Monday, June 27, 2011

How to Justify Gluttony...

I can't. There is no justification for eating 7 times a day. Not meals, necessarily, but meals and snacks... I have a hollow stomach. And yet, as I turn the pages of my new book "Savor," I feel guilty because I know I am eating when I am not really hungry. BUT EVERYTHING LOOKS SO DELECTABLE.
I am tardy writing about a dinner Chris took me to in the tiny Oregon Coast town of Waldport. We went to Rumi, which had plates that looked like art. They served a crispy chicken dish that had a mushroom ragout of the most savory, buttery flavors.


We had a fantastically simple fresh pea soup to start, and a grilled flatbread with beet gastrique (they have gastriques in Waldport!), bianco sauce, asiago cheese, caramelized onions. Chris had a generously portioned Ribeye that was cooked to perfection. Chocolate Mousse for dessert topped off an almost perfect meal (the salads were overdressed). That was 10 days ago. When we got home that night, I wanted to post all the pictures I took, course by course, but I was so coma-toast, all I could do was drool and dream of that mushroom ragout.



Then there was yesterday on the Tour de Oregon Coast. Chris and I had a whole day off without the kids. This was perfect, because we could take a break from teaching them about "making healthy eating choices" and "eating slowly in appropriate portions." We kicked off the day with my favorite Eggs Benedict in the world, and an equally scrumtuous banana french toast at La Maison in Newport.




And then to the Cheese Factory! At Tillamook, I beelined for the cheese samples, despite everyone's seeming preference for the ice cream. The squeaky curds, Habanero Jack, and Super Sharp/Super Aged cheddar are my favorites. A half hour later we were snacking on smoked Brie and a wine tasting at the Blue Heron French Cheese Company. I also bought some chocolate covered marzipan, which had too high of a chocolate to marzipan ratio-but it's damned hard enough to find good marzipan on the coast of Oregon. I need some of my Jewish peoples to knock out some Rainbow Cookies for me!
An hour later we were at the Pelican Brewpub in Pacific City snacking on filler onion rings and a salad...that was "filler" not "killer." The IPA was the best offering they had...but not to worry as Chris drove me to his friend's Jim and Lisa's beach house for some Pan de Cuba, olive spread, goat cheese, fresh basil and Olive Oil. You'd think I'd be done, but when we got home I made noodles and Cottage Cheese to snack on.
Dare I add my breakfast this morning, of Soba noodles with bay shrimp and hoison glazed black cod? Will I admit that I also had half a Rockfish sandwich with salami and pepperoni? Am I making even myself a little sick recounting all this glorious food?????? Maybe.
So maybe I can't justify the gluttony. Maybe I can only enjoy it. I know this is not how I eat every day (I wish). But when I miss days like the one I just recounted, I will crack open the cheese drawer and start thumbing through recipes for Squeaky Curds.




In love, as in gluttony, pleasure is a matter of the utmost precision.
Italo Calvino

Monday, June 13, 2011

Cooking Rats!

Just a fun thing to perk up the day. Some of my favorite things: Muppets, Manhattan, and Food. This scene had Karen and I rolling in stitches as young little Lassies in Jersey.


Sunday, June 12, 2011

Breaking Eggs


Recently, I have begun a love affair with eggs. It has been on my mind enough to remember the blog I started almost 3 years ago to pay an homage to food. And so, here I am, back again, my triumphant return to the blogosphere..not for cheese, as one might think... but for eggs!

In their natural state, eggs seem incredibly feral without being made of actual meat. They are one of the oldest, most primitive food sources, and are a complete source of proteins and vitamins. Eggs are a food source and a life source. There is something primal and perverted about eating that which is the organism from which life springs. Enjoying that is one of the many reasons I can not even conceive of Veganism. When you eliminate the vitality of your ingredients, there is a lackluster feeling to the food...which is not to say there can't be delicious vegan-veggie-fruit dishes; but it is to say that all of those dishes would be MORE delicious with some kind of animal bi-product. To discount meat, eggs, and dairy is to reject balance. And balance, as in life, is equally important in cooking, plating, biting, eating...Eggs make me think of balance, of circles, of perfect proportions.
One of the things that is so remarkable about eggs is their versatility. Entire cookbooks are dedicated to different ways you can cook an egg. Entire cookbooks are dedicated to all different kinds of edible eggs. They can be the main element of a dish, the side, an appetizer, the base of a sauce, or the necessary delectable glue that holds sugar and butter together. One of my favorite ways to eat eggs, is the Benedict: eggs poached to a perfect level between easy and medium, enough to have the white firm, but the yolk still becomes an unctuous stream running into a river of Hollandaise sauce-a sauce whose richness is furthered by MORE eggs and butter.
And then we have the Deviled egg. My favorite egg hor d'oeurve. The egg white creates the perfect firm boat to a savory spread of yolk, mayonnaise (another egg creation), mustard, and other personally preferred accoutrements. I also love the way eggs bind to starches to create a decadent bite of dessert. Be it in a bread or noodle pudding, crisped with sugar and a sweet
boozy sauce, eggs are just as crucial to desserts as they are to breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Served on top of cinnamon and sugar sweetened, cubed bread, a fried egg with the Walking Man Brewery's Black Cherry Stout was a simple meal I accidentally crafted and fell in love with.
Eggs compliment the sweet and savory dichotomy to a tee. A cornmeal crusted poached egg nestles up to a braised pork belly, atop walnut waffle with dates and a maple syrup glaze, add a small microgreens salad to the plate: Perfection. Harmonious elements creating a balance. These are the moments when cooking and eating take on transcendental tones. An analogy for life and the universe can be made out, as I sink my fork over and over again in to these dishes, and drift further in to an abstraction of life created by food.

"the next time
I break an egg
I'll think of
you.

scramble with
fork

and then turn up
the flame

if I
have
one." -Nikki Giovanni