Food Quotes: Part Two

No mean woman can cook well. It calls for a generous spirit,
 a light hand, and a large heart.

-- Paul Gauguin

What does cookery mean? It means the knowledge of Medea and of Circe,
 and of Calypso, and Sheba. It means knowledge of all herbs, and fruits, and
 balms and spices... It means the economy of your great-grandmother and the
 science of modern chemistry, and French art, and Arabian hospitality. It
 means, in fine, that you are to see imperatively that everyone has something 
nice to eat.


-- John Ruskin 

In cooking, as in the arts, simplicity is a sign of perfection.


-- Curnonsky

Watch a French housewife as she makes her way slowly along the 
loaded stalls… searching for the peak of ripeness and flavor…
What you are seeing is a true artist at work, patiently assembling
 all the materials of her craft, just as the painter squeezes oil colors
 onto his palette ready to create a masterpiece.


-- Keith Floyd

 If the divine creator has taken pains to give us delicious and exquisite
 things to eat, the least we can do is prepare them well and serve them
 with ceremony.


-- Fernand Point

Food Quotes: Part One

A recipe is only a theme, which an intelligent cook can play 
each time with a variation.


-- Madame Benoit

The whole Mediterranean, the sculpture, the palms, the gold beads, the bearded heroes, the wine, the ideas, the ships, the moonlight, the
 winged gorgons, the bronze men, the philosophers - all of it seems to 
rise in the sour, pungent taste of these black olives between the teeth.
 A taste older than meat, older than wine. A taste as old as cold water.


-- Lawrence Durrell

We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking

for something to eat and drink,

for dining alone is leading the life 
of a lion or wolf.


-- Epicurus

Let the progress of the meal be slow,

for dinner is the last business of the day;

and let the guests conduct themselves 
like travelers

due to reach their destination together.

-- Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

If the soup had been as warm as the wine;

if the wine had been as old as the turkey;


and if the turkey had had a breast like the maid,


it would have been a swell dinner.


-- Duncan Hines

Current Influences - February 2011

Note: Orange text means it’s a link.

No Music No Life: A Playlist

It’s been a long time, but I reconnected with the 10,000 Maniacs – These are the Days

Everyday Is Like Sunday – Morrissey

Ship of Fools – World Party

Whistle – All India Radio

Never Say Never – Romeo Void

 

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Books

Electric Literature -- If you don't read it, you should.

Short stories:
Judas by Frank O'Connor
The Ledge by Lawrence Sargent Hall

And I just cracked open Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer. I've been reading the letters between him and Lawrence Durrell. My what a friendship!

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Art and Drawing

Anna Denise

Love her drawings and her blog posts. She just seems fun. 

Check out her Flickr stream.

Google’s Art Project

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Food, Glorious Food!

I continue to discover and try interesting recipes. Here are just three of the most recent.

Arugula and Radicchio with Feta and Dates

Penne and Vegetable Gratin

Crespelle with Ricotta and Marina

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Inspiration

St Francis de Sayle, the patron saint of writers and journalists, and his prayer

My Last Supper

A month or so ago, I purchased a book by Melanie Dunea titled My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals. It’s a fun read.

Dunea asked each chef a handful of questions about how they would spend their last meal, where, with whom, and what – as in what would be on the menu. As I’ve been reading these entries, I’ve been contemplating a dinner party fashioned after this, and as a result, my own last supper. I decided to answer in a quick, brainstorming manner recognizing that otherwise I would get hung up. Here’s mine. What about you? What would be your last supper?

What is the setting?

On the sand in Perea, just outside of Thessaloniki on the other side of Kalamaria, with the water just a few feet away. It would be one long table with white linens. Everyone would be barefoot.

Would there be music?

Since we’re imagining, all things are possible. Maria Callas would sing live and there would be a sampling of Greek music performed by the likes of Marinella, Kazantzidis, Alexiou, Parios, Vissi, etc. It would be a long evening, the Gypsy Kings would also perform, and then we’d plug in my iPod and listen to the International playlist. Perhaps in the final hour, I’d blast out Echo and the Bunnymen and Under the Milky Way by The Church.

What would be on the menu?

The meal would consist of a variety of small plates, just enough to taste. A beet salad like the one we prepare at home with frequency. Horiatiki (Greek village salad). Pastitsio. Pita. Lots of feta from Epirus. Tzatziki. Onion rings. Really good French fries. Jalapenos, fresh – I eat them with everything. A variety of fresh steamed vegetables in season. Fruity olive oil. Crusty bread. Cheeses. Fruit. Nuts. Good wine.

We would end the evening with good dark chocolate and some salty potato chips as we stood ankle deep in the water under the moonlight.

Who would be my dining companions?

My husband and close friends and family. My father. Vicky. Judie. Kilby. Richard. Susan. Maria. Jess. Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Lawrence Durrell. Nikos Kazantzakis. Jesus Christ. Buddha. Quite the assortment. I’d like it to be a big crowd, bigger than what I’ve listed, and make it a celebration. I envision a table as long as those at Outstanding in the Field events.

Who would cook?

I would don my apron and invite others to assist.

Fun exercise.

Kali Orexi and Bon Appetit!

Five for the 5th

Here are five things for the 5th:

1.
I stumbled upon an Octavio Paz quote that rings in my head. It's something that I truly came to realize only a few years ago, and the reality of it still makes me pause. He said, "Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he's alone."

2.
An excerpt from an Economist article a while back:
"Our future history will be more determined by our position on the Pacific facing China than by our position on the Atlantic facing Europe," said the American president as he contemplated the extraordinary commercial opportunities that were opening up in Asia.
Guess who said this? The article continues...
"More than a hundred years after Theodore Roosevelt made this prediction, American leaders are again looking across the Pacific to determine their own country's future, and that of the rest of the world. Rather later than Roosevelt expected, China has become an inescapable part of it."

3.
David Lebovitz
Living the sweet life in Paris.
This is a great blog.
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/

4.
Here's the BBC News profile on Aung San Suu Kyi.
She deserved the Noble Peace Prize. She also deserves freedom.
http://bit.ly/6LMHQS

5.
Found this on TED. I am a fan of Pilobolus and really enjoyed this. It is symbiosis...

The Omnivore's One Hundred

I was reading My Table online - a great publication by Teresa Byrne-Dodge (www.my-table.com). The following struck me as interesting - not necessarily appetizing. This is a list composed by an English blogger named Andrew Wheeler at Very Good Taste (www.verygoodtaste.co.uk).

The instructions were to bold all of the items I've eaten and cross out those I would never consider eating. Instead of crossing out, I've colored them red. I've added personal comments in Italics. Here's my list. What's yours?

1. Venison

2. Nettle tea - not sure

3. Huevos rancheros - Trini, I miss you

4. Steak tartare

5. Crocodile

6. Black pudding - what is it?

7. Cheese fondue

8. Carp - caught a big one once

9. Borscht

10. Baba ghanoush

11. Calamari

12. Pho - hmm

13. PB&J sandwich

14. Aloo gobi - related to Ali Baba?

15. Hot dog from a street cart - Prefer them from Jerry's Famous Deli in Marina del Rey

16. Epoisses

17. Black truffle

18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes - Boones Farm

19. Steamed pork buns - let's not go there

20. Pistachio ice cream

21. Heirloom tomatoes

22. Fresh wild berries

23. Foie gras

24. Rice and beans

25. Brawn, or head cheese

26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper

27. Dulce de leche

28. Oysters

29. Baklava

30. Bagna cauda

31. Wasabi peas

32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl

33. Salted lassi - this sound too much like a tv show

34. Sauerkraut

35. Root beer float

36. Cognac with a fat cigar

37. Clotted cream tea

38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O

39. Gumbo

40. Oxtail

41. Curried goat

42. Whole insects - grasshoppers with Jim

43. Phaal - some of these worry me

44. Goat's milk

45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more

46. Fugu

47. Chicken tikka masala

48. Eel

49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut

50. Sea urchin

51. Prickly pear

52. Umeboshi

53. Abalone

54. Paneer

55. McDonald's Big Mac Meal

56. Spaetzle

57. Dirty gin martini - prefer them straight up, olives on the side (cheers Janet)

58. Beer above 8% alcohol - Cheers to you, Crisp

59. Poutine

60. Carob chips

61. S'mores

62. Sweetbreads - nothing sweet about 'em

63. Kaolin

64. Currywurst

65. Durian - this and the two above are kind of scary

66. Frogs' legs

67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake

68. Haggis - with Randy and Melissa at a Robert Burns supper

69. Fried plantain

70. Chitterlings, or andouillette

71. Gazpacho

72. Caviar and blini

73. Louche absinthe

74. Gjetost, or brunost - ??? I need a food dictionary

75. Roadkill

76. Baijiu

77. Hostess Fruit Pie

78. Snail

79. Lapsang souchong

80. Bellini

81. Tom yum - married to him!

82. Eggs Benedict

83. Pocky

84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant

85. Kobe beef

86. Hare

87. Goulash

88. Flowers - Thanks Nancy

89. Horse

90. Criollo chocolate

91. Spam

92. Soft shell crab

93. Rose harissa

94. Catfish

95. Mole poblano

96. Bagel and lox

97. Lobster Thermidor

98. Polenta

99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee

100. Snake

I'd like to say that the list has made me hungry. But I can't. Bon Appetite!