker and bandmate:

Just because you like doing a thing doesn't necessarily make you good at it. I like to sing but I never had the confidence. Albert bugged me about getting in this band, Universal Mind and I said I was too busy working. He said "but this IS work!" I remember being in Albert's basement on Huntington and there was this song I always wanted to sing in church but didn't have the courage. Albert told me to go ahead and when I did he said I really belted that one out. So now I'm going to sing, in church, His Eye is on the Sparrow.

Comments from my mother:
Thanks for recording these thoughts Laila.
What I gleaned from all the speakers was this:
That Albert was a man that lived his life with all cylinders fired up. His element was FIRE; be it the flames of a bonfire, igniting sparks, or the smoke he left in his wake.
I always said that Albert was like a brother to me. Sitting in that church, filled beyond capacity with people that loved Albert, it was clear to see that EVERYONE thought of Albert as their brother. He not only looked you in the eye when you spoke with him,he pierced you, saw your true essence and gave you a loving push to bring that essence out and LIVE IT.

Hotlanta: The Final Installment

2008-10-19T12:20:00.005-04:00

OK, I am anxious to tell you about Italy so I'm going to to try and quickly sum up the rest of the Atlanta trip. Tuesday evening we decided to go see Les Miserables at the historic Fox Theater. This theater is amazing, it's like being in Arabian Nights and the ceiling is painted like the night sky. The show was cool too. It brought me back to being 12 when I was really into musical theater and knew the Les Mis soundtrack by heart. But before that, we had the great fortune of eating dinner at Dogwood, just down the street from the theater. We got a bunch of appetizers because we had a late lunch. First off, we shared a flight of soups. I love tomato soup but this one had fried balls of goat cheese as a garnish that totally won me over. There was also a root vegetable soup with lingonberry preserves and a zucchini-watercress offering. For dinner, I ordered and appetizer of fried quail on a biscuit with a goat cheese-pepper gravy and red onion preserves on a biscuit. It tasted like a very upscale version of chicken-fried steak and I loved it. The quail had a fantastically crisp and perfectly seasoned exterior and was dense and juicy inside. The biscuit melted, the gravy was smooth and kicky and the red onion marmalade fused it all together. I also had an appetizer of sweet potato gnocchi with parmesean brown butter and toasted pecans. i thought it could have been a bit too rich but somehow, it wasn't. Kristin had a selection from their grits bar with ham and pimento cheese, which might sound kinda nasty but I assure you, it was delicious and reminded me why people go so crazy about grits. She also got a caesar salad with a green-tomato and bacon that was SPLENDID. I need to recreate that at home. It reminded me of a smoked tomato aioli at a restaurant in New Orleans that was legendary.

The next day, we got up and went to a spot near some university for breakfast, great biscuits. Maybe it was called Kenley's? Then we walked through the Sweet Auburn district, had sweet potato cheesecake (amazing, unlike most cheesecake, almost a pound cake for crust), went to see MLK's church and other historic sites. Then we went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens and I got all nostalgic about the first time I visited, about 8 years ago with Amy. We were like kids, fascinated by this incredible oasis of whimsy and beauty nestled in the heart of the city. If you go to Atlanta, do not miss this!

Finally, I wanted to hit the Flying Biscuit for lunch before taking off. I'm pretty sure we ate there last time I was in Atlanta, it's quirky and delicious. I got the love cakes, which are black bean cakes served with a tomatillo sauce and sour cream over a lush salad. While it was very good, I think it would have benefited from some avocado slices. However, the main reason to love this place is their lovely, lovely biscuits that come with everything. They are airy and light, although I like the craggy, rustic ones too, and they were served with a rhubarb-strawberry compote that had hints of ginger perhaps? It was so good we didn't even need the peach cobbler we eyed on the way in! And that's saying something!

Whew, finally! Done! So I can get to the Italy trip sometime this week before I take off for New Orleans on Thursday!

Hmmmm

2008-10-17T12:47:00.002-04:00

I'm not a terribly political person, mostly because I find it resembles a cult with all its pomp and circumstance, nor do I believe that politicians as a general lot are trustworthy custodians of policies and procedures that guide us. However, I know who I'm voting for, I'm not a sheep, I've figured it out for myself a long time ago who I think is the best candidate. Anyway, if I weren't voting for Obama, the following might give me serious pause.

What if things were switched around? Would the country's collective point of view be different?

What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, following the debate, including a three month-old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?

What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his college graduating class?

What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was a divorcee?

What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?

What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?

What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five? (The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)

What if Obama couldn't read from a teleprompter?

What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?

What if Obama was the one who was known to publicly display a serious anger management problem?

What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution?

You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected a reality, if the tables were turned, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative characteristics in another when there is a color difference.

And, think of this - the candidates' educational backgrounds:

Barack Obama:
Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in
International Relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden:
University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

John McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism

Education isn't everything, but this is about the two highest
offices in the land as well as our standing in the world.

You make the call.

Please Excuse the Interruption in the Blog Already in Place

2008-10-15T08:24:00.006-04:00

I'll get to Hotlanta: The Final Adventure soon enough but I HAVE to first tell you about the torta di fichi or fig cake but it sounds a lot nicer in Italian, doesn't it? So, while in Italy I had THE MEAL TO END ALL MEALS, which I'll tell you about later but the end of it included this torta di fichi that I cannot get over. It appeared to be a very simple, rustic cake with figs baked on top but in reality it was the most meltingly, buttery, shortbread-like cake with luscious caramelized figs capping it off. Additionally, we ordered another Tuscan classic for dessert, biscotti with vin santo. I loved the vin santo and I loved the biscotti but I did not like them dipped in the wine, as is tradition. Instead, I dipped my biscotti in coffee and drank the vin santo with the fig cake. WOW. A new love was born. I got home late Tuesday evening from my European adventure but you better believe that on Wednesday I went out to buy figs and a bottle of vin santo. I tried my interpretation out yesterday and brought it to Tasty Tuesday for the girls to sample. They swooned, it was love for them too! Anyway, Maria said I MUST post the recipe immediately so here 'tis ladies!

Torta di Fichi (In Italian "chi" is a hard sound so this is pronounced fee-kee, not fee-chee)

1 pint figs
1/3 c. sugar
water
vin santo
lemon juice

Wash the figs thoroughly and remove stems. Coarsely chop, add sugar, water, lemon juice or vin santo and bring to a boil. Turn down immediately and simmer for 30 minutes or so. You can add more or less sugar, eliminate lemon juice or vin santo, it doesn't matter. This is really just cooking down the figs with some sugar to make a jam-like spread, it's hard to mess up unless you burn it. Don't make it too thick though, some of the moisture will bake out in the oven. Runny is a good consistency for this.

1 stick butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup flour
1 t. salt
zest of one lemon

Cream the butter and sugar. Add egg, salt, zest and flour. Don't overbeat. Press into a 8 inch round cake pan.

I baked the crust for about 5 minutes at 350 degrees, then I took it out, spread the fig mixture on top and baked another 25 minutes. Next time, I'll add more liquid to the figs and then wait until the shell has cooked about 15 minutes before I add the figs to the cake. It came out a bit drier than I would have liked, although still really good.

Please drink this with a moderate glass of vin santo, it's amazing. Take a sip after each bite. DON'T pour a really big glass, it's strong and sweet. Enjoy!

Update: Just had the last piece (yeah, we kinda demolished it last night) with plain old coffee and it was tenderly, achingly delicious.

Hotlanta Part Two

2008-10-14T09:47:00.008-04:00

If you've ever traveled with me before, you know that I will likely produce my sheath of papers with various addresses and maps and morsels scribbled all over so when it comes to discussing where we are going eat, I've got you covered. I enjoy researching the city, regional cuisine, famed chefs and so on so I always have about 43424273423 options for my co-diners to choose from.

One of the places I was really interested in trying in Atlanta is called Watershed and it's owned by one half of the duo known as the Indigo Girls. Chef Scott Peacock is supposed to be fantastic, turning out regional classics made from locally sourced ingredients. We hopped on MARTA for an easy 20 minute ride to Decatur, which by the way is a super-cute little town, and walked to the restaurant. It was really lovely inside, all airy and cobalt and breezy-blue. We were immediately won over by the cocktail menu, blood orange cosmos and fig martinis and whatnot. I settled on the Cool Heat becasue it had jalapeno, mint and lime but I was kind of underwhelmed by it. Not so by the appetizer!!!!! We ordered a very simple-sounding saute of wild mushrooms with country ham on toast. It was magnificent, the texture of the mushooms were superb, the thin sliced ham marrying saltily with the mushroom juice and soaking into the bread. For entrees, Kristin got a pork chop with macaroni and cheese unlike any mac and cheese I've ever had. Let me preface this by saying I could probably blog til the end of eternity on variations in mac and cheese, different methods and preferences so I won't go there. Suffice it to say this had a rich, oozy, slightly custardy texture and was topped with an ungodly amount of cheese. My gall bladder lurched when I tasted it but it was damned delicious. I had a duck breast that was perfectly cooked, served with a garlic mayonaise and succotash, which I usually don't like but this was fresh and tasty. I do have to gripe about presentation though. Such a pretty restaurant, such nice food and crappy, heavy white plates that bore ugly, gray marks from innumerable run-ins with forks and knives from previous diners. And no pretty garnishes, which I can live with if the plates don't look like they were stolen from the cafeteria at the county jail. Finally for dessert, we ordered what they called "Very Good Chocolate Cake." I've probably stated here before that cake isn't my favorite, usually because it's too dry but this was definitely very good cake. You can tell just by looking that it's full of dense, chocolate-y goodness.

Plus, we had a caramel glazed fresh apple cake that was equally wonderful. The caramel glaze on top really made it superb. But, like the chocolate, it was dense and moist and suffered from none of the dreaded dry-crumbly cake factor.

Good Lord, I am sorry, I thought I'd be able to finish the Atlanta trip, I've got so much more to tell you, there were these TOMATOES and this CHEESECAKE and oh, I'm so hungry again. Looks like I'll have to do Part Three!