OMG, this is everything I talk about when I get on MY pedestal!
<3 Mark!
I love my immersion blender and my mandolin, despite the fact that the latter has left my fingers as NUBS
I felt this was inspired - using odds and ends in the kitchen, my roommate and I created a three course “meal” all served on the butt of a loaf of bread (crostini, after five minutes in the oven). The restaurant description comes first, the low-end, honest description comes after.
Appetizer
Peppercorn and cinnamon pickled onion and aioli crostini
(old picked onions and Hellman’s mayo on bread)
Main Course
Trio of pates, on baguette
(Some leftover meat paste, on the same butt of bread)
Dessert
Raw bread pudding, marinated in local clover honey and feta
(More butt bread, schmeared with feta that has seen better days, and honey from a bear bottle)
It’s amazing how much better things taste when you describe them in restaurant speak.
I man crush really hard on Bourdain and Ripert.
Food porn - chocolate dipped cream puffs filled with custard.
The batter is choux pastry, which is one of the coolest culinary things ever. No yeast here - the high water content causes the dough to steam on the inside as it bakes, which makes the pastry rise and creates the hole that you fill with custard!
I don’t adhere very strictly to most Chinese values; I think that the culture predominantly has its roots in conservative beliefs and that I remain too free-spirited and liberal to agree with the majority of the foundations of Chinese thought. However, one very Chinese value I strictly adhere to, admire and fervently respect is the idea that celebration and food should be closely intertwined. In most Chinese households, major celebrations revolve around an excess of food and no host would dream of entertaining guests without laying out a spread that usually seems more suitable for a group three or four times the size. It is in this excess that people are brought together, to enjoy a good dinner and good conversation, to lull over a meal that lasts for several hours.
I was moved by this exact spirit to host a hot pot dinner for Chinese New Year’s (which, this year, coincided with Valentine’s Day, but I find one of these holidays much more worth celebrating than the other). My new roommate Leslie is half-Chinese, and more than game for the operation so we invited a few friends over, spent some time washing vegetables, and put a pot of broth to bubble on a butane stove.
Here I am, in all of my hot pot glory. I’m probably playing hot pot Nazi and trying to make sure people don’t overcook their meat. The picture doesn’t quite do the spread justice, but trust me when I say we had A LOT of food.
The get together further confirmed my belief that food brings people together, and hot pot is really the best example of that you can get. The cooking is communal and it says a lot about putting faith in your fellow dinner guests when you can sit around and swirl various items in bubbling broth. When you partake in that process together, it allows you to better understand the person you share food with. It’s impossible to eat with someone for the course of a few hours and not find some kind of common ground, a conversation topic that you can at least engage in for the time that you eat. The importance of sharing food with someone has faded somewhat in these times where too many people have dietary restrictions to truly eat together, and most of us are too busy to enjoy a lengthy meal but doing so is not only crucial, it’s also really fun.
From the talk:
“Grandma Foer now makes vegetarian matzo-ball soup, but Grandma Bruni is not as accommodating. “If I had told my grandmother that I wanted her to make me a vegetarian meal, … I would have had a bocci ball thrown at my head,” said her grandson. “The one time she didn’t speak to me for days was when I told her I was on a no-carbohydrate diet.”
I guess this would be a good place for me to RAVE about Bruni’s memoir, Born Round. When I bought it, I couldn’t put it down until I finished it. I loved it because I love Frank Bruni but also, I loved that he found a way to talk about his eating issues without theorizing about it, or dissecting it, but reflecting on it in a poignant, and really funny manner. Gems include such lines as:I’ve loved Ruth Reichl ever since I read Garlic and Sapphires so this was really great for me. On an unrelated note, how sad is it that Gourmet is no more?
The Atlantic wrote a great article today on the importance of owning a good knife, found here.
I have a lot of friends who hate cooking, because of the chopping it requires, and refuse to buy anything but prepackaged chicken breasts because breaking down the meat is too hard (a post about the carnal pleasures of breaking down a piece of meat will be coming soon). But for me, there are few things that are as therapeutic as cutting with a very good, very sharp knife. I’m horrified when I use knives in most other peoples’ kitchens (I’m a snob, I know) and I’ve seen friends who have used butter knives to dice. But, the thing is, I used to be like them.
After months of cursing the dull knives that came with the Macy’s knife set that was in our apartment, I broke down and bought myself an 8” Wusthof chef’s knife, which has since become the single most useful piece of kitchen equipment I’ve ever bought. I baby it like I would a child, if l liked children, and hide it in my underwear drawer so that I can ensure that proper knife care is maintained (living with roommates makes owning a good knife completely pointless when they throw knives to sit in the sink or use the knife in lieu of a can opener).
Two points on knife use and care:
The article says you only need three good knives, a chef’s knife, a paring knife, and a serrated bread knife. This may be because I grew up in an Asian household but I’m of the belief that even three may be overkill - unless you constantly eat bagels, or are removing the ribs of dozens of jalapenos, I don’t think there’s much you can’t do with a chef’s knife and some improvisation. But I’ve also watched my Chinese mother julienne carrots with frightening precision into matchsticks with a butcher’s cleaver. That and butter knives were the only knives used with consistency in my house.
The second, is that I think most people underestimate the importance of taking care of their knives. While I think I’m helped by not having a dishwasher, I have mild panic attacks when I see people with knives sitting in the sink. I was recently housesitting at a house where there was a really nice set of Global knives, but they might as well have been plastic knives - they were rusted over and dull, and washed in the dishwasher. What I do - chop, wipe (with soap), rinse, dry. It takes about 15 seconds, and substantially increases the longevity of your knives. Finally, when I’m in a pinch and need to sharpen my knives quickly, I just use the exposed bottom edge of a ceramic bowl or plate. It doesn’t re-sharpen your knife to its premiere sharpness but will get you to a point when it’s serviceable again.
